Christ Mission 3: Respect for Self and Culture

Jesus respected and valued the Jewish culture he was born into and participated in their observances, while showing where necessity surpasses the ceremonial laws.

Culture groups people into families, clans or nations. It gives them a sense of identity and inculcates in them the idea of God and defines their relationship to the Divinity as well as imbibing in them a worldview of Oneness of all men. The destruction of a culture is the destruction of their identity, drive for self-determination and creativity and they, consequently, are destroyed. Jesus taught that you must love your neighbour as yourself, meaning that you must love yourself and extend the same to others. Mark 12:30-31.

The preservation and growth of a culture is so important that Jesus set himself up to fulfil the law and not to destroy it. Matthew. 5:17.

In line with his culture, when Jesus healed the leper Mark 1:40-44, he charged him to go and perform the cultural requirements as stated in Leviticus 14:3-7.This ritual is similar to what we find  in many traditional African religious practices.

Jesus observed the traditional Passover of his culture Matthew 26:18. And he directed that he should be remembered whenever his followers break the Passover bread. Luke 22:19.

Many cultural practices, especially of Africans, that are condemned by modern day Christians are accepted in the Bible. For example, many would accept the words of the African traditional prayers but condemn the libations that go with it. The Bible calls libation “drink offering’ and commands that as much as a quarter gallon of gin be poured in the holiest places unto God. Numbers 28:7.

There is a systematic plan by “the Powers that be” to destroy Africa and keep her people in slavery by ①dividing them and ②destroying their culture.