African Plume

“From the Empty Tomb to the Glorious Body” By Akin Ojumu Last time, we concluded that glorified humanity already exists. It exists in Jesus Christ. The Christian future is therefore not speculation about what redeemed humanity might someday look like. God has already shown us. Look at the risen Christ. If glorified humanity already exists in Jesus Christ, then the resurrection of Christ becomes the key to understanding our own future. Jesus did not merely survive death spiritually. He rose bodily. The tomb was empty. The same body that was crucified was raised. Jesus told His disciples: Luke 24:39 “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” The resurrection preserves both continuity and transformation. It is the same Jesus. The same body. The same wounds. The same human identity. Yet His human existence has entered an entirely new mode of life. He will never die again. Paul writes: Romans 6:9 “Ch...

“Christ Is Even Now Still Fully God and Fully Man” By Akin Ojumu To say that believers will be “conformed to Christ in glorified humanity” is to confess something much richer than merely saying Christians will receive better bodies after death. It is a statement about the Incarnation, the Person of Christ, the resurrection of the body, the union of believers with Christ, and the final renewal of creation itself. The Christian hope of glorification is rooted in the identity of Jesus Christ. We cannot understand what believers will become until we first understand who Christ is.  And this is precisely where the great Christological confessions of the ancient Church become important. THE NICENE FOUNDATION: THE SON IS TRUE GOD The Christian faith begins by confessing that Jesus Christ is not a creature who later attained divine status. He is the eternal Son of God. The Nicene faith confesses Him as: “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one sub...

By Akin Ojumu Many people read Genesis 1 as though the creation story reaches its climax on the sixth day with the creation of man. It doesn’t. The creation account reaches its theological conclusion on the seventh day, when God rests from all His work. And that matters. Humanity is not the ultimate end of creation. God is. Man is certainly the crown of God’s earthly creation, uniquely made in His image and appointed to exercise dominion over the earth. But the creation narrative does not terminate with man standing triumphantly at the center of the universe. It terminates with God—God enthroned over His completed creation, delighting in the work of His hands. Genesis 2:2–3 “And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.” That seventh day tells us something profound about why human beings exist. We were not created merely to work, build, multiply, rule, ...

“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 from place to place, even to far-flung places across oceans, without cars, airplanes, ships, 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 lock...

“When Experience Becomes Theology” By Akin Ojumu Followers and admirers of Baba Enoch Adeboye, David Oyedepo, and ministers of their theological persuasion often become deeply offended whenever people like me—nonentities with no ecclesiastical clout, no sprawling denominations, and no battalions of adoring followers—dare to question the biblical soundness of their beloved Daddies and Mummies in the Lord. To their devotees, these men are not merely pastors. They are oracles. They occupy a special spiritual caste. They are the fourth person of the Trinity who, supposedly, enjoy privileged access to God unavailable to the hoi polloi, i.e., the ordinary Christians.  Their pronouncements are treated as divine decrees. Their dreams become revelations. Their visions become doctrine. Their encounters become theology. Their celestial excursions become evidence of spiritual rank. After decades of this conditioning, many of their followers can scarcely distinguish between: “The Bible says…” a...

“When the Church Becomes a Marketplace and God Becomes the Product” By Akin Ojumu CHAPTER THREE: THE SEED-SOWING ECONOMY AND THE BUSINESS OF GOD Now concerning money, where shall I begin? Some among you have transformed giving into spiritual gambling. Seed for breakthrough. Seed for marriage. Seed for visa. Seed for conception. Seed for promotion. Seed for deliverance. Seed for uncommon favor. Seed for 24-hour miracle. At this point, the Church sounds less like Jerusalem and more like an agricultural commodities exchange. Everything is a seed.  Except, curiously, the pastor’s private jet. That is a blessing. You tell desperate people: “Your sacrifice will provoke heaven.”  So, the widow empties her account. The unemployed man gives his rent. The struggling mother gives school fees. The sick give money hoping to buy divine attention. And the preacher calls this: “Kingdom principles.” No. It is spiritualized commerce.  The grace of God is not an auction. God’s mercy is not ...