Have you ever wondered why there are so many different teachings or diversity of beliefs in
the religious world pertaining to the doctrine of godhead? Have you ever wondered how one God
can be three separate persons or beings? If so, let me assure you, that you are not alone. There
have been a host of others throughout all ages that have asked the same questions. There has
been in the history of the church basically five teachings on the godhead.
Have you ever wondered why there are so many different teachings or diversity of beliefs in
the religious world pertaining to the doctrine of godhead? Have you ever wondered how one God
can be three separate persons or beings? If so, let me assure you, that you are not alone. There
have been a host of others throughout all ages that have asked the same questions. There has
been in the history of the church basically five teachings on the godhead.
Have you ever wondered why there are so many different teachings or diversity of beliefs in
the religious world pertaining to the doctrine of godhead? Have you ever wondered how one God
can be three separate persons or beings? If so, let me assure you, that you are not alone. There
have been a host of others throughout all ages that have asked the same questions. There has
been in the history of the church basically five teachings on the godhead.
Have you ever wondered why there are so many different teachings or diversity of beliefs in
the religious world pertaining to the doctrine of godhead? Have you ever wondered how one God
can be three separate persons or beings? If so, let me assure you, that you are not alone. There
have been a host of others throughout all ages that have asked the same questions. There has
been in the history of the church basically five teachings on the godhead.
TABLE OF CONTENTS: DEDICATION (3) INTRODUCTION (3)
CHAPTER 1 THE GODHEAD BELIEF OF ANCIENT ONENESS APOSTOLIC PENTECOSTALS (5) Praxeas History and Modalistic Monarchian Godhead Doctrine Noetus History and One God Doctrine Cleomenes Godhead Doctrine Catholic Pope Zephyrinus One God Doctrine Catholic Pope Callistus Godhead Doctrine Earlier Modalist Monarchians Believed Christ, as the Father, Had A Soul and Spiritual Glorified Body in the Old Testament Sabellius Modalist Monarchian Godhead Doctrine Commodians Modalist Monarchian Godhead Doctrine Marcellus Godhead Doctrine Photinus One God Doctrine
CHAPTER 2 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC BELIEF OF TWO AND THREE GODS: THE OBSCURE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TRINITARIAN DOCTRINE (14) Noted Trinitarian Bible Scholars Confess That the Trinitarian Doctrine Is Obscure in Its Present Form, and Cannot Be Found in the Old Or New Testaments The Catholic Semi-Arian Doctrine of Two-Unequal-gods 107 AD Ignatius Doctrine, 150 AD, Justin Martyrs Doctrine, 160 AD Titians Doctrine, 170 AD Theophilus Doctrine, 180 AD Irenaeus Doctrine, 200 AD Tertullians Doctrine, 215 AD, Origens Doctrine, 250 AD, Dionysius Doctrine, 300 AD, Lactanius Doctrine, 312 AD Alexanders Doctrine The Origin of the Catholic Doctrine of Two-Unequal-gods 3000 BC Zoroasters Teaching, Hermes Teaching, the Sibyls Teaching, 387 BC Platos Teaching, 57 AD Philos Teaching The Catholic Nicolaitan Doctrine of the Ministry The Arian Doctrine of the Godhead (310 AD) The Catholic Binitarian Doctrine of Two-Equal-gods or the Nicene Creed (325 AD) The Catholic Trinitarian Doctrine of Three-Equal-gods, or the Nicene-Constantinople Creed (381 AD)
CHAPTER 3 THE PAGAN ORIGIN OF THE CATHOLIC DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY (33) Comparing the Trinity of Pagans With the Trinity of Catholicism A Summary of the History and Development of the Trinity of the Babylonian Religion What Does the Bible Mean by the Term Mystery Babylon When and Where Did the Mysteries of the Babylonian Religion Begin Who Started the Mysteries of the Babylonian Religion What Kind of Religion Was Mystery Babylon How Did the Godhead Set Up by Lucifer Through Nimrod, Change into A Trinity of Three Separate Persons in One God The Babylonian Mystery Religion Spreads Throughout The World The Babylonian Doctrines that Catholicism Christianized Before the End of the Fourth Century
CHAPTER 4 HISTORY REVEALS THAT GODS APOSTOLIC PENTECOSTAL CHURCES WERE IN THE VAST MAJORITY FROM 33-399 AD (42) Catholic Cardinal Newmans Confession Protestant Doctor James Hastings Confession 107 AD, Catholic Priest Ignatius Confession 150 AD, Catholic Priest Justin Martyrs Confession 180 AD, Catholic Priest Irenaeus Confession 200 AD, Catholic Priest Tertullians Confession 225 AD, Catholic Priest Hippolytus Confession Protestant Doctors M'Clintock and Strongs Confession Protestant Professor Adolf Harnacks Confession The International Standard Bible Encylopaedia Confession
CHALPTER 5 HISTORIAL PROOF OF THE EXISTENANCE OF GODS APOSTOLIC PENTECOSTAL CHURCH IN EACH CENTURY (47)
CHAPTER 6 THE HISTORY OF THE CATHOLIC TRINITARIAN FORMULA FOR BAPTISM (78) 150 AD, Catholic Priest Justin Martyr Changed the Mode and Formula for Baptism, and the Catholic Church Adopted His Teaching The Pagan Origin of Trine Immersion and the Use of the Triune Titles of God in the Formula for Baptism 255 AD, Catholic Priest Cyprian Changes the Catholic Formula for Baptism by Takings the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ Out of Their Second Immersion, and Replacing It with the Title Son
BIBLIOGRAPHY (87) ENDNOTES (91)
Copyright May 30, 1996 by Harry A. Peyton under the title of The Doctrines Of Christ.
A Note from the Author: Since Almighty God, the Lord Jesus Christ, gives His Salvation and His Word to all freely (Rev 22:17, Mt 10:7-8), this book, and all other books, written by Harry A. Peyton are given without charge, and can be accessed through the Internet at the following address: http://www.DoctrinesOfChrist.com. Therefore, fell free to copy it in digital or written form, and share it with others. Since this book is copyrighted, the author forbids any alteration of its contents, and the reproduction of it in any form for Marketing Purposes. This book may be placed on anyones web page, as long as my website address is attached to it.
The author believes that the Word of God is infallible in the ORIGINAL LANGUAGE it was written in, and all translations of the Bible regardless of how good they may be are NOT. Since the author has implicit faith in the infallibility of the Word of God, the author has formed his beliefs firmly on the truth of the Bible. This author uses the ancient ANTIOCHIAN LITERAL- 2 HISTORICAL METHOD OF INTERPRETING THE BIBLE, which was used by early Christian Prophets and Apostles of the Bible.
I definitely believe that the ancient Alexandrian Allegorical Method of spiritualizing scripture, which was made popular by the ancient Jewish philosopher Philo Judaeus (13 BC 50 AD) and later used by the Ante-Nicene Catholic Priests, especially Origen and his student Clement of Alexandria (200 AD), is an abomination to our Lord. Therefore, all scriptures will be interpreted in a literal exegetical fashion, unless the language used and the context demands a spiritual interpretation.
All CAPITALIZATION and ITALICIZATION in QUOTES used in this book is always MINE. All Biblical quotes used in this book will be in dark red, and from the New King James version of the Bible, unless another version is stated as the reference. The vast majority of all translations of the Bible, as well as Hebrew and Greek Lexical definitions and grammar, will come from BibleWorks computer software program version 7.0. The author in most places will quote verses from the Bible instead of commenting on a verse and giving a reference; for He believes that the written Word of Gods has greater power to inspire and enlighten a heart to understand and act upon truth, than the elegant oratory or writings of any man.
If this book has been a blessing to my beloved readers, and they would like to send an offering to the author, feel free to do so. If anyone wishes to send any biblical or historical materials to the author, my address is: 148 Little Creek Hills Rd.: Alto, NM 88312: Phone # 575-336-2800: Email address: [email protected].
DEDICATION
This book is dedicated to all the courageous men, women and children of the present and past centuries, who loved the Lord Jesus Christ and believed His Truths. I would especially like to acknowledge those who suffered social scorn, loss of income, loss of property, imprisonment, torture and martyrdom for their faith in Christs New Birth message and their monotheistic belief in Jesus Supreme Deity.
INTRODUCTION
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb 13:8).
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth (Jn 1:1, 10, 14).
Napoleon Bonaparte speaking of the Deity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the conquering power of His Cross said: I know men; the life and death of Jesus Christ was not that of a man. If the death of Socrates was that of a sage, the death of Jesus Christ was that of God. The gospel of Jesus Christ is no mere book but a living creature with vigor, a power that conquers all that opposes it. Alexander, Charlemagne, and myself have founded great empires, but upon what did the creation of our genius depend, upon force: but, this man Jesus Christ has founded His empire upon love, and to this day millions would die for Him. 1
3 Have you ever wondered why there are so many different teachings or diversity of beliefs in the religious world pertaining to the doctrine of godhead? Have you ever wondered how one God can be three separate persons or beings? If so, let me assure you, that you are not alone. There have been a host of others throughout all ages that have asked the same questions. There has been in the history of the church basically five teachings on the godhead.
The Modalist Monarchian Doctrine: This is oldest teaching known in church history. It declares that the Father, Son and Holy Ghost are titles by which the one God has revealed Himself to His children. They proclaim that Jesus is the Father incarnated in a human body. They believe in one and only one person in the godhead and that is Christ. This teaching started with the apostles in 33 AD and it can be found throughout church history.
The Doctrine of the Semi-Arians or the Belief in Two-Unequal-gods: The second teaching on the godhead to arise, according to church history, was what history calls the Semi- Arian belief. I call it the belief in two-unequal-gods. This was the teaching of a group that broke from the monotheism of the Modalist Monarchians some time after 70 AD. These apostates called themselves Catholics. The majority of them taught that the Father and Son were two separate and distinct gods, beings or persons in the godhead. They did not teach an equality of persons.
They taught that the Father created another god or being or person before the world began, which He called the Son. This meant that they considered Jesus to be homoiousios or of like substance with the Father, which made Him a lesser God than the Father since He did not share in the Fathers substance. They also believed that the Holy Ghost was an impersonal spirit and another name for Christ.
The Arian Doctrine or the Denial of Jesus Deity: This was the third teaching on the godhead to arise. It started in 310 AD with a Catholic Presbyter in Egypt by the name of Arius. In a few years Arius had a large following that challenged the godhead doctrine of their fellow Catholic ministers. This teaching stated that the Father was the one and only God, and Jesus was not God in any sense, but was the highest or greatest angel in God's creation.
According to Professor Philip Schaff in work entitled History of the Christian Church: The Arians made the Holy [Spirit] the first creature of the Son, and as subordinate to the Son as the Son to the Father. The Arian trinity was therefore not a trinity immanent and eternal, but arising in time and in descending grades, consisting of the uncreated God and two created demi-gods. The Semi-Arians here, as elsewhere, approached the orthodox doctrine, but rejected the consubstantiality, and asserted the creation of the Spirit. 2
The Doctrine of the Binitarians or the Belief in Two-Equal-gods: The fourth teaching on the godhead was a belief in two-equal-gods or persons. This doctrine started in 325 AD. The Catholic Church started this doctrine in an effort to combat the Arian doctrine of the godhead. They put their doctrine into a written form and called it the Nicene Creed. They said that Jesus was homoousios or of the same substance with the Father, thus making Him an equal God with the Father, since He now shared in the Fathers own substance. Therefore, they change their godhead doctrine and traded in their forefathers belief in two-unequal-gods for a belief in two-equal-gods. This Creed speaks of the Holy Ghost, but does not tell us what they believed about the Holy Ghost.
4 Catholic Bishops as a whole at this time did not believe that the Holy Ghost was a separate person in the godhead. In fact most of them did not know what to believe about the Holy Ghost. The New Catholic Encyclopedia definitely informs us what the Catholic Bishops at Nicea believed about the Holy Ghost. Under the heading of the Trinity, the Catholic Church made a good and honest confession about the development of their Trinitarian doctrine. It stated: In the last analysis, the 2nd century theological achievement was limited. A Trinitarian solution was still in the future. The Apologists spoke too haltingly of the Spirit; with a measure of anticipation, one might say too impersonally.... On the eve of Nicene 1, the Trinitarian problem raised more than a century earlier was still far from settled. It was the problem of plurality within the single, undivided godhead. 3
Even as late as 375 AD, most Catholics Bishops still did not believe the Holy Spirit was a person or even God. Gregory the Catholic Bishop of Nazianzus, who later became a Pope, said: Of the wise among us, some consider the Holy Ghost an influence [meaning not a person], others a creature [meaning an angel or a created spirit being], others God himself, and others know not which way to decide. 4
The Doctrine of the Trinity or the Belief in Three-Equal-gods: The fifth teaching to arise on the godhead was the Trinitarian doctrine. In 381 AD Catholic Bishops dreamed up yet another creed, which they called the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. This creed was the same as the Nicene Creed but it made the Holy Ghost a person in the godhead. But it did not spell out his relationship to the Father and Son. Therefore, they change their godhead doctrine again; they traded in their belief in two-equal-gods for a belief in three-equal-gods. The Father, Son and Holy Ghost were now three separate and distinct persons (Greek - hypostases) or beings.
In 382 AD, Catholic Pope Damascus called a Roman Council in which he perfected their belief in three-equal-gods. This council defined the Trinitarian doctrine as three persons who were equal in power, glory, knowledge, and all other attributes of God. At last Lucifer finally had his Babylonian Trinitarian doctrine of the godhead in his Roman Catholic Church.
CHAPTER 1 THE GODHEAD BELIEF OF ANCIENT ONENESS APOSTOLIC PENTECOSTALS
This history is a sketch or an outline of this subject, and it is no way intended to be a complete history. It is designed to give my readers a basic understanding of the great history of Jesus name baptism and the godhead in Christ. The true history of the one God, Jesus Name Pentecostal Church has been destroyed. All the writings of her great Apologists have been burned, and if any survived, they are probably hid in a room in the Vatican Library that could withstand an atomic blast.
The only history we have of Christs Bride is the one that was written by the Catholic Nicolaitan priests who hated her. Therefore, it is hard to tell to what extent Catholicism twisted their teachings. It is impossible to present a history of Gods people without giving a history of both their belief in Jesus Name Baptism, the Supreme Deity of Christ and Speaking in Tongues, because Catholic and Protestant histories distinguishes them from all other religions by these doctrines.
The greatest tragedy of history is not only the loss writings of Gods inspired preachers, but also the assumption of historians that Catholicism was the original Church instead of a church setup by apostates somewhere after 70 AD. Even though historians know right well, that the writings of these 5 early apostates and some of their disciples have been corrupted or altered, they still proclaim her as the original church. Why? Because the only history they have to base theirs opinions on is Catholic history. It is not hard to pervert history when you destroy the writings of all your competition.
It is obvious from the writings of the fathers of Catholicism that many books were written against them by the Apologists of the Gods Apostolic Church, and the writers of various denominations. Professor Charles Guignebert, in his book The Early History of Christianity, confirmed this when he said: these people had written a great deal against her [Catholicism], or concerning her; this literature has almost entirely disappeared and the little that remains is only enough to show us how great would be the service it might render. Because it has no alternative but to use (a) polemical or exegetical writing mainly, badly emended by accounts reputed to be historical, but written long after the events and at a time when they were scarcely understood.... It is right and necessary that we should not forget that fact. For example, to try to exact from the collection of [Catholic] Christian documents alone an exact idea of the early times of the Church was to give way to a tantalizing delusion; whether the fact was realized or not, the undertaking [of it by historians] was inspired by prejudgments of the faith.... They endeavored to preserve its old standing as an originality, and this desire was fed from more than one root in the theological postulate of revelation. 5
Therefore anyone who reads and study the writings of the Catholic Ante, Nicene, and Post Nicene Fathers should keep in mind the following facts, which Professor Guignebert and other Church historians have boldly proclaimed: First, we know from the writings of the apostles and disciples that false doctrines existed in their day, which later developed into a denominational systems known as Gnosticism and Catholicism.
This is why Paul told the Bishops in the Church of Ephesus: I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them (Acts 20:28-29), and Jude admonished the Church in his day they should: earnestly contend for the faith, which was once delivered unto the saints (Jude 1:3). The documents known as The Constitutions of the Holy Apostles and the Didache, that were masquerade as the writings and teaching of the apostles are denounced by the majority of textual scholars as fabrications that Catholic priests of the second or third century invented.
Second, Nicene and Post Nicene priests had a tendency to alter manuscripts that were written by their Ante Nicene predecessors in the ministry. They did this by either adding to or takings out certain lines that either confirmed or denied a certain doctrine; and because of their hatred of the denominations that opposed them, they had a tendency to misrepresent or twist the teaching of their antagonist, as Dr. Guignebert so competently pointed out. Third, because of the denominational biases of some of the reformation leaders and modern day church historians, there was a tendency to misinterpret the writings and beliefs of these ancient Catholic priests, in order that, their denomination may have a historical foundation for some of their beliefs.
Before I begin my history of Gods Modalist Monarchian preachers, it would be to my readers advantage for me to define their one God doctrine, as well as the two-god doctrine believed by the early writers of Catholicism; for the Ante Nicene Catholic priests were not Trinitarians but believed in two-unequal-gods, the Nicene priests were Binitarians or taught two-equal-gods, while the Post Nicene priests were Trinitarians or believed in three-equal-gods. This way my readers can receive a better understanding of the history they are about to read.
Modalist Monarchianism may be defined as a first century belief that God is one person as well as one being, who is the Lord Jesus Christ. The ancient preachers of oneness were anti-Trinitarians, who believed that the Father, Son and Holy Ghost were titles, offices, modes of revelation, or 6 characters as in a play, that the one person of God has revealed Himself to His Children. As the Father, the one God revealed Himself as the Creator of man and the cosmos. As the Son of God, the Father revealed Himself as the Savior of all mankind by becoming a man, and as a man died for their sins. As the Holy Spirit, the Father revealed Himself as the Regenerator of man, by comes in and dwelling in him for the purpose of redeeming, empowering and transforming him into Christs likeness.
Even though ancient oneness preachers proclaimed that the Lord Jesus Christ was Father manifested in the flesh, they all did not hold the same Christology views. They all believed that the Logos pre-existed as the Father and was not a being separated from Father, but was His visible form or body. They also believed that it was the Christ that became Jesus or the Son of God at Bethlehem, and the Holy Spirit was another name for the Logos. The early Oneness believers held two different Christology views on the Logos incarnation. One group of oneness preachers believed that Gods entire Spirit and body substance was incarnated at Bethlehem. The other group of preachers, such as Sabellius, believed that the only the visible portion or body of God the Fathers own substance became incarnated. I understand this to mean that God the Fathers Holy Spirit Nature stayed in heaven while His Spiritual Body Nature became incarnated and His Soul Nature dwelt in it.
The early Catholics began their apostasy from the true believers over the godhead and ministerial order in the local church. Since they were few in number, they organized and became known as the Roman Catholic Church. These early apostate believed in two separate and distinct persons in the godhead. They believed that God the Father created, begot, or generated before time began a second god called the Logos. They taught that this Word was a pre-existing Son of God who became Jesus at Bethlehem. They also believed that the Holy Spirit was another name for the Logos.
Basically the one major difference between the earlier Oneness and the Catholic believers is their belief concerning the identity of the Logos. Now this is a very important point that my beloved readers should keep in mind. Who is the Logos? Is He the same person as the Father, or is He someone different from the Father? Is He the Father the one and only God, or is He a second god different from the Father. Is He someone less than God or is He equal to the Father? Is He an eternal being or is He a created being? If He is God, did He retain His deity when He was born of Mary as a man?
The entire godhead dispute was basically over these issues until 381 AD, when the Catholic Church officially adopted the concept of the Trinity of Babylon. The Catholic Church in all their creeds did not teach a Trinity of three separate persons in the godhead before this time. If it was not for the pride of the apostates Ignatius of Antioch, Clement of Rome, and the early Catholic apologists, and their love of Greek Philosophy, especially the writings of Plato and the corrupt Jewish writings of Philo, their doctrine of two-gods, which later developed into a doctrine of three gods, would have never came into being. In fact, their doctrine of two gods really originated in Zoroastrianism. Let us examine three historical references that verify these points.
The Ancient Oneness Godhead Doctrine: The Catholic Encyclopedia gave a fair explanation of the origin and differences of belief between the Modalist Monarchians and the early Catholics. It revealed that the Jesus Name Monarchians: made the Son and the Holy Ghost merely aspects or modes of existence of the Father, thus emphatically identifying Christ with [the Father] the one God.... They spoke of the Father as Spirit and the Son as flesh. 6
7
The Ancient Catholic Godhead Doctrine: This same encyclopedia went on to reveal that the Jesus Name Modalist were against the Catholic adoption of Plato and Philo doctrine of two gods, in others words: the learned philosophizing of the Christology of Catholicism. This godhead doctrine: to the simplicity of the [Catholic] faithful looked too much like a mythology or a Gnostic emanationism. The Monarchians emphatically declared that God is one, wholly and perfectly one, and that Jesus Christ is God, wholly and perfectly God. This was right, and even most necessary, and whilst it is easy to see why the theologians like Tertullian and Hippolytus opposed them for their protest was precisely against the Platonism which these theologians had inherited from Justin and the Apologists.
The Alexandrians alone insisted rightly on the generation of the Son from all eternity; but thus the Unity of God was even less manifest. The writers who thus theologize may often expressly teach the traditional Unity in Trinity, but it hardly squares with the Platonism of their philosophy. The theologians were thus defending the doctrine of the Logos at the expense of the two fundamental doctrines of Christianity, the Unity of God, and the Divinity of Christ. They seemed to make the unity of the godhead split into two or even three, and to make Jesus Christ something less than the supreme God the Father. This is eminently true of the chief opponents of the Monarchians, Tertullian, Hippolytus, and Novatian. 7
Dr. James Hastings in his Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, speaking about this controversy declared: Modalist Monarchianism was powerfully supported by the critico-historical school of exegesis which grew up at Antioch in opposition to the speculative, allegorizing school of Alexandria. He went on to say that on one side of this great battle was: Monarchianism, the Antiochene historical-critical school of interpretation, and rationalism, which opposed Catholicism, with its allegorical interpretation, and its metaphysic of deity. 8
The International Standard Bible Encylopaedia speaking of the formulation of the doctrine of the Trinity gave this summation: In the nature of the case the formulated doctrine was of slow attainment. The influence of inherited conceptions and of current philosophies inevitably showed itself in the efforts to construe to the intellect the immanent faith of Christians. In the 2nd century the dominant neo-Stoic and neo-Platonic ideas deflected Christian thought into subordinationist channels, and produced what is known as the Logos-Christology, which looks upon the Son as a prolation of Deity reduced to such dimensions as comported with relations with a world of time and space; meanwhile, to a great extent, the Spirit was neglected altogether (Trinity, sec 22).
Praxeas History and Modalistic Monarchian Godhead Doctrine
Praxeas, A One God, Jesus Name Man of God: Quintus Septimius Florens, better known as Tertullian, embraced Catholicism when he was about 30 years old. When he was 40, he embraced some of the heresies of Montanus, and became one of their chief preachers. Around AD 200, he wrote a work entitled Against Praxeas, who was a holy Jesus Name Preacher of that day. Tertullian, who lived in Carthage, which is in northern Africa, revealed that Praxeas came to Rome during the time that Victor was Bishop (AD 189-199).
According to History of Dogma by professor Adolph Harnack, Eusebius claimed Praxeas was in Rome when Eleutherus was Bishop (AD 175-189). Catholics call Bishops of Rome Popes. Harnack says: If this Bishop was Eleutherus, and that is probable from Eusebius H.E. V. 4, then we have four Roman Bishops in succession who declared themselves in favor of the Modalistic Christology, viz., Eleutherus, Victor, Zephyrinus, and Callistus. 9 We do not know who among Gods people converted Pope Eleutherus and Victor to the truth concerning the supreme deity in Christ Jesus, but we do know that Zephyrinus and Callistus were converted by Cleomenes, who was a disciple of Epigonus, who was a disciple of Noetus.
Tertullian said Praxeas came to Rome after he had suffered imprisonment for his unwavering faith in the almighty God in Christ Jesus. Praxeas, like the great apostles Peter and Paul, suffered 8 much for the Gospel sake. The angry Tertullian tried to belittle Praxeas suffering by called it: the annoyance of a prison, and no doubt slandered him in an attempt to discredit him. Tertullian, the Montanist, was angry with Praxeas because he had Eleutherus brand Montanus as a heretic. 10
Some historians, like Harnack, believed Montanus was a Modalist Monarchian in his godhead belief. But, I find this hard to believe since Tertullian definitely had a two god or person belief, and not only that, but according to John Blunt, in his work entitled Dictionary of Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties, and Schools of Religious Thought, Montanus used the Catholic formula for baptism. He wrote: Montanus himself had retained the Catholic form. For this we have the evidence of Athanasius... (cont. Arian. Or. ii, 43). He is writing of baptism, and the names are the names of the Persons of the Holy Trinity. 11
Montanus was excommunicated for heresy. Some historians say that Montanus claimed to be the voice of the Holy Ghost, while others say he claimed to be the embodiment of the Spirit. Even if Montanus had a one God belief from the beginning, these accusations against him, if they are true, are enough to brand him as a heretic.
Tertullian could have been angry with Praxeas for another reason. It is a historical fact that a great number of the Montanist were converted to the truth and became Modalist Monarchians, especially in Africa. In fact the main body of Apostolic Montanist broke away from Montanus and Tertullians two-god group somewhere around c. 190. The Catholic Encyclopedia confirmed this when it stated: A number of Montanists led by Aeschines became Modalists. It also went on to confess that Tertullian may have twisted the teachings of Praxeas, and Hippolytus may have done the same with Noetus. It declared: It is true that it is easy to suppose Tertullian and Hippolytus to have misrepresented the opinions of their opponents. 12 Tertullian and Hippolytus were both Bishops, and no Nicolaitan-Balaamite pastor enjoys losing their people, who are their bread and butter. Also, these men did not like it very much when the great mass of Christians in their day called them heretics.
For Eleutherus, the Bishop of Rome, to condemn Montanus, he must have had a lot of faith and confidence in Praxeas as a man of God. So, it is obvious, Eleutherus had to be a Jesus Name Preacher. Tertullian really does not say why Praxeas had Montanus condemned as a heretic. Callistus excommunicate Sabellius supposedly for some heresy, so why should it be thought strange for Eleutherus to excommunicate Montanus for some heresy. My readers should bear in mind that Sabellius was a convert of Callistus. They both were Modalist Monarchians in their godhead belief. So, it would appear that it was not because of Sabellius godhead belief that he was excommunicated. Callistus no doubt was probably fearful and jealous of Sabellius for he was very popular with the people as a teacher.
Many Earlier Modalist Monarchians, Such as Praxeas, Believed that Christ or the Father Had A Body in the Old Testament: According to Tertullian, in 200 AD, oneness preachers must have believed that Christ or the Logos, as God the Father, must have dwelt in a bodily form in the Old Testament, even though they believed God is a Spirit Being, or Tertullian following argument would make no sense! Tertullian speaking of Christ preexistence as the form of God (Phil 2:6) declared: In what form of God? Of course he [Paul] means in some form of God. For who [among the Jesus Name Preachers] will deny that God is a body, although God is a Spirit? For Spirit has a bodily substance of its own kind, in its own form.... But you will not allow Him to be really a [different] substantive being by having a [separate body or] substance of His own; in such a way that He may be regarded as an objective thing and a [separate] person, and so be able as being constituted second to God the Father, to make two, the Father and the Son, God the Word. 13
Tertullian went on to say: Since they are unwilling to allow that the Son is a distinct Person, second from the Father, lest, being thus second, He should cause two Gods to be spoken of. They make selections from the 9 Scriptures in support of their opinion. For as in the Old Testament Scriptures they lay hold of nothing else than, I am God, and beside me there is no God; so in the Gospel they simply keep in view the Lords answer to Philip, I and my Father are one; and, He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and I am in the Father, and the Father in me. 14
Therefore these early heroes of faith must have believed that Christ, as God the Father in the Old Testament, must have had some kind of body! Most of Gods people in the earlier ages did not allowed Gods substance to be divided. How can anyone divide Gods Spirit Nature from His Soul or Human Nature and make two separate and distinct persons is beyond me? I will speak more of Gods Spirit and Soul Nature later. According to Tertullian, Praxeas must not have believed God to be an omnipresent Spirit Being in His true essence or substance. Omnipresence is one of Gods many attributes but it is not His personal essence. He also implied that the Jesus Name Preachers believed that God the Fathers essence or substance was contained in a personal body.
Praxeas One God Doctrine: Tertullian mocked Praxeas because he and his forefathers believed the entire godhead dwells in one person. He said they taught: They distinguish two, Father and Son, understanding the Son to be flesh, that is man, that is Jesus; and the Father to be Spirit, that is God, that is Christ. Thus they, while contending that the Father and the Son are one and the same [person]. Such a monarchy as this they learnt. The Word of God or the Spirit of God is also called the power of the Highest, whom they make the Father. See, say they, it was announced by the angel: Therefore that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Therefore, (they argue,) as it was the flesh that was born, it must be the flesh that is the Son of God. 15
Tertullian went on to say: Now, although when two substances are alleged to be in Christ namely, the divine and the human it plainly follows that the Divine Nature is immortal, and that which is Human is mortal, it is manifest in what sense he [Praxeas] declares Christ died even in the sense in which He was flesh and Man and the Son of Man, NOT as being the Spirit and the Word. [These Oneness Pentecostals declared,] we do not maintain that He died after the Divine Nature, but only after the Human. 16
All theologians and historians, who claimed oneness preachers taught that God died at Calvary, should repent of that lie. Surely this passage was not hidden from their view. Even though Jesus Christ is God the Father in the flesh, it was not the Divine nature that died, but it was His human nature only that was subject to pain, death, and other human frailties. God cannot die! Man cannot kill God! I have asked Trinitarian preachers who declare lie this question: Do you believe that Jesus Christ is God, or is He nothing more than a mere man? Every Protestant preacher I have asked this question to has responded by saying: Jesus is God. I then declared to them: You must either preach our position, or you must teach that God died on Calvarys cross, and God laid dead in a tomb for three days before He came back to life again, also that mortal man had the power to kill God.
Noetus History and One God Doctrine
Noetus, A True Man of God: Hippolytus wrote a work entitled The Refutation Of All Heresies around 225 AD. This man was a heretical Catholic bishop, whose church was in a suburb of Rome. He was a contemporary of Tertullian and an older contemporary of Cyprian, and like them, he belonged to the North African or Western School of Doctrine. Hippolytus wrote against Noetus and his disciples. Noetus was from Smyrna. My beloved readers may recall what our Lord said about the true believers who lived in the Smyrna Church Period; He said: I know the blasphemy of them [the Catholic apologists], which say they are Jews [children of God], and are not, but are the Synagogue of Satan (Rev 2:8-11, also see Mt 7:15-23). Noetus, unlike Hippolytus, was a true man of God.
10 Noetus One God Doctrine: Hippolytus went on to say: Noetus affirms that the Son and Father are the same [person], no one is ignorant. For he makes his statement thus: `When indeed then, the Father had not been born, He yet was justly styled Father: and when it pleased Him to undergo generation, having been begotten, He Himself became His own Son, not another's. He is styled by the name of Father and Son, according to the vicissitude of times, [or at different time periods]. He confessed Himself to those beholding Him a Son no doubt; yet He made no secret to those who could comprehend Him of being the Father. 17
Epigonus, Cleomenes, Zephyrinus, and Callistus were all men of God. Hippolytus wrote not only against Noetus but also against Zephyrinus, who was a Bishops of Rome from c. 199-210, and Callistus, who was a Bishop of Rome from c. 210-222. Hippolytus was furious because the people of Rome branded him as a heretic and did not want him as one of their Bishops, so he set himself up as a rival Bishop or as some historians prefer an anti-Pope. Therefore, he lied and slandered the character of Noetus and all of the real Bishops of Rome.
Cleomenes Godhead Doctrine
Hippolytus informed us that Catholic Bishops or Popes Zephyrinus and Callistus were disciples of Cleomenes, who was a disciple of Epigonus, who was a disciple of Noetus. According to Harnack, Epigonus was in Rome during the time Zephyrinus was Bishop, or shortly before. 18 Hippolytus says that Cleomenes started a Theology School in Rome. He wrote: the school of these [so-called] heretics during the succession of such Bishops continued to acquire strength and augmentation from the fact that Zephyrinus and Callistus helped them to prevail. 19
Harnack declared: Cleomenes and his party maintain that He who was nailed to the cross, who committed His Spirit to Himself, who died and did not die, who raised Himself on the third day and rested in the grave, who was pierced with the lance and fastened with nails, was the God and Father of all. 20 With the information I have at this moment, it is hard for me to determine how many of the Bishops of Rome before the Council of Nicene really believed and preached the truth. It is obvious from these statements that Zephyrinus and Callistus must have had a One God, Jesus Name belief.
Catholic Pope Zephyrinus One God Doctrine
Hippolytus continued: Callistus attempted to confirm this heresy.... Now Callistus brought forward Zephyrinus himself and induced him publicly to avow the following sentiments: I know that there is one God, Jesus Christ; nor except Him do I know any other. 21 Zephyrinus also boldly declared: For the Father, who is in the Son, deified the flesh, after He had assumed it, and united it with Himself, and established a unity of such a nature that now Father and Son are called one God, and that henceforth it is impossible that this single person can be divided into two. 22
Catholic Pope Callistus Godhead Doctrine
According to Hippolytus, Callistus publicly reproached him and his very small band of rebels by saying: Ye are Ditheists, which is a belief in two gods. Callistus then expounded the truth to the real Christians of Rome. Hippolytus stated: Bishop Callistus alleges that the Logos Himself is the Son, and Himself is the Father; and though denominated by different titles, yet that in reality he is one indivisible Spirit. And he maintains that the Father is NOT one person and the Son another, but that they are one and the same.... For that which is seen, which is man, he considers to be the Son; whereas the Spirit, which was contained in the Son, to be the Father. For says Callistus, I will NOT profess belief in two gods, Father and Son, but in one; for the Father subsisted in the Son Himself. So that Father and Son must be styled one God, and that this person being one, CANNOT be two persons. 23
11 Let my readers take note that these zealous Modalistic Monarchians accused Hippolytus Catholic group of believing in two separate persons or gods in the godhead. They did not accuse them of being Trinitarians, which is the belief in three separate and supreme persons or gods. The early Catholic apostates and their deceive followers, as I have said before, did not believe the Holy Ghost to be a person.
Sabellius Modalist Monarchian Godhead Doctrine
Harnack stated that Cleomenes remained the head of the Oneness Theological School of Rome until c. 215, when Sabellius succeeded him. Even though all oneness preachers believed in Gods form or body in the Old Testament, they held two different ideas concerning the Logos incarnation. One group of oneness preachers believed that Gods entire Spirit and bodily substance was incarnated at Bethlehem. The other group preachers, such as the Sabellians, believed that the only the visible portion or the humanity of God the Fathers own substance became incarnated. Harnack speaking about Sabellius godhead belief says: The one being was always called by Sabellius uiopatwr [son-father], an expression which was certainly chosen to remove any misunderstanding, to make it impossible to suppose that two beings were in question. 24
Alexander (315 AD) declared that Sabellius taught that the Logos had a corporeal pre-existence. Alexander believed that the Logos as the Son of God was begotten before time began. Speaking of the Logos pre-existence, Alexander wrote, we believe: in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God; not begotten of things which are not, but of Him who is the Father; not in a CORPOREAL MANNER [i.e. tangible body] by excision or division as Sabellius and Valentinus thought, but in a certain inexplicable and unspeakable manner. 25
Blunt speaking of Sabellius says, according to Hilary: In place of the Unity of Three distinct Persons we have the entire coalescence of what are distinguished only in name, not in substance (Hilary de Trinity. vii. 5).... The only Divine Sonship allowed by Sabellius doctrine being then that which took place in time at the Incarnation, there was also at that time, a division of the Union.... If Hilary be a competent witness, that Sabellius did assert a separation of the Protensio, which reaching usque ad Virginem, took the name of Son. This last step was taken to avoid the charge of Patripassianism... by asserting that only a portion of the Divine Nature became incarnate.... Epiphanius... adds that this conception was likening the Father to the body, the Son to the SOUL, the Holy Ghost to the spirit. 26
Socrates Scholasticus in his history spoke of the Creed of Sirmium, which was published in 352 AD in the Presence of the Emperor Constantius. In it the Catholic Church described some of the Godhead teaching of Gods Jesus Name People of that day by pronouncing a large number of anathema on them. The Creed stated: If any one shall dare to assert that the Unbegotten, or a part of him, was born of Mary, let him be anathema. If any one should say that the Son was of Mary according to foreknowledge [i.e. existed in prophesy only as God becoming a human being], and NOT that he was with God, begotten of the Father before the ages let him be anathema If any man affirming him that was born of Mary to be God and man, shall imply the unbegotten God himself, let him be anathema. If any one says that it was not the Son that was seen by Abraham, but the unbegotten God, or a part of him, let him be anathema. If any one says that it was NOT the Son that as man wrestled with Jacob, but the unbegotten God, or a part of him, let him be anathema. If any one should say that the Father, Son, and Holy? Spirit are one person, let him be anathema. If any one, speaking of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, shall call him the unbegotten God, let him be anathema. 27
It is very obvious that Catholicism was very unhappy with Gods people. The portion of the Fathers own Nature that became born of Mary was His Glorified Spiritual Body, and His Soul dwelt in it. Catholicism has always pronounced curses on Gods people in every century. They have always been afraid that Gods people once again would prevail over all of Christendom. The 12 Catholic Encyclopedia stated: In the fourth century the Arians and Semiarians professed to be much afraid of it [Sabellianism], and the alliance of Pope Julius and Athanasius... gave some color to accusations against the Nicene formulas as opening the way to Sabellianism. This same encyclopedia also gave us some insights into Sabellius beliefs. It says: Saint Athanasius tells us that he said the Father is the Son and the Son is the Father, one in hypostasis but two in name. 28
Commodians Modalist Monarchian Godhead Doctrine
Commodian was another great man of God. He was a Bishop in a church in Africa around c. 250. According to Harvard professor Harry A. Wolfson, in his work entitled The Philosophy Of The Church Fathers, Commodian taught in verse 91 of his Carmen Apologeticum: the Father went into the Son, at Bethlehem. This revealed that the Father was the God who was in the Lord Jesus Christ. He also added: Commodian speaking for himself, says almost in the words quoted above [i.e. God is only one person] as representing the views of Praxeas and Noetus. 29
Professor Schaff wrote: Commodian was a Patripassian in Christology and a Chiliast in eschatology. Schaff also gave a brief description of Commodians book. He says: it discusses in 47 sections the doctrine of God, of man, and of the Redeemer (verses 89-275); the meaning of the names of the Son and Father in the economy of salvation (276-573); the obstacles to the progress of Christianity (574-611); it warns Jews and Gentiles to forsake their religion (612-783); and gives a description of the last things (784-1053). 30 It is a shame that no one has translated this great work into English. I have a copy of it, which is written in Latin, in my library.
The writers of The Catholic Encyclopedia classified Commodians godhead beliefs with that of Praxeas and Noetus. It stated: in the west they [the Modalist Monarchians] were called Patripassians, whereas in the East they are called Sabellians. It went on to declare: Sabellius or at least his followers may have considerably amplified the original Noetianism. There was still Sabellianism to be found in the fourth century. Marcellus of Ancyra developed a Monarchianism of his own, which was carried much further by his disciple [Photinus]. Priscillian was an extreme Monarchian and so was Commodian. 31
Marcellus Godhead Doctrine
Blunt speaking of the fourth century Sabellianism stated: Marcellus, Bishop of Ancyra in Galatia, and his followers held a third and advance stage of Sabellianism; for this [so-called] heresy Marcellus was condemned by several Arian Councils, particularly by that of Constantinople in AD 336. Socrates states... that he held the Son of God to have His beginning from His birth of the Virgin and the kingdom of God not to be without an end (H.E. ii. 33).... Marcellus held, according to Eusebius, that there was but one person in the Divine Nature. 32 Marcellus despised the Catholic doctrine of two gods or persons in the godhead. He boldly proclaimed that the Father became the Son and Holy Ghost in time, and at the end of time, these offices will ceased and He will only be know as the Father. This was basically the doctrine of Sabellius. Edward Gibbon, in his book entitled The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, declared: Athanasius defended above twenty years the Sabellianism of Marcellus of Ancyra; and when al last he was compelled to withdraw himself from his communion, he continued to mention with an ambiguous smile the venial errors of his respectable friend. 33
Photinus One God Doctrine
Blunt speaking of Photinus, who was a disciple of Marcellus, and those who followed him said: Theodoret says that Photinus differs from Sabellius only in phraseology.... Photinus held the tenet of an Antitrinitarian Monarchian, and that Jesus Christ was born of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary; that a certain portion of the Divine Substance, which he called the Word, descended upon and acted through the man Jesus Christ; that on account of this 13 association of the Word with the human nature Jesus was called the Son of God, and even God Himself; that the Holy Ghost was not a distinct Person, but a celestial virtue proceeding from the Deity (Epiph. Haer. Lxxi.; Hilary de Trin. vii. 3,7, viii. 40; Socr. H. E. i. 18, 19, 30; Sozom. iv. 6). These tenets are sufficiently stated in the article Samosatenes, and other articles regarding the various Monarchian sects.
Blunt went on to say: Marius asserts that Photinus held the Divine element that acted in our Lords Person to be substantivum or ousiwdes. Now Photinus denied the personality, and consequently the Sonship of the Word, but allowed its eternity as existing in the one undistinguished God. We are therefore thrown back upon the tenet described in Sabellians as the division of the Union, namely, that the Deus protensus, not being a distinct Person, is separable from the Godhead, or that a certain portion of the Divine Substance added to the human nature formed Jesus Christ the Son of God. 34 If my beloved readers desire to read a Biblical exegesis on the godhead, I would suggest my book The Mysteries of the Godhead Revealed.
CHAPTER 2 THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC BELIEF OF TWO AND THREE GODS: THE OBSCURE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TRINITARIAN DOCTRINE
Gods people in the Old Testament went into apostasy several times. They keep going into Lucifer's Mystery Babylonian Religion, or in other words, Lucifers Babylonian Trinity. This trinity consisted of: Baal, Ashtaroth, and Tammuz. Baal represented god the father, the sun god; Ashtaroth represented the mother god or the mother of the gods, the moon goddess; Tammuz represented the son of god or god the son, who was also known as the sun god.
The Bible stated: They forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth (Jug 2:13). God told Ezekiel: You will see greater abominations that they [the House of Israel] are doing. So He brought me to the door of the north gate of the LORDs house; and to my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz (Eze 8:13-14). God told Jeremiah: The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger (Jer 7:18).
Gods people did not do this one time, but throughout their history. Israel forsook the LORD and worshipped and served the Babylonian Trinity. Here are just two examples: The prophet Samuel speaking to the house of Israel said: Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, If you return to the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths from among you, and prepare your hearts for the LORD, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines. So the children of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and served the LORD only (1Sa 7:3-4). Years later, the people of Israel went into Baal worship again. They cried unto the LORD and said: We have sinned, because we have forsaken the LORD and served the Baals and Ashtoreths; but now deliver us from the hand of our enemies, and we will serve You (1Sa 12:10).
Noted Trinitarian Bible Scholars Confess that the Trinitarian Doctrine Is Obscure in Its Present Form, and Cannot Be Found in the Old or New Testaments
Doctor Hastings under the heading of the Trinity stated: The Old Testament could hardly be expected to furnish the doctrine of the Trinity.... In the New Testament we do not find the doctrine of the Trinity in anything 14 like its developed form, not even in the Pauline and Johannie theology. Hastings continued: The story of the Trinity in ecclesiastical history is the story of the transition from the Trinity of experience, in which God is self - revealed as the Father or Creator and Legislator, the Son or Redeemer, and the Spirit or Sanctifier, to the Trinity of dogma. To say that there are three separate personalities in the Godhead would be polytheism. 35
In The Encyclopedia of Religion, which is composed by many Trinitarian scholars, we read: Exegetes and theologians today are in agreement that the Hebrew Bible does not contain a doctrine of the Trinity.... Further, exegetes and theologians agree that the New Testament also does not contain an explicit doctrine of the Trinity.... Some theologians have concluded that all post-biblical Trinitarian doctrine is therefore arbitrary [meaning based on ones preferences, notions, or whims]; while it is incontestable that the doctrine cannot be established on scriptural evidence alone. 36
The Encyclopedia Britannica speaking of the Trinity stated: In general we may say that the Trinity takes on four differing aspects in the Christian church: in its more common and easily apprehended form as three gods, in its ecclesiastical form as a mystery which is above reason to be accepted by faith.... To some Christians the doctrine of the Trinity appeared inconsistent with the unity of God which is emphasized in the Scriptures. 37
Trinitarian doctors John MClintock and James Strong, in their Cyclopedia of Biblical Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature declared: Respecting the manner in which the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost make one God, the scripture teaches nothing, since the subject is of such a nature as not to admit of its being explained to us. 38 What these scholars are saying is that the Babylonian Trinity is a mystery. Now, have you not heard other Trinitarian Preachers say the very same thing?
German professor Harnack says: The doctrine of the Trinity, as professed by the Church [meaning Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches], is not contained in the New Testament. He continued by saying: At first the Christian faith was not Trinitarian in the strictly ontological reference [meaning in the beginning, or as it first existed]. It was not so in the apostolic and sub-apostolic ages, as reflected in the NT and other early Christian writings. Nor was it so even in the age of the [Catholic] Christian apologists. 39 What Dr. Harnack is saying is this, Catholic apostates of the apostolic and sub-apostolic ages, along with their deceived converts, did not believed in a Trinity of three persons in the Godhead. None of these heretics considered the Holy Spirit to be a separate person in any sense of the word; also none of these Catholic Priests considered the Son equal to the Father in origin, power, and other attributes.
The renowned Catholic professor John Henry Cardinal Newman, in his work entitled Essays and Sketches, presented Catholicism as the original Church. But even he had to admit that the doctrines of the Trinity, apostolic succession, the Eucharist, and the Mass were not found in the Bible. Even though he understood these facts, he still believed they were true. He defends them not from a Biblical point of view, but from the traditions of the early Ante Nicene Catholic Preachers.
He admonished all Protestants to accept by faith these Catholic doctrines, since they have accepted the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity by faith without any real scriptural proof. In volume one, he made the following statements: Where was your Church before Luther? The obvious and historical answer is they were in the Roman Catholic Church. He then proceeded by saying: Take a large view of the faith of Christians during the centuries before Constantine established their [meaning the Roman Catholic] religion. Is there any family likeness in it to Protestantism? 40 The obvious answer is no. He then went on to prove that historically, by comparing the teachings of the Reformers with that of the Catholic Ante Nicene Fathers.
After that, Father Newman made a very shocking confession. Let us hear this Priests confession and see if He makes a good and true confession, before we grant him absolution. He 15 said: all parties must confess, the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity is not brought out in form upon the surface of Scriptures. As I have said more than once, to allege, that all points that are beyond clear Scripture proof are mere peculiarities of each sect [meaning different religious systems]; so that if all Protestants were to agree to put out of sight their respective peculiarities [meaning unscriptural doctrines], they would then have a Creed set forth distinctly, clearly, and adequately, in Scripture. For take that single instance, which I referred to in a former Lecture, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Is this to be considered as a mere peculiarity or no? Apparently a peculiarity [for] it is not brought out in form in Scripture. First, the word Trinity is not in Scripture. Next I ask how many of the verses of the Athanasian Creed are distinctly set down in Scripture? 41 The answer to Newmans question is very few.
Newman continued his confession and reproach of Protestants by saying: He who admits the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, in spite of felling its difficulties, whether in itself or in its proof - who submits to the indirectness [meaning lack] of the Scripture evidence as regards that particular doctrine - has a right to be told those other doctrines, such as the apostolic succession. 42 Newman proceeded with his confession and reproach to the fallen away daughters of Catholicism by saying: not Scripture, but history [meaning the tradition of the Ante Nicene Priests] is our informant in Christian doctrine. All Protestants who consider the Bible as the one standard of faith, meaning those who say they base their beliefs on the Bible and not tradition, let no one take refuge and comfort in the idea that he will be what is commonly called an orthodox Protestant, [if] he will admit the doctrine of the Trinity, but not that of the Apostolic Succession. [For] this is an impossible position: it is shutting one eye, and looking with the other, shut both or open both. 43
What confessor Newman is saying is this, since Protestants have accepted and believed the Catholic version of the Babylonian Trinity by faith, that is without any real scriptural proof, they then have earn for themselves the right to accept and believe by faith all other Catholic doctrines, which are also not taught in the Bible, as Newman openly admitted on pages 122, 206, 207 and 211. No matter what people may or may not say about Cardinal Newman, I do believe he made a good and true confession, for which Gods people everywhere do thank him, and grant unto him absolution.
Comparing the Trinity of Pagans with the Trinity of Catholicism: Trinitarian minister and historian Alexander Hislop, in his great book The Two Babylons, compared the Trinity of Roman Catholicism with that of the Trinity of the Babylonian and other Pagan Religions. He writes: I have to notice, first the identity of the object of worship in Babylon and Rome. The ancient Babylonians, just as the modern Romans, recognized in words the unity of the godhead; and while worshipping innumerable minor deities [demons], as possessed of certain influence on human affairs, they distinctly acknowledged that there was one infinite and Almighty Creator, supreme over all. Most other nations did the same.... In the unity of that one only god of the Babylonians, there were three persons, and to symbolize that doctrine of the Trinity, they employed, as the discoveries of Layard prove, the equilateral triangle, just as it is well known the Roman Church does at this day. The Papacy has in some of its churches, as for instance, in the monastery of the so-called Trinitarians of Madrid, an image of the triune god, with three heads on one body. The Babylonians had something of the same.... In India, the supreme divinity, in like manner, in one of the most ancient cave-temples, is represented with three heads, under the name of Eko Deva Trimurtti, one god, three forms. 44
There can be no room for doubt that the Babylonian Trinity, of three separate persons or beings in the godhead, was taught by all heathen nations long before Christianity can into being. The devil has always imitated and perverted Gods plan in all ages. He took Gods triune revelation of Himself to His children, and made three separate persons or beings out of the One God. The Jewish Encyclopedia under the heading of the Trinity, has this to say about this truth: The idea of a Trinity, which, since the council of Nice, and especially through Basil the Great [370 AD], had become the Catholic dogma, is of course regarded by Jews as antagonistic to their monotheistic faith and due to the paganistic tendency of the [Roman Catholic] Church: God the Father and God the Son, together with the Holy Ghost... have their parallels in all the heathen mythologies, as has been shown by many Christian scholars. 45
16 Just as Gods people in the Old Testament went into to apostasy, some of Gods people in New Testament times also went into apostasy. It started with a group of so-called theologians known in history as the Ante-Nicene Fathers or the Catholic Fathers. Most of these men were students of Greek Philosophy. The churches these apostates started became known as the Roman Catholic Church. The following brief history of how the Babylonian Trinity came into apostate Roman Catholic Christianity, for the first four hundred years, should give my beloved readers, some idea of the magnitude of the subject of the Godhead.
The Catholic Semi-Arian Doctrine of Two-Unequal-gods
Somewhere after 70 AD, Ignatius, one of the bishops of Antioch, and other apostate bishops of other cities, apostatized from Gods Apostolic Pentecostal Church, and came together and formed the Catholic Church. The apostle John spoke of it this way: Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us (1Jn 2:18-19). It was Ignatius who invented the Catholic Nicolaitan Doctrine, along with its Monarchial Bishop Doctrine, which God and His Church hated (Rev 2:6, 15).
Professor Harnack in his book The Mission and Expansion of Christianity spoke of the apostasy of Ignatius and other Bishops of that ilk when he declared: As early as the second century the [Catholic] Church had conquered the people.... By the opening of the third century [200 AD], no layman ventured any longer to call ecclesiastics, brethren. The layman is a layman because he has not been set apart from the people by ordination. After the close of the second century [the Monarchical] bishops were the teachers, high priest, and judges of the church. Ignatius already had compared their position [as bishop or pastor] in the individual church to that of God in the church collective. 46
Harnack speaking of the enormity of their apostasy from God says: The most momentous result was the gradual assimilation of the entire [Catholic] Christian worship to the nature of the ancient mysteries. By the third century [200 AD] it could already rival the most imposing cultus in all paganism, with its solemn and exact ritual, its priest, its sacrifices, and its holy ceremonies. 47 If my readers would like to read a history of the Nicolaitan doctrine, I would suggest my book A Prophetic History of Gods Apostolic Pentecostal Church or The Heresy of the Nicolaitans.
One of the greatest problems, Gods Churches had during the first four hundred years, was with Satans Churches blaspheming God; they did this by christianizing pagan doctrines and then calling themselves Christians or Churches of the Lord Jesus Christ. As I stated before, when these apostates first began, they did not believe in a Trinity of three separate persons, but believed that there were only two-persons in the godhead. They believed that the Father was the supreme God being uncreated or unbegotten, and the Son was a lesser or inferior God because He was begotten by the Father. They believed the Father created Him from a homoiousios or a like substance to God the Fathers own personal substance. Where did the godhead teaching of these apostates originate? History reveals that these Catholic Ante Nicene Priests received they pagan godhead from Philo, who received it from Plato, who received it from the Sibyls, who received it from the Zoroastrian doctrine that was taught in the Babylonian Religion.
Who were the early Catholic Fathers who started the Catholic Church and what did they teach about the godhead? According to history this godhead doctrine started with Ignatius (c. 70) and Clement of Rome (c. 70), who were among the first apostates to teach this pagan heresy, and 17 they were the ones who formed the Catholic Nicolaitan Church in the first century. The main Catholic Nicolaitan heretics of the second and third centuries, who taught this godhead doctrine were: Justin Martyr (c. 150), Clemens of Alexandria (c. 200), Tertullian (c. 200), Hippolytus (c. 225), Origen (c. 215), and Cyprian (c. 250). All of these heretics loved the writings of the Greek philosophers, especially Plato, and the allegoric method of interpreting the scriptures that was used by Philo.
My beloved readers should bear in mind, that none of the early fathers of Catholicism or their heretical disciples, who are called apologist, believed in a Trinity of three separate and equal persons in the godhead. In fact, the Trinity they believed in was composed of two persons or gods each having a separate body and existence from the other, and one impersonal spirit which had no body, which represented the power of Christ, or as some prefer, the Logos other self.
The International Standard Bible Encylopaedia gave a fair summation of the godhead doctrine of the early Catholic Priests. Under the heading of the formation of the doctrine of the Trinity we read: In the nature of the case the formulated doctrine was of slow attainment. In the 2nd century the dominant neo- Stoic and neo-Platonic ideas deflected Christian thought into subordinationist channels, and produced what is known as the Logos-Christology, which looks upon the Son as a prolation of Deity reduced to such dimensions as comported with relations with a world of time and space; meanwhile, to a great extent, the Spirit was neglected altogether. 48
Dr. Harnack included the Catholic apologists godhead doctrine in his list of the pagan teachings of the Ante Nicene Fathers. He stated: It is not Judaeo-Christianity that lies behind the Christianity and doctrines of the [Catholic] apologist, but Greek philosophy - Platonic metaphysics, Logos doctrine of the Stoics, Platonic and Stoic ethics - the Alexandrine-Jewish apologetics, ...particularly in that of Philo. 49
Wolfson boldly declared the above truths when he stated that Ignatius, and all the other apostate Catholic fathers, who started Catholicism did not: believe in a preexistent Trinity.... Before His [Jesus] birth there were only two preexistent beings, God and the Holy Spirit, the latter identified with the preexistent Christ, and, if the term Logos is used, it is identified with the Holy Spirit. He continued by saying: like Philo, the [Catholic] Fathers attributed to the Logos... two stages of existence prior to the creation of the world, which according to Philo was the internal and external Logos that was also called by the title of the Holy Spirit. 50
107 AD, Ignatius Doctrine of Two-Unequal-gods: Ignatius of Antioch was the father of all Catholic Nicolaitans. If there was someone before him who taught him these damnable doctrines we have no written record of it. According to history, He was the first to write down his beliefs on the godhead and the Nicolaitan doctrine of the ministry. Because of different opinions of scholars concerning which are the true writings of Ignatius, i.e. the short version, the long version, or the Syriac version, I will quote from all three versions for his godhead teachings can be found in all of them. I personal believe the longer version is the one he wrote.
Ignatius in his epistles emphatically proclaimed, many times, that God the Father is uncreated and the highest God or the only true God. He also declared that the Logos or Christ was created by the Father before the universe was spoken into existence and is a lower or lesser god. He definitely spoke of the Logos as a separate being or person from the Father and called Him the begotten God. In his Epistle to the Ephesians he says: Our Physician is the only true God, the unbegotten and unapproachable, the Lord of all, the Father and Begetter of the only-begotten Son. He continued by saying that the Son of God was begotten: before time began, but who afterwards became also man, of Mary the virgin.
18 Ignatius encourage the Ephesians to keep the faith of: God the Father, and of Jesus Christ His only- begotten Son, and the first-born of every creature. 51 Here Ignatius applied the Biblical term: the first- born to the Logos being begotten by the Father before the beginning of time. Ignatius ended his letter to the Ephesians with these words: Fare ye well in the harmony of God, ye who have obtained the inseparable Spirit, who is Jesus Christ. 52 Ignatius indisputably proclaimed that the Holy Ghost was Jesus. He obviously did not believe in the doctrine of the Trinity.
In his Epistle to the Magnesians, Ignatius reaffirmed his belief in two-unequal gods by saying: He [the Logos or Christ] being begotten by the Father before the beginning of time, was God the Word, the only-begotten Son, and remains the same for ever. 53 In this passage Ignatius connects the Logos with the Son, and proclaimed that the Son is not an eternal being. In the Syriac Version of Ignatius epistles, we find his so-called refutation of errors. In his Epistle to the Tarsians, he writes against the godhead teachings of Gods Apostolic Pentecostal Church by saying: Jesus Himself is not God over all, and the Father, but His Son. Wherefore it is one [Person] who put all things under, and who is all in all, and another [Person] to whom they were subdued, who also Himself, along with all other things, becomes subject [to the former].
Because Ignatius and other Catholic bishops demoted Jesus to a second rate position in the godhead, he had to write to this church to admonish them to think of Jesus as God. He says: How could such a one [Jesus] be a mere man, receiving the beginning of His existence from Mary, and not rather God the Word, and the only-begotten Son? For in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And in another place, The Lord created Me, the beginning of His ways, for His ways, for His works. Before the world did He found Me, and before all the hills did He beget Me. 54 Let my beloved readers take note, Ignatius uses the above passages of scriptures to verify His teaching that Christ was a begotten God, and He was also the Holy Spirit. From this time on, all Catholic Priest will use Ignatius teachings on the godhead in their writings, and some will even put their own religious twist to it, but all will claim that the Father and Son are two separate beings or gods.
150 AD, Justin Martyrs Doctrine of Two-Unequal-gods: Justinus, who is better known as Justin Martyr, was the first to defend in writing the two-god system of Philo and Ignatius. Justin was without a doubt the real theologian of this two-god system. Justin, like his masters before him, definitely taught that the Father was the unbegotten and the highest God, while the Logos or Christ was a begotten and lower or lesser god, and the Holy Spirit was another name for the Logos. Dr. Paine in his book A Critical History of the Evolution of Trinitarianism revealed: Justin Martyr refers to Platonic and stoic authorities for his Logos ideas. He was himself a Platonist before he became a Christian, and he never laid aside his philosophers cloak. 55
Justin and all the other early Catholic heretics could not understand the Logos concept of the John 1:1 and Rev 19:13. The reason for their ignorance was they all interpreted it by the works of Plato, especially his work entitled Timaeus, Philos two-god system, and the pagan concept of a lower separate god called the Son that dwelt with the Father. As a result they were blinded to the truth that God changed a portion of His eternal Holy Spirit Nature into a Human Soul and Glorified Spirit Body Natures, and dwelt in it. Dr. Wolfson speaking of Justins godhead doctrine, as He wrote against Gods Oneness people wrote: Justin Martyr already describes the Logos as one whom God begot from Himself.... Justin Martyr maintained that the Logos is distinct from the Father in number and not in name only. 56
Justin in his First Apology called the Logos: the first-begotten of all creation. He then stated that the Holy Spirit is the Logos. He says: It is wrong, therefore, to understand the Spirit and the power of God as anything else than the Word, who is also the first-born of God. 57 Justin, like Ignatius, connected the term 19 first-born with the generation of the Son before time began. In Justins Second Apology we read: But to the Father of all, who is unbegotten, there is no name given. But these words, Father, and God, and Creator, and Lord, and master, are not names, but appellations derived from His good deeds and functions. And His son, who along is properly called Son, the Word, who also was with him and was begotten before the works, when at first He created and arranged all things by Him, is called Christ. For next to God, we worship and love the Word who is from the unbegotten and ineffable God. 58 No one can read the writing of the early Catholics and believe they taught the eternal sonship of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is part of teachings of the Trinitarian doctrine.
Justin in his Dialogue with Trypho a Jew clearly defined his heresy of two-unequal-gods. He says: I shall give you another testimony, my friends, said I, from the Scriptures, that God begat before all creatures a Beginning, [who was] a certain rational power [proceeding] from Himself. He was begotten of the Father by an act of will. The Word of Wisdom, who is Himself this God begotten of the Father. But this Offspring, which was truly brought forth from the Father, was with the Father before all the creatures, and the Father communed with Him; even as the Scripture by Solomon has made clear, that He whom Solomon calls Wisdom, was begotten as a Beginning before all His creatures and as Offspring by God.
Justin then quoted Proverbs, the eight chapter, to prove that the Logos was begotten by the Father. He says: And it is written in the book of Wisdom The Lord created me the beginning of His ways for His works. From everlasting He established me in the beginning, before He formed the earth. He begets me before all the hills. When I repeated these words, I added: You perceive, my hearers, if you bestow attention, that the Scripture has declared that this Offspring was begotten by the Father before all things created; and that which is begotten is numerically distinct from that which begets, any one will admit. I have discussed briefly in what has gone before; when I asserted that this power was begotten from the Father, by His power and will, but NOT by abscission, as if the ESSENCE of the Father were DIVIDED; as all other things partitioned and divided are not the same after as before they were divided. 59 It is a pity that this blind apologist understood these scriptures through the eyes of Plato and Philo. For instead of seeing the Logos as the embodiment of God or the Fathers visible Self with a human nature as Paul taught (Col 2:8-9; 1:15), he saw Him as a person existing outside of or next to God.
160 AD, Tatians Doctrine of Two-Unequal-gods: Tatian was a disciple of Justin Martyr. He, like his master, also believed that the Logos had a beginning, and the Holy Spirit was just another name for the Logos. He wrote: For the Lord of the universe, who is Himself the necessary ground of all being, inasmuch as no creature was yet in existence, was alone. The Logos Himself also, who was IN Him, subsists. And by His simple will, the Logos springs forth; and the Logos, not coming forth in vain, becomes the first-begotten work of the Father. Him [the Logos] we know to be the beginning of the world. But He came into being by participation, not by abscission. The Logos coming forth from the Logos-power of the Father, and He has not divested the Logos-power of Him [the Father] who begot Him.... For the heavenly Logos, a Spirit emanating from the Father and [is] a Logos from the Logos-power [of the Father], in imitation of the Father who begot Him, made man an image of immortality. 60 No eternal Trinity can be found here.
170 AD, Theophilus Doctrine of Two-Unequal-gods: Theophilus taught same godhead doctrine as all the others. He wrote: God, then having His own Word internal within His own bowels, begot Him,, emitting Him along with His own Wisdom before all things. He had this Word as a helper in the things that were created by Him, and by Him He made all things.... He [the Logos] then being the Spirit of God, and governing principle, and Wisdom, and power of the Highest, came down upon the prophets and through them spake. 61 Here Theophilus clearly revealed that the Holy Spirit is the Logos, and Wisdom is another title of the Logos. Many of the early Catholic Priests declared Wisdom was a title of the Logos, who was the Holy Spirit.
Theophilus also declared: The God and Father, indeed, of all cannot be contained, and is not found in a place, for there is no place of His rest. The Word, that always exists, residing within the heart of God. For before 20 anything came into being He [God the Father] had Him as a counselor, being His own mind and thought. But when God wished to make all that He determined on, He begot this Word, uttered, the first-born of all creation, not Himself being emptied of the Word [Reason], but having begotten Reason, and always conversing with His Reason. The Word, then, being God, and being naturally produced from God, whenever the Father of the universe wills, He sends Him to any place; and He, coming, is both heard and seen, being sent by Him, and is found in a place. 62 According to this Catholic Priest, God the Father is omnipresent and has no form, but Christ who was begotten by the Father has form and a dwelling place.
Other Catholic Priest, such as Tertullian, will use Theophilus godhead teaching, and also claim God the Father emitted His Son from His own bowels, by speaking Him into existence. No one can accuse Theophilus of being a Trinitarian, even though he is the first Catholic to use the word Trinity. Theophilus, being an allegorist like His Catholic predecessors in the ministry, in his teaching on the sun and moon compares the godhead to them; he says: In like manner also the three days which were before the luminaries, are types of the Trinity: of God, and His Word, and His Wisdom. 63 Let my beloved readers take note, Theophilus used the personal pronoun His to show that the Word of God and the Wisdom of God belong to God the Father.
180 AD, Irenaeus Doctrine of Two-Unequal-gods: Irenaeus, like his fellow Catholic bishops, taught that the Logos was a being, whom the Father begot before time began. Irenaeus declared: If any one, therefore, says to us, How then was the Son produced by the Father? We reply to him, that no man understands that production or generation but the Father only who begat, and the Son who was begotten. 64 He also declared: John relates His original, effectual, and glorious generation from the Father, thus declaring, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 65
From the Fragments of the Lost Writings of Irenaeus we read: Christ, who was called the Son of God before the ages, was manifested in the fullness of time, in order that He might cleanse us through His blood. He also ascended to the heavens, and was glorified by the Father, and is the Eternal King; that He is the perfect Intelligence, the Word of God who was begotten before the light; that He was the Founder of the universe. 66
Irenaeus applied the title the only begotten God to the Son of God, i.e. the Logos, because He was begotten by the Fathter before time began. He stated: His Word, as He Himself willed it, and for the benefit of those who beheld, did show the Fathers brightness, and explained His purposes (as also the Lord said: The only-begotten God, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared [Him]. 67
Irenaeus called Christ the Holy Spirit of the Father. He wrote: For He [Jesus] is indeed Savior, as being the Son and Word of God, but salutary [i.e. producing a beneficial effect] since (He is the) Spirit for he says: The Spirit of our countenance Christ the Lord. But (for) salvation as being flesh: for the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. 68 He also declared: He [Jesus], who is the perfect bread of the Father, offered Himself to us.... He did this when He appeared as a man. [We who] become accustomed to eat and drink the Word of God, may be able also to contain in ourselves the Bread of immortality, which is the Spirit of the Father. Those upon whom the apostles laid hands received the Holy Spirit, who is the food of Life (Eternal). 69 It is very obvious from the above quotes that Irenaeus believed the Son of God was not an eternal being but a created being; and the Holy Ghost is another name for the Logos. Therefore, he was not a Trinitarian, even thou he speaks in mysterious tones in certain passages.
200 AD, Tertullians Doctrine of Two-Unequal-gods: It is in Tertullian that Trinitarians make their boast. They probably surmise, surely someone who writes against Oneness Pentecostals, uses the word Trinity in his writings, and speaks of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit must be a Trinitarian. Not so! According to Dr. Schaff: Tertullian cannot escape the charge of subordinationism. He bluntly calls the Father the whole Divine Substance, and the Son a part of it. 70 Tertullian, like his predecessors in the ministry, believed that God in His Spirit Essence was omnipresent. He declared: We know, 21 however, that God is in the bottomless depths, and exists everywhere; but then it is by power and authority. We are also sure that the Son, being indivisible from Him, is everywhere with Him. Nevertheless, in the Economy or Dispensation itself, the Father willed that the Son should be regarded as on earth, and Himself in heaven. 71
Tertullians godhead teaching is definitely not the Trinitarian doctrine of Catholicism or Protestantism. Tertullian declared: For before all things God was alone being in Himself and for Himself universe, and space, and all things. Moreover, He was alone, because there was nothing external to Him but Himself. Yet even not then was He alone; for He had with Him that which He possessed in Himself, that is to say, His own Reason. For God is rational, and Reason was first in Him; and so all things were from Himself. This Reason is His own Thought (or Consciousness) which the Greeks call lo> gov, by which term we also designate Word or Discourse. For although God had not yet sent out His Word, He still had Him within Himself, both in company with and included within His very Reason, as He silently planned and arranged within Himself everything which He was afterwards about to utter through His Word. Now, whilst He was thus planning and arranging with His own Reason, He was actually causing that to become Word which He was dealing with in the way of Word or Discourse.
I may therefore without rashness first lay this down (as a fixed principle) that even then before the creation of the universe God was not alone, since He had within Himself both Reason, and, inherent in Reason, His Word, which He made second to Himself by agitating it within Himself. This power and disposition of the Divine Intelligence is set forth also in the Scriptures under the name of Sofi> a, Wisdom; for what can be better entitled to the name of Wisdom than the Reason or the Word of God? Listen therefore to Wisdom herself, constituted in the CHARACTER of a Second Person: At the first the Lord created me as the beginning of His ways, with a view to His own works, before He made the earth, before the mountains were settled; moreover, before all the hills did He beget me; that is to say, He created and generated me in His own intelligence.
Now, as soon as it pleased God to put forth into their respective substances and forms the things which He had planned and ordered within Himself, in conjunction with His Wisdoms Reason and Word, He first put forth the Word Himself, having within Him His own inseparable Reason and Wisdom, in order that all things might be made through Him. through whom they had been planned and disposed, yea, and already made, so far forth as (they were) in the mind and intelligence of God. This, however, was still wanting to them, that they should also be openly known, and kept permanently in their proper forms and substances.
Then, therefore, does the Word also Himself assume His own form and glorious garb, His own sound and vocal utterance, when God says, Let there be light. This is the perfect nativity of the Word, when He proceeds forth from God begotten to carry all into effect. Thus does He make Him equal to Him: for by proceeding from Himself He became His first begotten Son, because begotten before all things; and His only-begotten also, because alone begotten of God, made a way peculiar to Himself, from the womb of His own heart even as the Father Himself testifies: My heart, says He, hath emitted my most excellent Word. 72 As my beloved readers can perceived by now, Tertullian, like all the Catholic Priests before him, did not teach the Eternal Son of God doctrine of Trinitarians, but a Begotten Son of God. I might also add, if the Word was the conscious mind of God the Father as Tertullian declared, then the Father must have lost His mind when He made the Word a separate person from Himself!
Tertullian concluded by saying: Whatever therefore was the substance of the Word that I designate a Person, I claim for it the name of Son; and while I recognize the Son, I assert His distinction as second to the Father. For the FATHER is the ENTIRE SUBSTANCE, but the SON is a derivation and PORTION of the whole. Besides, does not the very fact that they have the distinct names of Father and Son amount to a declaration that they are distinct in personality? 73
What Philo, Tertullian, and all the other Catholic Anti Nicene Priests did not understand is that God did not bring forth a separate person or being from His own Loins before time began, but as some Rabbis declared a Spiritual or Heavenly Man or Humanity. Rabbis taught this truth this way: Should one ask: Is it not written, Ye saw no manner of similitude? The answer would be: Truly we did behold Him under a certain similitude, for is it not written, and the similitude of the LORD should he [Moses] behold [Num 12:18].... Even that similitude was a likeness of the HOLY ONE, blessed be He.... For in the beginning... 22 when He created the FORM of SUPERNAL MAN to be known according to the style YHWH in order that He might be known by His attributes and perceived in each attributes separately. 74
This humanity being God the Father had in its essence a Soul and Glorified Spiritual Body, which was Gods the Fathers Visible Self, Form (Phi 2:6), or Image (Heb 1:3; Col 1:15). In other word, the Father being an Invisible Spirit Being, and Omniscient, knew before the creation began that men whom He loved and created would fall into sin and need redemption, therefore He CLOTHED Himself with a Spiritual Humanity (His Visible, Tangible Self that sat on the One Throne in Heaven), which at Bethlehem took on flesh, blood, and bones and became known as the Son of God, who was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8; also 1Pe 1:18-20).
According to Justin Martyr, the orthodox JEWS of his day, that is 150 AD, believed and taught that God the Father had a Divine Human Nature in the Old Testament. In the Dialogue of Justin with Trypho the Jew, Justin mocks Trypho by saying: Just as YOUR TEACHERS suppose, fancying that the FATHER of all, the UNBEGOTTEN GOD, has HANDS and FEET, and FINGERS, and a SOUL, like a composite being; and they for this reason teach that it was the Father Himself who appeared to Abraham and to Jacob. 75 There are over thirty scriptures in the OT that speak of God the Fathers Soul in the present verb tense. (See my book The Mysteries of the Godhead Revealed, which is given away on my website: DoctrinesOfChrist.com).
Justin mocks the Jews, just as all Ante Nicene Priests have done, because they all believed that the Son appeared to Abraham, a separate being, person, or God from the Father. There is NOT one scripture in the OT that uses the term or title Son or Son of God in reference to the existence of Christ or Logos or Gods Spiritual Humanity, but there are at lease three scriptures that speak of Gods Son in prophecy, as one who will be born one day in time (Psa 2:6-12; Isa 7:14; 9:6). Why can we not find one scripture that reveals the term Son of God was used by Christ in the OT? Because according to Gods prophetic Word, God reserved this title to refer to the Physical Humanity that God the Father would take on through the Virgin Mary at Bethlehem one day.
Tertullian after declaring that God the Father is the Entire Essence of God then contradicts himself by saying: Thus the connection of the Father in the Son, and of the Son in the Paraclete, produces three coherent [i.e. united] Persons, who are yet distinct One from Another. These THREE are, ONE ESSENCE, not one Person, as it is said, I and my Father are One, in respect of unity of Substance not singularity of number. 76 In the above two declarations, Tertullian becomes trapped by his own deceitful tongue. Since he declared that God the Father is the Entire Substance of God, the only way the Son or the Paraclete can be God is by being part of the Father, i.e. they must be the Father! Therefore, Tertullians three persons or Trinity is not real persons. In fact, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, which gives a history of a word declared the word person in the second and third centuries meant an: actors mask, character in a play, later [i.e. 4 th century] human being.
Tertullian taught the Spirit was Christ: The Word was formed by the Spirit, and (if I may so express myself) the Spirit is the body of the Word. The Spirit is the substance of the Word, and the Word is the operation of the Spirit, and the Two are One (and the same). We declare, however, that the Son is God and the Word and Spirit of God. 77 Now, where can anyone find the eternal Sonship doctrine, or that the Holy Spirit is a separate person from the Logos in any of these passages? Tertullian did not teach the Trinitarian doctrine. Now, where can anyone find the eternal sonship doctrine or that the Holy Spirit is a 23 separate person from the Logos in any of these passages? Tertullian did not teach the Trinitarian doctrine.
215 AD, Origens Doctrine of Two-Unequal-gods: Dr. Schaff speaking of Origen wrote: he distinguishes the essence of the Son from that of the Father; speaks of a DIFFERENCE of SUBSTANCE; and makes the Son decidedly INFERIOR to the Father. 78 Dr. Harnack says one of the names Origen gave to the Son was: the second God. 79 Origen speaking of the origin of the Son of God wrote: We have to first ascertain what the only begotten Son of God is, seeing He is called by many different names, according to the circumstances and views of individuals. He is termed Wisdom, according to the expression of Solomon: The Lord created me - the beginning of His ways and among His works, before He made any other thing; He founded me before the ages.
In another place Origen revealed that Wisdom or the Holy Spirit was not a separate being from Christ but was Christ. He wrote, Let no one, however, imagine that we mean anything impersonal when we call Him the wisdom of God; or suppose, for example, that we understand Him to be, not a living being endowed with wisdom, but something which makes men wise. It is once rightly understood that the only-begotten Son of God is His wisdom hypostatically existing.... The first- born, however, is not by nature a different person from the Wisdom, but one and the same.
Origen speaking of the Father being superior to the Son declared, But it is monstrous and unlawful to compare God the Father, in the generation of His only-begotten Son, and in the substance of the same, to any man. 80
Origen definitely did not believe that the Father and Son were equal in power or authority or in their godhood. He taught that the Son was inferior to the Father in these and other areas.
250 AD, Dionysius Doctrine of Two-unequal- gods: Dionysius of Rome also believed that the Logos had a beginning. He says, There certainly was not a time when God was not the Father. Neither, indeed, as though He had not brought forth these things, did God afterwards beget the Son, but because the Son has existence not from Himself, but from the Father.... For as I do not think that the Word was a thing made, so I do not say that God was its maker, but its Father. The ungenerated God is the hypostasis the life and foundation of all things in the universe. 81
Dionysius refused to say that the Son or the Logos was created or made by the Father, but was begotten only. What he called begotten, all of his forefathers called created, made or generated. What ever term fit your fancy, it all meant the same thing according to these Catholics: the Son of God had a beginning before time began.
300 AD, Lactanius Doctrine of Two-Unequal-gods: A Catholic Nicolaitan-Balaamite by the name of Lactanius, who was a disciple of Arnobius, definitely cannot be classified as a Trinitarian, for to him the Father was the only true God and the Son was the Holy Spirit whom the Father created. He wrote that the Father commenced this excellent work of the world, [when He first] begat a pure and incorruptible Spirit, who He called His Son. And although He had afterward created by Himself innumerable other beings, whom we call angels, this first-begotten, however, was the only one whom He [the Father] considered worthy of being called by the divine name.... 82
312 AD, Alexanders Doctrine of Two-Unequal-gods: Alexander of Alexandria followed the Alexandrian school and taught the Logos was created a being. He wrote, We ought to preserve His [God the Fathers] proper dignity, in confessing that no one is the cause of His being, but to the Son must be allotted His fitting honour, in assigning to Him, as we have said, a generation from the Father. But we must say that to the Father alone belongs the property of being unbegotten. 83 He then went on to say that the Father is greater than the Son.
24 From all the above quotes, my readers should be able to see that all these Nicolaitan Catholics priests believed in two not three persons in the godhead; they all taught that the Father was uncreated, and that the Son of God was a separate being from the Father and was created before time began.
The Origin of the Catholic Doctrine of Two-Unequal-gods: Because most Christians are not aware of the pagan origin of the Trinity doctrine, lets briefly look at the affinity these men had for the Greek philosophers and Mystery religion; so we can comprehend how they came up with their Trinitarian godhead and baptismal beliefs.
3000 BC, Zoroasters Doctrine of Two-Unequal-gods: The two-god doctrine was not all that new in the Greek, Roman, and all other pagan societies of their day. Professor Levi Paine in his book entitled, The Ethnic Trinities, gave us some insights to the origin of this godhead doctrine. Paine speaking of the earliest stages of Zoroastrian Trinitarian evolution, wrote, Mithra, or Mitra is a creature of Ormuzd, the created light, that is, a sun god. As such he is a servant and organ of Ormuzd, mediating between Him and man. 84
Hermes Teaching on Two-Unequal-gods: Around 300 AD Lactanius, who believed in the doctrine of two-unequal-gods, wrote some of its history in his writings. He said this godhead teaching could be found in Trismegistus and the predictions of the Sibyls. He went on to describe Hermes as an ancient pagan god who served as a herald and messenger of the other gods, who was called Mercury by the Romans; Hermes was also the god of science, eloquence, cunning, the protector of boundaries and commerce, and the guide of departed souls to Hades.
Lets hear what Lactanius says Hermes taught. He says, Hermes, in the book which is entitled The Perfect Word, made use of these words: The lord and creator of all things, whom we have thought to call god, since He made the second god visible and sensible.... He hallowed him, and altogether loved him as his own Son. Hermes could be a name for Nimrod, who started Zoroastrianism.
The Ancient Sibyls Teaching on Two-Unequal-gods: Lactanius also quotes from the Sibylline Books that were composed by women who were considered by the Babylonians, and Egyptians, Romans, and Greeks as prophetesses. There were about ten Sibyls that are known in history. Lactanius says, The Erythraean Sibyl, in the beginning of her poem, which she commenced with the supreme god, proclaims the son of god as the leader and commander of all, in these verses: The nourisher and creator of all things [God the Father], who placed the sweet breath in all, and made god the leader of all. Speaking of the Son of God at the end of this poem she says: But whom god gave for faithful men to honour. And another Sibyl enjoins that He ought to be known: Know him as your god, who is the son of god. 85
387 BC, Platos Doctrine of Two-Unequal-gods: Paine declared that Platos World Soul was not an eternal divine being, but a created mediating being whom God made to be the connecting link between things, or, in more philosophical language idea and phenomena. 86 Justin Martyr in his First Apology speaking of Platos discussion concerning the Son of God in the Timoeus, quotes Plato as saying, the power [or second god] next to the first god was placed crosswise in the universe. For he gives the second place to the Logos which is with God, who he said was placed crosswise in the universe. 87
25 57 AD, Philos Doctrine of Two-Unequal-gods: Philo was a Jew who was born in Alexander, Egypt in 27 BC, and died somewhere around 57 AD. He was an apostate Jewish Rabbi and commentator, who interpreted the Old Testament Scriptures by the use of the Greek philosophical allegorical method. He took Plato teaching of a dual god or two-unequal-gods, and tried to bring it into Judaism.
Elgin Moyer, in his book entitled Who Was Who In Church History, revealed Philos role in the development of the Catholic doctrine of a greater and lesser god. He says that Philo was a, Jewish Hellenistic philosopher.... As a philosopher sought to reconcile Greek philosophy and the Old Testament by means of allegorical interpretation.... Philos method of allegorical interpretation had much influence on the allegorical method of interpretation followed by the [Catholic] Alexandrian Church Fathers, especially Clement and Origen. 88 The Logos of Philo was not the Father, but was a separate being or person from the Father; the Father being the supreme god, and the Logos a lower or inferior god.
In his godhead teachings, he taught that the Father was so holy that He could not come into contact with the world personally, so He created a second god called the Logos who could. Philo taught that the Logos was not the Father, but was a separate being or person from the Father; the Father being the highest or greatest god, and the Logos an inferior or lesser god, which mediated between God and man.
According to The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Philo explained his doctrine of two- unequal-personal-gods this way, The internal Logos is the firstborn, the second god, the mediator, the ransom, the image of god.... The external Logos abides in man, is the prophet, shepherd, ambassador, artist, elder, interpreter, the shadow of god.... The Logos mediates between god and the world, but partakes of the divine nature only. 89
Philos external Logos or Holy Spirit was the impersonal Spirit of the internal Logos. Because of this teaching, the early Catholic Fathers taught that the Holy Spirit was another name for Christ. Philo, as well as these Catholics, did not teach a trinity. The internal Logos was a real being or person, who existed outside of Gods being; therefore He was no abstract figure.
Dr Wolfson confirmed the above truths by stating, We have shown that Philos view, like that of Justin Martyr, maintained that the antemundane [or before creation the] Logos had two stages of existence and that, while during its first stage [the external Logos] it existed only as a power in God, during the second stage [internal Logos] it existed as a real being outside of God. 90
Paine gave us some insights to the origin of Philos godhead doctrine. He says, On the whole, it may be said that Philo is the historical founder of the Logos theology. He placed the Logos as the great principle of divine mediation in the forefront of his philosophical system. He went on to say that Philo received his Logos idea from Plato. He said Plato did not call his mediator Logos but the World Soul. 91
It is obvious from the above historical references that Plato, Philo and many of the earlier Greek Philosophers took the ancient doctrines of Mystery Babylonian and put their own religious twist to them. From the time the priests of Babylon left their religious temple called the Tower of Babel, and were scattered throughout the earth, they and their descendants have been placing their own religious twist to the teachings of Babylon, in all the pagan religions they started. The Word of God 26 clearly revealed that Mystery Babylon is the mother of all false religious systems. Rev 17:1-6. Between the Zoroastrians, Hermes, the Sibyls, Plato, and Philo, it is not hard to perceive were all of the early Catholics Fathers received their inspiration and revelation of the godhead.
310 AD, The Arian Doctrine of the Godhead: A Catholic Presbyter by the name of Arius started teaching that the Son of God was not only a created being, but that He was not God in any sense, or in other words, he totally rejected the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. According to Arius and his followers Jesus was nothing more than the first and highest ranking created angel in heaven. These Catholics were the so-called Jehovahs Witnesses of their day. From 310 through 325 AD, Arius had won many Catholic Bishops over to his godhead belief. Since the majority of the Catholic Bishops did not believe that Jesus was equal to God the Father in the godhead, all Arius had to do is quote to them the scriptures declaring that their was only one God and that is the Father. By means of this argument, he was able to persuade many of them to deny the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
325 AD, The Catholic Binitarian Doctrine of Two-Equal-gods or the Nicene-Creed: Before we examine the Nicene-Creed and the part Emperor Constantine played in formulating it, lets briefly inspect Constantine motive for choosing Catholicism to be the his bride. Constantine, like all other Emperors before him, desired a united empire. The empire Constantine inherited was a divided empire with many different political and religious fractions. Mithraism, even though it was the religion of the empire, never shows signs of having the power to become a universal religion. Constantine greatly desired a religion whose doctrines could appeal to the masses and unite them into one religion, and thereby unite the empire.
Guignebert speaking of Catholicism absorption of pagan doctrines, ceremonies and rituals says, In the third century it [the Nicolaitan-Babylonian Church] could meet and overcome the entire pagan syncretism, because it had itself become a syncretism in which all the fertile ideas and the essential rites of pagan religiousness were blended. It combined and harmonized them in a way that enabled it to stand alone, facing all the inchoate beliefs and practices of its adversaries without appearing their inferior on any vital point. This extensive work of absorption, which helps us to understand, that a moment came when [Catholic] Christianity was able to arouse favorable attention to itself on the part of the manifold sympathies active in the Greco-Roman world. 92
The religion Constantine chose would have to be flexible enough to bend to his will whenever he so desired; one that would allow him to maintain his position as the High Priest or the Supreme Head. The entire world had witness the noble suffering of Gods people and through it became attracted to Church. The Roman Emperors discovered that no amount of threats could get the majority of Gods people to compromise their convictions. Even though Constantine knew that the one God, Jesus Name Churches were in the vast majority, he also knew that he would never be able to control them. In chapter three I will prove from history that Gods Apostolic Pentecostal Churches were in the majority for the first 400 years.
When Constantine looked at Catholicism, he saw a religion that he knew he could control. He knew that its entire history was one of compromise; one that had already adopted most of the teachings of paganism; one who compromised with the state during the Roman persecutions; yes one who had the potential of becoming a universal religion. It already went under the name of Christianity, and with a little persuasion from him he could get the masses of pagans to join it. Constantine could see in this Church of Satan, everything his heart desire; he could see all of his dreams being fulfilled. 27
In The Cambridge Medieval History, we can read of Constantine dream for Catholicism. It says, The [Catholic] Church was not quite what Constantine wanted it to be. He was not more attracted to it by its [so-called] lofty monotheism than by the imposing unity, which promised new life to the weary State. For six hundred years the world had been in quest of a universal religion.... If the Church was divided against itself, it could not help the Empire. Worse than this; it could hardly be divided against itself without being also divided against the Empire. 93
Guignebert speaking of Catholicisms political compromise with the state during Roman persecutions says, Nicolaitan Christians no longer expected the end of the world form one day to the next; they conformed to current customs and even to current prejudice. Christians joined the army and served in the administration and the ecclesiastical authorities made no objection. [Catholic] Christian ethics and Christian resignation to the worlds continuance had reaffirmed allegiance to all social regulations. Above all a community of believers, united, disciplined and directed by leaders whom they obeyed [as gods], presented to the State a cheering spectacle of order, the product of a well administered government, which already shows signs of developing a political consciousness.... It was time for both State and [Nicolaitan] Christianity to think of a compromise. 94
By now my readers should be able to understand why Constantine chose Catholicism to be his bride. Now, why did the Catholic Church want this marriage? According to The Cambridge Medieval History Constantine choose Catholicism to be his bride in 313 AD when he gave the Edict of Milan. It revealed that, he exempted the clergy of the Catholic Church - not those of the sects [meaning Gods Apostolic Church] - from the decurionate and other burdens, he gave them only the privileges already enjoyed by some of the heathen priests and teachers. But the relief was great enough to cause an ungodly rush for holy Orders into Balaamite Christianity. 95 Money and power has always been the prime motivating factor behind all that Catholicism has done throughout the centuries.
325 AD, The Nicene Creed: At the Nicene Council Constantine, and the Ante Nicene Catholic Priests, declared that Jesus was begotten by the Father before time began, and He was homoousios or was begotten out of the same substance as the Father, thus making Him an equal God with the Father, since He now shared in the Fathers own substance. Therefore these Catholic Priests change the godhead doctrine of their forefathers, who believed in two-unequal- gods, for a belief in two-equal-gods.
Catholic Bishop and church historian Socrates, who attended this council, recorded the Creed as stating, We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible, and in one Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, the only-begotten of the Father, that is of the [same] substance of the Father; God of God, Light of light, true God of true God; begotten not made, consubstantial [of the same substance] with the Father; by whom all things were made. (We believe) also in the Holy Spirit.
Socrates mentions Eusebius of Caesarea, who was also a Catholic Bishop and church historian, as attending this Council; he says Eusebius wrote a letter to his church and explained the creed. Eusebius speaking of the Son being begotten by the Father before time began wrote, On the same grounds we admitted also the expression begotten, not made: for he is no creature like those which were made by him, but is of a substance far excelling any creature; which substance the Divine Oracles teach was begotten of the Father by such a mode of generation as cannot be 28 explained nor even conceived by any creature. That he is consubstantial [of the same substance] with the Father who begat him; and that he is of no other substance or essence but of the Father. 96
Let my beloved readers take note, Constantine and these Catholic priests confessed that Christ was not eternal but was begotten by the Father before time began. Therefore all Trinitarians who claim that the Nicene Creed teaches that the Son of God is eternal and had no beginning are liars! Also all Trinitarians who profess that this creed teaches that the Holy Spirit is a separate person from the Father and Son are also liars, for this creed does not say what they believe about the Holy Ghost!
Emperor Constantine Invented the Consubstantial or Homoousios Doctrine: At the Nicene Council, the heretical Roman Catholics were divided into two camps: The Athanasian Catholic group, which defended the doctrine of two-equal-gods; and the Arian Catholic group, which denied the deity of Christ. Now, one should ask himself or herself, how did these so-called Bible scholars, who attended the Council of Nicaea, come up with their doctrine of the godhead? Was it by fervent prayer and fasting, or by diligent study of God's Holy Word? No! They did not need to do any of that, because they had an apostle there to declare to them what they should believe and teach. Who was this apostle? Was it the Apostle Paul or Peter reincarnated? No! It was the pagan Roman Emperor Constantine.
Socrates in his history revealed that Constantine is the one who declared that the Father and Son were consubstantial or have the same substance, which is called God. In a sense, Constantine was acting as their first Pope. Lets look at the history of this meeting. Socrates stated, Constantine, convoked a General Council, summoning all the [Catholic] bishops by letter to meet him at Nicaea. The emperor arrived... and on his entrance stood in their midst, and would not take his place, until the bishops by bowing intimated their desire that he should be seated. 97
From the very beginning of Constantines Council, He was letting these Bishops know that he was their High Priest. He was the one who called them together, and he was going to be the one who was going to settle their religious dispute over the godhead. Edward Gibbon, in his classic work entitled The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire, spoke about this office. He wrote, The Supreme Pontiff was constantly exercised by the emperors themselves. They knew and valued the advantages of religion, as it is connected with civil government.... Constantine and his successors... continued to exercise a supreme jurisdiction over the ecclesiastical order; and the sixteenth book of the Theodosian code represents, under a variety of titles, the authority which they assumed in the government of the Catholic Church. 98
Socrates revealed that the Emperor Constantine in his final speech to these Catholic priests incited all to unanimity. At length he succeeded in bringing them into similarity of judgment and conformity of opinion on all controversial points.... Exhorting, [with the influence and power of an Emperor Pope], all present to give their assent and subscribe to these very articles; thus agreeing in a unanimous profession of them, with the insertion, however, of that single word homoousios consubstantial, an expression which the Emperor himself explained. Let my readers take note that Constantine, who was acting as their apostle and theologian, inserted the word consubstantial or the Greek word homoousios into the Catholic Nicene Creed.
How did Pope Constantine define this word? Socrates says the Emperor defined it as not indicating corporeal affections or properties; and consequently that the Son did not subsist from the 29 Father either by division or abscission. For said he [the Emperor], a nature which is immaterial and incorporeal cannot possible be subject to any corporeal affection; hence our conception of such things can only be in divine and mysterious terms. Such were the philosophical views of the subject taken by our most wise and pious sovereign; and the bishops on account of the word homoousios drew up this formula of faith.
Anyone with any common sense would ask himself or herself, why after many years of bickering among these Catholic Bishops, would the Arian Catholics now agree with the two god Catholics? Also, why would the two god Catholics agree to Constantines homoousios or consubstantial doctrine that they or their forefathers never believed? One might say, well Constantine was a great theologian. But the truth was, as the Emperor he was their Pagan High Priestly Pope, who interpreted and make all doctrines pertaining to religion!
Socrates went on the meaning of these terms was clearly defined; when it was generally admitted that ousias of the essence or substance simple implied that the Son is of the [same substance, which is called God, as the] Father indeed, but does not subsist as part of the Father. To this interpretation of the sacred doctrine which declares that the Son is of the Father, but is not a part of His [personal] substance.
Socrates continued, Consequently he is no creature like those which were made by Him, but is of a substance the Divine oracles teach was begotten of the Father by such a mode of generation as cannot be explained nor even conceived by any creature. Thus also the declaration that the Son is consubstantial with the Father having been discussed, it was agreed that this must not be understood in a corporeal sense, or in any way analogous to mortal creatures; inasmuch as it is neither by division of substance, not by abscission, not by any change of the Fathers substance and power, since the underived nature [or substance] of the Father is inconsistent with all these things. 99
According to Constantines Creed, the Father, at some point in eternity past, begot or generated the Son from a substance that must be called God. The Father begot the Son not from His portion of Gods substance but from a different portion of Gods substance, or in other words, they both had a different portion of the substance called God. This implies God divided Himself into two separate beings or persons, which can only mean neither one is wholly God, but only a part or half of God.
Since Constantine and these Catholic priests declared that the Father begot or generated the Son from a different portion of Gods substance than His own, where did the Father get this other portion? One would have to conclude that before the Son was begotten, there were two beings, one called God and the other called the Father, and the Father had half of a substance called God.
Now, if the Son received Gods portion of the divine substance, than you have two beings that share a portion of a substance that is called God. This can only mean that each one is a half of God, since they both had equal portions of Gods substance. For example, if you cut an apple into two equal portions, each portion is considered as a half of an apple. No one with any intelligence would call a half of an apple the whole apple, even though it has all the characteristics, properties, and nature of the whole apple. Unless they, like Constantine, profess the godhead is a mystery.
How can two different and separate divine beings or persons be one God? Also if there are two beings called God, then why did they declare that the one God [was] the Father Almighty? 30 Therefore, when Catholic and Protestant theologians declare their allegiance to Pope Constantines Nicene Creed and profess that it teaches three, not two, persons in the godhead, who are equal in knowledge and power, they are not telling the truth.
According to Hastings, Constantine and his successors, and above all, the Emperor Justinian (527-565 AD) saw themselves in their Roman capacity as the legitimate heirs of the ancient pagan Caesars, but at the same time in their Christian capacity as equals to the apostles.... Contemporary historians tell us that it was the Emperor Constantine, who came up with the formula one in being (homoousios) with the Father, which resolved at the Council of Nicene in 325 [AD], the dispute over the metaphysical relation between Christ and God. 100
Now the Emperor Constantine, who was acting as their first Pope, knew that neither party believed that the Holy Ghost was a person, so he favored the theology of the two-equal-gods, probably because it was closer to his and all the other pagans belief in three-equal-gods or the Babylonian Trinity. Therefore he decided that Athanasius and his group were correct in their theology and the Arians were heretics. I am sure Constantine must have thought to himself, surely pagan worshippers will never believe in one person in godhead, so for the time being I settle for a belief in two-equal-gods, and bring them into a belief in three-equal-gods later.
Is it not strange that Constantine, and no one else in any other age, has ever tried to explain or even try to describe what is this essence called God? If one thinks the Trinitarian doctrine is a mystery, let them try to find any writing, by anyone, explaining the essence of God. All they will ever find is this indescribable something that fills the universe. Where did Constantine get his teaching that the Son was homoousios or consubstantial with the Father? Lets not forget that Constantine and all the emperors before him were the High Priests, who were over all pagan religions with their two or three persons in the godhead doctrine.
As a pagan High Priest, Constantine was well aquatinted with Satans Babylonian Trinity doctrine, which came into existence after Nimrods death shortly after the flood of Noah. This demonic doctrine stated that, god the Father, god the Son, and the Mother of the gods made up one united god. For these three separate and distinct persons or beings all shared in the one substance called god. Under this and the Catholic Trinity doctrine, if there were a million persons in the godhead, they could all be god if they all shared in this mysterious substance called god.
Now according to the Nicene Creed, (We believe) also in the Holy Spirit. Well what did they believe about the Holy Ghost? Whatever they believed about the Holy Spirit, they did not believe he was a third person in a Babylonian Trinity. History reveals that the vast majority of Catholic Bishops at this time did not believe that the Holy Ghost was a separate person in the godhead. In fact most of them did not know what to believe about the Holy Ghost.
The New Catholic Encyclopedia definitely informs us what the Catholic Bishops at Nicaea believed about the Holy Ghost. Under the heading of the Trinity, the Catholic Church made a good and honest confession about the development of their Trinitarian doctrine. It stated, In the last analysis, the 2nd century theological achievement was limited. A Trinitarian solution was still in the future. The Apologists spoke too haltingly of the Spirit; with a measure of anticipation, one might say too impersonally.... On the eve of Nicene 1, the Trinitarian problem raised more than a century earlier was still far from settled. It was the problem of plurality within the single, undivided godhead. 101
31 Schaff speaking about the Holy Spirit said, Even among the adherents of the Nicene orthodoxy, an uncertainty still for a time prevailed, respecting the doctrine of the third person of the Holy Trinity. Some held the [Holy] Spirit to be an impersonal power or attributes of God; others, at farthest, would not go beyond the expressions of the Scriptures. Even as late as 375 AD, in the time of Gregory of Nazianzus, most Catholics Bishops did not believe the Holy Spirit to be a personal being. Gregory wrote, Of the wise among us, some consider the Holy Ghost an influence, other s a creature [meaning an angel or a created spirit being], others God himself, and others know not which way to decide. 102
381 AD, The Catholic Trinitarian Doctrine of Three-Equal-gods, or the Nicene-Constantinople Creed: It was not until the Ecumenical Council of Constantinople, in 381 AD, that the Catholic Church as a whole might have adapted the doctrine of the Trinity; it is hard to tell, for their doctrine of the Holy Spirit is not very explicit. Therefore no one can say with any certainty that they did! The only thing this creed says, which is different from the Nicene Creed is this, We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life; he proceeds from the Father, is adored and honored together with the Father and the Son; he spoke through the prophets.
In 382 AD, Pope Damascus called a Council in Rome in which the Catholic Church drew up a clear Babylonian Trinitarian godhead creed; there cannot be any doubt that this creed definitely declared that the godhead is composed of three-equal-gods or persons. It also connected the formula of baptism with the godhead for salvation. It stated, Therefore this is the salvation of Christians: that believing in the Trinity, that is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and being baptized in the Trinity.
This is the first Church Council in which the Catholic Church clearly defined the Holy Spirit as a person instead of an impersonal Spirit. These pagan Babylonian Nicolaitan Bishops declared, (1) We pronounce anathema against those who do not proclaim with complete freedom that He the Holy Spirit is of one power and substance with the Father and the Son.... (10) If anyone denies that the Father is eternal, that the Son is eternal, and that the Holy Spirit is eternal: he is a heretic.... (16) If anyone denies that the Holy Spirit is truly and properly from the Father, and, like the Son, is of the divine substance and is true God: he is heretic.
The Council of Rome continued by saying, (17) If anyone denies that the Holy Spirit has all power and knows all things, and is everywhere, just as the Father and the Son: he is a heretic.... (18) If anyone says that the Holy Spirit is a creature, or was created by the Son: he is a heretic.... (20) If anyone denies that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have one divinity, authority, majesty, power, one glory, dominion, one kingdom, and one will and truth: he is a heretic.... (21) If anyone denies that the three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, are true persons, equal, eternal, containing all things visible and invisible, that they are omnipotent, judge all things, give life to all things, make all things, and conserve all things: he is a heretic. 103
Lucifers Babylonian Catholic Trinity now became a reality. As my readers can see by now, the Bishops of the Catholic Church, for the most part, were solidly behind their new Babylonian Trinitarian doctrine of three separate persons, instead of two-equal-gods or persons in the godhead. Catholic Bishop Jerome (390 AD) confirmed this Councils decision when he said, it is the custom at baptism to ask, after the confession of faith in the Trinity, do you believe in the Holy Church. 104
32 CHAPTER 3 THE PAGAN ORIGIN OF THE CATHOLIC DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY
The origin of the Catholic Babylonian Trinity has been known by many readers of history for centuries. In a book entitled The Works Of John Adams, Adams mentions a letter he wrote on June 28, 1813 to Thomas Jefferson. In it he wrote, Professors Priestley and Lindsey have both denounced as idolaters and blasphemers all the Trinitarians and even the Arians.... Priestly barely mentions Timaeus; but it does not appear that he had read him. Why has he not given us an account of him and his book? He was before Plato, and gave him the idea of his Timaeus, and much of his philosophy.... I wonder that Priestly has overlooked this, because it is the same philosophy with Platos, and would have shown that the Pythagorean, as well as the Platonic philosophers, probably concurred in the fabrication of the Christian Trinity.
On July 16, 1814, Adams wrote another letter to Jefferson in which he said, If the Christian religion, as I understand it, or as you understand it, should maintain its ground, as I believe it will, yet Platonic, Pythagoric, Hindoo, and Cabalistical Christianity, which is Catholic Christianity, and which has prevailed for fifteen hundred years, has received a mortal wound, of which the monster must finally die, yet so strong is his constitution, that he may endure for centuries before he expires. 105
A Summary of the History and Development of the Trinity of the Babylonian Religion
The Word of God speaking about some of the people that lived after the flood of Noah declared, Although they knew God [referring to His godhead], they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature [ktisis] rather than the Creator (Rom 1:21-23, 25). Dr. James Strong in his work entitled Strong's Exhaustive Concordance Of The Bible defines the Greek word ktisis to mean creation. 106
It is obvious from these scriptures that the godhead was not a mystery to these people, but as many religious people of today they did not like this truth. Since the Bible plainly stated that these people knew the truth about the godhead and changed it to nature worship or Pantheism, what was the truth they knew? Who were these people that perverted this truth?
The truth concerning the godhead, the soul of man and the souls future destiny, was totally perverted at the Tower of Babel. It was at this Tower where the first false religion began, which was created by Nimrod. This Nimrod was the son of Cush, who was a son of Ham, who was a son of Noah (Gen 10:1-8). This Nimrod became so perverted that he married his own mother.
In his rebellion against God, Nimrod started through Satan's tutoring a priesthood that practiced witchcraft, magic, astrology, the worship of Lucifer as Baal the sun god and Lucifer's demons as various planets, stars and constellations, or in other words nature worship, which 33 consisted of Pantheism, Animism and Polytheism. He also taught the Zoroastrian doctrine of god. The good god to them was Lucifer, whom they claimed created all the good things in life; and the evil god to them was the LORD, whom they declare created all the evil things.
It was under Lucifer or the Serpent's instructions that the doctrines of Immortality, Reincarnation, and the Perfection of the Soul in this life began to be taught as the way to enter back into paradise and godhood. Of course, the soul had to be purified in the fires of Hades after each reincarnation, so it can enter into life perfect or without sin. These are just a few of Nimrod's crimes against God and man.
If my readers desire to read a comprehensive historical exegesis of Nimrods doctrines of the immortality of the soul, the torment and purification of the soul in Hades, and the eternal torment of all souls who do not become perfected after a cycle of a thousand reincarnations, as well as a Biblical exegesis against these doctrines of hell, I recommend my book, What Is Lost Mans Destiny? (Immediate Annihilation, Eternal Torment, Torment For A Time And Then Universal Salvation, Or Torment For A Time And Then Annihilation).
Semiramis after Nimrod's death had him defied. Nimrod then became Baal the sun god or god the father (1Ki 18:21-40). Nimrod became the first defied man in history. She also had herself deified as Ashtoreth (Hebrew) or Astarte (Greek), the Queen of Heaven or the mother of god and the gods (Jer 44:17-25). Semiramis thus became the first deified woman in history. She also had Tammuz, her illegitimate son defied, whom she claimed was Nimrods soul reincarnated or god the son (Eze 8:14).
It is at this point, the Babylonian Trinity of three separate persons or beings in the godhead came into existence, and Lucifer's doctrines of Immortality, Transmigration, and Perfection of the Soul that was taught by Nimrod was confirmed. These doctrines became know as the Babylonian Mysteries, and thus Secrete Societies were born.
Thus Satan knowing the true doctrines of Christ, which should come into the world, imitated and perverted them with his Mystery Religion. In time Semiramis Babylonian Trinitarian doctrine of the godhead became more important than Nimrods Zoroastrian doctrine of the godhead in the Babylonian Mysteries, because this father, son and mother were suppose to be the first humans to become deified, which gave their followers hope of returning back to paradise and also becoming deified. In other words, the Babylonian Trinity was connected to the doctrine of mans deification. Now that I have given a brief synopsis of how the Babylonian Mysteries began, let's see if I can authenticate the truthfulness of these statements by sound historical documentation.
What Does the Bible Mean by the Term Mystery Babylon
John speaking about this false religious system says, "Upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery Babylon, the great mother of harlots and abominations of the earth" (Jn 17:5). Since the Bible called this religious system Mystery Babylon, or the Babylonian Mysteries, what does the word mystery mean? The word mystery is the Greek word musterion which means a secret i.e. through the idea of silence impose by initiation into a religious rite. 107
34 Since this is an occult mystery, lets see what the occult authorities have to say about it. The Encyclopedia Of Occultism And Parapsychology, under the heading of Mysteries, says it was A term for what is secret or concealed in a religious context.... The mysteries were secret cults, to which only certain initiated people were admitted after a period of preliminary preparation.... But the mysteries appear to have circled around the semi-dramatic representation or mystery-play of the life of a deity." 108 Let my readers take note, the religious doctrines of the Mysteries centered around Semiramis Babylonian Trinitarian doctrine of the godhead.
In the book entitled Secret Societies And Subversive Movements by Nesta Webster, under the sub-title "The Mysteries" we read, "Now from the earliest times groups of initiates or wise men have existed, claiming to be in possession of esoteric doctrines known as the Mysteries, incapable of apprehension by the vulgar, and relating to the origin and end of man, the life of the soul after death, and the nature of god or the gods. The Initiates believe that the sacred mysteries should not be revealed to the profane but should remain exclusively in their own keeping." 109
Professor W. L. Bryan, in his work entitled The Republic Of Plato, made these statements about mystery religions before and after Plato time, "Passages in the Greek poets seem to indicate that the mysteries were intended to encourage belief in a future life, and in reward or punishment there, as merited by the life on earth. Certain of the rites were supposed to be a means of purification from sin, and reconciliation with the gods."
Bryan went on to quote Plato as saying, "And they [the gods] produce a host of books written by Musaeus and Orpheus, who are children of the Moon [symbolism for Semiramis as Ashtoreth]. They perform their ritual, and persuade not only individuals, but whole cities, that expiations and atonements for sin may be made by sacrifices. [These religious doctrines] they call mysteries redeem us from the pains of hell." 110
When and Where Did the Mysteries of the Babylonian Religion Begin
All the major doctrines of the mysteries of all the heathen nations had their beginnings at the Towel of Babel. The Encyclopedia Of Occultism And Parapsychology commenting on the Rev. G. Oliver's book entitled, The History Of Initiation (1829 AD), has this to say about the subject. The Reverend Oliver affirmed that the rites of the science, which is now received under the name of Freemasonry, were practiced by man at the building of Babel. At the dispersion [it] spread with every settlement. 111
Hislop gave a very clear, accurate and extremely well documented historical account of the secret mysteries of the Babylonian Religion. He made a very striking comparison between the doctrines of the ancient Babylonian Religion and the Roman Catholic Religion of today. Speaking of the origin of the mysteries, Hislop stated, All who paid the least attention to the literature of Greece, Egypt, Phoenicia, or Rome are aware of the place which the Mysteries occupied in these countries, and that, whatever circumstantial diversities there might be, in all essential respects these Mysteries in the different countries were the same. Now, as the language of Jeremiah, already quoted, would indicate that Babylon was the primal source from which all these systems of idolatry flowed, so the deductions of the most learned historians, on mere historical grounds, have led to the same conclusion. 112
35 Who Started the Mysteries of the Babylonian Religion
Now that it has been established when and where the mysteries began, who exactly can be credited with starting this religious system? According to history, it all started with Nimrod. Many historians seem to believe Nimrod was a black man, because all statues of him picture him as such. The Bible reveals that Nimrod was a son of Cush, who was a son of Ham, who was a son of Noah, (Gen 10:1-8). Nimrod was the first: king, tyrant, warmonger, idolater, and the first to set up Nature Worship or the Babylonian Religion after the flood of Noah. Nimrod hated God because He struck down his father with a lighting bolt for his apostasy.
Nimrods history can be found in a work entitled the Recognition of Clement, which some believe was written by Clement of Rome in 100 AD. It revealed that it was Ham, [who] unhappily discovered the magical act, and handed down the instruction of it to one of his sons [i.e. Cush], who was called Mesraim, from whom the race of the Egyptians and Babylonians and Persians are descended. Him the nations who then existed called Zoroaster, admiring him as the first author of the magic art, [or in other words, Cush or Zoroaster wrote many books on magic].
He therefore, being much and frequently intent upon the stars, and wishing to be esteemed a god among them, began to draw forth, as it were, certain sparks from the stars [or lighting from the sky], and to show them to men, in order that the rude and ignorant might be astonished, as with a miracle; and desiring to increase this estimation of him, he attempted these things again and again, until he was set on fire, and consumed by the demon himself, whom he accosted [or approached] with too great an importunity or with too many request and demands. He therefore was struck by lighting.
But the foolish men, who were then, [erected] a sepulcher to his [Cushs] honor, they went so far as to adore him as a friend of God, and one who had been removed to heaven in a chariot of lightning, and to worship him as if he were a living star. Hence also, his name was called Zoroaster after his death, that is, a living star. Nimrod, no doubt, capitalized on their worship of his father, and therefore started his own religion called Nature Worship.
The magic art having been handed down to him [Nimrod, the son of Cush] as by a flash, whom the Greeks also called Ninus, and from whom the city of Nineveh took its name. Thus, therefore, diverse and erratic superstitions took their beginning from the magic art. For, because it was difficult to draw away the human race from the love of God, and attach them to deaf and lifeless images, the magicians made use of higher efforts, that men might be turned to erratic worship, by signs among the stars, and motions brought down as it were from heaven, and by the will of God. And those who had been first deceived, collecting the ashes of Zoroaster [Cush], who, as we have said, was burned up by the indignation of the demon, to whom he had been too troublesome, brought them to the Persians, that they might be preserved by them with perpetual watching, as divine fire fallen from heaven, and might be worshipped as a heavenly god. 113
John MacCulloch, in his book entitled The Mythology Of All Races said, "Nimrod, the mighty hunter before Yaw, and son of Cush, is clearly Gilgamesh of Babylonian mythology; and Nimrod, founder of cities in Sumer, and latterly builder of Nineveh and Calah in Assyria, is surely Nimurta, the god of the spring Sun." 114
36 The prophet Micah called Assyria "the land of Nimrod" (Mica 5:6). Hislop speaking about Nimrod as king Ninus, who built Nineveh, (Gen 10:10-11), said that the ancient history of Justin claimed Ninus subdued his neighbors, when, by an accession of forces, being still further strengthened, he went forth against other tribes, and every new victory paved the way for another, he subdued all the peoples of the east." 115 Nimrod thus became known in history not only as the first idolater, king, tyrant, and warmonger but also the first type of the Antichrist.
What Kind of Religion Was Mystery Babylon
Josephus, the ancient Jewish historian, who wrote his history of the Jewish race about 93 AD, said it was "Nimrod who excited them [the people] to such an affront and contempt of God.... He also gradually changed the government into tyranny, seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God but to bring them into a constant dependence upon his power.... Now the multitude was ready to follow the determination of Nimrod and esteem it apiece of cowardice to submit to God; and they built a tower.... The place wherein they built the tower is now called Babylon. 116 This tower was the first religious temple built to worship Nature as god.
In The Jewish Encyclopedia we read, "Nimrod is the prototype of a rebellious people, his name being interpreted as `he who made all the people rebellious against God....' The tower is called by the rabbis `the house of Nimrod,' and is considered as a house of idolatry.... The punishment visited on the builders of the tower, did not cause Nimrod to change his conduct, he remained an idolater.... 117
The religion that Nimrod first set up was a Luciferian Religion. It was an open worship of Lucifer under the name of Baal the sun god. To Nimrod the sun probably represented his father Cush. Hislop revealed, "Serpent-worship was a part of the primeval apostasy of Nimrod. The fiery nature of the serpent...who when deified, was worshipped as the grand regenerator of the souls of men.... Thus was the sun, the great fire-god, identified with the serpent." 118 Stephen Jones, in his book entitled The Babylonian Connection, said, "Those who have studied the occult know that witchcraft traces its origin to Mystery Babylon and its founder Nimrod." 119
Ed Mitchell and Jody Scharf, in their book entitled The Mystery Of Babylon Revealed, says it was Nimrod who "built the great city of Babylon where all the occult practices originated: astrology, tarot cards, witchcraft, divination and many others.... Satan creates his masterpiece of false religion. Idolatry, devil worship and sexual immorality were practiced openly. And as happens in pagan societies, sexual immorality led to the sacrifice of babies to Satan, probably under the name of Baal. 120 The sacrificing of babies to Lucifer is still taking place today, even here in America. The only difference is our immoral government calls it abortion.
As my reader can now clearly see, Nimrod in his rebellion against God, joined forces with the devil. He established Pantheism and Animism as his religion. He became the first idolater in history after the flood. He led the people into apostasy against God, and set up pure Baal worship, with Baal the Sun God or Lucifer as the main deity, and all the planets and stars or Lucifer's Demons as lesser deities. Hastings speaking about the ancient Babylonian Religion said, "The earliest religion of Babylonia was what may be termed a polytheistic Nature-worship, a natural step forward from a still more primitive shamanism, or the belief that the government of the world was in the hands of a great number of benevolent and malevolent gods or spirits, whom it was necessary to placate by magic rites and spells." 121
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In other words, Nimrod set up nature worship with its first trinity, Anu representing the heavens or air, Ea representing water, and Bel representing the earth. Jones revealed, "Nimrod combined Semitic monotheism with Accadian animism to produce pantheism. He taught that god is nature itself, and each nature-spirit [even man] is part of god." 122 Thus creation itself was worshipped as god or the universal soul. This is exactly what the Bible says happen in Roman 1:18-32. Nimrod and the people, who knew the truth about God's Godhead, changed it to nature worship, thereby worshipping Lucifer and his demons as nature. Nimrod also taught the doctrine of immortality and reincarnation of the soul. It was only through a cycle of rebirths, the spirit and soul of man could reach a state of union with god or nature, and even godhood itself.
Nimrod even taught that there were two gods in the beginning who created all things; a good god who created all the good things in world and an evil god who created all the evil things. Later on in history, the good god was called Ahura Mazda or Ormazd, and the evil god was called Anro Mainyus or Ahriman. The reader can guess who Nimrod taught was the good god. You guessed it, Lucifer. Satan through Nimrod took many of God's truths and perverted them.
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, speaking about the ancient Indian Aryans or Persians, stated that "Ahura Mazda and his assistants promote life, fertility in man, beast and plant, agriculture, increase; while Anro Mainyus and his creatures cause destruction and death. The contest between Ormazd [Ahura Mazda] and Ahriman [Anro Mainyus], after continuing for 9,000 years, is to be decided in favor of the former only through his possessing foreknowledge and Ahriman's lacking it (Bund., I). Both came into existence independently in limitless time." 123
How Did the Godhead Set Up by Lucifer Through Nimrod, Change into A Trinity of Three Separate Persons in One God
Because of all the atrocities, especially the sacrifice of babies that Nimrod had committed, Mitchell and Scharf says "Nimrod's great uncle, Shem, one of Noah's sons, became so outraged at this evil that he killed Nimrod and cut him in pieces and sent these throughout Babylon as a warning to those in cult worship. Nimrod's followers were shattered, and they were afraid to sin in public for fear the same thing would happen to them.
They continued, Satan changed his plan from open devil worship to a subtle, hidden way of getting people to worship him. With Nimrod gone, Satan worked through Semiramis, [who was Nimrod's wife and mother, as well as the High Priestess in his religion], to unleash the most insidious, diabolical scheme ever. After Nimrod's death, Semiramis announced that Nimrod was a god - the sun god, Baal.... Semiramis declared herself a goddess and called herself queen of heaven, whose symbol was the moon. She set up an underground religion.... This was the beginning of secret societies." 124 This was the beginning of not only Secret Societies, but of all mystery religions.
How did Semiramis manage to deceive the people concerning Nimrods deification? Hislop gives us the answer, he says, "In life her husband had been honored as a hero; in death she will have him worshipped as a god, yea as the woman's promise seed, Zero-Ashta, who was destined to bruise the serpent's head, and in doing so, was to have his own heel bruised. The patriarchs, and the ancient world in general, were perfectly acquainted with the grand primeval promise of 38 Eden, and they knew right well that the bruising of the heal of the promise seed implied his death, and that the curse could be removed from the world only by the death of the grand deliverer. Hence Zero-Ashta, the seed of the woman became Zoroaster, the well-known name of the head of the Fire-Worshippers.
Hislop continued, The scheme, thus skillfully formed, took effect. Semiramis gained glory from her dead and deified husband. The licentious and dissolute life of Semiramis gave her many children, for whom no ostensible father on earth would be alleged. All that was needful was just to teach that Ninus [Nimrod] had reappeared in the person of a posthumous son, of a fair complexion, supernaturally borne by his widowed wife after the father had gone to glory.... It was from her son that she derived all her glory and claims to deification. [Semiramis] was worshipped by the Babylonians and other eastern nations under the name of Rhea, the great goddess mother." 125
Since Nimrod already taught them the doctrines of the good and evil creator gods, man becoming god, the immortality and reincarnation of the soul, all Semiramis had to do was to claim that Nimrod was the first man to reach godhood. She claimed his Spirit was now united with Lucifer the sun god, thus making Nimrod Baal. She also claimed that Nimrod in the spirit impregnated her and produced Tammuz her illegitimate son. This made Tammuz the first living god man to live among men. She had herself deified as the mother of the gods, referring to Nimrod and Tammuz, thus forming the first human godhead in history of three separate and distinct human persons, Nimrod the Father, Tammuz the Son, and Semiramis the Mother.
In Scripture, Nimrod as a god is known as Baal the sun god, as in Jud 6:25-32, 1Ki 16:31-32, 2Ki 10:18-28 and Jer 11:13-17. Tammuz is known as Tammuz as in Eze 8:14. Semiramis is known as Ashtaroth as in Jud 2:13 and 1Sa 7:3-4. The Bible also refers to her as the Queen of Heaven in Jer 7:18 and 44:17-25. These five doctrines not only became a major part of the Babylonian Mystery Religion, but also all of her daughters, which includes all Mystery Religions. In the Bible she is known Mystery Babylon, and her daughters as harlots.
The Babylonian Mystery Religion Spreads throughout the World
When God destroyed this religious temple or the Tower Of Babel and divided the people's language, into seventy different languages, the people scattered throughout the earth starting their own religion, base on the Babylonian Mysteries, with a few changes such as the names of their gods and ritualistic rites. All these heathen religions keep and practice the basic doctrines of Mystery Babylon. Webster claimed that, in the occult and Masonic circles, certain ideas were common to all the more important Mysteries, thus forming a continuous tradition handed down through succeeding groups of initiates of different ages and countries." 126
Peter L. Renouf, in his book The Origin And Growth Of Religion As Illustrated By The Religion Of Ancient Egypt, gives the Egyptian version of the Babylonian Trinity that Semiramis started. He stated, "What follows is textually applied to Horus, but it is to Horus considered as Osiris born again, and as the son of the widowed [virgin] Isis. The gods recognize the universal Lord. He judges the world." 127 There can be no doubt, that Osiris is the defied name that the Egyptians gave to Nimrod, and Isis to Semiramis, and Horus to Tammuz. Ralph Woodrow reveals in his book entitled, Babylon Mystery Religion, that the Romans worshipped Janus the 39 sun-god in the religion of Mithraism. Janus "was represented with two faces - one young, the other old, a later version of Nimrod incarnated in Tammuz." 128
Nimrod, Semiramis and Tammuz were called by many different names in the religions of the world. Here are just a few of the names they were called in different countries: in the Bible and in ancient Assyria and Phoenicia they were known as Baal, Ashtoreth and Tammuz. In Rome they were known as Jupiter, Fortuna and Jupiter the Boy; in Greece as Zeus or Bacchus, Ceres or Irene and Plutus; in Asia and Asia Minor as Kronos or Saturn, Cybele or Diana and Deoius; in Egypt as Osiris, Serapis or Isis and Horus.
In India they were known as Eko, Deva or Isi and Iswara or Trimurtti; in Japan as San, Pao and Fuh; in China as Buddha, Shing Moo and Tomos; the Hindus worship them as Brahma, Devaki and Krishna; and the list go on. By now my readers should have a clear picture of what the Babylonian Trinity of three separate persons or being in one god is, and how it got started. As you can see, the Babylonian Mysteries, such as the good and evil god, the trinity, the godhood of man, the immortality and transmigration of the soul became the teachings of Mystery Religions of every country.
My readers by now, should be able to see that Lucifer must have know some of the doctrines God would bring into Judaism and later into Christianity, for he started his own counterfeit religion. He changed YHWH'S plan to reveal His Godhead, as God the Father in creation, as the Son in redemption, and the Holy Ghost in regeneration, to a perverted belief in one god in a trinity of three separate persons, which is verbal theological garbage, to disguise his doctrine of three gods. Lucifer imitated the virgin birth of Christ by having his harlot High Priestess claim Nimrod's soul entered into her, and produced a son, who was Nimrod reincarnated.
Lucifer perverted God's promise to His faithful children of future immortality or Eternal Life, to an immortal pre-existing soul that all humanity is born in this life with. If the doctrine of immortality of soul, was not taught and believed by the Babylonians before Nimrod's death, Semiramis would not have been able to convince them of Nimrod's suppose deification and later reincarnation.
The Babylonian Doctrines that Catholicism Christianized Before the End of the Fourth Century
Because God had turned the Nicolaitan-Balaamite Bishops over to a reprobate mind, many of them, if not all, believed that the Babylonian Mysteries were God's true doctrines in disguise. As a result, they began to incorporate them into their religious beliefs. They hoped by doing this, they could win pagans over to their religion. So, somewhere in the second century, they started Christianizing pagan beliefs. The following paragraphs name a few of these beliefs.
According to Guignebert, Toward the end of Constantines reign [337 AD], the union of Church and the State, the absorption of paganism by Christianity, and its total destruction with the connivance and, if necessary, the help of the State, could have been foreseen. This achievement...was accomplished in the course of the four century. 129
Arkon Daraul in his book entitled Secret Societies compared the old pagan religions such as Mithraism with that of Roman Catholicism, and has this to say, It is claimed by those who still 40 believe in its Mysteries and celebrate them, that [Roman Catholic] Christianity did not so much supplant Mithraism as absorb it. 130 Guignebert informs us that Mithra is a solar deity, and his birth occurs upon the 25th of December, i.e. the winter solstice. 131 Jones boldly told the truth and did not try to water it down. He stated that Roman Catholicism began to be paganized or, as some prefer, paganism was Christianized. 132
Ronald Holmes in his book Witchcraft In History revealed some of the pagan doctrines Roman Catholicism adopted when she joined hands with Religious or Mystery Babylon and her harlot daughters in marriage. He stated, "The early [Catholic] Christians had tried to be as flexible as possible in their spreading of the gospel in order to provide further links for potential converts between Christian and non-Christian beliefs. But what was perhaps the master-stroke in this approach, Holmes says, was when the [Catholic] Church Fathers declared the birth day of Christ to be December 25.... By this stratagem Christ was made identifiable in the minds of many pagans with the particular sun-god [Baal] they worshipped, and a connection was supplied which serve as a strong bridge to [pagan Catholic] Christianity." 133
Let my readers make a deep mental note of the doctrine of hell which became the master link that united pagans of all countries with Pagan Roman Catholicism, it was by transforming the birthday of Baal the sun-god into the birthday of Christ. The Winter Solstice falls on the 21st day of December, which is the shortest day of the year. On the 25th of December the days begin to lengthen again, therefore what you have is a type of the sun dying on the twenty first day and resurrecting or becoming Born Again New Birth on the 25 th .
In a sense, it was Nimrod the Father, as the sun god Baal, dying on the twenty first day of December and his soul becoming reborn or reincarnated in Tammuz the Son on the 25th. The Catholics took Lucifers holy day, the 25 of December, which witches and pagans of all religious societies in every age cherished, and desecrated Christ by claiming He was born on that day. It is obvious to me that the pagans thought Jesus Christ was just another name for Baal, because this sun god was called by many different names in every country.
In Charles Heckethorns book The Secret Societies, we can find some of the other pagan doctrines the Catholic Church adopted from Mystery Babylon and all of her harlot pagan daughters. Heckethorn says, The festival of the 25th of December was celebrated...to announce the birth-day of the god Sol.... This festival indeed was kept not only by the Druids, but throughout the ancient world. The early [Nicolaitan] Christians judiciously adopted not only the festival days of the pagans, but the mode of keeping them.
Heckethorn, commenting about the pagan origin of the Trinity and other doctrines of Roman Catholicism, compared them to the teaching of the Druids, which is an ancient Babylonian Witchcraft Priesthood that originated at the Tower of Babel. He wrote, "The doctrine of the unity and trinity was inculcated in all the mysteries. In the most ancient religious creeds we meet with the prototype of the [Roman Catholic and Protestant] Christian dogma.... The Druids taught the doctrine of one supreme being, a future state of rewards and punishments, the immortality of the soul, and metempsychosis [reincarnation]. 134
Heckethorn went on to revealed that the main two deities that the Druids worshipped were, "the great father and mother, Hu and Ceridwen, distinguished by the same characteristics as belonged to Osiris and Isis [Egyptian deities], Bacchus and Ceres [Grecian deities], or any other supreme god or goddess." 135 Remember all the so-called deities of the nations that spoke of a 41 Trinity of a father, mother and a son represented Nimrod, Semiramis and Tammuz. The Word of God gives their deified names as Baal, Ashtaroth and Tammuz (Jud 2:13 and Eze 8:14).
Lucifers Babylonian Catholic Trinity now became a reality. As my readers can see by now, the Bishops of the Catholic Church, for the most part, were solidly behind their new Trinity doctrine of three separate persons instead of two persons in the godhead. Catholic Bishop Jerome (c. 390) confirmed this Councils decision when he said, it is the custom at baptism to ask, after the confession of faith in the Trinity, do you believe in the Holy Church. 136
CHAPTER 4 HISTORY REVEALS THAT GODS APOSTOLIC PENTECOSTAL CHURCES WERE IN THE VAST MAJORITY FROM 33-399 AD
Catholic Cardinal Newmans Confession
Catholic Cardinal Newman confessed that Gods Modalist Monarchian Churches were in the vast majority for the first 400 years. The well known Catholic professor John Henry Cardinal Newman, in his work entitled Essays And Sketches, presented Catholicism as the original Church. But even he had to admit that the doctrines of the Trinity, apostolic succession, the Eucharist, and the Mass are not found in the Bible. Even though he understood these facts, he still believed they were true. He defends them not from a Biblical point of view, but from the traditions of the early Catholic Fathers. He most definitely believed that the Bible must be interpreted by their writings, and only by their writings. He admonished all Protestants to accept by faith these Catholic doctrines, since they have accepted the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity by faith without any real scriptural proof. In volume one, he made the following statements:
Newman asked Protestants, "Where was your Church before Luther? The obvious and historical answer is they were in the Roman Catholic Church. He then proceeded by saying, Take a large view of the faith of Christians during the centuries before Constantine established their [meaning the Roman Catholic] religion. Is there any family likeness in it to Protestantism?" 137 The obvious answer is no. He then went on to prove that historically, by comparing the teachings of the Reformers with that of the Catholic Ante Nicene Fathers.
After that, Father Newman made a very shocking confession. Let's hear this Priest's confession and see if He makes a good and true confession before we grant him absolution. He said, all parties must confess, the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity is not brought out in form upon the surface of Scriptures.
As I have said more than once, to allege, that all points that are beyond clear Scripture proof are mere peculiarities of each sect [meaning different religious systems]; so that if all Protestants were to agree to put out of sight their respective peculiarities [meaning unscriptural doctrines], they would then have a Creed set forth distinctly, clearly, and adequately, in Scripture; for take that single instance, which I referred to in a former Lecture, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Is this to be considered as a mere peculiarity or no? Apparently a peculiarity [for] it is not brought out in form in Scripture. First, the word Trinity is not in Scripture. Next I ask how many of the verses of 42 the Athanasian Creed are distinctly set down in Scripture?" 138 The answer to Newmans question is very few.
Newman continued his confession and reproach of Protestants by saying, "He who admits the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, in spite of felling its difficulties, whether in itself or in its proof - who submits to the indirectness [meaning lack] of the Scripture evidence as regards that particular doctrine - has a right to be told those other doctrines, such as the apostolic succession." 139
Newman proceeded with his confession and reproach to the fallen away daughters of Catholicism by saying, "not Scripture, but history [meaning the tradition of the Ante Nicene Priests] is our informant in Christian doctrine. All Protestants who consider the Bible as the one standard of faith, meaning those who say they base their beliefs on the Bible and not tradition, let no one take refuge and comfort in the idea that he will be what is commonly called an orthodox Protestant, [if] he will admit the doctrine of the Trinity, but not that of the Apostolic Succession; [for] this is an impossible position: it is shutting one eye, and looking with the other, shut both or open both." 140
What confessor Newman is saying is this, since Protestants have accepted and believed the Catholic version of the Babylonian Trinity by faith without any real scriptural proof, they then have earn for themselves the right to accept and believe by faith all other Catholic doctrines which are also not directly taught in the Bible, as he openly admitted on pages 122, 206, 207 and 211. No matter what people may or may not say about Cardinal Newman, I do believe he made a good and true confession, for which God's people everywhere do thank him, and grant unto him absolution. Now, with the above truths in mind, lets proceed with the history of Gods True Church.
Newman made his greatest and boldest confession when he was scolding the Protestants about Luther's protest. He referred them to the protest that was made by the one God Jesus Name Apostolic Christians, who believed all the godhead, i.e. the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, dwelt totally in one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Newman said, "Praxeas, Noetus, and Sabellius, in the third century protested against the Catholic or Athanasian doctrine of the Holy Trinity.... Noetus was in Asia Minor, Praxeas taught in Rome, Sabellius in Africa. Nay we read...their doctrine prevailed among the common people, then and at an earlier date, to a very great extent, and the true faith [Catholicism] was hardly preached in the churches. 141
This is the greatest confession of truth, I have ever read from any Protestant or Catholic minister. Newman clearly stated that the Catholic Churches, in the Roman Empire, were in the vast minority for over three hundred years, and the Modalist Monarchian Pentecostal Churches were in the majority. The truth is they were in the majority for almost four hundred years. Now, were did Newman read this about the true believers? He did not say. I will shortly show that he read this in the writings of Tertullian and Hippolytus.
Protestant Doctor James Hastings Confession
Doctor James Hastings declared that the One God, Jesus Name Churches were in every part of the Roman Empire. According to Hastings, Tertullian sums up his case against the Latin and Greek Modalist Monarchians by saying, the Latins take pains to pronounce monarchia, the Greeks refuse to understand aeconomia... For extolling the monarchia at the expense of the aeconomia, they contend for the identity of Father, Son, and Spirit. 142
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107 AD, Catholic Priest Ignatius Confession
Nicolaitan Catholic Bishop Ignatius wrote against Gods Apostolic Church: In his Epistle to the Trallians, he tried to defame Gods people by saying, the Oneness Pentecostals teach that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are but the same person. 143 Satan used this apostate to start the Catholic Church.
Ignatius in his Epistle to the Philippians stated: There are not then either three Fathers, or three Sons, or three Paracletes, but one Father, and one Son, and one Paraclete. Wherefore also the Lord, when He sent forth the apostles to make disciples of all nations, commanded them to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, not unto one [person] having three names, nor into three who became incarnate, but into three possessed of equal honor. For there is but One that became incarnate, and that neither the Father nor the Paraclete, but the Son only, [who became so] not in appearance or imagination, but in reality. 144
In the Syriac Version of Ignatius epistles, we find his so-called refutation of errors. In his Epistle to the Tarsians, he writes, Jesus Himself is not God over all, and the Father, but His Son. Wherefore it is one [Person] who put all things under, and who is all in all, and another [Person] to whom they were subdued, who also Himself, along with all other things, becomes subject [to the former]. 145
In his Epistle to the Antiochians, he again writes against Gods Monotheistic, Jesus Name Church. He told them to reject every Jewish and Gentile error, and neither introduce a multiplicity of gods, nor yet deny Christ under the pretense of [maintaining] the unity of God. 146
150 AD, Catholic Priest Justin Martyrs Confession
Justin Martyr wrote against Gods Pentecostal Church. In his First Apology he says, For they who affirm that the Son is the Father, are proved neither to have become acquainted with the Father, nor to know that the Father of the universe has a Son. 147
180 AD, Catholic Priest Irenaeus Confession
Irenaeus speaking against Gods Apostolic Church and Gnostics wrote, But there are some who say that Jesus was the Son, but that Christ was the Father and the Father of Christ. 148
200 AD, Catholic Priest Tertullians Confession
Tertullian confessed that Praxeas and the One God, Jesus Name Modalist Monarchians Churches were in the vast majority in the third and earlier centuries. He wrote, The older [so- called] heretics much more before Praxeas, a pretender of yesterday...[who preaches] this heresy, which supposes itself to possess the pure truth, in thinking that one cannot believe in the one only God in any other way than by saying that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are the very selfsame person.... The simple, indeed, I will not call them unwise and unlearned, who always constitute the majority of believers, are startled at the dispensation of the three in one, on the ground that their very rule of faith withdraws them from the world's plurality of gods to the one only God.
149
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Tertullian continued, The numerical order and distribution of the Trinity, they [the Apostolic believers] assume to be a division of the unity.... They are constantly throwing out against us that we are preachers of two gods and three gods, while they take to themselves pre-eminently the credit of being worshippers of the one God. 150 Let my readers make a mental note of this truth, Tertullian clearly stated beyond all argumentation that the One God, Jesus Name people were in existence long before Praxeas began to preach against him and the heretics of that day. Tertullian also openly admitted that Gods people constituted the majority of Christians in his day.
225 AD, Catholic Priest Hippolytus Confession
This Catholic Priest confessed that Gods Apostolic Pentecostal Churches vastly outnumbered the Catholic Churches in his day. He also confessed that some, if not many, of the Catholic Churches were converted to the One God, Jesus Name message; he even confessed that several Bishops or Popes of Rome believed and taught that Christ was the God the Father manifested in flesh.
Hippolytus declared that Catholic Bishop Callistus of Rome taught that there is one Father and God, namely, the Creator. In substance He is one Spirit. For Spirit, as the Deity, he says, is not any being different from the Logos, or the Logos from the Deity; therefore this one person, according to Callistus, is divided nominally, but substantially not so. He supposes this one Logos to be God, and affirms that there was in the case of the Word an incarnation. And he is disposed to maintain, that He who was seen in the flesh and was crucified is the Son, but that the Father it is who dwells in Him. All [Catholic] consented to his hypocrisy, we [two-god Catholics] however did not do so and [they] called us worshippers of two gods.... This Callistus became a martyr at the period when Fuscianus was Prefect of Rome. 151
Let my readers notice, that the true believers greatly out numbered Hippolytus and his small band of Catholic followers. Not only this, but this proves that their were in the Roman Empire two opposing churches, Gods Modalistic Monarchian Church and Satans two god Catholic Church. Gods People did not accuse Catholic Hippolytus of believing in three gods but two gods.
According to Harnack, Tertullian and Hippolytus did not, to all appearance, succeed in getting their form of doctrine approved in the Churches. The God of mystery of whom they taught was viewed as an unknown God. Their Logos doctrine implied that the Logos was an inferior divine being, or rather at once inferior and not inferior. This conception, however, conflicted with tradition as embodied in worship, which taught men to see God Himself in Christ.
He went on to say, It was only from the second half of the fourth century [350 AD] that the West was invaded by the Platonic theology which Hippolytus, Tertullian, and Novatian had cultivated, to all appearance without any thorough success. Some of its results were accepted, but the theology itself was not.... Yet there is no mistake, on the other hand, as we are taught by Institutiones of Lactantius as well as the Tractates of Cyprian, that the rejection of Modalism and the recognition of Christ as the Logos forced upon the West the necessity of rising from faith to a philosophical and, in fact, a distinctively Neoplatonic dogmatic. It was simply a question of time when the departure should take place. 152
45 Protestant Doctors M'Clintock and Strongs Confession
Doctors M'Clintock and Strong declared there were Oneness Preachers in the first and second century. They said, Modalist Monarchianism is generally supposed to have originated about the end of the second century. It seems to us, however, that this [so-called] heresy may be traced to the very earliest times of Christianity. Justin Martyr [c. 150] expressly denounces it, and his notice guides us to its source, for he finds the heresy to exist both among the [Christian] Jews and [gentile] Christians. He condemns the [Christian] Jews for thinking that, when God was said to have appeared to the patriarchs, it was God the Father who appeared.
In the Dialogue with Trypho, he handles the same topic, and extends the charge to the [gentile] Christians. I am aware that there are some [Gods Preachers] who wish to meet this by saying that the power which appeared from the Father of the universe to Moses, or Abraham or Jacob... is unseparated and undivided from the Father...' (Cc. 1227, 128). 153
Drs. Roberts and Donaldson translated this passage this way, I know that some wish to anticipate these remarks, and to say that the power sent from the Father of all which appeared to Moses, or to Abraham, or to Jacob is indivisible and inseparable from the Father, just as they say that the light of the sun on earth is indivisible and inseparable from the sun in the heavens. 154 This is positive proof that Justin is writing against Gods People who taught the almighty dwells in Christ.
Drs M'Clintock and Strong also declared that A resemblance has been noticed between the tenets of Valentinus and those of Sabellius (Peturius, Dogma Theology, 2, i, 6; Wormius, History Of Sabellius, ii, 3), and Neander is inclined to think that Marcion may have adopted some of the Patripassian doctrines in Asia Minor (Church History, i, 796; Burton, Bamptons Lectures, note 103). 155
Valentinus and Marcion, like the Catholic apologists, were heretics. Many of earlier heretics adopted some of the teachings of the Gods true Bride, for example, most of the early heretics, if not all, baptized in Jesus Name until c. 325. The two main opponents against the truth in the third century were Tertullian and Hippolytus. It is mainly through the writing of these two Catholic apologists that we know as much as we do about the true Bride of Christ.
Protestant Professor Adolf Harnacks Confession
Protestant Professor Harnack also confessed that Gods Pentecostal Churches were in the vast majority before the Nicene Council. Harnack says, The real dangerous opponent of the Logos Christology in the period between AD 180 and 300 was not Adoptianism, but the doctrine which saw the Deity Himself incarnate in Christ, and conceived Christ to be God in a human body, the Father becoming flesh.... Hippolytus tells us in the Philosophumena, that at that time the Monarchian controversy agitated the whole [Catholic] Church, and Tertullian and Origen testified, that in their day the economic trinity, and the technical application of the conception of the Logos to Christ, were regarded by the mass of Christians with suspicion. Modalism, as we now know from the Philosophumena, was the official theory in Rome... The Modalistic doctrine which sought to exclude every other... was embraced by the great majority of all Christians before and after the Nicene Council. 156
46 The International Standard Bible Encylopaedias Confession
The International Standard Bible Encylopaedia also declared that Gods Apostolic Church was in the majority in the 3rd And 4th centuries. It stated, Monarchianism, identified the Father, Son, and Spirit so completely that they were thought of only as different aspects or different moments in the life of the one Divine Person, called now Father, now Son, now Spirit, as His several activities came successively into view, almost succeeded in establishing itself in the 3rd century as the doctrine of the church at large. In the early years of the 4th century, the Logos-Christology, in opposition to dominant Sabellian tendencies, ran to seed in what is known as Arianism. 157
CHAPTER 5 HISTORIAL PROOF OF THE EXISTENANCE OF GODS APOSTOLIC PENTECOSTAL CHURCH IN EACH CENTURY
33-96 AD: This history is designed to give my readers a basic understanding of the great history of the One God, Jesus Name, Apostolic Pentecostal Church and the preachers who proclaimed it. The apostles of the Lamb started this Church on the day of Pentecost. The last apostle to live was John, who wrote the book of Revelation somewhere around c. 96. In the second and third chapter of this great prophetic book, our holy Savior reveals that His Church never ceased to exist in any Church Age. This history is a sketch or an outline of this subject, and it is no way intended to be a complete history.
According to the Bible, the apostles and disciples of the Lamb taught and believed that the Lord Jesus Christ is and was the only person in the godhead, and they all baptized their converts in Jesus name and only in His name in a single immersion, and they also taught that one will speak in tongues as the Holy Spirit gives them the words to speak when they are born of the Spirit. Gods people were always in every century identified by these three teachings.
John Sherrill, in his book entitled They Speak In Other Tongues wrote, "tongues continued to play a part in Christian experience down through the centuries. 158 Not only tongues played a key part in Gods Church in every century, but also baptism in Jesus Name and entire godhead dwelling in one person that is Christ Jesus. I challenge any preacher to show me just one place in the Bible, where the apostles or any of the disciples, baptized anyone using the words Father, Son and Holy Ghost. This preacher will give $10,000 to anyone who can. Lets remember that no one was baptized in Matthew 28:19.
The Jerusalem Bible, A Catholic Bible, Declared that the Early Church Baptized in Jesus Name: In a footnote on Matthew 28:19 it stated, It may be that this formula...is a reflection of the liturgical usage established later in the primitive community. It will be remembered that Acts speaks of baptizing in the name of Jesus.
Professor Neander Declared that the Primitive Church Baptized in Jesus Name: In his work The Primitive Church, which appeared in The Biblical Repository in April of 1834, Neander said, Baptism, therefore, in accordance with its characteristic feature, was to be a baptism into 47 Christ, into the name of Christ: and it can well be, that originally in the formula of baptism this alone was made prominent. 159
Doctor Hastings Declared that the Early Church Baptized in Jesus Name: Hastings Dictionary of the Bible revealed that "The primitive church baptized in or into the name of Jesus or Jesus Christ.... Thus the spoken formula in the name of Jesus effected the presence of the risen Lord and gave the baptized into His possession and protection." 160
The Illustrated Bible Dictionary speaking of baptism in Jesus Name stated, It is clear then that from the first, baptism in the name of Jesus functioned as the rite of entry or initiation into the new sect [called Christians].... Most [historians and theologians] would hold that the phrase baptized into Christ refers directly to baptism (Rom. 6:3; 1Co. 10:2; 12:13; Gal. 3:27). A strongly held view here is that into Christ is an abbreviation of in/into the name of Christ. 161
The New Catholic Encyclopedia speaking of the formula for baptism also confirmed this truth when it declared, "Although Matthew 28:19 speaks of the Trinitarian formula, which is now used, the Acts of the Apostles 2:38; 8:16; 10:48; 19:5 and Paul 1Cor 1:13; 6:11; Gal 3:27; Rom 6:3 speaks only of Baptism in the name of Jesus.... After all, the validity of Baptism in the name of Jesus was still accepted in the age of scholasticism.... An explicit reference to the Trinitarian formula of Baptism cannot be found in the first centuries. The Didache, for instance merely repeats Mt 28:19. 162
100 AD, Catholic History Revealed that the One God, Jesus Name, Tongue Talking Churches Existed Before and During The Time of the Catholic Apostolic Fathers and Apologist: Professor Wolfson of Harvard speaking of this wrote, at the beginning of the age of the apologist there appeared in Christianity a conception of the Trinity [meaning the godhead] which later crystallized into the [so-called] heresies of Praxeas, Noetus, and Sabellius. 163
Catholic Cardinal Newman revealed that the one God doctrine existed from the earliest times of Christianity. He wrote, "Praxeas, Noetus, and Sabellius, in the third century protested against the Catholic or Athanasian doctrine of the Holy Trinity.... Noetus was in Asia Minor, Praxeas taught in Rome, Sabellius in Africa. Nay we read...their doctrine prevailed among the common people, then and at an earlier date, to a very great extent, and the true faith [Catholicism] was hardly preached in the churches. 164
Tertullian confessed that One God doctrine of the godhead existed much more before Praxeas. He said, The older [so-called] heretics much more before Praxeas, a pretender of yesterday...[who preaches] that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are the very selfsame person. Who always constitute the majority of believers.
165
A Jesus Name Baptismal Ceremony in Rome: In an article entitled The Old Time Religion, Time Magazine referred to a baptismal ceremony that took place in c. 100 in the city of Rome. It stated, "The deacon raised his hand, and Publius Decius stepped through the baptistery door. Standing waist-deep in the pool was Marcus Vasca the wood-seller. He was smiling as Publius waded into the pool beside him. Credis...? he asked. Credo, responded Publius. I believe that my salvation comes from Jesus the Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate. With Him I die that with Him I may have Eternal Life. Then he felt strong arms supporting him as he let himself fall backward into the pool, and heard Marcus' voice in his ear I baptize you in the name of the Lord Jesus, as the cold water closed over him. (Dec.1955, pg 66). 48
107 AD, Ignatius Wrote Against Gods Apostolic Pentecostal Church: In his Epistle to the Trallians he confessed that their were people in his day that believe and taught that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are but the same person. 166
110 AD, The Early Catholic Writing Hermas Preached Baptism in Jesus Name: In A History Of Christianity In The Apostolic Age, Professor Arthur McGiffert declared that the early church baptized in Jesus Name. He also mentioned that Matthew 28:19 was never the formula of baptism used by the primitive church. He wrote, The Trinitarian formula...which later became universal in the [Catholic] church, we have no trace in the New Testament, except in the single passage, Matt 28:19....
When and how such a formula arose, we do not know.... It is difficult to suppose that it was employed in the early days...for it involves a conception of the nature of the rite, which was entirely foreign to the thought of these primitive Christians. The early disciples, and Paul as well, baptized into the name of Christ alone. Hermas (Vis. iii. 7, 3) speaks only of baptism into the name of the Lord. 167
Hermas in his book entitled The Shepherd wrote of baptism in the name of the Lord and in the name of the Son of God, and If you bear His name but possess not His power, it will be in vain that you bear His name. 168
Catholic and Secular Encyclopedias Declared that the Catholic Church Changed the Formula for Baptism: The Encyclopaedia Britannica boldly declared that "The baptism formula was changed from the name of Jesus Christ to the words of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost by the Catholic Church." 169 The Catholic Encyclopedia also revealed this same truth. 170 The Acts of Paul and Thecla, written in the second century, speaks of baptism in the name of Jesus Christ. 171
150 AD, Justin Martyr Wrote Against Gods Oneness Jesus Name People: Justin, who started the first Catholic school of theology at Rome, in his First Apology wrote, For they who affirm that the Son is the Father, are proved neither to have become acquainted with the Father, nor to know that the Father of the universe has a Son. 172
Justin Martyr Invented the Trinitarian Formula for Baptism, and He Used the Name of Jesus in It: The New International Standard Bible Encyclopedia declared, Baptism was always in the name of the Lord Jesus [alone] until the time of Justin Martyr, when the triune formula was used. 173 The early church always baptized in Jesus Name, and never used these titles in their formula for baptism. Scribner's Dictionary Of The Bible confirmed this truth by saying, "The original form of words was into the name of Jesus Christ or Lord Jesus. Baptism into the Trinity was a later development." 174
Hastings in his Dictionary Of The Bible openly admitted that The original form of words was 'into the name of Jesus Christ' or 'the Lord Jesus.' Baptism into the name of the Trinity was a later development. After the one mention of it, Mt. 28:19, we do not find it again until Justin Martyr, and his formula is not identical with that in the Gospel. 175 Justin was not only the first heretic to change the formula for baptism, but also was the first to change the mode of baptism. Instead of using the Biblical mode of one immersion in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, he changed it to three separate immersions. 49
Justin, who wrote around c. 150, did not use the three titles of the godhead mention in Matthew 28:19, but one name and two titles. Justin gives his baptismal formula right after he finished his discourse on Plato's teachings of "the cross of the second god," who was the "power next to first god." Justin declared that a convert should be baptized or immersed one time "in the name of God the Father and Lord of the universe, and [a second time in the name] of our savior Jesus Christ, and [a third time in the name] of the Holy Ghost." 176
This is the first Trinitarian formula for baptism that can be found in history. Justins trine mode and formula for baptism was adopted and used by the Roman Catholic Churches from that time on until 325 AD. At the Council of Nicaea, the Catholic Church changed their formula for baptism to one that used all three titles of the godhead. The first immersion was done in the title of Father, the second in the title of Son, and the third in the title of the Holy Ghost. In chapter 6 of this book, the history of the Catholic Trinitarian formula for baptism is given.
165-? AD, Praxeas A One God Preacher: According to Tertullian, Praxeas taught that the Father and the Son are the same... [They] understand the Son to be the flesh that is man that is Jesus, and the Father to be Spirit that is God that is Christ.... The Word of God or the Spirit of God is also called the power of the Highest, whom they make the Father.... 177
175-189 AD, Eleutherus A Catholic of Rome Was Converted to Oneness Probably by Praxeas: According to Prof. Harnack, Eusebius claimed Praxeas was in Rome when Eleutherus was Bishop (AD 175-189). Catholics call Bishops of Rome Popes. Harnack says, If this Bishop was Eleutherus, and that is probable from Euseb. H.E. V. 4, then we have four Roman Bishops in succession who declared themselves in favor of the Modalistic Christology, viz., Eleutherus, Victor, Zephyrinus, and Callistus. 178
180 AD, Catholic Priest Irenaeus Wrote Against Gods Apostolic Church: He wrote, But there are some who say that Jesus was the Son, but that Christ was the Father. 179
185-? AD, Noetus A One God Preacher in Smyrna: Hippolytus declared that Noetus affirms that the Son and Father are the same [person], no one is ignorant. For he makes his statement thus: `When indeed then, the Father had not been born, He yet was justly styled Father: and when it pleased Him to undergo generation, having been begotten, He Himself became His own Son, not another's. He is styled by the name of Father and Son, according to the vicissitude of times, [or at different time periods]. He confessed Himself to those beholding Him a Son no doubt; yet He made no secret to those who could comprehend Him of being the Father. 180
189-199 AD, Victor A Catholic Bishop of Rome Was Converted to Oneness Probably by Eleutherus: According to professor Harnack bishop Victor believed in the Modalist Monarchian one God doctrine. 181
190-? AD, Epigonus A Disciple of Noetus: Harnack say Epigonus came to Rome in the time of Zephyrinus, or shortly before c. 200. 182
192-? AD, Cleomenes A Disciple of Epigonus: Hippolytus stated that Cleomenes started a Theology school in Rome. He wrote, the school of these heretics during the succession of such Bishops, continued to acquire strength and augmentation from the fact that Zephyrinus and 50 Callistus helped them to prevail. 183 Harnack declared that Cleomenes remained the head of this school until c. 215, when Sabellius succeeded him.
192-197 AD, The Start of the One God, Jesus Name Montanists Churches: Around this time many of the people who were called Montanists became one God, Jesus Name believers. Hastings says By the end of the 2nd century there were two parties of Montanists who took different sides in the [Modalist] Monarchian controversy. 184 The two god Montanists, who did not believe in oneness, split from the main body. This small group was led by Tertullian. Blunt speaking of this says, The author of Praedestinatus infers that the Tertullianists had...separated themselves from the main body.... Augustine relates that in his time the remnant of the Tertullianists in Cartage returned to the Catholic Church. 185
Some Catholics Fought Against Gods Pentecostal Churches: The Catholic Encyclopedia also speaking of this split revealed that the most of the main body of Montanist went with Aeschines and some with Alogi and others with different ones. It says, A number of Montanists led by Aeschines became Modalists.... The Alogi [Montanist] have sometimes been classed with the [Modalists] Monarchians. It also revealed that there were a number of Catholics who wrote against them, such as, an anonymous bishop of Asia Minor who composed an influential three-volume work on the subject c. 192-193, ...Apollonius c. 197 and others. 186
Hastings says the Montanists first attracted attention [to themselves] by speaking in tongues." 187 According to Jesse Hurlbut in his history entitled The Story of the Christian Church, the Montanists "were Puritans...[whom] believed in the priesthood of all believers. [They] held to prophetic gifts as the privilege of disciples." 188
All Jesus Name people strongly denounced the Catholic Nicolaitan concept of the ministry and other Catholic doctrines. In fact, Hastings says they used scathing words about the [Catholic] ecclesiastical rulers, and stigmatized them as slayers of the prophets. Hastings went on to say that Montanists put forth treatises in which the arguments of their opponents were answered.... The early Montanists were prolific writers. The Apostolic Montanists and all the other Apostolic Pentecostals Movements were found in many parts of the Roman Empire. Hastings said Montanists were found in every part of Asia Minor, in Egypt...and even in Constantinople, though they were always most numerous in Phrygia. 189
199-210 AD, Zephyrinus A Catholic Bishop of Rome also Believed in Oneness: Zephyrinus publicly declared that the Father and Son are called one God, and that henceforth it is impossible that this single person can be divided into two. 190
200 AD, The One God Montanists also Had A Theology School in Rome: According to Harnack, Aeschines was the head teacher of this school. Harnack says, Among the Montanists at Rome there were, about AD 200, a Modalistic party and one that taught like Hippolytus; at the head of the former stood Aeschines, Hippolytus says (Philo. X. 26) that their doctrine was that of Noetus. 191
Tertullian Wrote Against Praxeas and other One God Believers: He wrote they taught that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are the very selfsame person.... 192 Tertullian, like Justin and all others of that ilk, definitely connected his belief in the godhead to trine immersion in water baptism. He taught against the singular immersion of Praxeas in Name of Jesus. Tertullian says, Not once, but thrice, for the several names, into several persons, are we dipped. 193
51 These Catholic heretics hated Gods people and complained that Praxeas and other Jesus Name Pentecostal Movements, who vastly out numbered them, called them heretics. Tertullian wrote, The simple, indeed, I will not call them unwise and unlearned, who always constitute the majority of believers, are constantly throwing out against us that we are preachers of two gods and three gods, while they take to themselves pre-eminently the credit of being worshippers of the one God. 194
210-222 AD, Callistus A Catholic Bishop of Rome also Believed in Oneness: Callistus proclaimed that the Logos Himself is the Son, and Himself is the Father; and though denominated by different titles, yet that in reality he is one indivisible Spirit. 195
210-?, Sabellius A One God Preacher: According to Blunt The only Divine Sonship allowed by Sabellian doctrine being then that which took place in time at the Incarnation. 196 The Catholic Encyclopedia stated, Saint Athanasius tells us that he said the Father is the Son and the Son is the Father, one in hypostasis, but two in name. 197
The writers of the above encyclopedia also declared, in the west they [the Modalist Monarchians] were called Patripassians, whereas in the East they are called Sabellians. It went on to say, Sabellius or at least his followers may have considerably amplified the original Noetianism. 198
215 AD, Catholic Priest Origen Wrote against Gods Apostolic Pentecostal Churches in His Day: Origen, who was a teacher in the Alexandrian school, became very upset with those who believed the godhead dwelt in Christ. According to Harnack, Origen ridiculed Gods Modalist Preachers and poured out his vile by saying, there are always people who deny that the Father and Son are two Hypostases. They fuse together the Father and Son, and admit distinctions in God only in conception and name, and not in number. 199 Origen was not writing against an imaginary opponent who did not exist, or one who merely existed in the past, but against the Jesus Name people of his day, who had the fire of evangelism burning in their souls. I presume he did not appreciate them rebuking him for his two-god belief.
225 AD, Catholic Priest Hippolytus Wrote against the One God Jesus Name Tongue Talking Churches: He declared that the one God people of his day taught that there is one Father and God, namely, the Creator. In substance He is one Spirit. For Spirit, as the Deity is not any being different from the Logos, or the Logos from the Deity. He who was seen in the flesh and was crucified is the Son, but that the Father it is who dwells in Him. 200
History clearly reveals that the majority of all Christians in the Roman Empire, for the first four centuries, belonged to the Tongue Talking Jesus Name Pentecostal Churches. Professor Harnack says, The real dangerous opponent of the Logos Christology, meaning the Catholic two god doctrine, was not Adoptianism, but the doctrine which saw the Deity Himself incarnate in Christ, and conceived Christ to be God in a human body, the Father becoming flesh.... Hippolytus tells us in the Philosophumena, that...the Modalistic doctrine which sought to exclude every other...was embraced by the great majority of all Christians before and during his day. 201
250-?, Commodian A One God Pentecostal Bishop in Africa: According to Wolfson, Commodian taught in verse 91 of his Carmen Apologeticum that, the Father went into the Son [at Bethlehem] representing the views of Praxeas and Noetus. 202 Schaff says, Commodian was a Patripassian in Christology and a Chiliast in eschatology. 203
52
250 AD, Catholic Priests Origen and Clement of Alexandria Wrote Against Gods Apostolic Pentecostal Churches: The New Catholic Encyclopedia names several Catholic Bishops who condemned Gods Pentecostal people and the gifts of the Spirit that were working in them. Two of these Bishops were Clement of Alexandria and Origen. 204
Origen wrote against Celsus; he revealed that the heathen Celsus described the powerful and anointed preaching of the one God Jesus Name prophets of his day, as if God was speaking through them, and closing their words with "strange, fanatical and quite unintelligible words, of which no rational person can fine the meaning." 205 Obviously Celsus knew of these people even though Origen did not name them.
Origen, Clement of Alexandria and others of his ilk were terrified of the gifts of the Spirit, because they were afraid that God would publicly reprove them for their false doctrines. Therefore, they claimed only heretics speak in tongues. As a result of this kind of teaching, the Spirit of God departed from the Catholic Churches. So, natural they branded all Jesus Name Pentecostal People as heretics. According to Blunt, Clement said that the Catholic Fathers gave it [speaking in tongues] as the mark of the false prophets that they spoke in an ecstasy. 206
Origen declared that the gifts of the Spirit in the Catholic Churches had just about disappeared. According to Blunt, Origen notes that the prophetic power had all but ceased. The gifts of the Spirit were still very much alive in Gods Jesus Name Churches in Origens day. Blunt says, the Pentecostal movement could hardly fail to take place at a time when the miraculous powers and gifts which marked the introduction of the Gospel were ceasing in Catholicism. 207
254 AD, Gods Jesus Name Preachers Converted Many Catholic Bishops to the Truth: Harnack also confessed that the Jesus Name Modalist Monarchians in the Pentapolis, Upper Libya, had won a great following even among the [Catholic] Bishops, so that the Son of God was no longer preached, in these Catholic Churches. 208
If my readers wonder what is meant by the phrase the Son of God was no longer preached in the churches, permit me to explain. It simply means that these Catholic Bishops no longer believed the Catholic doctrine that the Father created a separate person or being from Himself called the Son before time began, but now believed that the sonship program of God began at Bethlehem, or in other words, they did not believe in the eternal sonship of Christ.
255-257 AD, Catholic Pope Stephen Defended Water Baptism in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ Even though He Believed in Ignatius Doctrine of Two-Unequal-gods: The Encyclopedia Britannica declared, "In the third century, baptism in the name of Christ was still so wide spread that Pope Stephen, in opposition to Cyprian of Carthage, declared it to be valid." 209
Baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ was so popular during the first four centuries that not only Gods Oneness Churches baptized that way, but the majority of the Catholic and other heretical denominations. Historians have done their best to totally ignore the real issue in this conflict, which is the name of Jesus in the formula for baptism. The only thing they mention is that it was over the baptism of heretics, whether or not they should be re-baptized. The following is only a brief synopsis of this conflict.
53 Stephen, who was the Catholic Bishop of Rome from c. 255-257, bitterly opposed the African churches headed by Cyprian, who was the Catholic Bishop of Carthage, because they changed Justins Trinitarian formula of baptism. Cyprian and his African group of rebels are the first to baptize anyone by invoking all the titles of the godhead, which are Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Even though they kept trine immersion, Stephen was angry because they took the name of Jesus out of their Trinitarian formula and replaced it with the title Son. Stephen realized that remission of sins was in the invoke name of Jesus in water baptism, therefore to take it out of the formula for baptism is to make the New Birth unattainable.
In the Ante Nicene Fathers, there is a writing entitled A Treatise On Re-baptism, written somewhere around c. 255, by an anonymous writer. There is no doubt in this author's mind that it was one of Bishop Stephen's Epistles, which he sent to the Catholic Churches that were scattered throughout the Roman Empire. Lets hear what this Roman Bishop has to say against some of his fellow Catholic bishops: I observe that it has been asked among the [Catholic] brethren what course ought specially to be adopted towards the persons of those who, although baptized in heresy, have yet been baptized in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Pope Stephen continued, The point is whether, according to the most ancient custom and ecclesiastical tradition, it would suffice, after baptism which they have received outside the [Catholic] Church indeed, but still in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, that only hands should be laid upon them by the bishop for the reception of the Holy Spirit, and this imposition of hands would afford them the renewed and perfected seal of faith; or whether, a repetition of baptism afresh, just as if they were never baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. 210
Pope Stephen went on to say, The power of the name of Jesus invoked upon any man by baptism, might afford to him who should be baptized, no slight advantage for the attainment of salvation as Peter related in the Acts of the Apostles, saying: ` for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.' As also the apostle Paul unfolds, showing that...invocation should be made in the name of Jesus.... Therefore ought this invocation of the name of Jesus to be received as a certain beginning of the mystery of the Lord common to us and to all others [meaning other denominations]. 211
Catholic Priest Cyprian Denounced His Pope For Defending Jesus Name Baptism: Cyprian said, Why has the bitter obstinacy of our brother Stephen broken forth to such an extent, as to contend that sons are born to God from the baptism of Marcion; moreover of Valentinus and Apelles, and of others who blaspheme against God the Father; and to say that remission of sins is granted in the name of Jesus Christ. 212
Roman Catholicism Excommunicated African Catholicism for Taking the Name of Jesus Out of their Trinitarian Baptism Formula: In c. 255, Cyprian called a Council at Carthage in which 31 bishops denounced baptism in the name of Jesus. This is the first council in history, where baptism in the name of Jesus was formally denounced. After this Council, Pope Stephen's called a Roman Council, in which he and other Catholic Bishops excommunicate Cyprian and all those in the African Synod for their stand on baptism. Schaff says it this way, He [Stephen] broke off all intercourse with the African Church, as he had already done with the Asiatic Churches 213
256 AD, Gods Apostolic Churches, Catholic Churches and All Denominations Baptized in Jesus Name: Cyprian wrote to Jubaian in c. 256, defending the African Catholic Churches stand on the formula for baptism. In it he revealed that Stephen and all the other Catholic 54 Bishops claimed that those who join their churches from other denominations "ought not to be baptized because they seem already to have been baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ....
If the Patripassians, the Anthropians, the Valentinians, the Apelletians, the Ophites, the Marcionites, and others, pests of heretics, and swords and poisons for overthrowing the truth, confess the same Father, the same Son, the same Holy Ghost, the same church, it can be that their baptism is one.... How, therefore do some say that a Gentile baptized without, outside the Church, nay rather, and against the [Catholic] Church, provided it be in the Name of Jesus Christ, wherever it be and whatever it be, can obtain the remission of sins." 214
This is also absolute proof that not only the one God, Jesus Name Modalist Monarchians, or in this case, the Patripassians baptized in the name of Jesus, but many, if not all, of the heretics did also. Some of the heretics that Cyprian mentioned were Pope Stephen and other Catholics Bishops, the Anthropians, the Valentinians, the Apelletians, the Ophites, the Marcionites. This can only mean that name of the Lord Jesus Christ was the baptismal formula, or used in the formula of most of the religious denominations of the first, second and third centuries.
Catholic Bishop Firmilian also Denounced His Pope for Defending Baptism in Jesus Name: Firmilian, Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, wrote to Cyprian in c. 256 saying, If the baptism of heretics can have the regeneration of the second birth, they who are baptized among them must not be considered heretics but sons of God, because the second birth which is baptism generates sons of God.... He [Stephen] says, the Name of Christ accomplishes very much for the faith and sanctification of baptism, that whoever anywhere has been baptized in the name of Christ, immediately gains the grace of Christ." 215
Cyprians basic argument against Pope Stephen and the traditional Catholic formula for baptism in Jesus name was basically this: If the second immersion in the Catholic formula had to be done in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is true baptism, then heretics could also receive the Holy Ghost outside of the Catholic Church simply by denominational Bishops laying their hands on them and invoking the name of Jesus over them. This would mean that these people are not heretics but true born-again Christians. Therefore, Cyprian argued that baptism in Jesus name cannot be true baptism.
Cyprian argument went like this: If they [meaning Pope Stephen and the majority of other Catholic Bishops in the Roman Empire] attribute the effect of baptism to the majesty of the name, so that they who are baptized anywhere and anyhow, in the name of Jesus Christ are judged to be renewed and sanctified; wherefore, in the name of the same Christ, are not hands laid upon the baptized persons among them, for the reception of the Holy Spirit? 216
Stephens argument against Cyprian was basically this: Even though heretics baptize in the name of Jesus, which is true baptism, they cannot receive or be born of the Holy Spirit unless a Catholic Bishop lays his hands on them. An extensive history of this Catholic dispute is given in chapter six of this book, under the title of, The History Of The Catholic Trinitarian Formula For Baptism.
260 AD, Many Catholic Churches in the East Were Converted to One God Jesus Name Modalism: In a history book entitled The Early Christian Church, Professor John Davies gave in interesting account of Dionysius fight to win these bishops and their people back to the two god doctrine of Catholicism. Davies says, Modalism continued to be a powerful force, and c. 260 55 Dionysius of Alexandria sought to refute it in a number of letters in which he emphasized the distinction of Father, Son and Spirit to such extent that his opponents considered him to be purveying tritheism. 217
299 AD, Schaff-Herzogs Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge Declared that Jesus Name Baptism Prevailed through the Centuries: It says, "The New Testament knows only baptism in the name of Jesus...which still occurred even in the second and third centuries." 218
250-300 AD, Professor Harnack Declared that Catholic Churches Violently Opposed Gods Apostolic Churches: He says, The fight against Monarchianism in the second half of the third century was a violent one, and even the development of the Logos Christology - of Origen - was directly and lastingly influenced by this opposition. 219
Pagans Opposed Baptism in Jesus Name: Not only was Catholicism against Gods People, but even the heathens were against them. Porphyry, who was a Neo-Platonic philosopher, wrote fifteen books. Around c. 300, in his book Macarius Magnes (iv. 19), he wrote against the One God people of his day. He detested the idea that they believed and preached water baptism in Jesus Name was for the remission of sins. He proclaimed that this doctrine would give men excuse to live wickedly, and at the end of their life they would get baptized so they could have their sins remitted.
Harnack quoted Porphyry as saying, We must feel amazed and concerned about our souls, if a man thus shamed and polluted is to stand out clean after a single immersion, if a man whose life is stained by so much debauchery, by adultery, fornication, drunkenness, theft, sodomy, murder by poisoning, and many other shameful and detestable vice - if such a creature, I say, is lightly set free from it all, throwing off the whole guilt as a snake sheds its old scales, merely because he has been baptized and has invoked the name of Christ. 220 Obviously this pagan believed in a doctrine of works for salvation.
300-399 AD, The writers of The Catholic Encyclopedia stated, There was still Sabellianism to be found in the fourth century. 221
315-325 AD, Many Catholic Priest Wrote against Oneness Pentecostal Montanists: Blunt reveals that many Catholic writers branded the Montanists as one God Jesus Name people. He says, Socrates (I, 23 - 315 AD), Sozomenus (ii, 18 - 325 AD)... attribute Sabellianism to them. 222
324 AD, Catholic Councils Denounced Modalist Monarchian Churches: Blunt revealed that the Alexandrian Councils held against Arianism involved determinations against the conflicting [so- called] heresy of Sabellianism; particularly that of AD 324. 223
325 AD, The Catholic Church Denounced Baptism in Jesus Name and Adopted Matthew 28:19 as their Baptismal Formula: Canneys Encyclopedia Of Religion says, The early church always baptized in the name of Jesus until the development of the Trinity. 224 Professor Williston Walker boldly confirmed this truth when he declared in his book History Of The Christian Church that, Trinitarianism was replacing one-God-ism, this appears in the Trinitarian baptismal formula, which was displacing the older Baptism in the name of Christ. 225
56 Thomas Weisser, a One God Jesus Name theologian and historian, produced a great work entitled Jesus Name Baptism Through The Centuries. In it he quoted Robert Robinsons book entitled Ecclesiastical Researches as saying the following about the Council of Nice, "All the classes, who did not hold the doctrine of a Trinity of persons in God, whether called Aretemonites, Paulianists, Arians, Monarchians, Patripassians, Sabellians, or by any other name, [whom] administered baptism in the name of Christ, with a single immersion, these were the people whom the council of Nice required to be rebaptized." 226
My readers can see from this quote that many of the Catholic Churches had by this time accepted the new Trinitarian formula of baptism that the African Catholic Churches started. Many of the Catholic Popes from this time on condemned baptism in Jesus, and demanded all those who came to the Catholic Church to be baptized in the titles of the Trinity. There were a few Popes after this time that defended baptism in Jesus name. Is it not strange, what one Pope condemned, another defended? The true believers were Modalist Monarchians, who were the Patripassians and the Sabellians.
326-? AD, Marcellus the Catholic Bishop of Ancyra in Galatia Was Converted to Sabellianism: Before Marcellus was converted to Oneness, he with Athanasius defended the Catholic two-god doctrine at the Council Of Nice. Gibbon declared Athanasius defended above twenty years the Sabellianism of Marcellus of Ancyra; and when at last he was compelled to withdraw himself from his communion, he continued to mention with an ambiguous smile the venial errors of his respectable friend. 227
327-? AD, Photinus, Who Was A Disciple of Marcellus, Was A One God Preacher: Blunt speaking of Photinus and those who followed him said, Theodoret says that Photinus differs from Sabellius only in phraseology.... Photinus held the tenet of an Antitrinitarian Monarchia, and that Jesus Christ was born of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary; that a certain portion of the Divine Substance, which he called the Word, descended upon and acted through the man Jesus Christ; that on account of this association of the Word with the human nature Jesus was called the Son of God, and even God Himself; that the Holy Ghost was not a distinct Person, but a celestial virtue proceeding from the Deity. 228
336-368 AD, Catholic Councils again Denounced Gods Modalist Monarchian Churches: Blunt speaking of the fourth century Sebellianism says, Marcellus, Bishop of Ancyra in Galatia, and his followers held a third and advance stage of Sabellianism. For this [so-called] heresy Marcellus was condemned by several Arian Councils, particularly by that of Constantinople in AD 336. Photinians were also condemned at this council (Sulpic. Sever. ii. 36). 229
Catholic heretics condemn Sabellianism many times in the fourth century in their Councils and Creeds. Socrates revealed that in c. 340, the Eastern bishops again assembled a Synod. [They stated] the holy and Catholic Church likewise anathematizes... those who say that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the same person.... Such are those denominated Patripassians among the Romans, and by us Sabellians. 230 One thing can be said of the Catholic Church throughout the centuries, it freely and abundantly gave away it demonic curses to Gods Churches.
The Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia were held around c. 341. Both of these councils condemned Modalist Monarchian preachers. In it we read, But those who say that the Father and Son and Holy Ghost are the same, and irreligiously take the three names of one and the same reality and person, we justly proscribe from the Church because they suppose the illimitable and 57 impassible Father to be limitable withal and passible [meaning capable of feeling or suffering] through His becoming man: for such are they whom Roman call Patripassians, and we Sabellians.
These councils continued with their Satanic blessings, We abhor besides, and anathematize those who make a pretense of saying that he is but the mere word of God and unexisting, having His being in another, - now as if pronounced, as some speak, now as mental, - holding that he was not Christ or Son of God or mediator...before ages; but that He first became Christ and Son of God, when He took our flesh from the Virgin.... Such are the disciples of Marcellus and Scotinus [Photinus] of Galatian Ancyra. 231
Photinus and his followers were condemned at the Semi-Arian Council, the second of Antioch - AD 344 (Socr. ii. 19), the Council of Sardica - AD 347... (Sulpic. Sever. ii. 36, Epiph. Haer. lxxi.), a Council at Milan in in the same year, a Council at Rome - AD 349... (Hilar. Frag. Hist. ii. 21) and the second Synod of Sirmium - AD 351... (Socr. ii. 29, Sozoin. iv. 6). 232
According to Socrates church history, the Catholic Church assembled a Synod about three years after the last one. Schaff say the last one was the Council of Sardica. So about c. 350, a creed was published, which Schaff entitled the Lengthy Creed. Socrates revealed that in this creed the Catholic Church anathematizes all Oneness preachers but especially named Marcellus, Photinus and all the Galatians of Ancyra. The Creed stated, The holy and Catholic Church likewise anathematizes those who say...the same person is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, or that the Son was not begotten, or that the Father begot not the Son by his own will or desire in eternity past. 233
Socrates also mentioned a Creed published at Sirmium in c. 351. In it we find many Satanic curses hurled against Gods Apostolic People of that day. It say, If any one should affirm that the Father said not to the Son, Let us make man, but that God spoke to Himself, let him be anathema. If any one say that it was not the Son that was seen by Abraham, but the unbegotten God, or a part of Him, let him be anathema. If any one say that it was not the Son that as man wrestled with Jacob, but the unbegotten God or a part of Him, let him be anathema.... For if any one should say that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one person, let him be anathema.
If nay one, speaking of the Holy Spirit the Comforter, shall call him the unbegotten God, let him be anathema.... If any one affirm that the Spirit is part of the Father and of the Son, let him be anathema.... For we [the Catholic Church] do not co-ordinate the Son with the Father, but conceive Him to be subordinate to the Father. 234 By the term subordinate, these heretics mean that the Son is an inferior deity or less than the Father in power, glory and godhood.
The Encyclopedia Biblica speaking of baptism in the name of Jesus Christ says, This was the formula of the followers of Eunomius, It then went on to quote the Catholic historian Socrates (5.24) as saying, for they baptize not into the Trinity, but into the death of Christ. They accordingly used single immersion only.
Blunt revealed that the seventh Canon of Laodicea of 366 AD, condemned Gods Jesus name people especially the Photinians. 235 There was a Oneness Church in Rome before and after c. 367. Harnack say, Epiphanius (H. 62. I) tells us that there were Sabellians in Rome in his time. 236 Around c. 368, there were Synods held in Lampsacus, Smyrna and in other places, which Socrates did not name. In them the Catholic hierarchy again condemned Gods holy Pentecostal people. We condemn says these Catholic Bishops, the doctrines of Sabellius, the Patripassians, the Marcionites, the Photinians, the Marcellians, that of Paul of Samosata, [and] 58 those who countenance such tenets; in short all the heresies which are opposed to the aforesaid sacred [Nicene] Creed. 237
According to Wolfson, Paul of Samosata and His followers were Modalist Monarchians, even though they have been reported to hold strange beliefs about the humanity of Christ. Wolfson writes concerning him, it is said that he believed that God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one God, that is to say, one person. He went on to say, Gods Logos and his Holy Spirit are eternally in God the Father, just as mans own reason - Logos - is in his heart; the Son of God has no subsistence of His own; it subsists in God the Father. 238
Blunt revealed that the seventh Canon of Laodicea of 366 AD, condemned Gods Jesus Name People especially the Photinians. 239 There was a Oneness Church in Rome before and after c. 367. Harnack say, Epiphanius (H. 62. I) tells us that there were Sabellians in Rome in his time. 240
Around c. 368, there were Synods held in Lampsacus, Smyrna and in other places, which Socrates did not name. In it they again condemned Gods Churches. We condemn says these Catholic Bishops, the doctrines of Sabellius, the Patripassians, the Marcionites, the Photinians, the Marcellians, that of Paul of Samosata, those who countenance such tenets; in short all the heresies which are opposed to the aforesaid sacred [Nicene] Creed. 241
According to Wolfson, Paul of Samosata and His followers were Modalist Monarchians, even though they have been reported to hold strange beliefs about the humanity of Christ. Wolfson writes concerning him, it is said that he believed that God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one God, that is to say, one person. He went on to say, Gods Logos and his Holy Spirit are eternally in God the Father, just as mans own reason - Logos - is in his heart; the Son of God has no subsistence of His own; it subsists in God the Father. 242
370 AD, Catholic Bishop Ambrose Defended Baptism In Jesus Name: Ambrose, who was the Catholic Bishop of Milan, wrote against the Catholic Trinitarian formula and mode of baptism in his day. Even though he held the Catholic view of the godhead, he definitely believed in baptism in Jesus Name with a single immersion.
In his work entitled The Holy Spirit he wrote, The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit have one name.... In the name, He [Jesus] said, not `in the names.' So there is not one name for the Father, another name for the Son, another name for the Holy Spirit, because there is one God.... When it is said, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, [referring to water baptism in Act 19:1-6], the mystery is completed by the unity of the name. The sacrament of baptism is full in the name of Christ." 243
Ambrose claimed that the title LORD represented YHWH, which is the name of the Father in the Old Testament. He said Jesus is the name of the Son, and Christ represented the name of the Holy Spirit, because Christ means the Anointing. Thus you have the one name of God in water baptism, the Lord Jesus Christ. Ambrose believed in one immersion and in one name only. Since this was the One God, Jesus Name belief, Ambrose could not have been very popular with some his fellow Catholic Bishops. According to a letter Ambrose wrote to Musonius, he was not exempt from the fearless preaching of Modalist Monarchians in his day.
370 AD, Catholic Bishops Gregory and Basil Hated the One God, Jesus Name Churches of their Day: Harnack says, Gregory of Nyssa [c. 370] was always in a fighting attitude toward Sabellianism. The doctrine of the one God is to him Jewish. Harnack also mentions Basil, the 59 bishop of Caesarea in c. 370, and his indignation of some of his fellow Catholic Bishops, who, according to Basil, were too friendly with Sabellians. 244
Basil was elected to the See of Caesarea after the death of Eusebius. Basil writing to Catholic Churches under his dominion reproved the notables of Neocaeesarea by saying, There is going on among you a movement ruinous to the faith, disloyal to the apostolical and evangelical dogmas. For those men, who, from fear of confutation, are forging figments against me, are endeavoring to renew the old mischief of Sabellius, started long ago.
Sabellianism is Judaism [calling the] Father Son and Holy Ghost one thing of many faces, and makes the hypostasis of the three one. Those of the foolish Sabellius are now ventured on among you. And because it is said, Go ye and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, it is obvious, they urge, that the name is one, for it is not in the names, but in the name. 245
375 AD, Gods Jesus Name Preachers Converted Many Catholic Bishops to the Truth: Basil wrote a letter to certain men, whom were called the Western Bishops, warning them about great threat of Sabellianism in the eastern Catholic Churches. He names Paulinus, who was the Bishop of Ancyra in Galatia, as one of the many Bishops who left Catholicism and became a Sabellian in his teaching on the godhead. Paulinus, says Basil, has been devoted to the teachings of Marcellus and has admitted his followers without investigation into his own communion. You know, most honorable brethren, that the teaching of Marcellus contains a rejection of all our hope, since it neither admits the Son in His own Person, but as brought forth and having again return to Him whence He came forth, nor concedes that the Paraclete subsists in His own Person.
Basil continued, if you should consent to write to all the churches in the East, that, if those [Bishops] who are falsifying these things would correct themselves, they are in communion, but, if they should wish contentiously to maintain the innovations, you are to separated from them. 246
Basil considered the preaching of Sabellianism by those Catholic Bishops to be lies or falsification, and he commanded these western bishops to break all communion with these eastern bishops if they did not repent. It sure seems to me that the Catholic Church had a hard time keeping their bishops from believing and preaching the true doctrines of Christ.
So, what was the result of these letters written by the western bishops to the eastern bishops? Did these eastern bishops repent of their Sabellianism? Did they come back to the two-god doctrine of Catholicism? The old heresy of Sabellius, the enemy of the [Catholic] Church, Basil writes, has infiltrated our churches, for the brothers have announced to us that the [godhead] statements made are of the same nature [as that of Sabellius]. The churches of God which are now grieved unbearably and harshly at what has been done and what has been reported. 247
373-382 AD, Catholic Councils again Condemned Gods Oneness Churches: Blunt says, Of the Post-Nicene councils, one at Rome - AD 373 - held under Damascus, condemned this heresy, describing it in the simple terms that the Father and the Son are one and the same (Theod. Hist. Eccl. v. 11). In the one held at Constantinople - AD 381-2 - the heresy is condemned as well as that of the Marcellians and Photinians; and Sabellian baptism is disallowed (canons i, vii).... Sabellians are ordered to be baptized, and all other heresies, especially such as come from the country of the Galatians. 248 Blunt also wrote, The Marcellians are condemned in the first Canon of Constantinople AD 381. They are named after the Sabellians, and are followed by the Photinians. 249
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Schaff speaking of the above council said they recognized the baptism of the Arians, the Sabbatians...the Quartodecimanians, the Apollinarians, but rejected the baptism of the Eunomians, who baptize with only one immersion, the Sabellians, who teach the Son-Father [and] the Montanists. 250 The Montanists mention here are the descendants and converts of the large group of Montanist who were converted to One God Modalism in c. 190. Blunt revealed that many Catholic writers branded the Montanists as one God Jesus Name people. He says, Socrates (I, 23 - AD 315 AD), Sozomenus (ii, 18 - AD 325)... attribute Sabellianism to them. 251 Montanists were not only used in the gifts of the Spirit, but also baptized in Jesus Name.
The Jesuit Fathers of Saint Mary's College revealed that Pope Damascus at another Council of Rome in c. 382 said, we anathematize those who follow the error of Sabellius, saying that the Father is the same person as the Son. 252
390 AD, Audentinus A Powerful Catholic Bishop in Spain Wrote against the Various One God, Jesus Name Groups in that Country: In his book, entitled On Faith Against Heretics, he wrote against the Sabellians and especially against the Photinians who are now called Bonosiacians. 253
Catholic Bishop Jerome Condemned Gods Apostolic Churches In His Day: According to the New Catholic Encyclopedia, Jerome [c. 390] in describing Montanism, lists the errors already mentioned and says that members of the sect were infected with Sabellianism. 254 Blunt revealed that Jerome said Montanists following the opinion of Sabellius bring the Trinity to the narrow restraints of one Person. 255
395 AD, Catholic Bishop Augustine Hated the One God Modalist Monarchian Churches of His Day: In a letter written after c. 395, Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, mention some of the Jesus Name people in North Africa, who were preaching the Almighty God in Christ. They were probably some of Commodian And Sabellius followers. Augustine writes, Let us not heed those who say there is only the Father, who has no Son and with whom there is no Holy Spirit; but that the same Father is sometimes called the Son, and sometimes called the Holy Spirit. 256
400 AD, Gods Jesus Name Triscilidae: Blunt mentions an unusual group of Sabellians that existed around c. 400. He stated, the Triscilidae: A sect of Sabellian heretics mentioned by Philaster (Haer. xciii), Augustine (Haer. lxxiv.), and Praedestinatus (Har. lxxiv.), as maintaining the opinion that the Divine Nature is compose of three parts, one of which is named the Father, the second part the Son, and the third the Holy Ghost. 257 It appears to me they taught that Gods substance or essence is composed of three natures, one called the Spirit, another called the Soul and the third called the Body.
401-417 AD, Catholic Pope Innocent I and Emperor Honorius Violently Opposed the One God Tongue Talking Churches of their Day: Gods Pentecostal Churches are no strangers to Catholic persecution. According to the New Catholic Encyclopedia, The importance of the sect [Montanism] during the early centuries may be judge by the attention it received from ancient [Catholic] Christian writers.... The energetic opposition of Pope Innocent 1 (401-417) and the laws of the Emperor Honorius 1 against [the so-called] heresy (Feb. 22, 407). 258
404 AD, Even though Pope Innocent I Hated Gods Oneness Churches, He Accepted Baptism in Jesus Name as True Baptism: Weisser in his great work Jesus Name Baptism Through The 61 Centuries, quoting from Denzingers book entitled The Sources Of Catholic Dogma, revealed that this Pope wrote an Epistle to Vitricus, Bishop of Rouen on February 15, 404. According to Denzinger, this Pope wrote, "those who come from the Novatians or the Montanists should be received by the imposition of the hand only, because they baptized in the name of Christ." 259 Let my readers take note, this Pope defended baptism in Jesus name. He also informs us that the Novatians and the one God Tongue Talking Montanists of his day baptized in the name of Jesus.
409-? AD, The Catholic Church Wrote Many Books against the Different Groups of Modalist Monarchians that Were in Spain: Robert Robinsons in his book entitled Ecclesiastical Researches, speaking of the fifth through the eight centuries wrote, their were in Spain Christians of all descriptions, as well as Jews and pagans. This appears by the books published by the Catholic faction against Manicheans, Priscillianist, Acephali, Sabellians, Photinians, Arians, and others, whom they insolently named heretics.
451 AD, The Council of Chalcedon and Catholic Pope Leo I Condemned Gods Modalist Monarchian Churches of their Day: Blunt declared that The Allocution of the Council of Chalcedon AD 451 to the Emperor Marcian (Harduin, Council, ii. col. 645) describes the Monarchianism of Photinus and Marcellus. 260 Pope Leo 1 in the very same year took his turn at persecuting Gods Pentecostal People. They were the one God Jesus Name Priscillians. These were the people who broke away from some of the doctrines of Priscillian and became Modalist Monarchians. According to Harnack, the Priscillians and Sabellians are classed together... [by] Leo 1. 261
Schaff says, In the fourth and fifth centuries, the [Catholic] Fathers used the term Sabellianism in a general sense for various forms of Monarchianism, all of which, however, tended in the one direction, viz., toward the denial of any personal distinction in the godhead, and hence the identification of Father and Son. 262
507 AD, King Clovis and His Entire Army Was Baptized in Jesus Name: Reverend Marvin Arnold is also a One God Jesus Name theologian and historian. In his great work entitled the History Of The Christian Church, he revealed that King Clovis of the Franks, "promised God if He help him defeat them [the Visigoths], he and his army would be immersed in Jesus name. The Visigoths were defeated at Vouille in AD 507, and Clovis was baptized in Christ's Name." 263
It is obvious from this passage, Clovis personal minister, whether he was a Catholic or Pentecostal, must have preached to him the New Birth message which included baptism in the name of Jesus. Arnold went on to reveal that Oneness Christianity was wide spread in the six century.
529-557 AD, Catholic Emperor Justinian I Brutally Persecuted Gods Tongue Talking Montanist Churches: This Catholic Emperor did his best to stop all preaching of oneness, rebaptism movements that baptized in Jesus Name, speaking in tongues and the prophesying of Gods people. This demonic Emperor in 529 AD created the Justinian Code, which demanded the death penalty for all who believed and taught these doctrines. According to the New Catholic Encyclopedia, Justinian wrote severe anti-Montanist legislation. He murdered many thousands of Gods holy, innocent, harmless Children. But, as he found out, there was no way he could stop the move of Gods Spirit. This history continued by saying, Montanism spread rapidly and widely through the East and West. 264
62 Hastings speaking of the persecution of the One God, Jesus Name, Tongue Talking Churches in the Roman Empire declared that they survived the stringent edicts of various emperors. 265 There is no way the gates of Catholic hell will ever prevail against Gods Church. God will never leave Himself without a witness. For history declared, Montanism was a manifestation of a recurring phenomenon, referring to speaking in tongues through the Holy Ghost.
553 AD, The Council of Constantinople: In this year, another council was convened in which these heretical Catholic priests again condemned baptism in Jesus Name of the Sabellians.
556-561 AD, Catholic Pope Pelagius Condemned the One God, Jesus Name Churches of His Day: According to Weisser, Denzinger also quoted Catholic Pope Pelagius (556-561 AD) as saying, "there are many who assert that they are baptized in the name of Christ alone with only one immersion. Pope Pelagius continued by giving his imperial edict. He commanded, give each one holy baptism in the name of the Trinity and with a triple immersion." 266
Pope Pelagius openly confessed that there were many true Christians who baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ with only one immersion in the six century. He also acknowledged that the Roman Catholic Church in his time, not only baptized in the name of the Trinity, but also continued to use trine immersion. Let my readers remember, what this Catholic Pope condemned, others Popes before him defended.
Hasting wrote, By the time of the provincial Council of Braga 561 we see how these Monarchia principles have verged into Priscillianism.... 267 J. F. Bethune-Baker, in his book entitled An Introduction To The Early History Of Christian Doctrine, mentioned that Martin Damiun, the Bishop of Braga, condemned the baptism of the Sabellians for retaining single immersion under a single name 268
600-699 AD, Popes of the Seventh Century Excommunicated the Entire Catholic Celtic Churches that Baptized in Jesus Name: Dr. F. C. Conybeare, in his Hibbert Journal, speaking of the Celtic Catholic Churches baptizing in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and not the Trinity wrote, In the middle of that century [the third century] Cyprian could insist on the use of the triple formula as essential in the baptism even of the [so-called] orthodox. The pope Stephen answered him that the baptism, even of heretics was valid, if the name of Jesus alone was invoked.
However, this decision did not prevent the popes of the seventh century from excommunicating the entire [Catholic] Celtic Church for it adhesion to the old use of invoking the one name. The Celtic Churches consisted of Indo-Europeans from France, Great Britain, Ireland, and Scotland. It is evident that the One God, Jesus Name, Pentecostals, who were in those countries, converted many of the Celtic Catholics to the truth.
601 AD, Catholic Pope Gregory I Condemned the Modalist Monarchian Churches of His Day: This Pope wrote a letter to Bishop Quiricus on June 22, 601, in which he instructed Quiricus to baptize all those "who are not baptized in the name of the Trinity, such as the Bonosiacians [Photinians] and... many others." 269 Obviously their were many One God Jesus Name groups, such as the Bonosiacians, who were also known as the Photinians, in Pope Gregorys day that did not baptize in the name of the Trinity, but did baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is another Catholic Pope that condemned baptism in Jesus Name.
63 649-692 AD, Catholic Councils again Curse Gods Holy Apostolic Churches: Hastings revealed that the One God Jesus Name Modalist Monarchians doctrines continued to exist throughout the centuries. He declared that Catholic Popes and Catholic Councils were always condemning them. He says this "can be seen by the frequent condemnations of them in the shape of Sabellianism.... The same comprehensive condemnation was repeated in the Lateran Council of 649, (canon 18)." 270
The Catholic bishops at Eleventh Council of Toledo in c. 675 took their turn at condemning Gods holy, living and anointed Church. According to The Church Teaches this council cursed all of Gods People who deny the Trinity doctrine which teaches, "The Son is not the same person as Father, nor the Father the same person as the Son, nor is either the Father or Son the same person as the Holy Spirit." 271
Blunt declared that the Council of Trulo - A. D. 683, canon 95 condemned Jesus Name Baptism and the Modalistic Monarchian. 272 According to Schaff the Trullan Council of 692, in its 95th canon also joined the long list of Catholic Councils that condemned Modalist Monarchians. It especially named the one immersion of Sabellian baptism. 273
As my readers can now see, Gods Jesus Name Churches were still preaching Acts 2:38 and Almighty God in Christ in the seventh century, and as usual Catholicism hated it. Is it not strange that Catholic Councils in the seventh century are condemning and cursing Gods Churches, who were suppose to have died in the third or at the latest the fourth century. There is no way the devil and his people will ever be able to destroy Gods Church, For the gates of hell will never prevail against her.
700-713 AD, The Catholic Church Wrote Many Books against the Different Groups of Modalist Monarchians that Were in Spain: Weisser, referring to Robert Robinsons book entitled Ecclesiastical Researches, said Robinsons third period runs from 409-713 AD. Under this period he says; their were in Spain Christians of all descriptions, as well as Jews and pagans. This appears by the books published by the Catholic faction against Manicheans, Priscillianist, Acephali, Sabellians, Photinians, Arians, and others, whom they insolently named heretics. Gods children had many great revivals in Spain during this time.
700-899 AD, Gods Great Jesus Name Modalist Monarchian Revivals Broke out All Over Europe: Arnold revealed that Bede the Venerable, an Anglo-Saxon historian, in the eight century, found Celtic and Saxony cultures abounding in manifestations of tongues and gifts." 274 Gods Oneness Celtic Pentecostal Churches, as I said before, consisted of those in the countries of France, Great Britain, Ireland, and Scotland; the Saxony Churches were those that were located in East Germany!!!
Arnold, referring to F. H. Little work entitled Reformation Studies, Essays in Honor of R. H. Bainton, said, Bernhard Rothmann [1525 AD], researched Apostolic doctrine and history of the 9th century, which was everywhere in Europe.... It had Spirit infilling, the tongues, and miracles. He refuted both Catholicism and Lutheranism, and tirelessly researched until he found ninth century Oneness Pentecostalism and continued in it. 275
According to The Encyclopaedia Britannica, baptism in the name of Jesus Christ was still so wide spread throughout the Roman Empire in 9th century that Catholic Pope Nicholas I in November of 866, in a response to the decrees of the Bulgars, was forced to declared "baptism to 64 be valid tantum in nomine Christi, [or in the name of Christ], as in the Acts of the Apostles." 276
Nicholas quoted Ambrose as his authority. This same encyclopedia also declared that, "Baptism into the death of Christ is often specified by the Armenian Fathers as that which alone was essential."
900-1198 AD, Gods Apostolic Churches Multiply Throughout Spain and Many of Them Were Called Anabaptist: Weisser spoke of Robinsons fourth period that covered eight hundred years or from 714-1514 AD. Weisser mentions Oneness Movements that were deemed heretical by the Catholics. Robinson speaking of these Oneness Churches wrote, they were called in general Anabaptists. In a council held at Lerida, in the archbishopric of Tarragon, it was decreed...that such as came from Antitrinitarians, who had been baptized in the name of Christ, should be rebaptized. 277
1198-1698 AD, Catholic Pope Innocent III Formed the Demonic Inquisition for the Extermination of Gods Apostolic Churches: This heartless, cruel, inhuman Catholic institution, which was sardonically called the Holy Office, brutally tortured and burned alive millions of innocent, God fearing and Christ loving men, women and children. It did this contemptuously in the name of Christ for 500 years. Of all the Catholic Inquisitions, the Spanish Inquisition was the worst. Satans Son Pope Innocent III and every Catholic Pope after him gladly encourage and gave their divine blessings to the Inquisitors who were doing their Satanic gods will. In fact, the Inquisition that gave the Pope power over the kings of Europe. This is the main reason why these demonic popes, during this time, promoted and supported it.
1215 AD, The Fourth Catholic Lateran Council Condemned Gods Apostolic Churches: Blunt wrote, Antitrinitarianism then appears to be, not the genuine product of the Reformation, but the offspring of a school [of belief] which had existed in the Church for centuries before the Reformation was dreamt of.... The Antitrinitarian principle in early times expended itself in producing the Sabellian and Arian heresies.... But the former class, such as the heresies of Gilbert de la Porree, and Joachim, abbot of Flora, which were met in the fourth Lateran Council AD 1215. 278 Obviously these Catholics priests were converted to the apostolic Jesus Name message, and as usual, the Catholic Councils of their day cursed them for it.
1284 AD, Catholic Monk Ursinus Defended Baptism in Jesus Name: According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Ursinus at the Synod of Nemours in c. 1284, boldly declared that "baptism into the name of Christ alone was valid." 279 Schaff quoted a letter that stated, "Ursinus the monk wrote against those who say that heretics should be rebaptized, teaching that it is not legitimate nor honoring God, that those should be rebaptized who have been baptized... in the name of Christ alone." 280
According to Arnold, Ursinus was a very learned scholar and clergyman, and he entered into true Christianity in 1284 AD, "his doctrine was monotheism, Christ's baptism, infilling of the Spirit, and speaking in tongues." 281
1341 AD, Some Or Many of the Armenian Churches Were Converted to the One God, Jesus Name Modalist Monarchian Doctrine: Blunt declared that the Catholic Councils were still condemning Sabellianism in the fourteenth century. He said a charge of the heresy was brought against a portion of the Armenian Church by [Pope] Benedict XII, see Raynald (Contin. of Baron.) AD 1341. 282
65 1357-1419 AD, Arnold declared that as Vincent Ferrer, "passed through Greek, German, Sardinian, Hungarian, and other people, he found effusions of Pentecostal phenomena - tongues, miracles, healing." 283
1441-1442 AD, Catholic Pope Eugenius IV and the Seventeenth Ecumenical Council Condemned the Jesus Name Churches of their Day: Hastings informs us that Pope "Eugenius IV found it necessary to remind the Jacobites, in his decree dated 4th Feb. 1441 that the Church condemns Sabellius for confusing the Persons and for thus altogether doing away with the real distinction between them." 284
The Council of Florence or the Seventeenth Ecumenical Council held in 1442 AD, also condemned the Jacobites. According to The Church Teaches, this council declared, "the Father is not the Son or the Holy Spirit; the Son is not the Father or the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is not the Father or the Son.... Therefore, the holy Roman Church condemns, disapproves, anathematizes, and declares to be separated from the body of Christ, which is the Church, all who hold any contrary opinions. Consequently, she condemns Sabellius." 285
Even in the fifteenth century the Catholic Church is still pronouncing their Satanic blessing on Gods indestructible Church. Catholic Popes and Church Councils condemned and persecuted Gods holy Church. Surely by now my readers must realize that that the One God, Jesus Name, Apostolic, Modalist Monarchian Church never ceased to exist. It would be stupid, as I said before, for the Roman Catholic Church to continually condemn a Church Movement century after century that was suppose to have died in the fourth century.
1529 AD, The Persecution of Gods Apostolic Pentecostal Church by Martin Luther and the Monarchs Who Married Lutheranism: Arnold mentioned that Andreas Karlstadt (1529 AD), a professor of theology at the university of Wittenberg, and the well know Greek scholar Erasmus (1529 AD), had a lengthy scriptural discussion with Luther on restoring Gods true New Birth and monotheistic godhead message. They tried to persuade Luther to inject monotheistic Christian Pentecostalism into his Lutheranism! They pleaded, Restore the pattern and even the constitution of the Primitive Church....
Luther accused Carlstadt of misunderstanding the expression speaking with tongues.... Almost at that moment the Christ of our New Testament let a Holy Ghost reviving spectacular break out at Zollikon, with speaking with tongues, miracles, and the whole Pentecostal allotment, right under his nose! He was also knowledgeable of the Zwickau Prophets. 286
Luther Knew about Baptism in Jesus Name But Denied It: Vinson Synan, in his book Aspects Of Pentecostal-Charismatic Origins, quotes David Reed as saying, "The practice of baptism in the name of Jesus Christ is no new phenomenon in the history of the Church. Martin Luther encountered a dispute over the formula in his day." 287
Luther rejected the truth and became Gods enemy. As a result, he persecuted Gods Apostolic Pentecostal Anabaptist Churches. The Encyclopedia Americana speaking of the Luthers Inquisition says, The Reformation provided the [Catholic] Inquisition with new opportunity for the extirpation of heresy, and the Protestants paid it tribute by adopting many of its attitudes and procedures. Luther was much concerned with the suppression of witchcraft and was as severe as any Inquisitor in his attitude toward religious radicals, such as the Anabaptist. 288
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Luther and his followers set up a Lutheran Inquisition to exterminate Gods holy and innocent Children. Professor Roland H. Bainton in his great work Hunted Heretic stated, The dissemination of Anabaptism was so broad that both Catholics and Lutherans feared the established churches would be displaced.... At the Diet of Speyer in 1529 both Catholics and Lutherans agreed to subject them to the death penalty throughout the Holy Roman Empire.... They did not burn Catholics, but they drowned [Trinitarian] Anabaptist and they beheaded and burned Anti-Trinitarians [Anabaptist] whose beliefs were repugnant to most Protestants as well as to Catholics. 289
Why would Catholics and Lutherans, who hated each other as heretics, join together and form a union to burn Gods Children? It is evident they were not only be scared of Gods people evangelistic revival spirit, but they must have hated them more then they hated each other. I challenge anyone to show me anywhere in history, in any age, where Gods Apostolic Pentecostal Church ever persecuted or killed anyone for their religious beliefs.
1525- 1532 AD, The Persecution of Bernhard Rothmann, A One God Jesus Name Preacher, by Luthers Inquisition: According to professor Earle Cairns, in his Christianity Through The Centuries, The Anabaptist in Germany faced extinction from the state. Bernhard Rothmann, one of the canons of the cathedral of Munster, began an effort to win Munster to the evangelical faith. In 1532... the Emperor ordered the bishop of Munster to drive out Rothmann and his followers, who were...proposing to sell property to aid the poor. Cairns continued by saying that the Anabaptist denied the ideas of Luther and Zwingli. 290
Arnold, referring to F. H. Little work entitled Reformation Studies, Essays in Honor of R. H. Bainton, spoke of Rothmann as a Jesus Name Anabaptist. He says, "the great preachers, writers, scholars - Bernhard Rothmann and Jan van Leyden [in c. 1525] - burst into the medieval theistic scene. They were monotheistic and pious partakers of the Holy Ghost, and knew Pentecostal glossolalia....
Rothmann preached, True baptism is the entrance to the Church and there is no other gate to Eternal Life.... Let yourself be baptized in Christs Name. [He] was one of the greatest medieval Protestant preachers, and learned writer: Bekentnisse, and Restitution. He definitely used Peters Acts 2:1-4; 2:38 in baptismal services.... He refuted both Catholicism and Lutheranism, and tirelessly researched until he found ninth century Oneness Pentecostalism and continued in it. 291
1541AD, The Persecution of Gods Apostolic Pentecostal Church by John Calvin and the Monarchs Who Married Calvinism: The Encyclopedia Americana speaking of the Calvins Inquisition says, Calvin introduced inquisitorial procedures into Geneva [in] 1541. There were many victims, the most notable being Michael Servetus, who was burned at the stake in 1553. 292 Lets briefly look at Servetus accomplishments, beliefs and martyrdom.
AD 1531-1553 AD, The Persecution of Miguel Servetus, A One God Jesus Name Preacher, by Calvins Inquisition: The greatest Antitrinitarian, Anabaptist, One God, Jesus Name Preacher in the sixteenth century was without a doubt Miguel Servetus. This man was a Reformer, Theologian, Author, and an outstanding Medical Doctor. He was in his theology a Modalist Monarchian who held a slightly different view then most on the Logos before Bethlehem.
67 Moyer speaking about him as a Medical Scientist says that he was the real discoverer of the pulmonary circulation of the blood. 293 Professor Roland Bainton, in his book entitled Hunted Heretic, which gave the life of Servetus, spoke of him as a man who was wanted by both the Catholic and Protestant Inquisition dead or alive. Because he was branded as a heretics he did not received the credit he deserved for his discovery at that time. In fact, it was not until this century, that medical science given him the credit he so justly deserved.
Blunt speaking of him as an Author and Reformer stated, In 1531 his book De Erroribus Trinitatis was printed, and in the next year also, at Hagenau, Dialogorum De Trinitate Libri Duo. These books raised a great tumult among the German divines, and, circulating in Italy, were much approved by many who had thoughts of leaving the Church of Rome. In 1553, the year of his execution, he published at Vienna another book entitled Christianismi Restitutio. 294 The titles of Servetus books are On The Errors Of The Trinity, Dialogues On The Trinity In Two Treatises, and The Restitution Of Christianity.
In the Antitrinitarian Biography, Robert Wallace, speaking about Servetus last book and his role as a Reformer said, His avowed object in the composition of this book was to bring back the Christian world to what he conceived to be the primitive standard of faith; and it was for this reason that he entitled it The Restoration Of Christianity. Wallace went on to say Walchius regarded him as a favourer of Sabellianism. Servetus infers that neither the Logos nor the Holy Spirit is a person really distinct from the Father, but only a kind of revelation of the divine nature. 295
Professor Roland Bainton, in his Early And Medieval Christianity, spoke of Servetus role as a Theologian. He said, Servetus examined the New Testament and was perfectly amazed to discover that this tenet [the Trinity], so rigorously required and so obstinately refused, was actually not formulated in the Sacred Scriptures.... The word Trinity does not occur. The key word, homoousios, that is to say that the Son is consubstantial with the Father, is likewise absent.... Servetus was convinced that nothing should be deemed essential to the Christian faith, which is not in the Scriptures. 296 Servetus was a fine Greek and Hebrew Scholar, who using the literal method of interpreting scriptures.
Bainton quoted Servetus as saying, I do not separate Christ from God any more than a voice from the speaker.... Christ is in the Father as a voice from the speaker. He and the Father are one.... An amazing mystery it is that God can thus be conjoined with man and man with God. A great wonder that God has taken to Himself the body of Christ.... Because His [Jesus] Spirit was wholly God He is called God, just as from His flesh he is called man. Do not marvel that what you call humanity I adore as God. 297
MClintock and Strong gave an accurate view of his godhead belief. There is no way anyone can read the following description of the godhead and say that Servetus was not a Modalist Monarchian Preacher. They wrote, The attitude of the author towards the dogma of God, the Father, Son, and Spirit, as held by the [Catholic and Protestant] Church, is that of uncompromising hostility. He regards it as of necessity involving tritheism and polytheism, and even atheism.... But, while rejecting a trinity of essence in the Godhead, he insists on a trinity of manifestation.
They continued Servetus description of the godhead by saying, for it pleased God, consequently, to dispose Himself to a twofold manifestation, the one a mode of revelation by the 68 Word [Logos], the other a mode of impartation by the Spirit. The Word, however, was not merely an empty articulate sound, but, in harmony with [or part of] the nature of God, an uncreated light. The Logos is the Eternal Thought, the Eternal Reason, the Ideal World, the Archetype of the world in which the original types of all things are contained. In this Divine Light was already manifested the form of the future Christ, not ideally alone, but actually and visibly; and from this original type and mode of divine revelation proceed all the modifications of the Deity.
They went on to say, God Himself, attained to a full manifestation and revelation for the first time in the man Jesus, in whom the Eternal Word became incarnate in time.... He was such [God] while in the embryo, and continues to bear the substantial form of the godhead when in the grave. The Word, accordingly, did not assume flesh, but became flesh. By virtue of this nature [of man], Christ is the Son of God - the only Son....
Who first became the actual Son of God, however, when he appeared in time and in the nature of man.... His human spirit was wholly absorbed into the Spirit of God, and the resultant combination forms the true Holy Spirit, the principle of all regeneration, which proceeds from the mouth of Christ. In this way the real Trinity is constituted - a Trinity not of things or so- called persons in the divine essence, but a threefold manifestation of Himself by the one and indivisible God. 298
Servetus in his book On The Errors Of The Trinity wrote, Christ Jesus is really the Father. He Himself is the face of the Father, nor is there any other person of God but Christ; there is no other hypostasis of God but Him. They [the Trinitarians] say that one portion [of God], I say that the whole nature of God is in Him. In Him is the whole deity of the Father. He is God and the Lord of the world. The Father is in the Son. 299
Servetus commenting on Colossians 1:19 and 2:9 in his Dialogues On The Trinity In Two Treatises wrote, the whole fullness of God, the whole of God the Father together with all the fullness of his properties, whatever God has, this dwells fully in this man. 300
Servetus died as a true martyr for the Lord Jesus Christ. As Servetus was fleeing from those who were seeking to kill him, he stopped in Geneva where he was recognized and arrested. Calvin not only had him arrested, but he personally had him brought to trial and acted as the prosecuting attorney against him. Because of his hatred against the truth, Calvin had him convicted and sentence to be burnt alive as an Antitrinitarian.
According to Wallace, while he was in prison, a minister by the name of Farel visited him. Farel strenuously urged him to recant: but Servetus, in reply to Farels repeated solicitations, implored him to produce one solitary passage of Scripture, in which it is stated, Christ was called the Son of God, before His birth of the Virgin Mary; and though he was fully alive to the awful situation in which he stood, and knew that he would be shortly summoned into the presence of his final Judge, neither threats not enticements could prevail upon him to retract.
Wallace went on to say, When he [Servetus] was led to the place of execution, he repeatedly cried out, O God! Save my soul.... As soon as he came in sight of the Lieu de Champel, he prostrated himself on the earth, and continued for some time in fervent prayer to God.... Servetus now rose from the earth, and Farel urged him to address the assembled multitude, probably in the delusive hope that he might be induced at the last moment to retract. But 69 Servetus still continued to invoke the name of the Almighty; and when Farel persisted in urging him to speak, he asked him, what he could say different from what he had already said?
Wallace describing his death wrote, Servetus was fastened to the trunk of a tree fixed in the earth, his feet reaching to the ground; and a crown of straw and leaves, sprinkled over with brimstone, was placed upon his head. His body was bound to the stake with an iron chain, and a coarse twisted rope was loosely thrown round his neck. His books were then fastened to his thigh; and he requested the executioner to put him out of his misery as speedily as possible. The pile was then lighted, and he cried out in so piteous a tone, as to excite the deep and earnest sympathy of the spectators. When he had suffered for some time, a few of them, from feelings of compassion, and with a view to put an end to his misery, supplied the fire with a quantity of fresh fuel.
Wallace also said, Minus Celsus related that the constancy of Servetus in the midst of the fire, induced many to go over to his opinion; and Calvin makes it an express subject of complaint, that there were many persons in Italy, who cherished, and revered his memory. 301
One of Servetus biographers stated that many copies of his books were piled around his feet and used as fuel to burn him. Servetus died a victorious martyrs death on October 27, 1553. Truly, this was a great man of God.
1547-1564 AD, Renowned Catholic and Later Protestant Professor Bernardino Ochino Joined Gods Persecuted One God, Jesus Name Church: Blunt speaking of the persecution of the one God Jesus Name Churches in Europe wrote, The followers of Servetus were principally to be found in Lombardy, the best known of them being Bernardino Ochino. They were driven from Lombardy by the Inquisition, and also from Switzerland, eventually finding a home in Poland. 302
Ochino, before he became saved, was the vice-general of a Catholic order of monks. He was a man of great piety and sanctity. The Catholic people of Italy loved his fiery powerful preaching. Gods grace reached out to this man and he came out of Catholicism and became a Protestant Reformer. In 1547 he became an Oxford professor, and was appointed canon of Canterbury in England.
In 1553 he became a devoted follower of Servetus, and from that time on he was hated by both the Catholic and Protestant Church hierarchy. He fled Geneva and became a Pastor in Zurich. After awhile, the Zurich council denied him the privilege of preaching and he took refuge among Italian friends in Poland. Through Catholic influence he was soon forced to leave country again and became a fugitive. Found asylum among the Hutterian Anabaptist, died in Austerlitz in 1564. 303 In 1563, Ochino published his book entitled Thirty Dialogues, which also contained his one God or one-person belief in the Jesus godhead.
1569-1573 AD, Gods Anabaptist Apostolic Churches in Poland: Wallace speaking of Gods Oneness Anabaptists in Poland wrote, they first formed themselves into Churches in the year 1569. In the autumn of that year, when their affairs were in a very discouraging state, Ronemberg went with Jerome Philipovious, George Schomann, and some others, into Moravia, for the purpose of holding a conference with the Brethren in Moravia. But to their surprise these Brethren believed in the doctrine of the Trinity.
70 Schomann, who was one of their ministers, stated in his book The Will, On the last day of August, 1572, I, being in the forty-second year of my age, was baptized in the name of Christ at Chmielnik; and in the year 1573, I was sent to the ministry of the Minor Church at Cracow. 304 Schomann wrote in the preface of his book, to the little and afflicted flock in Poland, which was baptized in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, to all those who thirst after eternal salvation." 305
Another sixteenth century Anabaptist leader was a man named David Joris. According to Harnack, David Joris subjected the Trinity to a Sabellian treatment, representing it as a threefold revelation of God. 306 According to Bainton, Joris wrote a strong letter to Calvin and his band of murderers to spare the good pious Servetus who was delivered into their hands through no kindness and love, but rather through envy and hate, as will be made manifest at the last judgment to those whose eyes are darkened by base cunning, and to whom the truth is unknown. 307
1645-1800 AD, Gods One God, Jesus Name Churches In England: Saltmarsh wrote a book entitled The Smoke In The Temple, which was published in England in 1645. According to Weisser, Saltmarsh revealed that there were people in his day who preached "the Baptism of Jesus Christ by water, was only in the Name of Jesus Christ. They believed the form by which they [the Roman Catholic] baptize, viz. I baptize thee in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, is a form of man's devising, a tradition of man, a mere consequence drawn from supposition and probability, and not a form left by Christ." 308
1646 AD, According to Wallace, Thomas Edwards of England wrote about some so-called heretics, who taught and wrote that baptism in the name of the Trinity was a man-made tradition and that Christian baptism was only in the name of Jesus Christ. 309
1660 AD, William Penn and the Early Quakers Were One God, Tongue Talking, Jesus Name Modalist Monarchians: The greatest Antitrinitarian, Anabaptist and Modalist Monarchian of the seventeenth century was William Penn. Wallace say Penn attacked the notion of three persons in one God, and came out at last with a species of Sabellianism. Around 1660 Penn became a Quakers. The early Quakers according to Wallace did not believe in the Athanasian doctrine of the Trinity. Penn was one of their most fearless and outspoken preachers. In 1668 Penn wrote a book entitled The Sandy Foundation. Throughout his book he denounced the Trinity. Pen wrote, If there be three distinct and separate persons... there must be three distinct substances, and consequently three distinct gods.
As a result of his book denouncing the Trinity, he was thrown into prison. In prison Penn defended his book by declaring, I do not believe Christ to be the eternal Son of God... I expressed nothing that divested Christ of His Divinity.... I deny a Trinity of separate persons in the godhead. Does thou in good earnest think they [Catholicism] were one in judgment with Sabellius, who only rejected the imaginary personality of those times; who at the same instant owned and confessed to the Eternity and godhead of Christ Jesus our Lord. It is manifest, then that though I may deny the Trinity of separate persons in one godhead, yet I do not consequentially deny the Deity of Jesus Christ.
Penn went on to say, Thou mayest tell my father, who I know will ask thee, these words; that my prison shall be my grave, before I will budge a jot; for I owe my conscience to no mortal man; I have no need to fear. God will make amends for all. The truth is says Wallace, Penn and the early Quakers, professed to acknowledge Christ, in what they called his double 71 appearance, or, as they more commonly expressed it, in the flesh, and in the Spirit, He was God over all. He went on to say that early Quakers held the doctrine of Sabellius but expressed it in the peculiar phraseology of Quakerism. 310
Synan revealed that the early Quakers definitely experienced the phenomenon of speaking in tongues. 311 M'Clintock and Strong revealed that speaking in tongues played a big part in the the disciples of George Fox [of the 17th century] [and] those of a later date in Sweden, America, and Ireland, have in like manner, been fruitful in ecstatic phenomena." 312
1687-1695 AD, Gods Had Many One God, Jesus Name Children in England: According to Wallace, in 1687 there were in England many who did not want to embrace Unitarianism in its naked simplicity, yet agreed with Penn in discarding the Athanasian Creed, and contented themselves with a belief in a Modal Trinity. 313 In the seventeenth century, a book appeared in England entitled Gangraena, which was written by Thomas Edwards. Wallace says this man compiled a list of a 180 errors that were in the churches of England during his time. Edwards declared that even in the best Independent Churches and Congregation are mixed assemblies of people with many different beliefs. One of the so-called errors Edwards names, which some or many of these people believed was that the baptism of Christ by water was only in the name of Jesus Christ, not of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. 314
Wallace also mention a Collection of Tracts that appeared in England in 1695, which were entitled A Discourse Concerning The Nominal And Real Trinitarians. Its object was to shew that there was a clear line of demarcation between these two classes of Trinitarian believers; that the Nominalists, who are properly the Church since they form the large majority of it members. After this, says Wallace, the author of the tracts explained in a separate section, the doctrine of the ancient Nominalists, or the Noetians and Sabellians; and, after a brief recapitulation, proceeds, in the five following sections, to substantiate the charge of Tritheism against the Realists. 315
1727-1790 AD, One-God Modalist Monarchian Montanists Had Churches in England: Some of the one God Montanists survived through the centuries. Arnold, referring to M. P. Hamilton work The Charismatic Movement, says the Apostolic doctrine of the Jesus Name Montanists was found to exist in Britain in 1727. 316
According to Weisser, Robert Robinson (1735-1790 AD), in his book entitled History Of Baptism, claimed that many Christians in England in his day believed and practiced baptism in Jesus' name. Robinson says, "many Christians taking it for granted, that the apostles thoroughly understood the words of the Lord Jesus [in Mt. 28:19], and supposing the form of words of local and temporary use, administer baptism in the name of Christ, and think themselves justified by the book of the Acts of the Apostles." 317
1809 AD, Gods Jesus Name Revival in England Continued: Elias Smith, a clergyman, was the author and editor of the first religious newspaper in the United States. This newspaper was called the Herald Of The Gospel. This man of God denounced the doctrine of the Trinity and rejected Calvins predestination teachings. Smith reported on various religious meetings that took place in New England. In June of 1809 AD, Smith reported in his newspaper that three hundred people lived in Portsmouth, NH. According to Weisser, Smith wrote in his newspaper, It was not possible for me to describe this glorious scene. Those who communed, had named the name of Christ; had been baptized in His name; were blest with a comfortable evidence of being 72 born again; were united in love; and each in a good degree were determined to press towards the mark."
In July of 1809, Smith reported of a revival that took place in Strafford at the Universalist's Meeting House, in which a large number people from the surrounding areas attended. He wrote, one brother and his wife were baptized. The brother baptized had the command of a company [of men] there, and was Grand Master of Masons, a man much respected in the town. When the people saw him submitting to be baptized in the name of Jesus, with his companions; it carried an evidence they had found something superior to all this world affords." 318
David Campbell, a one God Jesus Name Preacher, in his book on the godhead entitled All The Fullness, spoke about an English Modalistic Monarchian Preacher by the name of John Clowes. This man was the pastor of St. Johns Church in Manchester, England around the beginning of the nineteenth century. He wrote a book in 1828 that contained his sermons.
Clowes says this about his belief on the godhead, For if one truth be more to be depended on than another, it is that God is One, and that thus it is impossible that there can be more Gods than one. If Jesus Christ be acknowledged to be God, He must in such case of necessity be acknowledged to be the only God, and approached and worshipped according, otherwise His divinity is as completely denied and rejected, as if He were not approached and worshipped at all.... Multitudes at this day, who still call themselves Christians-acknowledge indeed the divinity of this Saviour, but then they acknowledge it partially, and thus, for want of seeing that He is the only God, since there can be but one God, they do not worship Him as the only God.
Clowes still speaking of the deity of Christ says, Let us then again imagine that we hear Jesus Christ ask: Do you see that all the fullness of the Everlasting Father dwells bodily in Me, so that I and My Father are one.... Do you see therefore, that it is in vain for you to think of finding rest unto your souls until you come unto Me, your manifested, visible, and approachable God, in Whom the unmanifested, invisible, and unapproachable is made known and brought nigh unto you; for he that seeth Me seeth the Father, and therefore by Me, if any man enter in, he shall go in and out and fine pasture. 319
In the nineteenth century many of the Plymouth Brethren, as well as some other English groups, taught on the authority of Acts 2:38 that baptism should be in the name of Jesus only 320
1762-1828 AD, In France God Had Many Apostolic Pentecostal Churches, their Catholic Enemies Called them Convulsionaries: Arnold speaking of them said, they had the Jesus Name baptism, tongues, the Holy Spirit, power, boldness, and miracles upon miracles, which appeared thaumaturgy, meaning effusion of miracles. The historian Gregoire wrote about the French government being so upset that Parliament, in 1762, forbid working of miracles on some French grounds.... It lasted until the date of 1828, where the records indicate the shaking Convulsionist revival began to wan. 321
1800 AD to this Present Time, God Has Sent A Great One God, Jesus Name Revival to America: Vinson Synan, in his book entitled The Holiness Pentecostal Movement in the United States, revealed that the 19 th century saw many great revivals where God poured out His Spirit with the biblical evidence of speaking in tongues. He stated "in the revival that hit the University of Georgia in 1800-1801, students visited nearby campgrounds and were themselves smitten with 73 the jerks and talking in unknown tongues.... Scenes similar to Cane-Ridge were seen in England...in Massachusetts...in New York City, Boston, and Richmond. 322
Around 1810, Dr. Nathaniel Emmons, a Congregational Pastor, received a revelation from His God and became a Sabellian. According to Professor Levi Paine, in his book entitled A Critical History Of The Evolution Of Trinitarianism, Emmons taught that the Father and Son are names assumed to set forth certain activities of the one Absolute God. This says Paine is essential Sabellianism at the start. But Emmons goes farther. He had cast aside the doctrine of the eternal generation of the Son, but now he suggests that the names Son and Word had no existence before the incarnation. They were probably unknown in heaven until the purposes of grace were there revealed. 323 Dr. Emmons was a man well-know in the theological circles of his day for his scholarship and even in this day.
Around 1820, Professor Moses Stuart received his revelation of the Almighty God in Christ. Paine says, I have styled the doctrine of the Stuart-Bushnell school a modified Sabellianism. He continued, Stuart and Bushnell both, following [German professor] Schleiermacher, declared that God is not eternally tripersonal, but unipersonal. The Trinity is not fully developed until the incarnation.
Paine say Stuarts persons are not real any more than Sabellian persons are; they are modes of personal existence of the One Divine Being.... One great merit, however, must be accorded to Stuart. He was a Greek scholar, and comprehend the true character of the Nicene Trinitarianism, allowing that homoousios in the Nicene Creed did not mean numerical unity, and that its doctrine was essential subordinationism, and on this ground rejected it. Because it made the Son a derived and dependent being, and so broke down, as he declared, His true Deity.... Stuart on the other hand made Christ the incarnation of the Absolute God. 324
Moyer in his biography of Stuart says, In 1810 called to the professorship of sacred literature at Andover Theological Seminary, where he remained until retirement in 1848. At once began a serious study of Hebrew, and in 1821 printed a large Hebrew grammar, the first to appear in America.... He also wrote Hebrew Chrestomathy; Grammar of the New Testament Dialect; Hints on the Prophecies, and Critical History and Defense of the Old Testament Canon. Altogether produced more than forty works.... A gifted teacher and lecturer, exerted a remarkable influence upon students. In the course of labors taught more than fifteen hundred ministers, seventy men who became professors and presidents of colleges, a hundred foreign missionaries, and about thirty translators of the Bible into foreign languages. 325
Also around the year of 1820, Friedrich Schleiermacher a professor at the University in Berlin, joined hands with Stuart and became a Sabellian. Dr. Schleiermacher is considered as the founder of modern Protestant theology. Professor Schleiermacher a treatise on the godhead defending Sabellianism. Paine spoke of it with disdain as he whined over the fact that Professor Stuart had no sympathy with, or just appreciation of the Nicene doctrine of the generation of the Son. He continued by saying this can be seen by the welcome Stuart gave to the Sabellianism of Schleiermacher.... Stuart translated with extensive notes an essay of Schleiermacher in which Schleiermacher had defended Sabellius.... No two names are more historically incongruous than those of Schleiermacher and Emmons. 326 Schleiermacher was well-know in theological centers around the world.
74 In the Biblical Repository, the April 1835 issue, Stuart in his introductory remarks to Schleiermachers godhead treatise wrote, I can truly say that I have met with scarcely any writer, ancient or modern, who appears to have a deeper conviction of, or more hardy belief in, the doctrine of the real godhead of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is the basis, on which the whole superstructure of his Christian system rests. No where can be found a writer more entirely alien from the views and speculations of Arians and Socinians; no where one who appears to contend more with his whole heart and soul for the proper, true supreme Divinity of his Lord and Saviour. God manifest in the flesh seems to be inscribed, in his view, on every great truth of the gospel. 327
Around 1833, Horace Bushnell laid down his Trinitarian doctrine and picked up Oneness. This preacher of the Gospel wrote a book entitled, God In Christ. Paine says, Its Christology is borrowed from Schleiermacher and Stuart. Yet Stuart sat secure in his chair at Andover, in all the odor of orthodoxy, while the theological air was hot with accusations against his eloquent disciple. In fact the doctrine of both was thoroughly Sabellian. 328 Paine concludes his remarks on Emmons and Stuart by saying, The Sabellian leaven of Emmons and Stuart did it work thoroughly, and New England Trinitarianism through all its veins became inoculated with it virus. 329
Somewhere after 1850, Henry Ward Beecher, one of the most noted preachers in America, became a One God Modalist Monarchian preacher. Mr. Beechers own language, says Paine in a scolding tone reveals clearly the thorough Patripassian character of the new Trinitarianism. Christ is no longer the incarnation of the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, that was the old Trinitarianism, but the very incarnation of God, the Father Almighty, the Absolute One. Paine quoted Beechers doctrine in the following extract: Could Theodore Parker worship my God? Jesus Christ is his name. All that there is of God to me is bound up in that name.
Paine also gave an extract of Beechers address to the London ministers: Do I believe in the divinity of Christ? I do not believe in anything else. There is nothing else to me when I think of God. 330 According to Moyer, Beecher was one of the most popular and widely-known preachers in America.
In 1860 AD or shortly after, Dr. Lyman Abbott a Congregational Pastor and Dr. A. H. Bradford received their revelation of the Almighty God in Christ. According to Paine, Dr. Bradford declared, The problem of the Trinity is simply this: Are Father, Son, and Holy Ghost three names for one being, or do they denote three distinct persons? And the answer is squarely given. The Trinity does not mean three distinct persons, but three distinctions in one person. Paine continued, Dr. Abbot proclaimed, Jesus Christ is God living a human life...the incarnate God.... In Jesus Christ in propria persona God has entered human life in order that He might show us who He is.
Paine went on to say, Drs. Lyman Abbott and A. H. Bradford and others followed in the same general path of the Patripassian position.... According to these thinkers, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are but different names and manifestations of one and the same personal Being. This Being has His completest manifestation in Jesus Christ. Thus the Deity of Christ is made the central and most vital doctrine in their theology....
He is the manifested God or God manifest in the flesh is now being constantly employed by defenders of the dogma of Christs true Deity and has become a sort of watchword and 75 shibboleth of [the so-called Trinitarian] orthodoxy. The persistency with which they employ it shows how easily it suits their Sabellianizing and Patripassianizing type of thinking.... Thus Christ is all the Father there is, as well as Son and Holy Ghost. All divinity is centered and summed up in Him. It is hardly needful to say to any historical scholar that this new Trinitarianism is no Trinitarianism at all. 331
In 1876 a book appeared in America entitled Is God A Trinity. It was written by an ex- Presbyterian Pastor by the name of John Miller. God by His miraculous grace gave this man a real revelation of the Almighty God in Christ. Miller speaks of his conversion from Trinitarianism to Oneness this way, Suppose the Trinity was a mistake; suppose it had enveloped the gospel in its earlier planting. Suppose it were a Platonic set, grafted by the Jews, and inarched from them into the faith of Christians. Suppose that John opposed it, and that his first strong text was meant to fence it out - John 1:1.
Miller, a Greek and Hebrew scholar, described what happen to him as he was studying the scriptures on the Trinity. He says, In the midst of all theses studies, I found one great central object disappearing out of the firmament of my confession.... In reading the Word of God, the Trinity suddenly deserted me....
Stirred, as I naturally would be, where my very church was slipping away from me, I awoke to the full seriousness of the case. I gave up everything. For three months I did nothing but inspect the Trinity. A library happened to be near, uncommonly rich in all that literature.... There broke upon me with dismay the panic-driven discovery that there was no Trinity. It was all a figment...absent from the Word of God; and I searched and searched, and the discovery almost was that the Bible was colorless of such a dogma, and, by any reasonable mode, could not be made to teach those hypostatic differences.
Miller continued by telling his readers of the glorious revelation God had given him because of the honest and sincere study he made. He says, Now for the result. I do not believe in the Trinity. It may be said, You are a Sabellian. You believe in a modality.... I would have no objection to that. That is, I hold that these names [Father, Son and Holy Ghost] are all different, for that these offices all exist.
Miller went on to say, All that Dr. Alexander and Francis Turretin would impute of deity to Christ, I do, and perhaps more. That is I put the whole Godhead in Him. It would have been infinitely better never to load the faith with the Platonic Trinity. Miller went on to say that he was a high Calvinist and that he wrote this book so the officials of his church could better inspect his belief on the godhead. 332
Joseph Cook was another well-known preacher of the nineteenth century. Paine writes, When Mr. Cook delivered his three lectures on the Trinity in 1887, there had been a long lull in public discussion, and the supporters of orthodoxy were quietly waiting for the next moving of the waters. For Mr. Cook himself the time was opportune. He was at the zenith of his peculiar reputation. Boston had installed him in Moses seat. The orthodox elite of Massachusetts sat at his feet and hung upon his lips.
This Trinitarian professor bemoaned the fact that this One God Jesus Name Preachers lectures on the Trinity were designed especially for the purpose to exorcise the paganism, as he [Cook] called it, of three Gods. Paine continued by saying, Mr. Cooks doctrine is essential 76 Modalism, going beyond Sabellius himself, and coming close to the Patripassianism out of which Sabellianism sprang.... The Holy Ghost, as Joseph Cook says, is only Christs continued life.
Paine being painfully jealous of the reception Cook received after he exorcised the devils out of the pagan Babylonian Trinity of three gods says, Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this is the unstinted applause with which it was received by his audience, made up largely of Massachusetts ministers. Surely there could be no clearer evidence of the chaos that had befallen theological thought in New England than that such a bold Sabellianism was enthusiastically endorsed by such an assembly, and that from that day to this, no note of criticism or dissent has been heard, that I am aware of, in Trinitarian circles. 333
The twentieth century has been privileged to witness one of the greatest one God, Jesus name, tongue talking revivals the world has even seen. According to historians, the modern day Pentecostal movement began with Charles Parham on January 1, 1901. Oneness historian Fred Foster in his history entitled Their Story: 20th Century Pentecostals revealed that Parham taught speaking in tongues and Jesus name baptism. 334
Pentecostal evangelist and missionary Andrew Urshan, in his autobiography entitled The Life Of Andrew Bar David Urshan, revealed that he received the revelation of Jesus name baptized in 1910, and from that time on began to baptize all of his converts that way. 335 In 1915 Urshan preached a great Pentecostal revival in Russia. According to Urshan, God had given some of his converts the revelation of Jesus name baptism before he even came to Russia. This revival marked the beginning of a great Jesus name Pentecostal movement, which is still alive in Russia today.
In 1917 AD, God in His mercy began to give open the hearts of hungry Chinese people to the truth of the New Birth. This miracle began with people simply reading the Bible and praying that God would reveal the truth to them. In fact, when they received this great truth from God, they did not know at that time that anyone else in the world believed that way! In the same year, these Chinese Christians started a great movement in China, which they called the True Jesus Church. According to the World Christian Encyclopedia, this movement exists in Communist China and Taiwan even today. 336
A great one God, Jesus name revival began in America in the year of 1913 in which many ministers and saints received the revelation of these great truths. From 1913 until now, the one God, Jesus' name movement in the United States has been growing by leaps. According to Arnold, in 1979, the World of Apostolic Christian Fellowship, found over fifty-three Oneness Christian organizations on earth.... The United Pentecostal Church is no longer the largest, Dr. Wong stated in 1965 that Taiwan had 120 assemblies alone, and as of 1979, the True Jesus Church of China numbers around eight million. 337
It has now been reported that there are over a 100 different one God, Jesus Name, Apostolic Pentecostal organizations in the world, which believe that Jesus Christ is God the Father in creation, the Son in salvation, and the Holy Spirit living in the believer in regeneration. They also hold to baptism by single immersion in the precious and holy name of the Lord Jesus Christ, as well as to the biblical doctrine of speaking in tongues as the initial evidence of being born of the Holy Spirit.
77 Friend, what more proof do you need to see that the New Birth of water and Spirit consist of these two doctrines? Do not put off water baptism in Jesus Name another day! Do not put off receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost another day, for God is still pouring it out on all races even today.
According to The Encyclopaedia Britannica, "in modern times glossolalia has been found chiefly among Holiness and Pentecostal groups.... In the 1960s by an upsurge of the phenomenon among some members of the more established churches, such as Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Lutheran." 338 It also stated that speaking in tongues "recurred in Christian revivals in every age." 339
Yes, friend, the sweet, precious gift of the Holy Ghost is for you. Millions of hungry, honest believers have received it. God in his great love for you, wants you to receive it today, if you are willing to believe and obey the truth; for the God said, "to day if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts" (Heb 3:7-8). God also said, for now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation (2Co 6:2).
Please do not let preachers confuse you any longer, for the gifts of the Spirit can only come after one has been born of the Holy Spirit. Do not accept Satans imitation! My prayer for you is that you would receive your personal Pentecost today, for the Word of the Living God teaches, today is the day of salvation. Therefore do not wait another day, be baptized in the holy precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ and receive His Spirit today!
If my readers would like some additional information on baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, they can read the books, encyclopedias, commentaries, dictionaries and Bible translations that can be found in this endnote. 340
The author believes that the preceding references are more than enough evidence to prove that Gods Apostolic Jesus Name, Tongue Talking Pentecostal Church was not only the original Church that was started by the apostles on the Day of Pentecostal, but also that it never cease to exist in any century. Surely the gates of hell, never has and never will prevail against it!
If my readers desire to read a thorough biblical study of the godhead or the New Birth, I would recommend my books entitled The Mysteries Of The Godhead Revealed, or Preacher, What Must I Do To Receive Eternal Life. If my readers wish to read a historical study of speaking in tongues, I would recommend my book A Historical Record Of Speaking In Tongues.
CHAPTER 6 THE HISTORY OF THE CATHOLIC TRINITARIAN FORMULA FOR BAPTISM
From 33-150 AD, all one God Modalist Monarchians, Catholics and other denominations baptized in Jesus name. According to Catholic and Protestant historians, Justin Martyr was the first one in the written history of the Catholic Church to use a Trinitarian formula for baptism. The New International Standard Bible Encyclopedia stated, Baptism was always in the name of the Lord Jesus [alone] until the time of Justin Martyr, when the triune formula was used. 341
78 150 AD, Catholic Priest Justin Martyr Changes the Mode and Formula for Baptism, and the Catholic Church Adopted His Teaching
Justin Martyr and his rebellious Catholic cohorts hated the Apostolic Pentecostal one God doctrine of the Almighty God or the Father dwelling in the one person of Christ. Col 2:8-9; Isa 9:6. He did not like them very much because most of Christendom was of their faith, and they were always, no doubt, reproving him for his heresy. He expressly denounced these Modalist Monarchians when he said that they were justly convicted of knowing neither the Father nor the Son; for they who say that the Son is the Father. 342
Justin hatred against the truth led him to change the formula of baptism around 150 AD. He probably did not like the idea that Gods people were using the Biblical formula of baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to prove that the entire godhead dwells in the one person of Christ. So, what did he do about it? He perverted and converted the Biblical formula to a Trinitarian one, so he could teach his two-god doctrine.
Justin not only changed the formula for baptism, but also the mode. Instead of using the Biblical mode of one immersion in the name of Jesus, he changed it to three separate immersions. He did not use the three titles of the godhead mention in Matthew 28:19, but one name and two titles. The first immersion was done in the title of Father. The second in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The third in the title of Holy Ghost. In fact, it was right after He finished his discourse on Plato's teaching of "the cross of the second god," who was the "power next to first god," that he gave his own Trinitarian formula for baptism. His exact words were, a convert is baptized or immersed one time "in the name of God the Father and Lord of the universe, and [a second time in the name] of our savior Jesus Christ, and [a third time in the name] of the Holy Ghost." 343
Justins formula for baptism became the standard formula for baptism used by all Catholic Churches from that time on until 250 AD, when the African Catholic Churches took out the name of Jesus and started using all the titles in their baptismal formula. Even after that, most of the Catholic Churches continued to use Justins formula until 325 AD. After the Council of Nicea, most Catholics baptized in the formula of Matthew 28:19.
Tertullian (200 AD), like Justin and all others of that ilk, definitely connected his belief in the Trinity to trine immersion in water baptism. He wrote against the singular immersion of Praxeas, a Jesus Name preacher, stating, Not once, but thrice, for the several names, into several persons, are we dipped. 344 By the time of Tertullian, trine immersion in the name of the Father, Jesus and the Holy Ghost was in established law of the Catholic Churches.
Schaff revealed that the early Catholic Church made their converts strip themselves of their clothing so they can be baptized naked. He stated, The immersion consisted in thrice dipping the head of the candidate who stood nude in the water. 345 Schaff speaking of Jerome's baptismal formula of 390 AD stated, "triple immersion, that is, thrice dipping the head while standing in the water, was the all but universal rule of the [Catholic] Church in early times. There is proof of its existence in Africa, Palestine, Egypt, at Antioch and Constantinople, in Cappadocia and Rome." 346
79
The Pagan Origin of Trine Immersion and the Use of the Triune Titles of God in the Formula for Baptism
Where did Justin get his idea for trine immersions and connecting it to the godhead? Could it be from the pagans who practiced trine immersions, invoking the names of their gods in the Babylonian Trinity, which was composed of father, son and mother, who were called by different names in various countries. The Encyclopaedia Britannica commenting on the antiquity of trine immersions stated, Trine immersion then, as to the origin of which Basil confesses his ignorance.
It then went on to give its origin, For pagan lustrations [or baptismal ceremony for purification] were normally threefold...Virgil...Ovid...and Horace (Ep. i. I.37) similarly speak of trine lustrations; and on the last mentioned passage the scholiast Acro remarks: He uses the words thrice purely, because people in expiating their sins, plunge themselves in thrice. Such examples of the ancient usage encounter us everywhere in Greek and Latin antiquity. 347 There can be no doubt that Justin received his inspiration for his trine immersion doctrine from Mystery Babylon or one of her pagan daughters.
Professor Guignebert speaking of the pagan element in Catholic baptism stated, Baptism itself has now become a complicated ceremonial embracing at least a course of special instructions and exorcisms, a threefold immersion, the laying on hands, accompanied by an anointing with holy oil and the first communion. It is not difficult to recognize echoes of the spirit of the Hellenistic Mysteries in these progressive stages of initiation of these all-powerful rites. The converts won from the tenets of Orphism or the Mysteries do not willing renounce these in becoming Christians. On the contrary, they seek and desire to find them in [Catholic] Christianity, and even unconsciously - though irresistibly - they introduce them into it. 348
255 AD, Catholic Priest Cyprian Changes the Catholic Formula for Baptism by Takings the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ Out of their Second Immersion and Replacing It with the Title Son
As we can see from the preceding paragraphs, the pagan mode of trine immersion and the threefold name of god used in water baptism was copied by Justin Martyr and introduce into Nicolaitan Christianity by him. This was done to confirm and teach his deceived converts his form of the Trinitarian doctrine. All of his Catholic pagan buddies imitated him and started doing the same. Now this is an important point for my readers to remember, if they wish to understand the following historical quotes concerning the horrendous battle that took place between the Roman Catholic Churches and the African Catholic Churches over the name of Jesus used in the baptismal formula.
Both parties in this conflict knew that the book of Acts and history taught baptism by single immersion in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, but as we have said before, this did not agree with their two-god doctrine. The conflict started when the African Nicolaitan Churches decided they could best teach their godhead doctrine, by taking the name of Jesus out of their Trinitarian formula of baptism, and substituting in its place the title son, exactly the way it is stated in Matthew 28:19. This act violated the baptismal tradition Justin started. For one hundred and 80 five years or from 150-255 AD, all Catholic Churches baptized in a trine immersion using the formula in the name of God the Father, the Saviour Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost. With these things in mind, lets examine the history of this battle.
Around 255 AD, Cyprian and the many of the African Catholics bishops, rebelled against the standard formula for baptism and change it. This is the first place in history where not only baptism in all the titles of the godhead was used, but also where Jesus Name baptism was formally denounced. As a result, Bishop Stephen of Rome (254-257 AD) reproved them for this. The African Catholics were probably angry with Gods Jesus Name Churches because they re- baptized all their Catholic and other heretical converts with one immersion in the name of Jesus. As a result, they retaliated by taking the name of Jesus out of their baptismal formula.
The Encyclopedia Britannica speaking about this conflict stated, "In the third century, baptism in the name of Christ was still so wide spread that Pope Stephen, in opposition to Cyprian of Carthage, declared it to be valid." 349 In fact, baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ was so popular up to 255 AD, that all the heretical Catholic Bishops in the Roman Empire, and heretics of other denominations, used the name of Jesus in their baptismal formula, either with one immersion or three. They all continued to baptize this way, excluding the African and a few others, until 325 AD. Bishop Stephen was obviously a strong believer in baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, and violently opposed the new African formula.
Historians have done their best to totally ignore the real issue in this conflict, which is the name of Jesus in the formula for baptism. The only thing they mention is that it was over the baptism of heretics, whether or not they should be re-baptized. So, there is absolutely no need to quote any of these bias historians on this particular issue. The best way to discover the real truth about the conflict is to read the writings of those who were involved in it.
In the Ante Nicene Fathers, there is a writing entitled A Treatise On Re-baptism, written somewhere between 255 AD, by an anonymous writer. There is no doubt in this author's mind that it was one of Bishop Stephen's Epistles, which he sent to the Catholic Churches that were scattered throughout the Roman Empire. No Protestant or Catholic historian has ever tried to explain how or why all the epistles Pope Stephen wrote in this conflict were mysteriously lost. Not only this, but how or why all the letters written to him by other Catholic Bishops, who agreed with him, were mysteriously lost. Not to mention the mysterious disappearance of all the records of the Council of Rome that Stephen called in 255 AD, whereby all the Catholic Bishops throughout the Roman Empire excommunicated all of the African Catholic Churches .
Lets hear what this Catholic Pope has to say against some of the rebellious Catholic Bishops in Africa: I observe that it has been asked among the [Catholic] brethren what course ought specially to be adopted towards the persons of those who, although baptized in heresy, have yet been baptized in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.... The point is whether, according to the most ancient custom and ecclesiastical tradition, it would suffice, after baptism which they have received outside the [Catholic] Church indeed, but still in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, that only hands should be laid upon them by the bishop for the reception of the Holy Spirit, and this imposition of hands would afford them the renewed and perfected seal of faith; or whether, a repetition of baptism afresh, just as if they were never baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
Bishop Stephen went on to say, no controversy or discussion could have arisen at all if each one of us had been content with the venerable authority of all the churches, and with becoming 81 humility had desired to innovate nothing [meaning to introduce a new formula for baptism], as observing no kind of room for contradiction. 350 He went on to explain the importance of the name of Jesus in water baptism. He says, The Lord said in the Gospel: `except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.' Whence it manifestly appears that baptism alone is profitable wherein also the Holy Spirit can dwell...the apostles had charged those whom they addressed in the Holy Spirit, that they should be baptized in the name of Christ Jesus.
Pope Stephen went on exalting the name of Jesus by saying, the power of the name of Jesus invoked upon any man by baptism, might afford to him who should be baptized, no slight advantage for the attainment of salvation as Peter related in the Acts of the Apostles, saying: ` for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.' As also the apostle Paul unfolds, showing that...invocation should be made in the name of Jesus.... Therefore ought this invocation of the name of Jesus to be received as a certain beginning of the mystery of the Lord common to us and to all others [meaning other denominations]. 351
Bishop Stephen continued his discourse by rebuking the African Catholic Bishops for changing the formula for water baptism. He said, You esteem what our Lord said as being contrary to this treatment: go ye, teach the nations; baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Because, although this is true and right, and to be observed by all means in the Church, and moreover has been observed, yet it behooves us to consider that the invocation of the name of Jesus ought not to be thought futile, or done away. He continued by saying, with the authority of so many years, and so many churches and apostles and bishops; even as it is the very greatest disadvantage and damage to our most holy mother [the Catholic] Church, now for the first time suddenly and without reason to rebel against former decisions after so long a series of so many ages.... The invocation of the name of Jesus which cannot be done away, may not seem to be held in disesteem by us; which assuredly is not fitting. 352
Pope Stephen concluded his Epistle to the African Catholic Churches by giving his decision on the subject. He said, Wherefore the whole of this discussion must be considered, that it may be made clearer. For the invocation of the name of Jesus can only be an advantage if it shall be subsequently properly supplemented, because both prophets and apostles have so declared. For James says in the Acts of the Apostles: `men and brethren, hearken: Simon hath declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name.' [Therefore] heretics who are already baptized in water in the name of Jesus Christ must only be baptized with the Holy Spirit. 353
Lets examine this Epistle to see what we can learn about the author and his Faith. First, the writer of this Epistle is Catholic because he calls the Church our most holy mother. This is a standard term that Catholic Bishops have used many times in their writings. Secondly, the author defended baptism in Jesus Name, and connected it to salvation. In fact, he even believed heretics can receive remission of sins as long as they were baptized in the name of Jesus. Third, he claimed that baptism in Jesus Name is the most ancient custom, and has been around for many ages. He also claimed that it had the support of the apostles and bishops, and many churches.
Fourth, he rebuked certain ones for changing the formula for baptism by taking the name of Jesus out. He claim that this was the first time in the history of their church, that anyone in their organization has rebelled against the venerable authority of all the churches concerning 82 the formula for baptism. He even accused them of not understanding Matthew 28:19, as though our Lord was teaching something contrary to what they were teaching. He reminds them that Matthew 28:19 has been observed in their churches, no doubt through Justins Trinitarian formula. He then told them that the invocation of the name of Jesus must not be done away with in the baptismal formula.
My fifth and last comment, the author claimed that heretics cannot receive the Holy Ghost outside the Catholic Church. They needed a Catholic Bishop to lay hands on them to receive it. The author definitely speaks as though he is a man who has authority. At the end of his Epistle, He gave these instructions, Heretics who are already baptized in water in the name of Jesus Christ must only be baptized with the Holy Ghost.
Cyprian wrote many letters to the Catholic Bishops in Africa vehemently condemning Pope Stephen and all the other Catholic Bishops who were opposed to the new African Trinitarian formula for baptism. In one letter he wrote, "The apostles are sent by the Lord to the heathens, they are bidden to baptize the Gentiles ` in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' How, then do some say that a gentile baptized without, outside the [Catholic] Church, yea, and in opposition to the church, so that it [water baptism] be only in the name of Jesus Christ, everywhere and in whatever manner, can obtain remission of sin, when Christ Himself commands the heathen to be baptized in the full and unite Trinity. 354
Cyprian, like all other Catholic apologists, believed that water baptism was essential to salvation, therefore, he condemned Stephen for claiming that so-called heretics were children of God because they baptized in Jesus name. This is exactly why the African Catholic Church took the name of Jesus out of Justins Trinitarian baptismal formula. They hated the Jesus Name people so much that they did not want to have anything in common with them.
Lets read Cyprians condemnation of Stephen. He said, Why has the bitter obstinacy of our brother Stephen broken forth to such an extent, as to contend that sons are born to God from the baptism of Marcion; moreover of Valentinus and Apelles, and of others who blaspheme against God the Father; and to say that remission of sins is granted in the name of Jesus Christ. 355 Let my readers notice that Pope Stephen like the author of Re-baptism, affirmed that baptism in the name of Jesus alone is sufficient to remove sins.
In 255 AD, Cyprian called a Council at Carthage in which 31 bishops denounced baptism in the name of Jesus. This is the first council in history, where baptism in the name of Jesus was formally denounced. After this Council, Catholic Pope Stephen called a Roman Council, in which he and other Catholic Bishops excommunicate Cyprian and all those in the African Synod for their stand on baptism.
Cyprian wrote to Jubaian in 256 AD, defending the African Catholic Churches stand on the formula for baptism. In it he revealed that Stephen and all the other Catholic Bishops claimed that those who join their churches from other denominations "ought not to be baptized because they seem already to have been baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ. We ought to consider, likewise, the faith of those who believe without as to whether they can gain any grace according to that same faith. For if there is one faith for both us and the heretics, there can also be we one grace.
83 Cyprian continued, If the Patripassians [the one God, Jesus' Name believers], the Anthropians, the Valentinians, the Apelletians, the Ophites, the Marcionites, and others, pests of heretics, and swords and poisons for overthrowing the truth, confess the same Father, the same Son, the same Holy Ghost, the same church, it can be that their baptism is one, if faith is also one. There cannot be any hope of salvation except in the knowledge of these two not three persons or gods in the godhead. Notice, he connected the formula of water baptism with his godhead teachings.
Cyprian went on to say, God the Father has not been known, nay rather, has been blasphemed.... How, therefore do some say that a Gentile baptized without, outside the Church, nay rather, and against the [Catholic] Church, provided it be in the Name of Jesus Christ, wherever it be and whatever it be, can obtain the remission of sins, when Christ Himself ordered the Gentiles to be baptized in the complete and united Trinity." 356 Here is another proof that Pope Stephen wrote the Epistle on Re-baptism, for he contended that so-called heretics who baptized in name of Jesus, do not need to be re-baptized.
This is also absolute proof that not only the one God, Jesus Name Modalist Monarchians, or in this case, the Patripassians baptized in the name of Jesus, but many, if not all of the heretics did also. Some of the heretics Cyprian mentions were Pope Stephen and other Catholics Bishops, the Anthropians, the Valentinians, the Apelletians, the Ophites and the Marcionites. This can only mean that name of the Lord Jesus Christ was the baptismal formula, or used in the formula of most of the religious denominations of the first, second and third centuries.
If this is not true, then Cyprian's argument would be a lie. For his argument was basically this, if water baptism in the name of Jesus is correct, then all so-called heretics who baptize that way are saved and have their sins remitted. Even though, according to him, they blaspheme the Father by their teachings on the godhead and were always standing against them, they would still be considered Children of God. His conclusion was, since these things can not be, baptism in the name of Jesus can not be correct, but baptism in all the titles of the Trinity must alone be true baptism.
Bishop Firmilian wrote to Cyprian in 256 AD stating that, "Stephen and those who agree with him contend that the remission of sins and a second birth can proceed from the baptism of heretics, among whom even they themselves confess that the Holy Spirit is not, let them consider and know that there cannot be spiritual birth without the Spirit.... [It] is also absurd for them to think it is not necessary to inquire who it is [the minister] who has baptized, because he who has been baptized may have received grace by the invocation of the Trinity of the names. 357
The above statement is another proof that Catholic Pope Stephen wrote the Epistle on Re- baptism, for he also contended that none of these religious groups were born of Gods Spirit. Let my readers also notice that this letter clearly revealed that their were many other Catholic Bishops who agreed with Stephen that the name of Jesus should be used in Justins Trinitarian formula for baptism.
Firmilian continued by saying, If the baptism of heretics can have the regeneration of the second birth, they who are baptized among them must not be considered heretics but sons of God, because the second birth which is baptism generates sons of God. But, if the spouse of Christ, which is the Catholic Church, is one, it is she herself alone who generates sons to God. Let my readers take note of his argument against Jesus Name baptism. He basically argues, this 84 proposition, if baptism in the name of Jesus is correct, than all heretics must be considered children of God, for they have received the new birth. Since this can not be true, then baptism in the all the titles of the godhead must be true baptism.
Firmilian went on to say, I am justly indignant in this respect at this so open and manifest stupidity of Stephen that he who so glories in the place of his episcopate [meaning the City of Rome] and contends [claims] that he has the succession from Peter, on whom the foundations of the Church were established, should introduce many other rocks and constitute new buildings of many churches while he maintains by his authority that baptism is there. For...he says, the Name of Christ accomplishes very much for the faith and sanctification of baptism, that whoever anywhere has been baptized in the name of Christ, immediately gains the grace of Christ." 358
Let my readers take a minute to reflect on this last statement, for it contains the true feelings of Pope Stephen and the majority of other Catholic Bishops concerning the importance of the name of Jesus in the baptismal formula. Even though these men baptized in a triune formula and by trine immersions, it must have been the second immersion in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ they believed brought salvation, the remission of sins or the grace of God to the one being baptized. If they truly believed that the first immersion in the name of the Father, or the third immersion in the name of the Holy Ghost, was also needed to bring salvation, they would have never claimed that the Patripassians and some of the other religious groups, who practiced single immersion in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, were truly baptized or saved.
Even though Pope Stephen and these other Catholic Bishops knew that single immersion in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ alone was sufficient for the remission of sins, they had to add the other two immersions to confirm their form of Trinitarianism to their members and converts. Lets not forget, it was their distorted view of the Logos doctrine that cause the early apostates to depart from the truth. They just could not believe the oneness of the godhead because it was contrary to the two god teaching of their heroes - Plato and Philo.
Firmilian also mentioned that Stephen and all the other Catholic Bishops objected to their African formula for baptism in respect to the refutation of custom, which they seem to oppose to the truth.... And this is observed among us, that whosoever is dipped by them and come to us are baptized among us as strangers, and have obtained nothing without the only and true baptism of the [African] Catholic Church." 359 This is just another proof that Pope Stephen wrote the previous mention document on Re-baptism, for the author of this work defended baptism in the name of Christ as the ancient custom of the Catholic Church for so many ages.
In September of 258 AD, Cyprian and about 87 African bishops, presbyters and deacons met at Carthage to denounce their Catholic brethren and the thousands of so-called heretical ministers who baptized in the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lets hear what the these heretics had to say against the truth. He told his small band of rebels that all one God, Jesus' Name believers, along with the false religious denominations, who baptized in the name of Jesus, "must be baptized and sanctified by the baptism of the [African Catholic] Church. 360 What he meant by the term the baptism of the church is obviously baptism in all the titles of the Trinity.
Munnulus of Girba proclaimed, the truth of our mother the Catholic Church ...in the Trinity of baptism ...[is] in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 361 The writer of 85 Re-baptism also called the Catholic Church our mother. Eucharatius of Thenae told his fellow African Catholic heretics, the false and wicked baptism [meaning in the name of Jesus] of heretics must be rejected by us [as] blasphemy of the Trinity. 362 Notice, Munnulus and Eucharatius connected the formula of baptism with the godhead. Januarius of Muzzuli said, If heretics have baptism, we have it not, but if we have it, heretics cannot have it." 363
Polycarp from Adrumetum said that the Catholic Bishops in the Roman Empire, who approve the baptism of heretics makes void our baptism. 364 It must of grieved Polycarp that the majority of his fellow Catholic Bishops, defended baptism in Jesus Name, even if they did use the titles of Father and Holy Ghost in their Trinitarian formula. The truth is that baptism by singular immersion in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, done by the true believers, not only make void the African Catholic Churches baptism but the Roman Catholic Churches baptism as well.
Weisser in his great work entitled, Jesus' Name Baptism Through The Centuries, revealed that the Catholic Church held a General Council at Arles in Gaul in 314 AD. At this council they declared that Cyprian and his band of renegades were right to baptize so-called heretics who did not believe in the Trinity. Nothing was mention of the formula for baptism. Canon eight stated, Concerning the Africans, because they used their own law so as to rebaptize, it has been decided that, if anyone from a heretical sect come to the [Catholic] Church, he should be asked his [godhead] creed.... But if, upon being questioned, he does not answer the Trinity, let him be baptized." 365
Weisser quoted Robert Robinson book entitled Ecclesiastical Researches as saying the following about the Council of Nice in 325 AD, "All the classes, who did not hold the doctrine of a Trinity of persons in God, whether called Aretemonites, Paulianists, Arians, Monarchians, Patripassians, Sabellians, or by any other name, administered baptism in the name of Christ: and these were the people, whom the council of Nice required to be rebaptized." 366 As my readers by now should know, the Modalist Monarchians or Patripassians and Sabellians were the true believers of their day.
Catholic Bishop Basil (370 AD) commenting on the titles used in the three immersions of baptism says, Whoever, therefore, is worthy to be baptized in the Name of the Holy Spirit and who has been born anew, undergoes a change of abode, habits and associates, so that, walking by the Spirit we may merit to be baptized in the Name of the Son and to put on Christ.... Then, having put on the Son of God who gives us power to become children of God, we are baptized in the Name of the Father and are called sons of God. 367
From all of the above quotes, one should realize by now that most of the Catholic Churches had by 325 AD accepted the new Trinitarian formula. Many of the Catholic Popes from this time on condemned baptism in Jesus Name, and demanded all those who came to the Catholic Church to be baptized in the all the titles of the Trinity. When the Roman Catholic Bishops accepted the African Catholics Trinitarian formula, they had to bow their knee to the African Bishops. If it was not for this conflict, the Trinitarian doctrine of three separate persons in the godhead may have never became a doctrine in the Catholic Church or even in the Protestant Churches that it is today.
Books Written by the Author and Given Away on His Website: A Biblical, Medical, and Psychological Account of the Sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ 86 The Heresy of the Nicolaitans Biblical Creationism vs Pantheistic Theories of Evolution (Nature Worship) A Prophetic History of Gods Apostolic Pentecostal Church (The Seven Prophetic Periods of the Church Age) The Mysteries of Prophecy Revealed What Do You Mean I Must Be Born Again? Preacher, What Must I Do to Inherit Eternal Life? A Historical Record of Speaking in Tongues The Mysteries of the Godhead Revealed A History of Oneness Throughout the Centuries (Baptism in Jesus Name, the Godhead in Christ) What Happens to Mans Spirit, Soul and Body Immediately after Death? What Is Lost Mans Eternal Destiny? (Immediate Annihilation, Eternal Torment, Torment for a Time and Then Universal Salvation, or Torment for a Time and Then Annihilation) The Mysteries of the Spirit and Soul of Man Revealed (What Are They? Does Each Nature of Man Have Mind, Will, and Emotions?) Holiness: Gods Beauty College What Is Gods Rest for the Believer: the Sabbath Day or Gods Sabbath Spirit How to Study the Bible A Calendar of Biblical and Historical Dates and Events Beginning with the Creation of Adam The Heresies of the Pharisaical Jewish Ebionites William Marion Branham: His Life, Teachings, and Demonic Spirit-Guide Nutrition and Nutritional Charts Law vs Grace or Works vs Faith Water Baptism: the Essentiality, the Mode, and the Formula Glossolalia: Ten Steps of Faith to Receiving the Baptism of the Holy Ghost Glossolalia and the New Birth Benefits of Salvation and the False Doctrines that Hinder It Eternal Life vs Eternal Death
Christs Loving Servant,
Harry A. Peyton 148 Little Creek Hills Rd. Alto, NM 88312 Telephone # 575-336-2800 Internet Address: [email protected] Website: DoctrinesOfChrist.com
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ENDNOTES
1 Life Of Christ, Jones, pg i [the foreword] 2 History of the Christian Church, Schaff, vol. III, pp. 663-664). 3 New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol 14, pp 296-297. 4 History Of The Christian Church, Schaff, vol. 3, pg 664. 5 The Early History Of Christianity, Guignebert, pp 12, 13. 6 The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911, vol 10, pg 450. 7 The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911, vol 10, pg 450. 8 Encyclopedia Of Religion and Ethics, Hastings, vol 6, pp 617, 616. 9 History Of Dogma, Harnack, vol 3, pg 60. 10 Ante Nicene Fathers, vol 3, pg 597. 11 Dictionary Of Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties, and Schools Of Religious Though, Blunt, pg 340. 91
12 The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911, vol 10, pg 449. 13 Ante Nicene Fathers, vol 3, pg 602. 14 Ib., vol 3, Tertullian, Against Praxeas, chps 19-20, pg 1153 15 Ante Nicene Fathers, vol 3, pt 2, Tertullian, Against Praxeas, bk 7, chp 27, pg 1169. 16 Ante Nicene Fathers, vol 3, pt 2, Tertullian, Against Praxeas, bk 7, chp 29, pg 1174 17 Ib., vol 5, pg 125. 18 History Of Dogma, Harnack, vol 3, pg 57 19 Ante Nicene Fathers, Hippolytus, vol 5, bk 9, chp 2, pg 259. 20 History Of Dogma, Harnack, vol 3, pg 64. 21 Ante Nicene Fathers, vol 5, pg 127. 22 History Of Dogma, Harnack, vol 3, pg 68 23 Ante Nicene Fathers, vol 5, pp 130-131. 24 History Of Dogma, Harnack, vol 3, pg 85. 25 Ante Nicene Fathers, vol 6, Epistle on Arian Heresy and Deposition of Arius, chp 1, sec 12, pg 589. 26 Dictionary Of Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties, and Schools Of Religious Though, Blunt, pp 512,513. 27 N&PNF, series 2, vol 2, Socrates, bk 1, chp 30, pp 155-156. 28 The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911, vol 10, pp 451, 450. 29 The Philosophy Of The Church Fathers, Wolfson, pp 583-584. 30 History Of The Christian Church, Schaff, vol 2, pp 854, 855. 31 The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911, vol 10, pg 449. 32 Dictionary Of Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties, and Schools Of Religious Though, Blunt, pp 294, 295. 33 The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire, Gibbon, vol 1, pp 393-394. 34 Dictionary Of Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties, and Schools Of Religious Though, Blunt, pp 426, 427. 35 Encyclopedia Of Religion And Ethics, vol. 12, pp 458-460. 36 The Encyclopedia Of Religion, Heading Trinity, vol 15, pg 54. 37 The Encyclopedia Britannica, 1910 ed., vol. 2, pg 285. 38 Cyclopedia Of Biblical Theological And Ecclesiastical Literature, Heading of Trinity, vol. 10, pg. 553. 39 History Of Dogma, 1910 ed., vol. 4, appendix i; vol. 2, pg. 209. 40 Essays and Sketches, Newman, vol 1, pg 142. 41 Essays and Sketches, Newman, vol 1, pp 218, 232. 42 Essays and Sketches, Newman, vol 1, pg 205. 43 Essays and Sketches, Newman, vol 1, pp 209, 232. 44 The Two Babylons, Hislop, pp. 14-18. 45 The Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 4, pg. 54. 46 The Mission And Expansion Of Christianity, Harnack, pg 439. 47 The Mission And Expansion Of Christianity, pg 293. 48 I.S.B.E., heading Trinity section 22. 49 History Of Dogma, Harnack, vol 2, pp 228, 175. 50 The Philosophy Of The Church Fathers, pg 191. 51 Ante Nicene Fathers, vol 1, Ignatius, Ep to Smyraeans, chp 7, pp 110-111, & chp 20, pp 122, 120, also chp 1, pg 175, long ver., Sage Digital Library. 52 Ib., vol 1, chp 15, pg 136, short ver., & pg 137, long ver., Sage. 53 Ib., vol 1, chp 6, pg 129, also chp 11, pg 134, long ver., Sage. 54 Ib., vol 1, chp 5, pg 212, chp 6, pg 213, Sage. 55 A Critical History Of The Evolution Of Trinitarianism, Paine, pg 29. 56 The Philosophy Of The Church Fathers, pp 582, 292. 57 Ante Nicene Fathers, vol 1, Justin, First Apology, chp 33, pg 326, Sage 58 Ib., vol 1, Justin, Second Apology, chp 6, pg 364, & chp 13, pg 370, Sage. 59 Ib., vol 1, Dialogue with Trypho a Jew, chp 61, pp 453, 454; chp 62, pg 455; chp 130, pg 540; chp 128, pg 539. 60 Ib., vol 2, Tatian, Address to the Greeks, chp 5, pg 133, Sage & vol 2, pg 67 bk. 61 Ib., vol. 2, Theophilus, To Autolycus, bk 2, chp 10, pg 195. 62 Ib., vol 2, Theophilus, to Autolycus, bk 2, chp 22, pg 207. 63 Ib., vol 2, Theophilus, To Autolycus, bk 2, chp 15, pg 201 64 Ib., vol 1, Irenaeus Against Heresies, bk 2, chp 27, pg 830. 65 Ib., vol 1, Irenaeus Against Heresies, bk 3, chp 11, pg 886. 66 Ib., vol 1, Irenaeus Frag. 39, pg 1191; Frag. 53, pg 1195. 67 Ib., vol 1, Irenaeus, bk4, chp 20, sec 11, pp 1013. 92
68 Ib., vol 1, Irenaeus, bk 3, chp 10, pg 878. 69 Ib., vol. 1, Irenaeus, bk 4, chp 38,pg 1075, sec 1, &2. 70 History of the Christian Church, Schaff, vol. 2, pg. 555. 71 Ante Nicene Fathers, vol 3, pt 2, Tertullian, Against Praxeas, bk 7, chp 23, pg 1161 72 Ib., vol 3, pt 2, Tertullian, Against Praxeas, bk 7, chps. 5-6, pp 1124-1127, Sage 73 Ib., vol 3, pt 2, Tertullian: Against Praxeas, bk 7, chp 7, pp 1128-1129, chp 9, pp 1131-1132. 74 The Zohar, vol. 3, 42a, pg. 130; even though the majority of the Jewish Zohar is allegorical trash, and the Babylonian Talmud also, every now and then you can find some truth. 75 Ante Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, Dialogue of Justin with Trypho a Jew, chp 114, pg 520. 76 Ib., vol 3, pt 2, Tertullian: Against Praxeas, bk 7, chp 25, pg 1165. 77 Ib., vol 3, pt 2, Tertullian: Against Praxeas, bk 7, chp 8, pg 1129, chp 26, pg 1167, chp 14, pg 1142. 78 History Of The Christian Church, Schaff, vol. 2, pg. 552. 79 History Of Dogma, vol. 2, pg. 354. 80 Ante Nicene Fathers, vol. 4, pg. 246. 81 Ib., vol. 6, pg. 92, 93. 82 Ib., vol. 7, pg. 105. 83 Ib., vol. 6, pg. 296. 84 The Ethnic Trinities, pp 80, 81. 85 Ante Nicene Fathers, vol. 7, pg. 105. 86 The Ethnic Trinities, Paine, pp 131, 130. 87 Ante Nicene Fathers, vol 1, pg 183, chp 60. 88 Who Was Who In Church History, Moyer, pp 331-332. 89 The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol 4, pg 2382 90 The Philosophy Of The Church Fathers, pp 582, 292. 91 The Ethnic Trinities, Paine, pp 131, 130. 92 The Early History Of Christianity, pg 116 93 The Cambridge Medieval History, pg 11. 94 The Early History Of Christianity, pp 167, 168. 95 The Cambridge Medieval History, pg 10. 96 Ib., vol 2, ser 2, Socrates Scholasticus, bk 1, chp 8, pp56-58. 97 Ante Nicene Fathers, vol. 2, pp. 8, 9. 98 The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire, vol. 1, pp 17, 375. 99 Ante Nicene Fathers, vol. 2, pp. 9, 11. 100 Encyclopedia Of Religion And Ethics, vol. 2, pg 350. 101 New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol 14, pp 296-297. 102 History Of The Christian Church, Schaff, vol. 3, pg 664. 103 The Church Teaches, pp. 125-127. 104 Nicene And Post Nicene Fathers, vol. 6, pg 326. 105 The Works Of John Adams, Adams, vol 10, pp 44, 84, 100. 106 Strong's Exhaustive Concordance Of The Bible, #2937. 107 Ib., #3466. 108 Encyclopedia Of Occultism And Parapsychology, vol. 2, pg. 920. 109 Secret Societies And Subversive Movements, Webster, pg. 4 . 110 The Republic Of Plato, Bryan, pp. 315, 110-111. 111 Encyclopedia Of Occultism And Parapsychology, vol. 3, pg. 1198. 112 The Two Babylons, Hislop, pp 12-13. 113 Ante Nicene Fathers, vol 8, Recognition of Clement, bk 4, chps 27-29, pp 269-270. 114 The Mythology Of All Races, MacCulloch, pg. 55. 115 The Two Babylons, pp 12-13. 116 The Works Of Flavius Josephus, pg. 30. 117 The Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 9, pp. 309-310. 118 The Two Babylons, pg. 228. 119 The Babylonian Connection, Jones, pg. 141. 120 The Mystery Of Babylon Revealed, Mitchell & Scharf, pg. 20. 121 Encyclopedia Of Religion And Ethics, Hastings, vol. 6, pg. 250. 122 The Babylonian Connection, pg. 2. 123 The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. 4, pg. 2333. 93
124 The Mystery Of Babylon Revealed, pp. 20-21. 125 The Two Babylons, pp. 58-59, 69, 21. 126 Secret Societies, Webster, pg. 4. 127 The Origin And Growth Of Religion As Illustrated By The Religion Of Ancient Egypt, Renouf, pg. 228. 128 Babylon Mystery Religion, Woodrow, pp. 82-83. 129 The Early History Of Christianity, pg 170. 130 Secret Societies, Daraul, pg 80. 131 The Early History Of Christianity, pg 68. 132 The Babylonian Connection, Jones, pg 48. 133 Witchcraft In History, Holmes, pg 34. 134 The Secret Societies, Heckethorn, vol 1, pg 75. 135 Ib., vol. 1, pp 14, 75, 74. 136 Nicene And Post Nicene Fathers, vol 6, pg 326. 137 Essays And Sketches, Newman, vol 1, pg 142. 138 Ib., vol 1, pp 218, 232 139 Ib., vol 1, pg 205. 140 Ib., vol 1, pp 209, 232. 141 Ib., vol 1, pg 152. 142 Encyclopedia Of Religion And Ethics, Hastings, vol 8, pg 780. 143 Ante Nicene Fathers, vol 1, chp 6, pg 143, long ver., Sage. 144 Ib., vol 1, Ignatius, Epistle to the Philippians, chps 2-3, pg 230. 145 Ib., vol 1, chp 5, pg 212, Sage 146 Ib., vol 1, chp 1, pg 216, Sage. 147 Ib., vol 1, chp 63, pg 352, Sage. 148 Ib., vol 1, bk 3, chp 16, pg 909, sec 1, Sage. 149 Ib., vol 3, pp 598-599. 150 Ib., vol 3, pp 598-599. 151 Ib., vol 5, pp 148, 127-128. 152 History Of Dogma, Harnack, vol 3, pp 71, 72, 79. 153 Cyclopedia Of Biblical Theological And Ecclesiastical Literature, vol 6, pp 448-449. 154 Ante Nicene Fathers, Dialogues with Trypho, vol 1, chp 128, pg 538, Sage. 155 Cyclopedia Of Biblical Theological And Ecclesiastical Literature, vol 6, pp 448-449; op. cit. Ante Nicene Fathers, Justin Martyr, First Apol., chp 63. 156 History Of Dogma, Harnack, vol 3, pp 51- 54. 157 I.S.B.E., Heading Trinity section 22. 158 They Speak In Other Tongues, Sherrill, pg 82. 159 The Biblical Repository, April 1834, pg 272. 160 Dictionary of the Bible, vol 1, pg 88. 161 The Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp 173-174. 162 New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol 2, pg 59. 163 The Philosophy Of The Church Fathers, Wolfson, pg 310 164 Essays And Sketches, Newman, vol 1, pg 152. 165 Ante Nicene Fathers, vol 3, pp 598-599. 166 Ib., vol 1, chp 6, pg 143, long ver., Sage. 167 A History Of The Christian Church In The Apostolic Age, McGiffert, pg 61. 168 Ante Nicene Fathers, vol 2, Hermas, The Shepherd, vol 1, chp 3, pg 7; 3.9.16 (11, 13, 15, 48, 49). 169 The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 10th ed., vol 3, pp 365-366. 170 The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol 2, pg 263; also ` the change ' pg 33. 171 Ante Nicene Fathers, vol 8, Acts of Paul and Thecla, pg 490. 172 Ib., vol 1, chp 63, pg 352, Sage. 173 New International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol 2, pp 377-378, 389. 174 Scribner's Dictionary Of The Bible, vol 1, pg 241. 175 Dictionary Of The Bible, Hastings, article Baptism, vol 1, pg 241. 176 Ante Nicene Fathers, vol 1, pg 183. 177 Ib., vol 3, pp 623, 626 178 Ib., vol 3, pg 60. 179 Ib., vol 1, bk 3, chp 16, pg 909, sec 1, Sage. 94
180 Ib., vol 5, pg 125. 181 History Of Dogma, Harnack, vol 3, pg 60. 182 Ib., vol 3, pg 57 183 Ante Nicene Fathers, vol 5, pg 125. 184 Encyclopedia Of Religion And Ethics, Hastings, vol 8, pg 830. 185 Dictionary Of Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties, and Schools Of Religious Though, Blunt, pp 340, 341. 186 The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911, vol 10, pg 449; vol 8, pg 1079. 187 Encyclopedia Of Religion And Ethics, Hastings, vol 10, pg 81. 188 The Story of the Christian Church, Hurlbut, pg 66; op. cit. The New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol 9, pg 1079. 189 Encyclopedia Of Religion And Ethics, Hastings, vol 8, pp 828, 830. 190 History Of Dogma, Harnack, vol 3, pg 68 191 Ib., vol 3, pg 53. 192 Ante Nicene Fathers, vol 3, pp 598-599. 193 Ib., vol 3, Against Praxeas chp. 26. 194 Ib., vol 3, pp 598-599. 195 Ib., vol 5, pp 130-131. 196 Dictionary Of Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties, and Schools Of Religious Though, Blunt, pp 512,513. 197 The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911, vol 10, pp 451, 450. 198 The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911, vol 10, pg 449. 199 History Of Dogma, Harnack, vol 2, pg 373, vol 3, pg 84. 200 Ante Nicene Fathers, vol 5, pp 148, 127-128. 201 History Of Dogma, Harnack, vol 3, pp 51- 54. 202 The Philosophy Of The Church Fathers, Wolfson, pp 583-584. 203 History Of The Christian Church, Schaff, vol 2, pp 854, 855. 204 New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol 9, pg 1079. 205 Ante Nicene Fathers, vol 4, pg 614. 206 Dictionary Of Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties, and Schools Of Religious Though, Blunt, pg 338. 207 Ib., pg 337. 208 History Of Dogma, Harnack., vol 3, pp 88, 89. 209 The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1910, vol 3, pg 365; op. cit. New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1967, vol 4, pg 876. 210 Ante Nicene Fathers, volume 5, pg 667. 211 Ib., vol 5, pg 670 212 Ib., vol 5, pg 388 213 History Of The Christian Church, Schaff, vol 2, pg 264. 214 The Fathers Of The Church, vol 51, pp 271, 272, 278, 279. 215 Ib., vol 51, pp 304, 306, 307. 216 Ante Nicene Fathers, vol 5, Cyprian, 73.5, pg 387. 217 The Early Christian Church, Davies, pg 138. 218 Encyclopedia Of Religious Knowledge, vol 1, pg 435. 219 History Of Dogma, Harnack, vol 3, pg 82. 220 The Mission And Expansion Of Christianity, Harnack, vol 1, pg 484. 221 The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911, vol 10, pg 449. 222 Dictionary Of Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties, and Schools Of Religious Though, Blunt, pg 338. 223 Ib., pg 514. 224 Canneys Encyclopedia Of Religion, under the heading of Baptism, pg 53. 225 History Of The Christian Church, Walker, pg 55. 226 Jesus Name Baptism Through The Centuries, Weisser, pg 7. 227 The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire, Gibbon, vol 1, pp 393-394. 228 Dictionary Of Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties, and Schools Of Religious Thought, Blunt, pp 426, 427. 229 Ib., pp 295, 427 230 Ante Nicene Fathers, vol 2, pp 44 -46. 231 Nicene And Post Nicene Fathers, Schaff, vol 4, pg 463. 232 Dictionary Of Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties, and Schools Of Religious Thought, Blunt, pg 427. 233 Nicene And Post Nicene Fathers, Schaff, vol 2, pg 45. 95
234 Ib., vol 2, pg 57. 235 Dictionary Of Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties, and Schools Of Religious Thought, Blunt, pg 428. 236 History Of Dogma, Harnack, vol 3, pg 80. 237 Nicene And Post Nicene Fathers, Schaff, vol 2, pg 101. 238 The Philosophy Of The Church Fathers, Wolfson, pp 583, 584, 585. 239 Dictionary Of Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties, and Schools Of Religious Thought, Blunt, pg 428. 240 History Of Dogma, Harnack, vol 3, pg 80. 241 Nicene And Post Nicene Fathers, Schaff, vol 2, pg 101. 242 The Philosophy Of The Church Fathers, Wolfson, pp 583, 584, 585. 243 The Fathers Of The Church, vol 44, pp 83, 50, 89. 244 History Of Dogma, Harnack, vol 4, pg 86. 245 The Fathers Of The Church, Basil, Letter 210, vol 8, Sec 3, pp 580-581. 246 Ib., vol 28, pg 242. 247 Ib., vol 13, pg 262. 248 Dictionary Of Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties, and Schools Of Religious Though, Blunt, pg 514, 428. 249 Ib., pg 295. 250 History Of The Christian Church, Schaff, vol 3, pg 485. 251 Dictionary Of Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties, and Schools Of Religious Though, Blunt, pg 338. 252 The Church Teaches, pg 125. 253 Nicene And Post Nicene Fathers, Schaff, vol 3, 388. 254 New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol 9, pg 1079. 255 Dictionary Of Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties, and Schools Of Religious Though, Blunt, pg 340. 256 The Fathers Of The Church, vol 2, pg 332. 257 Dictionary Of Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties, and Schools Of Religious Though, Blunt, pg 599. 258 New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol 9, pg 1079. 259 Jesus Name Baptism Through The Centuries, Weisser, pg 8. 260 Dictionary Of Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties, and Schools Of Religious Though, pg 295. 261 History Of Dogma, vol 3, pg 80. 262 Nicene And Post Nicene Fathers, vol 1, pg 295. 263 History Of The Christian Church, Arnold, pg 236; op. cit. Comptons Encyclopedia, 1974, vol 6, pg 410. 264 New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol 9, pg 1079. 265 Encyclopedia Of Religion And Ethics, Hastings, vol 8, pg 830. 266 Jesus Name Baptism Through The Centuries, Weisser, pg 8. 267 Encyclopedia Of Religion And Ethics, Hastings, vol 8, pg 780. 268 An Introduction To The Early History Of Christian Doctrine, pg 25 n. 1. 269 Nicene And Post Nicene Fathers, Schaff, vol 13, pg 83. 270 Encyclopedia Of Religion And Ethics, Hastings, vol 8, pg 780. 271 The Church Teaches, pg 130. 272 Dictionary Of Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties, and Schools Of Religious Though, Blunt, pg 514, 428. 273 History Of The Christian Church, Schaff, vol 3, pg 485. 274 History Of The Christian Church, Arnold, pg 263. 275 Ib., Arnold, pp 243, 264-265. 276 The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1910, vol 3, pg 366. 277 Jesus Name Baptism Through The Centuries, Weisser, pp 18-20. 278 Dictionary Of Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties, and Schools Of Religious Though, Blunt, pg 36. 279 The Encyclopedia Britannica, 1910, vol. 3, p 366. 280 The Nicene And Post Nicene Fathers, Schaff, vol 3, pg 391. 281 History Of The Christian Church, Arnold, pg 263. 282 Dictionary Of Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties, and Schools Of Religious Though, Blunt, pg 514. 283 History Of The Christian Church, Arnold, pg 262; op. cit. M P. Hamilton, The Charismatic Movement, pg 71. 284 Encyclopedia Of Religion And Ethics, Hastings, vol 8, pg 780. 285 The Church Teaches, pp 135-136. 286 History Of The Christian Church, Arnold, pp 226-227, 266. 287 Aspects Of Pentecostal-Charismatic Origins, Synan, pg 158. 288 Encyclopedia Americana, vol 15, pg 192. 289 Hunted Heretic, Bainton, Bainton, pp 278- 279, 298. 290 Christianity Through The Centuries, Cairns, pp 332, 333. 96
291 History Of The Christian Church, Arnold, pp 264, 238, 264, 265. 292 Encyclopedia Americana, vol 15, pg 192. 293 Who Was Who In Church History, Moyer, pp 370, 371. 294 Dictionary Of Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties, and Schools Of Religious Though, Blunt, pg 37. 295 Antitrinitarian Biography, Wallace, vol 1, pp 432, 450, 449. 296 Early And Medieval Christianity, Bainton, pg 136. 297 Hunted Heretic, Bainton, pg 49 298 Cyclopedia Of Biblical Theological And Ecclesiastical Literature, vol 9, pg 590. 299 The Two Treatises Of Servetus On The Trinity, tr by Earl Wilbur, pp 173-174 300 Ib., pp 196-197 301 Antitrinitarian Biography, Wallace, vol 1, pp 442-444. 302 Dictionary Of Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties, and Schools Of Religious Though, Blunt, pg 557. 303 Who Was Who In Church History, Moyer, pp 311-312. 304 Antitrinitarian Biography, Wallace, vol 2, pp 349, 350. 305 Jesus Name Baptism Through The Centuries, pg 29. 306 History Of Dogma, Harnack, vol 7, pg 132. 307 Hunted Heretic, Bainton, pg 206. 308 Jesus Name Baptism Through The Centuries, Weisser, pg 31. 309 Antitrinitarian Biography, Wallace, vol 1, pg 90. 310 Ib., vol 1, pp 161, 164-165, 167-169. 311 Aspects Of Pentecostal-Charismatic Origins, Synan, pg 126. 312 Cyclopedia of Biblical Theological And Ecclesiastical Literature, vol 10, pp 485-486; op. cit. History Of The Christian Church, Schaff, vol 1, pg 237. 313 Antitrinitarian Biography, Wallace, vol 1, pg 184. 314 Ib., vol 1, pg 90. 315 Ib., vol 1, pp 340, 341. 316 History Of The Christian Church, Arnold pp 241, 268-269; op. The Charismatic Movement, pg 77. 317 Jesus Name Baptism Through The Centuries, Weisser, pg 17. 318 Ib., pp 39, 40. 319 All The Fullness, Campbell, pp 169, 172-173, (also see pp 63,64,460) 320 The Expositor's Greek Testament, ed., Nicolli, vol 5, pg 330. 321 History Of The Christian Church, Arnold pp 241, 268-269; op. M. P. Hamilton, The Charismatic Movement, pg 77. 322 The Holiness-Pentecostal Movement in the United States, Synan, pg 25; op. cit. Enc. Of Religion, vol 3, pg 370. 323 A Critical History Of The Evolution Of Trinitarianism, Paine, pg 106. 324 Ib., pg 112, 113. 325 Who Was Who In Church History, Moyer, pg 392 326 A Critical History Of The Evolution Of Trinitarianism, Paine, pg 109-111. 327 Biblical Repository, April 1835, pg 268. 328 A Critical History Of The Evolution Of Trinitarianism, Paine, pg 111. 329 Ib., pg 109. 330 Ib., pp 145, 144. 331 Ib., pp 125-127, 142-143, 146. 332 Is God A Trinity, Miller, pp 22, 15-21, 82-83, 66. 333 A Critical History Of The Evolution Of Trinitarianism, Paine, pp 119-122, 147. 334 Their Story: 20th Century Pentecostals, Foster, pp. 120-21, quoting Parham, A Voice Crying in the Wilderness, pp. 23-24. 335 The Life of Andrew Bar David Urshan, Urshan, pg 141. 336 World Christian Encyclopedia, editor Barrett, pg 234. 337 History Of The Christian Church, Arnold pp 221, 291. 338 The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1972, vol. 22 pg 75. 339 Ib., 1910., vol 27, pg 10, under glossolalia. 340 The Illustrated Bible Dictionary, 1980, J D Douglas, pg 173; The Westminster Study Edition Of The Holy Bible, pg 72; The Interpretor's Dictionary Of The Bible, vol l, pg 351; The Interpretor's Bible, 1951, vol 7, pg 624; A Commentary on the Bible, 1919, Dr. Peake and Dr. Grieve, pg 723; Harper's Bible Dictionary, 1961, pg 60; Encyclopedia Biblica, 1903, vol. 1, pg 473. The reader also may want to read the footnote on Matthew 28:19 in the following Bible translations: The Clarified New Testament, E. C. 97
Kraeling; The Jerusalem Bible published by Catholic Church; A Literal Translation of the Bible, Dr. Robert Young; The Greek Testament, published by the British and Foreign Bible Society. 341 New International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol 2, pp 377-378, 389. 342 Cyclopedia Of Biblical Theological And Ecclesiastical Literature, vol 6, pg 448. 343 Ante Nicene Fathers, vol 1, pg 183. 344 Ib., vol 3, Against Praxeas chp 26. 345 History Of The Christian Church, Schaff, vol 2, pg 248. 346 Ib., footnote on pg 324. 347 The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1910, vol 3, pg 366. 348 The Early History Of Christianity, pp 150, 151. 349 The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1910, vol 3, pg 365; op. cit. New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1967, vol 4, pg 876. 350 Ante Nicene Fathers, volume 5, pg 667. 351 Ib., vol 5, pg 670 352 Ib., vol 5, pp 671-672 353 Ib., vol 5, pp 673-674. 354 Ib., vol 5, pg 383. 355 Ib., vol 5, pg 388 356 The Fathers Of The Church, vol 51, pp 271, 272, 278, 279. 357 Ib., vol 51, pp 300-301. 358 Ib., vol 51, pp 304, 306, 307. 359 Ib., vol 51, pp 302, 305. 360 Ante Nicene Fathers, vol 5, pg 565. 361 Ib., vol 5, pg 567. 362 Ib., vol 5, pg 568. 363 Ib., vol 5, pg 569. 364 Ib., vol 5, pg 566. 365 Jesus' Name Baptism Through The Centuries, pg 6. 366 Ib., pg 7. 367 The Fathers Of The Church, vol 9, pg 385. 98