Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Jesus Christ brought Missionaries to Africa and not vice vesa

Nicky Rhineberger ABC Radio SWA (Australia) announcer recently wanted to know if Africans were grateful of Christ who missionaries brought to Africa. My immediate response was, "who said missionaries brought Christ to Africa?" Christ was the one who brought missionaries to Africa and not vice vesa. How could a missionary put Christ in a brief case or a suit case for that matter and travel all the way from Southermpton in England or wherever and spend several months with Christ locked up there, only to be produced at the end of the trip to be shared with Africans? Impossible!!

Christ was in Africa before missionary came. At the birth of Christ when Herod wanted to kill Jesus word from God advised Jesus' parents Joseph and Mary to go with Jesus Christ to people who had kind hearts and these were in Africa. Christ was taken to Africa and was there until had Herod died.

Many years later Joseph and Mary had not heard about the death of Herod, so God again advised the couple to take back Jesus to nazareth because Herod had died. It was actually after a couple of years when the Africans herded cattle with Jesus in the beautiful landscapes of the African continent. In the middle East they wanted to kill Jesus Christ but in Africa he was welcome and protected. So why this farce about Christ being brought to Africa by so called well meaning people? While Africans are so grateful for what missionaries did for them this must not be mistaken for them bringing Christ. They were used by God to make the revelation of Christ who was already there and working among them/Africans.

The Church started early in North Africa at the same time it spread in the Middle East. North Africa by this time was a Roman Empire. Our African ancestors in the form of Augustin, Origen, Tertullian, Ambrose etc all with Roman names because of Roman occupation became the Fathers of Christian faith. The church in Africa grew so fast that every congregation across north Africa had a bishop. At one time there were more than 500 bishops in that region. Bishop Ambrose was actually installed prematurely. After his installation they discovered that he was not yet baptised. The elders had to rush him to a river by night to baptise him. That is Africa at worship. It was only after Islamic invasion after 800AD that Arabs invaded North Africa and decimated the black community in north Africa and destroyed the African church there. The church in Egypt and the Coptic church in Ethiopia have stood the test of time. The notion that Christianity is a white man religion is a myth which should be put in the dustbin of history.