Between Egyptian Ankh and Christian Cross
THE ALTERNATIVE
By Reno Omokri
Every day, Christians in their hundreds of millions make the sign of the Cross, thinking they are performing an act of faith pleasing to God. But is that really what they are doing?
I had heard and read about the true origins of the Cross and earlier this year, I even travelled to Ethiopia to celebrate Meskel, which is a celebration of the discovery of the true Cross in Ethiopian orthodox Christianity.
I am a truth seeker, I wanted to get to the truth, no matter whose religious feathers were ruffled, and I was told that if I wanted to get to the bottom of the mystery behind the Cross, then Israel and Ethiopia (two countries I had recently visited) were not the best starting point. I was directed to Egypt and off I went.
While in Egypt, I engaged the services of a qualified guide and we went investigating. And that was when I discovered the Ankh.
The Ankh, is an ancient Egyptian mystical symbol used to represent life. It is most commonly seen being held by Ancient Egyptian gods and was given by them to Pharaohs as an assurance that they (the gods) would sustain the Pharaoh’s life in the afterlife.
One of the things that will shock many people is the fact that Christ did not die on a Cross. The Scriptures never said so. I can see you now getting agitated. Christ existed. He is the Son of God. He lived, died and resurrected as a propitiation for our sins and there is no way to God EXCEPT through Christ. I did not say The Bible never said Christ died on The Cross. It does. I said the SCRIPTURES never said so. The Bible is a TRANSLATION of the Holy Scriptures.
The word used in Scripture is actually Tree. The original word used in the original Greek Scripture is staurō, which may mean a pole, or a stake, or the word xylou, which means tree. Read Galatians 3:13 if you really want to know the truth. The King James Version uses the word ‘Tree’ to indicate where Christ died. The NIV uses the word ‘Pole’.
Believe it or not, for the first 300 years of the Church, the Cross was NOT a Christian symbol. Don’t take my word for it. Research it.
The origins of what is called the ‘Christian’ Cross do not lie with Yeshua, our Lord and Saviour, or His disciplines. It is actually traced back to the Roman emperor, Constantine The Great.
The original symbol of Christianity is a fish symbol, because Yeshua told His first disciples, who were fishermen, that He would transform them into fishers of men if they followed Him:
“And Yeshua said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”-Mark 1:17.
Emperor Constantine engaged in a power struggle with his Brother-in-law, Maxentius, and during a make-or-mar battle, known as The Battle of Milvian Bridge, Constantine, a former pagan, claimed that he received a vision of a cross in the sky, along with the caption “In this sign conquer.”
He thereafter asked his troops to draw the sign he saw in the sky, which is what we now call the Cross, on their shields. And when he defeated Maxentius’ forces, he attributed it to the efficacy of the Cross.
And this political/military event marked the entrance of that pagan symbol into mainstream Christianity.
Everywhere you see the word ‘Cross’ in The Bible, you are reading a word that is translated from either staurō or xylou. I encourage you to use a Greek dictionary to find out the meaning of both words. So, where did the Cross originate from? I urge you to look at the attached picture of Ramses the Second discussing with the Trinity (consisting of Amun, his consort Mut and their son Khonsu).
What are they each holding in their right hand? I urge you to note that this papyrus painting is over 3000 years old. In Exodus 20:4, Scripture says we must not make an image of anything on Earth or in heaven or under the Earth.
That is why Christ and His disciples and the early Church did not use a Cross, whether with or without the image of Christ on it. The usage of the Cross and the Crucifix came from the Roman Emperor, Constantine, who was a pagan and claimed to have converted to Christianity. Thus began the introduction of The Trinity and The Cross into Christianity. Both of which, the Romans and Greeks copied from the ancient Egyptians, not from Scripture.
Many of the translators of Scripture into The Bible were Masons. I beg of you, read Scripture in the original language and your life will never be the same again. It is not so hard.
The truth, as I found out in Egypt, is that some of the oldest Crosses in existence are an almost exact replica of the Egyptian Ankh, including the Ethiopian ቶ symbol. In Ethiopia, this ቶ, is actually a letter in their alphabet, which originates from Ge’ez, their liturgical language.
It is an undisputed fact that Christ did not die on a Cross. It is an undisputed fact that the Ankh predated the Cross. It is an undisputed fact that Christ asked us to teach believers “to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you”-Matthew 28:20. So, my question is who taught us to observe the Cross, and to make the sign of the Cross, and to put it in our places of worship? Certainly not God or His Son.
Is it not time for us to purge Christianity of pagan practices? And that is why I have travelled to Israel, Greece, Spain (Montserrat to see the Black Madonna), Rome, The Vatican, Ethiopia, and Egypt, to gather first-hand knowledge about the true faith that Christ brought to Earth.
It is that important. Nothing is more important to me than chasing down the truth about God because Christ said in John 4:24 that “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” If we are adopting pagan mystical practices, how can we be said to worship him in spirit and in truth.”?
My life, my money, my possessions and my time are not as important to me as my God. I believe that if mainstream religion clashes with God, a true believer must choose God. If work time and God time clash, a true believer must choose God. If politics and God clash, a true believer must choose God. If football and God clash, a true believer must choose God. If friends’ demands and God’s requirements clash, a true believer must choose God.
To me, this is the only way I know how to worship God in spirit and in truth and I urge all my readers not to take my words at face value, but to be like the Berean Christians who “were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”-Acts 17:11.
We must pay close attention to what Scripture says. Scripture like 1 Timothy 4:1 which reads as follows:
“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;”
How can we have a symbol in churches whose origin is clearly of Ancient Egyptian mystical origins and we are not asking questions? Some people privately message me and urge me to tread with caution, lest the establishment quietly kill me. But even that warning assumes that I am afraid of death. I am not afraid of death. Not at all. What do I want to achieve in life that God has not given me, often on a platter of gold? If I, who has been so blessed by God, cannot risk my life against the establishment for Him, then I am of all men most useless!
2 Chronicles 16:9 says “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.”
My body is very imperfect towards God. I am a sinner. I freely confess that. But my heart is completely devoted to God. I have no doubt in my heart that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God and Father of my Lord and Saviour, Yeshua Hamashiach, is the ONLY TRUE God.
If I am killed doing what I believe He is leading me to do, then that death will be the sweetest death possible and I have no fear in my heart if it has to come.
We cannot just go along to get along. We must interrogate every aspect of our religion to make sure that it has complete fidelity to Scripture. After all, it is the same Scripture that warns us to “believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.”-1 John 4:1.
Any information that does not lead to transformation is entertainment. Do not just read this and be entertained. Read this and be spurred on to get to the bottom of your faith. You owe it to yourself, because on the Day of Judgment, every man will independently give an account of his life before God who tries the heart. God bless you as you do this.
