this same symbolism is seen in the ancient drawings of the Dogon of Mali, as it is in Ghana’s Adinkra culture. It is the Creation Snake that Wole Soyinka talks about in his “Idanre and Other Poems”, which the Igbo celebrate in the New Yam festival, the basis of their four market days and their lunar calendar, depicted by the Uli motif of the kola nut head.
Ancient Egyptians equally celebrated the feast of Eostre in honour of the goddess of fertility and the endless cycles of the death of winter and the birth of spring. The Romans borrowed the same practice and baptised it Saturnalia. It is this very old belief, depicted by the image of the Egyptian Ankh or the Crux Ansata, which found its way into Judaeo-Christian theology, that the first Christians adopted and celebrated as Easter, directly borrowing its name from the goddess: “Unless the grain falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies it brings forth much fruit.” (John 12:24).
To think that the symbol of the very basis of the Christian faith, the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary and the power of New Life in the Risen Christ, had its humble beginnings in the faiths of peoples we would now rather turn up our noses at, as pagans, is a lesson in God’s own humility and mysterious but wise ways. It teaches us never to look down on anybody but rather, to embrace all. From the high priests of quantum physics, to the lowly African chief priests and sages, to our modern, “funky pastors”, we should have nothing but respect for our fellow man, for it is only God Himself who can tell who worships Him in truth and in spirit.
This is another major lesson that Pastor Joshua teaches everyone with his unique ministry. At the Synagogue