BABA ADEBOYE TURNS 1 JOHN 3:2 INTO A PROOFTEXT FOR TELEPORTATION (PART II)

“From Glorification to Immigration”

By Akin Ojumu

In Part I, we examined how Baba Adeboye takes the magnificent promise of 1 John 3:2 and turns it into a prediction that Christians will someday travel internationally without cars, airplanes, passports, or visas.

According to this interpretation, because believers shall someday “be like” Christ, they will apparently acquire the ability to materialize wherever they wish.

Just say, “I want to go to London.” And there you are. No airport. No airline. No immigration officer required.

There is only one problem. That is not what 1 John 3:2 teaches. Not even remotely.

WHAT DOES 1 JOHN 3:2 ACTUALLY SAY?

Here is the passage:

1 John 3:2

“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.”

Where are the cars? Where are the airplanes? Where is London? Where are visas? Where are locked rooms? Where is teleportation? 

They are nowhere in the text.

John’s subject is the believer’s identity as a child of God and the glorious transformation awaiting believers when Christ returns. The passage concerns eschatological conformity to Christ.

1 John 3:2 is about glorification. Not transportation. It is about the Beatific Vision – i.e., the direct, unhindered sight and enjoyment of God in glory. Not teleportation.

John says believers are God’s children now, while the fullness of what they shall become has not yet been revealed. When Christ appears, believers shall be like Him.

That does not mean believers become deity. It does not mean Christians acquire every divine attribute. It certainly does not mean they suddenly inherit every unique feature manifested by the resurrected Christ and begin being teleported all over the globe.

Believers will be conformed to Christ in glorified humanity.

Paul teaches the same truth:

Philippians 3:20–21

“But our citizenship is in Heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself.”

Christ: “…will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body…”

There is the doctrine. Glorification. The resurrection transformation of believers.

Yet Baba Adeboye takes John’s majestic promise concerning our future conformity to Christ, welds it to a choir lyric about Jesus entering a room without a key, and somehow emerges with a prophecy about visa-free supernatural travel.

That is not exegesis. That is theological improvisation.

JOHN HIMSELF TELLS US THE APPLICATION

Better still, we do not even have to speculate about why John wrote these words. The very next verse tells us.

1 John 3:3

“And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”

There is John’s application.

Not, “everyone who has this hope should prepare for teleportation.” Not, “everyone who has this hope should expect the collapse of commercial aviation.” Not, “everyone who has this hope should begin practicing how to materialize behind immigration officers.”

John says, “Purify yourself.”

The expectation of Christ’s return produces holiness. Because Christians will one day be fully conformed to Christ, they increasingly desire conformity to Christ now.

That is John’s argument. Future glorification motivates present sanctification. It really is that simple.

Christians have already been made alive in Christ. They possess a new identity and increasingly turn away from the passions that characterized their former lives.

Peter writes:

1 Peter 4:2

“…to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.”

Paul likewise reminds believers that they were once dead in trespasses and sins but have now been made alive together with Christ.

The Christian life is therefore one of progressive transformation. The Holy Spirit increasingly conforms believers to the character of Christ now, while complete conformity awaits Christ's return.

That is the magnificent promise of 1 John 3:2. And reducing such a glorious doctrine to supernatural airline travel is not merely eccentric. It trivializes the text.

WHEN BIBLE VERSES BECOME BUILDING BLOCKS FOR FANTASY

Paul describes ideological strongholds as: 

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

That language is strikingly appropriate whenever human imagination is elevated above divine revelation.

False teaching often retains Christian vocabulary. It talks about God. It talks about Jesus. It mentions the Holy Spirit. It quotes Bible verses. It sings Christian songs.

That is precisely what makes religious error dangerous. The presence of Christian vocabulary does not automatically produce Christian doctrine.

You can decorate an idea with Bible verses and still teach something utterly foreign to Scripture. You can shout “Jesus!” fifty times and still misrepresent Jesus. You can quote half the New Testament and still construct a theological fortress against what the New Testament actually teaches.

And this is precisely why Christians must stop treating celebrity preachers as infallible spiritual authorities.

No man’s experience sits above Scripture. No man’s dream interprets Scripture. No man’s vision supplements Scripture. No man’s reputation overrides Scripture. No man’s anointing exempts him from Scripture. No man’s congregation is so large that his teachings cease to require biblical examination. And there’s no such thing as “too big to be wrong,” when it comes to handling Scripture.

The Bereans were called noble precisely because they examined even Paul’s preaching against the Scriptures. If an Apostle’s message – a real Apostle for that matter – was subjected to biblical examination, then surely the sermons of Enoch Adeboye are not exempt from the same treatment.

And if Baba Adeboye’s teaching cannot survive biblical scrutiny, the problem is not with those examining them. The problem is with the teaching.

FROM GLORIFICATION TO IMMIGRATION

There is something almost breathtaking about what Baba Adeboye has done to 1 John 3:2.

John gives the Church one of the New Testament’s magnificent promises: 

When Christ appears, we shall be like Him.

It is a promise of resurrection glory. A promise of final redemption. A promise that the corruption of sin will someday be gone. A promise that the work God began in His children will reach its glorious completion. A promise that believers shall finally behold Christ and be perfectly conformed to Him.

And Baba Adeboye reads all of that and discovers: No more airplanes. No more visas. Teleportation to London. From glorification to immigration in three easy steps.

Take one Bible verse. Add one choir lyric. Sprinkle liberally with mystical imagination. And suddenly Murtala Muhammed and Heathrow Airports have become obsolete.

This is not merely a minor interpretive mistake. It illustrates what happens when Scripture becomes subordinate to mystical imagination.

The Bible becomes a catalog of supernatural possibilities. Christ becomes a prototype for paranormal abilities. And Christianity becomes increasingly indistinguishable from mysticism dressed in Church clothes.

The antidote is not another vision. Not another prophecy. Not another angelic visitation. Not another testimony about supernatural travel. 

The antidote is the ancient command:

2 Timothy 2:15

“Rightly handling the word of truth.”

Open the Bible. Read the text. Study the context. Follow the author’s argument. Respect the grammar. Understand the doctrine. 

And refuse to make God say what God has not said. Because 1 John 3:2 is glorious enough without turning it into a boarding pass for teleportation.