How To Use An Understanding of
African Traditional Religions in Evangelism
Learning Objectives
1. The students will explain what aspects of African traditional religions cause people to resist the gospel the most and why.
2. The students will explain how a missionary can use an understanding of A.T.R. for evangelism and church planting.
3. The students will explain how to sort out truth from error in A.T.R. using the scriptures.
Introduction - At a time when some people are returning to their traditional religions missionaries must begin to ask why? Moreover, missionaries, who wish to become more effective, must seek to understand the religious backgrounds of the people they are trying to reach. Without knowledge of the meanings ascribed to gods, sacrifices, priests, and worship, etc. a missionary may fail to use areas of spiritual interest already in the people’s traditions for the sake of the gospel.
Example - Luka Bawa in his B.A. thesis on The History of Christianity in Ruruma Land, reports that in Ruruma area of Kaduna state, people hesitated to become Christians for many reasons:
1). The missionaries failed to understand many cultural views of the people.
2). The traditional priests were afraid of losing their power so they spread lies that the white people were actually dodo spirits. Many people became so afraid of the white missionaries that they ran away from them.
3). Ruruma people had a rivalry with the Gure people who received the gospel before them. Many elders felt that if the Gure people were more important to the missionaries that the Ruruma people did not need the gospel after all. The Ruruma leaders were offended.
4). In Ruruma culture, elders were considered as gods. Many elders resisted the gospel as something that threatened their power, decision-making abilities, and respect!
5). Not until an indigenous missionary came to share the gospel, did the majority of Rurumas accept Christ as their Savior. There was a suspicion about the gospel until an indigent shared the message of Christ with the people.
6). The traditional priests had a veto powers to decide for other people regarding spiritual matters.
7). Since the gospel was not heard from the traditional priests, the message lacked credibility and understanding to the people. The priests acted as intermediates between men and God. Most people were afraid to go against the orders of the priests for fear of their spiritual powers.
8). The missionaries generally exhibited a colonial superior attitude towards the people that made it difficult for the people to identify, understand, or appreciate.
9). The missionaries needed to go through the elders, leaders, and authorities in order for their message to be accepted by the majority of the people - in many cases they failed to do this!
10). Many missionaries condemned all parts of traditional religious practices without understanding that parts of it could be used as a bridge for the declaration of the gospel!
I. Biblical Examples of Pagan People’s Awareness of a Supreme God
A. In John 1:9 - John tells us that Jesus Christ is the light of the world who gives the ``true light that gives light to every man.’’
B. In Romans 1:20 Paul informs us that . . . ``For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse!’’
C. In Acts 14:16,17 Luke tells us, ``In the past, God let all nations go their own way; yet He has not left Himself without testimony.’’
Example - Everyone can find salvation through faith in Christ if they really seek after God. God is not unjust so as to fail to give men opportunities to become Christians. The people in one village of China had never seen a missionary, but they knew about God. One man, who he learned about through a dream, had gone to the capital, Beijing, to find out about a Savior. When he came back to report what he learned about Jesus Christ, most of the people in the village believed in Christ as their Savior. If anyone truly seeks God, they will find Him!
D. In Romans 2:14,15 Paul writes, ``Indeed, when the Gentiles who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.’’
E. Solomon explained how God has ``set eternity in the hearts of men.’’ Gleason Archer has explained Solomon’s statement by saying
``Mankind has a God-given ability to grasp the concept of eternity, with all its unsettling implications for moral beings.’’
Example - Don Richardson, in Perspectives on the Modern Missionary Movement, p.412, tells of an instance of how a missionary could have evangelized all of Peru, if he would have linked the people’s traditional religious understandings of God with the gospel of Christ! Here is a shortened version of the story.
Parachutec is an example of the above truths in the scripture that God has set eternity in men’s hearts. Parachutec was an Inca Indian who lived between 1400-1448 A.D.. He built a great mountain village settlement in Peru in South America. When the Spanish colonized Peru, the rich people sought protection in this mountain resort.
But Parachutec was a deeply religious man as well as an engineer. One day, he observed that his people worshipped a Sun god called Inti. As far a Parachutec was concerned, the sun did nothing except come up in the morning and set at night.
He asked others, ``Why should we worship a god that does nothing for us? Inti seems nothing more than a worker for a higher God! If Inti were the great God nothing could dim his light. I believe we are just worshipping a thing rather than its creator!!!’’
Then Parachutec remembered a name of a great God his father once told him about, Viracocha! To his father’s understanding, his people had a tradition, that Viracocha the name of a great God who created everything! Quickly, Parachutec called a meeting of the priests of the sun god. He explained to everyone that from now on that Inti would be called a ``Kinsman only.’’ ``From this time forward, all prayers must be directed to Viracocha.’’
Parachutec was on the verge of a great deliverance of his people through the discovery of Jesus Christ as their Savior, but he stopped short. He failed to communicate his new discovery of the great God to his people. He kept his information to only the priests and the rich people. Less than 100 years after Parachutec’s death, ruthless colonial masters killed all the rich people and priests in his tribe. Therefore, the discovery of the true God was lost.
The promise from scripture applies today as it did in days gone by. ``And if you search for me and seek for me with all your heart you will find me!’’ (Jer. 29:13)
If Parachutec would have continued his search for the true and living God, the scripture promises that he would have found Him. If missionaries, with knowledge of Parachutec’s new discovery of Viracocha (God, the Father Almighty), would have preached the gospel to Parachutec’s people, probably they could have converted all of them to Jesus Christ.
Just as Paul told the Athenians, ``I observe that you worship what you do not know, but I am here to declare to you Jesus Christ is that unknown God.’’ (Acts 17)
God is known by many names in many different languages. The important thing, is that we know that God has set eternity in men’s hearts. Let us ask the Lord for wisdom in helping us bridge people’s incomplete knowledge of God and Jesus Christ with their innate awareness of God!!!
II. Let us Understand the Importance of Contextualizing The Gospel in People’s Background
A. Contextualization is the process of making the Christian message relevant and meaningful to the people’s perceptions. It means adapting the truth into a language, form, and cultural framework that the people can understand!
B. The Hausa proverb, ``Da dan gari, ake cin gari!’’ applies to contextualization. If one wants to conquer a city, use a son of the city to do it. By using indigenous people to communicate the gospel one increases the contextualization of the message.
C. We can do contextualization through many different ways.
1). Recruiting indigenous people to translate the message in ways that the people understand and believe.
2). Showing films that help the people visualize what Jesus Christ is like, what He preached, and how to place their faith in Him as Savior.
3). By printing literature in their language, if they know how to read.
4). Translating the scriptures in ways that the people can understand the truths. (John 8:31,32)
5). Living among the people so that they can see the gospel lived out among the lives of the missionaries.
6). Presenting the message of the gospel through good works such as hospitals, rural development projects, community health projects, and schools.
7). Educating one of the leaders of a village in a Bible school and sending him back to teach his people or by Pastoring a church in his area.
8). By giving people dramas, stories, and parables that utilize similarities in their cultural background to the gospels.
Example - When Jesus spit to heal the blind the man he showed a cultural similarity to other healers of His day. In many African traditions, a traditional doctor will spit on a wound to aid in its healing. Jesus used similar forms but brought a new source of power for the healing. We must learn to parallel forms but help the people assign new meanings through the Spirit of God and the word of God!
III. Let us Understand the Importance Religion Plays in People’s Lives to Help Bridge Traditions With Belief in Christ!
A. Religion is found in every society because God has made man to be religious. Augustine said, ``Our hearts our restless until they find their rest in thee, Oh God!’’
``The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be delivered from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.’’ (Rom. 8:19-21)
B. Religions also supplies a psychological sense of support, comfort, peace, and reconciliation.
C. Religion supplies man with access to a source of power, wisdom, authority, knowledge, purity, holiness, strength, love, and truth higher than his own.
``For my ways are higher than your ways . . . says the Lord `` (Isa. 55:8,9)
D. Religion supplies people with some answers for their many problems, questions, and difficulties. It helps give meaning, purpose, and hope to people.
E. Religion supplies emotional support to people who are distressed, discouraged, and despondent.
Example - In some African societies, people offer sacrifices to idols to appease their guilt, sooth their troubled spirits, and give them a sense of relief from tensions. One Pastor who suffered from hypertension was told to offer a goat to the village idols. Instead he prayed, ``Oh God you have said, `Be anxious for nothing, but pray about everything and the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus!’ ’’ (Phil. 4:6,7) His tension was eventually relieved!
F. Religion gives people a sense of identification with one another. When people feel alienated or broken off from their society, they are terribly vulnerable. Religion tends to give people a sense of belonging, acceptance, and oneness with others.
Example - Many people like to belong to church for strong sense of identification they get with other people. When the Muslims started burning churches down in March of 1987, many pagans were seen attending churches. Not only were they looking to the church to protect them, but they knew the advantages of being identified with people who worshipped the most powerful God in the universe!
G. Religion provides a means of reconciliation with God and with men. Jesus stressed how harmony with God and men go together when He said in Matt. 5:23:
``Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you. leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.’’
Example - Throughout most African traditional religions there is a strong sense of unity, solidarity, and mutual cooperation in their beliefs. Missionaries can compliment people for this strong sense of unity. Wise evangelists will be able to use this unity as a bridge to help them appreciate the increased unity, means of reconciling differences, and motivations for cooperation, in the Christian church. The analogy of the body of Christ in I Cor. 12, explains how a group of people in a church can work together for the common good of one another. Christ then becomes the focus of people’s unity rather than some traditions. Differences are then resolved by the elders of the church, if they cannot be worked out between two people.
``If anyone says he loves God but hates his brother he is a liar. For how can you say you love God whom you cannot see when you do not love your brother whom you can see?’’ (I Jn 4:20)
H. Religion provides security and direction for people. As the world constantly changes and people look for guidance, religion offers assurances and directions for living life to the fullest!
I. Religion offers rewards and incentives for doing good and punishments for doing bad.
J. Religion provides prophetic insights into the future.
K. Religion criticizes norms and values that are not in line with God, society, and the ultimate good of man.
L. Religion gives explanations for the causes and effects of life. ``Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that will he also reap. For the man who sows to his own flesh shall reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall reap eternal life.’’ (Gal. 6:6; Rom. 8:6-8)
Let us learn as much as we can about people’s traditional religions to help us bridge people’s understanding of the supernatural with the truth of Christ found in the Bible!!!
IV. How Can We Sort Out Truth From Error In Traditional Religions?
A. Do not begin your preaching by condemning people’s traditional beliefs. Recognize that most Africans are deeply religious people who see the supernatural world as integrated with all of life. This can be a help in evangelism and not a hinderance.
Example - When Paul stood before King Agrippa in Acts 26:2-30 he did not begin by condemning the King’s polytheistic beliefs instead he spoke to the King with all respect, gratitude, and humility.
``King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate to stand before you today as I make my defense . . .’’
Later when Festus interrupted Paul’s defense by saying, ``You are out of your mind, Paul!’’
Paul, with all self-control replied, ``I am not insane, most excellent Festus. What I am saying is true and reasonable!’’
B. Remember that Christianity will be judged, by the people, in light of their traditions first of all and not visa versa.
C. Look for those particles of truth in the traditional religions that can be used as bridges to the truth of Christ.
Example - Many tribes believe that there is a supreme God over all other gods. However, in many traditional religions the most high God is only accessed through lower gods. Helped the people to see that there is one God and one mediator, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for us all!’’ (I Tim. 2:5)
Example - Many tribes believe that the people have to call on a priest to intercede to their gods on their behalf. Help the people to see that when we become Christians, we become priests of Christ. We then have direct access to God in calling on Him for help and grace in times of need. (Heb. 4:15)
D. Examine each people’s beliefs to see if there is any similarity to Christianity.
Example - We should learn what the people believe about eternal life, forgiveness of sins, payment for sins, prayer, faith, truth, love, hope, creation, causes of sins, the origins of sins, redemption, and salvation!
E. Examine people’s practices in their families, their tribes, their rituals, their dances, their weddings, their pre-marital arrangements, their ceremonies, festivals, and special celebrations.
Example - In one village, the people celebrate two harvests. One harvest festival is observed during the planting season and the other during the actual harvest season. A wise missionary may show how Jesus would celebrate both through prayer and thanksgiving as He spoke in John 4:35:
``Do not say, four months more and then the harvest. I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.’’
F. Ask what social services do the traditional religions provide for the people that the church can also provide and even improve upon?
Example - One missionary could not reach the people in her area with just preaching. She then set up a dispensary where the people soon found relief for their malaria fevers, dysentery infections, and typhoid fevers. As a result, the people slowly started to become Christians because they believed in the healings they could see in their people. They then reasoned that if her physical medicine worked, her spiritual medicine would also!
G. Observe people’s religious objects, places, and features. Remember that Jesus told the Samaritan woman in John 4:21,24:
``Woman believe me, a time is coming when you will neither worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem . . . for God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth!’’
G. Study the religious personnel like the priests, traditional doctors, and intercessors. See how you may relate the priestly and healing roles of Christ to the people.
``For we have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feelings of our weaknesses, but was in all point like we are tempted yet without sin.’’ (Heb 4:15)
H. Christ and the Bible are to be the ultimate judge over traditional religions. Only Christianity has the right, through the scriptures, to judge the rights and wrongs of a traditional religion. Show the people from the scriptures the truth! Let the word be the standard by which every bows to, not one’s perceptions which are subjectively affected.
I. In order to avoid syncretism, teach Christ from the scriptures. Do not teach denominationalism. Ask the Spirit of God to be your teach, live by faith, and obey the scriptures above all.
Example - One missionary was asked by the people what church he was trying to start; ECWA, COCIN, BAPTIST or what? Knowing that the people were trying to trick him into an unnecessary controversy, the missionary said, I am here to preach Christ, start His church, and the rest will be left up to the people!
V. How a Missionary Can Show The Superiority of Christ Over Traditional Religions
A. Certain tribes have traditions that mark rites of passage into this life.
B. Missionaries should learn how to take a tradition and use it as an analogy for the gospel or a Christian lesson.
Example - The Yorubas have a traditional practice marking a child’s birth. A ritual is practiced with a baby to help him become strong and brave. When a child is born, the parents sprinkle water on it until it cries. They believe that if someone speaks before the baby cries, it will make the child impotent or infertile or barren.
Then the mother buries the placenta in the backyard. It is here that the baby is washed with a loofah sponge and rubbed with palm oil. The baby is then held by its feet and shaken three times so it will be brave and strong to face the hardships of life. Then the baby’s head is gently touched to the ground so the child will not hurt himself if it should fall later in life. (Bascom, 1969)
A wise missionary may explain that when a person is born again, he too is baptized with the Spirit of God. He is given not the spirit of timidity, shyness, or fearfulness, but the Spirit of power, courage, and discipline. (II Tim. 1:7)
C. Manhood in some cultures are recognized as times necessitating initiations. One tribe requires their young boys to go into the bush for 2 weeks to survive on their own in order to prove their manhood. Among another tribe circumcision is performed when boys reach maturity. Even Catholics mark maturity with the ritual of confirmation.
Example - A wise missionary should be able to show Biblical equivalents to the above traditions in the Bible for communicating the gospel more effectively. When a Christian reaches a level of maturity he starts to produce the fruits of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:22) like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. Perhaps, a missionary or a Pastor should give these young men responsibilities in the church such a song leading, teaching Sunday School, or helping with evangelism as he confirms the young boy’s maturity. A indigenous believer may be able to help the missionary make his message more relevant to the people by informing the missionary about parallel legends in their traditions with the truths of the Bible.
Also, a missionary may send a young man to Bible school for training as a Pastor. Some new promotions, scholarships, or opportunities for training, can be seen a substitutes for the old traditions rites of maturity, however, now they are spiritually significant in Christ!
Study Questions
1. What does the Bible say about people’s in-born awareness of God? Why is that significant for a missionary?
2. How can we help people to understand, as Parachutec discovered, that they are worshipping things (idols, charms, talismans) and not the creator, the Savior, and the Lord of all?
3. In what ways can a missionary contextualize his message? What does it mean to contextualize a message? Why is this important in evangelizing people who have an A.T.R. background?
4. Why is religion important to people? How can a missionary use an understanding of the significance of religion to win people for Jesus Christ?
5. Give an example of how an evangelist should bridge people’s traditional understandings with those truths of Jesus Christ!
6. How should a missionary show the superiority of Christ over traditional religions without turning the people away unnecessarily?
7. Give several examples of how Christ, the gospel, and the truths of scripture parallel or are similar to some of the legends in your traditional religious background!
