The fatality of human worship

By Learnmore Zuze

There are moments when one fails to believe their ears. Last Friday marked one such moment for me and many others.

Even the temperature in the packed room seemed to drop to zero as more than ten church women recounted chilling sexual abuses they suffered at the hands of a well known Harare pastor, founder of the RMG Independent End Time Message Church.

It was incredible and it shocked everyone to the core. More than twenty DVDs of pornographic material, nude pictures, weird sexual acts and sexual enhancement pills details emerged from the accounts given.

Everyone sat spellbound and paralyzed by the unbelievable sexual perversion committed on these women. Disbelief could be clearly seen registered on people’s faces.

Firstly, how could a mortal being claim that he was God with scores of adults sincerely believing him? How could a normal husband freely ‘loan’ his wedded wife to the pastor? How else could a pastor engage in a threesome with the full blessing of the church?

How could an entire church compose songs in praise of the pastor? How could newly wedded couples first give the pastor to ‘sample’ the bride before staying together?

One of the victims even spoke with moving eloquence on how they lived in fear of death should they defy their ‘god’s directive. Again, why would a purported pastor threaten to hand over his members to the devil if they defy him?

A hush fell in the room and heads shook in utter amazement as to how such things would happen in a supposed Christian environment let alone a conservative country like Zimbabwe?

Piece after piece, I have written against the dangers of modern practices which tend to give undue spiritual authority to mortals. Such practices are rampant in the world in general and are slowly invading Africa.

The idea of religious cults was something of a novelty to Africa yet today a new breed of religious leaders has emerged which wields unbelievable influence over their followers.

I have always pointed out that problems always start when followers begin to deify (to treat as worthy of worship) mortals. Slowly but surely a religious group begins to move towards the cult as they give deity status to their leader.

I know of one young man whose room is splashed with posters of his church leader from wall to wall. He was told that evil spirits will flee at the sight of these pictures. There is always a huge problem when people take things which should belong to God and apportion them to man’s ability.

History is awash with examples of the fatality of human worship. History rings with practical examples of what happens when mortals are given undue spiritual authority as is currently happening in Africa.

I know that no church or religious group would openly admit to worshipping its leader largely because of indoctrination. Each of the sexually abused women chorused that the first thing which the leader worked on was to ensure that everyone believed that he was God’s mouthpiece and any act of defiance was therefore viewed as defiance against God himself.

It would appear to most people that these women were foolish but wait a minute, there are foolproof methods of indoctrination that are used to make even normal people behave like demented lunatics.

One woman, dark in complexion, shocked all and sundry when she recounted how their ‘husband’ would simply order for a bowel when he wanted to urinate while watching TV and one of them would rush with it to his service.

My dear friends, it is always fatal when human beings are deified or given unlimited power. Some things simply belong to God and no one else. History drips with living examples of the fatality of idolizing mortals.

As recently as 2007, 83 year old religious leader Ken Dyers was charged with twenty two sexual offences against two teenage girls. Kenneth Emmanuel Dyers was the co founder of the self styled spiritual healing group (Kenja) and committed  suicide in 2007 as more investigations into  sex allegations surfaced.

All religious movements which end up as cults have one common denominator: the followers are taught fear and submission of the leader. No cult ever succeeds without these two ingredients. Followers are taught to exalt and identify with the name of the leader.

The leader takes advantage over their members by cutting them off from investigating or critically thinking about the organization. In cults time is spent through rigorous studies to introduce people to how they think.

Followers are told that this is the way God runs his Kingdom. All cults slowly move from ‘increasing’ the name of God to ‘increasing’ the name of their leader. The followers are strongly warned against the ‘influence’ of outsiders.

It is no wonder you may find intelligent people as dumb followers in a cult. Such is the stupendous power of indoctrination. It suffocates critical thinking.

Potential tragedies are being created right before our eyes in Africa. If as a Christian church you exalt any name more than that of Jesus Christ there is every reason to be afraid.

If as a religious group, one name is apotheosized (glorified) more than God’s name you have a telltale sign. One philosopher captured this truth well when he said, “No man is good enough to be trusted with unlimited power”.

Indeed, power will intoxicate the noblest people, as wine the wisest heads.

The Bible warns about the emergence of such cult leaders in the last days. Apostle Paul spoke well ahead of time when he wrote, “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ.”(2 Cor 11:13, 14) The rise of cult-like religions is a sure sign of the last days.

Paul further noted that in the last days a people will rise, ‘…having a form of godliness but denying its power.” That is very typical of modern cults. They simply use the name of Jesus Christ for convenience yet they are in fact human centered groups. Such men actually take advantage of masses who do not take it upon themselves to study the Word.

God knew the fatality of human worship hence the Bible gave an incident in which apostle John tried to worship (bow down) an angel yet the angel refused but instead put itself at par with mortals, “Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers, the prophets…” (Rev 22:9). So when it comes to worship, we can deduce that man and angels are the same.

None deserves worship except God. If holy angels are not to be deified or worshipped, what of mere mortals born of women? My dear friends, lets watch out lest we fall into human worship and cultism unconsciously. Remember idolatry tops the list of the things God hates.

This is the last hour. Take heed that no none deceives you. 

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