USING BIBLICAL HISTORY TO JUSTIFY RELIGIOUS ABSURDITY (PART I)

“When Supernatural Spectacle Becomes Biblical Authority”

By Akin Ojumu

There is a familiar pattern among the defenders, admirers, and enthusiastic disciples of today’s self-appointed apostles, prophets, and General Overseers.

Whenever anyone questions the spectacular supernatural claims of their spiritual daddies and mummies, they immediately run to the Bible in search of something equally spectacular.

Challenge a supposed man of God who claims to have sat down to drink tea with God, and they will remind you that Moses spoke with God.

Question the fellow who boasts of levitating, engaging in astral travel, or transporting himself supernaturally from Ibadan, Nigeria to Swansea, Wales, and they will remind you that Elijah was taken up into heaven in a whirlwind.

Ask for evidence from the religious celebrity who claims to have visited heaven to attend high-powered meetings with God, and they will point you to Paul’s experience of being caught up to the third heaven.

Express skepticism about the preacher who regularly receives personal visits from Jesus, angels, and Satan, and they will inform you that angels appeared to Abraham, Daniel, Mary, and the apostles.

And, of course, when all else fails, they will reach for their favorite theological escape hatch.

“Did Jesus not say that those who believe in Him would do greater works than He did?”

John 14:12 is usually delivered with the confidence of a lawyer who has just produced the decisive evidence that will secure his client’s acquittal.

Case closed!

Their spiritual daddy can teleport, levitate, summon angels, visit heaven, entertain Jesus in his bedroom, and hold executive meetings with God because, according to them, the Bible records supernatural events, and Jesus promised greater works.

What an extraordinary method of biblical interpretation!

By this reasoning, every miracle recorded in Scripture becomes a standing authorization for today’s religious celebrities to claim the same experience.

Every exceptional event becomes a universal possibility that must be accepted without serious examination. Every extraordinary encounter becomes an unquestionable credential of spiritual authority.

And every demand for evidence becomes an act of unbelief.

But there is a fundamental problem with this argument.

THE FACT THAT SOMETHING HAPPENED IN THE BIBLE DOES NOT MEAN THAT IT IS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN TO EVERY CHRISTIAN, IN EVERY GENERATION, UNDER EVERY CIRCUMSTANCE.

Nor does the fact that God performed a particular miracle in biblical history establish the truth of a modern preacher’s claim to have performed something similar.

These are two entirely different propositions.

That God did something in Scripture is one thing. That a contemporary religious personality has done the same thing is quite another.

The first is established by divine revelation. The second requires independent examination rather than suspension of disbelief.

And to demonstrate the absurdity of turning extraordinary biblical events into normative Christian experiences, let us examine some of the remarkable instructions God gave His prophets in the Old Testament.

These instructions were not merely unusual. Some were astonishingly strange, deeply uncomfortable, physically demanding, and, by ordinary human standards, thoroughly humiliating.

Yet Scripture records that God commanded them.

Let us begin with Ezekiel.

PROPHET EZEKIEL: THE MAN WHOSE MINISTRY WOULD TERRIFY TODAY’S RELIGIOUS CELEBRITIES

1. God Commanded Ezekiel to Lie on His Side for 430 Days.

In Ezekiel 4:4–8, God instructed the prophet to lie on his left side for 390 days, symbolically bearing the punishment of Israel, and then on his right side for another 40 days, representing Judah.

That is a combined total of 430 days.

This was not a forty-day prayer-and-fasting exercise advertised on colorful billboards. It was not a spiritual retreat organized to acquire fresh mantles, increase anointing, or unlock supernatural dimensions.

It was a prophetic sign dramatizing the judgment of God against His rebellious people.

Imagine one of today’s supposedly powerful apostles announcing that God had instructed him to lie on his side for hundreds of days as part of his prophetic assignment.

What would happen to the international conferences, private jets, protocol officers, special seats, and elaborate entourage?

2. God Instructed Ezekiel to Cook His Food Using Human Excrement as Fuel.

Read Ezekiel 4:9–15.

God commanded Ezekiel to prepare bread from a mixture of grains and legumes and initially instructed him to bake it over human dung. When Ezekiel protested that he had never defiled himself with unclean food, God permitted him to use cow dung instead.

The symbolic act illustrated the defilement and deprivation that the Israelites would experience during exile.

Now, imagine a modern prophet announcing to his congregation that God had instructed him to prepare his meals over human excrement.

Would his admirers celebrate the demonstration of a higher prophetic dimension?

Would they organize an international conference titled Unlocking the Mysteries of Prophetic Cooking With Human Feces?

Or would they suddenly discover the importance of interpreting Scripture in context?

3. God Commanded Ezekiel to Shave His Head and Beard With a Sword.

Ezekiel 5:1–4 records another extraordinary instruction.

God commanded Ezekiel to use a sharp sword as a razor, shave his head and beard, weigh the hair, and divide it into portions.

A third was to be burned. Another third was to be struck with the sword. The final third was to be scattered to the wind.

These actions symbolized the destruction, death, and scattering that would overtake Jerusalem. 

They were not instructions for believers to establish ministries specializing in supernatural barbing.

They were symbolic declarations of impending divine judgment.

4. God Told Ezekiel to Eat a Scroll.

In Ezekiel 3:1–3, God instructed Ezekiel to eat the scroll presented to him in a prophetic vision.

The prophet obeyed, and the scroll tasted as sweet as honey.

The significance was tied to Ezekiel’s reception and proclamation of God’s message. 

It was not the introduction of a new spiritual diet. And it certainly was not an invitation for today’s self-appointed apostles to begin swallowing Bible pages at their next miracle crusade.

But if every extraordinary biblical experience is a precedent for contemporary spiritual practice, why should lying on one side for 430 days, eating a scroll, shaving once head with a sharp sword, or cooking with human fecal matter be excluded?

PROPHET ISAIAH: THREE YEARS OF PUBLIC HUMILIATION

1. God Commanded Isaiah to Walk Naked and Barefoot for Three Years.

Isaiah 20:2–4 records one of the most remarkable prophetic signs in the Old Testament.

God instructed Isaiah to remove his sackcloth and sandals and walk naked and barefoot.

Isaiah obeyed.

For three years, his appearance served as a prophetic sign concerning the humiliation and captivity that awaited Egypt and Cush at the hands of Assyria.

Scholars debate whether Isaiah was completely unclothed or stripped of his outer garments, but the point remains: his appearance was deliberately humiliating and symbolized the shame of the coming captives.

Now, consider the implications of the reasoning employed by the defenders of modern-day apostles and prophets of signs and wonders.

Since Isaiah walked naked and barefoot at God’s command, should we conclude that contemporary prophets must be prepared to repeat the exercise?

Should the next international prophetic conference feature a three-year naked-and-barefoot ministry?

Should Christians accept such conduct merely because Isaiah did something similar and it is recorded in the Bible?

Of course not.

And why not?

Because Isaiah’s assignment was a specific prophetic sign, given to a particular individual, at a particular moment in redemptive history, to communicate a particular message.

It was not a universal prescription for prophetic ministry.

And therein lies the problem with the argument of today’s defenders of supernatural celebrities.

They want the spectacular experiences of biblical prophets to serve as precedents for the extraordinary claims of their spiritual heroes.

But they conveniently ignore the uncomfortable, humiliating, and bizarre assignments those same prophets received.

If the mere occurrence of an event in Scripture establishes a precedent for contemporary Christian experience, why do they get to select only the glamorous ones?

Why is levitation acceptable as biblical precedent, but lying on one’s side for 430 days is not?

Why is visiting heaven a mark of superior anointing, but cooking with human feces or cow dung is not?

YOU CANNOT TURN BIBLICAL HISTORY INTO A SUPERMARKET WHERE YOU SELECT ONLY THE SUPERNATURAL EXPERIENCES THAT FLATTER YOUR RELIGIOUS HEROES.

And Ezekiel and Isaiah are only the beginning.

In Part II, we shall examine Jeremiah and Hosea, two other prophets whose extraordinary assignments further expose the absurdity of confusing biblical description with biblical prescription.

To be continued.