My name is Lebohang. I’m an egg donor and I no longer believe in ancestors. I would like to tell you why.
I grew in the rural parts of KZN, where culture was taken seriously. From a young age I knew that there was God because we’d attend church on Sundays with my paternal grandmother, I was told that ancestors were the ones who would talk to God for us because they had passed on, so they had direct communication with God if need be. For protection, provision and all that we needed we had to communicate with ancestors either through kneeling in the altar (umsamo) that was there at house or going to a grave of a specific family member who wanted to communicate. Since I am Sotho – at home they slaughter a sheep to offer to the ancestors either for thanksgiving of the sacrifice. They requested either through a dream or you’d find out what the ancestors wanted through consulting a traditional healer or a sangoma.
I remember when there were rituals at home, elders would take the animal that was to be sacrificed to the altar and communicate to the ancestors and at times would place sweets by the altar and a colony of ants would cover those sweet within hours and it would be a sign that the ancestors have accepted the offering. That’s how I grew up and thought it was a way of life for a very long time until University.
When I was doing my third year, I attended a particular church because I was bored and kept on going to pass the time on my not so busy Sundays. Then came a time when I began reading the Bible on my own and started to communicate with God, which I had always thought that could be achieved through only a pastor or ancestors. Previously I believed that there is God, but Jesus was just a prophet like others, I believed that the Bible was just a way for White people to colonise us, I believed that I could pray to God and still serve my ancestors and that the Bible contradicted itself.
There is no day that I can say what when I knew that all that I had known was misleading information. When the Bible says we are creation and the old has passed (2 Cor 5:17) it’s a process not a sudden event as it has always been portrait to be, so I also went through the process of unlearning all that I believed and choosing to believe in all that God has said. All the ancestral activities that I participated in growing up, the consciousness of what that meant hit when I came to the knowledge of truth and sadly some of my elders died believing that was the way. Those activities were spiritual and unwarily I was creating/ continuing in generational foundations which still fight against me but victory through Christ is mine.
People don’t realise that God when He created the world and everything that was created that there were no gaps, it is therefore impossible for the dead to assume the role of angels because there already angels in place which God created. There are systems God created for us and believing in God through Jesus is a first choice then you realise that it is Mercy. I believe in Jesus not because I don’t want to go to hell (which I don’t) but because there is Love in Jesus that no one can give to you not even yourself, you have not loved yourself well if you’ve not done so it through Jesus.
Through spending time in the Word, communicating my confusion and frustrations to God I can say I have come to the knowledge of truth that it is through Jesus that we are saved. 1 John 2:1-2 tells us that Jesus is the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, and if we confess our sins to Jesus (1 John 1:9) we will be forgiven. God wants us in right standing with Him and we are sinners therefore through Jesus our sins are Justified. This although doesn’t mean we should go on sinning because after Jesus there is no longer is a sacrifice Hebrew 10:26.