AFRICAN PLUME

“Truly You Are the Son of God” By Akin Ojumu Enough ink has been spilled to turn the ocean black in the retelling of the extraordinary story of Jesus walking on water. If you’ve attended Church long enough, you’ve probably heard one or two preachers sermonize on Peter walking on water ad nauseam, ad infinitum. This captivating account of the demonstration of the supernatural power of God over nature has been so mangled, preachers of all shapes and sizes have turned it into lyrical tunes with which they serenade self-absorbed audiences with ear-tickling melody of self-glory that satisfies fleshly cravings and satiates carnal desires. In nearly all the instances that I have heard this story preached, the fixation of the preachers has always been on Peter. Blinded by their fascination with an ordinary man walking on water, they are unable to see the huge forest for the trees. Because of their narcissistic tunnel vision, they completely missed the point of the phenomenal story. Jesus walki

“Scripture Is Not Subject to Private Interpretation” By Akin Ojumu Righteousness, like a tender flower, flourishes when the soul is planted by the streams of the water of God’s Word. Fidelity to the purity of the truth of the Gospel is the manure that fertilizes the soil of spiritual maturity. A daily diet fortified with essential minerals of sound doctrine makes the mind whole and the body healthy.  Theological error corrupts and absolute doctrinal error corrupts absolutely. Profane babbles, vain blathers, and godless chatters will only lead people into more and more ungodliness. The soul of those who feed on erroneous teachings will progressively wither. “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation.” (2 Peter 1:20). For us to accurately and correctly interpret Scripture, we must DRAW OUT from the Bible texts and not READ INTO them. Drawing out from Bible texts is what’s called exegesis. This means the interpreter is guided to h

“Communicable and Incommunicable Attributes of God” By Akin Ojumu We understand from Scripture that being made in the image and after the likeness of God is the exclusive preserve of humanity. No other groups of created beings share in this high and lofty status. Neither the creatures in the sea nor birds in the air nor livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth can evolve or genetically mutate into the image of God. Likewise, we’ve established that it’s very much unlikely that man being made in the image of God could be referring to the physical or material aspect of man. We know this because: (1) God is Spirit “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24). (2) A Spirit has no physical form “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” (Luke 24:39). (3) God is infinite and eternal, whatever is created is finite and mortal “Before the mountains

“Made in the Image of God” By Akin Ojumu As pure as the driven snow, so is the purity of Scripture. It is free from error (i.e., inerrant) and devoid of any mistake (i.e., infallible). Every word is God-breathed, and every jot or tittle is inspired by the Holy Spirit. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Since no prophecy, i.e., the Word of God, was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit, there are no, and there cannot be any, contradictions in Scripture. Bible text interprets Bible text, and difficult texts are explained by other clearer texts. Whenever we encounter what appears to be confusion or lack clarity in a particular Bible text, what we ought to do is to look for other Bible texts that provide clarity to clear the ambiguity. Opinion is like an u

“So, You Think You Are Divine?” By Akin Ojumu Aberrant beliefs are the result of foolish expeditions into the jungle of eisegesis. The reason many subscribe to erroneous doctrines is because they stray into the murky waters of esoteric revelations and speculative presuppositions that are totally unmoored from the principles of sound exegesis and proper hermeneutics.  When it comes to interpreting and applying Scripture, I have learned over the years to stay within the safe confines of the contextual boundaries of the Bible text, using as my guide, the literal, historical, grammatical, and synthesis principles which are fundamental to proper understanding of Scripture.   Psalm 82 in its proper context is a pronunciation of judgment by God on the rulers or judges of Israel. As rulers, they were considered the representative of God to the people. Having delegated His authority to them, the Bible says God called them “gods”. Carrying the seal of God’s authority, they were expected to dispe

“The Meaning of Elohim Depends on the Context” By Akin Ojumu Word of Faith heretics like E.W. Kenyon, Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, and Joyce Meyers like to boast about being equal with God. In their reprobate minds, they believe they rank as high as the Almighty in the spiritual pecking order. Claiming to have the DNA of God, they say they are partakers of God’s divinity and sharer in all of God’s attributes, majesty, and power. Known as the little gods’ doctrine, proponents of this blasphemous idea believe that “humans are actually divine, created “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27) not only in having a soul, having dominion over the earth, or living in relationship with others, but by being of the same “spiritual class” as God Himself. Biblical theologians decry this concept as misguided at best, and heretical and cultic at worst” (Ref: Got Questions). The go-to texts these false teachers use to substantiate their divinity claim are Psalm 82:6 and John 10:34. But

“Ambulance Chasing Spirituality” By Akin Ojumu In the United States, the expression, Ambulance Chaser, is a derogatory term reserved for unscrupulous personal injury lawyers who monitor the radio frequencies of the Emergency Medical Services listening for reports of accidents.  As soon as a 911 call is received reporting an accident and an ambulance is sent to the scene, the ambulance-chasing lawyer sets out in hot pursuit of the ambulance. Upon arriving at the scene, he proceeds to recruit the accident victims as clients for potential personal injury lawsuits. He briskly hands out business cards and makes unabashed promises of huge sums of money in personal injury compensation. Ambulance chasers have a bad reputation amongst their peers. They are often looked upon with scorn by reputable personal injury. As the scum of the earth of the legal profession, these bottom feeders of the American justice system soullessly hound accident victims for their own personal gain while the victims a

“The Old Testament Is Not from God” By Akin Ojumu Today’s commentary examines another instance of Abel Damina’s heretic teachings. It’s a review of yet another example of his perversion of God’s Truth. Claiming to want to bring his listeners to revelation knowledge, Damina makes the following blood curdling remarks: “So, did God make the Old Testament? No. God didn’t make the Old Covenant. Jesus never authored the Old Covenant. God never did.”  If you are wondering whether you read that right, sadly, you did; your eyes are working perfectly. In Abel Damina’s infinite wisdom, God is not the author of the Old Testament and Jesus had nothing to do with its content either. Coming from a man who regards himself a leading theologian and an authority of Scripture, the idea that God didn’t author the Old Testament is beyond shocking. It is profoundly scandalous.  If you actually watched the full-length video from where this clip was obtained, Abel Damina’s asinine remarks come right after he r

“What are Heresies, Really?” By Akin Ojumu Heresy is a word that gets thrown around a lot. The word heretic is such a widely used verbiage in religious cycles that it has turned into sort of an epithet of derogation wielded as a cudgel to bludgeon anyone with whom we disagree theologically or doctrinally. Next up in this commentary on Abel Damina’s numerous erroneous teachings, is his claim that, contrary to what you have been taught or believed, God was not actually the author of the Old Testament. But before we get into all of that, I think it’s important that we, at this point, answer the question, “What exactly is heresy?” To help answer the question, I’m going to have to turn to the late R.C. Sproul, one of the foremost theologians and Biblical expositors of modern times. “None Dare Call It Heresy” was a commentary Dr Sproul wrote on the subject of heresy three decades ago. Lifted verbatim and unedited from the Ligonier Ministries’ website, I’m now sharing it with you all. It ’ s

“What is the Granville Sharp Rule?” By Akin Ojumu In Part One of this commentary series, we set out to repudiate one of Abel Damina’s numerous false teachings. This time around it’s his interpretation of John 1:17. “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”  (John 1:17). According to Damina, “Grace and truth are not two things. The word ‘and’ here is the ‘kai.’ The TKS rule of Bible interpretation which is copulative which is not a conjunction but a further explanation. So, grace, which is the truth, exists as Jesus Christ. That’s actually the way it is in the original Greek.” Probably confusing the Granville Sharp rule with the TKS rule of Bible interpretation, Abel Damina erroneously concluded that the grace and truth mentioned in John 1:17 are one and the same thing.  When we stopped last time, we were discussing the Granville Sharp rule. We said it’s a grammatical principle applied to the translation of New Testament Greek whereby the deity of Chris