Salvation Is Not Individual. Wai.
Mr. President, you are a professed Christian. Meaning that you claim you follow the teachings of Jesus, the Christ (who ascended into the skies some 2,000 years ago and never fell back to the ground; thus far). So let me address one result of the mindset within that belief.
My Biggest declaration against your breed of Christianity in Ghana—especially the one we have inherited through Western Europe—has always been thus: Salvation is not an individual affair. It is one rooted in movements. That is, I reject the belief that “Salvation” is between “You” [the individual] and “God.” For it is not!
To understand this point without getting confused on the doctored biblical versus, plagiarized translations and handpicked paragraphs of the Bible from the actual ancient books [by Western Europeans], take only these lines for your daily devotion: Matthew 22:35-40.
Read these verses in full, do not stop midway—a very bad habit by most Christians I know. You included. You cannot purport to understand a text about one idea without reading the whole thing! Jesus is asked what, in his opinion, is the greatest commandment from God.
And he answers: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Yes this was his answer! Jesus claims that this law is equivalent, if not identical, to “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” Why? The second iteration of the law is essentially gibberish. It has no meaning except when a man can love his own neighbor as himself. Recall these verses in 1 John 4:20, which goes like this in the Wicked & Dirty King James Version at that:
“If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?”
What the preachers in the ancient books meant can be summarized into two key points: (1) Love for God and (2) Love for thy neighbor. However, the love of the neighbor is the only true expression of the one love for God. Which makes the first point redundant. It is fascinating that a “first” point can become redundant but yes. It is. One who loves himself alone, and not his brother does not love God. How then is salvation a matter only of the individual and not also an affair including the brother? Remember that we love, and why? Because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19).
If Jesus had failed to embrace, and love, and protect, a prostitute, Jesus would have failed. No one would be talking about Him today. Jesus was no snob: he loved his people, even the prostitutes among them!
Wicked wisdom. Isn’t it? Now aren’t you smothered by my sheer genius? You see? There you were thinking that you could enter the kingdom of heaven by stepping on your “pagan-worshiping” brothers in Ghana. Abi. You are stuck, hurry and tie your cloth to mine wai. Wicked wisdom abi?
But Jesus is telling you something from the Ancestral World, which is where I believe he’s been enjoying himself for some 2,000 years. Believe in your brothers! Believe in your nation. For this is equivalent to believing in God (whatever that is!). It is from here that strength and salvation emerge. It is how the Kingdom of Heaven is built. Ghana’s success depends on you (and not God) and not you alone, but everyone in Ghana. You will not be saved if Ghana fails—even with 20 million USAFRICOM dollars in your bank account. You will not be saved!
Sadly, at this rate you might need the blood of three whole Jesus’s, unless you can believe in your whole nation: pagan, muslim, vodun, poor, rich, Ga, Ewe, Akan or otherwise. Your choice, which is what salivation is—a big-fat, not so pretty, choice. You must love, and believe in the people, prostitutes or not, vodun men or not, my dear president. Or you will not be saved.
Narmer.
Simple enough for the president to follow. But would he do it?