Acts 8:32-38 :

Now the passage of the Scripture which he was reading was this,

“He was led as a sheep to the slaughter.
As a lamb before his shearer is silent,
so he doesn’t open his mouth.
In his humiliation, his judgment was taken away.
Who will declare His generation?
For his life is taken from the earth.”
The eunuch answered Philip, “Who is the prophet talking about? About himself, or about someone else?”

Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture, preached to him Jesus. As they went on the way, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Behold, here is water. What is keeping me from being baptized?”

Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” He answered, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

He commanded the chariot to stand still, and they both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.

It is quite a coincidence that this man was reading from a place in Isaiah where the prophet was talking about the death of Jesus. This influential man from Ethiopia became a Christian after Philip explained what it all meant. The prophesy was hundreds of years old already and it is amazing how accurate a description of the death of Jesus it was. It must have been quite amazing to this man as well.

So, here we see that Africa was one of the first places outside of Israel to hear the message of the Gospel. We shouldn’t be deceived into thinking that Christianity isn’t a “native African” religion because the Bible tells us that the message went to Africa very soon after the Church was formed; even before many others heard about it.

The Bible tells us that you have to believe in Jesus before you can be a Christian and only Christians are to be baptized. Although some Bible Scholars argue about whether verse 37 was added to the Bible later, it doesn’t matter to me because it is still true. You do have to believe that Jesus is the Son of God to become a Christian. This is repeated in many other places in the Bible.