Christianity Decolonized

Christianity Decolonized, Christianity Dissected, Featured Works

The Contingent Security of Salvation: A Critique of OSAS

July 9, 2026 No Comments

Background

Now and then, a theological issue boils over into a national conversation in Nigeria. One recent such matter concerns the doctrine Nigerians dubbed “Once Saved, Always Saved” (OSAS). The theologically savvy reader might know the matter as the hotly contested issue of the perseverance of the saints. Some years ago, we explored this matter here on the blog, focusing on four various Christian positions on how to read Hebrews 6:4-6. So, this entry may be considered a continuation of that conversation.

What is OSAS?
It is a cute summary of a doctrinal synthesis that posits that once Jesus saves a person, absolutely nothing in the entire cosmos can reverse it. There are various ways a Christian might arrive at this conclusion. For most Western believers, this is just the conclusion of Calvinism. But I suspect there may be other reasons this position is appealing to African believers: our traditional worldview is deterministic. See our treatment of Yoruba cosmology, for example. Besides, OSAS can be quite comforting, as it teaches that the believer does not need to live in fear of what might happen. Her future is already settled in Christ. Christians are merely occupying until Jesus returns; we are in no doubt about our destiny.

The Hidden Premises of OSAS
Like most Christians influenced by the Word of Faith movement, I, too, initially affirmed OSAS. Much later in my journey, however, I learned more about the origin of this idea. In particular, once I learned about the ideas that underpin OSAS, I could not, in good faith, continue to affirm it. The idea that a person is always saved (in and by Jesus) if she was ever once saved is a result of other theological claims within a particular 16th-century European Reformation theology. Some of the hidden claims include the following:

1. God sovereignly chooses who gets saved and who gets eternally damned. And this divine choice has no input whatsoever from the humans affected.

2. That saving grace of God is both irresistible and efficacious. The selected humans cannot reject the grace extended, and the grace is guaranteed to do complete work for and in the recipients.

From these claims (and a few others), the conclusion follows that once a person is selected for salvation, it must be because God sovereignly chose that person. Since God is all-knowing and all-powerful, it is impossible for that person ever to become unsaved.

Furthermore, there is a Word of Faith spin on the same idea above. The apostles of the Word of Faith movement taught that when a believer gets saved, she receives eternal life into her recreated human spirit. Obviously, if it were true that eternal life is woven into one’s constitution at rebirth, then it becomes very difficult to see how one can lose it. Besides, Word of Faith theology holds that if eternal life can be lost, it is not eternal to begin with. To be eternal is to continue without end. Hence, once anyone receives eternal life, it is irreversible.

Both ideas, the Calvinistic and the Word of Faith ones, lead to the same end: a believer cannot forfeit salvation. For reasons to be explored shortly, I reject both ideas in their entirety. I shall argue that the Calvinistic premises and the Word of Faith conception of eternal life are mistaken. A believer, once saved, will always be saved provided she continues to abide in Jesus. If she fails to abide, she may forfeit salvation.

We have explored at length elsewhere reasons to reject the idea that God, by divine fiat, chooses who gets saved and who does not. Furthermore, I do not believe that Jesus’s saving grace is irresistible. In other words, I do not think that humans cannot say no to Jesus’s offer. Interested readers should see our interaction with these ideas in the entries on Divine Foreknowledge and Human Free Will. We shall soon interact with more biblical data in this entry.

Understanding Eternal Life

The Word of Faith conception of eternal life is cute, but it is an imagination foreign to the Bible. Indeed, Jesus gives “eternal life”, but this life is not what some Charismatics have imagined it to be. To begin with, eternal life is not like a substance one receives. This is a deeply Hebraic idea that must be understood on its own terms.

Christianity Decolonized, Featured Works

Death, Sheol, and Resurrection: What Happens When We Die?

April 16, 2026 1 Comment

This piece is adapted from a longer entry investigating Word of Faith theology.

Generations of believers have been taught that they will go to heaven when they die. People, of course, know they will not go to heaven as they are on earth. Everyone knows that the body decays in the grave when someone dies. Hence, one tradition says it is the spirit of the person that goes to heaven. So, life after death is quite spiritual. In this piece, I want to show that this common view is mistaken by exploring biblical data on life after death.

Let us begin with this: Do humans continue to exist when they die—that is, when the spirit separates from the body? This is a remarkably complex question that we cannot do justice to in this short entry. However, we will make a few key points. First, the answer is both Yes and No. When people die, they obviously cease to exist in the way they used to be. Indeed, death seems to be the precise word we use to describe the cessation of the life of a person as we knew it. Properly speaking, a human life is an embodied life. So, once the body ceases to be animated, life as we know it ceases. But it is also true that the ancients in the Bible thought that a dead person continues to exist:

Ecclesiastes 12:7 ESV
and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

This text, made famous by its frequent use at Services of Songs for the deceased, suggests a reversal of the creation of the human in Genesis: the breath of life returns to God, and the body dissolves into the earth. This may lead one to think the dead continue to exist with God in some spiritual form. But as we shall soon see, this existence consists of almost nothing. Some other texts suggest that the dead go to the realm of the dead, characterized by inactivity:

Ecclesiastes 9:10 ESV
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.

Christianity Decolonized, Featured Works

By God’s Design: Heaven is not the Goal

April 14, 2026 2 Comments

Introduction

For several decades now, Christians worldwide have been taught that the ultimate goal of the faith is heaven. Considering longevity, this idea has essentially achieved a canonical status in believers’ minds. Yet, Christians before the 1900s did not entertain such a thought. One major reason the notion became popular was the publication of the Scofield Bible in 1909, which presented the idea alongside the Bible’s text, not as one among many options, but as the only reading offered. Rapture theology became synonymous with eschatology. Other enabling factors, including the later rise of American fundamentalism and Cold War anxieties, contributed to the popularity of this idea.

I recognize that this can be an emotionally charged and potentially disorienting issue. There are people in their 80s who have believed all their lives that heaven awaits. So, I’m aware of the potential distress that this entry might cause. But I owe it to such persons to rigorously interact with Scripture to extract the truth. In this piece, I shall argue that the earth has always been and will forever be humanity’s destiny. Yes, there is a heaven, but it is not the residential home of humans.

In the Beginning

Let us take it from the beginning. Humans were not the first created beings. The Bible reveals that a host of heavenly beings were created before humans. For reasons best known to God, he made the angels, cherubs, seraphs, and others to reside in heaven. But when God made humans, he first prepared a cultivated portion of the Earth for them to dwell in. He could have made humans join the heavenly beings. Instead, heaven – that is, God – regularly comes to the earth to fellowship with humanity in the special spot he has earmarked for them. It was not long before things went south. The humans became corrupted, and God must act:

Genesis 3:22-24 NRSVUE
[22] Then the LORD God said, “See, the humans have become like one of us, knowing good and evil, and now they might reach out their hands and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever”— [23] therefore the LORD God sent them forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which they were taken. [24] He drove out the humans, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.

I have written elsewhere that knowing good and evil is not, in itself, a sin. In his famous prayer when he became king, Solomon asks:

Christianity Decolonized, Christianity Dissected

Who Incited David in 1 Chronicles 21:1-2 and 2 Samuel 24:1-2: God or Satan?

February 1, 2026 No Comments

This entry is adapted from a longer one here.

Consider the following texts:

2 Samuel 24:1 ESV
Again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go, number Israel and Judah.”

1 Chronicles 21:1 NRSVUE
Satan stood up against Israel and incited David to count the people of Israel.

These texts record the same event. Yet, the first account says it was God who incited David, while the second says it was Satan. Which is it?

Christianity Decolonized, Christianity Dissected

The Gospel without Torah is a Non-archored Half-Truth: An Example from Matthew 12

November 28, 2025 No Comments

I recently learnt that the church did not pay attention to the Gospel of Mark for centuries because it assumed that Mark was merely an abbreviated version of Matthew. This caused my mind to entertain several thoughts. Could it be, for instance, that after over 2000 years, we still may be deficient in our understanding of the faith? Consider the following passage:

Matthew 12:1-8 ESV
[1] At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. [2] But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” [3] He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: [4] how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? [5] Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? [6] I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. [7] And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. [8] For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

Christianity Decolonized

Examining the Foundations of Word of Faith and Hyper-Grace Theologies

November 9, 2025 2 Comments

At my core, and in my deepest hopes, I am a Charismatic Christian. I long to walk alongside fellow followers of Jesus who wholeheartedly celebrate that God is still present and active in our lives today, still healing and saving. My desire is for a faith that touches both my mind and my heart. One of the gifts of the Word of Faith movement is its encouragement to trust God boldly, to believe that God cares about every aspect of our lives—health, relationships, and even our daily needs. I have witnessed genuine joy and a beautiful simplicity of belief in many of these communities, and it would take an unhealthy dosage of skepticism to maintain that none of the claimed results in these circles is genuine. I cannot dismiss the real and meaningful experiences that so many have shared. With care and respect, however, I feel compelled to thoughtfully examine some of the movement’s core theological beliefs, as I believe they deserve a closer examination and an honest conversation.

Let me briefly mention that the theological patterns examined in this piece extend beyond classic Word of Faith teaching and apply equally to modern Hyper‑Grace movements. Indeed, Word of Faith theology is the giant on which Hyper-Grace theology stands. In many cases, the latter merely takes the former’s ideas to a logical conclusion. Hence, in examining the Word of Faith movement, we also will be addressing flashpoints in Hyper‑Grace theology.

Christianity Decolonized, Featured Works

God and Hagar: Abraham’s Evil Treatment of Hagar

October 23, 2025 No Comments

Abraham is a significant figure in Judaism, including the form that has evolved into the mutated form we know today as Christianity. The gospel of Jesus was first preached to Abraham as God sovereignly chose to set his redemption plans in motion through Abraham. Generations of Bible readers have also noted the atypical commitment of Abraham to perform what God required of him in the Aqedah story. This story raises many moral questions, as we discussed elsewhere. These points, along with many others, including Abraham’s mention in the “Hall of Faith” chapter of the book of Hebrews, have led many in the church to downplay his not-quite godly episodes. One of such episodes is how he treated Hagar.

Christianity Decolonized, Featured Works

Celebrating Queen Vashti

October 11, 2025 No Comments

Many scholars today believe that the book of Esther was written as a play, not history. There are several reasons why this makes sense, but we will not focus on those here. While the Protestant canon places Esther alongside historical books like Ezra and Nehemiah, the Hebrew Bible Canon places the book alongside Wisdom literature. It is also worth noting that there are several known versions of the Book of Esther, each with notable differences. For instance, preachers have often pointed out that the book of Esther is a book of the Bible that does not mention God at all; God is an invisible hand writing the story. However, in some of the other versions, God is explicitly invoked in the story.

Furthermore, Esther and the Song of Solomon are books that were hotly contested during the process of establishing the Hebrew Bible canon. One apparent reason is that these books are rather sexual, and some of the deciding powers did not think that sex and spirituality walk together. In the case of Esther, there might have been another reason people resisted its canonization: the story is about heroines, not a hero.

That’s right. I think there are two heroines in the book of Esther, though we have often focused on one and maligned the other. The Jewish girl, Esther, certainly deserves the praises that have been accorded her since the book was written. She risked her life by approaching the Persian king unbidded:

Christianity Decolonized, Christianity Dissected, Featured Works

On the Gender of God: Is God Male?

July 22, 2025 1 Comment

I first became aware of this matter in an undergraduate Hebrew Bible Writings class. The ethnically Jewish, non-religious professor made a comment that set off the rabbit hole: “The name ‘Yahweh’ in Hebrew is as grammatically masculine as ‘Richard’ is in America.” I had not listened closely enough to realize that grammatical and biological genders are separate. My mind immediately went down a long rabbit hole. It seemed to me that whatever it meant to say God was masculine could not exactly mean how we ordinarily use the term for humans. The reason seemed simple: God is a spirit. To be a spirit is to be unembodied. I had to admit, on the other hand, that God is consistently called a Father and Jesus was a male human for 33 years. I managed to get out of the hole by pushing the issue aside so I could focus on the lecture. Now is the time to carefully unpack this crucial matter. Is God male? It may be helpful to ask the same question differently: Are men more like God than women are? Obviously, how one answers this question is enormously important. Several downstream ideas in a person’s economy of beliefs rest on the answer.

Language Matters: What Does it Mean to be Male?

Many of us today use the terms “male/man” and “female/woman” synonymously – and this is more or less the practice I’ll uphold in this entry. However, it is beneficial to be aware of and learn from advancements in Psychology and Gender Studies. In the ancient world and many parts of our world today, biology is assumed to determine one’s gender. In the Greco-Roman world, for instance, women were thought to be irrational, unsuitable for ruling, needing male guidance, and emotional. Amy Peeler notes that because women were generally smaller in body, they were also thought to be smaller in mind and spirit (90). In other words, to be female meant manifesting the attributes above. The problem begins when we observe that not all women fit into that box, and some men check some of the boxes. This observation motivated some scholars to separate biology from sociology and sex from gender. Biology determines sex, but social factors determine gender. This move raises an obvious question: what does being male (or female) mean?

Christianity Decolonized, Featured Works

On the Bishop of Rome: Matthew 16:13-21 is Certainly not about the Papacy

April 28, 2025 No Comments

Matthew 16:18-19 ESV
[18] And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. [19] I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

One of the key biblical texts used to defend the office of the Bishop of Rome is Matthew 16. I have written fuller exegetical blog entries on this passage elsewhere without referring to the Papacy. I think it is a good time to do so now. Please note that I am tabling this in the service of truth and not to malign or offend. I respect several Catholics and hope they will have much to add to enrich our collective understanding of this matter. In the end, I want to argue that, at best, the office of the Bishop of Rome had to be one of the least concerns of Jesus and Peter in this passage.