Living as Wheat among Weeds

Thirty Minutes until Death

No person knows the hour or day that he or she will die. Some think of death when it knocks on their door: accidents, natural disasters, epidemics, war. Others come face to face with death when loved ones are sick or dying. And while some contemplate death, others never think about it. People may casually consider what they might do should they know they have just one more year, month, or day to live. The bottom line: every one of us will one day face our death. Death is the ultimate equalizer, the time of reckoning: wealth, education, appearance, talent—nothing matters. For faithful Christians, it is the moment of victory.

Imagine being struck with the venom of a poisonous snake. How long before it reaches the heart—and then death? How much time remains if the proper antivenom treatment is not administered? Some snakebites are more lethal than others. Africa’s deadliest snake, the black mamba, can kill a person within twenty to thirty minutes. Africans know this.

We all have been bitten by a lethal, venomous snake. The devil, that prideful slippery serpent, is responsible for all death. His conniving has us doubting God, wanting to be beautiful, rich, and famous, to be gods ourselves, to be all-powerful, living luxurious lives of wanton pleasure like children of billionaire oligarchs—not lives lived for God. The only antivenom treatment against the devil and his evil—sin—is Christ’s blood. Bible-believing Christians through the blood of Jesus have that free but priceless antidote to Satan’s threat to their eternal well-being.

God tells us that we are to be like little children, trusting in Him, loving Him, and knowing that He will take care of us. Little children usually want to know and obey their parents. So, if we believe that God is our ultimate Father, even as adults, we want to obey Him. More African than Western Christians are like children in their faith.

The reality is that no one knows when he or she will draw their last breath. Therefore, Christ’s disciples are compelled to spread the gospel to as many in as short a time as possible. With salvation and eternal security, everyone can live without fear of death.

In 1961, Fulton Sheen predicted that “God’s next tune will be played on the black keys.” That performance has already begun.[1] Africana has become popular. Whether this phenomenon was caused by a growing endorsement for an increasingly affluent and capable black population (actors, athletes, rappers, politicians, and celebrity talk-show hosts) is unimportant. Maybe the emphasis on the plight of the destitute (including victims of the HIV-AIDS epidemic) through such humanitarian organizations as World Vision has brought them to the forefront of the world stage. In any case, the African church has motivated parts of the minority world to keep the biblical faith that some Western Christians feared they were losing. Keeping the Bible alive is God’s plan. And His plan will not fail. …

Christ’s church is interested in the truth. She has integrity through Jesus because, like the woman of Revelation 12, she is clothed with the love of God. Through following Jesus and the Bible, faithful Christians attempt to fulfill their covenant with a loving, merciful, omnipotent, and omnipresent God. Both African and Western Christians, like Ezekiel and John, have taken God’s Word into their hearts and made it part of their essence.

As noted earlier, Bible-believing Christians throughout the world join the African church in her plight to support the God of the Bible and to stand up for the Christian faith. Some Christians hide for their safety because they are persecuted for their beliefs, but all worship the one true God through Jesus and constitute His church on earth. The tension and conflict between African and Western theology will be resolved through faith in the power of the Holy Spirit to work among the faithful. The praxis of Christians struggling with injustice, oppression, and aggression has been developed by consulting God’s truth in the Bible.

Like African Christians, Western Christians must first know themselves through Jesus and then firmly establish their faith through Bible reading. All too many people get caught up in the minutiae of life and leave real meaning, love, and joy on the sidelines. Divine intervention is needed for them to begin to question life and its purpose, because many of them are blind spiritually. African Christians do not have all of the answers but their faith is dynamic and their voices are being heard. Their impact on Christianity is a foretaste of the “eschatological banquet in the kingdom of God.”[2]

Revelation must be read, understood, and lived, which is difficult for even the most devout Christian. Understanding its symbolic language is perhaps why Revelation is more meaningful generally for the marginalized, the persecuted, and for African Christians than it is for many Western Christians. Revelation can be more significant when people realize the precariousness of life. African Christians accept Revelation as their reality; its message is not foreign—God gives the hope that the world cannot.

[1] Baur, 2000 Years of Christianity in Africa, 308.

[2] Diane Stinton, “Africa, East and West,” in An Introduction to Majority World Theologies,ed. John Parratt (Cambridge University Press, 2004), 133.