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The World: What is the world?
1. Definition by the Cambridge Dictionary: "The earth and all the people,
places and all things on it".
But as a Christian, I define the world as God's Kingdom on earth. What the Cambridge Dictionary defines ordinarily as the earth and all the people, places, and all things on it, is a Kingdom of God outside of Heaven, in the eyes and beliefs of the Christian.
For this document, all biblical references are taken from the New King James Version of the Holy Bible.
Psalms 89:11: "The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours. The world and all its fullness, You have founded them".
Jeremiah 10:12: "He has made the earth by His power. He has established the world by His wisdom, And has stretched out the heavens at his discretion."
These Bible quotations confirm that we are the Kingdom of God on earth.
The human race is a Kingdom of God, with its laws and commandments for us to follow as the Supreme laws and commandments that no human law or instruction should contradict or undo, and before which all human laws in contradiction are null and void.
God made laws and commandments to guide every aspect of his people on
Earth:
Leviticus 24:22. "You shall have the same law for the stranger and one from your own country, for I am the Lord, your God."
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Joshua 1:8. "This book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth but shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all
that is in it....."
Joshua 8:34. "And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings, and the curses, according to all that is written in the book of the law." Joshua 1:9. "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage, do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."
The Christian Marriage
The Holy Bible is the only undisproved statute of God, guiding every aspect of man's life the way no human law on earth has done before and would ever do. The building blocks of this world are families, with Adam and Eve being the first family on earth, founded on God's institution of Marriage. By a family I mean, the nucleus family, comprising of father, mother, and children, for the purpose of this topic.
Adam and Eve formed the first family of one flesh.
Genesis 2:23. "And Adam said, 'This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh....."
Genesis 2:24. "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.'
"
Mathew 19:6. "So then they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let not man separate."
Mark 10:8. "... and the two shall become one flesh, [b] so then they are no longer two, but one flesh." Also, Ephesians 5:31.
This is the foundation of the marriage institution ordained by God, with explicit laws regulating it, to the expressed exclusion of man's interference in the equation, Mathew 19:6. This is the ultimate in every Christian marriage, without interference from any man or man's institution to the contrary. It is the supreme law of the Christian marriage, above which there is no other law, with a little modification by Jesus Christ Himself on the question of divorce, as in Mathew 19:9. "And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality and marries another, commits adultery.....".
So, adultery is the only basis for the divorce of a Christian marriage, acceptable to God, and nothing else, ever found in the supreme statute of God for mankind, The Holy Bible. Even this is at the discretion of the aggrieved partner, and the divorce should be done by the marriage tribunal of the church upon adducing sufficient evidence by the aggrieved partner to the affected marriage.
Any other reason, besides this, is man's illegal addition or amendment to the supreme law, which should be abominably unacceptable to the Body of Christ, The Church.
Please, note the wording of the modification by Jesus Christ: "And I say to you, whoever divorces HIS wife, ........" Not whoever divorces another's wife. This implies that no man can divorce another man's wife from her husband, except the man himself divorces his wife, without any coercion from any human source or institution.
The Church, the Catholic Church, founded by Christ Himself, with Peter, one of His apostles, at the head of it, and representing Him (Mathew 16:18), adjudicates all God's laws in His Holy Statute, The Holy Bible, without adulteration or amendment, over all mankind that come into the Body of Christ, The Catholic Church, hereafter called, The Church.
Under The Church, are all established institutions of God, the first and the mother of them all being the Marriage Institution, ordained by God from the beginning of creation (Genesis 2:24).
This august Institution, which brought forth this world of mankind into being, with its laws, given by God Himself and put under the Body of Christ, The Church, should not be allowed by The Church to suffer this unholy legislation of God's creature, man, as is the case now.
The church has even willingly handed its authority over the institution of marriage to human institutions of the state, which now appoints religious ministers to officiate Christian marriages on behalf of the state as if the institution of marriage is a creation of the state and belongs to the state, and as if all marriages thus officiated by the religious ministers so appointed belong to the state, and can be destroyed by the state courts according to state laws.
Marriage Ordinance ACT, Cap 127 Section 38. (1): "The Minister responsible for the Interior may, by executive instrument, appoint a minister of religion to be a marriage officer for the marriage district or district named in the instrument, and may in like manner vary or suspend or revoke the appointment."
This should be unacceptably abominable in the eyes of God and the body of Christ, The Church. The leaders of The Church and Christians in civil institutions perpetrating this heinous act by hijacking the authority of God through The Church, against this holy institution of God are all rebels against the kingdom of God, to say the least.
Roman 8:7 "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be." Marriage, according to the Bible, is in the domain of God (Genesis 1:27, 28 and Mathew 19:4), and hence The Church (The Body of Christ), and should be regulated and managed according to the supreme law of God, The Holy Bible, and not human law, as is allowed to happen now.
This Marriage Ordinance Act, Cap 127 is the devil's version of the law on marriage through which the law of God regulating marriage is vanquished and subjugated to the Human (Satan) law of marriage for the destruction of God's institution of Marriage.
Having taken over the appointments and revocation of Ministers of God as Marriage Officers, this human (Satan) law on marriage, through the human state has overthrown God in His institution of Marriage, with the approval/acquiescence of the Ministers of the Body of Christ, The Church.
As Christians in this connivance with the devil, we have stubbed Jesus and His Father in the back. It is as if we, Christians, have again eaten the forbidden fruit of the garden of Marriage, beguiled by Satan through the human state, and have been driven out of God's Holy Matrimony from the day this Satanic law on marriage took over God's holy law on marriage.
From then, no marriage solemnized by The Church and their Ministers approved and appointed by this satanic law on marriage can be said to be holy, because they are without the blessing of God, the creator of the Marriage institution.
This is the singular reason many Christian marriages are falling into divorce, under the unnatural extension of this satanic law on marriage, The Matrimonial Causes ACT, 1971, Act 367.
Ironically, this same Marriage Ordinance Act, Cap 127, in Section 38 (3) empowers Christian religious ministers to reject appointments as marriage officers if there is anything in this part of the act that is contrary to the rules of their religious denomination.
This clause in this satanic Act lures Ministers of churches to fall prey to the Act because it remains silent over divorce under the Christian Marriages in Sections 35 to 67 of the Act. But diabolically, the same Satan came up with another Act, The Matrimonial Causes Act, 1971, Act 367, on the blind side of these religious ministers, in which its jurisdiction is over all marriages in Ghana and listing causes for divorce, among which is adultery, the only Biblical reason acceptable for divorce, (only by the husband, not by another person).
Note that this exception in the Bible doesn't empower any person, be he a judge, priest, the Pope, or any institution, to coerce a divorce from the marriage. It is at the absolute discretion of the aggrieved couple to do so freely, with consequences though, as specified in the Holy Book, The Bible.
This adultery as one of the reasons for divorce therein stated in this satanic Act, Act 367, again is a diabolical design to make Christians believe that this Satan is respecting God's view on marriage and divorce, but more often than not the courts, using this second devil's Act of Matrimonial Causes, break up Christian Marriages, which they do not even have authority to do, for other reasons other than for adultery.
My brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus will not come the second time to rescue mankind from this Matrimonial abomination we have allowed upon ourselves, because His second coming is for judgment of the world, (1 Corinthians 4:5).
Jesus has put enough structures in place via His Church and its institutions and laws, the supreme Holy Bible for our guidance. It is our duty, as Christians to act on and defend the word of God to protect the institutions of God. This is our duty as Christians, failing which we shall answer to God on judgment day, particularly the leaders of The Church.
The interest the state should have in marriages should only be as far as demographics are concerned and not to legislate, administer, or control marriages, let alone annul or divorce them. Anything crime in marriage should be handled by the criminal laws of the state, without touching the substance of the marriage as God's institution.
The Church, the Catholic Church, headquartered in the Vatican City of Rome, and recognized worldwide as a sovereign nation of its own, with properly constituted administrative machinery and security apparatus, with its citizens (Catholics) domiciled across all nations of the world, administers this code of God's Statute over all of its subjects, across borders.
There is no divorce in the Vatican City, the home sovereign country of Catholics. Why should there be divorce in its colonies, embassies, or whatever you may call them, administered by an Apostolic Nuncio on behalf of the Pope, in the Other countries?
This singularly most powerful nation of God's seat of power on earth, whose subjects are at the seat of human nations in which its citizens dwell, should not allow its laws to suffer domination by these nations' laws over God's institutions in their human national sovereignties. God's laws are above all human laws, for all believers in Christ, and the various nations should not be allowed to enforce their human laws on Christian marriages.
Fortunately, the UN human rights charter and some sovereign nations that have signed onto the UN charter on human rights, have their constitutions expressly acknowledging the rights of the citizens to observe their religious practices and to manifest such practices. In the case of Ghana's constitution, this can be found in Article 5, Section 21(c).
Just as the United Nations, a human institution, can hold nations to account for violating provisions of its charters, why can't The Church, which adjudicates over God's supreme law, and which has a larger citizenry than any single nation, and the UN, hold nations to account for applying contrary legislations over its member's affairs relating to God's institutions of The Church, such as the marriage institution, which no human law established, and particularly where these are guaranteed by the UN Charter on human rights in respect of their religious practices? Unfortunately, most rulers of these nations are also members of The Church, legislating and enforcing laws inimical to the institutions of The Church, while The Church looks on helplessly.
It is funny.
The Body of Christ, particularly the only real church founded by Jesus Christ Himself, The Catholic Church, and the Mother of all Christian Churches, needs to rise to the defense of all God's institutions, and especially, the mother of them all, The Marriage Institution, if the Church is to win and maintain souls for Christ, as is the purpose of Jesus's death on the cross.
The civil courts are desecrating Christian marriages for monetary and other earthly benefits. Breaking up marriages has become a huge, lucrative business for lawyers, judges, and the judicial service of Ghana, using a purposefully framed marriage-desecrating law called the Matrimonial Causes Act, 1971, Act 367.
The law is so framed to easily find a reason to break up a marriage and collect their money. It is even sad the way the judges do not have adequate time and resources to listen to the opposing views before rushing to break up marriages based on the Act's specified causes termed "Unreasonable behaviour".
The moment a divorce petition comes to the court, the ultimate is to break up the marriage. One bailiff was heard to tell all spouses waiting to hear their divorce petitions that: “A nɛ deɛ, yɛ gu a wareɛ" in twi, meaning "As for today, we are breaking marriages." She said it with joy and pride. This is the humiliation this August Institution of God, Marriage is subjected to today by the devil.
What is even sad is that the court and lawyers pick the law that will facilitate breaking the marriage, instead of looking at the Marriage Ordinance Act, Cap 127, which has observances laid down for every type of marriage and their practices as allowed in the constitution to respect the various religious practices in marriage.
The lawyers connive with the judges to take the least line of resistance to break the marriage within the shortest possible time collect their money and jump to another case. So the faster and more marriages they break, the more money they collect within a short period.
They rush to the Matrimonial Causes Act, 1971, ACT 367, which is solely for divorce, without any regard for the Marriage Ordinance Act, Cap 127, which specifies divorces to be done according to the rules of the religious practices, and which marriages are divorceable marriages and the acceptable religious reasons for divorce; nor the couples religious rights protected under the 1992 constitution, and drawn from the UN Charter on Human rights. They often pretend not to be aware of these laws. Besides:
1. The Marriage Ordinance Act, Cap 127, in Sections 35 to 67, which is
silent on divorce in Christian Marriages, yet elaborate on divorces in other type of marriages, has not been expressly repealed by the Obnoxious Matrimonial Causes Act, 1971, ACT 367, if even it can repeal it;
2. The Mother Constitution of Ghana, which has entrenched the
protection of citizens' right to practice and manifest the practices of their religious doctrines, makes the ability of the Matrimonial Causes Act to divorce Christian Marriages ultra Vires and Null and Void for any provision therein that contradicts any provision of the Constitution.
Hence the divorce of marriages in Holy Matrimony are therefore protected marriages under the constitution, having been done according to the religious practices of the Catholic Church and rightly manifest the religious practices of The Church.
The divorces of these marriages by the courts using provisions of a subordinate act to the constitution, Act 367, are therefore Ultra Vires, Null and Void, and of no effect, because Act 367 does not have the power to set aside the constitutional protection for these marriages.
The Church needs to rise to the defence of Christian marriages, else while The Church is thinking of winning souls for Christ, the courts and lawyers are celebrating the abundance of more game for them to prey on for their earthly luxury.
Breaking up a marriage is like removing the roof of a house and
exposing the inmates and everything in the house to the vagaries of the weather forever. Children are left without guidance and they grow to be dangerous to the very society that deprived them of the needed parental guidance.
They become a further game for the lawyers and judges that caused them to be who they are; to further prey on for their earthly booty. No wonder we have more lawyers to destroy marriages than we have doctors and religious ministers to save lives because there are more marriages to destroy than there are diseases to treat.
One would want to ask the question: What if a Christian marriage is not working? My answer to that question is: Let the church deal with it because the church is the appropriate institution created by God to administer His laws and institutions.
Where marital issues border on criminality the appropriate state laws on crime should step in to deal with the aspect of the related crime, without touching the substance of that Christian marriage. The substance of the Christian marriage is for the church, the couple and God to handle. The Church has all it takes to handle them, being the Body of Christ, for no problem is too big for Christ Jesus to handle.
The absurd reason commonly used to break up Christian marriages, in the absence of the only justifiable basis for Christian divorce, adultery, found among many causes listed in the evil-minded Matrimonial Causes Act, 1971, Act 367, is "The marriage has broken down beyond reconciliation". My question is:
Beyond reconciliation by who? Reconciliation is beyond the court if the court's intention is ever to reconcile any marriage at all when the court did not put the marriage together. Have you ever taken a Toyota car to a Honda company for repairs, or evening servicing, even though, in that case, they are both car manufacturers? It would be absurd to do.
In the same vein, it is absurd to expect the court to reconcile a marriage it did not institute nor put together, and which institution the court, or the state, never brought to birth.
The only reasonable place to send a Christian marriage that develops problems for resolution is the Church, where God put that marriage together, just as it would be reasonable to send a Toyota car to a Toyota company for repairs or servicing.
For there is nothing that is beyond God. It would be reasonable for judges to refer Christian marriages they found to have broken down beyond reconciliation by them, if ever they have the power so to do, to the Church, where nothing is beyond God. In that way, judges would be respectfully submitting themselves to the superior omnipotence of their creator, God, and rightly so.
But, they arrogantly equate themselves to God and pronounce a divorce on Christian marriages which God says no man should put asunder, claiming the marriage to be broken down beyond reconciliation, even by God. As if they were not men, but God.
Like any mechanical device being used, every marriage will develop problems. But, a right-thinking user of the mechanical device would send the device to its manufacturer, or its authorized agent for repairs. It would be ridiculous for a bicycle repairer to declare an airplane damaged beyond repairs. The judges behave like bicycle repairers trying to repair an airplane.
Unfortunately, the courts and the entire judicial service have not understood that registration of Christian marriages does not amount to giving such marriages to the state to own and treat them the way they like, but that, it is to document evidence of such marriages of couples against multiple instances of marriages by citizens, available for criminal prosecution for dishonest marriage, while a previous marriage subsists, which is in the ambit of the state.
It also avails to the state some fairly accurate demographic data of married couples for planning purposes by the state. To this extent, the state should be content, and not to the extent of destroying marriages merely registered under the Marriage Ordinance Act, Cap 127, as if they, and not God, have power over these marriages.
The consequences
The consequences of all this rebellion against the laws of God in the
Marriage Institutions are:
1. Leaders of The Church will answer for their silence and neglect to
protect and defend the Institutions and enforce the laws of God
assigned to them;
2. Christians in matrimony who run to man, instead of to God for solutions
to their marital problems will account to God for violating His laws and desecrating His institutions, on judgment day;
3. The judges and lawyers who feed fat on desecrating God's institutions
and laws will face the wrath of God on the judgment day;
4. Legislators who frame human laws against God's laws will equally face
the wrath of God on judgment day;
5. Innocent victims of divorce will be free from any sin and their sins
resulting from the actions and inactions of all the above actors will be visited on these actors on the judgment day
The way forward
I would want to suggest the way forward in going about sanitizing and sanctifying Christian Marriage and circumventing this Satanic state law on Marriage from getting a grip on Christian Marriage for destruction, must be against the protection of their religious right under the constitution and the UN Charter.
1. The Catholic Church to apply to the Supreme Court for an Interlocutory
Injunction on all courts having divorce cases of Catholic Marriages. before them in the country, to stop proceedings in those divorce cases, and to refer such cases to the Catholic Church upon the issue of a perpetual Injunction banning the hearing of divorce cases of Catholic Marriages in civil courts;
2. The Church to apply to the Supreme Court for an Injunction on the
appointment of Catholic Religious Ministers as Marriage Officers, and Catholic Churches as Marriage Centres, as contained in the Marriage Ordinance Act, Cap 127;
3. The Catholic church should initiate a society of matrimonial couples, led by the couples themselves, such as the Catholic Association of Matrimonial Couples (CAMC), Holy Matrimony Association of Catholics (HOLYMAC) or any appropriately suitable name, at the Parish level, Deanery level, Diocesan level, and the National level.
The Deanery level executives are to be constituted from the Parish level executives, and so on, up to the national level. The overriding aim of the association to be the protection and promotion of the sanctity and dignity of the Christian Holy Matrimony, with:
a. Guiding principles based on the Christian laws on marriage to
make its constitution
b. Couples of all marriages solemnized in the Catholic church to be
compulsory members of the Association on oath on the day of the solemnization of their marriage
c. Rules of the association to forbid:
i. the registration of Catholic Marriages under this obnoxious.
Marriage Ordinance Act;
ii. Any couple from submitting their holy matrimony to any
civil court for dissolution.
d. The Association to manage the resolution of marital issues between
couples with the support of the church;
e. Sanctions to be preferred against couple/couples that go/go
against the Association's laid down rules and regulations, such as will desecrate God's marriage institution;
f. Institute benefits available to members as a reward for staying
faithful to their marriages;
g. Encourage couples/parishes/deaneries/dioceses to share
experiences towards harmonizing and building a common Christian tradition/culture of marriage;
h. Sources of Funding Associations' activities to include support from
capable couples/couples' parents, children, well-wishers, and the church;
i. Organize regular retreats and seminars for couples to energize
them to stay true to their holy vocation of marriage;
j. Institute a common uniform for all couples at such seminars and
retreats to ensure decent attire and to avoid indecent dressing competition at such occasions;
4. All Catholic church Ministers to resign as appointed marriage officers
under the Marriage Ordinance Act, Cap 127, for the simple reasons:
a. To give back to God His authority to appoint Marriage Officers for
his Holy Institution of marriage;
b. To protest against the desecration of Catholic marriages in the
civil courts;
c. To take control of God's Institution of Marriage as the appointed
Body of Christ for administering the Marriage Institution.
5. The Catholic church to stop registering solemnized marriages of their
members under The Marriage Ordinance Act, Cap 127.
6. The Catholic church to de-recognize registration of its churches by the Interior Minister for solemnizing marriages, because only God has that authority.
7. The Catholic church to have a Parish/Deanery/Diocesan/National
Database for all solemnized marriages of its members, which can be available to the state for demographic and economic planning purposes ONLY.
8. If possible, The Church to sue the state and the judicial services for
infringing on the religious rights of Catholics over the years, against their veritable and verifiable entitlement of that right under our constitution as contained in Article5, Section 21(c), and the violation of the UN
Charter of Human Rights, signed by Ghana.
9. The Church to encourage, support, and stand with couples/couples whose marriages have been violated, and any other person who shows proof of social harm suffered, by the state courts/lawyers' act of coercing marriage divorce, for compensation for interferences in their religious rights to remain faithful to their religious practices as guaranteed under our 1992 Constitution, in Chapter 5, Section 21(c).
This way, I believe we, as Christians, will successfully rescue God's marriage institution from the claws of satanic laws of man, and rightly so.
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