African Salvation: An Introduction to Anchoring Faith

Learn What African Salvation Is Today!

30^th October 2023

*African Salvation: An Introduction to Anchoring Faith*

In this article, we are going to learn about what African salvation means, how we come to learn about it, why it is important for us to know it, and finally, what you think about this topic, personally. The word salvation means different things to different people as well as to different religions and world views. What is salvation in the African perspective? Let’s answer this question and more in the article below.

What Do We Mean By African Salvation?

In the Africa Religion, the basis for African salvation, life is a circle. There is no heaven. There is no hell. God is both good and evil because He punishes whoever He wants to punish (evil) and blesses whoever He wants to bless (good). In that case, God determines what is good and what is evil. There is no Satan. Good and evil is the work of the same God as He wills.

In that context, African salvation means blessings from God when one is still alive in this physical world. Since there is no heaven or hell, those who died live closer to their living relatives and they can be called upon when family matters are discussed. The spirits of the dead are referred to as the living dead. Some people give gifts and sacrifices mostly at the graveyards of their deceased relatives.

The people give to their living dead not to worship them but to ask them to go and ask gods to ask God on their behalf. The living people know that the spirits of the living dead are closer to the spiritual world than they are. Therefore, they can communicate people’s needs with the spirits of the ancestors, who will then communicate with gods, who they will communicate with God, the Creator.

This means Africans believe in the order in the spiritual world. In this case, God is the highest being. But there are other smaller gods who serve as mediums. There are also ancestral spirits. Then there are human spirits or the living dead. This also means that Africans know the fact that human spirit never dies.

When one is blessed, he or she is protected from harm, and this protection is only for the living that are always helpless when it comes to spiritual matters. When one is dead, he or she doesn’t need any blessing or protection from anything. Those who died long time ago become strangers because no one in their family will be able to know him or her even if he or she comes in a dream or in a vision. Because salvation is only here on earth, and because it is only for the living, that’s why Africans are taught to respect elders. Elders are believed to bless those younger than them. They can bless the younger people when they are still alive or after they are dead.

Unlike Judaism (Jewish Religion) and Christianity (Christian Religion), there is no judgment after death in the Africa Religion. This is because people are judged already when they are still alive. However, one must continually appease the living dead, spirits of the ancestors, strange spirits, and God while he or she is still alive, here on the planet earth. That’s the major difference between Africa Religion and others.

How Do We Know About African Salvation?

Since most of the African worldview and history is oral, there are no religious textbooks on Africa Religion except the recent ones, mostly written from the Western Eastern, or Middle astern points of view. This is because only those old Africans still understand their worldview much better than us, youngsters.

We only try to explain what we don’t fully understand simply because we see things from the modern or Western perspective. It was difficult to learn from my father about African beliefs because these were not meant for women and children. Spiritual things were left for men, elder men, and elder women to study. Almost everything was a taboo. The Apostle Paul was right when he said that humans have their laws which say, “don’t touch, don’t taste,” simply to keep people in the darkness.

However, it seems those African beliefs were functioning in Africa more than Christian beliefs and doctrines. They were respected and feared more than Islamic beliefs and teachings. This was because people feared the spiritual world more than they do today. People don’t want to be cursed because a curse is equivalent to eternal damnation and punishment in the lake of fire.

In Africa, just as it was in the Israel in the Old Testament times, people live in the fear of the unknown. One must do his or her best in the community to avoid curses. One must seem some kind of protection from the evil eye and the demons or evil spirits.

There was no hope for the future because life is a circle. There is no destiny or destination. Yet, most Africans didn’t believe in the incarnation and the reincarnation of the dead.

Is It Important To Know African Salvation?

Whether these beliefs about the Creator God, other gods, evil and good spirits, ancestral spirits and the spirits of the living dead were real or fiction, it is important to know about the African salvation.

As explained above, there is no Satan or hell in the original African worldview. There is no heaven as a separate place simply because both the spiritual and the physical world live together in the same realm.

African prophets never claimed to know the way to God. They were simply His messengers, most sent to defend and protect certain tribes and people groups from both the spiritual world and the harmful animals and other tribes.

It’s important for us to know more about the African worldview especially when it comes to salvation. Since there is no heaven or hell, and since there is no Satan as a being, salvation in the African context happens here and now, in this physical world. When one has many children, he or she is blessed. That’s his or salvation. When one has many children and they died, that’s his or her punishment.

When one has wealth in the African view, he or she is saved, he or she is blessed. When one misuses that wealth to mistreat others, the gods will curse him or her, and his or her wealth will begin to disappear. Africans because of this, feared to do evil because they knew all they do return to them. However, that knowledge never prevented evil men and women to do evil.

The fact is that most Africans are still Africans in their African beliefs, no matter if they profess to be Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, or something else. This is because their African beliefs are always powerful and they preceded all other new beliefs. This is why most African pastors get married to second or even third wives. They rather stop becoming pastors instead of refusing to get married again while their first wives are alive and well.

Life never ends according to African worldview. A family will forever be connected. The living dead (those who died recently) and the living members can still live in the same homes at the same time. Those who died are believed to be there but invisible to the living. The ancestors are believed to visit their living family member often.

Africans also believe that certain rituals must be performed to separate the living dead from the living. This is why Africans are celebrant each season. They perform different rituals including those similar to Christian water baptism as well as the Jewish first fruits festivals. When I was a child, before anyone started eating new maize each year, two best maize corns are cut from the nearby field and one was fixed on the door and the other one on the rear from the inside the living house. Those were the first fruits offering to the God of heaven and earth, also known as the God of harvest.

At the same time of the year around August when maize just gets ready, the whole community may prepare local brews and meals to be taken to the nearby water source or river, and then the whole community members will enter the river or water source. The community leaders, the spiritual leads perform many different rituals at the time. That was their kind of baptism.

What Do You Think About African Salvation?

Now, what do you think about this subject? Do you agree with the teachings in this article? Do you not agree with these teachings? Why do you agree or disagree with these teachings? These questions are meant to help you reflect on what you learned. At the same time, you truly have your say about this article and its teachings.

Personality matters a lot. We are who we are because of nature and nurture. Both nature and nurture play very important roles in making us who we are. This means if you were born and raised in an African village in those days, you are likely to agree with some of these beliefs about African salvation. But if you were born and raised in a town, even if it was in Africa, your thoughts and worldviews might likely different from those born in the villages.

I was born and raised in a village. I didn’t money until I was a teenager. That means something. It means I have seen a lot that modern children didn’t see. I walked the earth with naked body until I was about 13, and that was normal. Both boys and girls were happy to be naked in those days of early nineteen nineties. That was fine. That was life. Nobody laughed at anybody.

Conclusion

In summary, if you have read from the beginning of this article, then you now know what Africa salvation means, how we come to learn about it, why it is important for us to learn more about it, and finally, your own thoughts about it. Did you learn anything new from this article that you never heard about before? What is it that you have just learned? Did you know anything before reading? What did you know?

I would love to hear from you about this article. The other 1.6k readers would like to hear from you. Your comments below will help me improve my writings in the future. I respect your views because they are yours. You are a unique personality. I want to know what you think. You know something I might not know about the African salvation concepts and beliefs. Please take a minute and talk to me. You can even start a live chat. You can leave me a message.

Thank you very much for reading this article! God bless and keep you! Shalom!

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