AFRICAN PLUME

By Akin Ojumu Before conversion, we all lived extraordinarily messy lives. We were foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others, and hating one another. Many of us were sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, perverts, sexual deviants, thieves, greedy, drunkards, revilers, and swindlers. “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:4-7).  The Holy Spirit takes a hollowed out messy heart and turns it into a thoroughly cleared out and dressed-up dwelling place for His presence. This indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the new believer is eviden

By Akin Ojumu Political debates often stir up deep seated passions. Even the blood of otherwise mild-mannered and easygoing folks tends to boil, like a hot cauldron, in the heat of political arguments. Closely knitted families have been ripped apart because of politics. There are long standing friendships brought to screeching halt because of opposing views on political matters. Similarly, zest and fervor, like a dormant volcano, tend to erupt into consuming larva whenever people engage in religious discourse. For a variety of reasons, people find it impossible to cage their emotions in order to give free rein to sound Biblical reasoning when it comes to dialogue about faith and doctrines. In no other place in Christianity does this thought-stopping raw emotion reign supreme than on the topic of the salvation of the Believer. It is customary for tempers to fly at any venture to pry open the blindfold of ignorance about the subject of the redemption of the sinner, even if it’s by just a

By Akin Ojumu When born-again Christians talk about their salvation, you often hear them say, “I gave my life to Christ.” In a similar fashion, when they invite sinners to come to the faith, the common refrain is, “You need to give your life to Christ” or “You must give your life to Christ. What these folks seem to forget is the fact that it’s virtually impossible for man, of his own volition, to give his life to Christ. When it comes to salvation, no man has ever given his life to Christ. Instead, what happens is that it is God who draws man to Himself. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:44). Man cannot initiate the step towards reconciliation with God. It is God who always moves first and not man. Without the intervention of God, man will remain perpetually enslaved to the flesh and his will. “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you...” (John 15:16). When it comes to choosing between right

Before John Knox returned home from exile to become a hero of the Scottish Reformation, he penned a shocking polemic against women in roles of authority: “The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women.” The diatribe, which he planned to follow with a second and third blast, set the stage for a tumultuous relationship with four ruling queens: Mary of Guise (1515-1560), Mary Tudor (1516-1558), Mary Stuart (1542-1587), and Elizabeth Tudor (1533-1603). Knox used “monstrous” and “regiment” in an archaic sense to mean “unnatural” and “rule,” arguing that female dominion over men was against God and nature. He lamented that the future of the Protestant faith lay solely in the hands of a female monarchy largely hostile to its precepts. Echoing the era’s widespread assumption that women were inferior to men, capable only of domestic acts such as bearing children, Knox placed blame on the “abominable empire of wicked women” for the trials and tribulations of the Reformat

By Akin Ojumu Given by the inspiration of God Himself and directly from the Throne of Grace, the Holy Scripture is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.  The written Word of God, as contained within the pages of the Bible, is all we need for life and godliness, and not the imagination of the heart of mere men that they allegedly heard directly from God. “Every Word of God is pure.” (Proverbs 30:5). God’s Words have been tried by fire and they are judged to be flawless. Like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, they are perfect and without blemish.  The Bible is the inerrant (i.e., free from error) and infallible (i.e., incapable of being wrong) Word of God. It contains all that the LORD Jesus taught His disciples, i.e., the true Apostles, and everything they in turn taught the Apostolic Fathers and those who succeeded them. “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to h

By Akin Ojumu Fifteen Seventeen in the year of the Lord!!! Gosh!!!  What a year that was. That year was, perhaps, one of the most pivotal years in the course of human history. Few other years have been as monumental as 1517 AD. In that consequential year, the trajectory of nations was altered, and the bearing of peoples was reordered. 1517 AD was the catalyst for the radical transformation of our world. It was the year that revolutionized human interactions socially, politically, economically, philosophically, scientifically, legally, and theologically. To this day, the impact of 1517 continues to reverberate across the globe. Everything that we, today, take for granted can be traced back to the events that started back in 1517 AD. Were it not for 1517 AD, the world we now live in would have been a much different, darker, and depraved place. I just thank God for the faithful men whom God used to effect His purpose on earth in 1517 AD. We all owe them a depth of gratitude. Some may be w