Prophecy Today

Reflections from a South Africa Context

Hermen Kroesbergen

• Publisher: CLF Publishers
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781868045006
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

In Prophecy today: reflections from a Southern African context, a group of theologians and scholars of religion from Zambia and South Africa reflects upon these questions. Anthropologists, Biblical scholars, practical theologians and others shine their light on what prophecy can mean today in this context. This book aims at stimulating a continuing Southern African discourse on this very interesting and relevant aspect of Christianity in our region. The book consists of 15 different articles by well-known scholars and has been ably compiled and edited by Dr Hermen Kroesbergen, lecturer in Systematic Theology and Philosophy of Religion at Justo Mwale University, Lusaka, Zambia.

1

Prophecy today; reflections from a Southern African context:
An introduction

Hermen Kroesbergen

“Do you need deliverance, healing or prophecy?” This is the text on one of the many billboards in Lusaka that currently advertise the coming of particular prophets to Zambia. As according to the Biblical proverb a prophet is not honoured in his home town, many of these new prophets come from abroad, and, if they do, that fact is used as an extra selling point. Less biblical may it be to advertise prophecy as something you might want. It is hard to imagine Elijah, Jonah, Nathan or Amos promoting their services in that way: Do you need prophecy? Surely, Ahab, the Ninevites, David and the other people they prophesied to, did need it, but they would not have responded eagerly when asked ‘Do you need prophecy?’

Nowadays in Southern Africa, prophecy is seen as something desirable, something you want. This is partly due to another development which connects prophecy closely to healing and deliverance. “Do you need deliverance, healing or prophecy?” – these three things can be put together, for, quite often, they are basically the same thing: something is wrong in your life, you need to be made whole again, your healing is blocked by evil spirits from which you need to be delivered, and the prophet can do so by denouncing the evil and speaking the breakthrough of good things into your life. If you want the circumstances of your life to improve – materially, physically or otherwise – then you need deliverance, healing and prophecy, and that is what you may expect from many of those who describe themselves as prophets in Southern Africa today.

This book contains reflections upon prophecy today in Southern Africa from several different perspectives. Theologians and scholars in religion from Zambia and South Africa describe and analyse the different forms of prophecy in their context, and try to provide indications of the direction that prophecy could take from here. One of the most striking elements, which return in almost all of the articles in this book, is that there seem to be two quite distinctive concepts of ‘prophet’ present in the Christian society of Southern Africa these days, both with their own strengths and challenges.

On the one hand, there are the prophets as the one from the advertisement cited above, who are described as powerful men (and sometimes women) of God who speak prophecy into people’s lives, which at the same time delivers them from evil spirits and blockages and miraculously heals them. On the other hand, the title ‘prophet’ is used to describe those Christians who courageously stand up against the elite in society to fight for social justice. Especially in South Africa this second concept of prophet is immediately associated with those who spoke out against the Apartheid-regime. These two types of prophets seem to be very different kinds of people: the first miracle-workers and the second political activists.

The first question addressed in this introductory article will be why we do use the same title ‘prophet’ to refer to both of them. The different articles in this book clarify the two concepts of prophet and show how both are different, but share the longing for a better life, and use the Old Testament prophets as their main examples. Both types of prophecy are connected to their own distinct kind of problems as well. The New Testament scholars contributing to this book point out that in New Testament times an important shift in the concept of prophecy had already taken place. In the second part of this introduction this will be taken as a lead to point towards an adjusted kind of prophecy which addresses the issues of the two types of prophecy, by reconsidering both what prophecy is and who the prophets are. However, we will begin with the way in which the two kinds of prophets are discussed in this volume: are prophets miracle-workers or political activists?

Two concepts of prophecy

Johanneke Kroesbergen-Kamps detected the two concepts of prophecy present in Zambian society in interviews done by her students with different pastors concerning their ideas about prophecy. Similar phrases were used by all of the pastors, but what these phrases implied differed remarkably. All pastors held that prophets are speaking the word of God, but there were divergent opinions on how this relates to the Bible as the word of God. All pastors saw prophets as giving direction, but there were many differences as to what extent this refers to moral direction and whether the entire society is addressed. All pastors assumed that prophets bring about change, but they disagreed on whether this change is to lead towards a better world for all, or an improved life for particular individuals.

The divergence in opinion about prophecy followed denominational lines: Pentecostal pastors on one side, Presbyterians on the other, and a mixture of both among the Reformed pastors. Prophecy as delivering a direct message from God was significantly more present among Pentecostals, and would fit the advertisement with which we started. Kroesbergen-Kamps even refers to a Zimbabwean church, which rejects the Bible completely as old news compared to the fresh prophecies they receive every day. On the other hand, a prophet as someone teaching the biblical message, as is the emphasis among Presbyterians, may be closer to the prophet as a social activist. For all interviewed Presbyterians prophecy implies a warning call for the community, whereas in Reformed and Pentecostal circles prophecy gives direction more often by informing the individual about his or her future. Most clearly the divergence between the two concepts of prophecy is seen in the third distinction: almost all Pentecostal pastors expect prophecy to transform the future of individuals, whereas almost all Presbyterian pastors ask for prophecy to bring about a better world for all.

Kroesbergen-Kamps detects a classical Protestant tradition behind the concept of prophecy as addressing issues of social justice. In the concept of prophecy as focusing on individual problems even by the act of prophesying itself, she identifies an evangelical or Pentecostal theology, but she also links this to traditional African ways of connecting to the divine. In the Reformed Church in Zambia both concepts seem to co-exist, although a question put forward by RCZ-youths on their Facebook-page, suggests that they are leaning towards the concept of a prophet as a miracle-worker: “Why don’t we have prophets in
the RCZ?”

This is the concept of a prophet that is also described in Nelly Mwale and Joseph Chita’s contribution on the portrayal of prophecy in the Zambian media. They describe how, in their research on Zambia, the term prophet has been used for many different specialist roles in religion, both in African Traditional Religions and Christianity. The prophets they find described more and more in the newspapers, on TV and on websites of the Christian nation Zambia are, however, exclusively Christian prophets of the type of self-declared miracle-worker. Almost all prophets covered in the media are Pentecostal, and they are said to perform miraculous works such as predicting the future. Many news-reports on prophets, however, are attempts to unmask self-proclaimed prophets as fake. For example, sexual abuse is highlighted and warnings against the new prophets by the mainline-churches are voiced. Mwale and Chita summarize: “False prophets have been depicted to be covetous and greedy, making business out of their followers and love to be revered.” Yet, at the same time, in the media people are encouraged to continue to believe in prophecy, despite the fact that it is difficult to discern who is a true prophet, since “accurate prediction of future events is not enough evidence that one is a true prophet.”

Mwale and Chita’s report on the image of the prophet in the Zambian media shows us that in Zambian society at large today, the concept of a prophet as miracle-worker is dominant, but also challenged. Are all those new prophets who advertise on billboards along the road true prophets? Lukas Soko describes the challenges presented to Christianity in Southern Africa by globalization. Christianity as a cultural practice will continue to evolve and develop. Worldviews and values change. Soko gives as example that in the 1980’s watching television and listening to ‘worldly’ music was regarded as unethical, even calling someone in a loud voice was frowned upon. Nowadays, this has changed, stimulated by both local and global influences. Likewise, the new kind of prophecy that is now so widely advertised in the Zambian media, demands a response. Adding on to Mwale and Chita’s description, Soko shows that this new kind of prophecy is so omnipresent in the culture in which Christians in Southern Africa find themselves, that it cannot but “put our long inherited denominational faith practices in question.” In a similar vein Edwin Zulu speaks of “a lack of internal renewal within the mainline churches” and urges for “adjustments to our present age.” Zulu argues that because these new prophets have impacted greatly upon people – both negatively and positively – it is critical and urgent that mainline churches engage with them. Like their fellow Reformed pastors, as described by Kroesbergen-Kamps, Soko and Zulu seem to find themselves torn between the two concepts of prophecy: on the one hand, they want to hold on to classical Protestant tradition of prophecy, as most Presbyterian pastors seem to do, but, on the other hand, they feel forced to adjust to the inevitable change brought by the Pentecostal type of prophets that we see on billboards on every street corner in Zambia.

Friedrich de Wet compares the situation in Zambia with prophecy today in South Africa. Prophets of the miracle-worker type are present in South Africa as well, as, for example, Cas Wepener and Marcel Barnard’s contribution to this book attests to. De Wet describes this concept of prophecy as “the idea of the prophet as healer, seer into the future and a holy link to the abundant gifts of God.” In this connection, De Wet praises the increasing consciousness in Zambian society of real and potential harm of false and deceitful prophecy. However, De Wet also draws our attention to the prolific leaders such as Desmond Tutu and Alan Boesak who boldly spoke against Apartheid, who represent the other type of prophecy. But does this type of prophecy fighting for social justice still exist after Apartheid? Beside the question “Why can’t we have prophets?” asked by Zambia’s RCZ-youth, De Wet places the South African question “Where have all the prophets gone?”

Prophets of the miracle-worker-type are found at every street-corner, which raises the question how to discern which of those are true, and why we do not have prophets in our mainline churches. Prophets of the political activist-type were prominent during the fight against Apartheid, but where are they to be found now? Raising a similar concern Gideon van der Watt in his contribution notes some recent indications that the South African Council of Churches attempts to regain its prophetic voice in this sense, speaking against violence, crime and corruption. Moreover, Etienne de Villiers addresses the Accra Declaration against the capitalist economic system, and Wynand Retief looks for prophecy as social analysis in the sermons of students. However, this type of prophecy seems to be in a crisis of a very different kind as that of the “sensational tendency” that De Wet discerns in miracle-worker-prophets and is so “susceptible to misuse.” So many prophets of the miraculous healing and deliverance type pop up that they cannot all be true prophets. The prophets fighting for social justice on the other hand are hard to find.

Teddy Sakupapa describes the same two types of prophecy, and like Soko he urges mainline churches to engage in a dialogue with new prophets of today. He refers to the miracle-approach as “neo-prophetism of African Pentecostalism,” and traces its roots to both the Bible and the African Independent Churches. Following David Ngong, he notes many disturbing similarities between the African Traditional Religion and Pentecostal notions of salvation: both strive for healing, prosperity and success. Sakupapa speaks of a “sort of prophetic craze among many Christians irrespective of church tradition and doctrine.” Under its influence, in mainline churches as well more and more Pentecostal practices are introduced.

According to Sakupapa, the lack of attention for questions of social justice is a major weakness of the neo-prophetic movement. It does not address structural challenges in society which affect humans and the whole of creation negatively. He encourages what he calls “ecumenical Protestants” to enrich African neo-prophetism in this respect. Sakupapa quotes the World Council of Churches’ view of the church as mystery and prophetic sign of the Kingdom of God, and promotes ecumenical dialogue between mainline churches and the neo-prophetic ministries. Despite the many problems he notes with the miracle-working prophets, Sakupapa acknowledges the encouragement and hope that they offer to marginalized people. Sakupapa recognizes the big divide between the two concepts of prophecy, but he challenges both sides to learn from one another.

The fact that both miracle-workers and political activists use the title ‘prophet’ in itself, however, can hardly sustain such an ecumenical dialogue. Fortunately, the analysis in this book show there are more similarities, for example in their shared longing for a better life.

Shared longing

Mwale and Chita point at the socio-economic conditions in Southern Africa to explain the rise of Pentecostal prophets they observe in the Zambian media. They mention “new and strange diseases, unemployment, childlessness, longing for marriages, promotions, and all forms of misfortunes.” These difficult circumstances make people long to “be re-living the Biblical times where the sick were healed, the blind were made to see, the deaf were made to hear,” and the new prophets promise just that. As Hermen Kroesbergen mentions how in prophecy today people are promised an ever brighter future: wealth, prosperity and health are in store for everyone.

Edwin Zulu as well attributes the current high rise of prophetic movements to the difficult socio-political and economic circumstances in Zambia at the moment. Over 60 percent of the Zambians live below the poverty line and have, consequently, very uncertain futures. They are looking for a breakthrough towards a more secure and prosperous life. In addition to this, Zulu mentions the strong belief among Zambians in the existence of evil forces that intend to harm them, and are believed to be responsible for all misfortunes in people’s lives. He describes the striking similarity in the pattern that traditional ‘witch doctors’ and the new prophets follow to deal with the problems of their clients. Both promise deliverance from blockages by evil forces and a breakthrough to a life of prosperity.

De Wet notes the same “clear resonance with the traditional African way of connecting with the abundance of life.” Which is furthermore reflected in the observation, quoted by Kroesbergen-Kamps, that already the AIC prophets were filling the vacuum left by the missionary churches in combating barrenness, witchcraft, poverty and sickness. And Sakupapa refers to African religion in which “salvation has to do with physical and immediate dangers that threaten individual or community survival, good health, and general prosperity or safety.” The longing for a better life has fuelled the rise of the new prophets that promise miraculous healing, deliverance and prosperity.

Zulu describes shortly the history of the prosperity gospel which he envisions to be a major influence behind the upcoming new prophets. He notes the major hermeneutical problems attached to this message, and also how it ...

Table of contents

• Preface
• Contributors
• 1
• Part I
• 2
• 3
• 4
• Part II
• 5
• Worship in the Zion Christian Church (ZCC): A descriptive exploration of a prophetic phenomenon
• 6
• 7
• 8
• Part III
• 9
• 10
• 11
• 12
• Part IV
• 13
• 14
• 15