It is now common knowledge, although it did not used to be, that along with the Armenians, Ethiopians are the oldest Christians on Earth. I have been to Ethiopia twenty-five times in study of the roots of Scripture and the Ekklesia (the word used in the original Bible is Ekklesia, not Church. Church is an incorrect translation of the Koine Greek word Ekklesia, which actually means Gathering).

One of the surprising things about Ethiopia is that their Scriptures and traditions are purer than those in Europe. For example, the oldest complete illustrated New Testament in the world is in Ethiopia. They are called the Garima Gospels and are written in the ancient Ge'ez language of Ethiopia.

Also strange to outsiders is the fact that the Garima Gospels and other ancient Scriptures are kept in churches and monasteries that are in very hard to reach locations, like mountaintop churches and caves.

It is because of their history. Over the course of a thousand years, they have been attacked by Muslims (funny enough, they gave asylum to the first Muslims when the Quraysh of Mecca were killing them). And often, the only safe place for them were mountaintops, caves and other treacherous terrains.

I have been to some of these places, and much as I love God, I hesitate to go to these mountaintop monasteries and churches again because you can almost die getting there. The only way is by foot, and the Ethiopians are genetically evolved to do well in high altitudes. Pastor Favour Desimhi, who once followed me to Wenchi Cherkos Monastery, and I almost had a heart attack while my wife was climbing and smiling.

But suffice it to say that the original Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church did not believe in the Trinity and worshipped on the Sabbath. They also circumcise males and abstain from pork. They considered many of the practices of European Catholicism as heresy. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the Coptic Church of Egypt were initially very unreceptive to new ideas from Rome and other European centres of Catholicism.

However, that all changed when they were attacked by wave after wave of Muslim armies. Things got to head after yet another attack by a Muslim army led by Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi, a military leader from the Adal Sultanate, which is in present-day Somalia.

At around 1539, he attacked and occupied the Christian nation of Abyssinia, now known today as Ethiopia. The Emperor of Habesha (Habesha is an alternative name for Abyssinia or Ethiopia), Dawit II, had, in a panic, requested help from Christian Europe through João Bermudes, a Portuguese Catholic priest. Ardent followers of my page will remember that I visited the palace of this same Dawit II in Lalibela, in the Amhara region of Ethiopia.

The King of Portugal, John III of Portugal, a Catholic (as were most Europeans at the time), offered help on the condition that the Abyssinians accepted the Trinity and the veneration of Mary, as well as other Catholic doctrines.

Caught between a rock and a hard place, Dawit II did not object vigorously, although he was not thrilled with the idea. He had to be practical. He was not in a position suitable for refusal. But his son, Gelawdewos, who was more conscious than his father of their standing as royals of the Solomonic dynasty, was not sold on the idea. He eventually defeated the Muslim army with the help of Portuguese musketeers led by Cristóvão da Gama.

After the defeat of the Muslims, Gelawdewos, who succeeded his father, refused to follow through with the conditions of the Portuguese king and insisted on the observance of Saturday, the Sabbath Day, as the day of worship, the refusal of his people to eat pork, and the practice of circumcision, amongst others.

Sadiy, after a Muslim army defeated Gelawdewos on March 23, 1559, and killed him, João Bermudes and his fellow Portuguese Catholic priests overwhelmed the Abyssinians with teachings on the Trinity, Sunday worship, non-requirement of circumcision, and the veneration of Mary.

Left with no army and almost entirely at the mercy of the military assistance they were expecting from Europe, these dogmas were accepted and have continued to cause division and controversy in Ethiopia even until today.

Reno Omokri

Gospeller. Deep Thinker. #TableShaker. #1 Bestselling author of Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years. Globetrotter. Hollywood Magazine Humanitarian of the Year, 2019. Business Insider Influencer of the Year 2022.


Seun
Mynd44
Nlfpmod
Lalasticlala

You don't know anything Joo...stop claiming right with lies.
You will go and read suggestions and opinions of people, garnish it with your own hearsay and then bring forth for public consumption

What has religion not done to any mind, who choose to accept it's fallacy... Ethiopia church history or no church history TRINITY is a blasphemy before God..