After daring witches in the country to cast a spell on him, George Thindwa has now picked a fight with renowned Nigerian prophet TB Joshua, saying his prophecies are false.
In February, Joshua, of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, prophesied the death of an African president, a prediction some people believe came to pass with the death of the country’s former president Bingu wa Mutharika.
Joshua himself claims the prophesy was about Mutharika, but Thindwa, who is executive director of the Association of Secular Humanists (ASH), brands the prophet as an opportunist.
Members of Thindwa’s association do not believe in the existence of God and the supernatural.
“To begin with, we humanists define prophecy as ‘lying professionally’ and this means those involved in it are crooks, credulous, poor and desperate people who just want to make fortune out of little opportunities,” he claimed.
According to Thindwa, Mutharika’s death had nothing to do with Joshua’s prophecy. He said the death was a result of natural causes that no one would know in advance.
“I have no doubt that TB Joshua had access to Mutharika’s medical records. You may recall that Bingu went to Nigeria just a few months ago, but we do not know what he went there for.
“Suppose he went there to seek medical help through Joshua’s so-called ministry, then it’s obvious that the latter browsed through the former’s medical records and he might have been making his predictions out of that,” said Thindwa.
In one of his recent sermons, Joshua showed a letter supposedly from Mutharika in which he claimed the former president was accepting his prophecy.
But presidential adviser on religious affairs Reverend Billy Gama dismissed Joshua on the contents of the letter, saying Mutharika was acknowledging to have received a book Joshua had given him.
Apart from the prophecy that some people believe pointed to Mutharika, Joshua also predicted that Zambia would win the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations.
However, Thindwa claimed that no prophecy has ever come to pass, so Joshua’s predictions should be ignored.
“For your own information, none of any prophecies, even from the Bible, has come out to be true. If Mutharika went to TB Joshua for medical help, then the riddle is solved; the prophet had his medical records and used them to make the prophecy,” he said.
But some pastors have condemned Thindwa for his beliefs and teachings.
Pastor Emmanuel Mbeta of the Lutheran Church said people should learn to respect the sovereignty of God and his anointed people.
“There is so much evidence that God exists and that he works through his chosen people. Right from the beginning, prophecies were made and they came through. The biggest prophecy made was about the birth of Jesus Christ and how he would live his life until death.
“It’s not fair to claim that the very things we see with our own eyes do not exist. Once something is said and it comes true, then what else do we need to accept it?” said Mbeta.
