Before the inception of Christianity and Islamic religions in Africa, the Apocalyptic prophesy was a totally strange concept. Africa had its myths and worldview which has now become totally diluted with western ideas, suffice to say that we (Africans) were once a barbaric and overly superstitious tribe. Hence, It is not totally uncommon to hear sayings like "What an African cannot explain, he worships" or "When a Black man sees a mountain, he deifies it; when a White sees a mountain, he climbs, explores it and sieves out all its minerals.

Nonetheless, taking into account the evolution of religion since the history of man, one discovers that world powers over time usually impose their belief systems on the rest of the world. I feel safe to say that the worship of Anubis, Shu, Apis, Osiris and other Egyptian deities were the most influential forms of religious worship around the world when Ancient Egypt was world power. Also, when Greece conquered the world, Zeus became the most revered deity in the world and no one would be able to convince the contemporaries of that time that Dionysus or Hercules were not the sons of the supreme deity sent at different times to protect mankind and ward off evil.

Long before the coming of Christ, the archetypal myth of a god impregnating a mortal and giving birth to a saviour who becomes a scape goat that is despised and killed by his people but eventually defies human limitation over death due to his immortality was usually associated with Dionysus or Bacchus, the greek god of wine, fertility, birth, death and rebirth. This does not stop the Roman Emperor, Constantine the Great (who reigned 306 -337) from believing in Christ and imposing the Christian religion throughout the Roman precinct (Rome by then was world power). The popularity of Islamic religion (another subset of old Jewish religion) is not totally unrelated to the fact that it bears similar root as christianity and also that the great Prophet Muhammad (who lived 570 - 632 AD)was a conqueror who imposed his religion from Medina to Mecca and to all other provinces he could conquer.

Boiling back to our topic of discuss, pro-Jewish religions usually considers the notion that God who had previously set out to destroy the world with water as recorded in biblical history became more considerate because of the holiness of Noah. Could it be a tsunami accompanying an earthquake that enveloped the place Noah stayed? Could the Sodom and Gomorrah episode be one of the first recordings of wildfire? Could the idea of apocalypse in the holy books stem from the then unexplained violent natural disasters and chemical reactions like volcanic eruptions and earthquakes? Or was it a secret didactic ploy to threaten mankind into such belief, thereby promoting such religions and/or making its followers more humane?

Conclusively, owing to the present conjecture that belief systems are imposed (just as it was our case in Africa), is it right to think that Christianity will be defamed by another religion before the next 5000 years? Could such religious revolution be the prophesied coming of the anti-christ or is it just the way it ought to be naturally; considering the fact that highly revered religious systems and practices became infamous over time? What if a new sectional uprising emanates and Africa is conquered again due to our technological loopholes in war fare, and then another form of slavery develops that also imposes a new religion, and subjects whoever does not succumb to massacre? To what extent will you be faithful to your religion in such circumstance?

Personally, I doubt the faith of many Nigerians who claim to be christians. It is not uncommon to renounce christianity in the face of travail like the kenyan mall incident. People believe in a religion because it's the convention. Many don't even know why they worship what they worship.

Ask Obadiah