Shocking New Gauteng Church Celebrates Alcohol, Promotes Drunkenness

Baptisms with whiskey, services in taverns, and shouting “Amen” when chinking drinks – a blasphemous new ‘church’ has opened up in Johannesburg.

The Gabola Church in Orange Farm opened eight months ago and already has a membership of over 500 people. They celebrate alcohol and all services are done in bars.

The word “Gabola” means “Drinking” in Tswana, one of South Africa’s official languages. 

Gabola’s founder and self-declared pope, Tsietsi Makiti, says the church is for those who have been rejected by other churches because they drink alcohol. Gabola is not a member of the mainstream South African Council of Churches, which says it has no comment about it.

“Praise the Lord and pass the libation” is the motto of an unorthodox church located near Johannesburg, South Africa. Church-goers are encouraged to drink during services, where they focus many teachings on Jesus’ first miracle, where He turned water into wine.

Bishop Tsietsi Makiti (52) is the founder of the church in South Africa. He started the church in a tavern. Makiti said when Jesus came to his followers, alcohol changed everything. According to the bishop, people didn’t know what to do for fun, but when Jesus changed water into wine he prayed for it to stimulate their bodies. 

“So this church also prays for their drinks before they are served. With God in our taverns we would see crime being reduced and love and respect promoted,” he said.

“People who drink beer are happy and peaceful. This means they are living in the shadow of God.”

Members are baptised with their choice of alcohol, which is first “anointed” by Makiti. The church has already performed over 2000 baptisms.

“If you drink beer, you get baptised in beer. The same goes for those who drink cider and other alcoholic beverages,” Makiti said. “This church also prays for their drinks before they are served. With God in our taverns, we would see crime being reduced and love and respect promoted.” 

The church says it prides itself as a home for those rejected because of their love of alcohol. Some congregants say they’ve found their perfect place of worship – but no under 20’s are welcome.

The church has recently opened a branch in the Free State and it plans to extend its reach to other parts of the country. Makiti claims that he has been overwhelmed with invitations to expand Gabola Church all over South Africa.

The African continent is home to lots of unconventional churches and colourful preachers who employ all kinds of outlandish rituals to attract parishioners. In the past we’ve written about ministers spraying congregates with “holy” bug spray, making them drink motor oil, or talking to God on the phone. However, Johannesburg’s Gabola Church is apparently the first to choose alcohol as its main theme.

“This is where those labeled ‘drunkards’ by other churches are welcome,” Makiti told the Daily Sun. “This is a space for people to come together in God’s name without being ashamed of being drinkers. We are only saying this is an environment where one can drink without being judged at all”

The congregation at Gabola Church is currently all-male, but its bishop plans to make it more inclusive in the near future.

“Women are also not allowed because we have men who are drinking, and we cannot have instances where some of them start troubling these women. We will allow women at a later stage, once our congregants have been well prepared,” Tsietsi Makiti said. 

Christians all around South Africa are outraged by Gabola, saying it is blasphemous. Drinking alcohol is a very hot topic among Christians that has been argued and discussed for thousands of years. God warns us to not be drunk and describes certain situations where someone should not drink, but the Bible never says that alcohol is wrong. Since the Bible doesn’t absolutely forbid drinking alcohol, whether or not someone should drink is a personal decision to make for yourself. The idea of a church that is alcohol-focused however is a clear perversion of Scripture.

Below are some Bible verses that should help guide you toward the right decision for yourself:
1 Peter 4:3 – “For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.”

1 Timothy 5:23 – “Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.”

Ecclesiastes 9:7 – “Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do.”

Ephesians 5:18 – “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit”

Proverbs 20:1 – “Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise.”

Proverbs 23:31 – “Do not gaze at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly!”

Romans 13:13 – “Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.”

Psalm 104:14-15 – “He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for people to cultivate— bringing forth food from the earth: wine that gladdens human hearts, oil to make their faces shine, and bread that sustains their hearts.”

1 Corinthians 10:23-24 – “‘I have the right to do anything,’ you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.”

Galatians 5:19-21 – “The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Romans 14:15-21 – “If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.”

Written by: Gillian Fraser
Images: www.iol.co.za, www.dailysun.co.za, www.odditycentral.com