Fear, Freedom and our National Anthem
By Pastor Ian Wildeboer
“We are independent and we are …………, Papua New Guinea”
What is the word that fits on the dotted line above? It is “free.” We know that because we know our national anthem which begins like this: “O arise all you sons of this land, let us sing of our joy to be free; praising God and rejoicing to be Papua New Guinea…” May I suggest that many of us in Papua New Guinea are not really that free, at all. Yes, since 1975 we have been the independent, sovereign state of Papua New Guinea. But have we been free since 1975?
To answer the question we have to ask the next question: free from what? If it is free from the colonial rule of Australia (and Britain and Germany before that) then the answer is yes. We are free. But if it is free, for example, from the fear of sorcery and witchcraft which we call sanguma in Tok Pisin, then we are not free. No, we are living in a prison of fear. Countless thousands in PNG are in that prison. They fear what the poison man, glasman, or sorcerer can do to them and they fear being cursed; or, they fear the spirits (masalai) that live in our forests, rivers and villages or they fear the so-called spirits of their dead relatives. No. If you live in fear, you are not free! You are slave, a slave to fear living in the prison of your own fears.
It is this slavery or prison, the prison of fear generated by works of the devil himself, that can turn a day of mourning for a dead relative to a day of unspeakable torture; a day of revenge and death to someone who is accused of sorcery (wokim sanguma). Weekly we read or hear of blood curdling stories from somewhere in PNG of people being tortured, chopped with knifes, burnt or buried alive, or thrown over a cliff because they were accused of sanguma. As I write, there is a death that just happened here in Lae: a mother of two who was barely 23 years old living in 4mile settlement was accused of sorcery by her dying father-in-law. Those were some of the last words he spoke: “em wokim sanguma long mi.” He died. And no sooner had he breathed his last breath, this young mother was murdered on the street with knifes – hacked to death – with hundreds of people looking on. Just as the innocent blood of Abel cried out to God when Cain slaughtered him (Gen 4); so the innocent blood of many mothers, widows, elderly men and women cry out to God to avenge their death! He will. There will be a day of reckoning! But what causes these deaths? Is it not generated, in part, from a fear of sanguma – a fear that leads to acts of revenge and death?
Sadly, many of these murderers claim to be Christians – ‘they love Jesus,’ they say. However, when there is an ‘untimely’ death there is no thought of following God’s ways in dealing with death. There is no justice. Neither is there any thought that God has chosen the day of death of a loved one as the giver and taker of life (see Psalm 139:16; Job 1:21; Eccl 12:7 ). No, there is sanguma tok and a glasman or poison man or mambu man who is called to play the devil’s hand in finding someone to murder. Sanguma tok has taken the place of the Word of Truth. And people go on living in the dark, dark prison of fear.
We need to understand that everything from black magic, sorcery, sanguma, curses, poison, so-called spirits of our ancestors, spirits that appear in the forests and valleys of PNG, even the supposed ghosts (tewel) of our dead ancestors are all tools of the devil to keep people locked as slaves in the prison of fear. And Satan, the liar and murderer from the beginning (John 8;44) taunts his followers by producing more fear in them, realizing that when they are afraid he has them exactly where he wants them – under his power. Not surprisingly then, in this prison, people will continue to request the glassman to come; or, ask the tewel of a dead relative to give them counsel; or, kill a pig and let the blood run in order to request a spirit to help them; or, pray to Satan and one of his demons; or, speak or chant the mysterious talks of our ancestors to arouse the spirits; or, give food to the spirits of our dead ancestors; or make poison in the home to protect them from ‘evil,’ or carry a tanget leaf, or a tooth or hair of a pig or human, a bird’s feather, and so much more. The devil is amused as people chase after these things to protect them from evil – which they simply can’t do. They are in prison and their inmates are devils, while Satan serves as the warden constantly inducing (causing) fear. But we sing, “O arise all you sons of this land, let us sing of our joy to be free….!” The question now haunts us: “free from what?”
Let’s continue with the anthem. I love our national anthem. Very few countries have such an overtly Christian anthem. One of the lines goes as follows: Now give thanks to the good Lord above, for His kindness, His wisdom and love for this land of our fathers so free…” However, for most people in PNG, this line means very little. We may as well skip over those lines, for we do not understand them. Did our God in His kindness and wisdom and love desire that we would be so enslaved to the fear of sanguma or sorcery that we murder and kill on account of that fear?
No. Our God desires that we are free. He desires that all repent (2 Peter 3:9) and enjoy the freedom from the power of sin and the dark, dark prison of fear. If we understood God’s kindness and wisdom and love even a little – and we should know this if we are going to sing about it – we would know that He sent His only-begotten Son not only to save us from His wrath against our sins, but also to set us free from the power and influence of Satan and his hosts.
This is beautifully captured in the letter to the Colossians. Speaking to those who belong to the church, who have found Christ, or rather been found by Christ, Paul writes in Chapter 2:13 that “God made you alive with Christ.” How? “He forgave us all our sins.” This was His act of grace. It was undeserved kindness and love to us. What does it mean to be made alive with Christ? It not only means that we are heirs of eternal life with Him and no longer under the bondage of sin and death, but also that we are no longer slaves of Satan. We don’t have to live out our days in the prison of fear. In Christ we have NOTHING to fear! In fact, you could ask yourself this question: what kind of life would it be if Christ only saved us from the penalty of sin, but left us to fear Satan and all his demons? What hope would there be for those who turn to Jesus by faith, to know that sanguma and witchcraft, poison and marila, continue to have power over us to harm and destroy us…holding us in the dark and damp prison of fear?
If you believe in Jesus Christ as the one who has died in your place, defeating sin and the power of the devil – and all his dark, evil practices — you have nothing to fear!! Nothing!
Our anthem is right when it says, “now give thanks to the Good Lord above for his kindness and wisdom and love.” For in his kindness and love this is what He did: “He disarmed the powers and authorities (the powers of the devil), he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” He did that so that we would realize He is King and Lord of all and we would no longer have to fear them. These powers and authorities or principalities and rulers, are powers that we cannot see. They are spiritual powers of darkness that come up from the dark pit of hell with the devil as its author. But Christ disarmed them on the cross. In Tok Pisin we read “em i pinisim strong bilong ol.” And in Greek it carries the sense of divesting one of their title, their authority, their power. You could think of it as a prime minister who loses his seat in parliament after being impeached or receiving a vote of non-confidence. Or, you could think of a raskol having his guns and knifes removed at the scene of a crime making him powerless. Christ removed the power of Satan and his hosts. He took away his power to destroy us! He is powerless against us who are in Christ! Notice that it does not say that he destroyed the devil. That day will come. No, he disarmed him. Not only that, he made a public spectacle of this power. He made a show of all the demonic hosts openly on the cross and in the resurrection. Yes, Satan led Judas, one of the twelve, to betray Jesus in an attempt to destroy the giver of Life! And yes Jesus died, but his death was a death to death and a death to Satan’s power! For Jesus triumphed over Satan rising again in glory and ascending to the throne as Lord of heaven and earth (Psalm 110; Eph 1:20-21). And Satan and his demons, for their part, were cast out of heaven never to enter its premise again (Rev 12:10 ff) and one day they will be cast down to hell forever.
To repeat it because it needs to be repeated a thousand times over: if you believe in Jesus Christ as the one who has died in your place, defeating sin and the power of the devil – and all his dark, evil practices — you have nothing to fear!! Nothing! We do not need to fear sanguma, sorcery, witchcraft, black magic, curses, masalai, even spirits or tewels of our dead relatives, which should you see one is only a demon trying to scare you. In fact, there is no such thing as their spirit (or tewel) hanging around after death to haunt you or protect you. For upon death the spirt (or tewel) returns to its maker (Eccles 12:7) either to be cast down to hell or ascend to heaven (Luke 16:22-23; Phil 1:21). Friends, in Christ the prison door was broken down, the slave was set free – free to serve the King of Kings and Lord of Lord, the keeper of your soul! Whom shall we fear?
Here are just a few texts to drive this point home:
1 John 4:4 “You, dear children, are from God and…the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”
Ephesians 1:18-21 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you…19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. This power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.
Matthew 28:18,20 “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me….And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Rom 16:20 “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.”
Does this mean that Satan is not going to try to disturb our new life in Christ? Yes, he will. He is disarmed but he is still on the warpath! In Rev 2:10 Jesus says he might throw us in prison. And in Rev 12 we learn he is bent on attacking the church, the bride of Christ. And Peter compares him to a lion seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). He wants us to fear him! He will try to hurt us. But nothing he does will ever, ever separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ (Rom 8). Or, as Neville Bartle entitled his helpful book on all of this: “Jisas winim sanguma.” Jesus has defeated sanguma!
What does this mean for you and me today!
- If you have not repented and received Jesus as your Lord and Saviour by faith, you are still in prison to sin and to fear. You cannot sing “we are independent and we are free,” because you are not free! Your freedom came at the high, high cost of the Son of God dying on the cross. Only in Him are you set free!
- If you have repented and received Jesus by faith, remove anything in your life that keeps you in the prison of fear – tanget leaves, feathers, bark of trees, carvings of masalai or tambaran, or bones, teeth, hair, clothes or any remains of a dead relative. Remove. They are holding you in bondage. Do not speak about ‘sanguma’ upon the death of a relative and do not run to the glasman. Rather be like Job when his children all died on the same day from a work of the devil. He says “the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1:21).” He understood that all forms of evil are under God’s sovereign and just control. You turn to God during the time of death, not the devil or one of his tools, sanguma.
- Let Christ know every day (and no less Satan) that He (Jesus) is your Lord. Do this not only by worshipping him and seeking him in His Word, but refrain from talking about sanguma stories, ‘tewel bilong dai man’ or anything from the occult. Every time we “story “about these dark practices we give glory to Satan, the devil. Yes, he wants people to pass on the stories of fear, death, revenge – all his works of evil – from one generation to another, for He hates Christ and His church.
- Do not believe for a moment that one can fight sanguma or any of the power of this dark world with a sword, a knife, a spia or a gun. Our battle, says the Apostle Paul, is not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm (Eph 6:13).” Therefore our only tool for fighting is to put on the armour of salvation – the belt of truth, the breastplate or righteousness, the helmet of salvation, the feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the sword of the spirit. (Eph 6:14-18), We wear the clothes of heaven and we fight with the weapons of Christ. Put away your knives!
- Trust that Christ, the risen King, will never leave you or forsake. Never. In the darkest night you can call upon Him, he is swift in helping his children against the devils attacks!
And pray. Satan and his hosts are silenced by the prayers of the saints.
And sing. Sing our anthem. Sing of the “joy to be free…praising God and rejoicing to be Papua New Guinea.”