WHEN TRADITION BECOMES A PRISON (PART II)

“When Biblical Illiteracy Becomes Spirituality”

By Akin Ojumu

From the Garden of Eden onward, Satan’s method has remained remarkably consistent: deceive, distort, obscure, and counterfeit.

With cunning and sleight of hand, the serpent persuaded Adam and Eve to distrust what God had plainly spoken. And the same ancient strategy continues today. Satan still traffics in deception. He still muddles truth with error. He still disguises lies beneath the appearance of spirituality.

One of his most effective weapons is counterfeit religion.

Throughout the world, elaborate systems of false belief have been dressed in Christian vocabulary, decorated with Christian symbols, sprinkled with Bible verses, and presented as authentic expressions of the Christian faith.

Yet beneath the religious veneer are often nothing more than what Paul describes as: 

“speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God.”

2 Corinthians 10:3–5

“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”

These fortresses of falsehood can be enormously powerful and formidable.

Human traditions become giant walls. False doctrines become iron bars. Religious slogans become heavy chains. And entire populations can become imprisoned inside systems of belief built upon speculation, superstition, mystical experiences, and theological error.

For many, those prisons eventually become tombs.

Tragically, professing Christians are not immune.

Millions of Church people have allowed themselves to become incarcerated inside heavily fortified theological prisons constructed by false apostles, false prophets, false teachers, and religious traditions that cannot survive serious examination under the light of Scripture. Many are entombed inside these theological graves.

But false doctrine does not flourish merely because false teachers exist. It flourishes because there is an audience prepared to receive it. The market for error is vast and booming. The demand for ticklers of itching ears is pretty high. And there are entrepreneurs of aberrant doctrines willing and ready to take advantage of the lucrative opportunities.

One of the great tragedies of the contemporary Church is the staggering level of biblical illiteracy among people who nevertheless consider themselves spiritually mature. Many Church folks simply do not know their Bibles.

They know slogans. They know spiritualized catchphrases. They know their pastor’s favorite sayings. They know how to shout “Amen!” They know how to scream “I receive it!” They know how to repeat declarations. They know how to participate enthusiastically in call-and-response theatrics.

But when it comes to accurately handling the Word of God, many are woefully deficient.

Untaught in even the elementary principles of biblical interpretation, countless Christians approach Scripture less like students seeking to understand divine revelation and more like shamans consulting a book of charms.

The Bible is no longer treated as inspired revelation whose meaning must be discovered through careful attention to grammar, history, literary context, and authorial intent.

Instead, verses become magical formulas.

Texts are chanted. Verses are “activated.” Words are “released into the atmosphere.” Verses are repeated mechanically. Passages are ripped from their contexts and deployed as mystical instruments for producing supernatural outcomes.

The Bible ceases to function as revelation to be understood, believed, and obeyed. It becomes a spellbook to be manipulated. 

And with astonishing irreverence toward the actual meaning of the biblical text, passages are casually appropriated to legitimize nearly every imaginable religious absurdity.

The pattern is depressingly predictable.

First comes the practice. Then someone goes hunting through the Bible for a verse that can be forced to justify it.

That is not exegesis. That is theological banditry. It is the relentless strip-mining of Scripture for isolated words and phrases that can be weaponized to Christianize beliefs and practices the biblical authors themselves never taught.

Worse still, theological ignorance has somehow become fashionable.

Many Christians today appear almost proud of their biblical naïveté. They wear theological illiteracy as though it were evidence of spiritual authenticity.

Careful Bible study is dismissed as “too intellectual.” Theology becomes “man’s wisdom.” Exegesis becomes “the letter.” Doctrine is portrayed as somehow opposed to “the Spirit.”

And anyone who insists that words have meanings, sentences have contexts, and biblical authors intended to communicate definite truths is dismissed as carnal, academic, intellectual, or spiritually dead.

Meanwhile, the preacher who violently wrenches a verse from its context, makes it say something its author never intended, and then shouts the distortion loudly enough from the pulpit is celebrated as “deep.”

The more spectacular the distortion, the deeper the supposed revelation. The more outrageous the eisegesis, the heavier the alleged anointing. The more incomprehensible the interpretation, the more spiritual it supposedly sounds.

This is how theological incompetence masquerades as spiritual insight.

To conceal their own biblical cluelessness, some Church folks deride people who care about theology as spiritually lifeless. Those who insist upon sound exegesis and careful exposition are accused of following “the letter” instead of “the Spirit.”

But that argument collapses under the weight of its own absurdity.

Who inspired the words of Scripture? The Holy Spirit.

Who inspired the sentences? The Holy Spirit.

Who inspired the propositions? The Holy Spirit.

Who inspired the arguments? The Holy Spirit.

You cannot honor the Spirit who inspired Scripture while treating the meaning of Scripture with contempt. The Holy Spirit does not lead people to meanings He never inspired.

Nor is biblical ignorance evidence of spirituality. Ignorance is ignorance. Error is error. And mangling Scripture does not become revelation simply because the person doing the mangling claims to be anointed.

Perhaps even more disturbing is the intellectual incuriosity of many professing Christians.

Rather than study Scripture for themselves and ask what the biblical writer intended to communicate, they outsource their thinking.

The General Overseer has spoken. Case closed.

The apostle has declared it. Discussion over.

The prophet received a revelation. No further questions permitted.

Apparently, it never occurs to them that the General Overseer may be wrong. Or that the supposed apostle may not be an apostle. Or that the prophet may simply be speaking out of his own imagination. Or that the alleged revelation or experience may be nothing more than religious fiction.

Even more bewildering is watching biblically ignorant people entrust their souls to teachers who are themselves demonstrably ignorant of Scripture.

The blind follow the blind. The untaught sit at the feet of the unlearned. And week after week, spiritual malnutrition is served from the pulpit and consumed as though it were manna from heaven.

Is it any wonder that so many are feeding on spiritual poison?

Few things are more dangerous than a man who does not know what he does not know. Except, perhaps, a man who does not know what he does not know, thinks he knows it, and then builds an entire ministry around teaching everybody else what he does not know.

But biblical ignorance is not the only scourge afflicting the contemporary Church.

There is another—perhaps even more seductive because it presents itself as evidence of extraordinary spirituality:

The obsession with power, manifestations, encounters, visions, revelations, and supernatural experiences.

Once experience begins to outrank Scripture, the Christian faith itself is placed in jeopardy.

Continued in Part III: When Experience Replaces Scripture