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A Kenyan Cult: Starving to Glory

 


Cult victim found alive after three days in Malindi grave

Detectives under the homicide unit have found one person alive after exhuming a grave linked to Shakahola church members.’

It’s a shocking headline, hardly believable, but there it was in the Star of Kenya. The story has been unfolding on our screens, in our news feeds, across the world as we have looked on incredulously at the horror unfolding. How does it come to this? Who is Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and what drove him to insist his followers go to such extremes of fasting that it brought many to the grave?

Paul Mackenzie, pastor of Good News International Church, is widely reported to have encouraged his congregation to extreme fasting in order to ‘meet Jesus’ or go to heaven. As with all such things, this ‘starvation cult’ has an origin story. Mackenzie is said to be a devotee of William Branham’s ‘the Message’ cult, having been radicalised by the Latter-Rain version of Branham’s message.

Branham referred to his preaching as ‘the Message,’ and considered it equal to Scripture, coming he insisted, directly from God. Does that sound familiar? It should do if you have been following the false teachings of the New Apostolic Reformation, a movement with roots in the Latter-Rain movement and the teachings of William Branham.

Here we find the roots of Restorationist doctrine, the idea that before his return Jesus will restore the Ephesians 4 offices in the church. Jim Jones of the tragic People’s Temple movement was a follower of William Branham and the Latter-Rain movement. Paul Mackenzie has followed in the footsteps of some hard-hitting heretics of our time.

William Branham taught a fundamental doctrine of fasting to achieve what he called ‘Atomic Power.’ People were encouraged to fast for up to forty days. In his book, Atomic Power, Franklin Hall, who worked with Branham, wrote:

It can only be the beginning of a new age for good if the power of the Spirit is developed to a high degree in many, by the most powerful agent known to man, fasting AND Prayer. A twenty-one, or forty day Prayer and Fast period will most assuredly hasten the Christian to such a great and deep experience with God that twenty-one days would be equal to twenty-one years. Forty days equal to forty years (Experience shows that the forty day period gives far greater results than a shorter time)’ (Franklin Hall, Atomic Power With God Through Fasting and Prayer)

The Star of Kenya reports:

In the cult, people were allegedly encouraged to fast to death to make it to heaven. The controversial Malindi preacher Paul Mackenzie of Good News International has been preaching to his followers to fast and pray for several days and eventually, a number of them have died due to hunger.’

The Error

Where is the error here, apart from the obvious? How do people come to a place where they are convinced to fast to death, ‘drink the Kool-Aid.’ There are key points in this story that should act as warnings for us.

People are driven by fundamental needs for society. Made in the image of God, the perfect society. It is natural we seek out each other for fellowship. We were made for each other, and if a group appeals to us we need to be discerning. We go to a church but we also know and associate with other Christian believers. If our ‘church’ cuts us off that should trouble us.

People are made for God. Augustine famously wrote, You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” When we seek meaning and purpose we are seeking God, and it is only in God our Maker we find ultimate meaning.

People are drawn by simple answers to complex questions. If someone comes along who claims to have ‘sorted it out’ for you that is so tempting. ‘Tell me what we believe pastor.’

People can be blindly superstitious, often out of fear. Christian superstition is rife, with people being encouraged to take up certain teachings and practices in order that God would bless us with power, success, health and wealth. It doesn’t work like that.

Then along comes this man with a ready-made society, a hotline to God, simple answers that address your worst fears and greatest hopes, and it is so tempting to jump aboard.

The Signs

All the signs of cultic teaching and practice were there.

The group was living remotely, surrounded by the 800 acre Shakahola forest. Orthodoxy is determined by and followed in the wider community. Groups who refuse to be influenced by the wider community of the Christian church are treading a dangerous path.

Paul Mackenzie was teaching an extreme eschatology, claiming he spoke directly with God. How do you question ‘the Lords anointed?’ Thoroughly, loud, and clear so everyone can hear your concerns.

On a scale of 1 to 10

Imagine a scale of 1 to 10. Here’s one:

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9    10

Let’s agree that 1 best represents the orthodoxy of the broader Christian church. We don’t agree on everything, but on the fundamentals we are pretty much on the same page, at 1. The same is true in any society. There is an accepted culture, a way of looking at and engaging with the world, an ‘orthodoxy.’

Now imagine a sub group that sits at 2 on this scale. They broadly look like the wider culture at 1. There is a certain heterodoxy; but this doesn’t bother us too much.

Now look at the group sitting at 7, or further still along the scale. How far are they from accepted orthodoxy? A long way it seems. But you only say that because you’re comparing 7 to 1. The group is not comparing itself with 1. It has been on a journey and left 1 behind awhile ago, come to believe that 1 represents heterodoxy. The group at 7 is comparing itself with 6. They are now on a journey to great clarity, deeper truth. When they look back they see progress towards greater light.

I was contacted this week by a Christian man concerned about a friend, another Christian, who has been drawn into a mystic cult seeking greater enlightenment, seeking identity. My friends, we need each other now more than ever. We need the wider society of the saints, even though it be a remnant, so there will be a brother or sister there to give us wise counsel. We need to be reminded by that blessed company that our identity is in Christ, to draw our attention to Bible truth and away from those who would take us along that scale until we lose ourselves altogether.

Read your Bibles, meet with the saints, keep the faith, trust in Jesus



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