adminThe high road death toll during certain months, an apparent increase in ritual murders, and puzzling disappearances of people, among other blood-curdling happenings, have been linked to satanism. Amid these incidents, Christians urge more intense and sustained prayer to defeat the scourge. Others feel the occurrence of these many events that are commonly associated with evil, are signs that the end-times could be nigh. Christians as well as traditionalists tend to view satanism as witchcraft.
A pastor from Assemblies of God Ministries said the cults appear to have infiltrated some churches, causing mayhem.
“People are joining the cults out of the love for money as they think the Lord is not answering their prayers.
“These are the end times that were prophesied during biblical times. It only shows that the end times are upon us.
The satanists have been with us all along, but now they are surfacing from their hiding places,” he said.
Recently, a 16-year-old girl from Bulawayo’s Cowdray Park confessed to being a member of a satanic cult that allegedly drinks human blood and feeds on human flesh. She gave a list of 38 people including their addresses, which her cult had allegedly killed in the suburb. She went on to mention about 60 people that she said she worked with.
Included in the list were leaders of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Cowdray Park. The girl said the satanists could become invisible and drain blood from a living person in broad daylight. She said the victims would start feeling weak and go to sleep while the unlucky ones would die.
The girl also gave the address of a house she claimed had an underground room where corpses were kept for the satanists to feed on.
This is one of the many reports on satanism activities that have occurred in the country. A couple of years ago ZBC broadcast a documentary revealing a number of children of the same family who confessed to be witches and said they kept human flesh in a refrigerator and would fly out of their house in spirit form through a small opening on the roof leaving behind their bodies in the house.
They also revealed that they would kill people and at times go and dig up corpses from graveyards and eat them.
A local newspaper also reported that a Bulawayo woman recently surprised all and sundry by coming out in the open to tell the world about the weird things that her religious group does “in the name of Jesus”. The woman revealed that she used to be a member of a cult named “Morning Glory” which called Jesus’ name to cause accidents and curse people to death.
As if that was not strange enough, she added that every year in December they hold their “congress” in Gutu at a certain rock which they call their god. They pray to the rock and consult it for supernatural powers to be able to destroy their enemies and to be always “on top of their game.”
She also revealed that her father’s death was an eye-opener to some members of the cult because after declaring that he was leaving the satanist sect, the leaders told him that he was going to die within three days. The old man indeed passed away in three days and his death caused members to fear for their lives as they were aware that they would never be able to leave the cult.
Christians have identified the rise of satanic sects as fulfilment of biblical prophesies while traditionalists claim is a sign of moral decadence.
Ms Hazel Nkomo, a Bulawayo resident, said in our culture satanism comes in many forms including witchcraft and traditional courts should handle these issues.
“What is needed is for our courts to bring cases of people suspected of practising this form of evil to our traditional courts for recourse.
“Our traditional courts are better able to deal with cases of this nature than, say, the magistrates’ courts.
“Most people join satanic cults out of the love for riches but this usually backfires after they fail to control the powers which they would have got from their almighty,” she said.
A traditional healer, Mr David Muhabhinyana, said satanism existed for many years in the African context, but had recently been corrupted by “white culture”.
“Satanism is something that has always been there in our culture. Although it is a bad thing, you cannot question the happenings of satanism as this is not permitted in the ‘religion.’
“Modern satanism is not the same as that which existed years back. Originally it did not permit the use of blood or eating human flesh. This came about recently when we started following the mysteries of the white people.
“Some people usually associate traditional healers with satanism but this is not true in the sense that we are the same as Christians as we all pray to the same God and we do not touch human flesh or blood. If an inyanga touches that then he or she is said to be umthakathi,” he said.
Reverend Paul Damasane said people perceived satanism and witchcraft as one thing. Witchcraft, he said existed even in the biblical period.
“Witchcraft existed even in the biblical period as in 1 Samuel 28, Saul visited the witch of Endor so that the witch could bring Samuel the prophet, back to life. In African tradition these things are said to exist because they are associated with what people say belongs to abantu abadala (ancestors) because they grow with it in their families and inherit those powers.
“Witchcraft also exists but this happens from a spiritual form of evil that we as Christians associate with satanism as we believe in the power of the Holy Ghost.”
The Assemblies of God Ministries pastor, who cannot be named for professional reasons, said satanism is a demonic practice which is condemned in many sections of the Bible.
He said: “The Bible tells us in Deuteronomy 18:10-13: ‘There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God.”
He added: “All spiritual power comes from either God or satan. We see this truth in the Bible, when Pharaoh’s magicians imitated the Lord’s miracles wrought by the hand of Moses and Aaron (Exodus 7:11). All forms of witchcraft are satan’s works of darkness. It is tragic that children are being introduced to witchcraft, sorcery, magic, spells and all sorts of demonic practices which the Bible condemns,” he said.
Online Reporter