By David G Maillu
Published February 21, 2024
Today is Sunday when countless people have flocked to churches to worship the Almighty God. The worship of God in Africa is nothing new. Since the beginning of life, Africans (black people) have always worshipped God but in a different way based on a different perception of God until the arrival of a style of imported worship just the other day that turned worship tables upside down but without the approval of the God that had always been worshipped.
In African worship, there were no human-appointed people paid for the job of delivering people’s requests to God. There were shrines in which if, and when it was necessary, people went to pray to the Almighty God. There were no offerings as payment to any individual person. If any offering was done at the shrine as a gesture to appreciate God’s might, it was in foodstuff things. If any animal was slaughtered for the occasion, the meat was eaten up therein with the ritual that none of it should leave the shrine. It was as simple as that and God listened to their prayers. The spirituality and perception of God was that there is absolutely nothing you can give to please God because everything, even you and your property, belongs to God. Consequently, you can’t build a home for God anywhere because God has got no human features.
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When the tables were overturned by the imported religion that, in the first place it demonized traditional worship, it came packaged in man-appointed leaders – priests including other appellations – who are paid to represent people to God. Consequently, and ironically, they are classified as men of God. What else they are other than church kings? Their followers are the subjects. By their human appointment, ordinary people have been demoted and pushed farther from God. The kings have been given a place between them and God. These church kings, in the name of God, demand payment for their delivery of sermons and representing people to God. Every Sunday colossal amounts of money are poured into the pockets of the kings by worshippers.
This arrangement has created a perception that God listens to the church kings more than to ordinary citizens. With that tax, structure in the name of churches are built as holy places for worship where God comes to meet people. Some of the kings have made incredible fortunes out of the offerings from people seeking God’s representation. Some of them are millionaires in the heart of poor population because, it is argued, God has blessed them for their service.
YET the scriptures these kings use admit that the Almighty God is the creator of EVERYTHING without EXCEPTION. Isn’t it contradictory for them, therefore, to preach that God both good and bad was not created by God? Innocence and evil, therefore, are creations of God. Life and death are creations of God. Love and hate are creations of God, and so on. So, how can they preach against God’s creation? How can you know how to love if you don’t know how to hate? Life and death are the coins of God’s creation of existence. You were born to die one time. The germs which eat you are creations of God. Accordingly, God is both evil and innocent.
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The evil in the Satan that they people preach against is a creature of God. To God, Satan must have a good purpose or else God would have killed Satan on day one. Since God has not done that, both God and Satan is the same thing. For, if God so loved to man, why should God create pain and death? The scriptures being used by these kings were not written by God but by human beings without consulting God.
So, could it be that these worshippers are following a wrong hypothesis of God? The hypothesis of the God Africans has always worshipped, is a God who is neutral, just like the sun is, the air is, the rains and the others are. God, a universal force.
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God is Nature. You can’t please Nature. Nature brings you to this world. Nature is an almighty force that punishes you if you go wrong. You can’t please Nature by praying to it. If you want Nature to hear your prayers you must obey Nature’s laws. Nature has equipped you with the best tool for your survival. Your brain is your God. God’s powers are hidden in your brain. In your class work, if you don’t use your brains to understand things you will not get anywhere however much you pray to God. Your offering in the church does not influence God in any way. God knew you before you were born. The Almighty God knows your past, your present and your future because they are God’s designs. Don’t be fooled by church’s human gods. Accept that God is Nature and Nature is God then follow natural laws and you will never regret. If you study Nature, you will know how to pray and be heard.
David G Maillu is a renowned author and President of African Spirituality.