Richard Mahoney: On Danquah And Nkrumah – Part Two

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe - Jr. Ph.D.
-
0

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

 

            In his book JFK: Ordeal in Africa (New York: Oxford UP, 1983), the author helps the reader to also begin to remarkably appreciate a bit of what might have prompted Mahoney to characterize Nkrumah as “a troubled personality.” While he had, in fact, produced several children by Ghanaian women both before his landmark departure for advanced studies in the United States as well as after his return to his motherland in December 1947, we find Nkrumah rather mischievously, frivolously and vainly quibbling about why, somehow, no individual Ghanaian woman met his conjugal standards. On this score, this is what the author of JFK: Ordeal in Africa has to say: “In the heady days after independence, he had laughingly said that he would never marry a Ghanaian woman because ‘all of Ghana is my bride.’ He had eventually married an Egyptian woman (on whom he had never set eyes before her arrival in Ghana) in order to fulfill a prophecy that the son of a black African man and a white African woman would rule all of Africa. For Nkrumah, liberation was only the first step. The next was the unification of the entire continent” (158).

In other words, what Mahoney is clearly implying here, wittingly or unwittingly, is that Nkrumah suffered from an acute case of what I have personally termed as THE DACOSTA COMPLEX, a bizarre form of conjugal neurosis verging on clinical self-alienation deftly and politically cast in terms of continental African integration. In the case of Nkrumah’s daughter by his Egyptian wife, Samia Yaba Nkrumah, who has been widely reported to be fervidly gunning for the Ghanaian presidency come 2016, the conjugal malady may well be aptly cast in terms of a HANNIBALIAN COMPLEX or even the SICILIAN COMPLEX, where Africa’s historic racial admixture with the Greco-Roman denizens on the Italo-Iberian peninsula becomes metaphorically sublimated and strategically projected onto the Ghanaian votive/victim on the altar of cosmopolitan pan-Africanism, epically cast in terms of pan-African globalism.

Is there any wonder, therefore, that Ghanaian womanhood was crassly undervalued throughout the 15-year tenure of the Nkrumah-led Convention People’s Party? According to T. Peter Omari (See Kwame Nkrumah: Anatomy of an African Dictatorship), the proverbial African Show Boy was known to rascally counsel his CPP male disciples to “take good care of the Ghanaian woman,” in the abjectly vulgar sense of the term. No wonder that not many Ghanaian women scholars and avid students of CPP political culture have had a lot that is complimentary to say about the treatment of women, besides the expedient and public use of a handful of them to great propagandistic effect (See Kwame Arhin’s The Life and Work of Kwame Nkrumah).

For Mahoney, as also for other avid students of postcolonial Ghanaian culture, Nkrumah may well have conveniently orchestrated his own political debacle. Or, perhaps, it had something “Caesarean” about it, in Shakespearean parlance: “Later, when there were attempts on his life, Nkrumah saw the hand of the West at work. Vowing not to become another Lumumba, he sought refuge – and vindication of his pan-Africanist dream – in the East. The Russians gave him what he wanted – the Lenin Peace Prize and military advisors to train his praetorian guard – but no amount of attention from the Kremlin could restore his lost standing at home. The week before his departure for China in February 1966, there were reports of military plots. His aides urged him not to leave the country, but Nkrumah brushed aside their warnings. Perhaps he felt, as Basil Davidson later wrote, ‘an inner hopelessness’ about it all” (Mahoney 158).

The author of JFK: Ordeal in Africa also depicts Nkrumah’s relationship with the United States as the leader of newly independent Ghana in terms of exuberant and abjectly naïve desire to please his Washington supreme overlords, even while at home he pathetically pretended to be an intransigent bulwark against Western imperialism. There was, of course, no doubt that the Ghanaian premier harbored an apishly megalomaniacal desire to playing Big Brother in the Third World. On Nkrumah’s 1958 official visit to the United States, for example, Mahoney writes: “As Africa’s emissary, Nkrumah said everything he could to allay Eisenhower administration anxiety over the radical course of events in North Africa and the Middle East. Time [magazine] wrote, ‘Seldom was a guest from a small country more welcome. The State Department saw the nationalism of his year-old country and the promise of his African leadership as a possible future counterbalance to rampant nationalism spreading from the Mideast.’ Nkrumah even proposed the creation of a United Nations force led by three Ghanaian battalions to replace American marines in Lebanon” (JFK: Ordeal in Africa 161).

Nkrumah would also vigorously defend the at once lurid and abominable culture of Jim Crowism, or racial segregation, as a highly exaggerated social blight, or a minor blemish of human nature, capriciously and unfairly harped upon by rabid detractors of the United States to embarrass the latter. On this score, a palpably horrified Mahoney opines: “He [i.e. Nkrumah] cast himself as the West’s best friend in Africa, scolding Nasser for his irresponsible declarations and stating on [the American television talking-heads program] Meet The Press that, ‘We in Ghana have no fear of communism.’ The Preventive Detention Act, he said, was only ‘temporary.’ As for the spectacle of segregated America, ‘the racial question has often been exaggerated by those wishing to bring [the name and dignity] of the United States into disrepute.’”

A firebrand and a vanguard freedom fighter, indeed! Mahoney himself seems to be taken aback by Nkrumah’s patent display of abject insincerity, almost verging on downright cowardice, in the preceding quote. On this score, the author of JFK: Ordeal in Africa bitterly laments: “Anyone in the American government who had read Nkrumah’s memoirs [i.e. Ghana: The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah] published the previous year, would have had reason to question the sincerity of these remarks. During his ten years as a student in the U.S. during the Great Depression, Nkrumah had lived the wretched life of the American Negro. He had felt the sting of racial humiliation. His 1958 motorcade through Harlem may indeed have been ‘triumphal.’ It may even have awakened the ‘somnolent imagination of the American Negro,’ as one reporter put it. But it was difficult to say which American memory lay deeper in Nkrumah’s mind: that of the Ghanaian Prime Minister standing in the back of a Cadillac waving to the screaming Harlem crowds, or that of the shivering ‘Negro’ of fifteen years before standing on the corner of 125th Street in the dead of winter hawking fish” (161-2).

            Mahoney seems to have a brilliant riposte for this insufferably grotesque display of Uncle Tom-like deference, on the part of the Ghanaian premier, to the gaping and running sore of America’s rabidly anti-African racism. And such fetid deference, Mahoney tells his readers, had a dollar sign boldly written all over it: “The prize that he hoped to win by his deference to [white-] American sensibilities was U.S. financing of the Volta project – a $600 million enterprise that had been discussed for nearly fifty years. Nkrumah fervently believed in electrification as the essential prerequisite to industrial growth. He had admonished his Western readers in a Foreign Affairs [journal] article, ‘We have to modernize. Either we shall do so with interest and support of the West or we shall be compelled to turn elsewhere….’ Senator Kennedy, who was then engaged in a major effort to sell the Senate on a long-term aid package for India, was one who took note of Nkrumah’s appeal” (JFK: Ordeal in Africa 162).

*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., is Associate Professor of English, Journalism and Creative Writing at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City. He is Director of The Sintim-Aboagye Center for Politics and Culture and author of “Sounds of Sirens: Essays in African Politics and Culture” (iUniverse.com, 2004). E-mail: [email protected].

###

Richard Mahoney: On Danquah and Nkrumah – Part One

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe - Jr. Ph.D.
-
0

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

 

Danquah And Nkrumah
Danquah And Nkrumah

This is the first in a series of articles on the protracted debate between the followers of Dr. Joseph (Kwame Kyeretwie) Boakye-Danquah, the widely acclaimed Doyen of Modern Ghanaian Political Culture, on the one hand, and those of the first Prime Minister and later Executive President of Ghana, Mr. Kwame Nkrumah, on the other. In part, this series has been occasioned by recent torrents of abuse in which the abusers, largely the followers of Mr. Nkrumah, have sought through diverse mendacious ways to impugn both the patriotism and the phenomenal and seminal contributions of Dr. Danquah to the shaping and development of modern Ghana. One source which the followers of Mr. Nkrumah, the so-called Nkrumaists, have consistently, persistently and perennially cited to cast both doubt and aspersions on the integrity of Dr. Danquah is Richard D. Mahoney’s quite authoritative treatise on United States’ foreign policy vis-à-vis Africa during the Eisenhower and the Kennedy years, titled JFK: Ordeal in Africa (New York: Oxford UP, 1983).

But that the author’s father, William P. Mahoney, was the U.S. Ambassador to Ghana during the Kennedy years, has predictably served to further enhance the credibility and authority of his book in the opinion of these diehard Nkrumaists. What, so far, none of those Nkrumah disciples who have made a rather routine ritual of citing Mahoney’s book to purportedly prove their point alleging the collaboration of Dr. Danquah with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have also woefully failed to publicly alert their audience, is the possible reason, or motive, for the author’s decision to title the chapter exclusively devoted to their hero as follows: “Quite a Few Chips on a Very Dark Horse” (JFK: Ordeal in Africa 157). Naturally, I am intrigued by the convenient, albeit gaping, silence of the Nkrumaists on the foregoing observation. I am also fully aware of the fact that a significant part of the answer squarely lies in the fact that many an Nkrumah fanatic who pretends to be intimately familiar with Mahoney’s JFK: Ordeal in Africa has merely been told about what the author is supposed to have reported in his book about Dr. Danquah, invariably in twisted terms that are predictably meant to put Mr. Nkrumah in a saintly and progressive light, where the reality tells quite a decidedly different story.

I know the foregoing for a fact because, as already adumbrated, many an Nkrumah fanatic – and there are legions of them – does not read English in the meditative and scholastic sense of the term. Indeed, about the only language that these faux pan-African jihadists are intimately familiar with may properly be characterized as “PROPAGANGLISH,” which is why they continue to indiscriminately cite Mahoney whose quite formidable treatise deals almost exclusively with U.S. policy towards Africa, rather than critically, poignantly and objectively probe the question of whether any of Nkrumah’s inveterate political opponents, indeed, collaborated with the CIA in order to auspiciously remove the pro-communist and neocolonial monstrosity that was the Nkrumah-led Convention People’s Party (CPP).

At any rate, it may interest his apostles and disciples to learn that in the chapter devoted to their cultic demigod, Mahoney poignantly describes Nkrumah as a “unique and troubled personality” (JFK: Ordeal in Africa 157). Earlier on, the author had described postcolonial Ghana’s pioneering premier as “the self-styled leader of Africa.” But what is even more intriguing about Mahoney’s book is the author’s suggestion that “Kwame Nkrumah of Africa” (the way the Show Boy desired to be known and identified) may well have orchestrated his own exit from the Ghanaian and continental African political scene. We learn, for instance, that just six days before he embarked on his largely self-instigated China trip on the resolution of the Vietnam War (See Fitch and Oppenheimer, Ghana: The End of an Illusion), Nkrumah had had his will revised. Could it be that the messianic African Show Boy had espied the proverbial handwriting on the wall? Even more intriguing, however, is the fact that this critical question has never been amply discussed or even marginally highlighted by CPP ideologues and fanatics. And if, indeed, the Show Boy had evidently envisaged the proverbial handwriting on the wall on the eve of his fateful departure for Beijing (Hanoi), then what is the glaringly paradoxical rationale behind the perennial plaint of those Nkrumaist apostles who both decry and wistfully lament the fact that their idol/hero had not been allowed to remain at his already-befouled post in order to complete his supposedly epic and nonesuch development agenda for the country?

            The preceding question becomes even more significant, in view of the fact that by the eve of his landmark and auspicious overthrow, Nkrumah had effectively run the Ghanaian economy aground. For Mahoney, though, Nkrumah’s pan-Africanist obsession was largely a disdainful quirk in the eyes of the West, in general, and the United States, in particular, up until the notoriously megalomaniacal Ghanaian leader overtly demonstrated “his willingness to use subversion and communist aid in the pursuit of his ambition.” And precisely what did this sort of “subversion” entail? The answer, of course, lies somewhere between the assassinations of Togo’s President Sylvanus Olympio and Kenya’s Mr. Tom Mboya. We shall be exploring the foregoing in due course.

*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., is Associate Professor of English, Journalism and Creative Writing at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City. He is Director of The Sintim-Aboagye Center for Politics and Culture and author of “The Obama Serenades” (Lulu.com, 2011). E-mail: [email protected].

###

Kojo Antwi

News Ghana
-
0
“It is time to get out from the national into the intercontinental market, the world should hear more about real live, love, happiness, agony and poverty down in Africa.” This is a famous quote from the Maestro Kojo Antwi.
Mr. Music Man as he is popularly known started his career in music immediately after leaving Secondary School. He first joined the Boomtalents and later became the front man of the Classique Handels which later became the Classique Vibes.
The energetic youth band, within a short period captured the ears and eyes of Ghanaians and the neighbouring West African countries.
Due to the Band’s hard work, an international agent discovered the group and took them to Europe where they performed with overwhelming success in several festivals in Denmark and Sweden alongside Reggae & African well known Stars.
The Classique Vibes was confronted with popularity and immigration problems so they had to split up. With an exciting and successful musical career spanning over two decades, Kojo Antwi has established himself as a consummate vocalist; a prolific songwriter, producer and arranger; and an enigmatic performer, making him arguably the best Ghanaian musician.
After several years of going solo, he has delighted lovers of good music with his seductive voice that radiates through his massive repertoire of smooth and sultry ballads.
His first album ‘All I need is you’ became a chart buster in Ghana. It was played anywhere music sounded in the country. This album gave him the encouragement to continue and to become what he is today
Kojo Antwi’s genre of music has so many twists making it difficult to categorise him. Mostly, it is a blend of Highlife, soul, R&B and lovers rock.
He is noted for his diligent perfectionism; he takes his time to make good music that lasts for generations. Any of his old songs will get one on the dance floor just like any contemporary music of today would do.
Over the years, Kojo has released several albums with various songs like Tattoo, Densu, Amirika, Superman, ‘Akonoba, Menya ntaban, adiepena, among others.
He has won several awards in Ghana and abroad. Ghana Music Awards and international awards like Best Male Artist Afro West Africa, at the 2003 All Africa Music Awards, Our Music Award, Kora Award, West Africa Tourism award, among others
The music maestro has worked with international stars like Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba. He is the only musician with a consistent annual live show through which he interacts with his many fans across the country.
If you have not seen him at any of his 24th December shows, make sure you catch him in the next one, because he is always at his best at these shows.
Ghananewslink.com

NPP: NDC Members Are “Thieves”

News Ghana
-
0

There is an air of absurdity to the agenda of what I do not mistakenly call this do- nothing John Evans Fiifi Attah Mills and his Vice John Mahama. They believe that bribing selective local chiefs is the way forward to their victory for the 2012 general election in Ghana. I urge the entire NPP members across the country to alert the public about their true intention, which is stealing the Nation’s money for themselves.

This do-nothing NDC administration has lied and let everyone know that the Republic of Ghana faces massive governmental budget deficits when they first came to office. As a result of all the infrastructure profiteering that was started by the previous NPP administration due to an abundant of funds, this do-nothing NDC administration and his allies have no trouble lying to Ghanaians through their deputy ministers who control Ghanaian yellow journalist across the nation. Their blatantly contradictory objectives require these NDC criminals to engage in willful self-deception and public dishonesty.

During my covert operation I discovered credible sources who revealed how these NDC thieves and their administration are secretly putting some selective local chiefs on their payroll on a monthly basis. It is no surprise that when this do-nothing NDC administration was faced with the economic meltdown, Attah Mills tried yet another political gimmick. But all failed, so they continued blaming the previous NPP administration for his lack of economy vision and his failure to redirect the nation’s economic and create jobs.

Since this do –nothing NDC took office the national unemployment rate has spiked to 36.7 percent. How on earth does this useless do-nothing NDC administration that has no innovative vision or means to create jobs for the unemployed has the audacity to use the nation’s limited resources not only in bribing some selective local chiefs, but going to the extent of buying them new 4×4 TATA car’s and vacations abroad on government expenditures.? While this useless government complains to Ghanaians that there is no money to continue the infrastructures projects they have deliberately stopped it for political reasons but not the lack of adequate funds they claims to create employment for the youth across the country.

John Mahama the NDC vice president is the most crooked vice president the nation has ever had; all his dubious connections have been redirected from his office to his brother a so-called “businessman.” The majority of the politicians in the nation believe that he is linked to many dubious scandals since his NDC came to office. During my covert operations in Ghana last year summer his dubious business practices surfaced in the public domain that he was the sole financial beneficiary for STX an affordable housing project with this so-called Koren construction firm. Some NDC gurus “deep- throats” informed me that his office and the local government Minister’s office, Ofosu Ampofo is selling contracts to the highest bidders in Ghana. Before they award a contract to contractors, they demand their cut of ten thousand GH cedis cash upfront. This money must paid before the contract will be awarded to enable the contractor to receive his or her mobilization fees. As a result of these methods they have adopted those contracts that were awarded in NPP regime, those contractors are not been paid. They said “no money”. Then the once these thieves are making millions, there is money for the aforementioned projects from their positions including some chief executives (DCs) who are also selling projects for twelve thousand cedis across the nation. Most of the projects were offered to NDC members as their rewards for bring their party back into power, but these people have no business skills in construction so they also get the contracts and sell them for twelve thousand cedis .

From Nana Kofi Amankwah (New York)

Auditor-General clarifies payment of judgement debt to Woyome

News Ghana
-
0

The Office of the Auditor –General on Thursday said only one payment totaling GHC17, 094, 493.54 was paid to Mr Alfred Agbesi Woyome in 2010 and not GHC58,905,974.13.

A statement copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra, explained that in 2010, two payment orders were made towards the settlement of claims for Mr Woyome.

It said the first payment order for GHC41,811,480.59 was issued on April 6, but this transaction was reversed on the April 13 and put on hold at the Bank of Ghana (BOG).

The statement said on September 22, another payment order for GHC17, 094,493.54 was issued and paid to Mr Woyome.

“This payment was cleared by BOG and subsequently paid to Mr Woyome,” it said.

The statement noted that correspondence on the reversal of the GHC41, 811,480.59 was not attached to the original order in the books of the Controller and Accountant General and was therefore, not available to the team of auditors from the Office of the Auditor-General, who conducted the audit of the Public Accounts maintained by the Controller and Accountant General.

“The Office of the Auditor-General would like to state that any payments made in 2011 will be examined during the audit of the Consolidated Fund for 2011,” it said. GNA

Pastors Warned Over Prophesy

Daily Guide Africa
-
0
Head Pastor, Faith Outreach Ministries, John Kwaku Appiah
Head Pastor, Faith Outreach Ministries, John Kwaku Appiah

Pastors in the country have been sternly cautioned against coming out with false prophecies regarding the particular political party or person that would win the impending general elections.

The Head Pastor of the Faith Outreach Ministries, John Kwaku Appiah, said itwould not be in the interest of the country for Men of God to foretell the outcome of the December polls.

In his New Year message to his church and the entire country, the servant of God said the practice could disturb the peace in the country.

According to him, there would be tension in the country if pastors begin to predict the winner of the elections, a situation that would not augur well for mother Ghana.

He admonished pastors to use their platform to preach peace and unity among Ghanaians, stressing that the polls is very crucial.

Pastor Kwaku Appiah warned the populace, notably pastors to shun acts that could jeopardize Ghana’s peace.

He also admonished the citizenry to eschew unnecessary political debates at public places, warning that such acts could also result in fighting and eventually civil strife.

The Man of God also appealed to Ghanaians, especially Christians not to stay away during the Election Day, noting that every eligible voter of the land should be part of the decision process.

Pastor Kwaku Appiah warned the electorate not to accept monies from politicians to vote for them, saying such acts would prevent Ghana from getting a suitable president that could transform the country.

The Head Pastor of Faith Outreach Church condemned politics of insults, which according to him, could cause chaos.

Pastor Kwaku Appiah, who was delivering a sermon on theme, ‘Yes You Can,’ encouraged the people to repose their trust in the Lord.

 From I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi

JUNGLE FEVER(GO GO MAPUKA)” by QOFI MENZA

News Ghana
-
0
QOFI MENZA(HOPES,DREAM AND THE PROMISE)
QOFI MENZA AND BLAQQ DRUM are back with new single  “JUNGLE FEVER(GO GO MAPUKA)”the last from “BANGING 3 PROMO” till “THE GHANABA EP” drops. Do “LIKE” and “SUGGEST” on QOFI MENZA onfacebook.com and follow on twitter.com as well. Download Here

THE FALSEHOODS IN THE “HOLY SPIRIT BAPTISM” DOCTRINE (Part Three)

Chris Bapuohyele
-
0

The reason why these anointed and God-sent ministers of the New Testament salvation never ministered baptism in man-made swimming pools can be found in their understanding of and commitment to Exodus 20: 25, Joshua 8: 30-31 and Acts 17: 25.

Read and meditate on these verses, so you would understand why all genuine ministers of God, are to administer baptism to eligible people in natural living water, and nowhere else.

It is only an ignorant Clergy who do not see the error in administering baptism in man-made king-sized bath-tubs, Jacuzzis, and swimming pools. It is only a Clergy without the mandate of the Great Commission which does not understand that it is in repentance and baptism that anyone’s sins and the sin-nature inherited from Adam of Eden, are respectively washed away, and uprooted from the spirit of fallen-man.

It is therefore only an ignorant Clergy, one that was not part of and as such was totally unknown to the Church of Jesus Christ in the years 30-100 AD, but came as intruders into it during the post-apostolic era, with their self-awarded titles, who do not know how the Holy Spirit of God comes to indwell the hearts of repentant sinners.

It is this ignorant Clergy, who believe the Holy Spirit of God is received in two tranches: one through the praying of special prayers, and the other in a so-called “Holy Spirit baptism”. How damaging and costly this ignorance of the Clergy is to their followers and to the kingdom of God.

Philip, lived up to his calling and anointing as an evangelist of Jesus Christ, when he led the first ever gentile, an African from Ethiopia and Minister of Treasury to Queen Candace, into the salvation of God, in the desert of Gaza (Acts 8: 26-40).

He so excellently performed his assignment to the Glory of God that, this noble Ethiopian gained the full compliments or complete package of God’s salvation through the administration of baptism, and continued his journey with them firmly rooted in his heart.

Note that this blessed man from Africa, after Philip had ministered to him the “one baptism” of the Great Commission, continued his journey to his destination, where there was no other genuine servant of God to add anything to his spiritual capacity or fervor at some later date.

Neither was he later to meet at his destination with some Archbishop, nor some Very ‘reverend’ Minister, nor some General Overseer, to lead or aid him to receive a so-called “Holy Spirit baptism”. That “one baptism” was enough to meet all his spiritual needs; and so will meet all of yours, my dear reader, if only you exercise faith in it.

Note well again that, after Philip ended his ministration of God’s salvation in baptism, to this Grandfather of the Christian Faith of Africa, he (African) went on his way rejoicing –the evidence that the Holy Spirit had found residence in his heart.

At the same time, Philip was given a sweet fore-taste of how the soon-to-come supernatural flight through outer space to Heaven would be, when in appreciation of his good service to the kingdom of God, he was given a free airlift from Gaza to Azotus. Oh! What a blessing it is to serve the kingdom of God with His wisdom?

And what was the jailor in Philippi to gain later, after his seemingly hurried receipt of the “one baptism” at midnight, at the hand of Paul and Silas, in the days following their miraculous release from jail? Nothing!

Whatever spiritual blessings God wanted to bestow upon him, He did in that midnight baptism. He did not need another so-called “Holy Spirit baptism” as a secondary and higher spiritual experience to the “one baptism”, and to bring him anymore blessings from God.

Let me ask: At which place and time were the over three thousand Jews, who entered the salvation of God on the Day of Pentecost, led into the so-called “Holy Spirit baptism”? And if we find out where and at what time, may one know which servant of God led them into this so-called “Holy Spirit baptism”?

Or were they treated differently from those who claim to have been blessed by God in a so-called “Holy Spirit baptism”? Ask your Clergy to give you the answers.

Obviously, the Clergy do not know how to teach the salvation message of God and therefore cannot lead anybody for a genuine entry into the Born Again experience. This is because no Clergy is part of the people God has called, taught, anointed and sent out as His workforce –a workforce which is indeed commissioned to bring His salvation in Christ Jesus to mankind.

The message of the Clergy to their followers is man-made. It is a hollow doctrine of men. Therefore, it has no power to save. They claim you can be saved by their message and in their invitations to you, to recite prayers after them.

They claim that while on a hospital bed, in the cozy cabin of an airplane in flight, at a breakfast table in a restaurant, or even sitting before a radio or television set at home, you can pray to be saved. But I tell you, that is a deception.

The Clergy tries to make amends to their followers, when they see they have obviously failed to get them into the power of God by their teachings of prayer for salvation, by leading them into some “upper room” experience, to attempt to “pray-down” Holy Ghost fire upon the heads and into hearts of these followers!

The prayer session in the “upper room” must continue for as long as it will take for some of these seekers of the so-called “Holy Spirit baptism” to be able to speak in some strange tongues or babbles popularly known as “shandar”.

Such a speech by these people is known as “shandar” because of the preponderance of the words “shandarama” or “shandara” in these strange tongues or babbles. And when seekers of this so-called “Holy Spirit baptism” are able to speak in these tongues or babbles (God-given?), a then highly elated Clergy, would pronounce or declare them as having received the “Holy Spirit baptism”.

Those in this prayer session, who are however disappointed in not being able to “shandar”, and are therefore considered not to have received the so-called “Holy Spirit baptism”, are encouraged by their leaders to begin to have a stronger desire for this baptism, so they can be rewarded with it in future “upper room” prayer sessions!

We must understand that, the pre-Pentecost Day occupants of the Upper Room in Jerusalem, in 30 AD, were not gathered there to pray-out their hearts in demand for the Holy Spirit of God. They only gathered there to await the receipt of a gift that had been promised them by the Master himself.

Yes, as these holy disciples gathered there, they prayed. But no prayer was made by any one of these disciples of Jesus Christ, in demand for the gift of the Holy Spirit, who (Holy Spirit) had been freely promised them; never asking for this promise to be made to them.

Can a Clergy, known and called by God, anointed and sent-out by Him, to call and compel sinners into His kingdom, not know the only way the Holy Spirit of God establishes contact with and enters into residence in the hearts of salvation-seekers, through repentance from sin and in baptism in Jesus’ name?

Lord Jesus Christ, where are your genuine ministers of your Gospel you have sent to us? Reveal them to us so we can believe them for our salvation, dear Lord: Or else people perish in ignorance.

Shalom, dear reader.
Chris Bapuohyele is an author, a Bible expositor and an evangelist. His e-mail address is: [email protected]

THE FALSEHOODS IN THE “HOLY SPIRIT BAPTISM” DOCTRINE (Part Two)

Chris Bapuohyele
-
0

True messengers of God are however not surprised, since none of the Clergy who present the salvation of God in this way is called, taught, anointed and sent by God to the salvation-seeker. There is no Clergy, anywhere, who is called by God, to lead mankind into the salvation of God in Christ Jesus.

The fact is that, there is no personality or persona, in the entire so-called Clergy, which was part of or within the persona of the small group of disciplined disciples of Jesus Christ, to whom the mandate of the Great Commission was given. Dear reader, I pray you will strive to understand and accept this statement of fact.

Let me now bring out to you, dear reader, falsehoods that are being peddled by the Clergy, in their manner of presenting the salvation message of God to mankind. The first thing is that, no prayer can bring salvation to any sinner. Nowhere in God’s Word are we taught about any prayer which, when offered in faith, will bring to the one who says it, God’s salvation in Christ Jesus.

Therefore, such special prayers as the “Sinners’ Prayer” and “Prayer for Salvation” can never bring the blessings of Christ’s sacrifice to any salvation-seeker. No matter how loudly and with whatever high level of sincerity such prayers are made, no deliverance from the power and dominion of sin, and from the devil, can come to the salvation-seeker who is led (misled?) to say these special prayers.

The fact is that, one continues to remain in the power, dominion, and consequences of sin, and of the controller of sin (the devil), after the reciting of these special prayers, since the Word of God does not give us any mandate to recite them for our salvation.

The Word of God teaches that, expression of faith in repentance from sin and baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, are what bring sinners into the Born Again experience and thus into the salvation of God.

The first entrants into the salvation of God, through the ministration of God’s truths by Peter, an apostle, on the Day of Pentecost, were not led into it through, by, and of prayer: They entered by the power of repentance from sin and baptism (Acts 2: 38-41).

Peter, a sure, well-taught, knowledgeable, anointed, disciplined and dependable disciple of Jesus Christ, performed the first job ever, of leading salvation-seekers into the kingdom of God, on the Day of Pentecost.

While at this job, he dared not deviate from the instructions given to all soul-winners by the Master, in Matthew 28: 18-20 and Mark 16: 15-16. To do otherwise, by leading his listeners to pray any special prayer after him for them to enter God’s kingdom, would lead him into doom. In fact, woes betide him if he did.

So why does the Clergy not do as Peter did, if they are indeed sent by God? The simple answer is that, the Clergy have no lot or part in the work of God for mankind’s salvation and hence their ignorance about how to lead people into the kingdom of God.

As said earlier on, Peter would have attracted to himself woes, if he had tried to teach and to lead salvation-seekers who listened to him on the Day of Pentecost, to pray any special prayer in attempt to enter God’s salvation, instead of leading them to repent of their sins and to accept to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

And as it was for the over three thousand repentant Diaspora Jews who listened to Peter on the Day of Pentecost in Jerusalem in 30 AD, so must it be for all seekers of God’s salvation.

Genuine faith in, and true understanding of repentance from sin and baptism in (into) the name of Jesus Christ, will always enable one gain remission of sin, which in turn will qualify one to receive the free gift of God’s Holy Spirit, to firmly indwell one’s heart (Acts 2: 38-39; Luke 1: 77; 24: 46-48). There is no other way into God’s salvation in Christ Jesus.

It is only the expression of genuine repentance from sin and faith in baptism that washes all of one’s sins away (Acts 22: 15). All the sins that are imputed to one, by and from Adam of Eden, and also all those willfully committed by one’s self, up to the point of one’s baptism into Christ, are washed away by faith in the single act of baptism. And so it is only in this baptism that one can become sinless or sin-free. No sinless state is attained by anyone in the recitals of any special prayers.

As said earlier, it is only in baptism for remission of sin that one gets the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God is only received in obedience to the instructions of God to repent and to be baptized, and not in any other known way, like in reciting special prayers in demand from God a gift promised by Him to His beloved and obedient ones.

So, where from all these teachings about people being cleansed from all their sins, because they recited some special prayers and that they are only thereafter, eligible for baptism so they can be joined to the Body of Christ?

Where do we also find in the Word of God, about salvation-seekers having their human vessels partially filled with the Holy Spirit, and to be topped-up to full capacity, at a later date and in a so-called higher spiritual experience the Clergy terms, a “Holy Spirit baptism”?

When genuine ministers of God, like Philip, an evangelist (Acts 8: 26-40), Ananias, a disciple of Damascus (Acts 9: 10-18), and Paul and Silas, apostles of Jesus Christ (Acts 16: 25-34), were sent on missions to lead people into God’s salvation, just watch the wisdom and perfection with which they executed their assignments.

Marvel also at the ensuing spectacular results, and the visible blessings that accrued to those saved, immediately after the ministrations of God’s salvation by these qualified and divinely certified workers of God’s kingdom.

These four ministers of the New Testament salvation doctrine, and many others like them, always executed their assignments according to the instructions of the Master. Never did they deviate, in the minutest of ways, from the instructions of the Master, in carrying out their assignments.

They always led their listeners to repentance from their sins, and immediately after that, they led them to undergo the baptism of the Great Commission, by baptizing their repentant hearers in natural, living water. Never did any God-sent minister of the New Testament salvation message delay in administering baptism to their repentant hearers, overnight. Never!

Because it is baptism which saves (Mark 16: 15-16 and First Peter 3: 20-21), and not the recital of some special prayers, baptism carries with it a great sense of urgency and so must always be administered immediately a sinner shows repentance. This has been the apostolic faith and practice, as is evidenced from the New Testament teachings.

In fact, the evidence is overwhelming. Whether one was on a journey on the highway or it was midnight, everything was brought to a halt for the baptismal candidate to be baptized, to enable him make a clean break from sin’s power, snare, dominion, and from the venom of the devil.

And how does all this compare with the practice of the Clergy today, who must teach their followers for periods of between four to fourteen Sunday-lessons on baptism, (after their supposed salvation, which is claimed to have been gained through the recitals of special prayers), before they are baptized?

The Master has instructed all his well-taught, loyal, dedicated and obedient disciples to lead salvation-seekers to repentance and baptism, and after which they must teach them to obey all things. Are the Clergy seeking to mess-up and overturn the instructions of the Master by teaching salvation-seekers in fourteen weeks, to obey all things, before they are baptized? That is the Clergy for you.

Never also, did any true and genuine ministers of God, ever conduct the rite of baptism in man-made tanks filled with water. And please, let us not limit the existence of man-made swimming pools to modernism.

In as much as hanging gardens in Babylon, pyramids in Egypt, and aqueducts in Rome, were constructed in pre-modern and pre-New Testament times, why would one think of the availability of swimming pools (for baptism?), as being only conceivable and peculiar to the lifestyles of people today? (— the concluding part to this article is in Part Three: soon to be published).

Chris Bapuohyele is an author, a Bible expositor and an evangelist. His e-mail address is: [email protected]

THE FALSEHOODS IN THE “HOLY SPIRIT BAPTISM” DOCTRINE (Part One)

Chris Bapuohyele
-
0

In the early hours of December 6, 2011, not far from midnight, I was roused from a short sleep, after experiencing a very clear and detailed dream. In the dream, I saw myself teaching to salvation-seekers of this generation, the falsehoods in the very popular “Holy Spirit baptism” doctrine.

Prior to this dream, God had for a long while been leading me to identify the many falsehoods of this doctrine. This He did, between the years 2008-2010, while giving me a series of revelations that formed the bulk of teachings in my first published book entitled: “BEWARE OF THIS FALSE DOCTRINE of reciting the Sinners’ Prayer for salvation”. These three years, were to be for me the most crucial of five, I spent in writing this book.

One may ask: What is the “Holy Spirit baptism” doctrine? This is a legitimate question to ask, because the Word of God is very clear in its revelation to mankind that there is only “one baptism” (Ephesians 4: 4-6). This being the case, one may ask: Is this so-named “Holy Spirit baptism” the “one baptism” mentioned in the Book of Ephesians, or is it entirely different?

The salvation-seeker must understand that, the “one baptism” of Ephesians is the baptism of the Great Commission (Matthew 28: 18-20; Mark 16: 15-18) and therefore, the one administered by the apostles of Jesus Christ, in their ministrations of God’s salvation to sinners, as recorded in Acts 2: 38-41; 8: 38; 9: 18; 10: 48; 16: 33; 19: 5; and in other places.

This “one baptism” of the Great Commission is also commonly known as “water baptism”, which is the reality of Ezekiel 36: 25-27, and thus, the only one baptism which fits into Jesus’ born of water teaching to Nicodemus in John 3: 3-5.

As a matter of fact, any time the word “baptism” is mentioned in the Bible, it is always in reference to the “one baptism” of the Book of Ephesians; or in typology, shadow, and or figurative forms to this “one baptism”.

Surprisingly, the much-touted “Holy Spirit baptism” neither fits the “one baptism” of Ephesians, nor of the Great Commission, nor of any semblance to “water baptism”. The “Holy Spirit baptism” is, therefore, one that is absolutely different from the “one baptism” revealed and taught in the Bible.

Indeed, according to available teachings by the proponents of the “Holy Spirit baptism” doctrine, this baptism is supposed to be a second (or third?) spiritual experience after one’s salvation, and one that can be experienced by the salvation-seeker, either before or after one has undergone the rite of “water baptism”.

As it is, almost all seekers of God’s salvation know that one must receive “water baptism” in Jesus’ name, as the baptism of the Great Commission, to be joined to the Body of Christ, and or to become a member of the Church.

From the foregoing therefore, it seems strange and in fact ridiculous, for theologians and members of the Clergy, to see two or even more different baptisms in the Bible, which they teach to their followers.

Another wrong teaching of the Clergy, who ever administer “water baptism” at all, is that this baptism (in water) is only needful and significant as a post-salvation ritual. In other words, one must have obtained God’s salvation, be living in it, and be enjoying it, to be eligible for “water baptism”.

For them, this “water baptism” can only be administered to those followers of theirs who are considered to have already entered into God’s salvation in Christ, because they had, in a not-so-distant past, been led to recite some special prayers.

This “water baptism” is administered for such followers, by being immersed in water, in man-made swimming pools, tanks, portable baptisteries, or in natural bodies of living water. The choice of place for the administration of this baptism, by these theologians and Clergy, is always dependant on how modern, affluent, or poor its proponents/recipients are.

The rich and affluent usually resort to perfumed water in modern swimming pools and other large, man-made, water-holding containers, for the administration of the ritual. The less wealthy however, usually resort to natural water bodies, often located outside of town, for the ritual.

What all this means is that, for such people who observe the rite of baptism, it does not matter whether the place for baptism is natural or man-made; it is simply a matter dependant on one’s personal choices, tastes and or social status. For such baptismal faithful, God has no say in this! And so, it is not uncommon in our world today, for baptism to be performed in private king-sized bath-tubs, Jacuzzis, and swimming pools of the rich.

The main reason that theologians and Clergy often give for ever administering “water baptism” to their followers is that, it must be done “to fulfill all righteousness”. Readers must however note that, the words “to fulfill all righteousness” are credited to Jesus in Matthew 3: 15. Jesus Christ, the Messiah of God, who never knew any sin, before, at, and after his baptism, spoke these words to urge John the Baptist to baptize him.

So, in the thinking of these so-called men of God, since Jesus the Christ, who knew no sin, had to be baptized “to fulfill all righteousness”, any mortal men seeking to be baptized “to fulfill all righteousness” in their lives must also be without sin, at the point of their baptism in water. In other words, mortal man must be devoid of sin, in much the same state that Jesus the Christ was without sin, when John baptized him, before he can also be baptized!

How mortal man can come to be without sin, many theologians and Clergy are however ignorant about. According to these theologians and Clergy, immediately anyone of their followers, recites after them any one of the special prayers, known to them as the “Prayer for Salvation” and the “Sinner’s Prayer”, one instantly attains a sinless or sin-free state, is saved, and is firmly established in God’s kingdom. It is in this supposed sinless state obtained in prayer, that the sinner then becomes qualified, for these leaders to baptize him “to fulfill all righteousness”.

As part of their recitals of these special prayers for salvation, the salvation-seeker is also led by these so-called men of God, to ask for God’s Holy Spirit to come to indwell one’s heart. Though they accept that the Holy Spirit is a gift of God, they teach that one must demand through praying to Him, to be given this gift. After reciting the special prayer, the salvation-seeker is made to believe that some great blessings of God have been divinely bestowed upon him.

The first of these supposed blessings is that one has become cleansed from all sin, and come at par with Jesus the Christ in His sinless state, during his earthly sojourn. The second supposed blessing is that, one has become a child of God, of the same status as and co-heir with Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God.

The third deception is that, one now has indwelling in one’s heart, a certain amount or “measure of the Holy Spirit of God”; but to obtain the full measure of the Holy Spirit to indwell one’s heart however, one must await a “Holy Spirit baptism”, for his entire human vessel to be filled to the brim and running-over, with the Holy Spirit of God.

It is very sad that the salvation message of God is presented to a needy world in this ridiculous way. It is ridiculous because the Word of God does not teach the message and good news of mankind’s redemption in this way. (—the continuing part to this article is in Part Two: soon to be published).

Chris Bapuohyele is an author, a Bible expositor and an evangelist. His e-mail address is: [email protected].

1...49,51949,52049,521...49,535Page 49,520 of 49,535