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Sunday Word: The church, God's statutes and paganism

The early deviant Christianity was exacerbated by its incorporation into the Roman Empire at the beginning of the 4th century, through the efforts of Roman Emperors

The collective institution of Christian worship can be classified as the church, based on the reverence of Jesus Christ. His life, purpose and teachings should be the basis of the whole church. Disagreements and differences of views have led to a proliferation of thousands of offshoots within the Christian fraternity, each with its own distinct interpretation of some particular verses of the Bible. Some of these are merely money-generating formations for personal enrichments. Others are meant to promote beliefs based on varying opinions on the meanings of the scriptures.

There is a general consensus among Christians that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, sent by the Heavenly Father for some anointed purposes. He is referred to as the Son of God, based on written religious scriptures. In that vein, whatever he spoke or taught represented the Heavenly Father. That should be the cornerstones of our Christianity. Any other teachings that comes from any other belief or other persons besides Christ himself is not of the Christian faith, but of another parallel religion based on that preacher, disguised as Christianity.

Christ himself spoke of his mission earth. His mission statement reads (Matthew 5:17-20); “Think not that I have come to abolish the laws and the prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven”. Clearly whoever plays down or preaches gospels that are not in favour of the law is speaking against Christ. Such preachers, although aligned with Christianity, should not be regarded as true Christians. They are not of the same shoes as those of Jesus Christ. Judges 2:10 reads: “There arose a new generation that did not know the God that delivered Israel.” This new cult of religious followers has brought new meanings and inaccurate interpretations to our scriptures and are now operating in a different way than the way the Lord Jesus Christ. Judges 2:17 proceeds to say: “They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so”.

The early deviant Christianity was exacerbated by its incorporation into the Roman Empire at the beginning of the 4th century, through the efforts of Roman Emperors, thereby becoming infested with many elements of paganism. The church then relocated its headquarters to Rome, headed by a papal figure-head referred to as the Pope. Gradually The church’s influence penetrated into the political arena, resulting in some pagan decrees and doctrines that have changed the face of the original teachings of Christ and Christianity.

Another consequence of Christianity aligning with paganism was the naming of our days, weeks and months in honour of various pagan gods worshipped by the Romans. The church, in part, became a collaborative medium of pagan worship. Even the Christian religious holidays we follow today were derived from practices of Roman idol or personality worship. It also breaks my heart to see some church denominations fighting over whether the Sabbath Day should be a Sunday or a Saturday, both named after pagan worship entities. God named the Sabbath Day by the numbers of days and not by the cherished names. The seventh day starting from the first working day of any particular community’s calendar should be the 4th commandment (Exodus 20:9-10): “Six days you shall labour, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, or your manservant or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates”. Is our Christianity really living by this code?

The other monster of all the Christian teachings with regards to God’s statutes is regards to their numbers. This new generation of our Christian faith interfered with the original translations of our scriptures from the Hebrew Scriptures into English and other languages, to bring new meanings and texts to suit their own agenda.

Just after God had spoken of the 10th commandment, they were in fear of the Lord and implored Moses to continue to receive all other remaining statutes on their behalf. Exodus 20:18-19 reads: Now when all the people perceived the thundering and the lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled; and they stood afar off, and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will hear; but let not God speak to us, lest we die”. And Moses said to the people, “Do not fear for God has come to prove to you (His existence) and that the fear of him may be before your eyes, that you may not sin”.

However the Church then ruled the commandments ended there, when the people withdrew, after God’s 10th statute, and pleaded with Moses to continue listen to God on their behalf. Changes to the scriptures were made to advance this fallacy. If we read today’s Bible, like the Revised Standard Version and using the footnotes indicators at the bottom of the pages, the Bible editors themselves indicate clearly that there were some meaning changes made to some Hebrew words. Some words of the Hebrew language in original scriptures which originally meant “voice” or “words” were replaced with the words “10 commandments” during the Bible translations into English. They are the same changed texts we are using today. Good examples are indicated in the Bible’s footnotes regards to the denoted words as shown by the indicators to Exodus 34:28(a) or Deuteronomy 4:13(b). This clearly highlights that the doctrine of the ten commandments was purposefully implanted into our scriptures and the minds of Christian followers for some ulterior motives. Slavery commandments closely followed the 10 Commandments in sequence. The church wanted to hide and bury the slavery of the genocide and brutalities perpetrated by humans on other humans. The holocaust of the black people of Africa through slavery for over four uninterrupted centuries should never be forgotten or written out of history!  

  •  Prosper Tingini is the Scribe of the Children of God Missionary Assembly — God’s messengers. Contact details: 0771 260 195. Email address: ptingini@gmail.com

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