Syncretism is an activity by which elements of different religions that are often in conflict are combined, mixed and blended. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the devil has used syncretism to weaken the faith of many professing Christians. Africans are born adherents to the African Traditional Religion (ATR). The ATR is so pervasive that probably many Africans are not even aware of its impact on them even after embracing a new religion. Ndemanu (2018) says, “. . . Africans are first and foremost members of traditional religions before any other religion” (p. 71). When a foreign religion comes into African communities, the host people do not abandon the ATR. Instead, they simply combine, mix and blend the two. Because of ignorance of the Word of God and the apparent similarities between African Traditional Religion and some branches of the Christian faith such as Pentecostalism and the Charismatic movement, many professing Christians in Sub-Saharan Africa have fallen prey to syncretism. In this article, I will discuss some of the elements of the ATR that the majority of Christians in Sub-Saharan Africa has imported into Christianity often even without knowing it.
A key belief of the African Traditional Religion is that the Supreme Being is far from his creation. Thus, he is not involved in the daily affairs of his creation. Ukpong (1983) argues that according to the ATR, God withdrew to heaven after creating the world, and is not involved in the daily affairs of the world. Instead, he delegated divinities to run the daily affairs of the world on his behalf. In order to approach him, people go through human mediums. There is a system of hierarchy of power. People are ranked according to their power in the society. Top on the ladder are witch doctors, soothsayers, kings and others. Consequently, these are human links to the world of ancestral spirits, divinities and the Supreme Being.
Many professing Christians have imported this belief into Christianity. The practice among many professing Christians suggests that they believe that God is far from them, but he is closer to their religious leaders popularly called men or women of God. Modern day prophets are the most common of these. Like mediums in ATR, these “men and women of God” act as the human links between God and man. In extreme bizarre cases, some even literally “talk” to God on the phone, asking Him about His will to His people in the presence of a gathering to the cheers of the audience. If you are not yet “anointed”, you are not as close to God as they are. They are at the top of the ladder, and you are at the bottom. They are the way to God. To support their practices, they misinterpret such verses as Amos 3:7, “For the Lord God does nothing without revealing His secret to His servants the prophets”.
The Bible contradicts this belief. Firstly, God is not far. Emmanuel means God is with us. He is with His people in a real sense. He is very much near and involved in human affairs particularly His children’s affairs. His Holy Spirit indwells them. We do not even need to shout our prayers for God to hear us. We may mumble our prayers like Hanna, He hears us, and He will answer us if it is according to His will. If it is not in His will, He will not give us what we ask for even if we gather a thousand “men and women of God”. God is very involved in our daily affairs. He did not create the world and abandoned it for us to figure out for ourselves.
Secondly, there is no other mediator between God and man except Jesus (1 Tim. 2:5). God hears a Christian’s prayers because of His Son Jesus Christ. Moreover, Jesus does not need deputy mediators. Christ is enough! While God commands believers to pray for one another, it does not mean that a certain class of Christians is closer to God than others are. There is no first class and second class Christians. You do not need “men and women of God” to get favors from God. All of God’s children have the same access to God. In Christ, all Christians are priests. The pastor has no special access to God than a 10-year-old member who was born again yesterday. Because of Christ, you do not need to have pilgrimages to far away countries to get answers from God through “a man of God”. Spare your fare! There is no special hotspot in “men and women of God”. Jesus is our hotspot.
African Christians must beware of the ATR, which seamlessly blends with the Christian faith unnoticed by ignorant Christians and weakens their faith. One way of dealing with the key false belief that God is far and uninvolved in the affairs of His creation especially His people is to understand the attributes of the Triune God. In this case, the attribute of God according to Scripture is that even though He exists above and independent of His creation, He is very near and very involved in the daily affairs of His children and His creation. As a result, every Christian, not just the “men and women of God” have access to Him. Through Christ, all Christians have equal access to Him.
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1 Michael T. Ndemau, “Traditional African religions and their influences on the worlds of Bangwa people of
Cameroon: Expanding the cultural horizons of study abroad students and professionals” The Interdisciplinary
Journal of Study Abroad 1, no. XXX (2018): 70
2 Justing S. Ukpong, “The Problem of God and sacrifice in African traditional religion”, Journal of Religion in
Africa 14, no. 3 (1983): 187
