“If i said anything and you found out that it contradicts the scriptures, throw it back in my face even if you have to do it politely.”
The above is my paraphrase of a statement made by Pa W. F. Kumuyi, the General Superintendent of Deeper Life Bible Church at the 2016 edition of the denomination’s annual leadership congress. As far as I am concerned this is one of the noblest things I have heard from that man of God. The purpose of this post is not to debate or scrutinize the doctrines preached by Pa Kumuyi but to draw our attention to the importance and implication of that statement.
Many people within and outside Deeper Life( including me) hold Pa Kumuyi as a genuine man of God. His words are authoritative, his understanding and analysis of the scriptures is most of the time( in my opinion) very superb. Yet he says, ” throw it back in my face, if you find I have said anything contradictory to the scriptures.”
My understanding of this statement is that Pa Kumuyi was telling his listeners to show their loyalty to Christ and the scriptures rather ( more than) they would to him. he was admonishing his people to study the scriptures for themselves.
But what the Deeper Life leader asked his followers to do was not new. It was exactly what the Berean believers did almost 2,000 years before. The Bible records in Acts 17: 10-11 that the Berean Jewish converts were more noble than the brethren at Thessalonica because they searched the scriptures to check whether what Paul preached was true.
No, they were not doubting that Paul was a man of God. But they knew Paul was human and he was prone to errors like other men, so they had to interrogate his message using the scriptures. For this, they were regarded as noble. The Berean believers were not people to idolize any man of God. They would not put a man in the place of God.
Today, many Christians are too much in awe of their General Overseeers and senior pastors that they don’t want anyone to fault their messages or practices. If you dare to explain or teach based on your own understanding of the scriptures, they will come at you like angry and fierce lions ready to tear you into pieces.
By the grace of God, I have people who listen to me and I encourage them to confirm for themselves if the things I teach, are true. By the grace of God, I made up my mind to be a Berean Christian a few years ago. I listen to preachers, read the Bible, study materials, day and night.
Sometimes, it takes me years to come to a conclusion or come to a conviction about something.
Please, when next someone comes to teach what is contrary to what you have believed for years, carefully consider what they say before you label them a false teacher.
– Pastor Paul Dada
