South Africa vs. Racist Zionists

God’s Nazarites Are Reborn

Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef pushed back Friday against criticism sparked by his recent threat that ultra-Orthodox Jews would leave the country en masse if their community-wide exemption from military service was nullified.

https://www.jns.org/israel-haters-arent-refighting-the-vietnam-war

“The Israeli government is considering criminal action against the Sephardic chief rabbi after he likened black people to monkeys during his weekly sermon last weekend.”

“He said if you see a black man walking in the streets of New York. You don’t see a blessing at all. Except if he was from White parents.”

Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef

Hopefully this will become a paper I will send to Harvard. But because bad news is breaking out all over, I may never have the time. I am looking for TWO WRITERS to join me at Royal Rosamond Press.

The Liberal Israeli Government wanted to convict Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef of RACISM after he compared black people to monkeys. Conservative rabbis disliked President Obama. When your spiritual leader comes under attack, the devotees protect him – and go on the attack. Ultimately they believe they are protecting God, and thus anything goes. Consider Jim Jones. I am calling for a Senate Investigation, because that Liberal Government was replaced by extreme hardliners, that are showing the people of Gaza no mercy. They want to kill every member of Hamas – for their God. secularism is – out the window. Religious Zeal has a history of fueling the military might of the Jews, as recorded in the Torah. That the Haredi are refusing to fight Hamas due to their religious beliefs, sends us hurtling back into our past, the Vietnam Era – and the opening of Acts in the New Testament, where begin Paul’s religious war with….The Judaizers. Who is a Jew is a heated topic. My kin, Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor converted to Judaism, and Lord shembe of the Zulu Nazarite was called a Messiah, and, the return of Elijah. Whp is the author of this Passion Play?

John Presco ‘The Nazarite’

President: Royal Rosamond Press

https://www.timesofisrael.com/chief-rabbi-claims-his-threat-of-haredi-exodus-in-case-of-army-draft-was-distorted/?fbclid=IwAR3940APpDX8wWikMFDa6YVmUSQjgYsavuMpygm-DOrWYR5z4n3Uc_RzM6E

https://www.jns.org/israel-haters-arent-refighting-the-vietnam-war

The Israeli government is considering criminal action against the Sephardic chief rabbi after he likened black people to monkeys during his weekly sermon last weekend.

A Justice Ministry official said Thursday that the ministry has contacted relevant authorities to review the remarks by Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef and decide if they constitute incitement.

Yosef’s reported statement is “very serious” and could “justify various measures — administrative, disciplinary and even criminal — against the rabbi, if it turns out they constitute incitement to racism,” Avka Zana, head of a Justice Ministry unit that combats racism, said.

Here is Jonathan Tobin.

The real reason for the protests was self-interest. It was a response to the draft, due to which young men who couldn’t get out of being conscripted through various exemptions (primarily a function of their economic status) were forced to serve. As soon as Nixon stopped sending draftees to Vietnam and then ended the draft entirely, the antiwar movement evaporated. By the time the war ended, few Americans cared then or since about its consequences for the Vietnamese people.

So, the notion that the alleged idealism of the groovy ’60s is making a comeback among the “from the river to the sea” crowd is pure bunk. Nobody is drafting American kids to go fight Hamas. That’s the obligation that young Israelis have willingly taken up to defend their homes and families. And if American protesters really are that concerned by the impact of war in Third World venues, there are plenty of opportunities to vent their concerns about other conflicts around the globe in which far more people have been killed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yitzhak_Yosef

Chief rabbi claims his threat of Haredi exodus in case of army draft was ‘distorted’

Yitzhak Yosef does not walk back comments, but says he never meant to offend bereaved families

By TOI STAFF15 March 2024, 8:23 pm

Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef attends a prayer for the release of Israelis held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, at Rachel’s Tomb, near the West Bank city of Bethlehem, October 25, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef pushed back Friday against criticism sparked by his recent threat that ultra-Orthodox Jews would leave the country en masse if their community-wide exemption from military service was nullified.

“Some people distorted my words as though we had offended — heaven forfend — the bereaved families,” said the rabbi in an interview with Kan Moreshet, the public broadcaster’s religion-themed subsidiary. “Those who were killed because they are Jews — they sit in the first row before God.”

“All we had said on Saturday night was only in honor of the Torah — that we must continue and embolden Torah study in order to safeguard the people of Israel,” Yosef said.

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“Of course, it is necessary to pray daily for the soldiers, who give their lives for the residents of this country,” he added, listing various prayer initiatives he had organized on behalf of troops.

Yosef did not walk back the threat he made at a weekly lecture on March 9, when he said: “If they force us to go to the army, we’ll all move abroad. We’ll buy a ticket… We’ll go there.

“All these secular people don’t understand that without kollels and yeshivas, the army would not be successful,” he had said, referring to institutions where religious men study Jewish texts rather than working or enlisting. “The soldiers only succeed thanks to those learning Torah.”

Illustrative: Ultra-Orthodox Jews walking past a pashkevil on the IDF draft law in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim, in Jerusalem, March 15, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

The Chief Rabbi’s comments were made while the government mulls a new military draft law, as a manpower crunch, effected by the Gaza war, has led the military to extend mandatory service, call up greater numbers for reserve duty, and raise career soldiers’ retirement age.

Yosef is the son of the late Shas party spiritual leader Ovadia Yosef, and wields major influence within the faction, which is part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition.

Yosef’s March 9 comments drew harsh criticism from both lawmakers and relatives of fallen soldiers.

National Unity chairman and war cabinet minister Benny Gantz called Yosef’s words “a moral blow to the Israeli state and society.”

“Everyone should take part in the sacred right to serve and fight for our country, especially in this difficult time — our ultra-Orthodox brothers included.”

Illustrative: Protest calling for equal military service in Tel Aviv, March 14, 2024. (Erik Marmor/Flash90)

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, chair of the centrist Yesh Atid party, said the remarks were “a disgrace and insult to IDF soldiers who sacrifice their lives for the defense of the country.”

In a statement, the far-right Religious Zionism party also criticized the chief rabbi’s comments. “After two thousand years of exile, we will never leave our country. A community that is willing to pay with its life for the Land of Israel will not give it up under any conditions,” it said.

Rabbi Tamir Granot, whose son Amitai was killed by an anti-tank missile on the Lebanon border in October, slammed Yosef. “You need to… go up to Mt. Herzl and apologize to my son, a yeshiva student and soldier,” said Granot in an interview to Ynet on Wednesday, referring to the Jerusalem military cemetery.

Illustrative: Israelis protest outside the Tel Shomer army base calling for an end to ultra-Orthodox Jews’ blanket exemption from the draft, March 5, 2024. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Successive Netanyahu governments have struggled to come to a consensus on legislation dealing with ultra-Orthodox military service since a 2017 High Court decision that determined blanket military service exemptions for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students to be discriminatory and unconstitutional while ordering the state to find a solution to the issue.

The IDF’s Personnel Directorate told a Knesset committee in February that some 66,000 young men from the ultra-Orthodox community, the fastest-growing sector of the population, received an exemption from military service over the past year, reportedly an all-time record. Some 540 of them decided to enlist since the war started, the IDF said.

As South Africa vows to arrest dual citizens who serve in the Israeli military, will other countries follow?

Although no other nations have said they’ll prosecute their own citizens, campaigns are underway to push several other governments to do the same.

LeRoi Taljaard, a 24-year-old reservist from the Johannesburg area, during operations in the Gaza Strip.

LeRoi Taljaard, a 24-year-old reservist from the Johannesburg area, during operations in the Gaza Strip. Courtesy of LeRoi Taljaard

March 14, 2024, 3:32 PM PDT

By Josh Lederman and Shira Pinson

South Africa’s threat to arrest its own citizens who serve in the Israel Defense Forces is raising legal, moral and strategic questions for a military that relies heavily on foreign-born troops to fill its ranks.

What effect will the decision have on IDF readiness amid the Israel-Hamas war? Could South Africa’s move create a chilling effect that would dissuade people from taking the risk of serving? And what about dual nationals, who have no choice under Israeli law but to complete mandatory military service? 

Although no other nations have said they’ll follow South Africa’s lead and prosecute their own citizens, campaigns are underway to push several other governments to do the same — most notably in France. Proponents cite allegations of war crimes leveled against Israel by the U.N. and others.

The growing questions about legal consequences for IDF troops who hold other citizenship were kicked up this week by South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor, whose government has accused Israel of genocide in the International Court of Justice. In a speech at a summit on Palestinian solidarity, Pandor said she was putting South Africans who fight in the IDF on notice.

“We are ready. When you come home, we are going to arrest you,” Pandor said as vigorous applause rang out.

Israel invaded the Gaza Strip after Hamas launched a terror attack on Oct. 7, killing more than 1,200 people and taking hundreds more hostage. During five months of war, Israeli forces have killed more than 31,000 in Gaza amid a humanitarian crisis so dire that the U.S. and aid agencies are rushing in food by airdrop and by sea.

In South Africa’s case, the government has threatened to prosecute citizens or strip their citizenship for merely joining the IDF, even if they’re not personally accused of any wrongdoing in the war. South Africa is citing local laws it says can impose consequences on South Africans who join foreign militaries without South Africa’s permission or fight in wars the nation disagrees with.

But Peter Spiro, who teaches international law at the Temple University Beasley School of Law, said governments would be hard-pressed to apply “collective guilt” to individual citizens for specific, alleged crimes committed by the IDF.

“They couldn’t just say, ‘The IDF is engaging in war crimes, so you are guilty of a war crime,’” said Spiro, an expert on dual citizenship. “They could say, ‘You participated in the following episode that involved war crimes.’” 

by Taboola

IDF troops in Gaza on Feb. 23, 2024.
Israeli soldiers patrol on foot at an undisclosed location during ongoing ground operations in Gaza on Friday.Israeli Army / AFP – Getty Images

It’s unclear exactly how many foreign nationals are serving in the Israel-Hamas war. The IDF didn’t respond to questions about those figures or concerns that other nations might follow South Africa’s example.

Dual nationals make up a sizable share of society in Israel. Many children of foreign-born Israelis also receive second citizenship through their parents.

And Israel’s military has numerous programs to recruit foreigners to serve in the IDF, including in the “Mahal” volunteer program for Jewish people and as “lone soldiers,” who have no other family in Israel. The nonprofit Lone Soldier Center says there are more than 7,000 of them, with 18% from the U.S. and 14% from former Soviet Union states.

On 24 July 2013, Yosef was elected to serve as Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel and the Rishon LeZion, a position he would hold for a decade. The ceremony took place on 14 August 2013 at the official residence of the President of Israel.[5]

Through the death of Yosef’s father, the Shas political party lost its spiritual leader. Having been elected Sephardi Chief Rabbi, Yosef appeared to be in a good position to inherit his father’s mantle as Shas spiritual leader. However, his public position precluded such political activity by law. Until the election, he never held any formal public office.[6]

On 21 August 2013 Yosef released a psak halakha (ruling) stating it is an obligation and mitzvah (good deed) for parents to have their children vaccinated for polio virus.[7] In 2021, he endorsed the Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States and serves as its halakhic guide.[8]

Controversies[edit]

2016[edit]

In March 2016, Yosef called for religious Jews to keep their children away from secular or traditional members of their family because they could be a negative influence.[9][10][4]

Later that month, when Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot told military staff that rules of engagement must respect the law, and soldiers should not kill an attacker who has already been subdued, Yosef said soldiers must kill anyone who comes to attack them regardless of legal or military repercussions.[11] Later he said: “If they no longer have a knife, they must be put in prison for life until the [Jewish] Messiah comes and says who are Amalekites, and then we can kill them.”[12][13]

He also said that according to Jewish law, gentiles “should not live in the Land of Israel” – unless they practice the Seven Laws of Noah, a set of universal moral laws. Should they refuse to do so, they should be sent to Saudi Arabia. He added that non-Jews are allowed in Israel to serve the Jewish population.[11][13][14][15] Leaders of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) condemned Yosef’s statements and called for their retraction. Jonathan Greenblatt and Carole Nuriel of ADL Israel called the remarks ignorant and intolerant.[16] He was eventually pressured into retracting his comments.[15]

Controversy surrounds the authority of the Chief Rabbis in Israel, particularly on matters such as conversions, marriages, and rabbinic ordination. In 2016, it was discovered that the Chief Rabbis maintained a confidential list of approved and rejected beth dins (religious courts), causing further controversy as some Orthodox rabbis, including Avi Weiss and Yehoshua Fass, were included on the blacklist. This secretive process without external review or appeal led to confusion, and the situation was exacerbated when Orthodox rabbi Haskel Lookstein, and some of his students, were barred from marrying in Israel.[21][22][23][24][25][26][27]

Lookstein officiated Ivanka Trump’s conversion, causing tensions between Israel and the US. David Lau opposed Yosef’s policy on recognizing US converts, but the rules were eventually changed.[28][29][30][31][32]

In December, he said that it was “not the way of the Torah” for women to join the IDF or even sign up for civilian national service: “All the great sages through the generations, including all Israel’s chief rabbis, believe that it is forbidden for girls to go into the army… not just to the army – but to national service too.”[33][34][35]

Chief rabbi calls black people ‘monkeys’

Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef uses pejorative term ‘kushi’ for African Americans in weekly sermon

By SUE SURKES FOLLOW20 March 2018, 1:45 pm

Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef attends a ceremony in Jerusalem, October 22, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel called black people “monkeys” during his weekly sermon on Saturday evening.

Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef was addressing Jewish legal aspects of the blessing on seeing fruit trees blossoming, during the current Hebrew month of Nissan, and, specifically, whether one should bless one tree or at least two.

In that context, he mentioned a blessing uttered upon seeing an “unusual creature,” citing the example of encountering a black person who has two white parents on the street in America.

Amend Law About Who Is A Jew

Posted on November 13, 2022 by Royal Rosamond Press

“He said if you see a black man walking in the streets of New York. You don’t see a blessing at all. Except if he was from White parents.”

Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef

I am amending this post I made two hours ago after reading LeBron James is being asked to leave professional basketball for (apparently) defending Kyrie Irving. These two black men know nothing about Judaism. Why hasn’t a good rabbi stepped forth to defend them. They need an attorney. Learned Jews – who know better – are making racist statements and verdicts.

I am positive my late cousin, Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor would defend Kyrie and LeBron, so I will. Liz is kin to Ian Fleming because her son married a Getty.

John ‘The Nazarite’

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/lebron-james-says-kyrie-irving-220448963.html

Exploring Elizabeth Taylor’s Jewish conversion

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/274210

In the video, Rabbi Yosef laments the mass immigration of non-Jews to Israel, accusing them of backing anti-religious political agendas.

“Hundreds or tens of thousands of non-Jews came to Israel because of the law defining who is a Jew,” said Rabbi Yosef, referring to Israel’s amended Law of Return, which permits not only Jews, but non-Jewish spouses, children, and grandchildren of Jews, along with their spouses, to immigrate to Israel.

In this world we are leaving, we are one but color has brought division amongst people. Religiously other races think are better and are the ones chosen by God. But when you look at things in a perspective manner, humans behave the same and react emotionally the same. All humans need love. You can marry an Indian or European as a black man you’ll still create beautiful people with create intelligence. But some people have gone to another level as they think are better more than others because of color.

Yitzhak Yosef a Jewish Rabbi once made the world stood on its feet; when he said that a black man born out of two white people is a blessing. He continued, “If you know that the person’s parents were white and they got a monkey, they got this kind of child, then you say the blessing.” He said this because the word Kushi in Hebrew is considered a curse; while we all know that Kushites are Africans, they are sons of Ham as the Bible tells us.

He said if you see a black man walking in the streets of New York. You don’t see a blessing at all. Except if he was from White parents.

Despite a request from the Biden administration to back a UN Security Council resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Israel refrained from doing so, two diplomats familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel.

Eighty-one countries signed on to the resolution as co-sponsors, though the effort was ultimately vetoed by Russia.

Israel is one of the few countries that maintains relatively warm relations with both Ukraine, a fellow Western democracy, as well as Russia, which controls the airspace over Syria.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/lebron-james-says-kyrie-irving-220448963.html

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/274210

Exploring Elizabeth Taylor’s Jewish conversion

“The JTA, a global Jewish news service, posted Wednesday a blog listing archived stories about Taylor. Among them was a piece about how her 1959 purchase of $100,000 in Israel bonds prompted a ban of her films by authorities of the United Arab Republic.

Another story recounted how Taylor sang in 1961 a Hebrew duet with Fisher in Moscow, while surprising United States servicemen who were stationed in the Soviet capital. And in 1987, she was among those who signed an appeal launched by a Jewish feminist magazine, Lilith, to free Soviet refusenik Ida Nudel.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_Nudel

See the source image

My ex-friend was the head of the Department of Education at the University of Oregon. I watched he and his wife being wooed by Christians – and Zionist Jews in Israel. I took his mother to synagogue. We had arguments about Zionists wanting to rebuild the temple. He didn’t get it why the Palestinian GOT IN THE WAY OF THE GOOD JEWS! He had come to believe only Non-believers make trouble.

“Who is a Jew is a huge argument and has been for thousands of years. Read The War of the Jews by Joseph Flavius, who blames Jewish factions at odds with each other, for the war with Rome and the destruction of the temple.” I told him – to no avail!

An hour after my last post, I am reading this latest war over the temple, that is like an Egyptian pyramid. Who ever gets inside (atop) the new temple, and into the Holy of Holies, will be declared The Only Qualified Real Jew. Everyone else – is suspect! Why does this sound like RACISM?

I will be writing another letter to Ed Ray, the President of Oregon State, informing him that Senator Thomas Hart Benton – is related to Shakespeare! Wow! I’m going to ask him to gather his crack team of historians and get them to rule on the accusation Kyrie is a Anti-Semite. I love it. The Pro-Woke ruling that removed Benton’s name from a building – after declaring him a racist slave-owner, -will now have to apply to a Black Man. Does Rabbi Yitzhak believe President Zelenskyy – is a Jew?

I would like to see Phil Knight pay for a Tribunal at the UofO in order to establish once and for all, who is a Anti-Semite, and who is not. Once the power of the little people is amended and removed, then it will be real easy for God to chose who the Really Holy Leaders are!

Study Judah Benjamin a Sephardic Jew and slave owner.

John Presco

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-envoy-lashes-kyiv-for-backing-un-panel-resolution-urging-icj-action-on-israel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judah_P._Benjamin

https://worldtruthvideos.website/watch/dontell-jackson-we-thought-they-were-white_yRyFc5VnfAlXSiu.html

In 1747 Isaac de Costa, a Sephardic Jew born in London, arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, where he established himself as a merchant, shipping-agent, and slave-trader, who built a considerable fortune bringing hundreds of black slaves overseas from Africa. Isaac da Costa had been initiated into Freemasonry and appointed a Masonic Deputy Inspector General by fellow Jew Moses Michael Hayes, and went on to establish the Sublime Grand Masonic Lodge of Perfection in Charleston prior to his death in 1783.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judah_P._Benjamin

Chief rabbi urges High Court override law: ‘Opportunity to amend law on who’s a Jew’

Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef backs demand by ultra-Orthodox and far-right members of likely next coalition, says bill can be used to overcome top court’s rulings on Reform Judaism

By TOI STAFFToday, 3:58 am   

12

File: Israel’s Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef at the International Convention Center, on February 1, 2022. (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90)

The Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel said Saturday that Benjamin Netanyahu’s prospective incoming government must pass a bill allowing the Knesset to override High Court of Justice rulings, backing a demand by ultra-Orthodox parties and declaring Israel an “Orthodox state.”

The Zulu African Nazarites

Posted on December 4, 2022 by Royal Rosamond Press

In 1987 I became a Nazarite. In 1990 I talked to rabbi at the Hillel Center in Eguene, about converting to Judaism. Here is what a Nazarite is about.

John

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazirite

The Great Reversal Has Arrived

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Royal Rosamond Press

When I tried to become a Christian at forty years of age, I was asked to leave the Christian church at McKenzie Bridge by a man who I thought was my friend, who said this;

“As a Christian, I am bid to love you. But, that doesn’t mean I have to like you.”

I had suggested to him a week earlier that the grove of trees next to the church would be a wonderful place for folks up river to hear the Inspiration Gospel Choir that my childhood friend, Marilyn, sang in. What a look I got, that told me the old peckerwoods in the logging industry won’t like black folks singing in their trees.

A few weeks later I Baptize myself in the McKenzie River, after write on a piece of paper “I am a Nazarite’. A week later, I find ‘My People’ in South Africa. I sent them a letter.

A few weeks later I have a psychic reading, and am told this;

“You own your own creation – You died!”

I am coming to understand that Jesus was killed just after his ministry began. Just after he read from Isaiah, the Jews grabbed him and tried to throw him off a cliff. Allegedly, he got away. The introduction of Lazarus to the story of Jesus has confused Biblical scholars. I believe he is included for the reason the original Church was saying their Lord and Rabbi was raised from the dead – and was with them for months! Was he then crucified for saying he was of the dead, and had come to raise the dead into the New Heaven and Earth?

The Shembe Zulu live in the shadow of the Drankeburg mountians where the arks arrive to found a new earth in the movie 2012.

One day, Marilyn dropped in unexpecedty.I was reading the Bible. When I opened the door, she was startled;

“Your face! It’s all white! your glowing!”

The Great Reversal has arrived!

“The last will be first,and the first will be last!”

Jesus himself was gathering the Gentiles that had at one time helped the Jews, and had been considered Jews. What need of Paul? The Shembe Zulu……………..are The Last!

I warned you at Christmas when a great star appear in the heaven. Repent!

The prophet Shembe got it right, that Jesus was the Liberator Redeemer of the Jews. His Nazarites contacted the Hasidic Jews in order to be recognized as Children of God. They were ignored. But, I hear you my brothers and sisters. Come, let us prepare THE WAY for our Lord. Bring out the Ark of the Covenant! Let us see our Lord before we die!

Jon the Nazarite

Copyright 2012

God’s Nazarites Are Reborn

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Royal Rosamond Press

Shembe got it so right, and he and his people were so isolated from the world. Nazarite means “seperated and concecrated to the Lord.”

“Like a voice crying in the wilderness!”

He who is cast down, shall be raised up!

John and Jesus were Nazarites, for they both went out into the wilderness to undergo a ritual where they resist the temptations of Satan that has everyhting to do with the Great Reversal, for you are joined to the Kingdom of God on earth, and in heaven. This is a test, to see if your are worthy to be a Councilor, a Judge filled with the Holy Ghost and Spirit. All Nazarites are eqaul to one another in the eyes of the Lord when they are joined to the secret NAME of their Lord. Consider John 17.

Five months ago I put Shembe’s words in a poem and read them at the Granary poetry reading. I bid all Africans to wake up! Kadafi was a very wealthy dictator and king. He left this world with nothing.

Play all videos as you read the Zulu Nazarite Cosmology – and be taken to the mountain tops where you will be filled with joy!

Amen

Jon the Nazarite

“Those are bestowed kingly authority
upon the mountain,

Wake up, wake up

ye Africans’.

The Scriptures of the amaNazaretha of EkuphaKameni

The amaNazarites of Isaiah Shembe are the oldest African Independent/Indigenous Church in South Africa. The church divided into two main sections in 1976 following the death of its leader Johannes Galilee Shembe [1904-1976]. The largest group was led by Amos Shembe [1907-1996], the other, smaller group, by Londa Shembe [1944-1989]. The following texts were produced with the encouragement of Londa Shembe. By reproducing them we remain neutral with regard to the division in the church. Our only concern is to publicize the work of the founder the “prophet” Isaiah Shembe.

THEOLOGY OF THE AMA-NAZARITES WRITTEN AT THE REQUEST OF THE RIGHT REVEREND LONDA NSIKA SHEMBE BY G. C. OOSTHUIZEN

INTRODUCTION

Shortly before his tragic murder in April 1989 the Right Reverend Londa Nsika Shembe,[1] leader of the Ekuphakameni amaNazarites,[2] asked me to write a theological introduction to his translation of Some Prayers and Writings of the Servant of Sorrows: Thumekile Isaiah Shembe.[3] Although Londa Shembe and I had many long discussions about theology in general, and his church in particular, we had never really talked about the specifics of his theology. Therefore this chapter is based on general conversations and hints he gave before he died. The most important clue to his thinking is found in the fact that he repeatedly told me and many foreign visitors[4] that he completely agreed with the view given in my book The Theology of a South African Messiah,[5] and my article “Isaiah Shembe and the Zulu World View.”[6] He also told me that his father Johannes Galilee Shembe had referred him to both of these publications and advised him to read them.[7]

The theology of Isaiah Shembe was not based on the sword or violence but on his sincere conviction that he was the mouthpiece and instrument of Jehova, whom he reflected among the people, to lead the Zulu nation out of bondage. This

view also seems to have been held by Londa Shembe whose ideas were deeply embedded in the spirit of Isaiah Shembe. He firmly believed that Isaiah Shembe, his grandfather, had a special place in the celestial sphere. For him Isaiah Shembe was a messianic figure who had been a messiah to eight other peoples before he was incarnated into the Zulu people. Thus Londa Shembe saw Isaiah Shembe as a global figure who was born into the Zulu nation at a specific stage of their history to be their messiah. But, in his view, Isaiah Shembe was a cosmic messiah who should not be identified with the Zulus alone.

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