BY PROSPER TINGINI The Collins dictionary says to blaspheme is to show contempt or disrespect for God or sacred things, especially in speech. We have many people in our religious circles who purport to be acting for God or Christ, in deeds and in other spheres of life.
Some have claimed to be God himself. Such pretence could be labelled as blasphemy. We have many other Christian institutions that ordain people into priesthood to act for God, giving them full powers to forgive sins. Can anybody else besides God or Christ possess equal powers to forgive human sin?
In the New Testament we come across passages in the scriptures in which Jesus Christ is accused of blasphemy. In one example, Mark 2:1-12 reads: And when he returned to Caper’na-um after some days, it was reported that he was at home.
And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer any room for them, not even about the door; and he was preaching the word to them. And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and when they had made an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic lay.
And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “My son, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, “Why does this man speak thus? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sin but God alone?” and immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question thus in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven’, or to say, ‘Rise, take up your pallet and walk?’ But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins” — he said to the paralytic — “I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home.” And he rose and immediately took up the pallet and went out before them all; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”
I was born, bred and grew up within the religious confines of one of the largest Christian denominations in the world. From a young age, we were taught the significance of repentance and confession.
We were encouraged to make it a habit to confess our sins every worship day via a priest seated inside a “confession booth”. It has a veiled window acting as a barrier to avoid identification.
At the end of very confession, you are then given some tasks of worship to do for a set period. Thereafter, you are then assumed to be cleansed of your sins.
Some Christian sects condemn strongly this practice of a priest forgiving the sins of another human. They claim that forgiveness of sin is only the prerogative of God, and that no human has the power to forgive sins. They perceive that it is tantamount to blasphemy.
Jesus Christ assumed the powers to forgive sins through his heritage, being the Son of the Heavenly Father, anointed for the sole purpose of the forgiveness of our sins. He therefore symbolizes the forgiveness of sin. The question to then ask ourselves is whether priests have the powers to also forgive sin. When can take a cue from our Old Testament records on how the tradition of forgiveness of sin was handled among humanity.
After they had fulfilled some given task by the Lord, the sons of the generations of Levi were ordained to be priests. In Exodus 32:29, Moses declared to the sons of the House of Levi; “Today you have ordained yourselves’ for the service of the Lord.” In short this entails that humanity can ordain some of its own to work for God and in essence perform some tasks on his behalf, including tasks to do with the forgiveness of sins.
Leviticus chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7 clearly illustrate some of the roles priests played in some rituals for the forgiveness and atonement of human sins, as instructed by the Lord our God. At the end of it all, the priests could have declared to those who had complied with God’s directives for the forgiveness of sin, and on behalf of the Lord, “Your sins are forgiven”.
Isaiah 46:9 reads; “I am God, there is no other, I am God, there is none like me.” People worship the Lord our God in various ways guided by the word of God or by some doctrines enacted by mankind to achieve particular objectives of religion. One such human doctrine I have always criticized is that of the Holy Trinity, promulgated by a clique of the then political and religious Roman Empire authorities to promote a weird religious ideology that aligned with the pagan worship of multiple gods prevailing in that society during that period.
The 3-in-1 godhead principles sought to change God’s law, that the Lord our God is one. This effort to try to split God’s oneness into a human-assumed three-part ideology misleads mankind and makes a mockery of the image of God. I have no fear to declare that it is a doctrine of blasphemy.
I have written and quoted form the scriptures numerous chapters and verses from the both the Old Testament and the New Testament where God himself and also the Son, Jesus Christ, bluntly speaks of the Oneness of our Heavenly Father, the Almighty God as One.
The very first and most important commandment to guide mankind reads; “You shall have no other gods besides me”. It’s straight forward and very simple to understand. It was placed right in the front of all others of God’s laws yet a clique of confused individuals sat down to confuse people, deviated from the law and to change the image of God. This indeed is a blasphemous act. There is no God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit as a 3-in-1 entity.
No amount of indoctrination can make that right. Yet again, there is a defiance to God’s second commandment which clearly states (Exodus 20:4); “You shall not make for yourselves a graven image, or any likeness that is in the heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of t hose who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments”.
As I mentioned earlier, I was born, bred and raised within the armpits of one of the largest Christian denominations in the world. Within the perimeters of all of their churches are various “graven images” nailed inside or outside the houses of worship, denoting various cherished memories of Christ, the cross and Mother Mary among others.
Very often people kneel before these ‘carved images’ in worship, in total violation of God’s law. I will not further expand on this, as some of our other Christian folks are deeply engaged in this practice, lest I invoke their misguided rebuke. Isaiah 42:8 reads of the spoken words of God; “I am the Lord ,that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to graven images”.
- Prosper Tingini is the Scribe of the Children of God Missionary Assembly – God’s messengers. Contact details: Mobile & whatsapp – 0771 260 195. Email address: ptingini@gmail.com