Why did Solomon Tate punch out a fellow missionary, befriend a witch doctor, experience a “holy laughter” manifestation, while trying to expose its dangers, and stare down a wild bull elephant? How will he conquer his fear of confronting abusive church leaders? What choices will two Xhosa brothers make when they are confronted with the Gospel and compelled to choose between cultural witchcraft and biblical Christianity, and how will they live out those consequences? What spiritual connection is there between the lidloti spirits, dancing in the “borrowed bodies” of an African sangoma, and the involuntary convulsions of hyper-charismatics?
Why did Solomon Tate punch out a fellow missionary, befriend a witch doctor, experience a “holy laughter” manifestation, while trying to expose its dangers, and stare down a wild bull elephant? How will he conquer his fear of confronting abusive church leaders? What choices will two Xhosa brothers make when they are confronted with the Gospel and compelled to choose between cultural witchcraft and biblical Christianity, and how will they live out those consequences? What spiritual connection is there between the lidloti spirits, dancing in the “borrowed bodies” of an African sangoma, and the involuntary convulsions of hyper-charismatics?
What would happen if an American missionary couple planted a tent church in the heart of a South African township and had to withstand the witchcraft of an angry sangoma, who opposes their new church, and battle powerful forces within the Pentecostal Holiness Fellowship, who accuse them of the attempted murder of their fellowship’s leader? This is just the beginning of the challenges that Solomon and Goldie Tate face in the novel, “When Elephants Fight.”
Set in the culturally-rich environment of the Xhosa tribe of post-apartheid South Africa, the Tates risk their lives to expose a coup attempt by those who would hijack their fellowship into the extra-biblical River Movement.
Throw in Nelson Mandela’s new presidency, apartheid, Desmond Tutu and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 9-11, the “river snake,” a kidnapping, and a “who-done-it” murder mystery, and you have an historical novel that will appeal to a large spectrum of Christian and secular readers in both the U.S. and Africa.
Author: Changing from Glory to Glory
I was saved in the "Jesus People Movement". We were the last revival America has seen, other than the recent one that broke out at Asbury University in Kentucky. Many of us "Jesus People" converts became preachers, including myself. In 30 years, my family and I planted churches in Canada and South Africa. We saw many conversions and healing miracles, especially in South Africa.
Before salvation in 1976, I fought in the Vietnam War, a bronze star, and then like many disillusioned young people of my generation, I became a hippie. Vietnam wasn’t just about giving us hippies an excuse to get high and medicate our anger, but it was an attempt at stopping Communism’s aggression in Southeast Asia. We failed, and millions of innocent Vietnamese and Cambodian people died, the eventual result of all tyrannical takeovers. Now, in my latter years, I find myself fighting again, here at home, only this time it’s a global takeover, where even our own nation is against our freedoms. God impressed on me as a young convert that I would see the Rapture of the church, and now we are very certainly living in those days just before the Tribulation Period, also called “Daniel’s Seventieth Week,” and “Jacob’s Troubles,” a time when God’s wrath will be poured out upon the unbelieving world. This judgment is not for the Church, the Bride of Christ. We’re going up in the First Resurrection. Paul says to “encourage one another with this hope.” In these final days of the Church Age, the Age of the Gentiles, where there's been a big uptick in Jewish conversions and a diminishing of Gentile conversions, the Rapture seems more imminent than ever.
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Changing from glory to glory 