Christianity and Spiritual Warfare in Africa

CHRISTIANITY AND SPIRITUAL WARFARE IN AFRICA
Part One

In the year 2000, prior to our retirement after thirty-six years of ministry in Kenya, East Africa, God gave Flo and me the marvelous privilege of traveling to seven different African countries to visit our former students whom we taught at Scott Theological College in Kenya, the Chartered Private University of the Africa Inland Church in Kenya with some 5,000 churches.

Arising out of our three months visit to these graduates, I did a lot of reflection on many issues. Following is Part One of a three part series on my Reflections of Christianity and Spiritual Warfare in Africa which I prepared in August of 2000.

Those who come from abroad to visit us in Africa are impressed by the strong presence of Christianity. Indeed, the Christian Church is widespread and the Christians are vibrant in their worship and testimony. Never before in the history of the Christian Church has a whole continent been converted to Christianity within one century. As we visited seven African nations to spend time with our Scott graduates, we saw living evidence of the dynamic presence of Christianity everywhere.

Ethiopia embraced Christianity as the state religion in the fourth century. The late Emperor, Haile Sellasie, traced his roots to King Solomon and the queen of Sheba. He was a faithful member of the ancient Ethiopian Orthodox Church which remains orthodox to this day in its Trinitarian doctrine derived from Alexandria in Egypt and Athanasius, the champion of orthodoxy. During the fifteen years under Marxism and since its overthrow the Christian church in Ethiopia has exploded exponentially in numbers. The Lutheran church which does preach the Gospel has exploded from 57,000 in 1967 to 2,000,000 today. The SIM daughter church has grown even more.

Uganda has a marvelous history of Christian faith which includes the birth place of the East African Revival in the 1930’s which transformed the spiritual landscape of the country.

In southern Africa David Livingstone left his mark, not only with landmarks of his pioneering journeys and museums displaying his relics, but missions and churches that sprang up through his vision. The Blantyre Mission was founded in Malawi in 1876 through his inspiration. Named after the home town of David Livingstone in Scotland, the modern industrial city of Blantyre in Malawi grew up around the mission station. Today the Presbyterian Church is virtually in every corner of Malawi together with other churches.

The President of Zambia, a born again Christian, declared several years ago that Zambia was a Christian nation. When travelling in Zambia I was impressed with a Christian radio station playing gospel music and preaching the gospel on a public bus. It was not uncommon to find in many places Christian music being played in stores and public places.

When we arrived in Swaziland we were warmly greeted outside the airport with a large sign, “Welcome to Swaziland. We love you but Jesus loves you more.” 80% of Swazi’s are “Christian” by their own profession. The government has built a Christian Church beside the Parliament where public official religious services are held. The king and queen mother frequently preach.

But the visitor to Africa who sees and hears all of this can be easily deceived. In fact, there is spiritual warfare being waged in Africa and those who truly know the Lord are a remnant among the masses. Never before has there been greater need for discipling, biblical teaching and leadership training than there is today. The fact is that not far below the surface of public confessions of Christian faith, there is evidence of nominalism, syncretism and divided allegiance.

CONTINUED IN PART TWO