Every community, culture, and tradition has a worldview. In most places and times throughout history, God has been a part of those worldviews, in some way or another. This is especially true on our continent. Who God is and how God works in the world significantly influences how most Africans interpret their experiences and engage the world. At the same time, however, many Africans believe that God entrusted the affairs of men to spirits and ancestors. They are seen as responsible for both disaster and fortune. This is even the case among those who identify as Christians. Worldviews are difficult to dislodge.
Worldviews are difficult to dislodge.
Countless African Christians will consult sangomas to help them appease the spirits. Others insist an ancestor is behind their misfortune. In both instances God isn’t present or involved, but far off and unconcerned. This raises a number of important questions. How can African pastors, theologians, and ministry workers help their people think biblically about their worldview and practices? How can we shepherd Africans in Christ towards a Christ-centred and biblical worldview?
This article is the first of four attempting to answer those questions. My aim throughout will be to demonstrate how the doctrine of the Trinity can help shepherd African congregations towards a biblical worldview and practices. For I’m firmly convinced that a better understanding of God’s nature (as Trinity), revealed in the Bible, is indispensable for thinking about ourselves and our world.
Why Do Africans Turn Everywhere but God?
African theologians assert that Africans consult ancestors and spirits in times of need because they believe that God cannot be directly approached. As one scholar, John Pobee, writes “As the greatest King, [God] is never to be approached directly but always through his linguists who are the ancestral spirits. God as King has delegated areas of authority and jurisdiction to the ancestors and gods, because as a matter of his dignity, he is not to be bothered with the small and trivial affairs of men.”
Many Africans believe God has entrusted the running of our affairs to spirits.
Many Africans believe God has entrusted the running and maintenance of man’s affairs to ancestral spirits. To mediators. Thus when people desire supernatural intervention they don’t turn to God. They turn to the ancestors and spirits. In practice, then, many African Christians don’t depend on God in their troubles. To quote Pobee (above) again, “The Akan says Onyame betse me sufre, ‘God will hear my cry.’ But that is more piety than expectation. For God will grant a man’s requests but in his own good time. Therefore, for quick results, one turns to the right jurisdiction, namely the ancestors who are authorised to direct the affairs of the clan in the here and now.”
In short, most Africans view the ancestors and spirits as more dependable than God. Because most African worldviews depict God as being unbothered with human matters. Below we’ll consider the biblical nature of God, revealed ultimately in the work of his Son and Spirit. This isn’t only an important corrective but a wonderfully comforting set truths.
The True Nature of God
1. God Is Not Far
As I’ve argued above, the theology behind consulting ancestors presents God as being uninterested in human lives. Thus African pastors must correct this lie. They must demonstrate that at the heart of these practices is a distorted view of God. A God who is far away from them. That is not the God we meet in the Bible.
2. God Is Compassionate
We’ve also seen that many Africans consult the ancestors because they want quick solutions. Quoting Pobee again, “For quick results, one turns to the right jurisdiction, namely the ancestors.” Such a worldview believes that God doesn’t provide timely answers or an answer to our prayers. When Christians think like this, it means they haven’t fully appreciated the profound discontinuities between their traditional religion or theologies and the theology of God, found in Christ.
So pastors must correct this misunderstanding, distinguishing between the God of the Bible and some kind of Supreme Being, who simply doesn’t care. Perhaps the shortest route to this correction is a study of the person and work of Jesus Christ.
The Work of the Son
Unlike most African worldviews, the Bible teaches that God is directly involved in the affairs of men (1 Peter 1:1-2). He is also dependable. Therefore when Jesus taught us to pray, he didn’t teach us to consult spirits or intermediaries. Rather, he taught us to pray directly to God. “When you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:7-9). In Christ we have direct access to God. We can go to God knowing that he already knows our needs.
We can go to God knowing that he already knows our needs.
Of course, because of our sinfulness and God’s holiness, we couldn’t at first approach him. However, unlike traditional African religions, the one who mediates between God and men is God. It’s the Son, Jesus Christ, second person of the Trinity. “God over all” (Romans 9:5). Therefore, in his name we have been given the right to approach the Father directly, knowing that the Father will give us what we ask for (John 16:23-24, 26-27). Through the Son of God, God gives us direct access to himself.
The Indwelling of the Spirit
Finally, God unites us to himself through the work of the Spirit. By indwelling us, the Spirit joins us to God. “Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us” (1 John 3:24; also 1 John 4:13-16). God isn’t only near. Nor does he merely provide a mediator in the Son. Through the Spirit he lives with us. In us.
