RITUAL AND BELIEF IN NEW PROPHETIC CHURCHES: BIBLICAL-THEOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS

In 2014, the South African print media reported that a pastor of a New Prophetic Church instructed his congregants to go out and eat grass. A few months later, the same pastor asked his congregants to drink petrol. Several New Prophetic Church pastors also mimicked this pastor by causing members to eat snakes and rodents, sprayed members with a pesticide, and made them drink liquid detergents. On one hand, these incidents infuriated the public that called for government intervention, On the other hand, some Southern African African theologians began to address these cultic practices. Consequently, this article asks: How can New Prophetic Church members and Pentecostals in South Africa respond to these identified cultic tendencies? Osmer’s practical theology approach was used to answer the question by analysing the woks of the above-mentioned theologians regarding the identified cultic tendencies in these churches. The outcome of the analysis is that the origin of these cultic tendencies was traced, the teachings in these churches were identified, some biblical teachings on miracles were provided, and finally some strategies were provided to assist members in these churches and others Pentecostal address these cultic tendencies