THE APOSTOLIC FAITH VS. THE GOSPEL OF MYSTICISM

By Akin Ojumu

The Holy Spirit came upon the disciples of Jesus on the Day of Pentecost. As Jesus had promised, the Spirit of truth brought to their remembrance what Christ had taught them and guided them into a fuller understanding of the truth He had revealed.

The Apostles, together with Paul, then faithfully transmitted this body of truth to the Churches they established and to the believers they discipled. Their teaching was preserved for the Church in the apostolic writings that now form the New Testament.

This is why the earliest Christians did not devote themselves to chasing mystical experiences, secret revelations, visions, angelic encounters, or esoteric knowledge. They devoted themselves to the teaching of the Apostles.

Acts 2:42

“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

That apostolic teaching has not disappeared.

We have it.

It is preserved for us in the New Testament, which, together with the Old Testament, constitutes the Canon of Scripture—the Holy Bible.

The Christian faith is therefore not an endless treasure hunt for secret revelations that God supposedly forgot to give the Apostles. Christianity is not a mystical scavenger hunt in which every generation needs a new prophet to travel into the spirit realm and return with information unavailable to ordinary Christians.

God has already given His people what they need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Christ.

2 Peter 1:3

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.”

Notice Peter’s language:

“…has granted to us all things.”

Not some things. 

Not the elementary things, while the really deep mysteries are reserved for spiritual adventurers who have mastered astral travel, prophetic portals, angelic visitations, and excursions into invisible dimensions.

All things that pertain to life and godliness.

The Apostles did not leave the Church spiritually unfinished, waiting two thousand years for modern mystics to complete Christianity.

Paul was so serious about preserving the apostolic Gospel that he pronounced the strongest possible condemnation upon anyone who preached a different gospel—even if the supposed messenger came from heaven.

Galatians 1:8–9

“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.”

That statement should terrify anyone who casually says:

“An angel appeared to me.”

“I entered the spirit realm.”

“I traveled in the spirit.”

“God showed me a mystery nobody else knows.”

“I received a revelation that Christians have never understood before.”

Paul’s response would not have been: “Wonderful! Tell us what you saw.”

His first question would have been: “Does it agree with the Gospel already delivered?”

Even an angel does not possess authority to rewrite apostolic doctrine.

Paul gave Timothy exactly the same instruction. Timothy was not commissioned to invent new revelations. He was commanded to preserve and transmit what he had already received from Paul.

2 Timothy 2:2

“And the things that you have heard me say among many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be qualified to teach others as well.”

Look at the pattern:

Christ → Apostles → faithful men → others.

Not:

Christ → Apostles → lost mysteries → modern mystic → astral dimension → angels → YouTube revelation.

The apostolic faith was to be preserved, not continually reinvented.

This is precisely why the New Testament repeatedly warns believers against speculative spirituality, myths, visions, angelic fascination, and supposed secret knowledge.

Paul confronted people who boasted about visions and became preoccupied with angels:

Colossians 2:18

“Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind.”

Read that carefully.

“Going on in detail about visions.”

Apparently, even in the first century, there were people whose spirituality consisted largely of telling everyone what they had supposedly seen in the invisible realm. 

And these chasers of visions and mysteries of early Christianity were called the Gnostics and their teaching was known as Gnosticism.

Paul was not impressed. He did not call them spiritually advanced. He said they were “puffed up without reason.”

Likewise, Paul warned Timothy:

1 Timothy 1:3–4

“As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.”

There is an astonishing resemblance between the errors Paul confronted and much of what passes for “deep spirituality” today.

Myths. Speculations. Visions. Angelic fascination. Secret knowledge. Invisible realms. Mysteries allegedly unavailable to ordinary Christians.

The packaging changes. The vocabulary changes. The personalities change. But the temptation remains the same:

Leave the sufficiency of apostolic truth and go searching for something more exciting.

And that is where the teaching of the apostles of the realms and portals religious systems like Arome, Selman, Oyor, Udechukwu, Agboola, etc, must be judged—not by how mysterious it sounds, how passionately it is delivered, how many people attend the meetings, or how many supernatural stories accompany it.

It must be brought before the bar of Scripture.

When Christianity becomes preoccupied with alleged journeys into spiritual dimensions, astral travel, astral projection, angelic encounters, secret revelations, mystical technologies, and speculative knowledge of invisible realms, we are no longer dealing with the simple pattern of apostolic Christianity.

We are moving toward the very kind of speculative mysticism against which the New Testament repeatedly warns.

There is nothing spiritually advanced about abandoning what God has plainly revealed in Scripture in order to chase what someone claims to have discovered in another dimension.

That is not deeper Christianity. It is departure from apostolic Christianity.

And Paul leaves no room for treating a departure from the apostolic Gospel as harmless experimentation.

Galatians 1:8

“If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.”

That warning applies to preacher and hearer alike.

So, this is not merely about one particular realm and portal apostle. It is about everyone who sits under any preacher and switches off biblical discernment because the man sounds spiritual.

Do not surrender your Bible because somebody claims to have visited the spirit realm. Do not abandon apostolic doctrine because somebody tells captivating stories about angels. Do not trade revealed truth for mystical speculation. Do not mistake spiritual theatrics for spiritual depth. 

And, for goodness sake, do not assume that because something sounds supernatural, it therefore comes from God.

The Holy Spirit who inspired Scripture will never lead the Church away from the truth He inspired the Apostles to write.

The faith has been delivered. The Gospel has been proclaimed. The apostolic doctrine has been preserved. The Canon of Scripture is closed.

You do not need another gospel. You do not need another spiritual universe. You do not need secret knowledge. You need the truth God has already given. You need the Bible.

Stay with Scripture. Stay with the Apostles. Stay with Christ.