AFRICAN PLUME

“The Church Has an AIDS Problem” By Akin Ojumu It was a little over six weeks ago that the Part One of this commentary series on John 10:10 was published. Forty-four days and nineteen installments later, we are still barely scratching the surface. If it’s taking this long to expound the meaning of a single verse of Scripture, just imagine how long it’ll take to do the same for the entire Bible. Romans 11:33 “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” This much I have come to realize in my short journey of faith. It’s impossible to plumb the depth of God’s Word. The Bible is like a bottomless well of understanding, knowledge, and wisdom. The deeper you dig, the deeper there’s left to go. The more you know, the more there remains to know. No matter how brilliant and wise you think you are, you are never ever going to reach the bottom of this well. Despite the vast expanse of the riches of the Bible, thoug...

“How to Catch a Pulpit Predator” By Akin Ojumu Shepherds in Israel at the time of the Lord Jesus kept their sheep together in a single communal sheepfold, typically built with tall sturdy walls and a single entrance. The doorway is guarded by a hireling who watches over the sheep and ensures that access into the sheepfold is restricted to the shepherds who own the sheep kept in the fold. Whenever a shepherd comes to take his flock out to pasture, all he needs to do is call. John 10:2-5 “But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” Now, you may be wondering how shepherds are able to tell their sheep apart from somebody else’s and how the sheep recogni...

By Akin Ojumu Unequivocally, Apostle Paul was an erudite Bible Scholar and a Theologian par excellence. I don’t know of anyone who came close. The man who wrote 13 – or 14, depending on who’s counting – of the New Testament Books was well acquainted with Scriptures. And that should come as no surprise. Apart from the twelve Apostles, Paul was the only other human being who received the Gospel through a direct revelation from the Lord Jesus Himself. Galatians 1:11-12 “For I would have you know, brothers, that the Gospel that was preached by me is not man’s Gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” Anyone else who claims that Jesus revealed Himself to them and taught them what they know about God is a liar and Satan’s mouthpiece. And I’m specifically referring to Dr. Enoch Adeboye, Mr. David Oyedepo, Joshua Selman, Arome Osayi, and the rest of their kind. In particular, Paul’s theological adroitness shines...

“Thieves and Robbers of Modern-Day Church” By Akin Ojumu John 10 describes the events immediately following the healing of the man born blind. After receiving his sight, the formerly blind man’s neighbors maligned and ridiculed him. After failing in their effort to discredit him, they dragged him before the religious rulers. As though taking a cue from the mob, the religious leaders compounded the agony of the healed blind man. Repeatedly, they interrogated him and his parents. They lampooned him for claiming to have been healed on a Sabbath. Eventually, they banished him from the assembly of the people for standing up for the Man who restored his sight. Upon learning of the mistreatment of the blind man and how he was expelled from the Temple, the Lord Jesus went looking for him. After finding him, He asked him if he would believe in the Son of Man. The man believed and he was saved.  Now, among the crowd gathered to witness these things were some of the Pharisees. It was this ass...

By Akin Ojumu I stumbled on this interesting story today. It’s a news report of the extraordinary steps a community in Katsina State took to rescue their people from the hands of kidnappers who had invaded and terrorized the village and abducted a number of their people.  Here’s how Google AI reported the story. In a highly unusual event in late 2023 or early 2024, villagers and local vigilantes in the Babban Duhu community (also referred to as Sabun Binin, Babanlu village) in Katsina state reportedly kidnapped the family members of bandits in retaliation for the bandits abducting their own people.  The incident unfolded as follows: Initial Abduction:   Bandits kidnapped several villagers and demanded a large ransom (reportedly ₦100 million per hostage). Retaliation:   The villagers, who reportedly recognized the attackers, decided to launch a counter-kidnapping operation, targeting the bandits’ parents and brothers. Negotiation and Exchange:   When the bandits ...

“Pillaging God’s House & Plundering God’s Flock” By Akin Ojumu Christian ministries today are like family-owned businesses presided over by the CEO pastor with his wife and children serving as Senior Executives. The man runs the show. It’s him God has supposedly given the vision. And it’s to him God speaks and gives direction. Since it’s the CEO pastor’s ministry and vision, everyone else is a subservient supporting cast, hired hand, and clientele whose sole purpose is to support the vision of the “man of God” and help grow the family religious business empire. When the CEO pastor dies, he passes the ministry on to his wife. And when the wife passes on, the ministry is inherited by the first son. In certain cases, it’s irrelevant that the first son is an unserious unregenerate secular soapbox entertainer with artificial dreadlocks on his head which he claimed he was instructed by “God” not to cut. Whenever a denomination is run as a one-man show and not governed by a plurality of b...

“Thieves and Robbers Stealing God’s Sheep” By Akin Ojumu The contextual backdrop of John chapter 10 is somewhere in the vicinity of the Jerusalem Temple. Gathered together are three different groups of people. On one side, you have the Lord Jesus and His disciples. Present also are the Jewish religious leaders, i.e., the top echelon of spirituality in Israel, represented by the Pharisees. Then you have the hoi polloi, i.e., the masses of ordinary people milling around and simply following the enigmatic Rabbi and His band of twelve disciples from the boondocks of Galilee. This powwow is a continuation of the dialogue that began in John chapter 9. The Lord Jesus had just healed the man born blind. Here was a man who had just been set free from a life that, up to that time, had been lived in blindness, penury, destitution and beggarliness. Instead of rejoicing with him and giving glory to God on his behalf, his neighbors and those who knew him were more concerned about knowing how he got ...

By Akin Ojumu Kirk Franklin was in attendance at a Davido’s concert – read that as orgy – which was held recently at the State Farm Arena, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Perhaps seen as the chief priest and spiritual head of the cult of orgiastic entertainers, Kirk Franklin was the one who led the opening invocations. In this video clip of the oblation session, Franklin can be seen invoking a deity, presumably “God,” to use Davido, an unregenerate sinner, to bring about revival in Nigeria. Hear the chief priest in his own words. “And I praise you God for using Davido. Use him God. Use him to touch people. Use him to change the world. Use him to open up doors for the next generation. Use him to turn things around. Lord use him. No matter what he goes through, let him know that you got him, that you care for him, that he belongs to you. And because he is in your hands, no man can pluck him out. Father, I pray for a revival in Nigeria. I pray for healing all over the world. And I pray for the sto...

“Shepherd, Sheep, and the Sheepfold” By Akin Ojumu Like many other passages in the Scriptures, John 10:10 is a Bible text that has been a victim of abuse and misuse by all kinds of preachers for far too long. It’s a text that church folks often rip out of its proper context kicking and screaming.  John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” Having been bought into the erroneous narrative that the thief and robber mentioned in this text is a reference to Satan and his demons, modern-day Christians are known to decree and declare John 10:10 to ward off demonic attacks and to stave off misfortunes. There are three rules for an accurate interpretation of Scriptures. And they are context, context, and context. Context determines meaning and it’s the single most important factor in correct interpretation of Bible texts. It’s the job of any serious Bible student to understand both the original intended meaning of ...

“God’s Sheep Feed on God’s Word Rightly Divided” By Akin Ojumu As an intro to today’s iteration of the commentary, let me share with you what I consider a great insight into the life and death responsibility God has placed on Pastors to teach right theology and sound doctrine. These are not exactly my words. They were borrowed verbatim from Justin Peters, an expository teacher who runs the Justin Peters Ministries. You can find him on YouTube. We are living in a day and age in which the vast majority of people who profess to be Christians do not care about doctrine, do not care about theology. And yet the Bible cares about these things deeply. You may have heard someone say something like this: “Well, well, I don’t need doctrine. I don’t need theology. I just love Jesus.” That is a foolish statement. Just as much as we profess to love Him, then, don’t you think we should want to get to know Him? And the only way to get to know Him is by knowing Him in His Word. And it is sound doctrine...