AFRICAN PLUME

By Akin Ojumu When the Gospel is preached in its purest and unadulterated form, there’s really nothing glamorous about it. The proclamation of the Good News doesn’t invigorate, exhilarate, stimulate, or animate. What you often find is that it condemns, offends, crushes, dismantles, exposes, and frightens the hearer. ISAIAH 53:1-2 “Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him.” Where it’s preached raw and unfiltered, unsoiled by seeker-sensitive theatrics, people-pleasing histrionics, or ear-scratching melodramatics, the Gospel inflames outrage, triggers antagonism, and provokes hostility. It hits the soul with such an overpowering force that those who hear it reflexively want to block their ears, shut their eyes, and pick up stones to pummel to death the one who br...

By Akin Ojumu When they are not vehemently defending the accuracy of demonstrably erroneous teachings, advocates of false teachers are quick to play the sincerity card. In the rare instance when they concede that what their favorite preacher is teaching is unbiblical, their argument is often along these lines: “He means well. He really believes in what he is teaching. Nobody is perfect. Anyone can make a mistake.” Sadly, apologists of false teachers fail to understand a simple fact. When it comes to the truth of the God, rationalizing error on the basis of the sincerity of its purveyor is untenable. Using “good intentions” as an excuse for accommodating false teaching doesn't pass muster. 2 TIMOTHY 3:13 “Evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” False teaching is false teaching. Under no circumstances is it ever acceptable. There’s no scenario under which erroneous teaching is ever excusable or justifiable. It’s immaterial that the false...

By Akin Ojumu Welcome back from Church. How was service today? I hope you had loads of fun…or blessed beyond your wildest dreams…or whatever it is Church folks say to each other these days. But seriously, why did you go to Church today?  What made you get up from bed, put on your bottom of the box, accessorize yourself with all those costly trinkets, and douse your body with the expensive alabaster?  What was your motive? I mean, your real motive. JOHN 6:26-27 “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on Him God the Father has set his seal.” Be honest. Why do you really seek Him? Roof over your head? Clothes on your body? Empty pocket? Hungry belly? Sick body? Bigger house? House rent? Next car? Children ’ s school fees? Flagging business?  Failing marriage? Barren w...

By Akin Ojumu Just because somebody wraps himself up in the Christian flag doesn’t mean he is on the narrow road that leads to eternal life. It’s foolish presumption to simply conclude that everyone who speaks Christianese with a Biblical accent or exhibits outward appearance of religiosity is destined for heaven. MATTHEW 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Among the hoi polloi who lift up their hands in worship to sing praises to God at every Church service are many who will spend eternity weeping and gnashing their teeth. Self-titled apostles, self-named prophets, self-appointed pastors, and self-styled men and women of God of all sorts are going to be inmates doing time in the lake of fire. If you don ’ t believe me, just ask the five foolish virgins in the Parable of the Ten Virgins. On the outside, the ten virgins are indistinguishable. What sets them apart was not their ou...

Who I voted for is my freaking business, not yours. So, don’t even bother.

By Akin Ojumu You hear a lot about deep mysteries these days. There are preachers whose entire ministry and persona are built on the sinking sand of recondite secrets to which they alone are privy. The more esoteric the mystery they claim to know, the more extraordinary they seem in the eyes of their followers. And the wackier the mysteries, the larger the size of impressionable crowd they tend to draw.  Guess what? It’s all a façade. These claims of unique insight into unknown phenomena are a cynical ploy to deceive and defraud people with itching ears who have traded the truth of God for superstitions, just as Apostle Paul rightly warned Timothy. 2 TIMOTHY 4:3-4 “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” So, what exactly are mysteries within the context of the New Testament? Simply put,...

By Akin Ojumu If there’s a Bible verse that nearly all Christians know by heart, it is John 3:16. This Bible text is seared in the hearts of even the most Biblically-illiterate believer. JOHN 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” To the extent that we can point to a single Bible verse that serves as the mission statement of the life, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, John 3:16 is that verse. This Bible verse encapsulates the very essence of the Gospel message. Clearly and succinctly, John 3:16 tells us why the Son of God put on immortality and took on the form of an ordinary man. We understand, from this Bible verse, that the reason for the coming of the Messiah is so that the soul of sinful men is not eternally doomed. This verse tells us that the Lamb of God subjected Himself to suffering and death on the Cross to save those who would believe in Him from ...

“Abel Damina Believes the Lord’s Supper is Not Important” By Akin Ojumu While it’s true that there are many things wrong with social media, there’s at least one good thing this modern technology for social interaction has done for the Body of Christ. Because of social media, the dark underbelly of the Church Industrial Complex, i.e., the Empires of Grifts and Grafts, have been exposed to reveal the rotten carcasses inside. Social media has ripped apart, from top to bottom, the malevolent curtain of obfuscation that charlatans of all shapes and sizes have, for decades, use to hide their mendacious manipulation tactics from their gullible victims. Because of social media, vileness and hideousness of false teachers have been laid bare and revealed for what they truly are, a dung heap of vain things. Credit social media for my getting to know about Abel Damina and the clear and present danger he poses to the faith of many. It was during one of my forays into the jungle of social media that...

“Do it in His Remembrance” By Akin Ojumu “Please, how does the Holy Communion help a believer? When I take it, what should I expect? After I eat the bread and wine, what next? ” Those were the questions posed to me a couple of days ago. What prompted the questions was my comment on a video posted on Abel Damina’s YouTube channel. The said video was on a message preached by Abel Damina where he dismissively told his audience that the Lord’s Supper is of no value to them. According to him, if the Lord’s Supper were that important, how come Paul talked about it only in his letter to the Corinthians but never once mentioned it in the letters he wrote to the other Churches. Before going into the nitty gritty of what I wrote in response to Abel Damina’s belittling of the Lord’s Supper, let me first share with you my response to the questions prompted by my comments. Asking how the Holy Communion helps the Christian is not the right question you should be asking. Instead, a better question to...

By Akin Ojumu As someone totally committed to the fidelity of Scripture, I find it difficult to avert my gaze whenever I see a preacher wreak havoc to the Gospel. I don’t know about you, but for me, turning a blind eye on the violation of the sanctity of the Word of God is an impossible posture for me to assume.  Even when I try to ignore the nonsensical gibberish being spewed from the pulpits, my heart burns with the fire of indignation. All my attempts at burying my head in the “see no evil, hear no evil” sand of indifference and aloofness always prove abortive. So, you’ll understand how I felt when I heard Abel do violence to 2 Corinthians 5:16. “Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.” Interpreting this verse, Abel Damina makes the following profoundly outrageous assertion: “What does he mean to know Christ after the flesh? Paul never saw Jesus in the flesh because even the ch...

By Akin Ojumu If you really want to know what a man truly believes, pay attention to what they say in their unguarded moments. It’s those ill-considered, spur-of-the-moment, offhand comments that reveal the thoughts and intents of the heart of man.  At last Friday night Holy Ghost Service, Pastor Adeboye tried to clarify the comments he made the previous day when it sounded as though he was apologizing for condemning non-tithers to hell fire. Daddy GO made it abundantly clear that he was sorry for nothing, pretty much. His mistake, he told the crowd, was the fact that he limited them to a mere 10%. While doing his rebuttal and retraction, or whatever, Pastor Adeboye proceeded to make the following remarks: “If you trade with God, you will not suffer a loss.” I know that to the masses of people who worship Pastor Adeboye, these remarks may sound innocuous and a nothing burger. In the ears of many of his admirers who will hear it, there’s no there there in this comment. Nothing in th...