False
Prophets and the Igbo
Rabbi
Yehudah “Tochukwu” ben Shomeyr
If there
arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a
wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he
spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known,
and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of
that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know
whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye
shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his
voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. And that
prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath
spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and
redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which
the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil
away from the midst of thee. If thy brother, the son of thy
mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend,
which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve
other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; Namely, of the gods of the people which are
round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the
earth even unto the other end of the earth; Thou shalt not
consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him,
neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: But
thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to
death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou
shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee
away from the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the
house of bondage. And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and
shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you. – Deut. 13:1-11
Sometime we narrowly think and seem to
have a default setting in our brain in regards to definition of words. When we
hear the word, “prophet” we automatically think of a person who can forecast
the future. This is a very narrow definition of the word, “prophet.” A prophet,
you can think of is as someone who is like a communal compass, one who can see
further down the path ahead and help guides the people on where to go and how
to proceed. Prophets were the
consultants and advisors to kings! Prophesying the future is but one small duty
and ability of a prophet. Prophets are spiritualists; they are scholars,
educators and guides, not just crystal balls.
In Deuteronomy, the Law in Moses’ own
words, the book of the Law for the laity. The favored and most book of Messiah
Yeshua besides the Psalms we find a sever warning and protocol for the People
Israel, and that is, what to do with a false prophet. Obviously, the first
thing one thinks of when one thinks of a false prophet is one who misses the mark
in foretelling the future. But this is just a small definition of what a false
prophet is. The passage here mainly deals with one who tells and instructs the
people to turn away from YHWH, the One True GOD of Israel and worship other
false gods. The penalty for such a one is death by stoning. Even if one is not
a so-called prophet, but even a family member we are instructed to show them no
mercy and kill them.
In context this can only be done by a
self-sustaining, independent, worldwide recognized nation whose Law is the
Torah. Seeing as we live in the lands and under the laws of other nations whose
law is loosely based on Torah we have no right to literally slay anyone for
such an offense, but we can honor the Hebraic spiritual traditional equivalent
of shunning those who entice the people to return to and serve false gods; to
act as if they are dead to us, to warn others about them and expose them for
their falsehoods. If a one from our own people tries to entice us to worship
and serve pagan gods they are no longer Igbo, they are no longer Hebrew to us.
They, for all intents and purposes are dead to us.
Ndi Igbo, you are Children of Israel! You
are Gad, Judah, Levi and Zebulon! Ndi Igbo, Deuteronomy applies to you! There
are Afro-Centric, Pseudo Scholars among us who, with self-serving motives and faulty
secular scholarship are the equivalent of false prophets, who are trying to
bring Ndi Igbo back under the curse of paganism and idolatry which brought down
the curses of Deuteronomy 28 upon Ndi Igbo in the first place! Are we to allow
such a one in our midst to bring us back under the curse of disobedience to
Chukwu Abiama (The God of Abraham)!?
Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths,
where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.
– Jer. 6:16
There are those who are trying to
convince Ndi Igbo that they were idol worshipers and that their ancestors, such
as Eri were gods and we should shake off the shackles of colonialism and return
to worshiping these deities. What does the
Torah say about such a one? As we have already read…
If there
arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a
wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he
spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known,
and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of
that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know
whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye
shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his
voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. And that
prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath
spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and
redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which
the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil
away from the midst of thee. If thy brother, the son of thy
mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend,
which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve
other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; Namely, of the gods of the people which are
round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the
earth even unto the other end of the earth; Thou shalt not
consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him,
neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: But
thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to
death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou
shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee
away from the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the
house of bondage. And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and
shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you. – Deut. 13:1-11
What we are to do is clear.
There is some who call themselves “mother”
and “brother” to the Igbo, who is encouraging Ndi Igbo to turn away from the
One True God and to worship deified ancestors. This is no different than the
sin of Aaron while Moses was on the mountain!
“… after he had made it a molten
calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of
the land of Egypt.” – Exd. 32:4
Let us set the record straight, unlike the African tribes surrounding
the Igbo, that the Igbos believe in one, all-powerful, all-knowing,
pre-existing, indescribable, unseen, invisible God and Creator who is called
Chukwu (The Great God) or Chineke (The God Who Creates). A compound name of
Chukwu is Chukwu Abiama which means, “The God of Abraham.” Is this not also the
description of YHWH God of the Jews and Christians?
There are
images missionaries found in Igboland which have been mistaken for idols, when
in actuality they were images of ancestors, such as Eri, etc. But there were no
images found designated as Chukwu or Chineke. Igbo Nri preists have confirmed
this by first deeming there is no God but Chukwu Abiama and that the images
represent the Igbo ancestors because before the white man, there was no
photography and the carved image was the way the Igbo preserved the image and
memory of their ancestors.
Some claim
that Eri was a minor deity of the Igbo. We see that it is mostly foreigners
commenting on the Igbo who misinterpreted Eri as being a god and mostly not the
Igbo themselves.
I am not
denying that paganism was never a part of the Igbo people. Just like Israel
when they entered the Promised Land and failed to expel all the Canaanite
nations before them who eventually became their downfall and divine reason for
expulsion from the Land through the Assyrian and Babylonian Captivities.
Likewise, the further the Igbo, who were descendants of Gad, Judah, Levi and
various other Israeli tribes, got from Israel through time and distance the
easier it was for some Igbo to fall into forms of paganism. Outsiders who
witnessed this, as well as misunderstood the various image of Igbo ancestors
that they had seen erroneously wrote and taught that the Igbo had many gods and
the Afro-centric pseudo scholars have monopolized on these facts to perpetuate
their falsehoods and agenda.
Today in
Igbo culture, images are rarely used, because of the advent of photography;
photos have now taken the place of carved images in obi’s (Igbo shrines). This
is similar to the board of names with a light bulb beside each name found in
Jewish synagogues today. It is believed that Chukwu heeds those who honor and
respect their ancestors who have gone on before to be with Him. Sadly, this has
been mistaken by missionaries and anthropologists as idol worship or at best
ancestral worship.
Some have
mistook the word “Chi,” equivalent to the Hebrew word “El” meaning “God,” to be
one’s “personal deity” instead of recognizing that “Chi” means that Chi/Chukwu
is personable to them. It literally means “My God.” So in other words, Chi
means that each Igbo person has a personal relationship with Chukwu.
Chi also
brings the connotation of “life” or “life force” and is very much like the
Hebrew word for life which is Chai.
True,
paganism and false gods have been found among the Igbo but only as a result of
being influenced by other tribes which were their neighbors. Even this should
cause us to connect the Igbo to Israel because why was Israel exiled out of the
Land in the first place? Because of their inclination toward idolatry.
I should
also mention here what in Igboland is called the Ikenga which is likened unto
the angels on the Ark of the Covenant or one’s own guardian angel. In Judaism,
as in Igbo culture, one’s home (obi) is considered a temple, modelled after the
Tabernacle or Temple in Jerusalem; it is not uncommon to see replicas of what
is found in the Tabernacle/Temple such as Menorahs or even images of angels.
Angels were in the Temple, In the Igbo obi there is an image called the Ikenga
and it is a type of guardian angel mistaken by outsiders as one’s personal
household deity.
The angels
in the Jerusalem Temple were made of aromatic cedar overlaid with gold. The
Ikenga is usually made from the ogirisi tree, sacred to the Igbo, which is an
aromatic evergreen tree. The Ogirisi are also used as grave markers.
Me and you are the gatekeepers of Ndi
Igbo and Omenana. Let us vigilantly stand watch against those who call
themselves Igbo (Hebrew) and yet try and tempt us to worship the images of our
ancestors as gods. Let us treat them like a rotting corpse that has contaminated
the compound and therefore must be removed.
Cast out the scorner, and contention
shall go out; yea, strife and reproach shall cease. – Prov. 22:10 KJV
Drive out the scoffer, and contention will go out, Even strife and dishonor will
cease. – Prov. 22:10 NASB
Who is our mother? Who is our fellow
Igbo (Hebrew)? As Yeshua said, “For whosoever shall do the will of God (Torah/Law/Instructions), the same is my brother,
and my sister, and mother (Mark 3:35 italics mine).”
Do not be
fooled by these Afro-Centric, Pseudo-Scholars, they are nothing but false
prophets.
