In this series, those involved with CLC foreign missions profile one aspect of our overseas endeavors.
Not too long ago I was returning to Africa and someone I met in the airport asked me what the most striking example of spiritual warfare that I had encountered was. He was disappointed that I couldn’t tell him about an exorcism or overt display of the devil’s power. Perhaps I have led a sheltered life here in Togo and in India.
It would be wrong to deny that such things happen, but Satan is often much more subtle. Paul says that we “take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5), which shows that one of the devil’s main areas of attack is our thoughts.
A non-Biblical idea prevalent in West Africa is the “generational curse.” For example, if a woman has trouble conceiving, it is because her grandmother had an abortion. “Men of God” here twist Scripture to support this idea and claim they can break these curses (or teach you how to do it), often for a “small” fee.
Last year I taught a Bible study series on angels and demons because it seemed that many here were giving the devil too much power. To be honest, I felt unqualified; maybe there is more to spiritual warfare here than I have seen. After all, I’m just a foreign white man; what do I know of their day-to-day realities?
Skulls at the Lome fetish market (photo credit Alexander Sarlay)
This shows another of Satan‘s lies: Christianity is a white man’s religion and is for Europeans, not Africans! Just the other day the head pastor here, Pastor Blewu, forwarded a video to me in which a man is calling for Africans to reject Christianity because it is the religion of the colonizers. He claims that Africans won’t be truly independent unless they throw off the European religion and embrace their traditional religions. In Bible class I have frequently pointed out that Jesus was not born in Europe. As a baby He was taken to Egypt, which is in Africa! One of the early converts was the Ethiopian eunuch (probably not the same as the present-day country, but it was still in Africa). We are currently studying Revelation, where John sees believers “from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9), and we are told that the Gospel is for everyone (Revelation 14:6).
Voodoo paraphernalia at the Lome fetish market (photo credit Alexander Sarlay)
The main traditional religion here is voodoo. Its birthplace is Benin, the country just east of Togo. Many voodoo practitioners from Haiti and the U.S. come to Benin to study. And Lomé, Togo (where I live), is home to the Akodessawa Fetish (an object with supposed magical powers) Market, the “largest voodoo market in the world,” selling monkey heads, other dead animals, and voodoo dolls. Some say it is merely a tourist trap, but we should not underestimate the influence of voodoo on the hearts and minds of people (Ephesians 6:12).
Just around the corner from my apartment is the residence of the president of the local office of the “National Federation of Voodoo Worship and the Traditions of Togo.” Above the voodoo hall next door is painted the words “The Blood of our Father Agbodjissa Protects Us.” Voodoo is ancestor and spirit worship (like Japanese Shintō), looking to the spirits of the deceased for protection and power.
John, one of our pastors here in Togo, is even a former voodoo priest! Pastor Blewu told me that one time after meeting with John and his fellow voodoo practitioners, John called him shortly after he arrived home to ask if he had made it home OK. He said that he had and asked why. John told him that his colleagues had been trying to curse him ever since he left, and he was worried that something might have happened to him on the way home. In AFRAID: Demon Possession and Spiritual Warfare in America, Pastor Robert H. Bennett reports that voodoo priests in Haiti “All . . . agreed that curses can only be placed upon nonfaithful Christians and unbelievers. [They] were very clear that they don’t even attempt to curse Christians, because they recognize that the God Who protects us is greater than any of their gods” (page 144).
John’s Church
Through the Word of God, John came to trust in his Lord and Savior Jesus and went on to study to become one of our pastors. Pastor Blewu just told me that two of the sons of that voodoo chapter president near me have left the family and become pastors also (with other church bodies).
A sinner repenting and turning to Jesus is the greatest demonstration of God’s power over the devil that I can imagine. I told that to the man in the airport and he was rather disappointed by my answer, but it is true! And every time you walk into church to hear God’s Word or open your Bible to read it, you are engaging in spiritual warfare and overcoming the evil one. May God continue to guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus through His powerful Word! Amen.
is a full-time foreign missionary for the CLC.