A-level Divinity questions and answers

QUESTION: “Zimbabwean prophets focus more on performing miracles than any other prophetic duties”. Examine this view (25) COMMENT OVERVIEW The above question requires one to justify the validity of the above statement. The statement was coined after closely studying the Zimbabwean prophets. The ministry of Zimbabwean prophets is overcrowded by so many miracles, this cannot be denied. The number of so many prophets have been recorded by media to have performed different miracles, this includes the following prophets: The Apple Prophet “Fordrick Fordrick” The Spectacle Prophet “Freddy” Ezekiel Guti Major Provovo man of style “Uebert Angel” Walter Magaya Passion Java Zviratidzo ZvevaPostori sects Wutuwunashe Andrew Prophetess Ruth Makandiwa Prophetess Beverly Angel The ongoing work seeks to justify the validity of the above claim. ANSWERS Perfoming miracles cannot be separated from the ministries of Zimbabwean prophets just like Old Testament prophets who performed unending miracles, this includes Moses, Elisha, Elijah and Isaiah. Zimbabwean prophets perform healing and nature miracles, this is true in the case of Walter Magaya, Magaya has performed so many miracles, he once hosted a service of miracles, during this service lot of people were healed, this was even published by Nehanda Radio Newspaper on the 16th of May. 2016 “Magaya hosts miracle night”

Prophetic Healing and Deliverance founder Prophet Walter Magaya will today host a “miracle night” at his church in Waterfalls, Harare, where thousands of people are expected to attend.” During the service some claimed to have been healed after being anointed by the man of cloth. As such this indicates that Zimbabwean prophets perform miracles.

In November 2012, Makandiwa performed a miracle which shocked the country. A Chitugwiza woman delivered a baby in space of hours after meeting the man of God. The story was even published by the local papers, some labelling the prophet as an unauthentic prophet “Makandiwa was praying for female congregates whose pregnancies had complications, he then declared that there was to be a miracle pregnancy which was to be delivered within a space of hours.” This is an enough evidence which proves to us that Zimbabwean prophets perform miracles.

The controversial man “Paul Sanyangore” who is a pastor, has performed a number of miracles, this includes walking on water. On 16 March the media recorded that the controversial man walked on water after his friends invited him for a swim in Glen Lorne, in an interview he submitted that the reason why he performs miracles is to boost the faith. He said, “These miracles are done to boost people’s faith so that it’s easy for them to accept the word. The fact that it cannot be done in front of many people is because they are not ready to accept such miracles. Criticism has always been there and it will always be there.” Therefore, this indicates that Zimbabwean prophets perform miracles.

Uebert Angel performed money miracles, the miracles were even discussed with Gideon Gono (according to ZBC 4th February 2013).

The Apple prophet “Fodrick” is well known for performing miracles using an apple. The Spectacle Prophet “Freddy” has been recorded by media to have been performing miracles.

Thabiso Ngwenya of Pumula in Bulawayo is well known for performing miracles through “bombing”. All this justifies the view that Zimbabwean prophets perform miracles.

In as much as Zimbabwean prophets perform miracles, it will be a misnomer to totally ignore the view that Zimbabwean prophets perform other duties.For instance fighting for worshiping of one God, it is documented by a number of authors that Zimbabwean prophets fight for worshipping one God, Isabel Mukonyora citing Dillon, says Masowe during his days had tendency of destroying “mishonga” and burning fetishes. Makandiwa recorded by Christ Tv discouraged his church to partake in evil practices. Magaya recorded by Newsday, Sunday News and Bulawayo24.com in 14 February 2015, condemned the use of water as a way of exorcism by the white church garment which is led by Johannes Ndanga as evil and encouraged them to change. This is further supported by his book entitled The marine spirit (the point in this case is that Magaya fights for worshipping of one God). All this indicates that Zimbabwean prophets do not totally focus on performing miracles only.

Zimbabwean prophets predict the future events, In Zimbabwean context, for instance, Bulawayo well known prophet predicted about the status of Zimbabwe in his 2016 prophecies (prophecy number 2 of Chiza says Zimbabwean dollar will be re-introduced). Makandiwa in his article Volume 11 undated prophesied about the next coming big prophet, he says (“. . . I see another man of God coming in Zimbabwe . . . but by the time he comes I will be an old man . . .” He went on to say “I see another city coming”). Daily News newspaper on 28 April 2016 published that Makandiwa had predicted the Zambian Xenophobia attacks. All this indicates that Zimbabwean prophets do not totally focus on performing miracles.

NB: MORE ROLES CAN BE ADDED

QUESTION DEMANDS Examine the validity of the statement.

Witness Dingani is an author, columnist, cricketer and youth coach. He is the founder of a charity organisation — Dingani Charity Organisation which was launched to improve the lives of orphans and the vulnerable. He is also studying Theology and Religious Studies at Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU). He can be contacted through his mobile number +2363777896159 or Facebook page Zimsec A-level Divinity Questions and Answers with Witness Dingani. TODAY we are back to the basics of grammar. Remember last week I said examination classes are almost done with what was expected of them and attention shifts to other classes who still need to prepare for their turn. On that note, we closely examine grammar starting from defining parts of speech to words commonly confused. Grammar covers everything from bits of words to entire sentences. Grammar is the set of structural rules that controls the way language works.

Though there are quite a number of grammar aspects students need to focus on, here we consider word classes. Word classes define the roles that each word can play in a sentence. There are eight main word classes also called parts of speech. Remember words are categorised by the function they have in a sentence. We have a class of nouns defined as naming words. Examples; book, Bulawayo, beauty. Adjectives describe nouns and sometimes pronouns. Examples, large, cloudy.

There are verbs simply defined as doing words or action words like run, read, return. Next in line are adverbs which describe verbs (and sometimes adjectives and other adverbs too). Examples: sadly, badly, and quickly. Pronouns take the place of nouns in a sentence. Examples: you, they, he, she, him, me and it. Conjunctions commonly referred to as connecting words like, and, or, but, because. There is a class of prepositions which define relationships between words in terms of time, space and direction. Examples are as follows: before, through, underneath.

Lastly there is a class of determiners which give specific kinds of information about a noun (e.g. quality or possession). At face value one might take this discussion on parts of speech as simple repetition. But from experience I have discovered that those teachers of English Language who ignore teaching this area of language at an early stage would not have done justice to the students. The students they produce continue to struggle with their language even at higher levels of education.

Students need to understand these basics of language in order to master the language. It is true that nouns are often called naming words as they give the names of places, people and things — but they can also refer to groups, states, emotions and more. There are different types of nouns. They can refer to unique people or places (proper nouns) or identify more general objects, states or groups (common nouns).

Under nouns we have the following categories: proper nouns where we find specific names of people like (Mandla, Linda, and Petra), names of specific places (e.g. Plumtree, Harare, and Pretoria). Names