Saturday 26 March 2022 was the celebration of the 70th birthday of Lidia Thofozi Dube at KSB. Part of this festivities was a “thanksgiving” service held in the big hall that evening. A very tedious film production of her claimed near death experience (NDE) was shown. Afterwards Lidia stood up to share with the over-awed followers a new revelation she has had. This happens at 1: 59: 52 on the video. KSB has removed the video since then but we have a hard copy which you can view at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKMVLY4xVHw .She tells of how in August last year she suffered from kidney failure eventually ending up in an ICU unit in a hospital in Pretoria. After some days a certain Dr. Sieling came to her and told her that she must go home to die. He seemingly apologized profusely for having failed to heal her but that she must go home and that she would live only for 3 days more. She was flown back to KSB and seemingly the next day she had some sort of “epiphany” when she was ordered by a voice to go up a mountain. She obeyed and got into a wheelchair and rolled herself with much difficulty up this mountain. She eventually came to the top where she found a well-kept lawn but nobody in sight. At 2: 12: 17 she states that she then saw a person dressed in a long white robe coming her way. When this person reached her, she said: “Thofozi, stand up. She explained that she was too sick and again this person said that she must stand up.
Suddenly her hands, arms, knees and legs felt strong again and she could stand. The person then told her that her sickness was not physically and that she was well now. Lidia then asked this person who she was. The person ordered her to look carefully at her and only then did she realize that it was her long dead mother. (At 2: 14: 42)
Her mother then told her that she had been send to two persons: to her and to Erlo Stegen. Lidia asked her if she had seen her father (Joshua Dube) in heaven. When her mother said no, she started wailing. Her mother stopped her and told her that in heaven there is no gender so her father is no longer a man but the genderless soul who is in heaven. Then her mother told her not to worry about the things happening at and around KSB for “We in heaven ae shifting you to find out who pretend to be on the right side but are hypocrites and wolves.”
At 2: 17: 31 her mother informs her that she now is going to Erlo and then follows a nonsensical conversation about keys and dogs. After her mother returned from speaking to Erlo to Lidia she asked her mother that she would like to go with her. Her mother refused.
Lidia claims that when she came to herself after this “epiphany” her kidneys were working well again and she could get up. Now for first time Lidia mentions anything about God or Jesus.
Some Scriptural truths
Luther taught us: “Ad Fontis” when in doubt about things spiritual. This simply means: “Back to the fountain” or back to the original and in the case of us Christians it means: “Back to the Bible”. The question is: “What does the Bible teach us about the dead and direct messages from God?”
As far as I know there are only two references in the Bible about dead persons appearing on earth again. In 1 Samuel 28 we read of the prophet Samuel appearing to king Saul. It is important to note that the medium who implemented this apparition was the witch of En-Dor. (The implication is thus: Is Lidia fulfilling the role of a witch in implementing this apparition?) The second one is in Matthew 17 where Moses and Elijah appears to Jesus before He was to be crucified.
Theologically speaking Moses and Elijah represents the Law and the Prophets thus the whole of the Old Testament which was coming to an end. When Jesus died and rose again, the new dispensation came into place. This is the most crucial point in the history of man for this is the moment when God started with His new creation and all of the Old Testament was looking forward to this moment in the history of mankind. There is just no way that we can compare the unimportant message of Hilda Dube to the message that Moses and Elijah brought with the crucifixion of Christ.
For this new dispensation; the New Testament time, Jesus told us clearly that He will send the Holy Spirit to comfort us, to lead us and to guide us. Not spirits or angels but the Holy Spirit (John 14 and 16) Already in the Old Testament he warns his children not to communicate with the spirits of the dead. (Lev. 19, Deut. 18, Eccl. 9, Isa. 81 and many more). In the New Testament this becomes even clearer. In Luke 16 we hear that there is a deep chasm fixed between reality and eternity. We are ordered to adhere to Moses and the prophets and not to somebody coming from the dead. Never and nowhere are we told to communicate with angels or demons or that we will receive messages from the dead. Again and again we are warned about the reality of Satan coming as an angel of the light, trying to deceive the children of God. We are warned about false prophets, false apostles, false preachers having forsaken the faith of the Bible to serve their own ego’s. We are warned about them coming as “angels of the light” but actually being demons in coming to rob, kill and destroy. See 2 Cor. 11, Ef. 6, 1 Tim. 4, the whole letter of Jude, 1 Pet. 5 and Heb. 9 just to name a few.
Some theological insights
Martin Luther taught us that we must build our lives on the word of God and on clear understanding or clear thinking. Theology is sometimes called “The scientific thinking about God and His work.”
Professor Dr. Kurt Koch was an old friend and supporter of KSB until his death in 1987. Till today he is acknowledged as a world-wide authority on Demonology. I personally feel there is no theologian in the last 500 years that comes even close to Koch in the field of Demonology. One would suspect as a friend of Erlo Stegen in particular and all of KSB in general they would adhere to his educated warnings:
1: Between Christ and Satan.
Page 98: “The word Spiritism comes from the Latin “Spiritus”. This movement represents the endeavour to communicate with the dead… I have been confronted 16 different types of spiritistic practices….”
Page 118: “They fail to present the centre of the Christian message which is that before God man stands as a helpless sinner who needs the redemption that is in Jesus Christ… By means of forced exegesis of scripture they avoid the direct command of Deut. 18 and other passages with forbid communication with the dead…. the disastrous thing is that some Christian circles fail to recognise the evils that lie behind Spiritism…”
Page 119: “It is a sad indication of the lack of gift of discernment when Christians fail to distinguish between spiritistic and the Spirit, between psychic and spiritual…. Our standard is not the experience of men but the testimony of the Holy Scriptures…. we do not need to take our stand on visions or rely on the confusion which arises from the spirits of the dead. It is to the Bible that we must turn…The extension of Spiritism into the religious world….is perhaps the most dangerous aspect of the whole subject.”
2: Occult ABC
Page 77: “We do not need the spirits from the world of the dead to tell us what to believe. We have the Bible… inspired by the Holy Spirit”
Page 81: “Luther pointed out that demons and evil spirits take on the appearance of dead people to mislead the living.”
Page 234: “Spiritism among believing Christians is the most horrible form of the spirit cult.”
For those that want to read more of Koch please see “Occult Bondage and Deliverance” or even better the German edition of Occult ABC from Page 653 he writes extensively about the reappearance of a dead person.
John Calvin quotes the church-father Chrysostomos in his “Institute. Book 4. Para 8.13.40” stating that outside of the gospel we must believe nothing else.
Hendrikus Berkhof states that all new revelantion is not pieces of loose-standing truths but always must confirm anew the centrality of Christ and his death which reconciles us with God (Berkhof, 1979: 72 – 74)
The church historian David Thompson declares that all new revelation must be done in the name of the Lord and can never be little pieces of loose-standing information. (Thompson, 1974: 214)
I must point out that in the book Ezekiel the prophet say no less than 217 times: “Thus say the Lord”. Also Isaiah refers to God or the Lord no less than 578 times. (The “angel” who appeared to Lidia never mentioned God, Jesus or the Lord according the testimony of Lidia. She personlly refers to Jesus once and never to the great salvation afforded us on the cross. Her reference is in a general sense.)
Hans Kung the famous Ecclesiological theologian warns that no revelation is from God if it does not place the emphasis on Christ the crucified and the mediation between man and God. (Kung 1982: 396)
What is happening at KSB?
Dr. Botha wrote with deep insight about the “Construction and de-construction of leaders at KSB” in his “My Book chapter 10” on www.ksb-alert.com
In short it means that cults need to create or construct a special person to act as their leader. At KSB they call this person “man-of-God” but in essence it is a figurehead endowed with special powers, knowledge and insights. Theologically speaking we call such a person “The illuminated romantic figure.” Erlo Stegen was that person but he is sick and is disappearing in the historical background. So KSB needs to construct a new leader and this is me Dube. That is why they waste time and effort to recreate her so-called Near Death Experience (NDE) in 1973 and why she had the audacity to stand up to share her new revelation of August last year. She is now the “Illuminated One”; the chosen mouth piece of God. This is how all cults operate and the gospel-truth is nowhere neither does common-sense prevail.
Interesting to note that Near Death Experiences is nothing new. It is known in theology and psychology as the NDE-phenomena. As far as I could determine the first time it is recorded in Christian history is more of less the year 170 after Christ when the prophetess Maximilla had a similar experience and received a similar message as me Dube did in 1973. She joined up with another prophetess called Priscilla and a preacher Montanus. Eventually the ladies broke their marriage vows, forsook their husbands and together with Montanus formed an “revival” movement that spread all over. They preached a message of strict moral code and adherence to all sorts of irrational laws in the meantime gathering great wealth unto themselves. Eventually their movement was declared a cult and according to the church-father Eusebus, the final end was when Maximilla hanged herself.
In theology we learn that when subjective spiritual experiences are absolutized, a sect is formed. Simply stated it means that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost is repeated again and is thus absolutized and it is the norm in the Christian world. But the experience of Saul on the way to Damascus was personal for only he experienced it and not all the believers present. It has never become absolutized and in general Christianity does not celebrate a special “Road to Damascus” day.
In the case of KSB, the experiences of Lidia Dube have become absolutized. So too the confession of sin for Erlo experienced it at Mapumulo and the courtship issues for Immanuel Kwela experienced it. No biblical or common sense foundation – just an absolutized subjective experience. This is typical of all cults through all the ages.
So the real gospel is replaced by a subjective experienced-based religion and the real God is replaced by the experienced-based God of some illuminated figure. David Wells explains in his book “No Place for Truth” that this subjective experience-based god becomes an “internalize-god which is acturally a subterranean god”.
What does this imply? The appartion of me Dube presents many red flags. It has all the signs of an internalized god and thus a subterranean god. Theologically speaking subterranean gods are actually anti-gods and thus Satan parading as an angel of the light.
I agree with dr. Koch in stating that this is a most tragic day. To witness in public, the demise of a missionary work that I too dearly loved, a society that once was an example to the evangelical world is heart-breaking. I can feel with the Lord Jesus when he wept for Jerusalem for the outcome of KSB too is total destruction and people fleeing in horror and confusion all over the world.
May God have mercy and may the true believers at KSB repent and stand up for the truth of the Bible and of Jesus Christ.
Koos Greeff
Jacobsbaai
30 March 2022