GOD WANTS TO MAKE YOU ANOTHER JESUS

By Akin Ojumu

A text without a context is a pretext for a proof text. Anyone can quote a Bible verse, out of context, and make a case for a particular viewpoint or doctrine. This is known as proof texting. 

Proof texting is the practice of using a Bible verse or passage, which has been scrubbed of its proper context, to promote a preconceived theological notion and to push a predetermined doctrinal opinion. 

Essentially, proof texting is taking a single verse as “proof” without considering the surrounding text, intended meaning, or wider biblical teachings, often leading to misinterpretations of the Scripture. This method of biblical interpretation is flawed and extremely dangerous.

The vast majority of people who pastor the Churches today are stark biblical illiterates who never went to a Bible school or received formal training in theology. Even those who claim to have attended a Bible school, in nearly all cases, attended unaccredited third-rate diploma mills that provide wishy-washy theological education.

Because these folks lack formal training in biblical hermeneutics and are novices in sound exegesis, their sermons brim with proof texting of Bible texts as they promote all sorts of false teachings and heretic doctrines.

One of the essential biblical requirements for becoming a pastor is versatility in the knowledge of Scripture and ability to teach it.

1 Timothy 3:2 – A pastor must be able to teach.

“Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach.”

Titus 1:9 – A pastor must be able to instruct in sound doctrine.

“He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.”

The proof texting pastors who fill the pulpits today do not meet this stipulated qualification of a pastor. One of such pastors is Poju Oyemade, the Senior Pastor and Founder of The Covenant Nation (TCN) headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria.

Having subjected myself to the ordeal of watching multiple videos of Poju Oyemade’s sermons both on YouTube and Instagram, I can categorically say that the fellow cannot exegete his way out of a Coca-Cola bottle. In this commentary, I provide a glaring example of why Poju Oyemade is not biblically qualified to be a pastor.

Purporting to teach on the topic of “Greater works,” which happens to be the theme for his church for 2025, Poju Oyemade used John 5:20 as proof text for the idea that God wants to do greater works in the lives of his church members.

John 5:20

“For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.”

In Poju Oyemade’s own interpretation, what this text means is that, and I quote:

“…God wants to do greater things through us. The central purpose is to cause the world to do what? Marvel! In other words…so…what God is saying is that he wants to raise Rabbis. In the sense that people come and meet you by night and say, “Rabbi, no man can do these works that you are doing except God be with him or her.”

If you are reading this and you are not scandalized by Poju Oyemade’s interpretation of John 5:20, you are probably in a worse spiritual rot than you care to admit. The man’s interpretation of this text is nothing short of blasphemy. 

“God wants to do greater works through us...God wants to raise you up as Rabbis...that people would come to meet you at night and say, “Rabbi, no man can do these works that you are doing except God be with him.””

What Poju Oyemade is pretty much saying is that God wants to make you another Jesus. This is criminal!!!

Context is key to unlocking the intended meaning of Bible texts. The context of John 5:20 is the hostility of the Jewish religious leaders towards the Lord Jesus. These religious leaders, who are all apostates at this period of time, seek to kill Jesus chiefly because of two things: 

1) He healed a paralyzed man on the Sabbath, and 

2) He called Himself the Son of God...which they interpreted, correctly by the way, to mean Jesus equates Himself with God.

For these two reasons, the apostate religious leaders plot to have Jesus killed. In response to their hostility and plot, Jesus doubles down and refuses to back down. Instead of dialing down on His Words and deeds, Jesus goes even further to tell the religious leaders that the works that He does are what He sees His Father, i.e., YAHWEH, do.

John 5:19

“So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.”

Now, when Jesus talks about greater works in John 5:20, He is specifically and contextually referring to the fact that He is going to raise the dead. This becomes apparent when we read the next verse. 

John 5:21

“For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.”

In modern parlance, Jesus is basically telling the religious leaders, “You ain’t seen nothing yet. If you hate me now because I healed a paralytic man, you just wait until you see me raise the dead.” This is the point the Lord Jesus Is making by his statement in John 5:20

And guess what? He would indeed soon raise the dead. Not only would he raise Lazarus from the dead (John 11:34-44), He himself would rise from the dead after three days.

Like the entirety of Scripture, John 5:20 is about Jesus. It is not about you or me. That text has got nothing to do with God wanting to do greater works through you, neither is it about you becoming a Rabbi or anything of such.

By distorting John 5:20 to make it mean what it doesn’t actually say, Poju Oyemade has engaged in what’s described as narcigesis, i.e., narcissistic eisegesis. Narcigesis is when we read ourselves into a Bible passage and make a Bible passage all about ourselves because of our over-inflated sense of self-importance.