Being Christian Is Different From Christendom

THE ALTERNATIVE

By  Reno Omokri

Recently, a Catholic priest who is fixated on me and has probably written more copiously about me than about either himself, or his Bishop, or even his pope (I am very serious, this is no hyperbole), wrote that people who want to be better Christians should avoid me.

But why would he feel so threatened by me? Why attack my credibility?

Because this gentleman disagrees with me both dogmatically and politically, as I will now explain.

Dogmatically:

Dogma is defined as a set of beliefs or principles laid down by a human authority, usually a religious authority, as the true and accepted truths of their beliefs.

Dogma is very different from doctrine, which is a set of puritanical principles established by divine text, or scripture.

Now, there are many things that are dogma, which are questionable. One of them is the concept of Christianity.

The word Christian did not originate from Yeshua Hamashiach, or even His disciples. If you read Acts 11:26, you would understand the historical context of the word Christian. It is a Greek word that the Greek residents of Antioch came up with to define the followers of Yeshua.

Nobody knows, but it is most likely that those townsmen and women who came up with the name were not even believers.

The truth is that Yeshua Hamashiach was a Jewish Rabbi, who lived and died on the Earth as a Jew. He worshipped on the Sabbath. He obeyed the laws of Moses. And He never introduced a new religion. He only introduced new commandments-John 13:34.

Both Yeshua and His disciples, including Paul, never disavowed Judaism. They all remained Jews. And you can see this in John 4:22, where Yeshua told the Samaritan woman of Sychar that “salvation is of the Jews.”

We also see this in Paul’s confession in Acts 21:39, where he said that “I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia.”

Do note that Paul made that confession many years after his Damascus’ encounter with Yeshua in Acts chapter 9.

Please note that a Hebrew is different from a Jew. A Hebrew is a natural blood descendant of Abraham, while a Jew is a person who either is born or converts into the religion of Judaism.

Every non-Jew is a Gentile. And when Paul began preaching to Gentiles, there was a conundrum. Would they become Jews, or would they just be followers of the new commandments that Yeshua promulgated.

That conundrum was settled in Acts 15:19-22. Gentiles believers were given a set of rules to follow.

And those rules were further reinforced by Paul when he told Gentile believers that “you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree”-Romans 11:24.

Which is in keeping with what Yeshua said in Matthew 15:24 that “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

Now, a lot of the things that we do as believers today, who are largely called Christians, do not emanate from Scripture, or the traditions of our Lord and Saviour, and His early disciples.

They originate from Europe and especially from the Roman Empire.

For example, The Cross was never a sign of our faith. The original sign of our faith was a fish, and we were described as ‘The Way’, which you can verify in Acts 22:4. The Way is taken from John 14:6, where Yeshua said “I am the Way”.

The Roman Empire began persecuting and killing followers of The Way, until a Roman Emperor, named Constantine, converted to Christianity sometime in the Third Century after Christ.

On October 27, 312 AD, this Constantine had a vision of The Cross, during the Battle of Milvian Bridge. And after his victory, he made The Cross the symbol of the Christian faith. He, not Yeshua Hamashiach. Not Scripture. Not the disciples.

Shockingly, the word Cross does not appear in the original Scripture. Please do not rush to check your English Bible and then pronounce me a liar.

Scripture was not written in English. It is written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek. What you are reading in English, or French, or Spanish, or any other languages, is a translation, by men and women, who had their own agenda.

The word used in the original Greek Scripture is staur, 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 translators of the King James Version forgot their instructions and forgot to chèvre the word. And so that verse 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 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.

So, where did The Cross come from?

Emperor Constantine engaged in a power struggle with his brother-in-law, Maxentius, and during 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.

I travelled to Ethiopia and Egypt, a combined total of 18 times to investigate the origin of The Cross.

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  symbol. In Ethiopia, this , 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.

Many Christians have read large novels, like the Harry Potter books, or the complete works of Shakespeare, and others, from cover to cover. But they have not read Scripture from cover to cover. Even in English.  Let alone,   in the original languages. It is not impossible. I learnt to do that as an adult.

Learn from Muslims. The first book many Muslims read, before any, is the al-Quran. And they tend to read it in Arabic. So that nothing is lost in translation.

This is why Christians accept things that are not in Scripture. Because many of us do not even know Scripture. But we know philosophy. We know science. We know the humanities. We are sophisticated. But not always grounded in Scripture.

Hear them talk, Christmas is a special day that WE have set aside to celebrate Yeshua. Really? Who are you to tell God how you want to worship Him and celebrate His Son? Do you adjust your life to Scripture, or do you adjust Scripture to suit your life? Alas, they will still insult me.

If as a believer you don’t read Scripture in the original languages, you may end up practicing occultism, and think you are practicing Christianity. Many ‘Christians’ are actually inadvertently practicing unscriptural and deeply occultist dogma. If a religious principle does not originate from Scripture, it is immediately suspect, no matter how long it has been practiced, and how eloquently it has been explained to you with logic. I can’t say more! Because, at the end of the day, we must all “work out your salvation with fear and trembling,”-Philippians 2:12.

The Romans were notorious for polytheism. And when they conquered you, they took your gods and religious symbols and added it to theirs. That is why many Roman gods are of Greek origin.

The Romans conquered Ancient Egypt, right from the time of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony and Octavian. They were initiated into Egyptian occult practices, one of which is the Ankh, which was in wide use in the Roman Empire, before Constantine supposedly had his vision.

Many of today’s Christians think that after Emperor Constantine became a Christian and instituted The Cross as the symbol of the religion, people just accepted it. No. Research it. It was by force.

If you did not accept it, they either killed you, or taxed you, or banished you. It was a favourite practice of Rome. And you see that in Acts 18:2 which says “Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome.”

It was via oppressive and draconian practices like these that the Roman Empire forced many of the dogma of Christianity on Roman citizens, which was almost all of Europe at that time.

And ask yourself this question: Yeshua Hamashiach (Jesus Christ) was a Jew. All His disciples were Jews. In their lifetimes, they spoke Aramaic and Hebrew. Yet, the holy liturgical language of some churches is Latin. Why is that? It has nothing to do with God and everything to do with cultural domination.

Eventually, other European peoples got tired of that cultural domination, and rebelled against Rome and formed their own nations. And when they did, they broke away from the Roman church, and infused their own culture into their own churches, leading to the Church of England, Lutheran Church, Episcopal Church, Reformed Dutch Church, Church of Norway, etc.

And those various European powers and their churches came to Africa and other colonised places to force down the throats of gullible people, not the true Gospel, but their own culturally infused Gospel. And today, we have millions of Africans who will proudly say their ‘Christian’ name is Remigius, Hyginus, Hippolite, Veronica and Jacinta.

First of all, none of these names are Christian names. They are all Latin names. And secondly, as long as your African name is not in praise of a deity, it is good enough for you to use as a Christian.

You can be Gbenga, Mainasara, Nnamdi, Uhuru, Masekela, or Kojo, and still be a good Christian.

Let me give a reason to our brethren on why they should do so. If you read Romans 16:14, you will note that one of the most ardent believers in Rome was a man by the name of Hermes. Hermes is the Greek messenger god. That is the origin of the name. Yet, upon becoming a follower of Christ, this gentleman did not change his name. He only changed his ways.

So, we too have to change our ways, but not our names and culture. Obviously, if parts of our culture are incompatible with Christian living, such as the killing of twins, then we ought to change them. But where they are not, we do not need to make amends.

We need to emancipate ourselves from religious bondage. A white wedding is not a Christian wedding. It does not feature in Scripture. It is a European cultural marriage. Scriptural marriages took place at home and did not involve priests or church. Only family. Please see Genesis 24:67.

Yeshua Hamashiach did not officiate at the wedding in Cana. He was a Guest. The power that a priest has to pronounce a male and female man and wife does not come from God or Scripture. It is dogma that emanates from men, like you. That is why multiple European churches have now given their priests the power to bless same-sex marriages. Where do you see that in Scripture? Let us stop making gods out of men like ourselves.

Many of us who think we are in Christ are really only in Christendom. And there is a wide gulf between Christ and Christendom.

So I urge Christians to “study to show yourself approved”-2 Timothy 2:15, and to “search the Scriptures”-John 5:39. And refrain from swallowing every dogma that emanates from Europe.

We should note that if the devil wants to fight against God’s Word, he will not come as satan to tempt you away from Scripture. Rather, he will beguile you by coming as an educated and sophisticated being, who gives you logically correct reasons why you should do what God told you not to do in His Word.

That is what he did to Eve, and that is what he is doing to many colonised peoples.

Reno’s Nuggets

Have a mother like Hakimi’s mother, and you will never have a bother. Hopefully, young men who disrespect their mothers because of their wives can learn a thing or two from Hakimi. Nobody can love you like God. But after God, nobody can love you like your mother, with the possible, but not regular, exception of your father! Hakimi makes us appreciate the lyrics of Prince Nico Mbarga’s Sweet Mother. You begin to understand why there are motherless babies’ homes, but no fatherless babies’ homes. Your wife may not take a bullet for you. But she will most likely take it for her child with you.

#RenosNuggets #FreeLeahSharibu