IS THERE A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MODERN-DAY PROPHETS AND WITCH DOCTORS?

Prophecy is one of the five ministries of the New Testament Church (Ephesians 4:11-13). It matters that we dwell more on this office of prophecy since it has stood out and proved to be more practical and useful in today’s Church than the other four. The manner in which this gift has been exercised, however, in modern churches today causes us native Africans to ask whether the Prophets in Church behind the pulpit differs in practice from the witch doctor in a village shrine.

Is there a difference between these modern-day prophets and the lead priests in the shrines? We cannot give a conclusive answer right now, all we can do is to look at the similarities between both and we leave it to our readers to observe and make their own their conclusions.

Here are the unbelievable similarities that provoke the question of whether there is a difference between modern-day prophets and African Thaumaturgies.

1. They both instil fear: Prophets and Witch doctors are not just feared but they create some kind of fear in you that influences reverence to them. Directly or indirectly, the follower starts worshipping these prophets or at least worships God through these individuals.
2. They both keep reminding you that you have human enemies: In an ordinary church service, people are less sceptical to Satan as they are to their fellow human beings whom they tag as their enemies. In every shrine you enter, you are likely to go out convinced that your problem is either your relative or neighbour. Just as people pray ill to their enemies in a shrine, believers are casting fire on their enemies in the name of Jesus. Both prophets in Church and the sorcerers in the shrines encourage revenge in the name of their gods.
3. They both provide ritualistic and symbolic objects to their followers: As you go to the shrine and a witch doctor gives you water, piece of wood, or a piece of cloth, in modern churches, prophets recommend holy water, rice, tea, handkerchiefs, shawls etc. as a point of contact in the believer’s prayer and faith practice wherever they are.
4. They both present themselves as the sole link between the believer and his God: It is only the witch doctors and Prophets who understand the language of ‘God’ and only them can translate and communicate what God wants the believers to do. Prophets and which doctors are the only people who can connect to God in a special way that no one else can. One prophet told the country that he goes to heaven twice a week, and another started selling air tickets to heaven. In this way, they create dependent followers who can’t talk to God themselves or actually who doubt their own prayers if the witch doctor or prophet has no contribution to it whatsoever.
5. They both have particular and symbolic dress-codes: Some witch doctors discourage particular colours and other encourage plain colours and insist one’s dress code has something to do with the supernatural powers. In the shrines, the sorcerer there puts on scary things to attract the attention of the followers. However, in the Churches, Prophets are fashion stars and in one way or another, the spirituality and divine blessings are depicted in the designer clothes the man of God puts on. If not designer clothes, jewels and expensive colognes, then it is a designated attire.
6. They directly and indirectly, sell solutions: In an ordinary shrine, an offering is given to the ancestors and after the treatment; the witch doctor prescribes the amount you are to bring. In modern Churches, prayers are categorized depending on what kind of blessing one needs. Prayers might not be charged directly but through sowing seeds, and lining up in a queue of the money (call it offering/seed) you can afford in Church is the same bargain as it happens in the Shrine.
7. Finally, they both don’t hold their followers responsible for their moral mistakes: The shrines and prophets in the Church do not rebuke their followers for their moral mistakes. You are free to do whatever you want as long it is not contrary to the desires of the prophet. They both preach what their followers want to hear and repentance is not part of what is taught. Repentance is only encouraged if the prophet or the shrine sorcerer feel offended.

The above are not all the similarities between witch doctors and the prophets in the modern churches, there could be more.

Prophecy, biblically, should come from only one source which is God and ought to focus on God and not on man (1Corinthians 12:4-11; Revelation 19:10; 1John 4:1-3; John 16: 13-14).

True prophecy must be coherent with the written word of God before it is applied devotionally (2Timothy 3:16; Deuteronomy 13:1-5).

God bless you I invoke TRUTH, REASON and FAITH (2Tim 2:7)

Priest Isaiah White

Think & Become

@iTiS Well of Worship Fellowship (John 4:24