People Do Not Perish for Lack of Knowledge — Apostle Osuchukwu

Apostle Chidi Osuchukwu, the General Overseer of Hebrew Roots Assembly, has described as absurd certain beliefs and practices in Christianity, including some traditional customs in many Sabbath-observing churches.

Citing examples, the founder of the Sabbath-observing Hebrew Roots Assembly, Lagos, dismissed the often-quoted scripture that people perish for lack of knowledge. According to him, people actually perish for forsaking or disobeying the law of God.

He also dismissed as unscriptural the doctrine of being “born again” and the concept of people having a personal encounter with God, while charging preachers to study and teach the full truth of the scriptures to their followers in this interview with Christian Benefits Magazine. Excerpts below:

How would you like to be introduced?

My name is Apostle Chidimma Osuchukwu. I am married, and my wife’s name is Blessing. Together, we have two children. I am also a career professional. I work with one of the food manufacturing companies in Nigeria, where I have worked for about 25 years.

I have always been a lover of God. I was born into a Sabbath-observing family. My parents were formerly Catholics until they joined a Sabbath-observing church around 1972. I was born in 1975.

Around 2013, I had my first international assignment, working for one of the biggest multinationals in the world in the Middle East. While there, I could not find a place to worship, so I took time to pray and study the Bible. That was where Jeshua began laying things in my spirit concerning certain wrong practices that had been introduced into Sabbatarianism.

Sabbatarianism has unfortunately become a religion instead of total scripture. So, from 2013 to 2015, I began questioning and challenging some practices, including animal sacrifices and dressing like Jews, among other traditional customs in the denomination I attended then. Naturally, the leadership became uncomfortable with my views and would not allow me remain there.

After I returned from the Middle East, I decided to start a fellowship with my family members. The fellowship eventually led to the establishment of Hebrew Roots Assembly in 2016. We started in a rented apartment in Ogba before moving to our permanent site, which we built and dedicated last year, 2025.

So you have a rich religious background. But it is one thing to be born into religion and another thing to have a personal encounter with Jesus and be born again. What is your view on rebirth and personal encounter, and did you have such an experience?

There are certain expressions commonly used in religious circles that are unscriptural. I follow and practise the scriptures fully. The Bible does not tell us that we have to be born again in the way religion presents it.

You asked me about my encounter with Christ. What God wants from us is that we know Him. That is what matters most to Him. Hosea 4:6 says people perish for lack of knowledge. But many pastors stop there. I encourage them to read the second part of that verse. God says, because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you.

So, people actually perish for forsaking the law of Jeshua, not merely because of lack of knowledge.

In religion—whether Christianity, Islam, or others—people create what I call rules of passage to show that a person has moved from one level to another. But with God, all He wants is obedience. There is nothing like stage by stage.

What has happened is that, so people will not be questioned about what they do, they introduced the concept of personal encounter with God. But you will never see that anywhere in the Bible.

How then do you interpret the words of Jesus in John 3:3: “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”?

Yes, but you will never see anywhere in the scriptures the phrase “personal encounter.” God wants people to embrace Him, learn His laws, obey Him, and tell others about Him.

The idea of personal encounter makes it possible for anyone to start anything and claim they had an encounter in their bedroom or anywhere else. In religion, many absurd things are said, and no one can question them because the doctrine of personal encounter is there.

I once heard a popular preacher in Nigeria say he had a personal encounter while looking at a crucifix in a Catholic church. God cannot give you such an encounter because He already said we should not make graven images. Looking at a carved image is an abomination before Him.

Coming back to being born again: Nicodemus came to Jeshua by night and asked what he should do to inherit the kingdom of God. Jeshua replied that except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He did not say the man could not live in this world, have a happy marriage, or be righteous. He said he cannot see or enter the kingdom of God.

Before that encounter, there was also the rich young ruler who asked Jeshua what he should do to inherit eternal life. Jeshua simply replied: keep the laws.