God’s solution to the universal problem of evil doesn’t change, from place to place or culture to culture. Prayer is the standard. In fact, part of the transformation that Christianity brings to each culture is how it seeks supernatural intervention. Philippi was also the place where Paul met a slave girl with a spirit of divination. Through that spirit she “brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling” (Acts 16:16). Other spiritual forces and religious practices existed in Philippi. They even appear to possess a degree of power and ‘success.’ Yet Paul says to the people living there: pray about everything. The Christian faith doesn’t deny supernatural intervention. Instead God redirects us away from the traditions, things, places, and people to himself. Thus we pray: “deliver us from evil.”

The problem of evil is one that all humans face. We might debate the details of its origin or how to resolve it, but we generally agree on its existence. In this article I will be reflecting on how the Bible exhorts Christians to seek deliverance from evil, in relation to the temptation to combine African traditional religions with the Christian faith. 
In traditional African religions, as Adamo says, evil is both moral and physical; it “concerns any misfortune that befalls an individual or community or any voluntary antisocial behaviour or any infringement of the decrees of God, the deity or the ancestors.” This is why “propitiatory sacrifices become one of the major ways by which Africans deliver themselves from the effects of evil in the world.” Because the need for sacrifices are embedded both in many Africans’ religious outlook as well as culture, it’s a very difficult practice to abandon.
In this article I reflect on the biblical solution for seeking deliverance from evil, and how this speaks into our traditional practices. Can Africans be in Christ and continue with sacrifices? Should African Christians consult the ancestors or the local sangoma for deliverance? How does the Bible exhort Africans to seek deliverance from the problem of evil? Will we find salvation through a blend of the Christian faith and traditional practices?
The Lord’s Prayer: “Deliver Us from Evil”
The Bible gives one solution for seeking deliverance from evil: prayer (Matthew 6:13). Now, this can be difficult for us to hear, especially considering that our worldview provides us with various alternatives that promise to resolve our problems. Practices handed down by our forefathers, which we’ve implemented and seen fruits from. When we ask our neighbours or family, they recommend one thing when we’re suffering. But Jesus teaches that prayer is foundational. It is the greatest tool at our disposal, when seeking deliverance from evil. 
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We live in a world that is constantly revising its moral and ethical norms, usually in favour of progressivism. We’ve even come to a point where it is contentious to offer a definition of the word “woman.” While society celebrates its insistence that everything is plastic, malleable, and in flux, God’s standards don’t change with the times. He is and forever will be just and holy, to pick just two of his attributes. Therefore even if the world continues down the road of increasingly skewed ethics, especially around sexuality, we can be sure that what God finds pleasing and consistent with his will hasn’t changed.

We live in a world that is continually changing, even our moral standards are changing. Change is part of life. It is part of what it means to be human. Without change we cannot progress. Simultaneously, because of it we all have the potential to regress. This is one of the biggest distinctions between God and us. For God doesn’t change. He is what theologians call immutable. And this is what I will be reflecting on in this article.  
Reflecting on the distinction between God and creation, one psalmist writes: “Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end” (Psalm 102:26-27; Hebrews 1:10-12). This passage shows the unchanging nature of God contrast with creation. It shows that unlike everything else, which will perish and fade with time, God isn’t subject to change.
How Does an Immutable God Relate to Changing Beings?
The Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF) says that God is “working all things according to the counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will, for his own glory” (3.5).
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