False Prophet Coming To America

I found the link below on Facebook courtesy of my friend Gary.

http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/01/10/witch-hunter-ukpabio-spreads-her-poison-here/

Ignore the anti-Christian bias in the article--although it's there, that's not a good reason to just write it off.  Here are some more "friendly" or neutral sources that describe just how destructive this belief system is.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,568140,00.html

http://articles.cnn.com/2009-05-18/world/nigeria.child.witchcraft_1_witches-nigeria-abuse?_s=PM:WORLD

http://theweek.com/article/index/205188/africas-child-witch-hysteria

Although the writer of the opening article and others have used this idiocy as a club to beat Christianity in general, this kind of thing goes against the Bible itself.

For starters, although there are Biblical accounts of possessed children, the child acts in truly bizarre ways--not like someone who has malaria or is simply undisciplined.  Even Pat Robertson's people call this a bunch of nonsense.

As the CBN article pointed out, exorcism consists of invoking the name of Jesus, not anything remotely resembling physical abuse.  And not only are these so-called preachers abusing children, they're charging the parents for it.

Compare them with the Apostle Paul, who did not covet anyone's silver (Acts 20:33).  In fact, he worked as tent-maker to sustain himself while he preached (Acts 18:1-3).

Furthermore, Jesus said to let the children come to him (Mark 19:14) and said anyone who caused them to sin, it would be better they be drowned in the ocean (Matthew 18:6).  I remember an account from an Irishman who abandoned believing in Christianity in the midst of being molested by some Christian Brothers and I can imagine children victimized in the name of these "Christian" teachings reaching the same conclusions.  And let us remember Jesus will judge humanity on the treatment of "the least of these" (Matthew 25:31-46).  And although Romans 2:24 in context refers to Jews whose bad behavior brought the worship of God into disrepute, it can also be applied to bad behavior of Christians as well.

Lest any Christian defend this kind of thing or any anti-Christian say that this false prophet is Biblically correct by pointing out the Bible describes witchcraft, let's examine some translation issues.  The word in Galatians 5:16-23 translated as "witchcraft" is the Greek word pharmakeia, which pertains to drugs.  Exodus 22:18, which says to not permit "witches" to live, has also been translated as "poisoner."

And let's look at the history of the church.  Up until the early modern period, the more typical teaching in Christianity was that witches in the supernatural sense did not even exist. This view began to change and that is what spawned the witch-hunts that killed up to 100,000 people in Europe.

Jesus said "by their fruits you shall know them" (Matthew 7:16).  The "fruit" of this belief in child witches is destructive to children (to say the least) and the good name of our Lord, and furthermore, it is not even Biblically based.  Based on that verse alone, we can judge Helen Ukpabio a false prophet.

American Christians should not support Ukpabio or her belief system.  In fact, the persecuted "witch children" of West Africa surely count among "the least of these" we are commanded to serve.  Stepping Stones Nigeria is assisting children who have been driven away by their families due to their supposedly being "witches" and they deserve our support far more than a "ministry" that sows only bad seed.

And we can join the protest against Ukpabio and her ideas here. There's a petition to deny her entry to the U.S., which you can sign here.