Pastor Simeon Oladokun, Ph.D., D.Th., Regional Superintendent of CAC Anosike (Europe) Region, delivered Ministers' Session 2 — "The Divine Word as a Guide for Our Daily Living" — opening with a simple observation: "We live in a time of many voices, many values, and many claims to truth. Yet for the believer, the final guide for faith and conduct is not culture, opinion, emotion, or majority approval, but the Divine Word of God." Scripture, he said, reveals God's mind, exposes the human heart, corrects error, and trains us to live in holiness (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
The Bible, he taught, is not merely "the Good Book" — it's a guidebook. Psalm 119:105 calls it "a lamp to my feet and a light to my path," and Hebrews 4:12 says it doesn't just inform us, it directs us. Jesus Himself prayed, "Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth" (John 17:17).
He named three competing authorities eroding that guidance in our day. Moral relativism — the belief that right and wrong depend on personal preference or circumstance, leading people to say "what's true for you may not be true for me" (echoing Judges 21:25 and Proverbs 14:12) — is countered by Romans 12:1-2's call to be transformed, not conformed. Doctrinal pluralism — the idea that contradictory teachings can all be equally true — weakens conviction and reduces the uniqueness of Christ, against John 14:6 and Acts 4:12's claim that salvation is found in no one else. And monolatrism, the danger of professing faith in God while still giving ultimate trust, fear, or devotion to something else, runs against Exodus 20:3 and Jesus's own words that "no one can serve two masters" (Matthew 6:24).
Beyond these, he identified five more standards quietly competing with Scripture for the believer's allegiance: emotionalism, where feelings become the final authority for decisions; cultural conformism, following social trends instead of divine instruction (Colossians 2:8); materialism, measuring life by possessions and outward success (Luke 12:15); pragmatism, judging actions only by results rather than righteousness ("to obey is better than sacrifice," 1 Samuel 15:22); and egoism, exalting personal freedom above submission to God (Luke 9:23).
In practice, he said, the Divine Word guides us by shaping the mind, guarding the heart, and directing conduct — guarding your mind (Psalm 1:2-3), guarding your heart (following Jesus's own pattern of answering temptation with "it is written," Matthew 4:4,7,10), guarding your ears (measuring what we hear against Scripture, as the Bereans did in Acts 17:11), and guarding your life, letting grace teach us to live "self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age" (Titus 2:11-12).
"In these days of moral relativism, doctrinal pluralism, monolatrism, emotionalism, materialism, and egoism," he closed, "the church must return to the Divine Word as the supreme rule of life and godliness. 'The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever' (Isaiah 40:8). Let us therefore read it, believe it, obey it, teach it, and build our daily lives upon it."
