This morning I saw a lie—real evidence of a masterful spiritual delusion. I’ve seen other lies like this one often since coming to Benin, especially in the last year since I started running regularly. Sadly, it is a lie I can identify with, because I have been tempted to believe it in a slightly different form.

As I was walking home after my run in the pre-dawn light, I passed a cluttered anthill beside the road. On and around the anthill was a jumble of items that would appear to be little more than trash to a cultural outsider, but I recognized them to be sacrifices. Among other things, there was a decomposing black chicken, a blue cloth, some scattered grains of dried maize and a broken beer bottle sticking up out of the dirt. People here believe that ants have spiritual power, so they place various sacrifices on anthills in order to get answers to questions or to get requests granted.

On other days, I have seen broken clay jars with tobacco or other dried leaves scattered over them. In addition to anthills, people also often use the junctions of roads or footpaths as places of sacrifice. I saw an egg at such a junction several times over a week or two, and another time I saw some kola nuts on a piece of black cloth. Broken jars holding knotted grass or leaves, ribbons or other colorful items seem to be popular at larger crossroads.

These sad little collections are constant reminders to me of the lie that permeates this culture. This lie is at the heart of every form of spiritual expression on earth except for the narrow way Jesus talked about. Central to magic, sorcery, voodoo, animism and countless other “isms” is the belief that I can manipulate, control or force God, gods, spirits or even cold fate to conform to my will if I say or do certain things. By performing specific and often expensive rituals, people attempt to manipulate the spiritual world without realizing that they are the ones who are being manipulated by demons.

Many Otammari people are enslaved by the lie that they can manipulate spirits. Even many church members revert to such practices in times of crisis because their old, animistic worldview remains intact beneath their new, truth-filled experiences. They may come to church regularly, sing enthusiastically with the others, pay tithe and even preach or teach Sabbath School. But when they come to a crisis—when they are sick, childless, or otherwise perplexed or distressed—if it seems that God is not answering their prayers quickly, they will go to the witchdoctor and perform the rituals of the religion they have claimed to leave behind. We call this mixing of religions syncretism, and it is frightening, since we know what the Lord has said about trying to serve two masters. We know it is based on a lie about the spiritual world and an ugly misunderstanding of our loving Creator God, so we are working to bring worldview transformation to church members, neighbors and friends by helping them internalize the wonderful Gospel of Jesus Christ.

As we minister to those around us, we have realized that what they need is exactly what we ourselves need—to understand God’s character and His plan of salvation. They need to know that God cannot be manipulated by anything they say or do, and so do we. They need a clear vision of Jesus Christ, their loving Savior who gave everything to save them, and we need to see Him, too. As the Lord is ministering to the animistic souls around us, He is also ministering to our legalistic hearts. He is reminding us that He has already given us everything. What could we possibly give back to Him? He has already emptied heaven for our salvation. What could we possibly do to make Him more inclined to love and help us? He saves us. Why would we attempt to save ourselves?

The Western version of the lie of spiritual manipulation may take on a more subtle and sophisticated form than the animism we see around us, but the Lord who saves repentant pagans can also save repentant missionaries.

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