A-level Divinity questions and answers

QUESTION: The prophets spoke only the word of God, and not their opinions. How far does this explain Israel and Zimbabwean prophets? (25)

The above question requires one to show that indeed prophets of Israel were divinely inspired, the same applies to Zimbabwean prophets.

A number of prophets in Israel were divinely inspired, this cannot be denied. These include the following prophets: a) Moses b) Samuel c) Gad d) Nathan e) Ahijah f) Miciah Ben Imlah g) Elijah h) Amos i) Hosea j) Isaiah k) Jeremiah

Among the Israelite prophets, there were unauthentic prophets, hence they had their own source. The above question will be fully hammered below.

J Thompson defines a prophet as a messenger of God. B.W. Anderson defines a prophet as someone who communicates the divine will, whereas J Mulienburg defines a prophet as a covenant mediator.

Prophets of Israel spoke only the word of God. This is true in the case of Deuteronomy 18:18, where it is indicated that Yahweh inspired the prophets to deliver their message and the same message was supposed to come to pass, this is recorded in Deueteronomy 18:22. The message of some Israel prophets came from Yahweh, this is evidenced by the fulfilment and the use of messenger style of speech even though this style was hijacked by false prophets.

Elijah predicted the death of Ahab as he said “the dogs will lick your blood”, this is recorded in 1st Kings 21:24. Micaih Ben Imlah prophesied about the defeat of Israel, perhaps, the death of Israel leaders “I see Israel scattered in mountain . . .” This came to pass during the Ramoth-Gilead battle as Ahab died, and the dogs licked his blood. This is evidenced in 1st Kings 22:38. In Zimbabwean context, a number of prophets claim to be messengers of God, this is evidenced by the fulfilment of their predictions for instance, documents of Wimbo according to Bulawayo24. com indicates that in 1957, Wimbo prophesied about Zimbabwe being led by a man with a name of the angel “Gabriel” and it came to pass (Readers can follow the following link for more information. <http://bulawayo24.com/index-id-news-sc-nationalbyoDaily News paper in April 28 2016 published the headline that Makandiwa had prophesied about the Zambian xenophobic attacks. Sunday News on the 8th of January 2017 published the prophecies of Chiza where he claimed that he was speaking the Word of the Lord, “God is saying the church will be rich. I see a hand pushing money into the church.” Pastor Mugadza of Kariba should not be ignored who claimed that he spoke only what God told him, to predict the future, this was further recorded by New Zimbabwe online newspaper on the 12th of January 2017 “I would not want to force anyone to believe this but I am just saying it because this is what God told me, so it is up to the individuals to believe if it is going to happen or not,” Mugadza further said. (Readers can follow the link for more information < http:// www. newzimbabwe. com/ news- 34171> Mugadza+ Bob+ to+ die+ 2017,+ thus+ says+ God/ news.aspx). All this indicates that Zimbabwean prophets just like Israel prophets only speak the word of God and not their opinions.

Samuel predicted the future of Israel. He predicted the dangers of having a king, after Israelites had requested for a king, this is recorded in 1st Samuel 8:4.The predictions of Samuel are recorded in 1st Samuel 8:11, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots”.(You can read the above verse in the Revised Standard Version, to find out more about of his predictions). Some of the predictions came to pass during the reign of different kings in Israel.

Jeremiah predicted the death of Hananiah after predicting that Israel will be exiled in Babylon for 2 years, this is evidenced in Jeremiah 28:15 and it came to pass in Jeremiah 28:17. In Zimbabwean context, the predictions of well known prophets has came to pass for instance Dr Chiza in 2016 prophesied the return of Zimbabwean money and it was set before the end of the year. All this indicates that the above named prophets spoke only the word of the God. N.B More Examples Can Be Added.

In as much as it can be said that Israel prophets and Zimbabwean prophets spoke only the word of the God, it would be a mischief if one ignores the other side of the coin which postulates that some prophets in Israel spoke their opinions.

For instance Hananiah who prophesied that Israel will go to exile for two years after using a messenger style of speech, this is recorded in Jeremiah 28:11. As a result, Israel was exiled for 52 years. Four hundred court prophets during the Ramoth Gilead prophets, prophesied victory against Syrians, this is recorded in 1st Kings 22:11. As a result, Israel was scattered.

In Zimbabwean context, a number of predictions of Zimbabwean prophets has failed to come to pass. Examples can be extracted from the local news newspapers. Basing on Deuteronomy 18:22, one will be forced to conclude that they speak their own opinions.Therefore, this is an enough evidence to prove that the above named Israel prophets and Zimbabwean prophets spoke or speak their own opinions.

Witness Dingani is an author, columnist, youth coach, radio host and cricketer. He is the founder of a charity organisation Dingani Charity Organisation. In 2016 he was nominated as the most influential youthful figures in Zimbabwe and was voted 8th position out of 15 people by the Pan-Zimbabwe society. Questions by schools can be submitted through his mobile number +263777896159 or Email address: witnessdingani@ gmail.com. Readers can follow the Questions and Answers in the Sunday News newspaper every week. IT’S now official. The arts are now part of the school curriculum, not just as an appendage or an afterthought. Now schools can officially timetable arts related subjects during the day and side by side with other subjects like Mathematics, English and Geography.

We have definitely come a long way and perhaps now our education system can produce graduates creative and innovative enough to fit into the global world. While it has not been easy to be where we are now and have the arts as part and parcel of the syllabus our belief is that the bigger struggle is yet to come. Our biggest challenge will be how to make it work and, especially, to convince those that have been and continue to be sceptical about the arts in general. We need to convince these that the arts are good not only for the child’s cognitive growth but that they also have physical and emotional benefits as well.

Now that the arts — theatre, dance, music, visual arts, are being taught to students at a very young age we foresee a brighter future for the arts sector itself. In a few years from now we shall be confidently talking about a strong base for creativity, cultural awareness and development in our country. We applaud Dr. Dokora and his ministry for this development. They have taken the arts to another level and ensured the long term survival of the sector. Two weeks into the term and we wait, with bated breath, for the reaction of parents, students, and school authorities on the new developments.

News in Bulawayo is that a few schools have taken the challenge and have already introduced some arts subjects. Our interest being mainly theatre arts we are aware that less than ten schools have introduced the subject in their schools. This could be due to several reasons, some of which are the fact that there are few resources to teach some of the subjects. School heads with no teachers trained to teach the arts and with little or no resources are reluctant to introduce arts subjects. They are afraid of plunging into the dark.

However, this lack of resources and even teaching personnel should be seen as an opportunity by the arts community. Experienced artistes must take the opportunity and start creating resource material for schools. Perhaps it’s now also time for theatre arts, music, visual arts and dance graduates from various colleges and universities who had found other careers to come back and start working in the field they trained for.

The other reason could be the obvious one. School heads and teachers having a negative attitude towards the arts. The arts were stigmatised a long time ago. It is a public secret that most people don’t view the arts as a respectable career choice. So it would be folly to expect an attitude that have been in existence for years to just melt away just because a minister has made the teaching of arts official in schools. We still need to work hard on these negative attitudes. With good results and a positive outlook we shall convince many in the future. The few schools that have introduced arts education must immediately start working on promoting a proper understanding of arts education among students, teachers and parents and other schools, especially about what is proper arts education and its importance in the general education and growth of the child or the learner.

We believe there should be continuous workshops and engagement with schools, communities, arts educators, and artistes themselves in development relevant resources, experiences and even spaces for our children to grow artistically. Government must go all out and inform the people why it believes in the importance of arts education.

Government, through its various teachers’ colleges, must start training teachers who will come and teach the arts in schools. Schools themselves must start preparing spaces good enough to make the learning of arts enjoyable. It would be embarrassing to have all arts related learning being done in the open school grounds. Part of the learning must be about art appreciation and the respect of the art itself.

Arts education, if properly introduced, shall provide learners with the space and environment for engaging in creative processes and the development of individual talents. It shall also improve the quality of education. The key word being quality. Quality education is always learner-centred and is always defined by three principles:

That the education must be relevant to the learner but must also provide universal values.

That the education is equitable in terms of access and outcomes and guarantees social inclusion for learners.

That the education must reflects and help to fulfill individual rights.

What’s next now that arts are part of the curriculum?