African Christian Apologetics Blog

  HE USED THE CROSS TO HIDE THE KNIFE: THE TRUE STORY OF LEOPOLD II AND CHRISTIANITY IN CONGO Introduction There is a question many Africans ask when they hear about the history of Africa. Did the man who cut off people's hands in Congo bring Christianity to Africa? Did he come as a missionary to save souls? The name of that man is King Leopold II of Belgium, and the answer will shock you. He was not a missionary. He was not a man of God. He was a king who used the name of Christianity to cover up one of the worst crimes in human history. From 1885 to 1908, he owned Congo as his personal property and turned it into a rubber factory where millions died. He Was A Catholic King, But Not A Christian In Action Leopold II was born a Roman Catholic, like most Belgian kings. He was baptised in the Catholic Church, he married in the Catholic Church, and he attended mass when it suited his politics. But his life showed a different story. He never went to Congo. He never preached the gospel. ...

  A Christian Review of "THE WRETCHED OF THE EARTH" by Frantz Fanon If the first book How To Make A Negro Christian  shows us the disease - how Christianity was weaponized to enslave - Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth shows us the wound the disease left behind.[1961]. This is one of the most important text on decolonization ever written, and every African Christian theologian must wrestle with it. 1. What the Book Is Fanon was a psychiatrist from Martinique who became involved in the Algerian struggle for independence from France. He writes not as a theorist in a library, but as a doctor treating tortured freedom fighters. His central arguments are: 1. Colonialism is not just political, it is psychological and spiritual. The colonizer tells the colonized: "You are not fully human, your culture is savagery, your skin is a curse." After generations, the colonized begins to believe it. Fanon calls this the inferiority complex. 2. Decolonization is not a po...

 A Christian Review of "HOW TO MAKE A NEGRO CHRISTIAN: A Reprinting of The Religious Instruction of the Negroes by Dr. Reverend Charles Colcock Jones" with Commentary by Kamau Makesi-Tehuti This book is not for the faint-hearted. It is a painful but necessary primary document for understanding what must be decolonized in African Christianity. 1. What the Book Is The core of the book is an 1842 manual by Charles Colcock Jones, a white Presbyterian minister and slave-owner in Georgia, USA, titled The Religious Instruction of the Negroes.  Jones was known as the "Apostle to the Negro Slaves." His stated goal was to evangelize slaves. His method was to create a slave Christianity. His theology was deliberate: - Emphasize Ephesians 6:5 - "Slaves, obey your earthly masters" while suppressing Exodus, Galatians 3:28 - "there is neither slave nor free", and Luke 4:18 - "proclaim freedom for the prisoners". - Teach that obedience in this life wil...

  The Benefits and Excesses of Revival in African Christianity and the Question of Nigeria's Prophetic Destiny Introduction When Apostle Arome Osayi said in 2026 that revival and mission is the prophetic destiny of Nigeria, the internet split into two sides. On one side, some Christian believers, especially lovers of Apostle Arome Osayi, raised the old prophecy of Pa Joseph Ayo Babalola — who in a 1930s vision described an angel giving nations gifts of rulership, technology, and education, until the gifts finished, and he asked, "What of Nigeria?" and heard, "I will give you the ultimate Gift: the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of revival, an all-in-one package." On the other side, critics like VeryDarkMan raised an alarm: is this another excuse to spiritualize failure, to say Nigeria doesn't need technology because we have prayer? Both sides are reacting to real issues. If we misunderstand revival, we will either abuse it or despise it. And Africa cannot afford ei...

Why Jesus’ Atonement Is the Precondition for Heaven — Even for Those Who Lived Before Him If faith on Jesus is the precondition for heaven, how then did those who lived before Him make heaven? This question is profound because it touches the heart of how God deals with sin across all of history. The answer is this: Jesus’ atonement was not a sudden afterthought. It was God’s eternal plan, and it was always the only basis on which anyone could be made right with Him. Those before Christ were not saved by a different system. They were saved by faith in the same Christ, looking forward to the cross the way we look back to it. 1. From the Beginning, God Promised an Atoning Substitute  God never intended for man to save himself. After the fall in Genesis 3, the very first gospel promise was given: the seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head. Genesis 3:15. That was a promise of a coming Redeemer who would deal with sin once and for all.   To picture this, God immediate...

  Faith That Works: Understanding Paul, James, and Jesus on Salvation Question:  " Paul says you are justified by faith apart from works. James says faith without works is dead. Who is right? "  This question often comes up in debates, especially with critics who claim Jesus preached obedience while Paul preached lawlessness. But the Bible presents no contradiction. Faith gives the assurance of salvation. Works are the visible evidence that authenticate that salvation.  Paul and James are not opposing each other. They are answering two different questions: how we are made right with God, and how we prove that new life is real. Jesus, Paul, and James together show us that it is not faith versus works, but faith that works. 1. Paul Was Writing about Justification by Faith Paul’s main concern was how a sinner is made right with God. His answer was clear: by faith alone, not by works of the Law. In Romans 3:28 he wrote that a person is justified by faith apart from works...