TRUTHS I FIGHT FOR

By Akin Ojumu

If you’ve ever wanted to know what I believe about God, the Bible, and my faith in a nutshell, well, you are in luck. Here are just a few of the truths about my beliefs that I hold dear. These are things for which I hold the line and there’s no compromise. 

Consensus

Consensus does not equal truth! Just because someone has a large church, massive platform, or is very famous/popular, that doesn’t mean they are teaching correctly. Size of audience does not validate message. Positive comments do not substantiate opinion. 

Discernment

Discernment is not a mystical process where you ask God for discernment and He magically drops ideas into your mind. We receive discernment from studying the Bible and understanding what it says, by the guidance that the Holy Spirit provides.

Experience

Our experience is not an indicator of truth, and our feelings are not to be trusted. A belief system rooted in experience is a pagan belief.

Truth

Truth comes from God’s Word: The Holy Bible. 

Holy Bible

The Bible isn’t a starting point that merely contains information about God – it is the very Word of God. That’s why it’s called the HOLY Bible.

Hearing God

Having a “personal relationship with God” isn’t a bad concept, but it can be a confusing phrase (and it doesn’t appear in the Bible). Too often, it implies that we need more than the Bible. But if we want to hear God speak to us, we simply read His Word. If you’ve been frustrated by a thousand different experts who claim to have the secret to “hearing from God,” this should come as a big relief.

The Christian Church, as understood by the original Protestant Reformers, has not taught Christians to expect God to speak directly to them in their hearts and/or minds in order to give them specific personal messages. This idea has caused great confusion and has its origins in Gnosticism and some early monastic orders, but it isn’t taught in the New Testament in the Bible.

Old & New Testaments

The entire counsel of God’s Word points us to Jesus Christ; both the New Testament and the Old Testament.

The New Testament provides the teaching that applies most directly to people in the Christian Church. If someone is constructing doctrine for Christians that requires exclusive Old Testament usage, they are leading people on a useless bunny trail. Examples: “Joel’s Army,” “New Order of the Latter Rain,” “Bridal Paradigm,” “Dominionism.”

Gospel Message

The Gospel message is a specific message that comes from the Bible; it is not a vague group of ideas that changes according to the surrounding culture.

The Gospel message is about Jesus Christ dying on the cross to atone for the sins of fallen people. It isn’t about “raising our dreams from the dead,” “making the world a better place,” “finding our purpose and destiny,” or a million other man-made ideas that sound good, fill seats, and sell books.

Gospel’s Relevance

We should never try to validate our Christian faith and/or the Bible by making it seem relevant to meet our particular needs. God determines what our real needs are, and only He determines what is “relevant.” God has determined that we need our sins forgiven above any earthly needs.

Miracles

Jesus didn’t “win people over” by meeting their physical needs first; he healed people and did supernatural miracles to prove He was God. 

Jesus didn’t heal people in order to set an example that we are to follow; He showed that He was uniquely God in human flesh by performing miracles that no man has ever duplicated. This should come as a great relief if you’ve been frustrated by your lack of supernatural miracle-working power that never matches up to the stories from today’s “Super Apostles” (who never provide verifiable proof of their claims).

Motivational Speeches

Jesus wasn’t a motivational speaker or life coach. He often confronted people and made enemies (because He was Holy God!). 

Money. Money. Money

Jesus did not “talk about money more than any other topic,” but people keep repeating that catchphrase anyway (especially bad preachers who want you to give them more cash!).

Pharisees

The Pharisees were self-righteous and thought they needed nothing from Jesus, so their problem wasn’t the result of being too “Bible-focused.” They rejected the Messiah who would have forgiven their sins if they had asked for mercy. Today’s Pharisees will tell you all about their good works and will boast about their ability to duplicate the works of Jesus. In some cases, today’s worst Pharisees will claim to live sinless lives.

Pharisees are lovers of money: Luke 16: 13-14 “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things, and they were scoffing at Him.”

Theology & Doctrine

Doctrine is a word that simply means “teaching” and theology is just a word that means “teaching about God.” Anyone who teaches that doctrine isn’t important is guilty of doing the very thing they claim to be against – they are teaching something, namely, they are teaching that teaching is bad. Every single Christian idea is a type of doctrine; some ideas are just camouflaged behind emotional language and layers of unchallenged assumptions, beliefs and half-truths.

Theatrics & Melodrama

The Holy Spirit is not demanding that you do weird, awkward and unbiblical things in order to prove how much faith you have (or in order to get lots of power and authority).

The Holy Spirit is not about to punish you because you failed to do weird, awkward or unbiblical things. That’s not what the “blasphemy of the Holy Spirit” is, anyway.

Skepticism

It’s okay to be skeptical when somebody tells an outlandish story of supernatural events without any verification. That’s not what the “blasphemy of the Holy Spirit” is either. Be a Berean.

End-Time Revival

The Bible very clearly warns us of an end-times “falling away.” It does not mention a great end-times revival. The end-times falling away will be marked by false prophets who do great signs and wonders. Don’t allow yourself to be conned by so-called “prophecies” of revival.

“For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. Behold, I have told you in advance.” (Matthew 24: 24-25).

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NB: This commentary borrowed copiously and almost verbatim from Steven Kozar, Messed Up Church.