Bargaining with God? An Interpretation of Hannah’s Vow (1 Samuel 1:11) in Contemporary Nigerian Pentecostal Practice

Solomon Olusola Ademiluka

doi:10.25159/2663-6573/20379

Authors

Solomon Olusola Ademiluka University of South Arica https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9390-2510

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25159/2663-6573/20379

Keywords:

Living Faith Church, Shiloh, vow making, persistent prayer, pistis

Abstract

This article examined conditional vow making in neo-Pentecostalism in Nigeria, focusing on the interpretation and application of Hannah’s vow in 1 Samuel 1:11 in Living Faith Church, and evaluated this contemporary practice from the New Testament (NT) perspective. Employing historical-critical exegesis and narrative analysis of the biblical text alongside phenomenological and descriptive methods in respect to the church practice, the study postulated that while conditional vows like Hannah’s were culturally embedded responses to distress in the Hebrew Bible, the NT emphasises persistent prayer and unwavering faith (pistis) rather than transactional petitions. The article contends that modern vow-making, as practised in Living Faith Church, risks reducing divine sovereignty to a mechanism of human control. From the NT perspective, rather than bargaining with God, Christians should simply make their requests known to God, expecting him to answer according to his own will. The article is thus a contribution to the discourse on context and biblical interpretation in Pentecostal theology in Nigeria.

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