THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH DOES NOT CONTRADICT THE WORD OF TRUTH

By Akin Ojumu

A few days ago, I published an essay titled “When Spiritual Science Fiction Masquerades as Theology.” The essay was written as a direct response to Toluwalogo Agboola’s teaching titled, “The Exactness of Prophetic Intelligence.”

I am not one to shy away from theological confrontation—especially when the issue at stake is contending for “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” Nor am I the sort who throws stones from behind the convenient anonymity of the World Wide Web.

If I am prepared to criticize a man’s teaching publicly, I am equally prepared to take that criticism directly to him.

So, I posted a condensed version of my critique beneath Tolu Agboola’s own YouTube video, where he and his audience could read it for themselves.

His response was revealing.

Toluwalogo Agboola wrote:

“We appreciate your comments...Unfortunately we have found out it comes from a Soul that is estranged from the Government of The SPIRIT. So your submission is easy to understand....The LORD send you Help.”

Now, one might reasonably expect a preacher who claims to traffic in something called “Prophetic Intelligence” to demonstrate at least enough theological intelligence to address the substance of the objections raised against his teaching.

Apparently, that was asking too much.

Tolu did not answer the biblical arguments. He did not explain his interpretation of Scripture. He did not demonstrate where my exegesis was wrong. He did not produce chapter and verse showing that his elaborate mystical system is actually taught by the Apostles. Instead, he reached for one of the oldest escape routes in the false-teacher handbook: attack the critic when you cannot answer the criticism.

According to Tolu, the problem is not that his theology is speculative. The problem is that my soul is “estranged from the Government of The SPIRIT.”

There it is.

No exegesis. No biblical rebuttal. No theological argument. Just spiritualized ad hominem wrapped in grandiose religious vocabulary.

Tolu simply cannot help himself. The man appears constitutionally incapable of saying something plainly when a sufficiently highfalutin expression can be manufactured instead. Why merely say that someone disagrees with you when you can announce that his “Soul is estranged from the Government of The SPIRIT”?

It certainly sounds impressive.

Unfortunately, impressive-sounding language is not the same thing as biblical truth.

And since this discussion is not about me, my feelings, or my allegedly estranged soul, I refused to take the bait. Whether Tolu thinks I am spiritually defective is entirely beside the point. The question is whether what he teaches can survive the scrutiny of Scripture.

That is where I redirected the discussion.

Back to the Bible. Back to the Apostolic Gospel. Back to the Word of Truth. Because theological disputes are not settled by mystical pronouncements about the spiritual condition of your opponent. They are settled by rightly handling the Word of God.

So, what follows is an expanded version of my response to Tolu Agboola’s response. And this time, we are going to stay with the actual issue: What does the Bible say? 

John 8:31–32

“So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, ‘If you abide in my Word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’”

John 14:15–17

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth…”

1 John 2:3–6

“And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments… whoever keeps his Word, in him truly the love of God is perfected.”

There is something rather inconvenient about the Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit of Truth. That means He has an unfortunate habit of agreeing with the truth. He does not contradict Himself on Tuesdays. He does not inspire Scripture in the first century and then arrive in somebody’s prayer room in the twenty-first century to announce that He has reconsidered His position.

He does not write one thing in the Bible and whisper the opposite into the ear of a self-appointed apostle. The Spirit of Truth does not contradict the Word of Truth.

This should not be controversial.

Yet much of contemporary mystical Christianity appears to operate as though the Holy Spirit is suffering from theological amnesia.

Apparently, according to this new religion, the Holy Spirit inspired the Bible and then spent the next two thousand years searching for specially anointed men to correct, supplement, upgrade, and improve what He had already said.

How convenient.

The Bible says one thing. The mystic says another. And when you ask for biblical support, out comes the theological emergency card:

“The Spirit revealed it to me.”

Case closed. No exegesis required. No context necessary. No historical-grammatical interpretation needed. No obligation to demonstrate that the doctrine actually arises from Scripture.

Simply announce that the Holy Spirit told you, lower your voice dramatically, add some spiritual vocabulary, and apparently the rest of us are expected to surrender our Bibles at the door.

Welcome to the mystical revelation economy.

Here, private impressions outrank public revelation. Experiences become theology. Visions become doctrine. Dreams become seminaries. Imaginations become revelations. And every sufficiently strange idea can be baptized by adding the phrase, “The Lord showed me.”

This is how spiritual science fiction acquires a Christian vocabulary.

But Jesus did not say, “If you accumulate enough supernatural experiences, you are truly my disciples.”

He said:

“If you abide in my Word, you are truly my disciples.”

Notice the standard.

His Word. 

Not your vision. Not your trance. Not your celestial excursion. Not your alleged spiritual frequency. Not the dimensions you supposedly entered during a seven-hour prayer marathon. Not the beings you claim to have encountered somewhere between the second heaven and the fourth spiritual quadrant.

His Word.

Christianity is not a competition to determine who can narrate the strangest supernatural experience with the straightest face. The Christian faith is rooted in revealed truth.

And the Holy Spirit is not embarrassed by the Bible.

He does not need mystical entrepreneurs to rescue Christianity from the supposed limitations of Scripture. He does not lead Christians away from the Word into an ever-expanding universe of secret knowledge available only to a spiritual aristocracy.

That is not apostolic Christianity. That is Gnosticism wearing a church badge.

And this is where the problem becomes especially serious.

What you confuse with Christianity, my dear Tolu, increasingly resembles a syncretistic religious cocktail—a mixture of African shamanistic concepts, Eastern transcendental ideas, metaphysical mysticism, esoteric spirituality, and Christian terminology shaken vigorously together and served in a Pentecostal glass.

A little Bible here. A little mysticism there. Add some “dimensions.” Sprinkle in “realms.” Pour in several measures of “spiritual frequencies.” Add invisible portals. Introduce celestial encounters. Throw in secret revelations unavailable to ordinary Christians. Then garnish with a Bible verse.

Voilà! Apostolic revelation.

Except it is not.

Putting Christian labels on mystical speculation does not make it Christianity any more than placing a Church sign over a shrine turns the shrine into a Church. Calling something “prophetic” does not make it biblical. Calling something “apostolic” does not make it apostolic. Calling an impression “revelation” does not mean God revealed it. And shouting “Holy Ghost!” before saying something bizarre does not make the Holy Spirit responsible for it.

The Holy Spirit has already introduced Himself. Jesus called Him the Spirit of Truth. 

This means we possess an objective standard by which spiritual claims may be tested.

Truth.

Not theatricality. Not charisma. Not confidence. Not goosebumps. Not spiritual vocabulary. Not how loudly a congregation screams. Not how many people fall to the floor. Not how mysterious the preacher sounds while describing something nobody can verify.

Truth.

And truth is not allergic to examination. The Apostle John did not instruct believers to swallow every supernatural claim whole.

He wrote:

“Test the spirits.”

Paul did not say, “Despise biblical discernment and believe whatever sounds spiritual.”

He said:

“Test everything; hold fast what is good.”

The Bereans were commended because they examined even the teaching of the Apostle Paul against Scripture.

Imagine that.

Paul preached. The Bereans checked the Bible. And Luke called them noble.

Today, apparently, checking a preacher’s revelation against Scripture is sometimes treated as rebellion against the anointing.

How far we have fallen.

We have created a religious culture in which asking, “Where is that in the Bible?” can make you appear spiritually immature, while claiming that angels took you on an interdimensional tour of the heavenly administrative headquarters can qualify you to host a conference.

This is not spiritual maturity. It is theological theater.

The Holy Spirit does not fear scrutiny because truth survives scrutiny.

Falsehood is what requires intimidation.

Error needs titles. Error needs mystique. Error needs people to believe that questioning the preacher is equivalent to questioning God.

Truth simply opens the Bible.

And this brings me directly to you, Tolu.

You and I most certainly do not operate under the influence of the same spirit. I do not say that because you use different terminology from me. I say it because the mystical system you promote repeatedly move beyond the boundaries of Scripture into speculative spiritual architecture that the Bible neither teaches nor requires Christians to believe.

You describe spiritual realities with extraordinary confidence.

Realms. Dimensions. Encounters. Mysteries. Hierarchies. Experiences. Hidden operations. Supernatural mechanisms.

One could be forgiven for wondering whether you are reading the New Testament or the screenplay for a Christian fantasy franchise.

The problem is not that Christianity is devoid of the supernatural. Biblical Christianity is profoundly supernatural.

God performs miracles. Angels exist. Demons exist. The Holy Spirit indwells believers. Christ rose bodily from the dead. We await the resurrection of the body and the return of Christ.

The issue is not supernaturalism. The issue is invented supernaturalism. The issue is constructing elaborate spiritual systems from experiences, impressions, anecdotes, dreams, visions, and private revelations, and then presenting those systems as though they carry apostolic and canonical authority.

They do not.

A strange experience does not become doctrine merely because a preacher survived it. A dream does not become theology because it was vivid. A vision does not become Scripture because it made you tremble. And an alleged journey into the spirit realm does not become Christian doctrine because thousands of people applauded the testimony.

The Spirit of Truth does not contradict the Word of Truth. He does not compete with Scripture. He does not undermine Scripture. He does not lure Christians away from Scripture into a labyrinth of mystical speculation. And He certainly does not require us to believe the private spiritual adventures of charismatic personalities in order to become mature Christians.

So, when a doctrine cannot be established from Scripture, Christians are under no obligation to bow before it simply because someone says, “The Holy Spirit taught me.”

Perhaps He did not.

That possibility seems strangely absent from modern charismatic discourse.

Every thought is revelation. Every inner voice is God. Every dream is prophetic. Every coincidence is a sign. Every emotional surge is the Spirit. Every unusual experience becomes a spiritual principle.

At some point, discernment must enter the room.

The Holy Spirit is not the patron saint of theological imagination. He is the Spirit of Truth. And if what a man teaches cannot survive the light of Scripture, the solution is not to dim the light. You reject the teaching.

My dear Tolu, I sincerely pray that God opens your eyes and those who consume your erroneous teachings. I pray that He delivers you all from the intoxicating attraction of mystical novelty. I pray that you and your followers abandon speculative spirituality and rediscover the sufficiency, clarity, beauty, and authority of the written Word.

Because spiritual maturity is not measured by how many realms you claim to have visited. It is measured, in part, by whether you abide in Christ and His Word abides in you.

Christianity does not need another spiritual cartographer drawing maps of invisible worlds God never asked him to map. It needs men who will open the Bible, read what God has actually said, interpret it faithfully, preach Christ clearly, and refuse to add their imaginations to divine revelation.

Jesus already told us where freedom is found.

Not in secret knowledge. Not in mystical experiences. Not in apostolic theatrics. Not in spiritual science fiction.

“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

And the Spirit of Truth will never contradict the Word of Truth.

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UPDATE: Since the publication of this rejoinder, Toluwalogo Agboola—the prophetic intelligentsia, celestial traveler, and apparently now YouTube’s Deputy Minister of Comment Suppression—has blocked me from his channel, effectively making my comments invisible to his followers.

One would imagine that a man who travels through celestial realms and operates in prophetic intelligence could survive a theological critique on YouTube. Apparently, interdimensional travel is easier than answering a dissenting comment.

So, the obvious question remains: What, exactly, is the “apostle” afraid of?

Has the prophetic intelligence suddenly developed an allergy to scrutiny? Is the celestial traveler terrified of encountering the truth of God in the comment section?