Magaya, Vapostori and Satanism

By Learnmore Zuze

OPINION – Newspaper pages have been bristling with religious drama of elephantine proportions in the last few weeks, with the tiff between Walter Magaya of (PHD) Ministries and Vapostori intensifying each day.

Magaya was the first to draw blood, tearing into the white-garment churches of Vapostori; he did not mince his words in his recently published booklet where he boldly links the Vapostori practices with absolute Satanism.

Vapostori are white-garment donning religious groups with a ubiquitous presence in the country. Vapostori, in the main, do not read from the bible and argue that they hear oracles directly from God.

Also, very rarely do they mention Jesus Christ in their teachings, instead, citing that angels speak to and through them.

Vapostori are conspicuous with their trademark of smooth-shaven heads and long beard. They also have clay pots on their shrines and use stones and water for healing among other distinctive practices which Magaya viciously attacked.

Magaya made numerous remarks with a damning effect on Vapostori, linking them with marine spirits. Essentially Magaya, in his sermon, states that there is practically no distinction between witchdoctors (n’anga) and Vapostori.

He states, among other things, that Vapostori are mediums for mermaid spirits hence their insistence on congregants to remove shoes at the kirawa (place of worship) and their insistence on males to fold trousers to knee level because they would be operating, essentially and spiritually, in water.

Said Magaya: “They (Vapostori) are full of deception and double standards; they expose the congregants immorality and fornication including fondling among the youth and yet the same ‘prophets’ are committing adultery with the same women among the congregants.’

He then asks: “What kind of God’s power can continue to flow and do miracles when the ‘prophet’ is fornicating, let alone with married women within the same gathering?”

In the wide-ranging expose, Magaya took a swipe at the fertility ‘miracles’ resulting from these churches as nothing but the sexual escapades of the ‘prophets’ with congregants. Magaya’s booklet takes no prisoners; it plunges the dagger right into the heart of the Vapostori faith.

In defence, Magaya contends that he was instructed by God to expose the phony religion of the Vapostori. He asserts that it’s nothing personal but that it was God’s fight with satanic marine spirits through which the Vapostori operate.

Magaya’s claims, as expected, have torched a storm, with extremely livid Vapostori coming out firing from every angle.

The fury in the Vapostori camp is simply indescribable. They have vowed not to rest until “we expose Magaya for what he really is.”

Vapostori sensationally claim that Magaya draws his strength from serpents. The Vapostori are therefore seeking legal permission ‘to destroy the artefacts’ which they claim Magaya uses to draw people to his church.

They have approached their Apostolic Christian Council of Zimbabwe (ACCZ) president Johannes Ndanga to get clearance to raid Magaya and expose his ‘voodoo.’

“He has snakes that live in oil. The same oil is given to people as anointing oil. We want to destroy them. God has showed us,” said one of the Vapostori.

Now, questions will naturally arise why Vapostori were quite all along when they knew Magaya was using magic as they claim? Why would they wait to react after his expose of them? These considerations militate heavily against the Vapostori. Theirs is likely to be seen as a case of sour grapes, whether they have a cause or not.

It is pointless to describe the majority of Vapostori groups in the language of Christians because, by and large, they do not subscribe to the bible hence Magaya had a field day tearing into their ‘evil’ practices.

On the one hand of the matrix Magaya, by amplifying his credibility, has squarely brought himself under scrutiny. The question remains unanswered why it has to be West Africa which breeds the new wave of prophets in his mould?

Why do the charismatic prophets have to have grounding in Ghana and Nigeria? It is simply unheard of to have a modern prophet emerging from Binga or Mwenezi; each prophet making waves in the Pentecostal movement today has to have a spiritual father in West Africa.

Honestly, we cannot pretend that this is normal. A plausible explanation is urgently and overwhelmingly needed. It is easier to tear the Vapostori apart but the modern prophet apparently has skulls in his cupboard.

For example, the prophets have spiritual fathers in West Africa and they themselves are spiritual fathers to thousands of congregants here. So do the Ghanaian and Nigerian spiritual fathers become spiritual grandfathers to thousands who follow the prophets back home?

Surely, the Bible has been written to fulfillment and one wonders what role these prophets are playing in this age. All end time events are clearly spelt out in the bible and prophecy is not about predicting phone numbers and deaths as these prophets do.

What we are witnessing is the fulfillment of the entire chapter of Matthew 24 in the Bible. Check the matrix and let him who has an ear hear what the spirit is saying.

Learnmore Zuze can be reached at [email protected]