Why Doctrinal Distortions Don’t Disturb God

While you wonder whether the Almighty can ever be perturbed by anything, kindly suffer the caption as couched for contextualisation. Also, before you probe how I knew that devious doctrines aren’t a concern to God, be honest enough to answer if you’d remain anxious after preempting a problem with an ample remedy. My point will be apparent eventually, but let’s begin with an example of how doctrines diverge: some pastors teach that angels are at the saints’ command. Others counter that angels don’t do man’s bidding but only serve the Lord Almighty! Yet, both sides have scriptural backing for their standpoints.

Besides the tithing debate, no other issue seems to have inflamed passions as the ongoing hyper-grace versus legalism argument - that's the OSAS doctrine. There was a recent exchange in the regard: Dr David Ogbueli, based on John 1:17, taught his members that while Moses brought the law, two things came by Jesus: Grace and Truth. He went on to posit that part of the problem Christianity now faces is that people are placing almost all emphasis on the former - Grace and ignoring the latter - Truth. That, according to him, is why many believers are not functioning in the fear of the Lord.

In a rejoinder, Dr Abel Damina asserted that the original translation of the “And” in John 1:17 is not a conjunction linking the two separate divine attributes but presents them as synonymous. According to him, it is from the Greek word “Kai” that simply means: "which is", " that is", "even". He maintained that, as represented in the Biblical Greek, it is saying "Grace which is Truth" or "Grace, that is Truth,” or “Grace, even Truth”. This highlights the complexities around the issue of doctrines.

A video went viral mid-last week where Apostle Gideon Odoma was insinuating that the birth, ministry, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus are not enough to understand the true character of God. In his words, “There's this disingenuous thing that Hypergrace people do where, in trying to hold that Jesus is the perfect image/expression of God, they put a full stop where God put a comma. The ascension of Christ is not the complete story of Jesus. Jesus’s mission to the earth is not yet complete. Even Jesus said I come quickly…

“If you are going to say anything Jesus did not do, God doesn’t do. That wouldn’t be accurate. There are things that Jesus has not yet done that He will do. Those will still be in the character of God. But if you take your timeline to be the ascension of Jesus, you may say Jesus is not going to judge anybody because we didn’t see him judge anybody (while on earth).” As plausible as this sounds, there are gaping holes in the argument. For all his troubles, the man of God couldn’t distinguish between the historical personality of Jesus of Nazareth and “Jesus the Christ".

How can the cleric say that what we know about Jesus of Nazareth isn’t reflective enough of God when the Lord Himself declared in John 14:9 that “He who has seen Me has seen the Father?” The Lord made this declaration way before His finished work on the Cross of Calvary, which, according to Apostle Odoma, is still not enough. Why expect Jesus to still prove Himself to be an express image of God when He has declared that it is finished? A message that looks towards the second coming of Christ to completely understand the person of God is anything but wholesome. What Odoma’s submission glossed over is that the Holy Spirit has since taken over, making up for whatever the Lord Jesus supposedly didn’t do while He walked the earth. With John 16:13 saying that the Holy Ghost will also show believers things to come, that demolishes Apostle Gideon’s argument unless he doesn’t believe in the Trinity.

Between, the Yeast of the Pharisees isn’t just a malaise in Nigerian Christendom but a global contradiction. Also, it is not just without but within. When the Roman Catholic Church came to the epiphany that Jesus Christ solely saved humanity through His crucifixion, death, and resurrection, Pope Leo XIV instructed Catholics around the world last November to stop bestowing the “co-redemptrix” title on the Virgin Mary. After perennially barring members from accepting blood transfusions because both the Old and New Testaments "command us to abstain from blood", Jehovah's Witnesses updated its policy on blood transfusions in March this year to allow members to have their own blood removed, stored, and "given back" in medical procedures.

In mid-2022, prominent American televangelist Creflo Dollar publicly confessed that his long-held teachings on compulsory tithing were incorrect and not supported by the New Testament. A similar scenario played out in Nigeria when the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor E A Adeboye, said in October 2024, “I apologise for saying ‘If you don’t pay tithe, you might not make it to heaven.’ I’m sorry, that’s wrong, and it’s not in the Bible.” The General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Christian Ministry, Pastor William Kumuyi, made a profound statement during the 2025 Global Family and Marriage Conference while lifting the Church’s ban on intending couples visiting each other. The rule was modified to permit persons engaged to visit each other during courtship, provided a church elder is present.

Kumuyi reportedly said, “We just felt couples should have time to know one another. We said one month was too short, two months too short, so why not six months? But it is not from the Bible… As a Christian, you need to be mature enough to know what comes from God and what comes from church principles.” The Truth’s ultimate triumph in these fundamental dogmatic adjustments is one reason God need not worry about unwholesome doctrines - they have a lifespan.

While the foregoing are highlighted to prove that doctrines aren’t gospel, they are laudable cases of Churches having the mind of Christ to recant positions not backed by Scripture. It is quite unfortunate to hear denominations disseminate divergent doctrines and dogmas as if they are not all of the same Christian faith. Hitherto, the dogmatic variance and borderlines between the Orthodox and Pentecostal Churches were tolerable, but it is now getting out of hand among the Nigerian evangelicals. A few days ago, there was this headline that read, “Insults Directed at Bishop Mike Okonkwo Over Hypergrace Are Painful - Pastor Harrison Ayintete”. It beats hollow how pastors would employ vitriol in propagating the Prince of Peace.

This doctrinal babel must have moved Pastor Poju Oyemade to make this social media post: “Any wrong doctrine, no matter how loud the propagators sound, will never settle in the hearts of the majority of God's people. The reason is that as they read their Bibles, they will come across scriptures that contradict the position. Even those who seem to embrace it will continuously have an internal struggle as they see scriptures that clearly speak otherwise.” Indeed, many preachings and practices by Churches are not scriptural. This much was exposed by Pastor Kumuyi when he said, “There is no marriage committee in the New Testament. We created it to help, not because there is a chapter or verse that commands it. It is simply church administration.”

Searching the Bible like the Berean believers did (Acts 17:11) actually helps, but that’s not all. If reading Scripture was enough, religious leaders and the Rabbinite of Jesus’s days would have seen in the Torah they read daily that Christ is alluded to as the Messiah. During conversations with them, we saw Jesus juggle their brains out of obtuseness by repeatedly using the phrase "Have you not read?" or "Have you never read?" This doesn’t in any way diminish the place of the Word in dousing the impact of false doctrine, what with Jesus’s words in John 10:4-5. There’s also the admonition of the Apostle Paul in Colossians 3:16. However, there must be a phenomenon beyond the Bible that checks and stands as a bulwark against false doctrine. That phenomenon is the person of the Holy Ghost.

This Spirit of the Lord has been made available to mankind by the Father who knew from the very beginning that He would be sorely needed for a time like this. Since the Pentecost in Acts 2, the Holy Ghost has remained on earth, “teaching us all things, and bringing all things to our remembrance, whatsoever Jesus has said unto us." (John 14:26). When John 16:8 (AMP) says He would convict the world about [the guilt of] sin, it also means that it would expose false doctrines to the believer. Thanks to this Spirit of Truth (John 15:26 KJV), the believer doesn’t struggle with discernment or knowing what is true!

Pray, why should God be bothered about the deleterious effects of false teachers when He has already alerted us to them (1 Timothy 4:1-2, 2 Peter 1:20-2:16) and availed us their antidote? Refuse to be gullible or manipulated by latching on to the Holy Ghost and studying the Word. In the main, as they exert exegesis and hermeneutics, apostles and apostates in the apologetic aspect of theology must be wary of God’s warning in Revelation 22:18-19!

VIS Ugochukwu is a sage, storyteller and branding specialist who welcomes feedback sent to nmiringwu@gmail.com

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