BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.1//EN TZID:America/New_York X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/New_York BEGIN:VEVENT UID:428@firstafrikanchurch.org DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261223T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261223T203000 DTSTAMP:20261102T134205Z URL:https://firstafrikanchurch.org/events/fall-winter-2026-bible-study-202 6-12-23/ SUMMARY:Fall & Winter 2026 Bible Study DESCRIPTION:\nVIA ZOOM:\nhttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/86041259075\nMeeting ID: 860 4125 9075 | Passcode: 346573\n\n\n\n\nChristian attitudes towards Afr ika and Afrikans in regard to Afrikan religious values\, beliefs and pract ices is very curious because Christianity itself is an Afrikan Traditional Religion. Hosea 11:1 says in part\, “When Israel was a child\, I loved him\, and out of Egypt I called my son.” The prophet of course\, was thi nking not of a person\; he was not thinking of Jesus. He was referring to the nation of Israel. This biblical reference is important because it expl icitly states that the origin of those who practice the Jewish faith is Eg ypt\, Afrika. We Christians have an unhealthy habit of ignoring the spirit ual beliefs and practices that preceded Judaism. Instead of examining the ancient Egyptian religious context in search of religious ideas and practi ces we act as though the purported 380-year sojourn of Jacob and his child ren in Egypt is of no real consequence\; as though any people can live any where for nearly four hundred years and remain untouched by their environm ent.\n\nGary Greenberg\, who serves as President of the Biblical Archaeolo gy Society of New York wrote a book entitled The Moses Mystery: The Africa n Origins of the Jewish People. In it\, he argues quite persuasively that the ninth king of the Eighteenth Egyptian Dynasty\, Pharaoh Akhenaten\, wa s the first true monotheist\; that Moses and subsequently the Levites were devotees of the Aten (or Sun) which Akhenaten asserted was the symbol for the one and only God.[1] And in fact\, a careful reader of the Pentateuch can see the tension between radical monotheists (Moses and the Levites) a nd rest of the Hebrew escapees. Those outside of the Levitical line kept “whoring after other gods” while Moses and the Levites were faithful t o Yahweh. Indeed the experiences of Moses and the Levites reflects those o f Akhenaten who is called “the heretic king” because he attempted to r id Egypt of all deities except Aten.\n\nThe writer of the gospel of Matthe w\, who seems to ignore the fact that one’s lineage is traced through on e’s mother\, lists Jacob as an ancestor of Jesus through Joseph in chapt er 1 verse 2\, then quotes Hosea 11:1 and applies it to Jesus in chapter 2 verse 15. While we can question Matthew’s method of interpretation\, it is clear that linking Jesus to the Exodus event and Moses is an important element in his gospel. By so doing however\, the writer of the gospel of Matthew also connects Jesus to Egypt\, Afrika\, and he does it twice. Firs t\, he ties Jesus to Joseph’s ancestral linage through Jacob\, then he i mages the holy family fleeing into Egypt to find refuge from Herod. The Go spel of Luke also links Jesus to Jacob (3:34) through Joseph. And in the B ook of Acts chapter 7 verse 22 Luke images Stephen saying “So Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his word s and deeds” at the time of his stoning.\n\nThe Early Church Fathers wer e also aware of the connection between Egypt\, Afrika\, Judaism and Christ ianity. In 427 C.E. Saint Augustine in Retractiones (1:3) writes: For what is now called the Christian religion existed of old and was never absent from the beginning of the human race until Christ came in the flesh. Then true religion which already existed began to be called Christian. And Bish op Eusebius\, in The History of the Church (2:4) said\, The Religion procl aimed by him to All Nations was neither New nor Strange.[2]\n\nAs sons and daughters out of the Afrikan diaspora and members of an oppressed people\ ; as believers in God and followers of Christ\, we cannot afford to ignore the fact that the divine and human drama recorded in the pages of our Bib le has its origin in Afrika. Nor should anyone else. Geography matters esp ecially when it is occupied territory. Those whom we call “the Jews” d id not exit Egypt tabla rasa\, with an empty consciousness. They were in f act\, Hebrews (Habiru- foreigners/wanderers) who had been thoroughly bapti zed in Egyptian religious practice and culture on Egyptian/Afrikan soil. F urther\, it is clear that the writers of the gospels of Matthew and Luke b elieved the historic and genetic connection to Egypt important enough to m ention in their narratives. Doesn’t meaning elude us as interpreters whe n we ignore\, for no other reason than our prejudice\, the geo-religious a nd political contexts of the narratives\, poems\, prayers\, laments\, and laws documented in the Bible?\n\nSecond\, if Jesus is a Son out of Egypt t hen he is Afrikan. This is a powerfully important interpretive insight not just for oppressed Afrikans and other First Nation or indigenous peoples\ , but for domineering whites who have been grossly miseducated via Greco-R oman and Germanic interpretive inventions and interventions. Because the i deology of race is so pervasive in Bible lands and biblical interpretation landscapes like N. America\, S. America and S. Afrika\; and because light skinned people have privilege based solely on the color of their skin\, a ccepting the Afrikanity of Jesus regardless of the actual color of his ski n\, is significant. It means\, in part\, that God chose an Afrikan as God ’s son\, anointed him\, and used him to fulfill divine purposes in the w orld.\n\nThird\, the identification of Jesus with Afrika and by extension\ , with Africans\, allows the well-grounded and interpretative sound studen ts of the Bible to confidently read the texts of scripture 1) see and ackn owledge those without privilege and pedigree in the text and 2) observe an d declare ways in which God is surely as present with the underprivileged\ , the outcasts\, and the poor as God may be with the privileged and the pr osperous.\n\nThis sermon and study series begins with the recognition that Yeshua is a son out of Afrika. It then explores some of the many ways thi s anointed one\, filled with Afrikan Holy Ghost\, went about the countrysi de of Palestine healing the oppressed people of God.\n[1] Greenberg\, Gary . The Moses Mystery: The African Origin of the Jews. (Secaucus\, New Jerse y: The Birch Lane Press\, 1996)\, pp. 2-23.\n[2] See D.M. Murdock\, Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection. Stellar House Publishing\, 2011\, p . 49.\n\n\n\nWednesday\, November 4\nBiblical Text: John 3: 11 - 15\nYeshu a as a Rabbi/Teacher\n\n\n\nWednesday\, November 11\nBiblical Text: Mark 1 : 12-15\nYeshua: Proclaimer of the True Gospel\n\n\n\nWednesday\, November 18\nBiblical Text: Mark 11:15-19\nYeshua as Revolutionary\n\n\n\nWednesda y\, November 25\nBiblical Text: Mark 3:1-6\nYeshua: Healing as an Act of R esistance CATEGORIES:bible study LOCATION:https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86041259075 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York X-LIC-LOCATION:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20261101T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR