ANALYSIS | Curiosity about Prophet Ngundeng Bong

By James Gatdet Dak Lampuar

ANALYSIS – “A Prophet given spectacles (visions) of God.” This is how Ngundeng described himself in his songs cited at his headquarters (Bieh) from mid 1800s until his peaceful death in 1906.  That self-description is translated from Nuer: “Gök mi̱ ca ka̱m neeni̱ wäŋni̱ Dɛ̈ɛ̈ŋ.”

For those of you who worship Ngundeng as God, let me kindly say from the onset that you are terribly wrong! I will tell you why. Read on and first of all for your information, I myself also know more about Ngundeng’s messages than many of you may think. I listened to his messages delivered in form of many songs for the past 30 years!

Since Ngundeng’s generation or followers were from a primitive society who could not write or read, the most effective way to ensure that his messages were carried on for generations was to deliver them in form of songs.  I also read books written about him, including about his miraculous divine-like birth—-which earned him the name ‘Ngundeng,’ meaning ‘Gift from God.’.

Ngundeng NEVER claimed himself to be the God. He actually believed in the heavenly God, although he claimed to have descended from heaven. When he said, “Ɛ ɣän kuoth…kiɛ ta̱a̱ kɛ kuoth” which literally translates “I am a God…or I have God,” he was claiming having been possessed with certain sorts of divine attributes or powers of God, not that he himself was the God of Heaven.

In Nuer language, ‘kuoth’ or ‘God’ is used interchangeably to mean God and to also mean deity or divinity of God. For example, when a prophet or a claimant prophet or prophetess said, ‘Ta̱a̱ Kuoth’ or ‘I have God’, they did not mean they were the God of Heaven——-unless they were claiming being false little earthly gods. They meant they were possessed by spirits of either the false satanic gods, goddesses or by the God himself.

Like I said, I was curious to listen to the messages of Ngundeng and read books written about him in order to know exactly what he said. Yes, I do agree that I have witnessed many of the things he prophesied more than a century ago having been fulfilled now—–or have come to pass in real time for the last few decades to present time (good and bad things). And maybe the rest will come to pass too.

In his messages, Ngundeng went to a great length of details over a hundred years ago by naming many future personalities with their respective known names today—-whom he said shall appear in the political scene in South Sudan, among other predictions. He also predicted and described some of their characteristics and actions, etc.

This accuracy amazed me and added to my curiosity given the fact that he primitively made the predictions a hundred years ago before their recent past and current fulfilments. Most of false prophets could not predict into a far distance future with details and accuracy unless the prophesies or predictions originated directly from the God of Heaven.

Also, with false prophets and false teachers today among Christians, a false prophet who wants to deceive a church will secretly agree with someone or some people to act on the stage like a random recipient, and say things they agreed to tell the congregation as if they were true dreams or visions or healings fulfilled, etc.

False prophets do not accurately predict with details a far distance future like Ngundeng did it. They mainly assess situations and guess outcomes, or consult with demonic spirits, etc.

BUT THE QUESTION IS:

Did Ngundeng receive his visions directly from God or did he receive them from Satan who stole the plan or predictions directly from God? In other words, can Satan decide and authorize prophesies? Allow me to briefly narrate a few Biblical facts below in trying to put my point across: According to the Bible, God is the only being who is omnipresent (being present everywhere at all times) and also omniscience (all-knowing, including current thoughts and future thoughts of people) and also omnipotent (all powerful with no limitation).

Even angels do not have the three attributes of God. God only directs them and empowers them. Satan cannot see God’s thoughts and plans unless God has voluntarily and freely revealed them. Then Satan can react by trying to either twist them or counterfeit them. Satan has a limited ability to counterfeit God’s plans and twist or distort them for humans when revealed to him. Satan gets the opportunity to learn of God’s plans because God is transparent in his nature, thus his plans.

So Satan as a supernatural being can see those plans in the spiritual realms. The Bible says that Satan has the ability to even transform itself into a FAKE angel of light to deceive humans. But he cannot see certain plans hidden by God! This is why Satan regretted the death of Jesus on the Cross after he realized that it was done to redeem the world.

God only revealed a half-mission to Satan that he would send his son, Jesus, to the world in a human form as the Messiah to save people from the influence of Satan and reconcile the people with God’s laws. Satan did not understand the whole mission. Satan ignorantly reacted by working to destroy Jesus and fail his mission on earth. Satan connived with the Roman Empire and the Jewish leaders from Pharisees (Jesus’ own people) to kill Jesus (on the Cross).

God kept it a secret from the understanding of Satan that the death of Jesus was in fact a grand plan by God to redeem the world through his shed blood as an ultimate sacrificial intervention. Satan on the other hand wanted people to continue to sin or break the laws of God—-since they were all sinning anyway and therefore be all destroyed by the HOLY justice-driven wrath of God.

It is only after the resurrection of Jesus Christ that Satan – whose real name is Lucifer (Satan and Devil are his titles) – realized he was outwitted by God, and was only used together with the Romans and Pharisees to fulfill the grand secret plan of God’s salvation for the world.

So Satan hates the sacrificial intervention did by Jesus which has now given people the opportunity to be saved by the blood of Jesus Christ.  But the spiritual warfare over the eternal fate of humans continues as Satan prevents the majority of people on earth from acknowledging the intervention and salvation plan brought through Jesus, the Messiah.

Back to the point, now as briefly narrated above, if Satan lacks the three natural attributes of God (omnipresent, omniscience, and omnipotent), and does not set or control the future and prophecies—–but can only try to counterfeit them or twist them, then this means any prophecies or predictions that pass the test of time and get fulfilled with accuracy are originally from God—-not from false gods or Satan.

So whether Ngundeng was used by God or by hijacker Satan to deliver specific messages about Sudan or South Sudan and to some extent, Ethiopia and Egypt, the messages themselves about the punishments and then blessings must have originated from God.

And for a quick reminder, some of the prophecies told by Ngundeng about the future of Sudan (South Sudan) do also correlate with the prophecies told by Prophet Isaiah about the future of Sudan (South Sudan) in the Bible. Again, in the case of Ngundeng, according to how I understood his messages, he was claiming or confessing having been empowered by God of Heaven with some true divine powers, which he described as “Spectacles of God,” that made him to prophesy into the distance future with accuracy.

And another question would be, why would God use someone like a prophet if the era of prophets was over when Jesus came, and why would that late messenger or prophet be still practicing animal sacrifices when Jesus was the last Sacrificial Lamb, according to the Bible? Also, many people questioned the mode of his prayers at ‘Bieh’ and the fact that he could eat unclean or nasty things for food, and probably in the same way John the Baptist ate grasshoppers in the desert—-which were considered to be unclean in the ancient Israel.

Having stated this, Ngundeng did not claim to be the God of Heaven. He only claimed to be a true messenger or prophet of God. He also never directed his followers to establish churches in his name! I felt sad when a “German white man” worked hard to establish a Ngundeng Church and actually sponsored some members of the Nuer community to establish such churches in the world. This is to lead people astray from God.

I again repeat for emphasis, Ngundeng only claimed that he was a messenger or prophet of God used to LOCALLY deliver specific messages about the coming punishment by God and blessing for the future of his people in Sudan or South Sudan, just like prophet Isaiah was in the Bible. And NOTE that Ngundeng came before Christianity reached his people.

REMEMBER that the NAATH – just like other communities in South Sudan – knew about the existence of heavenly God before Christianity reached them and provided them with details of written accounts about that heavenly God. Before Christianity reached them, the NUER or NAATH also used to call God as ‘Kuoth-Nhial’ which literally means ‘God of Heaven’, or ‘Kuoth-Cäkä’ or with His nickname as ‘Dɛŋ-Tääth’, both of which literally mean ‘God of Creation.’

NOW ANOTHER QUESTION:

Which God did Ngundeng describe as Deng Nyangeer (Dɛŋ Nyaŋgɛɛr) when he said ‘Dɛŋ Nyaŋgɛɛr rɔm weydu?’  He repeatedly mentioned Deng Nyangeer in his songs. Some people say he symbolically meant God of the Cross—–or he was pointing to the coming Christianity as representing the true worship of heavenly God. Is it true?

So my point is, even if Ngundeng’s prophetic claims were to be truly coming from the God of Heaven, and being fulfilled nowadays, this still does not qualify Ngundeng to be worshipped as God. It is WRONG!  You don’t worship prophets or angels or messengers even in the Bible. You simply take notice or heed to their messages and worship God—–the owner of the message—–who used and sent that prophet or angel to deliver the message.

So, whether Ngundeng is a messenger or a prophet, no one should worship him as the God!!! And I kindly appeal to you to turn to Jesus Christ. I believe Ngundeng himself also foresaw and embraced the coming of Christianity to his people of South Sudan in the same way Prophet Isaiah in the Bible foresaw the coming of Messiah (Christianity) in Chapter 53.

Ngundeng knew that Christianity represented the TRUE worship and WAY of SALVATION of the TRUE one God of Heaven. God bless him! My humble opinion! I however stand to be corrected. And if you think I am wrong, prove it with mature convincing arguments. I VERY well know that there are over FOUR THOUSAND different RELIGIONS in the whole world, big and small. But majority of them are worshipping gods not GOD.

And there is one TRUE religion among them! My post is an advice! You are free to take it or leave it. And beware that this could also be a religious experiment!

The author is a devoted Christian and the spokesman in the office of First Vice President. Follow him HERE on Facebook.

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