A Western Religion?

Call To Prayer

Title: A Western Religion?

By: Njuacha Hubert

Date: 30.12.2023

and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me. Genesis 22:18

You probably have heard the claim that Christianity is a western religion? You hear arguments like, the Chinese have their own religion, the Indians have theirs, but we Africans gave up our ancestral religions to take up the western religion of Christianity. This argument appeals to an African’s self-esteem (and to an extent, pride) to challenge him to denounce Christ and return to his ancestral believes as a way of restoring the self-esteem which as we know has been seriously damaged by colonialism. Christianity is not a western religion, in the sense that it was not created nor is it owned by the West. That is what I would like to expand on today.

Firstly, Christianity started from Israel, a nation in the Middle east, not Western Europe. Secondly, right from its inception, it was already designed or intended to be a religion of the world not a particular people. How do we know this? From the bible. For example, God made His plan clear to Abraham in the opening verse “…through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed…”. God’s plan was (still is) for the whole world to be saved; not only Israel (John 3:16). In line with this plan, Jesus, after His resurrection told the disciples to go preach the gospel to all nations (Mathew 28:19). That is how the gospel got to be preached to the West and in the same manner it was preached in Africa by mostly western missionaries. But it is just as they too were preached to.

As we know God can still use the bad intentions and actions of humans to orchestrate His good plan and will. In the story of Joseph in the bible, his brothers sold him into slavery, but latter on he became Governor in his land of slavery and rescued his brothers from famine. So even though some Western missionaries brought Christianity to Africa with an evil motive, it was still God’s plan for the salvation of Africa being fulfilled.

All this is just an example of a bigger issue, which is the deception of the enemy. That’s why we need to keep growing in faith by learning more of the word of God. And by prayers and a personal relationship with Jesus. So that we are not tossed left and right by any new wave of lies by the enemy (Ephesians 4:14).

Prayer Point:

Let’s thank God for the word. Let’s pray for healing and restoration of the African self-esteem. Let’s pray for us to have a greater hunger for the word of God.