Between The Egyptian Ankh and The ‘Christian’ Cross

By Reno Omokri

First published in my column, #TheAlternative, in Sunday ThisDay of December 1, 2019.

Every day, Christians in their hundreds of millions make the sign of the Cross and think they are performing an act of faith pleasing to God. But is that really what they are doing?

I had heard and read about the true origins of the Cross and earlier this year, I even travelled to Ethiopia to celebrate Meskel, which is a celebration of the discovery of the true Cross in Ethiopian orthodox Christianity.

I am a truth seeker, and I wanted to get to the truth no matter whose religious feathers were ruffled, and I was told that if I wanted to get to the bottom of the mystery behind the Cross, then Israel and Ethiopia (two countries I had recently visited) were not the best starting point. I was directed to Egypt, and off I went.

While in Egypt, I engaged the services of a qualified guide, and we went investigating. And that was when I discovered the Ankh.

The Ankh is an ancient Egyptian mystical symbol used to represent life. It is most commonly seen being held by Ancient Egyptian gods and was given by them to Pharaohs as an assurance that they (the gods) would sustain the Pharaoh’s life in the afterlife.

One of the things that will shock many people is the fact that Christ did not die on a Cross. The Scriptures never said so. I can see you now getting agitated. Christ existed. He is the Son of God. He lived, died and resurrected as a propitiation for our sins, and there is no way to God EXCEPT through Christ. I did not say The Bible never said Christ died on The Cross. It does. I said the SCRIPTURES never said so. The Bible is a TRANSLATION of the Holy Scriptures.

The word used in Scripture is Tree. The original word used in the original Greek Scripture is staurō, which may mean a pole, or a stake, or the word xylou, which means tree. Read Galatians 3:13 if you want to know the truth. The King James Version uses the word ‘Tree’ to indicate where Christ died. The NIV uses the word ‘Pole’. Believe it or not, for the first 300 years of the Church, the Cross was NOT a Christian symbol. Don’t take my word for it. Research it.

Everywhere you see the word ‘Cross’ in The Bible, you are reading a word that is translated from either staurō or xylou. I encourage you to use a Greek dictionary to find out the meaning of both words. So, where did the Cross originate from? I urge you to look at the attached picture of the Theban Trinity (consisting of Amun, his consort Mut and their son Khonsu).

What are they each holding in their right hands? I urge you to note that these papyrus paintings are over 3000 years old. Now look at modern day ankhs. In Exodus 20:4, Scripture says we must not make an image of anything on Earth or in heaven or under the Earth.

That is why Christ and His disciples and the early Church did not use a Cross, whether with or without the image of Christ on it. The usage of the Cross and the Crucifix came from the Roman Emperor, Constantine, who was a pagan and claimed to have converted to Christianity. Thus began the introduction of The Trinity and The Cross into Christianity. Both of which, the Romans and Greeks copied from the ancient Egyptians, not from Scripture.

Many of the translators of Scripture into The Bible were Masons. I beg of you, read Scripture in the original language, and your life will never be the same again. It is not so hard.

The truth, as I found out in Egypt, is that some of the oldest Crosses in existence are almost a replica of the Egyptian Ankh.

It is an undisputed fact that Christ did not die on a Cross. It is an undeniable fact that the Ankh predated the Cross. It is an indisputable fact that Christ asked us to teach believers “to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you”-Matthew 28:20. So, my question is who taught us to observe the Cross, and to make the sign of the Cross, and to put it in our places of worship? Certainly not God or His Son.

It is time for us to purge Christianity of pagan practices and that is why I have travelled to Israel, Greece, Spain (Montserrat to see the Black ‪Madonna‬), Rome, The Vatican, Ethiopia, and Egypt, to gather first-hand knowledge about the true faith that Christ brought to Earth.

It is that important. Nothing is more important to me than chasing down the truth about God because Christ said in John 4:24 that “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” If we are adopting pagan mystical practices, how can we be said to worship him in spirit and in truth.”?

My life, my money, my possessions and my time is not as important to me as my God. I believe that if mainstream religion clashes with God, a true believer must choose God. If work time and God time clash, a true believer must choose God. If politics and God clash, a true believer must choose God. If football and God clash, a true believer must choose God. If friends demands and God’s requirement clash, a true believer must choose God.

To me, this is the only way I know how to worship God in spirit and in truth and I urge all my readers not to take my words at face value, but to be like the Berean Christians who “were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”-Acts ‪17:11‬.

We must pay close attention to what Scripture says. Scripture like 1 Timothy 4:1 which reads as follows:

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;”

How can we have a symbol in churches whose origin is clearly of Ancient Egyptian mystical origins and we are not asking questions? Some people privately message me and urge me to tread with caution, lest the establishment quietly kills me. But even that warning assumes that I am afraid of death. I am not scared of death. Not at all. What do I want to achieve in life that God has not given me, often on a platter of gold? If I, who has been so blessed by God, cannot risk my life against the establishment for Him, then I am of all men most useless!

2 Chronicles 16:9 says “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.”

My body is imperfect towards God. I am a sinner. I freely confess that. But my heart is wholly devoted to God. I have no doubt in my heart that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God and Father of my Lord and Saviour, Yeshua Hamashiach, is the ONLY TRUE God.

If I am killed doing what I believe He is leading me to do, then that death will be the sweetest death possible and I have no fear in my heart if it has to come.

We cannot just go along to get along. We must interrogate every aspect of our religion to make sure that it has complete fidelity to Scripture. After all, it is the same Scripture that warns us to “believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.”-1 John 4:1.

Every information that does not lead to transformation is entertainment. Do not just read this and be entertained. Read this and be spurred on to get to the bottom of your faith. You owe it to yourself because on the last day of Judgment, every man will independently give an account of his life before God who tries the heart. God bless you as you do this.

According to Mark Twain “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”

When I started out on this journey in 2018 by going to Israel to get to the bottom of the original Scripture, I had previously thought my purpose in life was to infuse Godliness into Nigerian and world politics (especially after my book became a number one bestseller).

I now see that that is a side purpose, and the main purpose was to call the Body of Christ to fidelity with the original Scriptures as they were written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.

I gave a respected and high profile Nigerian today’s column, before it was published, because he requested it. He then tried to convince not to publish it and accused me of “pride” for refusing to accept his counsel and even said satan influenced me.

I responded to him by asking him how satan could have influenced me when what I was writing was faithful to Scripture and to prophecy. I confronted him with the fact that the original Scripture did not use the word ‘Cross’, not even once and that it was European translators who inserted that word into Scripture.

I further reminded him that in the only Scripture that prophesied the way Christ would die (Deuteronomy 21:23), the word used was the Hebrew word הָעֵ֗ץ (spelt in Roman alphabets as hā-‘êṣ, which is the Hebrew word for tree.

He responded by googling and sending me a picture of a tree that looks like a Cross and said that historically, the Romans crucified people on Crosses. I responded by asking him if we, as followers of Christ, should follow pictures derived from Google or historical accounts, or Scripture, especially when 2 Timothy 3:16 says “All SCRIPTURE is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:”

Note the word Scripture. Not Bible (translation of Scripture). At this point, he again accused me to beware of “pride”. I asked him how I could be proud when I was relying solely on Scripture. He asked me if I was relying on Scripture for the part about Masonry.

At that point, I had a guest come in, so I could not chat with him with the same rapidity. That Masons, and Rosicrucians dominated the translation of Scripture into the King James Version of The Bible is a historic fact. Research it. Sir Francis Bacon, who was Lord High Councillor to King James I, was a Rosicrucian. That is a historical fact. The word Rosicrucian simply means “Order of the Rosy Cross”.

It was their agenda to promote the Cross. The Cross plays a mystical role in their occult world. Many of those appointed into the committee that translated Scripture into KJV were Masons. That is a historical fact. And even Masons themselves regard the KJV as “The Great Light of Masonry”.

Scripture tells us not to be “be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”-Romans 12:2.

What better way to fulfil the above Scripture than to read Scripture in its original language and “conform” to it? If the original Scripture does not mention the word ‘Cross’, and instead uses the word tree, then who are you conforming with by arguing for and propagating the lie that Christ was crucified on a Cross? Certainly not God. Certainly not Scripture.

Why can we as Christians not learn from Muslims by learning and reading Scripture in the original language? I know of 7 year old Muslims who can read and recite the Quran in Arabic. Why can we not have adult Christians who can read and recite the Holy Scripture in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek? That is why I respect Apostle Johnson Suleman. He not only taught himself Greek. He went to Greece and stayed in a commune and read the original Scripture in its original language 34 good times!

Reno Omokri

Gospeller. Deep Thinker. #1 Bestselling author of Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years. Avid traveller. Hollywood Magazine Film Festival Humanitarian of the Year, 2019.