The Alternative
By Reno Omokri
The Catholic Church is an institution I admire and have written about multiple times, as regular readers of my column, #TheAlternative, can attest to. I am enthralled by the sheer discipline of the Institution, and have in the past written that a Catholic education is perhaps one of the best things that can happen to any child.
In terms of discipline, education, and commitment to the sanctity of human life, you cannot take it away from the Catholic Church. And my family has a 500-year-old association with Catholicism, from my ancestor, Olu Atuwatse I, to my late mother. My family has been Catholic longer than any family in the geographical location now known as Nigeria. Bar none. Absolutely none. And this is evidenced in documentary proof, not oral accounts.
Recently, a Malawian-based Catholic Reverend Father of Nigerian origin wrote a blistering attack against me filled with several lies, which went viral.
He accused me of a variety of things, including photoshopping an image of Peter Obi to bring him down. I understand how emotionally invested this fellow and many others like him are in Peter Obi and I understand that his emotions may have gotten the better of him.
I have never photoshopped an image of Peter Obi, either on a Muslim prayer mat, or on anything. I urge this Reverend Father to provide evidence that I have ever done so.
But that is not what I want to address here. This Reverend gentleman had gone on to poke fun at me because I do not believe that the man he calls Jesus Christ is God.
First of all, the name Jesus Christ is a fictitious made-up name. The actual Saviour of the world was named Yeshua Ben Yosef, and given the title Hamashiach, while He was on Earth. The name Jesus came much later after His death, and I have written profusely about that, and anyone who is interested may Google my previous writings.
The man Yeshua Ben Yosef was not the God whom we worship. He never claimed to be. He is the Son of the God who sits on the Throne in the Ancient heavens and Himself never claimed to be that God that we worshiped, or to be equal with Him. Indeed, He said “My Father is greater than I.”-John 14:28.
It was men, like this Catholic Reverend Father, who made Yeshua into God, at the First Council of Nicaea, 325 years after the physical death, burial and resurrection of Yeshua.
They try to use The Bible to justify their acts, but they themselves crested The Bible. What existed during and immediately after the time of Yeshua were Scriptures. And Scripture is written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Koine Greek, which are all languages that I am familiar with.
These gentlemen, and their successors, translated Scripture into a book they called The Bible, and on the basis of their translations, they introduced several ideas into The Way (which was what the sect of the Nazarenes was called, before European townsmen came up with the name Christian). You can see this in Acts 24:5.
The first Christians were all Jews and called their faith “The Way”. We see this in Acts 19:23.
The alteration of The Way into what is now known as modern-day Western Christianity occurred in Europe and was prophesied in Scripture in 1 Timothy 4:1:
The European concept that the man they call Jesus Christ (both are entirely European words not found in Scripture) is Himself God, comes from their translations of two verses of Scripture-John 1:1, and 1 John 5:7.
I have taught and written about both verses in detail, and now, because of this Reverend Catholic gentleman, I am forced to do so again.
When most people read John 1:1, they do so in a European language, rather than in the original Koine Greek. In the English King James Version, that verse reads:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
However, is that what Scripture really said? Let us allow Scripture speak for itself. John 1:1 in the original Koine Greek, reads as follows:
Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.
This may not make sense to you if you do not understand Koine Greek, which is an ancient language. However, I will not impose my own translation of that verse on you.
I travelled to Greece to research this verse. Then I went to the John Rylands University Library, in Manchester, to study the oldest New Testament on Earth. Then I went to Ethiopia to research the oldest complete New Testament on Earth.
All I will say is that the modern translation of John 1:1 which many of us were taught from childhood should be personally investigated by each one of us individually, if we truly love God and value where our souls will go when we leave this realm of existence.
If you are interested in my findings on this issue, Google is your friend. I have written about it copiously. However, I do not want you to rely on my findings. Make your own research. That is one.
The second verse they use in justifying their doctrinal dogma that Yeshua, who they call Jesus Christ, is God is 1 John 5:7.
Now, let me shock you. They made that verse up. And they cannot even deny it, because they were caught red-handed. And after being caught, they blamed their error on what they call the Comma Johanneum or the Johannine Comma.
1 John 5:7 is one of the shortest verses in Scripture. It says briefly that there are three that testify. However, if you read that verse in the King James Version, and the versions of some Christian denominations, which I will prefer not to mention, you will see other things, such as that these three are in heaven, that they are the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and that they are one.
The historical fact of the matter is that Scripture never said so. If you doubt me, open that verse in any translation other than the KJV and your church translation. Read it in the NIV, ESV, NASB, Amplified Version, etc.
The parts “in heaven…” and every other thing that follows, are man-made. They are not in the original Scripture, and this is not a dispute or an argument. Even these churches accept it as fact, because they were caught. Red-handed.
They attribute this addition to an honest mistake, called the Comma Johanneum or the Johannine Comma.
If you read the oldest New Testament Scriptures, the Comma Johanneum or the Johannine Comma is NOT there. What these churches attribute it to is an interpreter’s gloss, or explanatory note, which was ‘erroneously’ included into The Bible.
That is why you should also read Scripture before you die, and not rely on The Bible only.
Yeshua never claimed to be God. Yes, He did say “I and my Father are one” in John 10:30. But does that mean that He Himself is God that we worship and pray to? No. What does it mean? I do not know. And because I do not know, I am not prepared to give my own human interpretation to it.
As human beings, we are not meant to know everything. That is why Deuteronomy 29:29 says:
“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”
What we do know is that the first testimony of Christ after His resurrection proves that He is not the God on the Throne, whom we worship and pray to, but that He is the Son of God, who is at the right Hand of God. We see this in the testimony of the martyr, Stephen, who said:
“I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.”-Acts 7:56.
Paul Himself warned us in 1 Corinthians 8:6 that:
“To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.”
There is only one God. The Supreme Being who sits on the Throne, Whom no man has seen. And I will continue to believe that till I die. Put a knife to my neck, and I will not change my confession. Because it agrees with Deuteronomy 6:4:
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.”
Yeshua Hamashiach is the ONLY Way to God. As far as Scripture is concerned, there can be no other Way. We see this in John 14:6:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
However, He is NOT the Destination. The Destination is God. The One who sits on the Throne, and to Whom we pray.
I will strongly urge my readers not to accept anything that emanates from any church if it does not first emanate from Scripture. Remember the warning that Paul gave in Galatians 1:8:
“But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.”
The Gospel that Yeshua Hamashiach, whom some people call Jesus Christ, is Himself the very same God Who sits on the Throne and Whom we worship and pray to is “any other gospel”.
It was not preached by our Lord and Saviour. It was not preached by His Disciples. It was not taught by Paul. It is not in Scripture. And prior to 325 AD, it did NOT exist.
I, Bemigho Reno Omokri, will go only as far as Scripture goes. I will not add to it, nor subtract from it. I will not give my opinion on things that are not revealed to man.
In pursuit of understanding Scripture, I have travelled to almost every place mentioned in Scripture, and investigated the oldest manuscripts and documents on Earth. If it costs me everything I own on Earth, I will still consider the expense as a trifle, as long as it helps me know God and His only begotten Son. For as Christ said:
“This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
If the Catholic Reverend Father wants to politicise my stance because I do not support Peter Obi’s Presidential ambition, so be it. I prefer to be unpopular doing what the Scripture tells me, than to be popular doing what a church tells me.
In conclusion, I call on the Catholic Church to call its priests to order. This Malawian-based Reverend Father, as well as one Reverend Father Oluoma, have clearly violated Canon Law.
Father Oluoma has called on Nigerians not to vote for the Peoples Democratic Party, because the party violated a “gentleman’s agreement” (his words) on power shift. This is a lie. There is no such agreement.
But the issue is not that it is a lie. The issue is what is his business? He is a Catholic Priest. His job is to serve God through the Catholic Church. By virtue of Canon Law, he should not be meddling in the internal affairs of a political party, especially one of which he is not a member (as a priest, Canon Law 258 prevents him from being a member) and of which he does not understand its inner workings.
There are possibly millions of Catholics who are also members of the PDP. By maligning the PDP, is he not also maligning them? By calling PDP members “goons” (his exact words).
If the Catholic Church could penalise Reverend Father Ejike Mbaka for calling Peter Obi “stingy”, then it will amount to hypocrisy if the same church does not call this Malawian-based Reverend Father, who told multiple lies against me, and Reverend Father Oluoma, to order.
They should remember that to show partiality is ungodly, as “God shows no partiality.”-Acts 10:34.
Reno’s Nuggets
I was asked a question by a young man named Nkwuda Johnson. He asked:
“With a due respect (sic) sir, how are you sure that heaven is into (sic) existence.”
Dear @NkwudaJohnson,
Thank you for your comment. I would have given you scriptural references, but you appear to have issues with Scripture. So, I will use everyday experiences.
You, Nkwuda, have you ever sensed someone watching you from behind? How did you know? You don’t have eyes at the back of your head. You sensed it because you, Nkwuda, are a spirit. Your spirit lives on after your body, just as your SIM card lives on long after your phone dies.
It is the same reason why you experience what is commonly referred to as déjà vu. Because you have sub-conscious experiences that your carnal mind cannot remember. Because, you are a spirit.
And spirits do not live in a physical environment, like planet Earth, ergo, they must have their own plane of existence different from the natural realm. That plane is heaven. Heaven is just a generic word for the abode of God.
Take your life on Earth as God’s quality control. He is testing your spirit to see if it is heaven worthy. This is not life. An average of 70 years and you fade away. No. This is the prequel to life.
Thank you again and may God bless you.
#RenosNuggets #FreeLeahSharibu
