Acts 8.9–25 and Witchcraft Manipulations in Nigerian Christianity

What is it about?

There has been an age long enquiry about the beliefs and the reality of witchcraft and its wide-ranging activities and corollaries in Africa. Witchcraft in its variations has to do with the use of magical powers and or manipulative prowess to influence and control the bewitched. In Nigeria, witchcraft is operated under the banner of indigenous religions, Islam and Christianity. It is a biblical theological concern for witchcraft to be practiced under the banner of Christianity. The Old and New Testament world-views classify witchcraft as heresy and designate those that practice and identify with witchcraft activities as rebellious people. Christians practicing witchery under the banner of Christian faith have continued to be consolidating negative implications for the mission-mandate of the church in Nigeria. Therefore, this article exegetically interpreted and applied the context of Act 8:9-25 to the syncretic practice of some acclaimed plenipotentiaries of God and some lay Christians in Nigeria who synchronize their Christian faith with witchery as Simon attempted to do in the first century era. The study argues that Christians identifying with witchery is a rebellious sin that requires them to repent or perish as Peter instructed Simon.

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