"Don't these animals stray quite a distance from home?" I asked of the car driver. "Oh yes" he answered. "But when" I asked "they wander all over the streets so far away, how do their owners find them, to drive them back home for the night?"
The car driver smiled "The owners don't but the cattle and oxen know their owners and where they live. They find their own way home in the evening."
Immediately I thought of the scripture in the 1st chapter of Is. which I had never understood so perfectly before this living explanation.
Hear O heavens and give ear O earth: for the Lord has spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knows his owner and the ass his master's crib: but Israel do not know, my people do not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord... they are gone away backward.(Is.1:2-4)And this was spoken of ancient Israel, a nation to which God had revealed him self by many evidences and miracles. How much less do other nations know about God -about WHO and WHAT God is! Nevertheless other nations are human beings just like the nation Israel. It is important at the very outset of this chapter that you notice God calls these humans his own children. Many people say God just doesn't seem real to me.
God is a great mystery to them. Their own human fathers don't seem like a mystery. They seem real.
Of the peoples of the Roman Empire God inspired the apostle Paul to write:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wick edness of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely his eternal power and diety[spiritual] has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made[physical]. So they are without excuse; for although they knew about God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools.(Rom.1:18-22 RSV)The billions now living on earth not only are ignorant of the most important knowledge -WHO and WHAT God is -they seem not to want to know! They are willingly ignorant of this most important knowledge and relationship possible in human life! Astonishing -but true!
And why have humans been willingly ignorant of man's most important relation ship? One explanation only is possible! All nations have been deceived (Rev.12:9). And the fact of this universal deception makes certain the fact of a super deceiver! More of this later.
Nevertheless Adam had cut himself off from God his Creator. Undoubtedly some of the knowledge that God had imparted to Adam was successfully imparted from father to son for many generations. Jesus had called Abel, Adam's 2nd son "righteous Abel". He did the right thing in offering a lamb in sacrifice. Later Enoch "walked with God". God spoke to Noah and gave him instructions for the building of the ark.
After the Flood certain historic accounts imply that Shem one of Noah's 3 sons, had some knowledge of the true God. But undoubtedly as generation suc ceeded generation of humanity, knowledge of God had become greatly distorted.
Nimrod as recorded in chapter 4 of this book, made a virtual god of himself. Through the succeeding generations and centuries knowledge of the true God faded almost completely. The ancient pagan nations made many different idols out of clay, wood, stone, and other materials. Many examples of pagan idol gods have been dug up by archeologists and may be seen in museums today. As the apostle Paul said, they worshipped the creation rather than the Creator(Rom.1:25).
Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoicks encountered him. And some said, what will this babbler say? other some, He seems to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him unto Areopagus[atop Mars Hill] saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof you speak is?...And now what of the scholarly of our Western world today? One would think the most highly educated ought to knowledge WHO and WHAT God is! Suppose you ask 100 university deans "Do you believe in God?" Perhaps 3 or 4 would answer "Oh, I believe in the existence of God -as a 1st cause." But they cannot tell you WHO and WHAT God is! They cannot tell what God is like! God is not real to them. In other words he is a mystery. Perhaps another 6 or 8 of the 100 will admit they are agnostics- they do not know "for sure" whether God exists.Then Paul stood in the middle of Mars Hill and said, You men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are too superstitious. For as I passed by and beheld your devotions[objects of worship RSV] I found an altar with this in scription TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore you ignorantly worship, him I declare unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth... he gives to all life and breath and all things; and has made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on...the earth...for in him we live and move and have our being.(Acts.17)
I have said that education has become a matter of memory instillation. From elementary grades to higher graduate levels of study, our educational systems inject ready-made concepts, ideologies, and a mixture of facts and fables into the unsuspecting minds of children, youths, and young adults. Students in our school systems are graded according to how well they accept, memorize, and can recite, or write in tests what has been taught -whether true or false.
Modern education has given universal acceptance of the fable of evolution. Evolution is the agnostic's or atheist's attempt to explain the existence of a creation without the preexistence of the Creator. It removes God from the picture. It blinds itself to the mystery by attempting to remove God altogeth er.
I quoted above from the 1st chapter of the book of Romans. The 28th verse says they did not like to retain God in their knowledge. Little or nothing is taught about God, but even in the elementary grades the basic concept -the approach to knowledge -is evolution.
Is it any wonder then that the scholarly do not know WHO and WHAT God is? They believe what they have been taught.
As I write I recently returned from my 2nd 4-day visit in Beijing, as the 1st religious leader from the world of Christianity to be invited by the government to speak before large groups at the Chinese capital. I have met in private conference with the vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Tan Zhen-lin, and now on this 2nd visit with Deng Xiaoping, the unquestioned leader of China.
In speaking with China's leader, I was speaking to the top official now molding the minds and beliefs of over one billion people - almost 1/4 of all the people on earth. China in population, is the world's largest nation. In very ancient times the religion in China was ancestor worship. Then came Confucianism, rivaled by Taoism. Later Buddhism was introduced from India, then Christianity. Today the nation is communist -atheist.
I found China's leaders to be a very cordial, friendly and courteous people -but knowing WHO and WHAT God is certainly is not what they are now concerned about. I did not try to tell them WHO and WHAT God is, but I did tell 2 large and important audiences of leaders what God is very soon going to do -and I an nounced this forthcoming book, which I am writing now.
India is the 2nd largest nation. what have they known about WHO and WHAT God is? Nothing!
Russia is 3rd largest in population. They did have Russian Orthodox Chris tianity, and now atheism.
I am not condemning or judging these people -and I presume they are as well meaning as any people. God is not judging them now -as I shall explain later. Neither is he condemning them. He loves them and will call them all to eternal salvation in his own time. But they do not know WHO and WHAT God is.
In ancient Egypt they worshiped the gods Isis and Osiris. The Greek and Romans anciently had mythological gods such as Jupiter, Hermes, Dionysus, Apol lo, Diana, and many others. But they did not know, and their peoples do not know today WHO and WHAT God is. But why
Spiritual things -invisible things -are a mystery to them. They do not understand those things, real though they are, because they cannot see them. They remain a deep mystery so they deny their existence.
There was a cause for this willing ignorance. And the Bible clearly tells us that cause, which is dual: 1)what occurred prehistorically and 2)what God him self instituted following the original sin of Adam. All this (to be explained in the next 2 chapters) and the cause of all the escalating evils in to day's world, are clearly revealed by God Almighty in his Word the Holy Bible. This will be made plain as we progress.
But first what does the Bible reveal about WHO and WHAT God is? It is only in this inspired book that God reveals himself. But mankind in general has never believed God - that is what God says! God spoke face to face personally to Adam and Eve, the first created humans. Then he allowed Satan to approach them. Satan got to Adam through his wife. Our original parents be lieved Satan when he said You shall not surely die after God had said You shall surely die upon stealing the forbidden fruit.
When Jesus Christ spoke on earth 4000 years later, only 120 people believe what he said (Acts1 :15) though he preached his message from God to multiple thousands.
No wonder then not one of these religions, sects, and denominations, except the small and persecuted Church founded by Jesus Christ (AD31) starting with that 120 believes God, which means these others do not believe what God says in his Word. God's Word plainly reveals WHO and WHAT God is! But there is a reason for their ignorance. This will be made clear as we proceed.
Just WHO and WHAT God is? How does he reveal himself? Already I have quoted the apostle Paul saying to the Athenian intellectuals that God is the Creator, who designed formed shaped and created man. The prophet Isaiah quotes God himself saying
To Whom then will ye liken me or shall I be equal?...Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who has created these things, that bring out their host by number: he calls them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one fails (Is.40:25-26)Read this in the James Moffatt translation in modern English:
To Whom will you compare me then and equal me? asks the Majestic One. Lift high your eyes, look up; who made these stars? he who marshals them in order, summon ing each one by name. For fear of him so mighty and so strong, not one fails to appear.Further God himself says to the skeptics
Now the Eternal cries, bring your case forward now, Jacob's King cries, state your proofs. Let us hear what happened in the past that we may ponder it, or show me what is yet to be that we may watch how it turns out; yes let us hear what is coming, that we may be sure you are gods; come do something or other that we may marvel at the sight! - why (taunts God to the doubter) you are things of naught, you can do nothing at all!(Is.41:21-24)These scriptures reveal God's power but not what God is, in a manner to make him real to the reader. Other scriptures must do that.
But was is God like? Who is God? There have been many conceptions. Some believe God is merely the good or good intentions within each human -merely some part of each human individual. Some have imagined God was some kind of idol composed of gold or silver, or carved out of wood, stone or other material. The Israelites thought, while Moses was communing with God on Mt.Sinai, that God was, or looked like a golden calf.
Many think God is a single individual supreme Personage. Some thought he was a spirit. But the generally accepted teaching of traditional Christianity is that God is a Trinity -God in 3 Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which they call a Ghost. The word trinity is not found in the Bible, nor does the Bible teach this doctrine. But more about that later.
If you were asked in the Bible where to find the very earliest description of God in point of the time of his existence, you probably would say "Why in the very first verse in the Bible Gen.1:1 of course" Right? Wrong!
In time order the earliest revelation of WHO and WHAT God is is found in the New Testament Jn.1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and with out him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. (Jn.1:1-4)The Word in this passage is translated from the Greek logos, which means spokesman, word, or revelatory thought. It is the name there used for an indi vidual Personage. But who or what is this Logos? Notice the explanation in verse 14:
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.When he was born as Jesus Christ, he was flesh and blood, materialistic and could be seen touched and felt. But what was he? As God -as the Logos? That is answered in Jn.4:24 God is a spirit and spirit is invisible. We know what was his form and shape as the human Jesus. But what form and shape was he as the Word? We will explain that later.
The Word then is a Personage who was made flesh -begotten by God, who through this later begettal became his Father. Yet at that prehistoric time of the first verse of Jn.1, the Word was not yet the Son of God. He divested himself of his glory as a Spirit divinity to be begotten as a human person. He was made God's Son through being begotten or sired by God and born of the virgin Mary.
So here we find revealed originally 2 Personages. One is God. And with God in that prehistoric time was another Personage who also was God -one who later was begotten and born as Jesus Christ. But these 2 Personages were spirit which is invisible to human eyes unless supernaturally manifested. Yet at the time described in verse 1 Jesus was not the Son of God and God was not his Father.
without father without mother without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abides a priest continually (Heb.7:3)Since Melchisedec was like unto the Son of God, and abides as High Priest forever continually, and Jesus Christ is now High Priest, Melchisedec and Jesus Christ are one and the same Person.
Therefore Christ was without father without mother without descent (in Abraham's time) having neither beginning of days, nor end of life. God had also existed eternally with the Word. Jesus when he was "the Word" was an was an immortal being who had existed always -there never was a time when he did not exist -without beginning of days. He was then like the Son of God -but he was not yet the Son of God. He also was God along with God.
These passages show that the Word in the beginnning -before anything had been created -was with God, and he also was God. Now how could that be?
There might be a man named John. And John might be with the man named Smith, and John might also be Smith, because John is the son of Smith, and Smith is the family name. Yet they are 2 separate persons.
The only point of difference in that analogy is that the Word at the time of Jn.1:1 was not yet the Son of God. But he was with God, and he also was God. They were not yet Father and Son -but they were the God Kingom!
That family is composed now, of God the Father and Jesus Christ his Son, and many begotten humans who already now are begotten sons of God (Rom.8:14,16; 1Jn.3:2) forming the Church of God.
That family aspect -the God family -is vitally important, and this will be thoroughly explained later. But now where are we?
Long before anything else existed, there did exist 2 Supreme Beings immortal, who always had existed. Your mind can't conceive that always, but neith er can it quite conceive of what is electricity! Yet you know electricity exists and is real.
Let me explain. In the 1st week in January 1914, I was sent by a national magazine to Detroit Michigan, to interview Henry Ford to obtain material for an article on his sensational new $5 a day wage policy. I saw Henry Ford in the administration building, wearing a business suit with white collar and necktie. Then I looked across the breezeway into the giant factory (then the Highland Park factory) and I saw perhaps thousands of men in overalls, working at ma chines powered with electrical energy. Mr Ford was called the maker of the Ford car. But he made the cars by these workmen, who used the power of electricity and machines.
In the same manner, God the Father is Creator. But he created all things by Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Word. It is written He spoke and it was done(Ps.33:9). God tells Christ what to do (Jn.8:28-29). Jesus then speaks as the workman, and the Holy Spirit is the power that responds and does what Jesus commands.
Thus as we read further in Col.1 beginning verse 12
Giving thanks unto the Father who has... translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son... who is the image of the invisible God [same appearance, form, shape, and character]... for by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created by him and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist.Therefore God's Word reveals that God and the Word -2 supreme Personages -coex isted always -and before anything had been created -including this earth and the entire Universe.
In the quotation above, Christ is in the image -form and shape of God. Perhaps it will make God more real to you when you realize he is in the same form and shape as a human being. More proof of this will be given later.
There was a time therefore when those 2 Personages coexisted and nothing else did.
No 3rd person is mentioned -no "Ghost". Is God then limited to only 2 Per sons? The false Trinity teaching does limit God to 3 Persons. But God is not limited. As God repeatedly reveals, his purpose is to reproduce himself into what may well become billions of God persons. It is the false Trinity teaching that limits God, denies God's purpose and has palpably deceived the whole Christian world. Both God and the Word themselves are spirit and project their spirit. Let me illustrate. By your eyesight you can see something across the room, or see to the sun or even to the stars that are many times the size of our sun, only much further distant. But through your eyesight you cannot act on those objects. In like manner God can project his spirit to any place regardless of distance, but through his spirit God is able to act on such objects or to change it as he wills. Thus God is omnipresent.
How long must they have thought and planned and designed, before even begin ning to create anything whatsoever! But matter -this earth, the stars, nebulae, galaxies -was not the 1st thing they created. They created angels before the creation of matter.
God speaks of the creation of the earth in the 38th chapter of Job. He says that at the creation of the earth the all the angels shouted for joy (verse 7). Therefore all the angels were already in existence when the earth was first created.
In Gen.1:1 it speaks of God creating the earth and the heavens. In the Au thorized Version the word heaven -singular -is used. But the original Hebrew as Moses wrote, and as other translations render it, is in the plural -heavens -implying that the whole material Universe was created simultaneously with the earth. This is plainly stated in Gen.2:4
These are the generations [beginnings] of the heavens [plural] and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.However the word day in this context is not necessarily a 24 hr day, but a genral period of time. That might have been multiple thousands or millions of years ago. Angels were placed on earth before the creation of man. Since angels are immortal spirit beings, they might have dwelt here thousands or millions of years before the creation of man. How many God does not reveal. The earth at first, was the abode of angels. But Jude 6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation [the earth]...
God is Spirit (Jn.4:24 RSV). Why is God not real to so many people? Because God and the Word are composed of spirit, not matter, not flesh and blood like humans. God is invisible to human eyes (Col.1:15). He does not seem real. To seem real the mind naturally wants to visualize a definite form and shape. But even though God is composed of spirit and not of visible matter, God nevertheless does have definite form and shape. What is God's form and shape?
In Gen.1:26 God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness. We know the form and shape of man. That is the image, likeness, form, and shape of God.
In various parts of the Bible it is revealed that God has a face, eyes, a nose, mouth and ears. He has hair on his head. It is revealed God has arms and legs. And God has hands and fingers. No animal, fowl, bird, fish, insect, or any other kind of life we know of has hands like human hands. Even if any other living being of which we know had a mind to think with, without hands and fin gers he could not design and make things as a man does.
God has feet and toes and a body. God has a mind. Animals have brians but no mind power like man's. If you know what a man looks like, you know what is the form and shape of God, for he made man in his image, after his very like ness!
One of Jesus's disciples asked him what God the Father looks like. Jesus re plied Have I been so long time with you, and yet have you not known me Phil ip? He that has seen me has seen the Father (Jn.14:9). Jesus looked like the Father. Jesus was actually God with us (Mt.1:23). Jesus was the begotten and born Son of God.
And what was Jesus's appearance? It was that of a human man, for he also was the Son of man. He looked so much like other Jewish men of his day that his enemies bribed Judas to point him out and identify who in a crowd at night was Jesus.
So now we know God has the same form and shape as a man. We also know he is composed of spirit, not of matter as is man. Spirit is invisible to human eyes, unless manifested by some special process. And if so manifested we should see both God the Father and Christ now glorified in heaven with faces, though formed and shaped like human faces, as bright as the sun full strength! Their eyes flames of fire, feet like burnished brass, and hair white as snow (Rev.1:14-16).
That character might be summed up in the one word love, defined as an out flowing, loving concern. It is the way of giving, serving, helping, sharing, not the "get" way.
It is the way devoid of coveting, lust and greed, vanity and selfishness, competition, strife, violence and destruction, envy and jealousy, resentment and bitterness.
God's inherent nature is the way of peace, of justice, mercy, happiness and joy radiating outward toward those he has created!
The Word and God lived. what did they do? They created. How did they live -what was their "life-style"? They lived the way of their perfect character -the way of outflowing love. When Jesus was baptised, God the Father said "You are my beloved son". God loved the Word. And the Word loved God -obeyed him completely.
2 can't walk together except they be agreed. They were in total agreement and cooperation. Also 2 can't walk together in continuous peace except 1 be the head, or leader in control. God was leader.
Their way of life produced perfect peace, cooperation, happiness, accomplish ment. This way of life became a law. Law is a code of conduct, or relation ship, between 2 or more. One might call the rules of a sports contest the "law" of the game. The presence of law requires a penalty for infraction. There can be no law without a penalty for its violation.
When the only conscious Life-Beings existed, God was leader -in authoritative command. Thus even when the only conscious Life-Beings were God and the Word, there was government with God in supreme command. The government of God is of necessity government from the top down. It cannot be "government by the consent of the governed". Its laws originate and are handed down from God- never legislated by the people- never dictated by the governed how the govern- ment over them shall rule them. Since they created other conscious, thinking life-beings, this very fact of necessity put the government of God over all creation, with God supreme Ruler.
Our human civilization has assumed the prerogative of lawmaking. Human governments, whether city, county, state, or national, have lawmaking bodies -city councils, state legislatures, national congress, Parliament, Reichstag, Diet, or Knesset. But 6000 years of human experience have demonstrated the utter incapability of humans to decide right from wrong, or to formulate laws for human conduct and relationships.
Human lawmaking bodies have made so many laws that the average policeman in a city could not possibly keep in his mind a fraction of the laws whose violations he is supposed to act upon. Some may remember a comic strip in American newspa pers "There ought to be a law". The comic strip was poking fun at the very idea that human lawmakers have made so many laws, and yet fail to cover every possi ble infraction.
God's law is spiritual and can be summed up in 1 simple but all-inclusive word -love. His law for the guidance of human conduct is subdivided into the 2 great commandments, love toward God love toward neighbour. These in turn are subdivided into the 10 Commandments. Jesus magnified this law by showing how its principle expands to cover virtually every possible human infraction. The 3rd chapter of 2 Cor. shows that God's law is to be applied in principle. It is summed up in 1 single word, love. Nevertheless it is so perfect that, by apply ing its principle, it is a complete law. There is only 1 perfect lawmaker, and that is God.
Bear in mind the government of God is based on the law of God, which is the way of life of outflowing love, cooperation, concern for the good of the gov erned. And this law of God produces peace, happiness, cooperation through obedience.
It is referring to precisely the same Persons, making up or composing the 1 God, as we found in Jn.1:1 -the Word and God -and each of those 2 Persons is God. In other words God is now a family of Persons, composed so far of only the 2 -God the Father and Christ the Son. But if the Holy Spirit of God dwells in someone, and he is being led by God's Spirit, then (Rom.8:14) he is a begotten son of God. But at the time of Christ's return to earth in supreme power and glory to set up the Kingdom of God, restoring the government of God abolished by Lucifer, then all being filled and led by God's Spirit shall become born sons of God. The God family will then rule all nations with the government of God restored!
The Trinity doctrine limits God to a supposed 3 Persons. It destroys the very gospel of Jesus Christ! His gospel is the good news of the now soon coming Kingdom of God -the only hope of this world and its mixed up mankind!
The Trinity doctrine by contrast, is the doctrine of the great false religion called in Rev.17:5 Mystery Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. By that doctrine along with others, Satan has deceived all traditional Chris tianity.
It most emphatically did not come fromt the Bible. I have quoted Rev.12:9 as saying that all nations have been deceived by Satan the devil. How then did the wily Satan introduce this doctrine into "Christianity"?
The history of this question is interesting. It seems incredible that a being like Satan not only could have deceived the whole world, but also "Chris tianity" -the very religion bearing Christ's name supposed to be his true reli gion. Yet paradoxically Satan did!
He did it through his great false Church, started AD33 by Simon the Sorcerer, described in the 8th chapter of the book of Acts as the leader of the Babylonian mystery religion in Samaria. It is recorded in 2 Kings 17:23-24 that Shalmanes er king of Assyria, who had invaded and conquered the northern kingdom -the kingdom of Israel -moved the people out of their land of Samaria north of Jeru salem, and moved into that land people of the Babylonish mystery religion from the provinces of Babylon. They were of course gentiles. They inhabited this area of northern Palestine in the time of Christ. The Jews of Judea in Christ's time would have nothing to do with them, calling them contemptously "dogs". They still adhered to this pagan Babylonish mystery religion in the 1st century. In AD33, 2 years after Jesus Christ from heaven founded the Church of God on that day of Pentecost, the deacon Philip, who later became an evangelist, went down to Samaria and preached Christ's gospel. This Simon the Sorcerer came with the crowd to hear him.
Simon had bewitched the people of that country, and they followed him as their leader in the Babylonian mystery religion from the least to the great est saying, This man is the great power of God (Acts 8:10).
When the people believed Philip preaching the kingdom of God, they were bap tized and this Simon managed to be baptized with them.
Then Simon came to the apostles Peter and John, offering money as a bribe, asking them to give him the power to lay hands on people and have them receive the Holy spirit. Peter rebuked him strongly. But Simon proclaimed himself a Christian apostle nevertheless, and called the pagan Babylonian mystery religion "Christianity". He accepted the doctrine of "grace" for the forgiveness of sin (which the pagan religions had never had), but turned grace into licence to disobey God (Jude 4). He aspired to turn his pagan religion, under the name "Christianity", into a universal religion, to gain thereby the political rule of the world.
Simon the "Pater"(Peter) of his counterfeit religion did not accomplish this in his lifetime. But succeeding leaders with headquarters moved to Rome, did later gain political control over the Roman Empire and its medieval successor called "The Holy Roman Empire". This empire is in process of again being resur rected in Europe now!
After the death of the apostle John, a disciple of his, Polycarp waged a con troversy over the Passover-Easter question with the Bishop of Rome, by then leader of the church started by Simon.
Still later another disciple of Christ's true Christianity, Polycrates waged a still hotter controversy over the same Passover-Easter question with another Bishop of Rome. This theological battle was called the Quartodeciman Controver sy. Polycrates contended, as Jesus and the original apostles taught, that the Passover should be observed in the new Christian form introduced by Jesus and the apostle Paul (1Cor.11) using unleavened bread and wine instead of sacrific ing a lamb, on the eve of 14th Nisan (1st month in the sacred calendar, occuring in the spring). But the Rome Church insisted that it be observed on a Sunday.
About the same time another controversy was raging between a Dr.Arius of Alexandria, a Christian leader who died in AD336, and other bishops over calling God a Trinity. Dr.Arius stoutly opposed the Trinity doctrine, but introduced errors of his own.
In AD325 the Emperor Constantine called the Nicene Council to settle these controversies. Constantine was not that yet a "Christian", but as political ruler he assumed control. The Council approved both the Easter-Sunday doctrine and the Trinity. Constantine then civil ruler, made it a law. But he was not able to make it truth!
Satan has deceived the entire world in regard to the very nature of WHO and WHAT God is -as well as of Christ and the Holy Spirit. Also of the gover nment of God based on the spiritual law of God. And futher of what and why man is, what salvation is, how it is received, what is the true gospel, what and why the Church is, and what of the future!
The very 1st idea or teaching about God being a Trinity began in the latter half of the 2nd century -100 years after most of the New Testament had been written. The counterfeit Christianity spawned by Simon the Sorcerer was promot ing it vigorously along with the pagan Easter. But the true Church of God vigorously resisted it. The controversy became so violent it threatened the peace of the world. The then pagan Emperor Constantine called this Nicene Council to settle it. The Roman Emperor's supporters greatly outnumbered the persecuted true Church of God.
You will find a prophecy of these 2 Churches in the book of Rev. In the 12th chapter is the prophecy of the true Church of God greatly persecuted. Jesus called it "the little flock". In the 17th chapter you will find the prophecy of the counterfeit Church -a very great Church named by God Mystery Babylon the great, the mother of harlots (verse 5). She lined up with and sat astride the the political governments. The whole world will gasp in wonder (verse 8) when this religio-political medeival "Holy Roman Empire" brought back to life! It is now in the preliminary stages of forming, starting from the Common Market!
For there are 3 that bear record [in heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost; and these 3 are 1. And there are 3 that bear witness in earth] the Spirit and the water and the blood: and these 3 agree in one.The bracketed words were added by editors to the Latin Vulgate translation probably in the early 4th century. They do not appear in any of the older Greek manuscripts nor in other modern English translations. They were added to the Latin Vulgate during the heat of the controversy between Rome and Dr.Arius and God's people.
Bible commentaries explain that these words were never written in the apostle John's manuscript or any existing early copies of it. The apostle John in his 3 epistles and the Rev. speaks of "the Father and... Son" (1Jn.1:3) but never of "the Father and the Word", except in this uninspired part of 1Jn.5:7-8.
There was a real reason why the archdeceiver Satan wanted that spurious verse added in the Latin Vulgate from which it crept into the Authorized Version. The Trinity doctrine completely does away with the gospel of Jesus Christ. His gospel is the message he brought mankind from God the Father, the good news of the coming kingdom of God! That is the one thing above all Satan wants to defeat. This will become plain as we proceed.
One world-famous evangelist said "When I first began to study the Bible years ago, the doctrine of the Trinity was one of the most complex problems I had to encounter. I have never fully resolved it, for it contains an aspect of mys tery. Though I do not totally understand it to this day, I accept it as a revelation of God... To explain and illustrate the Trinity is one of the most difficult assignments to a Christian".
Much is also made of the fact that in a number of places in modern transla tions the masculine pronoun he is carelessly used in connection with the Holy Spirit. But not always -sometimes the Holy Spirit is referred to as it in these very same translations. For example in the passage describing the 1st coming of the Holy Spirit for the founding of the Church of God on that memorable day of Pentecost.
In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus Christ stood and cried saying, If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this he spake of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Spirit was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified)(Again in Acts 10:45) ...on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Both God and Christ are composed of spirit, formed and shaped as a human per son, but with eyes like flames of fire and faces bright as the sun full strength!
God is Creator of all that exists. Both God and the Word (who became Christ) have existed eternally and before all else. From them emanates the Spirit of God, by which God is omnipresent and omniscient. God the Father is the divine Father of the God family, into which truly converted Christians shall be born.