MARANATHA EVANGELISTIC MINISTRIES,INC.

A FOUNDATION OF TRUTH

For too long in the history of Western civilization, persons of African descent have been stereotyped in negative ways which have caused them to question not only their own identity but also their part in God’s plan of salvation.

Afrocentricity, the idea that Africa and persons of African descent must be understood as making significant contributions to world civilization as proactive subjects within history, is the methodology with which some African Bible Scholars endeavor to reappraise ancient biblical traditions. The impressive number of volumes which have appeared in the past few years attempting to engage in “corrective historiography” attest to the fact that it is no longer enough to limit the discussion to “black theology” or even African theology; instead, Africa, her people, nations, and cultures must be acknowledged as making primary, direct contributions to the development of Christianity. The purpose of this writing reiterate the studies of these African Bible Scholars efforts to interpret the Bible as it relates specifically to persons of African descent and thereby to foster an appreciation of the multiculturalism inherent in the Bible.

I believe it is important to stress that this research is not presented from a racist view point, but rather from the viewpoint of racial pluralism and inclusiveness, seeking to bring forth the truth from a story which has had many dubious interpretations. I pray that it might serve as an important stepping stone, indeed a cornerstone, for establishing a FOUNDATION OF TRUTH. Fact, not speculation, is the basis upon which this work has been founded. This work offer the simple facts presented in the Bible, supported by other historical evidence and by sound logic and reasoning.

AN UNCLAIMED BLESSING

It is clear from studying the Scriptures that God has always separated those to whom he gave special blessings from others to whom he did not. Adam was created in the image of God and was put in a special place (the garden). The blessing of Adam passed to his descendants, who at that ancient time were reckoned only through the male line. The original blessing that God gave to Adam was also given to Abel, not because he was a male but because of his righteousness and ability to do what was pleasing to God (Gen 4:1-4). The same blessing was accordingly received by Seth. Historians have suggested that Seth’s name intentionally contrasted the righteous biblical Seth with the Egyptian Set, the lord of evil who killed his brother Osiris. Both Osiris and Set were grandsons of the Egyptian sun god, Ra. In the Hebrew Bible, is recast as righteous in the image of his father, Noah, and as such God’s blessing proceeds thenceforward nine generations to Noah, who found favor with God and was separated from the wickedness around him. These men were sons of God, and as such received special treatment from their father. This special blessing was passed on to the Afro-Asiatic Hebrew patriarch Abraham because, again, he separated himself from the people around him in order that he might be able to serve God in righteousness.

This blessing has yet to be fully manifested to the world because the Africam/Edenic man, through whom it was to come, has failed to fulfill his commission. The descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob-----Africans/Edenites---the original people of God, have been chastised time after time for disobedience to their God, and were driven out of their land to the four corners of the earth.

The return of diverse races of people---including those of African descent---to the Holy Land signals the manifestation of that special blessing to the world. The Bible can therefore be viewed as a testament to the cycle of chastisement and redemption and of the ultimate purpose of the Holy One Of Israel. The Bible is, in short, a drama of the history salvation in which black people play an important part.

Shaleak Ben Yehuda, keeper of the Temple of the Seal of Wisdom at Jerusalem, states, “History must desperately backtrack in giant steps to acknowledge facts before it can begin to attempt to fulfill its prophetic destiny in a reconciliatory acknowledgment of truth (salvation), or else it will plunge onward to sure destruction, doom and disaster never before known to the inhabitants of the earth.” This sage of the African Israelite community has particular concern for the reestablishment of the ancient black presence in the Bible as factual.

THE DIVERSITY OF THE BLACK RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

In its broadest application, the black religious experience extends well beyond the parameters of the African American religious experience. The connotative sense of the black religious experience is simply the religion of those persons whose parentage, self-understanding, and/or physical features fall within the black (Negroid/African) race. There is an astonishing diversity of religious beliefs and practices in the history of the world’s black people. This religious experience includes the religions of ancient Africa (Cush, Punt, and to a great extent ancient Egypt), as well as black adaptations of Hebraic, Jewish, Christian, and Islamic beliefs and rituals. We could also mention traditional African religions and numerous derivatives found in the black diaspora: Candomble (Brazil), Garifuna (Honduras), Shango (Trinidad), and Vodun (Haiti).

Note that in Yoruba land there is still the worship of Shango. Shango is the god of thunder. Also remember that Christ nicknamed two of his disciples James and John, THE SONS OF THUNDER.

Mark 3:13-17

13 Then he went up the hillside and summoned the men he wanted, and they went to him. 14 He appointed twelve to be with him, 15 also that he might dispatch them to preach with the power of casting out demons; 16 there was Simon, whom he surnamed Peter, 17 James the son of Zebedaeus and John the brother of James (he surnamed them Boanerges, or "Sons Thunder.”

Note also that Vodun also originated from Benin, and it is still been practiced, and all these countries are in the West of Africa.

Despite this variety, the black religious experience also has denotative coherence that distinguishes it from the religious experience of other racial groups. On the one hand, the black religious experience typically considers the supernatural as a mere extension of the natural order. It seeks harmony with (not dominance over) nature, reveres ancestors, rejoices in rhythm, and takes both spirituality and the afterlife seriously. On the other hand, the impact of slavery, colonialism, and racism in the oppression of black people further clarifies the black religious experience as a designation for African Americans, especially those who represent the tradition of the black church in the United States.

What is the Bible? The most published book in the world is a historical record of the relationship between a particular people and a “particular God,” and how the specialness of that relationship has affected the entire world. The origin of this people has been shrouded in the mysteries of the various versions and translations of the Bible (especially the King James Version) for many years. This was due, in part, to the misinterpretations of those who rendered the original translations from Hebrew and Greek into Latin, English, and other languages. However, a large portion of the confusion stems from deliberate Eurocentric attempts to conceal what today would be called the racial and/or ethnic identity of the people of the Bible.

Today popular Christianity too easily assumes that modern ideas about race are traceable to the Bible or that there is not a significant black presence in the Bible….. Centuries of European and Euro-American scholarships along with a “save the heathen blacks” missionary approach to Africans have created these impressions.

Despite all the evidence that indicates a manifest black biblical presence, Eurocentric church officials and scholars have tended to deny or minimize the fact that black people are in any way part of the Bible itself, a tendency that has had grave consequences for persons of African descent. Modern biblical scholarship is just beginning to overcome centuries of tragic biases against blacks and their biblical heritage. As astonishing as it seems, most of the prestigious academies and universities of Europe and America have ridiculed the idea that blacks have any substantive history.

THE STUGGLE TO BE RECOGNIZED

This discrimination has been long-lived. In the period between the fourth century and the Enlightenment of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Europe recast the entire Bible into a saga of European people. And their interpretations have been accepted as fact by the Western world. The result has been the creation of a world in which too many blacks themselves have become uncomfortable with images of biblical characters as blacks. For example everything associated with evil in the Bible is represented with black monstrous images. Lucifer, the beautiful Arc Angel, the Cherub that covered, because of his fall, is always painted as a black monstrous image with horns. Contrary to what the Bible describes.

Ezekiel 28:12-19

12 Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. 13 Thou wast in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, the topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was in thee; in the day that thou wast created they were prepared. 14 Thou wast the anointed cherub that covereth: and I set thee, so that thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. 15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till unrighteousness was found in thee. 16 By the abundance of thy traffic they filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore have I cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God; and I have destroyed thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. 17 Thy heart was lifted up because of thy beauty; thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I have cast thee to the ground; I have laid thee before kings, that they may behold thee. 18 By the multitude of thine iniquities, in the unrighteousness of thy traffic, thou hast profaned thy sanctuaries; therefore have I brought forth a fire from the midst of thee; it hath devoured thee, and I have turned thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. 19 All they that know thee among the peoples shall be astonished at thee: thou art become a terror, and thou shalt nevermore have any being.

The calling of God and its accompanying gifts are irrevocable, so I wonder when God changed Lucifer into that black monster with horns. Note that the above scripture described him as a beauty, and in verse 19b, “Thou art become a terror, and thou shalt nevermore have any being.” So how did he become that black monstrous being.

This effort to fully recognize the black presence in the Bible is not new. For more than a century, despite their exclusion from centers of theological education, leaders in the black church have rejected the erroneous view that they were the progeny of the “accursed” Ham. A case in point is Daniel P. Seaton, DD, MD, a prominent leader in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, who wrote in 1895 displaying considerable knowledge about the Bible, the location of ancient religious sites, and the significance of many biblical characters. In fact, he made several field trips to Palestine. In his major work, a volume of 443 pages of text, notes, maps, and illustrations, he provides extensive descriptions of tombs, villages, and other ancient sites which he visited. Regarding Ham and his descendants, Seaton offers the following:

"Because these Hamites were an important people, attempts

have been made to rob them of their proper place in the

catalogue of the races. The Bible tells us plainly that the

Phoenicians were the descendants of Canaan, the son of Ham

and anyone who will take the time to read the Bible account

of their lineage must concede the fact".

It is noteworthy that Seaton’s study displays a profound awareness of racism among the “bona fide” Bible scholars of his day. Nevertheless, as much as we may applaud Dr. Seaton’s constructive intent, clearly he could have benefited greatly from systematic historical critical engagement with the biblical text in its original languages.

Recently, in America and in Africa, there has developed a proliferation of books and pamphlets which represent a resurgence of what may now be called Afrocentric approaches to the Bible. Caution, however, is advised, for all students of the Bible must avoid the tendency of taking the sons of Noah----Shem (“Mongoloid”;), Ham (“Negroid”;), and Japheth (“Caucasian:)--as representing three different “races.” However, this is the traditional approach of European missionaries and others who seized the opportunity thereby to designate Ham as the father of blacks, who were allegedly cursed in Genesis 9:18-29. Any reference book appearing on the subject of “blacks in the Bible” must be held suspect, if the author tries to argue that blacks constitute the “Hamitic” line only!!!

(To Be Continued)

By Pastor Yaw Owusu Sekyere