POJU OYEMADE AND THE STRANGE THEOLOGY OF SOUNDS THAT ATTRACT DEMONS (PART II)

“When Scripture Is Forced to Endorse a Hunting Story”

By Akin Ojumu

In Part I of this commentary, we examined the extraordinary theological claims Poju Oyemade made while preaching at the recently concluded Annual Youth Conference of the Christ Apostolic Church, held at the Sheraton.

Using Colossians 2:6–7 and Ephesians 3:16–17 as his starting point, Oyemade informed his audience that murmuring and complaining attract demons, while thanksgiving and praise attract angels.

According to him, demons respond to the sounds of human dissatisfaction in much the same way that predatory animals respond to the distress cries of trapped prey.

The source of this extraordinary piece of supernatural intelligence was an alleged revelation received by an American preacher following a hunting expedition with a bishop friend.

The two men had reportedly spent six hours in the bush waiting for animals to appear. When the bishop began imitating the distress cries of prey, predators supposedly emerged.

From this hunting experience, the American preacher allegedly received a revelation that demons are similarly attracted to the sounds human beings make when they murmur and complain.

Oyemade embraced this supposed revelation and proceeded to teach it as a spiritual principle governing the activities of angels and demons.

He even extended the principle to personal finances.

Complain when you discover that prices have increased in the market, and demons will supposedly come to punish you.

Offer thanksgiving instead, and angels will allegedly intervene to help you financially.

Now, let’s subject this extraordinary teaching to the one test that every Christian doctrine must pass.

WHAT DOES SCRIPTURE SAY?

Let us begin with an important clarification.

The Bible unquestionably condemns sinful murmuring and rebellious complaining.

Philippians 2:14

“Do all things without grumbling or disputing.”

1 Corinthians 10:10

“Nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.”

Likewise, believers are repeatedly commanded to cultivate gratitude and offer thanksgiving to God.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

There is absolutely no dispute about these biblical commands. Christians are to trust God’s providence, maintain an attitude of gratitude, and resist the sinful disposition toward murmuring and discontentment.

But here is the critical distinction that Oyemade’s teaching completely ignores.

Scripture’s condemnation of murmuring does not establish that the sound of complaining attracts demons. And Scripture’s command to give thanks does not establish that the sound of praise summons angels.

Those are two entirely different propositions.

One is explicitly taught in the Bible. The other is an invention imported into the Bible from an unsubstantiated hunting anecdote.

The fact that Scripture condemns an attitude or behavior does not give a preacher permission to invent supernatural mechanisms explaining why that behavior is wrong.

Neither does the fact that Scripture commends a particular Christian virtue authorize anyone to manufacture mystical consequences that supposedly follow its practice.

Sinful complaining is wrong because it expresses rebellion, distrust, ingratitude, or discontentment toward God. Thanksgiving is right because God is worthy of gratitude, worship, and praise.

Neither practice needs an imaginary spiritual sound-detection system to explain its moral significance.

Yet, according to Oyemade, when human beings complain, they unwittingly broadcast a supernatural distress signal that alerts demons to their vulnerability.

And when Christians praise God, angels supposedly interpret the sound as an invitation to intervene.

Where is that written? Which biblical author teaches this doctrine? Which verse establishes this supernatural law?

The answer is nowhere.

Not in the Law. Not in the Prophets. Not in the Gospels. Not in the Epistles.

THE SERPENTS IN THE WILDERNESS WERE NOT DEMONS RESPONDING TO SOUNDWAVES

To support his theory, Oyemade appealed to the Israelites’ experience in the wilderness.

He told his audience:

“But when you murmur and complain, if you read in the wilderness, the serpents will come out. Which means demons are attracted to, alright, complaining and murmuring about things.”

Now, this is where the theological mischief becomes particularly troubling.

The episode to which Oyemade alludes is recorded in Numbers 21:4–9.

As the Israelites journeyed through the wilderness, they became impatient and spoke against God and Moses. They complained about being brought out of Egypt, expressed dissatisfaction with their circumstances, and despised the provision God had made for them.

And what happened?

Numbers 21:6

“Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.”

Please pay careful attention to what Moses wrote.

THE LORD SENT THE SERPENTS.

The text does not say that demons heard the Israelites murmuring and came running. It does not say that their complaints generated supernatural soundwaves that attracted demonic predators. It does not say that Satan interpreted their grumbling as evidence that they were trapped and dispatched serpents to devour them.

It says the LORD sent the serpents.

The serpents were instruments of God’s judicial discipline upon a rebellious people. They were not self-deploying demons responding to the acoustic properties of human complaints.

This distinction is not some insignificant theological technicality. It goes directly to the question of God’s sovereignty.

In the biblical account, God is the One who acts in judgment. The event unfolds under His sovereign authority.

In Oyemade’s reconstructed version, the explanation shifts to a supposed supernatural principle in which demons respond to the sounds of murmuring.

A divine act of judgment has been transformed into an illustration of demonic attraction.

That is not exegesis. That is the substitution of a preacher’s warped imagination for the meaning of Scripture.

And invoking the wilderness narrative does not make the hunting revelation biblical. It only exposes how far the biblical text must be stretched to accommodate an idea that originated somewhere else.

ANGELS ARE NOT SUPERNATURAL CUSTOMER SERVICE AGENTS

The other half of Oyemade’s doctrine is equally problematic.

According to him, angels gather wherever they hear thanksgiving and praise. He presents this as the spiritual counterpart to demons being attracted to murmuring.

But where does Scripture teach that angels respond to human praise by appearing to provide assistance?

Consider what the Bible actually says about angels.

Hebrews 1:14

“Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?”

Notice the language.

ANGELS ARE SENT OUT.

They are not autonomous supernatural beings who independently decide where to congregate based on the sounds human beings produce. They are servants of God, dispatched according to His sovereign will.

Psalm 103:20

“Bless the LORD, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word!”

Again, Scripture describes angels as servants who obey God’s commands. Not as celestial creatures operating some heavenly sound-recognition system.

Certainly, Scripture depicts angels worshiping God. It also records angels appearing to human beings and carrying out divine assignments.

But there is an enormous difference between acknowledging these biblical realities and asserting that human praise automatically attracts angels into one’s circumstances.

The former is biblical teaching. The latter is theological speculation.

Thanksgiving is worship, not an angel-summoning technique. Praise is the believer’s response to God’s character and works, not a mystical mechanism for activating supernatural assistance.

God does not need Christians to produce a particular sound before He can command His angels concerning them.

And angels do not become more obedient to God because somebody has discovered the correct formula for attracting their attention.

Herein lies the fundamental problem with Oyemade’s theological construction.

He has taken biblical commands concerning thanksgiving and murmuring, attached to them an imaginary supernatural mechanism borrowed from an American hunting expedition, and presented the resulting invention as though it were a revelation of divine truth.

In the process, the sovereign God who commands His angels has been displaced by a supposed spiritual law in which supernatural beings respond to human sounds.

The Bible tells Christians to give thanks because God is worthy of thanksgiving.

Oyemade would have us believe that thanksgiving doubles as a supernatural alarm system for summoning heavenly assistance.

The Bible condemns rebellious murmuring because it is an expression of unbelief and discontentment toward God.

Oyemade would have us believe that murmuring is dangerous because demons possess an extraordinary ability to detect the acoustic signature of human dissatisfaction.

This is what happens when a preacher begins with an anecdote and then goes searching through Scripture for verses to support it.

The biblical text is no longer permitted to speak for itself. It is forced to testify on behalf of a theological theory it never taught.

And the tragedy is that the people listening are left believing they have received deep spiritual insight when, in reality, they have merely been introduced to another invention of religious imagination.

But there is yet another problem with this strange doctrine.

Oyemade also suggests that praise discourages satanic attacks because Satan supposedly recognizes that a praising Christian is not vulnerable prey.

Does Scripture teach that faithful Christians can protect themselves from satanic opposition by producing the appropriate spiritual sounds?

That is the question we shall examine in Part III.

TO BE CONTINUED.