sundayword: BY PROSPER TINGINI In my last instalment (Part 1), I wrote about some Christian sects that hold the view that Jesus Christ was in existence well before the Godly creations. Sorrowfully, we also have among these sects some believers who take it a step further by implying that it was Jesus Christ who created the Heavens and the Earth and everything else thereon. Not only that, they then go on to brazenly state that Jesus Christ is the Lord our God. They proceed again to misquote some verses from our New Testament scriptures in an effort to support this argument.
Jesus Christ favoured to speak in parables, which had hidden meanings. Sometimes he spoke in colloquial language — hard to understand for some minds. His sometimes idiomatic way of expressing things is then often taken literally, resulting in out-of-context interpretations of scriptures, with very grave consequences for Christianity. I have searched the scriptures of both the Old Testament and of the New Testament and nowhere in these two is it written that Jesus Christ is the Almighty God. Regrettably, most of us Christians worship him as such. Christ himself never elevated himself to be the God. While some of his speeches might have been taken out of context to imply that, as the Son of the Heavenly Father, he thus wore the same shoes as Him. It was never his intention to ugrade his status to that of the Lord our God, even though he could share the same title of Lordship.
In a class, whether at a school, college or university, a given topic of any academic assignment is always interpreted differently across the spectrum. There can never be an identical or uniform interpretations of any given topic. Some meanings, though different in context, could mean the same thing even when expressed differently. However, there will always be some students whose answers or interpretations are completely “off topic”; meaning that such students will have failed to grasp the concept of the matters in the question. Such a scenario is also at play in our own interpretations of the contents of scriptures. We have people who have totally misunderstood some meanings of the scriptures and some people who also preach falsehoods, based on the same verses of the Bible.
Throughout the New Testament, Jesus Christ always addressed the Lord our God, as Father. He never put himself at par with the Almighty. There are verses too numerous to mention in the scriptures in which Christ always addresses God as “the Father”. While a son can act for the father, he can never be the father himself. There will always be a distinction between the two. I know there are some verses in which Jesus Christ speaks and likens himself to the Heavenly Father. However, some of us have unfortunately given a literal meaning to his words, to then endorse him as God. The Messiah, the Son of the Living God is subordinate to his Heavenly Father.
Jesus Christ clearly teaches us that to get to the Father, as Christians, we have to go through him. The final destination is to get to the Supreme Father, and that he is the way to that journey’s end. His real mission was to carry our sins, via his crucifixion on the cross, so that the Almighty Father could forgive humanity of their sins. God anointed him to be the sacrificial lamb, for the atonement of our sins.
God did not bring Christ to our planet for him to then become His substitute, but rather for him to become our redeemer for the forgiveness of our sins. We became saved through the sacrifice of his flesh and blood. This is the Jesus Christ of our Christianity. The Christ that is now worshipped in the place of our Heavenly Father is truly divine, but not of the same status as that of God. The Almighty God remains supreme. The Christ that humanity has elevated to be our God is not of our basic Christianity; this one is of the Roman Empire religion, who subscribed to the worship of multiple gods. I have written full details of the background to this in some previous articles.
The Lord our God is one. Jesus Christ himself emphasized on that point, and I have quoted direct words from the scriptures on numerous occasions on that subject. The Roman Emperors’ inspired 3-in-1 godhead is a figment of human imagination, which raised up other gods. The original Christ was an offering from the Heavenly Father for the atonement of our sins. That status still prevails. Christ himself spoke on numerous occasions, as in Mark 12:29, saying, “The Lord our God is one, and we should love him, with all our hearts, with all our souls and with all of our strength and might.”
The very first commandment of the Lord our God reads: “I am the Lord your God, there shall be no other God besides me.” In Deuteronomy 6:4-7, the Heavenly Father emphasized, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words I command you this day. These words shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you lie down, and when you rise. And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hands, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes and you shall write them on the doorsteps of your house and on your gates”.
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Jesus Christ understood and adopted God’s words in the above paragraph, on the oneness of the Lord our God as spoken to mankind. He taught us according to these words. Jesus Christ himself disapproves of the polytheists who subscribe to the worship of more than one God. For us Christians who believe that Christ is God, let it be known and accepted that we are believers in the worship of multiple Gods (Holy Trinity). The God Christ of our Christianity is of a different Christ.
Lastly, in the book of Isaiah 43:10, God spoke to the messengers of His words: “You are my witnesses, and my servants whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am He. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me”. Amen.
Prosper Tingini is the Scribe of the Children of God Missionary Assembly — God’s messengers. Contact details: Mobile and Whatsapp: 0771 260 195. Email address: [email protected]
