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CHARLATANS CAN’T HIDE BEHIND BIBLICAL APOSTLES & PROPHETS (PART III)

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“The Real Apostles Pointed Away from Themselves to Christ” By Akin Ojumu In this age of social media, livestream ministries, viral clips, podcasts, and alternative news platforms, religious charlatans can accumulate enormous armies of loyal admirers. And once the personality cult has been established, facts become almost irrelevant. No accusation is serious enough. No contradiction is glaring enough. No theological absurdity is outrageous enough. No failed supernatural boast is embarrassing enough. The faithful defenders of Daddy G.O. will remain at their posts. They will explain. They will excuse. They will rationalize. They will reinterpret. And when all else fails, they will reach for the Bible. This blinding loyalty becomes especially obvious when legitimate questions are raised about the vaunted supernatural powers of a preacher who, after spending decades advertising extraordinary anointing, divine protection, miracle-working power, and supernatural exploits, suddenly finds himse...

CHARLATANS CAN’T HIDE BEHIND BIBLICAL APOSTLES & PROPHETS (PART II)

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“Elijah Fleeing from Jezebel Proves That Power Belongs to God—Not to Man” By Akin Ojumu Isaac Omolehin’s horrifying ordeal at the hands of bandits was the subject of one of my recent commentaries. I concluded that piece with these words: “Isaac Omolehin deserves compassion in his suffering. His family deserves safety. The children in that orphanage deserve protection… But none of that requires us to pretend that the contradiction is not there. A man who tells the world that his prayers once sent chairs airborne with people still sitting on them should expect someone, eventually, to ask the obvious question when armed men send him running from his own home: Sir, whatever happened to all that power?” In response to the write-up, a commenter lamented what he apparently considers the unfortunate modern tendency to scrutinize and fact-check the supernatural claims of so-called “men of God.” He wrote: “The same question we would ask Elijah that called down fire from heaven to consume a water...

CHARLATANS CAN’T HIDE BEHIND BIBLICAL APOSTLES & PROPHETS (PART I)

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“Stop Equating Modern-Day Charlatans With Elijah” By Akin Ojumu Modern believers love to play the “Elijah also ran from Jezebel” card whenever one of their revered “Daddies,” “Mummies,” “Generals,” or “Papa Apostles” is exposed. The moment the claims of another supposedly invincible spiritual heavyweight begin to collapse under the weight of reality, the defenders rush to social media: “But Elijah also ran for his life.” “Peter was persecuted.” “Paul was beaten and imprisoned.” “John was exiled to Patmos.” “And even Jesus Christ was crucified.” Yes.  They will actually place their favorite preacher in the same apologetic sentence as the Lord Jesus Christ—the eternal Son of God, the Creator of heaven and earth—in order to rescue their celebrity minister from embarrassment. That alone tells you something about how distorted the entire system has become. But let us deal specifically with Elijah. It is a serious error to equate modern-day self-styled “anointed men of God” with Elijah. ...

JOSHUA SELMAN’S WAR ON JOHN THE BAPTIST

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By Akin Ojumu A large swathe of contemporary Christianity suffers from a profound misunderstanding of the power of God. Many churchgoers have been catechized into an egregiously distorted definition of “spiritual power.”  To these people, power means spectacle. Power means people collapsing under the so-called “anointing.” Power means congregants shrieking hysterically, bodies convulsing on the floor, chairs supposedly levitating with people still sitting on them, and assorted theatrical performances presented as evidence that heaven has entered the building. Biblical power has been reduced to Pente-rascal and Charis-maniacal showmanship. But the God of the Bible is not a circus performer. He does not perform tricks for applause. He does not need smoke machines, emotional manipulation, choreographed collapses, or spiritual pyrotechnics to prove that He is God. Yet this warped understanding of divine power has become so deeply embedded in certain corners of modern Christianity that ...