The Preacher of Repentance Who Needs Repentance Himself

Ever since Dr. Edward Owuor—commonly referred to by his followers as ‘The Mightiest Prophet of the Lord’—entered the scene of public preaching in Kenya about 14 years ago, he has attracted a number of criticisms from a section of Kenyans who aren’t happy with the floridity and grandiloquence that characterize not just his meetings but also his lifestyle and the fact that he is in possession of a security detail. Besides, the members of his movement—including the senior leaders—have also been spotted in a number of occasions genuflecting in his presence and referring to him as ‘my lord’ as a way of according him the reverential treatment that they think he so deserves—being a ‘prophet’ of the Lord. You can read more about the Repentance and Holiness Ministry that he founded at (http://www.repentandpreparetheway.org/). My interest in this article is not however, to address all these concerns but rather to give a pericopal analysis of the claims that the ‘Mightiest Prophet’ made concerning entry into the kingdom of God in a video clip that has been making rounds in the social media. The clip begins where the ‘Mightiest Prophet’ is conferring blessings upon one of the congregants next to the dais. For a more exhaustive analysis of Dr. Owuor’s ministry including his theological beliefs, please read what Pastor Murungi says by following the link (http://pastormurungi.blogspot.com/2012/12/dr-owuor-true-or-false-prophet.html).  

The claims made by the ‘Mightiest Prophet’ regarding entry into the Kingdom of God

Before you read what follows, please watch the clip that begins at 6:05:14 hours by following the link (https://youtu.be/x5jIiFOu43g?t=21914). It is part of a 6:19:24 hour YouTube live recording by Bishop Prof. Jason Getheko on July 8, 2018 and captures the claims made that day by the ‘Mightiest Prophet’ in a meeting that took place at Central Park, Nairobi. For more about Bishop Githeko please visit (http://githeko.blogspot.com/).  In this clip, the ‘Mightiest Prophet’ tells a congregant, “…The Lord bless you eternally. I have also blessed your entry into eternity. You will enter the kingdom of God strictly based on the word of my tongue.” The male translator at first renders it in Swahili as, “…Bwana atakubariki milele. Pia nimebariki kuingia kwako kwa umilele. Utaingia ufalme wa mbinguni kuzingatia maneno yangu ya kinywa.” The clip captures the ‘Mightiest Prophet’ unleashing an indignant tirade against the translator for omitting the word “strictly” in his translation. He wants the translator to include the word “strictly” that he omitted. He corrects him by emphasizing the phrase “strictly based” in Swahili (“kuzingatia tu”). I’m not sure whether or not the translator was deliberate in this omission—he knows best. It is apparent however, that this omission turns out to be costly on him as the ‘Mightiest Prophet’ immediately asks the lady translator to jump up to the dais and take over. Her faithful translation immediately receives the approval of the ‘Mightiest Prophet’ when she renders the phrase in question as, “Kuzingatia tu kwa neno la kinywa changu.”

From this verbatim statement, it is clear that Dr. Owuor is claiming divine powers, to say the least. He is claiming that he has the power to bless one’s entry into heaven. He goes ahead to gravitate and escalate this claim by emphasizing that he has the absolute power to grant his audience entry into the kingdom of God. Notice his emphasis here on the word “strictly based on the word of my tongue.” Let these words resonate in your mind as I briefly undertake to put him under Biblical scrutiny in three subheadings—Sovereignty, Salvation, and Scripture.

A brief Biblical scrutiny of these claims

I.          Dr. Owuor and Sovereignty

First of all, by saying that “…I have also blessed your entry into eternity. You will enter the kingdom of God strictly based on the word of my tongue,” Dr. Owuor is claiming a prerogative that only belongs to God. Only God can speak like this! Only God does grant entry into His kingdom to whomever he wills, including even the understanding of His hidden treasures of His kingdom (Matt. 11:25-26). Notice that the kingdom doesn’t belong to Dr. Owuor but absolutely to the Sovereign God. We must not forget that it is called the “kingdom of God” and rightly so. It is only the Lord who does what He pleases and whose decrees will always indelibly stand (Isa. 46:9-11; Psa. 135:6; 115:3). He is holy and righteous to do with His kingdom that which pleases Him. He is free to admit whomever He pleases in His kingdom. Nobody holds Him accountable when He acts. Nobody tells Him who or not to admit into the kingdom for He unequivocally says that He will have mercy on whomever he will have mercy (Rom. 9:15). Dr. Owuor doesn’t have the capacity to act like God. He seems not to understand the Sovereignty of God in such careless utterances. This is the very knowledge the Old Testament prophets had in relation to who God is and whenever the Lord gave them His word to speak to His people, they said, “Thus says the Lord.” They knew their boundary and defined it very well. Notice that they didn’t claim the words they spoke but rather attributed them to God. What Dr. Owuor has uttered in this clip is blasphemous and he must—with humility and reverential awe—acknowledge it and ask God for His mercy, repent and ask the Lord for forgiveness.

II.      Dr. Owuor and Salvation

Secondly, by saying that “… I have also blessed your entry into eternity. You will enter the kingdom of God strictly based on the word of my tongue,” Dr. Owuor is claiming that he has the absolute power to grant salvation. Only those who are saved are the candidates of the kingdom of God. The Scripture explains to us very succinctly that “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). This is what Dr. Owuor’s work ought to be—to preach the necessity of the new birth to his audience as the Biblical requirement for entering the kingdom of God. He forgets that being born again exclusively means being born of God, not according to human will (John 1:12-13). Jesus Himself—being the very Son of the living God—preached the gospel as of utmost necessity for those who would enter the kingdom of God. He says, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:14-15). Here the Lord is clearly stating for us what kind of response the gospel demands for one to enter the kingdom of God—faith and repentance. It must be remembered, dear readers, that the gospel is the only means through which sinners are saved when they respond—not the promises of men like the one Dr. Owuor is making to his audience. It must be said that by making such a claim, Dr. Owuor is misleading his followers into false hope of salvation that the Bible knows nothing about. Such claims are alien to Scripture, and must be condemned in the strongest terms possible.

III.  Dr. Owuor and Scripture

Thirdly, by saying that I have also blessed your entry into eternity. You will enter the kingdom of God strictly based on the word of my tongue,” Dr. Owuor is assaulting the authority of the Word of God or the Scripture. At the heart of the matter is the authority of Scripture. These claims being made here cannot be just ignored. These should be matters of grave concern to the entire body of Christ whose chief aim is to exalt Christ here on earth. The church belongs to the living God and exists as a pillar and buttress of the truth to which she was called (1 Tim. 3:15). My readers, this truth must not only be expressed in the church’s credal confession as the substance of her faith but also in her practice. This is the faith for which the church is to contend—the once-for-all faith delivered to the saints by the apostles (see Jude 3). This is the truth that we must fight for like the apostles and saints of all ages. But how can preachers like Dr. Owuor stand on the truth when he claims authority apart from the Bible? Hasn’t he forgotten that the only extant tool used by the Holy Spirit in leading the church in all her endeavors to glorify Christ is the inscipturated Word of God that was handed down to us by the apostles in the form of the Bible and that no one has ever dared to add to it and new revelation? Hasn’t he so quickly forgotten that the church has always maintained throughout all ages that the Bible alone is the only trustworthy source of divine revelation and that it is the only tutelary tool that inoculates the people of God from any form of error? Hasn’t he so quickly forgotten that the authority and sufficiency of the Bible was at the center of Protestantism when the church of Christ was led by the Spirit to see that the Church of Rome had grossly deviated from apostolic teaching by raising her tradition above the Scripture? Let me submit to you that Dr. Owuor hasn’t considered the gravity of all these issues at all when making his claims and I’m afraid if his followers don’t open their eyes now, then they are already slipping back into Roman Catholicism that venerates her Papacy above the Scripture when he speaks ex cathedra. It is a system whereby one man speaks authoritatively based on the powers vested on him by the church. Consider the apostle Paul for example. His teaching—although he was an apostle of Christ who did mighty things for Him and received inexpressible revelation from heaven—was tested by the noble Bereans to see whether he actually spoke from the Scripture (Acts 17:10-12). They only believed Paul because he spoke from the Scripture. You can imagine that this took place when the only complete and available Scripture was the Old Testament. It means Paul had to base all his teachings on the Old Testament. The question Dr. Owuor ought to ask himself is: based on our propensity to sin as fallen creatures and taking into consideration our marred noetic configuration, can anybody’s words be truly trusted and held in the same level with the veracious word of God? Is there anyone who can by dare claim to speak in the place of God by issuing any decretive statement that stands? By no means! Let God be true and every human being a liar (Rom. 3:4). Let it be known to you that those who spurn the Bible, adds to or subtracts from it, or supplant it with other claims of direct revelation yet claim to belong to the body of Christ will always run into error. Let the church return to the Scripture as the only authoritative and sufficient Word of God.

What does this mean for us today?

I.          It is a call to Authority and Sufficiency of Scripture

The church has become so gullible to every wave of teaching that comes her way because she rejects the authority and sufficiency of Scripture as the only rule of faith and practice. Paul—in his farewell to the young Timothy—charges him to devote himself to the study of the Word of Truth to rightly divide it (2 Tim. 2:15). For “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work” (3:16-17). It is the very word through which Timothy became a believer (2 Tim. 3:15). It is this very Word of God that Paul charges him in the presence of God and of Christ to incessantly preach. For he knows that a time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but will be led astray by their itchy ears that are looking for what they like hearing (2 Tim. 4:1-5). The church must return to the centrality of Scripture in its mission on earth and must deliberately do so. We must remember that entry into the kingdom of heaven is not guaranteed for those who prophesy in the name of the Lord or perform various signs and wonders. If such people do not do the will of God, they will be told to depart from the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ into the eternal lake of fire (Matt. 7:21-23).

II.      It is a call to Humility and Servanthood for Ministers

Preachers must—like Paul—recognize that we are not in any way superior to the people to whom we minister. We are not in any way better than them. Dr. Owuor’s dealings with the male interpreter wasn’t gracious enough. He ought to have politely and graciously requested for another translator! We are prone to stumble and we must always depend upon God’s grace with humility for our salvation by daily trusting upon the one who is able to keep us from stumbling (see Jude’s Doxology in vv. 24-25). Here what Paul the apostle says concerning himself, “But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” (1 Cor. 9:27). One of the most stubborn sins to deal with as a preacher is pride. It can easily lead to your disqualification. It is very easy to exalt yourself especially where the Lord seems to be using you in any way. We therefore, need God’s grace that He alone gives to the humble while he rejects the proud.  

III.  It is a call to the only way of salvation of sinners

Lastly, it must be remembered that Jesus is the exclusive way to the kingdom of God (Acts 4:12; John 14:6). One only becomes a candidate of the kingdom of God by putting all His faith and trust in Him and by repenting of his sins. All those who hear the gospel call and respond by believing in Jesus Christ will be saved!

The Promise of the Gospel Part 5

5) All who labor and heavy laden are invited

The God who says “no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father”[1] is the very God who says “come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”[2] On the one hand, the invitation extended to “all who labor and are heavy laden” is incontrovertibly genuine and the Lord Jesus Christ guarantees it by the promise of “rest.” We know that none of the God’s promises can miscarry, for when He swore by Himself to bless and multiply Abraham, He certainly honored the oath at His appointed time (Heb. 6:13-16). We can therefore, take the Lord Jesus Christ at His word when He promises “rest” to those who come to Him. It is such a gracious thing that the one you have offended is the very person who invites you to Himself. What would you do with such an undeserved opportunity? Would you harden your heart to Him and refuse to come to Him? Surely rejecting such an opportunity is like taking the wrong route and refusing to go back to the right one even after been warned that hyenas will enjoy you as a delicacy on the stray path. So, do not harden your heart but come to Christ that He may give you eternal rest. On the other hand, it is indispensable to note that the role of the Father in granting the “coming” is incontestably true. First, those that will come must acknowledge that they “labor and are heavy laden” with sin as we already saw and that their expedition to save themselves by works is only futile (2 Tim. 1:9). Yet they will by no means do so by their own human ability or will. God Himself must send His Spirit into their hearts to undertake a cardiac surgery and to bring it [the heart] to a point where it is convicted of its state of utter sinfulness and the desperate need, that is, to be created anew. In other words, God must diagnose the heart and not just recommend a heart transplant but actually perform it by Himself. It is not a case that requires mere prescription of some painkillers or antibiotics. It is a matter of transplant else the patient dies. Therefore, in talking about acknowledging that you “labor and are heavy laden” I mean that the Holy Spirit must work in your heart to bring it to a point where it is humble enough to listen to God’s verdict upon you that you are a sinner who—unless He intervenes—remains under His just and righteous wrath, not for a short period but eternally. We know that the proud will die in their sins for they will be rejected by God but grace unto salvation will be granted to the humble. The Holy Spirit must therefore, humble that proud heart the way it did on the day of Pentecost when Apostle Peter preached and his listeners were pricked or cut to their hearts. Secondly, you must realize that rest from your labor [of sin] is only found in Christ Jesus. Again, you cannot do this on your own volition because the message of the cross will only seem to be foolishness to the one who hasn't been given a new heart. To the Jews, such a message—that the promised and long awaited Messiah who would come to save them ended up dying a horrible and despicable death—was a stumbling block. Humanly speaking, it is difficult to comprehend that the one who is sent to rescue you and reign over your enemies ends up being killed. It is similar to watching a movie in which the hero or star ends up being killed and not just being merely killed, but being subjected to a horrendous and excruciating death. To the Jews therefore, it seems as though Christ was such a mirerable loser when He died and they were not prepared for that. Therefore, to them, things didn’t add up at all and it all turned out to be a bitter pill to swallow. To the Gentiles or Greeks, such a story was far from being good news at all. To them, this would only sound to be a fairy tale that should be told to little children as a form of entertainment or to send babies to sleep after their mothers have tirelessly and fruitlessly rocked them all day long. It sounded both ludicrous and paradoxical to them to talk of the death of a savior as it still sounds today. For how can a savior die? Death and savior are two concepts that are alien to each other. They are diametrically opposed. It is therefore, at this point that God must [divinely] intervene to show the sinner the horribleness of his sins in the death of Christ on the cross. Christ’s crucifixion was a curse laid upon Him by God on behalf of the sinner because he [the sinner] is under the curse of God. It is the sinner who deserved the death that Christ died, for Christ never sinned. Christ didn't deserve to die. He only died because He was both willing and able to on behalf of the sinner or to put it in another way, He became as a substitute and took the place of the sinner. At the same time, God must powerfully intervene to show the sinner how Christ’s death was a means of completely abating His wrath in order for reconciliation to be accomplished. The only way through which the sinner can be forgiven is by settling the debt that he owes to God. Yet in and of himself, he doesn’t have the capacity to do it. This is why it was necessary that Christ should die-to completely and satisfactorily settle God. This is where God must send His Spirit to the sinner's heart to make it understand all these accomplishments through Christ. Otherwise, all these things would only be a stumbling block and foolishness to the sinner as was the case with the Jews and Gentiles respectively.We shall go yonder in these truths in our next segment.

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[1] John 6:65 ESV

[2] Matthew 11:28 ESV

The Promise of the Gospel Part 4

4) Those who will call upon the Name of the Lord Must Recognize the Implications of not inheriting the kingdom of God

Having seen in the previous posts that all men are inherently sinful and that sin is serious in the eyes of God [with respect to His standard of righteousness] and that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God, we now need to address ourselves to what God will do with the unrighteous or where will the unrighteous be. Paul answers our question in Rom. 6:23 in these words, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Paul here implies that the reward that you get by sinning is death. Of course, this stretches far beyond the physical death―which is the separation of the body from the soul. In other words, there is more than the physical death. There is spiritual death which is what Paul implies in this passage when he contrasts death with life that is eternal. This the death that comes after the physical death and is the most dreadful form of death that is characterized by [1] suffering away from the presence of God, and [2] suffering the torment of hell forever. 

i.             Suffering away from the presence of God forever

No unrighteous person can inherit the kingdom of God who is so holy and so pure to behold evil (Hab. 1:13). There is no way God―being light―can dwell with darkness (1 John 5:2; 2 Cor. 6:14). For this reason, believers are admonished to cast aside the works of darkness and walk as children of light (Eph. 5:11; Rom. 13:12). The implication is that the unrighteous will eternally bear the wrath of God away from His presence having lived in disobedience to Him (2 Thess. 1:9; Eph. 2:1-3). Being away from the presence God means being but off from the comfort that believers will eternally enjoy having suffered here on earth. It means the unrighteous will be eternally cut off from God’s grace and mercy. It also means that they will not enjoy the eternal peace of God that the righteous will enjoy in glory. In other words, the unrighteous will be cut off from hope of any form of help in their eternal state of suffering.  This is a dreadful thing to envisage!    

ii.            Suffering the torment of hell forever

The Scriptures not only say that unrighteous will be away from the presence of the Lord as they suffer, but also that this form of suffering will be eternally agonizing in the lake of fire as John states in Rev. 21:8, “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”  This is the place where they will eternally bear the wrath of God due to their sinfulness. This sad reality should make the unrighteous tremble and turn his eyes to the cross of Christ and heed the call of the gospel. We get glimpses of the horrors of hell in the account of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man―upon death―is said to be in anguish; suffering the torments of the flame of eternal life while Lazarus is being comforted in Abraham’s bosom (Luke 16:23-24). Again, this is such a horrifying reality!

The Promise of the Gospel Part 3

3) Those who will call upon the Name of the Lord Must Understand that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God

Paul, in his letter to the church of God that is in Corinth, poses a question that causes the unrighteous to tremble in so far as the call to the promise of the gospel in concerned. He asks in 1 Cor. 6:9, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? [emphasis mine]. He goes on to enumerate some of the many ways in which unrighteousness manifests in v. 10 when he says “Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.” (1 Cor. 6:9-10). He adds, elsewhere in Galatians 5:19-21, some of the manifestations of unrighteousness as follows, “Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,  idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,  envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” [emphasis mine]. The idea of failing to inherit the kingdom of God is something that Paul repeats in other places other than the passages we have considered. In Eph. 5:5 for example, he further corroborates this fact in these words “For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.”  On the contrary, the righteous will enjoy the presence of the Lord in all eternity (1 Thess. 4:17).