WHY GOD DOES NOT TOLERATE ANY RIVALS

When man was about to be created, the Almighty and Eternal Father called out to Jesus and the Holy Spirit saying “let us create man in our own image and likeness” – Genesis 1:27.

So, it is inconceivable, and there is no way that what Jesus did can be inferior or less acceptable than what a human being created by Him has done, or has started.

Before Jesus came down from heaven to save us from damnation, God had earlier prepared a young lady to be the Ark or shelter that would harbor His Most Holy Son right from her womb. And so, when creating this woman in the womb of her own mother (St. Ann), God did not allow the stain of the Original sin of Adam and Eve (our first parents) to be found in her because His Holy Son would not be inside a body associated with any form of sin. And so Jesus entered the pure and holy womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary – the Immaculate Conception. God also filled this woman with His grace which enabled her to remain sinless all through her life on earth. (Hail full of grace –Luke 1:28).

This is why the church honoured her with the titles – “Virgin Most Pure” and “Ark of the covenant”.

As Jesus began to teach, He unequivocally stated and made it clear that all that He was saying and doing was what His father in heaven told him to say; John 8:28.

Among the things the Almighty father obviously told Him to do was to start or found a church and to hand her over to any one of His apostles who would be able to answer His question about who He is. Matthew 16:13-20

And so, when Simon was able to answer that question, Jesus immediately changed his name from Simon to Peter, which means Rock; (from the Latin word – Petrus).

He then told him that it is upon him that He would build His church, and promised him that the powers of hell would never influence or overcome this church – Matthew 16:18. Jesus further assured him that He would send the Holy Spirit (the spirit of Truth) to remain with this church and to continue forever to guide her in the way of Truth; John 14:16,26. And so, ten days after He went back to heaven, Jesus sent down this Holy Spirit which manifested Himself in the form of tongues of fire on the head of each of His apostles – Acts 2:3.

This is why any time the church, (speaking through her mouthpiece-the Pope) says anything concerning FAITH and MORALS, she speaks nothing but the Truth and is Infallible, because she is forever being guided by that Spirit of Truth, as promised and executed by Jesus.

In addition to the Holy Spirit, Jesus Himself continues to monitor what goes on in this church which He founded and called MY Church – Matthew 16:18.

St. Paul confirms this holiness and infallibility of the church when he described her as “pure and faultless, without spot or wrinkle or any other imperfection” – Ephesians 5:27.

It is therefore no surprise that in spite of all the battering and criticisms being poured on this holy and apostolic church by those who hate her, she has continued to wax stronger and stronger and can never be overcome or conquered by the devil or those he uses to fight her. This is because her owner is the Lord Jesus Christ, our God.

After Jesus had established this church, with St. Peter as its first Pope, succeeded by Pope Linus (67AD), followed by Pope Clement (88AD), down to the present Pope Francis up to this 2020 AD, she had remained one united family of Christ for one thousand five hundred years, until King Henry VIII of England decided to break away from her to form his own church (the Anglican Church), because he was not allowed by the Pope to marry a second wife, in his quest for a male child.  

This action of his emboldened others, like Martin Luther to start the Lutheran Church; John Wesley to start the Methodist church; John Smyth to found the Baptist church; and this has gone on and on till the present day church founders like Chris Oyakilome of Christ Embassy Church, Enoch Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church and several other founders all over the world.

Perhaps, if King Henry had not done what he did, others would not have been encouraged to toe his path of challenging what Jesus had done; knowing that He is a jealous God who tolerates no rivals – Exodus 34:6-7; and who will sit on His judgment throne on the last day to know those who abandoned His church because they felt that the Holy Spirit Jesus had sent was not doing enough to show them the way to salvation. He will also discover those who left because they saw some members of this church committing various sins, and they themselves were not sinners, even though the Bible says that all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God- Romans 3:23; and sins of some members cannot be seen as sin of the church for the church ever remains holy, pure, and without sin or imperfection –  Ephesians 5:27. And He will also on that day know those who just left because of the lure of riches and pleasures of this world, and those upon whom He will pronounce those words of the Bible in Matthew 7:21-23, in which He says: “I never knew you, get away from me”; even though they would try to remind Him how they preached in His name and worked great miracles.

It is a well known fact that ability to invoke the name of Christ to work miracles does not depend or mean that the person is holy and acceptable to God, since all manners of people, including cultists and magicians (like Pharaoh’s pagan magicians) can work or imitate stupendous miracles like that of the stick of Moses turning into a snake – Exodus 7:8-10.

Among the things Jesus did as His Father had told Him was the institution of the seven sacraments of the church, one of which is the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist which He commanded the church to continue to do in memory of Him – Luke 22:19. This is essentially a re-enactment of what Jesus went through at Jerusalem over two thousand years ago. It is like watching the video of how He suffered, shed His blood and died for our sins. This is what is done during every celebration of the Catholic Mass. It differs greatly from what is done in other churches or places of worship. At mass we are expected to do more of weeping than dancing.

Although when we joyfully bring our gifts of offering to the altar in thanksgiving to God for all He has done for us (the greatest of which is His gift of His Only begotten Son to pay for our sins and wipe them away) we are free to sing and dance as we do so. However, when the first bell rings to  herald the commencement of the painful sacrifice and death of Jesus on the cross at Calvary, our mood is expected to change. We now begin to see again with the eyes of our minds what Jesus went through for the love of us.

 With eyes wet with tears as the celebration of the mass goes on, grief and sobriety take over any form of dancing because right before our eyes, is a reminder of how our very dear Brother and Lord was brutally hacked to death by those Roman soldiers. This is the highest form of prayer; and no prayer on earth pleases God more than this.

As millions of people from other denominations and religions of the world continue to join David Cameron (the Ex-Prime Minister of UK) and several others to embrace this “Journey Back Home” (as the media popularly calls this movement), our prayer is that our Merciful God will, on Judgment day, show mercy on all others who, (out of ignorance or due to fear of what some people might say), still find themselves outside this Ark of Salvation which He had sent Jesus to come and build to accommodate all His children under one flock and one shepherd and which Jesus still wishes and prayed for as seen in John 10:14-17.

All of us, (the sheep in this flock) are so very dear to Jesus that before He went back to heaven, He had to call Peter and asked him three times if he loved Him enough to take proper care of us and feed us with the teachings He had handed over to him and the apostles to take to the ends of the earth.-Mark 16:15.

And so he called out: “Peter, do you love me, feed my sheep” – John 21:16.

We pray that all those people still found outside the church Jesus had founded, be shown mercy by God on the last day, and not be treated as those who have chosen to challenge what Jesus had established, and ignore the fact that He is a jealous God who tolerates no rivals.