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By Jeff
Rath 8-98
The current mainstream teaching in Christianity
is that God is a coequal, coeternal, one-substance trinity,
and that Jesus Christ is God. This doctrine is considered
by many as the cornerstone of Christianity, but where
did this doctrine come from? The historical record is
overwhelming that the church of the first three centuries
did not worship God as a coequal, coeternal, consubstantial,
one-substance three in one mysterious godhead. The early
church worshipped one God and believed in a subordinate
Son. The trinity originated with Babylon, and was passed
on to most of the world's religions. This polytheistic
(believing in more than one god) trinitarianism was intertwined
with Greek religion and philosophy and slowly worked its
way into Christian thought and creeds some 300 years after
Christ. The idea of "God the Son" is Babylonian
paganism and mythology that was grafted into Christianity.
Worshipping "God the Son" is idolatry, and idolatry
is Biblically condemned; it breaks the first great commandment
of God of not having any gods before him (Exodus 20:3).
Then three centuries after Christ the corrupt emperor
Constantine forced the minority opinion of the trinity
upon the council of Nicea. The Christian church went downward
from there; in fact some of the creeds and councils actually
contradict each other. The council of Nicea 325 said that
"Jesus Christ is God," the council of Constantinople
381 said that "the Holy Spirit is God," the
council of Ephesus 431 said that "human beings are
totally depraved," the council of Chalcedon 451 said
that "Jesus Christ is both man and God." If
you follow the logic here then first you have Jesus Christ
as God, then you have man totally depraved, and then you
have Jesus Christ as man and God. If Jesus Christ is both
man and God does this mean that God is also totally depraved?
Well maybe the doctrine of the coequal, coeternal, one-substance,
mysterious three in one triune godhead is deprived of
any historical foundation tying it into the Christianity
of the Bible and the Christianity of the first three centuries.
However the historical information ties the trinity into
various pagan origins.
And yet most Christian churches continue
to teach and believe the doctrine that God is a coequal,
coeternal, one-substance, mysterious three in one triune
godhead, and that Jesus Christ is God, and that the trinity
is "the cornerstone of Christianity".
The Church of the First
Three Centuries 1865 Alvan Lamson
" . . . The modern doctrine of the Trinity is not
found in any document or relic belonging to the Church
of the first three centuries. . . so far as any remains
or any record of them are preserved, coming down from
early times, are, as regards this doctrine an absolute
blank. They testify, so far as they testify at all,
to the supremacy of the father, the only true God; and
to the inferior and derived nature of the Son. There
is nowhere among these remains a coequal trinity. .
. but no un-divided three, -- coequal, infinite, self-existent,
and eternal. This was a conception to which the age
had not arrived. It was of later origin."
During the first three centuries, Christians
did not believe that Jesus Christ was coequal, and coeternal
with God, or that he was God the Son, they believed that
Jesus Christ was subordinate to God, and that he had a
beginning, that he was born. Those that believed otherwise
were the exception.
The Doctrine of the Trinity
Christianity’s Self-Inflicted Wound 1994
Anthony F. Buzzard Charles F. Hunting
"Those Trinitarians who believe that the concept
of a Triune God was such an established fact that it
was not considered important enough to mention at the
time the New Testament was written should be challenged
by the remarks of another writer, Harold Brown:"
"It is a simple fact and an undeniable
historical fact that several major doctrines that now
seem central to the Christian Faith – such as the doctrine
of the Trinity and the doctrine of the nature of Christ
– were not present in a full and self-defined generally
accepted form until the fourth and fifth centuries. If
they are essential today – as all of the orthodox creeds
and confessions assert – it must be because they are true.
If they are true, then they must always have been true;
they cannot have become true in the fourth and fifth century.
But if they are both true and essential, how can it be
that the early church took centuries to formulate them?"
A History of the Christian
Church 2nd Ed. 1985 Williston Walker
"AD 200. . Noetus had been expelled from the Smyrnaean
church for teaching that Christ was the Father, and
that the Father himself was born, and suffered, and
died."
Man’s Religions John B. Noss 1968
"The controversy first became heated when Apollinarius,
a bishop in Syria . . . asserted that Christ could not
have been perfect man united with complete God, for
then there would not have been one Son of God, but two
sons, one by nature and one by adoption, the first with
a divine, the second with a human will. Such a thing
seemed inconceivable, religiously abhorrent."
"Nestorius . . . preached a sermon
against calling the virgin Mary ‘the mother of God’ declaring
she did not bear a deity, she bore a man,"
Numbers 23:19 states that God is not
a man. God was not born, and God certainly did not die,
but when people deviate from what the Bible teaches you
can come up with the bizarre complexities of trinitarian
religious mysteries that contradict logic, common sense
and God’s Word.
New Bible Dictionary
1982
"The word trinity is not found in the Bible . .
."
". . . it did not find a place
formally in the theology of the church till the 4th
century."
". . . it is not a biblical doctrine
in the sense that any formation of it can be found in
the Bible, . . ."
"Scripture does not give us a
formulated doctrine of the trinity, . . ."
The HarperCollins Encyclopedia
of Catholicism 1995
". . . scholars generally agree that there is no
doctrine of the trinity as such in either the Old Testament
or the New Testament."
If the trinity is the cornerstone of
Christianity then how did the church of the first three
centuries get along so well without it? If the trinity
is the cornerstone of Christianity then why is it not
mentioned in the Bible? Also several of the scriptures
that are used by trinitiarians to back up their theology
have been altered after the first century to reflect trinitarian
theology.
The Philosophy of the Church
Fathers 1976 Harry Austryn Wolfson
"Critical scholarship, on the whole, rejects the
traditional attribution of the tripartite baptismal
formula [Father, Son, Holy Spirit] to Jesus and regards
it as of later origin. . . Undoubtedly then the baptismal
formula originally consisted of one part [in the name
of Jesus Christ] and it gradually developed into its
tripartite form. [Father, Son, Holy Spirit]
The Encyclopedia Americana
1956
"Christianity derived from Judaism and Judaism
was strictly Unitarian (believing in one God). The road
which led from Jerusalem to Nicea was scarcely a straight
one. Fourth century trinitarianism did not reflect accurately
early Christian teaching regarding the nature of God;
it was, on the contrary, a deviation from this teaching."
The trinity is a deviation from believing
in one God; it is a deviation from what the early church
taught and it is a deviation from the scripture.
The New Catholic Encyclopedia
1967
"The formulation 'one God in three persons' was
not solidly established, certainly not fully assimilated
into Christian life and its profession of faith, prior
to the end of the 4th century."
Encyclopedia of Early Christianity 1990
Everett Ferguson
"Primitive Christianity, like Judaism,
was distinguished from paganism by its unqualified monotheism."
Who is Jesus? Anthony Buzzard
"The Old Testament is a strictly
monotheistic. God is a single personal being. The idea
that a trinity is to be found there or even in any way
shadowed forth, is an assumption that has long held sway
in theology, but is utterly without foundation."
The New Encyclopedia Britannica 1976
"Neither the word trinity, nor
the explicit doctrine as such, appears in the New Testament,
nor did Jesus and his followers intend to contradict the
Shema in the Old Testament: 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord
our God is one Lord' (Deut. 6:4). . . The doctrine developed
gradually over several centuries and through many controversies.
. . . By the end of the 4th century . . . the doctrine
of the trinity took substantially the form it has maintained
ever since."
The Shema consists of three sections
of scripture Deuteronomy 6:4-9, 11:13-21, and Numbers
15:37-41. It is called the Shema after the Hebrew word
hear, the first word in Deut. 6:4. The Shema was to be
recited twice daily once upon arising and once when going
to bed. So the Old Testament Jews would start and finish
their day with 'Hear O Israel: The Lord our God is one
Lord.'
The Complete Word Study Old Testament
1994
"To the Jew, (Deut. 6:4-9) this
is the most important text in the Old Testament. Jesus
himself called the injunction in 6:5 'the first and great
commandment' Matt.22:36-38. . . Moses is teaching not
only the priority of belief in one God, but also a means
to preserve that belief. As time went on, the proper understanding
of the Shema with its spiritual implications was no longer
grasped by the people. This absence of saving knowledge
became a factor in their spiritual downfall."
Whenever God's people forget that there
is only one God and they follow after other gods this
will result in their downfall. This can be seen time and
time again in the Old Testament where God's people forsook
the Lord and then evil came upon them. God does not send
this evil, but He warns us to stay away from the evil
of worshipping more than one God.
Dictionary of The Bible 1995 John L.
Mckenzie
"The trinity of God is defined
by the church as the belief that in God are three persons
who subsist in one nature. The belief as so defined was
reached only in the 4th and 5th centuries AD and hence
is not explicitly and formally a biblical belief."
Why You Should Believe In The Trinity
1989 Robert M. Bowman Jr.
"The New Testament does not contain
a formalized explanation of the trinity that uses such
words as trinity, three persons, one substance, and the
like."
The New International Dictionary of
New Testament Theology 1976
"The Bible lacks the express declaration
that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are of equal
essence. [said Karl Barth]"
Exploring The Christian Faith 1992
"nowhere in the Bible do we find
the doctrine of the trinity clearly formulated"
"People who are using the King
James Version might be inclined to point to I John 5:7
'For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father,
the Word and the Holy Ghost' But it is now generally recognized
that this verse does not belong to the original text of
the letter; it is a later insertion."
"The theological formulation took
place later, after the days of the apostles."
"the doctrine of the trinity is
not found in the Bible"
"The doctrine was to develop along
mainly Greek lines"
Take note of the words "explicitly
and formally", "formalized explanation",
"express declaration", and "clearly formulated".
These words are indicative of the fact that all the clear
verses on the subjects of God, Jesus Christ, and Holy
Spirit do not even hint at a trinity. There are only a
few verses that seem to hint at a trinity, and then only
when they are twisted. The difficult or unclear verse
must always be interpreted in light of the clear verses.
If God is a coeternal, coequal, one substance, three-in-one
Godhead, trinity, if that is what God really is, then
he would have made himself known as such to the first
century apostles; they would have made the trinity part
of their beliefs teachings and writings. They would have
used words like God the Son, coequal, coeternal, one substance,
or trinity, but the scripture is devoid of all of these
trinitarian words and phrases because the first century
apostles did not believe or teach, or write about God
being a trinity, or Jesus Christ being God. But the pagan
and Greek and Babylonian religions used those words.
Dictionary Of The Bible 1995 John L.
Mckenzie
"The trinity of persons within
the unity of nature is defined in terms of 'person' and
'nature' which are Greek philosophical terms; actually
the terms do not appear in the Bible. The trinitarian
definitions arose as the result of long controversies
in which these terms and others such as 'essence' and
'substance' were erroneously applied to God by some theologians."
The Rise of Christianity W.H.C. Frend
1985
"For him [Clement] the trinity
consisted of a hierarchy of three graded beings, and from
that concept - derived from Platonism - depended much
of the remainder of his theological teaching."
The Doctrine of the Trinity Christianity’s
Self-Inflicted Wound 1994 Anthony F. Buzzard Charles F.
Hunting
"Eberhard Griesebach, in an acedemic
lecture on "Christianity and humanism" delivered
in 1938, observed that in its encounter with Greek philosophy
Christianity became theology. That was the fall of Christianity.
The Problem thus highlighted stems from the fact that
traditional orthodoxy, while it claims to find its origins
in scripture, in fact contains elements drawn from a synthesis
of Scripture and Neo-Platonism. The mingling of Hebrew
and Greek thinking set in motion first in the second century
by an influx of Hellenism through the Church Fathers,
whose theology was colored by the Platonists Plotinus
and Porphyry. The effects of the Greek influence are widely
recognized by theologians, though they go largely unnoticed
by many believers."
". . . the Trinity is an unintelligible
proposition of platonic mysticisms that three are one
and one is three" [quote from Thomas Jefferson]
Encyclopedia of Early Christianity 1990
Everett Ferguson
"Plato introduced the term [substance]
into the vocabulary of philosophy,"
"At the center of Neoplatonic metaphysics
is a hypostatic [person or substance] theology. In general,
Neoplatonists postulated three or four hypostases, called
One, Mind, Soul and Nature."
"The Trinitarian doctrines of Marius,
Victorinus, and Augustine are based on Pophyry’s interpretation
of the unity of substance between the three divine hypostases."
The Greek mythology and pagan religious
beliefs were derived from Babylon.
Nouveau Dictionnaire Universel 1870
"The Platonic trinity, itself merely
a rearrangement of older trinities dating back to earlier
peoples, appears to be the rational philosophic trinity
of attributes that gave birth to the three hypostases
or divine persons taught by the Christian churches . .
. This Greek philosopher's (Plato, 4th century BC) conception
of the divine trinity . . . can be found in all ancient
(pagan) religions"
The Two Babylons 1916 Rev. Alexander
Hislop
"Egypt and Greece derived their
religion from Babylon"
Microsoft Encarta Funk & Wagnalls
1994
"Neoplatonism is a type of idealistic
monism in which the ultimate reality of the universe is
held to be an infinite, unknowable, perfect One. From
this One emanates nous (pure intelligence), whence in
turn is derived the world soul, the creative activity
of which engenders the lesser souls of human beings. The
world soul is conceived as an image of the nous, even
as the nous is an image of the One; both the nous and
the world soul, despite their differentiation, are thus
consubstantial [one substance] with the One."
Microsoft Encarta Funk & Wagnalls
1994
"The theologians Clement of Alexandria,
Origen, and St. Augustine were early Christian exponents
of a Platonic perspective. Platonic ideas have had a crucial
role in the development of Christian theology"
The Rise of Christianity W.H.C. Frend
1985
"we find Christianity tending to
absorb Greek philosophical values, until by the end of
the third century the line between the beliefs of educated
Christian and educated pagan in the east would often be
hard to draw."
The early Christians began mixing Greek
and pagan and Babylonian philosophical and religious trinitarian
concepts with their Christian doctrine which lead them
to begin considering the trinity, and after three centuries
that thinking finally took hold. Acts 17:22 says that
the Greeks were too superstitious, and I Corinthians 1:22
says that the Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek
after wisdom. The Greeks were too intellectual in their
approach to God’s Word. They became wise in their own
eyes and the truth of God’s Word became foolishness to
them, so they grafted their own superstitious philosophical
wisdom into God’s Word and changed the truth into a lie;
they changed Son of God to God the Son.
Catholic Encyclopedia 1991
"The term 'Trinity' does not appear
in scripture"
"(The Doctrine of the Trinity)
- hammered out over the course of three centuries of doctrinal
controversy against modalism and subordinationism"
Why You Should Believe In The Trinity
1989 Robert M. Bowman Jr.
"Roman Catholics . . often claim
that the trinity is not a biblical doctrine and was first
revealed through the ministry of the church centuries
after the Bible was written. This is in keeping with the
Roman Catholic belief that Christian doctrine may be based
either on the Bible or on church tradition."
The Roman Catholic Church did not get
the doctrine of the trinity from the Bible, they hammered
out their own theology of what they wanted God to be over
several hundred years, and mixed Greek philosophy with
Babylonian mystery religion, and their own private interpretations
of the Bible.
I Peter 1:20, 21 Knowing this first,
that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man:
but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost.
II Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself
approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.
People don't respect God’s Word, they
are more interested in inventing their own theology by
the will of man instead of believing the word of God,
they are not interested in rightly dividing God's word
of truth. The trinity is private interpretation and wrong
dividing of God's word.
Jesus Christ is not God 1975 Victor
Paul Wierwille
"Long before the founding of Christianity
the idea of a triune god or a god-in-three persons was
a common belief in ancient religions. Although many of
these religions had many minor deities, they distinctly
acknowledged that there was one supreme God who consisted
of three persons or essences. The Babylonians used an
equilateral triangle to represent this three-in-one god,
now the symbol of the modern three-in-one believers."
"The Hindu trinity was made up
of the gods Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. The Greek triad
was composed of Zeus, Athena and Apollo. These three were
said by the pagans to 'agree in one.' One of the largest
pagan temples built by the Romans was constructed at Ballbek
(situated in present day Lebanon) to their trinity of
Jupiter, Mercury and Venus. In Babylon the planet Venus
was revered as special and was worshipped as a trinity
consisting of Venus, the moon and the sun. This triad
became the Babylonian holy trinity in the fourteenth century
before Christ."
"Although other religions for thousands
of years before Christ was born worshipped a triune god,
the trinity was not a part of Christian dogma and formal
documents of the first three centuries after Christ."
"That there was no formal, established
doctrine of the trinity until the fourth century is a
fully documented historical fact."
"Clearly, historians of church
dogma and systematic theologians agree that the idea of
a Christian trinity was not a part of the first century
church. The twelve apostles never subscribed to it or
received revelation about it. So how then did a trinitarian
doctrine come about? It gradually evolved and gained momentum
in late first, second and third centuries as pagans, who
had converted to Christianity, brought to Christianity
some of their pagan beliefs and practices."
Who is Jesus? Anthony Buzzard
". . . we shall find not a hint
that Jesus believed himself to be an uncreated being who
had existed from eternity. Matthew and Luke trace the
origin of Jesus to a special act of creation by God when
the Messiah’s conception took place in the womb of Mary.
It was this miraculous event which marked the beginning—the
genesis, or origin of Jesus of Nazareth"
Arius and his followers believed that
Jesus Christ was created, that he was not in the beginning
with God. They believed that he had a beginning, whereas
God has no beginning. This makes Jesus Christ substantially
different from God, which means he cannot be of one-substance
with God as the trinitarians believe.
Documents of the Christian Church 2nd
Ed 1963 Henery Bettenson
(quotes from Arius and his followers)
"If, said he, the Father begat
the Son, he that was begotten had a beginning of existence;
hence it is clear that there was a [a time] when the son
was not."
"The Son of God is from what is
not and there was [a time] when he was not; saying also
that the Son of God, in virtue of his free will, is capable
of evil and good, and calling him a creature and a work."
The Rise of Christianity 1985 W.H.C.
Frend
"If the Father begat the son, there
must be when he was not. He could not therefore be coeternal
with the Father."[said by Arius]
Man's Religions 1968 John B. Noss
"Arius held that Christ, . . .
was a created being; he was made like other creatures
out of nothing, . . . The Son, he argued, had a beginning,
while God was without beginning."
The Church in History 1964 B. K. Kuiper
"The heathen believe in many gods.
Arius thought that to believe that the Son is God as well
as that the Father is God would mean that there are two
Gods, and that therefore the Christians would be falling
back into heathenism."
Arius believed that Jesus Christ was
born, that he had a beginning, he believed that Jesus
Christ was the created Son, not the Creator, and for taking
the Word of God literally he was excommunicated and anathematized.
Starting with Nimrod in ancient Babylon until today man
has stubbornly rebelled against the doctrine of one God.
Exodus 20:3 Thou shalt have no other
gods before me.
Exodus 34:14a For thou shalt worship
no other god:
The trinity is idolatry, it puts Jesus
Christ as a god before God.
Forgers of the Word 1983 Victor Paul
Wierwille
"To say Jesus Christ is God the
Son is idolatry. To say Jesus is the Son of God is truth"
I Samuel 15:23 For Rebellion is as the
sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and
idolatry.
Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear O Israel: The Lord
our God is one Lord:
The Lord God Almighty, the Creator,
the Father of Jesus Christ is one God not three, not three-in-one,
not one-in-three, ONE! and only ONE! God is not a three-headed
multi-personality trinity.
The Bible clearly refers to Jesus Christ
as the Son of God 50 times; it never refers to him as
God the Son. The phrase, Son of God, is in the genitive
case; showing that Jesus Christ originated from and belongs
to God. In no way can the Son of God be the same as God
the Son, that violates grammar, language and common sense.
God the Son is not a biblical term, it does not appear
in the Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic texts. God the Son is
however a Babylonian term. The Babylonians made Nimrod
a god, and when he died they deified his son Tammuz as
God the Son. Making God a man and man a god was invented
in Babylon. This idolatry and false belief has been carried
into pagan religions, and it has worked its way into Christianity
as the doctrine of the trinity.
Ravaged By The New Age 1996 Texe Marrs
"Nimrod, the first of the great
Babylonian rulers, was also declared to be the first of
the man-gods."
The Two Babylons 1916 Rev. Alexander
Hislop
"He was worshipped in Babylon under
the name of El-Bar, or 'God the Son'."
It is clear that the trinity does not
have a Biblical origin. It can be traced back to ancient
Babylon, pagan Greeks and Romans. It was forced upon the
Christian Church by the emperor Constantine. It was adhered
to by bishops who were afraid to speak against it. Then
when the Protestants broke away from the corrupt Roman
Church most of them still carried the pagan doctrine of
the trinity, because they had practiced error for so long
that they accepted the trinitarian doctrine.
Encyclopedia of Early Christianity 1990
Everett Ferguson
"Prior to the council of Nicea
(325), there was no agreement about the use of the word
ousia in relation to god, perhaps because in some of its
ordinary senses it seemed inappropiate for such use."
Encyclopedia Britannica 1968
"The Council of Nicaea met on May
20, 325. Constantine himself presiding, actively guiding
the discussion, and personally proposed the crucial formula
expressing the relation of Christ to God in the creed
issued by the council. 'of one substance with the father.'
Over-awed by the emperor, the bishops, with two exceptions
only, signed the creed, many of them against their inclination.
Constantine regarded the decision of Nicaea as divinely
inspired. As long as he lived no one dared openly to challenge
the creed of Nicaea."
The Origins of Pagan and Christian Beliefs
Edward Carpenter 1920 1996
"And when at the Council of Nicea
(325 AD) it [the early church] endeavored to establish
an official creed, the strife and bitterness only increased."
"-the Nicean creed had nothing
to propound except some extremely futile speculations
about the relation to each other of the Father and the
Son, and the relation of both to the Holy Ghost,"
Man's Religions 1968 John B. Noss
"This creed, adopted under pressure
from the emperor, who wanted peace, did not immediately
solve the doctrinal difficulties or save the peace. The
phrases (not made) and (of the same substance with the
Father) were bitterly denounced by many"
The Rise of Christianity 1985 W.H.C.
Frend
"The Emperor exerted all his influence
toward winning unanimous acceptance and nearly succeeded.
Only two bishops stood out against it; but two other senior
bishops refused to sign the anathemas against Arius and
were exiled."
Constantine was really only interested
in unifying the empire and gaining more power. He broke
truces, started wars, and even had relatives killed to
further his power. Constantine was more interested in
unity than in getting the correct doctrine of the trinity.
In fact before he died Constantine switched sides and
took Arius’ position regarding the trinity instead of
the position that he forced through the council of Nicea.
Without Constantine's presiding, actively guiding, and
actively controlling the discussion there would not have
been a 'coequal' 'coeternal' 'God the Son' Nicene creed.
But what manner of man was this person who pushed through
this doctrine which was to become the cornerstone of Christianity?
A History of Christianity Volume 1 1997
Kenneth Scott Latourette
"Constantine. . . although only
a catechumen, [One who is being instructed in a subject
at an elementary level] presided over its [the council
of Nicea] opening session, and was active in its deliberations.
Whether Constantine appreciated the niceties of the questions
at issue is highly doubtful, for he was a layman, a warrior
and administrator, not a philosopher or an expert theologian."
The Rise of Christianity 1985 W.H.C.
Frend
"Like all great conquerors from
Alexander to Napoleon or even Hitler his [Constantine's]
aim was unity and unification on a worldwide scale."
A History of the Christian Church 2nd
Ed. 1985 Williston Walker
"He [Constantine] accepted the
pagan title of Pontifex Maximus, and his coins still showed
the emblems of the Sun-God."
Encyclopedia of Early Christianity 1990
Everett Ferguson
"The Council of Nicea (325) was
called to settle the question of Christ’s divinity. The
emperor Constantine had learned the political importance
of religious unity and put his power and influence behind
the council."
"Pressure to conform was evident,
a weight that grew heavy for many participants."
Babylon Mystery Religion 1981 Ralph
Woodrow
". . his [Constantine's] conversion
is to be seriously questioned. Even though he had much
to do with the establishment of certain doctrines and
customs within the church, the facts plainly show that
he was not truly converted-not in the Biblical sense of
the word."
"Probably the most obvious indication
that he was not truly converted may be seen from the fact
that after his conversion he committed several murders-including
the murder of his own wife and son!"
"Yet in 326-very shortly after
directing the Nicean Council-he had his son put to death."
The Doctrine of the Trinity Christianity’s
Self-Inflicted Wound 1994 Anthony F. Buzzard Charles F.
Hunting
"It was Constantine who by official
edict brought Christianity to believe in the formal division
of the Godhead into two – God the Father and God the Son.
It remained the task of a later generation to bring Christianity
to believe in the Triune God."
". . . years after winning this
heaven-inspired triumph, history divulges that the alleged
follower of Jesus murdered an already vanquished rival,
killed his wife by having her boiled alive in her own
bath – and murdered an innocent son." [speaking of
Constantine]
A History of Christianity 1976 Paul
Johnson
". . . appears to have been a sun-worshipper,
one of a number of the late pagan cults which had observances
in common with Christians. Worship of such gods was not
a novel idea. Every Greek or Roman expected that political
success followed from religious piety. Christianity was
the religion of Constantine’s father. Although Constantine
claimed that he was the thirteenth apostle, his was no
sudden Damascus conversion. Indeed it is highly doubtful
that he ever truly abandoned sun-worship. After his professed
acceptance of Christianity, he built a triumphal arch
to the sun god and in Constantinople set up a statue of
the same sun god bearing his own features. He was finally
deified after his death by official edict in the Empire,
as were many Roman rulers."
". . . His private life became
monstrous as he aged . . . His abilities had always lain
in management . . . [he was] a master of . . . the smoothly-worded
compromise."
It would be an understatement to say
that Constantine was a crooked politician; yet this is
the man who is mainly responsible for the Nicene Creed's
doctrine of the coequal, coeternal, one substance three
in one God. One day he is setting the doctrine for the
Christian church another day he is murdering people; it
would seem that to anyone with any common sense that formulating
church doctrine should not be done by a non-repentant
murderer. How many of you would like to have a non-repentant
murderer setting your Christian doctrine? Yet if you believe
the Nicene Creed you have done just that.
Documents of the Christian Church 2nd
Ed 1963 Henery Bettenson
"The decisions of Nicea were really
the work of a minority, and they were misunderstood and
disliked by many"
Forgers of the Word 1983 Victor Paul
Wierwille
"The truth of Jesus Christ the
Son of God was deliberately forged into the doctrine of
God the Son. Seeds of Jesus Christ as God were planted
and sprouted during the lifetime of Paul, continued growing
during Timothy's lifetime and flourished shortly thereafter,
reaching full bloom for all future creeds by 325 AD"
"The doctrine that Jesus Christ
the Son of God was God the son was decreed by worldly
and ecclesiastical powers. Men were forced to accept it
at the point of the sword or else, Thus, the error of
the trinity was propounded to the end that ultimately
people believed it to be the truth. Thus Christianity
became in essence like Babylonian heathenism, with only
a veneer of Christian names."
A History of Christianity Volume 1 1997
Kenneth Scott Latourette
"To enforce the decisions of the
Council of Nicea, Constantine commanded, with the death
penalty for disobedience, the burning of all books composed
by Arius, banished Arius and his closest supporters, and
deposed from their sees Eusebius of Nicomedia and another
bishop who had been active in the support of Arius."
The Rise of Christianity 1985 W.H.C.
Frend
"the controversial term, defining
the son as Consubstantial with [homoousios] the father
was introduced by Constantine. The term was objectionable
to any Origenist bishop and had been rejected by Dionysius
of Alexandria when used by the Libyan bishops, and the
Council of Antioch"
"The great majority of the eastern
bishops were placed in a false position. they dared not
challenge the emperor"
A History of the Christian Church 2nd
Ed. 1985 Williston Walker
"The majority (of the bishops)
were conservatives in the sense that they represented
. . . subordinationism of the eastern tradition. The Emperor
himself was present at the assembly and dominated its
proceedings."
"From the very beginning, however,
people like Eusebius of Caesarea had doubts about the
(Nicene) creed, doubts focused on the word 'homoousios'.
(Greek for one substance) . . . The term was non-Scriptural,
it had a very doubtful theological history."
"Eusebius of Nicomedia and all
save two of the other bishops, signed the creed-willing
no doubt, to go along with what the emperor wanted. Yet
he and many others continued to suspect its language."
Encyclopedia of Early Christianity 1990
Everett Ferguson
"When Constantine the Great called
the Council at Nicea, which met in 325, much if not all
of his motivation was to keep the empire intact by having
one solid religious pliiar on which it could stand. He
desiginated funds for travel and lodging, supplied the
imperial palace at Nicea as the meeting place, and himself
participated in and oversaw the council. For him, the
issue at stake was as much the unity of his empire as
theology."
"The emperor Constantine’s confidant
Hosius of Cordova had been won over by Alexander, and
imperial pressure was applied in favor of a settlement
acceptable to Alexander (which meant a settlement unacceptable
to Arius’s supporters)."
The majority of the bishops at the council
of Nicea believed in what is called subordinationism,
which is a belief that Jesus Christ is subordinate to
God the Father, not coequal, not coeternal, and not God
the Son. The teachings of Arius were condemned in 325,
but the teachings of Arius did not die, by 359 Arianism
was widely accepted, that is until the minority trinitarian
bishops found another emperor that they could get to propose
their trinitarian creed at the Council of Constantinople
in 381.
Man’s Religions John B. Noss 1968
"The doctrine of the trinity he
[Michael Servetus] felt to be a Catholic perversion and
himself to be a good New Testament Christian in combating
it. . . According to his conception, a trinity composed
of three distinct persons in one God is a rational impossibility;"
Saying that Jesus Christ is not God
does not degrade Jesus Christ it merely sets things in
their proper order so we can know God and worship Him
in spirit and truth.
John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am
the way the truth and the life: no man cometh to the Father,
but by me.
John 14:13 And whatsoever ye shall ask
in my name, that will I do that the Father may be glorified
in the Son.
Satan the Devil strongly desires man
to worship him instead of the one true God, and when he
can't achieve his primary goal then his next desire is
to get man to worship anything other than the true God.
Satan has been quite successful in tricking good Christians
into worshipping Jesus Christ as God instead of worshipping
the one true God, the Father of Jesus Christ.
Eph 5:14 Wherefore he saith Awake thou
that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall
give thee light.
We can no longer be lulled to sleep
by the bizarre, complex, confusing, ritualistic, mysterious
Babylonian traditions of trinitarian doctrines. We must
come back to God’s Word and worship the one true God;
the Father of Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 8:4b there is none other
God but one.
1 Corinthians 8:6 But to us there is
but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we
in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things,
and we by him.
The Doctrine of the Trinity Christianity’s
Self-Inflicted Wound 1994 Anthony F. Buzzard Charles F.
Hunting
"The God of Moses, Isaiah, Jesus,
and the apostles was one person, the Father. One cannot
be made equal to two or three. All that can be done with
one is to fractionalize it. Divide it into smaller segments
and it is no longer one. Expand it, and in spite of prodigious
mental gymnastics on the part of Trinitarians, it cannot
be made into two or three and still remain one."
". . . it is not uncommon for religious
leaders to insist that you must believe in the Trinity
to be a Christian, or be branded a cultist."
"One of the great marvels of Christian
history has been the ability of theologians to convince
Christian people that three persons are really one God."
A Statement of Reasons for Not Believing
the Doctrine of the Trinitarians Concerning the Nature
of God and the Person of Christ 1833 Andrews Norton
"When we look back through the
long ages of the reign of the Trinity . . . we shall perceive
that few doctrines have produced more unmixed evil."
The Bible does not give us a doctrine
of a trinity. The trinitarian terminology and concepts
were introduced from Greek philosophy by those who held
the writings of Plato and Aristotle in equal esteem to
the Bible. The historical record shows that modern Christian
trinitarian beliefs were not formulated until about 300
years after the death of Jesus Christ, but in pagan religions
trinitarian beliefs date back to ancient Greece, Egypt,
Babylon, and others, thousands of years before Jesus Christ.
The coequal, coeternal, one substance, three in one trinity
is not a Biblical Christian doctrine; yet there are those
who insist that it is the cornerstone of Christianity.
In our day and time the doctrine of
the trinity is a cornerstone of idolatry.
Copyright 1998 Jeff Rath
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