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Sunday word: The Lord our God is one

PROSPER TINGINI

The very first of the Ten Commandments of God reads as per the second book of Moses, commonly called Exodus, verse 3: “You shall have no other gods besidesme”.

In Deuteronomy6 :4-7, He spoke again to emphasise His oneness: “Hear, O Israel ; the Lord your God is one Lord, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your, all your soul, and all your might. And these words I command you this day that they 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 walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand,and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them on the doorsteps of your house and on your gates.’’

The Lord our God re-emphasised His oneness to the world through prophet Isaiah as his witness, among many other  such declarations found throughout our scriptures, Isaiah 43:10 reads: “You are my witness, and my servant 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”. 

With the passage of time, He then sent His begotten son, Jesus Christ, to redeem us of our sins.

Christ thus represents the ceremonials ritual of sacrificing a lamp for the cleansing of human sins.

As a forgiving God, He took it upon himself to honor his own laid down ceremonial ritualof offering a lamp for the redemption of the sins of humanity by substituting it with His own son. Let’s recall that in the same manner, in Genesis 22:2-3, God had asked Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac, saying to him, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom your love, and go to the land of Moria, and offer him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I shall tell you”.

Indeed, Abraham had complied with the instruction, despite the painful thought. But after seeing his astounding faith and obedience, He then substituted Isaac the son with a lamb. In order to be seen to be walking His talk, God provided His own son to represent the lamb offering.

Jesus symbolises the sacrificial lamb for the forgiveness of our sins. That has not changed. During his life on our planet, the Son spoke the same words of those of his Father on the oneness of the Lord our God. Among similar such speeches of his which are found in our New Testament scriptures, Christ again repeated his Father’s words according to the book of Mark, 12:29-30;  He spoke, “Hear ,O Israel : the Lord our GOD, the Lord is one ; and you shall love him with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Truly, this scenario was not changed by the coming of Jesus Christ.

Early Christians recognised God as one and Christ as His Son.

Christ come for a dual purpose,ie to teach humanity of his Fathers expectations and to finally act as the sacrifice lamb for the redemption of our sins.

How then did Christ end up being elevated to be God, or being part of the 3 in 1 Godhead known as the Holy Trinity?

There are many angles to this but let’s us first get to the root causes. In some verses of our scriptures, Jesus Christ indeed told his audiences that in order to get to his Father, the Lord our God, we had to go through him.

He was that creating a channel to the heavenly Father, making himself the carrier of messages for our spiritual and human needs to God.

This is the same manner as we the majority of us Christian folks put our faith in our own priests, pastors or religious leaders to act as conduits to carry our prayers and other spiritual needs either through Christ, or to Christ himself so as to get to the final destination, the One and Only Almighty God.

Some priests of some church denominations have been given the powers to forgive sins, thus likewise acting for both Christ and the Heavenly Father. To me, going through Christ does not mean that he becomes the God,In the same manner, my son can act as a channel to carry some messages for me, but cannot then be the father or take my place or chair.

However there is also some background history to the elevation of Christ to be God which gave birth to the Holy Trinity doctrine. These records are of historical facts and not in dispute.

The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is a creation of mankind. Its roots can be traced back to the era of its initiator, Emperor Constantine, who ruled the Roman Empire between 306AD to 337AD.

His mother, Helen, had managed to convert him to Christianity at a young age. Prior to assumingpower, Christian were being persecuted left, right and centre. Upon rising to the throne, he placed a blanket ban on the persecutions. It become his focus to spread Christianity across the world, even by force or conquest of other nations beyond the Roman Empire.

He then embarked what are now called the” Christian crusades,” conquering other nations to enforce Christianity upon the whole world.

The Christian crusades were to overwhelmingly successful that he was convinced that it was Jesus Christ himself that assisted him victories. In 312AD while in the battlefield, he and some of his soldiers are said to have seen the sign of the cross in the skies accompanied by these words, “WITH THIS SIGN YOU CONQURE.”

Against all odds, he won the ensuing battle very decisively, which made to be convinced that Jesus Christ was God.

In 325AD, Constantine gathered the Christian Church Fathers in the city of Nicaca (Nice) for a meeting known as the Councilif Nicaca. In that meeting, he presented the idea of divinity of Christ, that Jesus Christ was God. However, thankfully, most of the Christian leaders present opposed the idea and it failed to be decreed.

Long after his death, another Christian Emperor, Flavius, reorganised another meeting for the church elders in 381AD, referred to as the Council of Constantinople in the modern city of Instabul, Turkey.

He successfully managed to twist the minds of the church elders into accepting the elevation of Christ to God. In the negotiations, the concept of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity was formulated, thus giving birth to the 3 in 1 God head.

What followedwas an intensive indoctrination of the Christian followers by the church to support this ideology. Using the scriptures for this purpose, this indoctrination continues within our ranks.

We have thusaligned ourselves with the multi-gods religious system of worship as practiced within the Roman Empire at that time. We arestill stuck in that era.

  • 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: ptingini@gmail.com  AA

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