From Reno Omokri
There is nowhere in the Bible that says you will go to hell if you are not a Christian. That is a myth Europeans created to scare you. You only need to believe in Yeshua (Jesus) as the Way to God. And guess what? Yeshua was a Jew throughout His time on Earth. We see that in John 4:22, where Yeshua said, “Salvation is of the Jews”.
Paul was a Jew throughout his life. We see that in Acts 21:39, where he said, “I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia”. Peter also considered himself a Jew, which is why he told Cornelius that “it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile”-Acts 10:28.
The point of this is for you, as a Christian, to understand that the original meaning of the word Christian was not as a name for a religion. Yeshua did not name the Way He taught Christianity.
It was the townspeople of Antioch who came up with that name as a verb to describe people who were like Yeshua. We see that in Acts 11:26, “And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.”
To prove to you that that name was not meant as the name of the religion that Yeshua espoused, Paul called himself a Jew more than a year after the word Christian was used to describe the disciples.
If you read the New Testament, you will never find anywhere that Paul or any other disciple/apostle used the term Christian to describe a religion.
Some will cite 1 Peter 4:16, which in the English translation of many versions reads:
“However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.”
However, if you read the New Testament chronologically, you will understand 1 Peter 4:16.
The word Christian was used twice before 1 Peter 4:16. In Acts 11:26, where the townspeople of Antioch came up with that word, and in Acts 26:28 when Agrippa asks Paul if Paul thought he could convince him to be a Christian.
Please fact-check me: The term “Christian” was first used as a derogatory insult, and throughout the Roman world, it was illegal, and when you were caught, you were put through severe suffering.
That is the context in which Peter used the word in 1 Peter 4:16.
He was not using it to describe the name of their faith.
To put it in perspective, the word Christian is used only three times in the entire Bible. Whereas the word Jew is used 185 times. Assume I am lying, and fact-check me.
One significant error that many Christians make is to think Paul was converted from Judaism to Christianity during his road to Damascus experience. That is not true. The Bible does not support that. Paul converted from thinking Yeshua was a false Messiah to knowing He was the true Messiah. We see this in Acts 18:28;
“Paul vigorously refuted his Jewish opponents in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah.”
There were only two kinds of people to Paul and Peter: Jews and Gentiles. And any of them could be Christian, which was used as a verb to describe their behaviour, not as a name for a new religion.
We see this in Romans 1:16:
“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.”
If you believe in God through Yeshua (Jesus), you are not a Christian in the sense that Christianity was never meant to be the name of a religion. Rather, you are a Gentile believer in the Jewish Rabbi, Yeshua. And part of your discipleship is for you to follow His Way, which makes your behaviour Christian (meaning Christlike).
Now, what is the point of this? The point is for you not to look down on Muslims, Druzes, Coptics, or any other group of people who self-identify as Christians.
Instead, ask yourself this question: Do they believe in the teachings of Yeshua? And are they Christlike?
Why should we do this? Because Paul said:
“When Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law.”
Now, what is the greatest law, according to Yeshua? Love God and love your neighbour as yourself-Matthew 22:37-39.
Taking that into consideration, can anyone on Earth be more ‘Christian’ than Imam Abubakar Abdullahi, a Muslim, who on Saturday, June 23, 2018, saved the lives of 262 people who self-identify as Christians in Barkin Ladi, Plateau State?
Now, how did Imam Abubakar Abdullahi save the lives of these 262 people?
By their own testimony, he achieved that feat by sheltering them at the mosque of which he was the Imam and standing in front of the building telling the Fulani herders who came to kill them to kill him first before they could kill those under his care.
Now, what did Yeshua say again?
“Greater love has no one than this, that a person will lay down his life for his friends.”-John 15:13.
I want to ask you today, as a Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Wesleyan, Lutheran, Pentecostal, and Evangelical, this question:
Can you name one person living today that is more Christian than Imam Abubakar Abdullahi?
I will await your answer in the comment section.
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