 The generally accepted teaching of traditional Christianity is that God is a Trinity--God in 3 Persons--Father, Son and Holy Spirit (which is often called a "Ghost").
How did this "Trinity" doctrine enter traditional Christianity?It most emphatically did not come from the Bible. I have quoted Revelation 12:9 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 "Christianity"--the very religion bearing Christ's name and supposed to be his true religion. Yet, paradoxically, Satan did!He did it through his great false church, started A.D. 33 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 11 Kings 17:23-24 that Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, who had invaded and conquered the northern kingdom--kingdom of Israel--moved the people out of their land of Samaria, north of Jerusalem, 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 contemptuously dogs. They still adhered to this pagan Babylonish mystery religion in the first century.
In A.D" 33, 2 years after Jesus Christ from heaven founded the Church of God on that day of Pentecost, the deacon Phillip, 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 int he Babylonian mystery religion @from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God@ Acts 8:10.
When the people believed Philip, preaching the kingdom of God, they were baptized, 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 call 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 license 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 he 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 resurrected in Europe now!Counterfeit Gospel
by the 6th decade of the 1st century, much of the Middle East had turned from the true gospel to a counterfeit (Gal.1:6-7). As late as the 90s a"d. the apostle John was still living. He wrote the book of Revelation on the Isle of Patmos. A little later the church started by Simon in A.D. 33 was trying to turn the true Christian Passover (Christ had changed its form from that of sacrifical lambs to unleavened bread and wine) into Babylonian ceremony now called, in English, EASTER--named after the goddess Astarte of Ishtar (pronounced Easter in some Semitic dialects).
After the death of the apostle John, a disciple of his, Polycarp, waged a controversy over the Passover-Easter question with the bishop of Rome, by then leader of the church stared 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 Controversy. Polycrates contended, as Jesus and the original apostles taught, that the Passover should be observed in the new Christian form introduced by Jeusus and by the apostle Paul 1 Cor.11. using unleavened bread and wine instead of sacrificing a lamb, on the eve of the 1th Nisan (1st month int he sacred calendar, occurring int he spring). But the Roman church insisted that is be observed on a Sunday.
About the same time another controversy was raging, between a Dr. Arius, of Alexandria, a Christian leader who died A.D. 336, and other bishops, over calling God a Trinity. Dr. Arius stoutly opposed the Trinity doctrine, but introduced errors of his own.
In A.d. 325, the Emperor Constantine called the Nicene council to settle these controversies. Constantine was not 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, maid 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 an what God IS--AS WELL ASO OF Christ AND THE hOLY SPIRIT. also THE government OF God, BASED ON THE SPRITUAL law of god. and FURTHER, OF what AND why MAN ISWHAT SALVATION IS, HOW IT IS RECEIVED, WHAT IS THE TRUE GOSPEL, WHAT AND WHY THE CHURCH IS AND WHAT OF THE FUTURE!The word trinity is not used anywhere int he Bible. I am going to make completely clear, as we proceed,God has not limited himself to a Trinity. The surprising truth once understood, is the most wonderful revelation the human mind could receive or contain! The very first idea or teaching about God being a Trinity began int he latter half of the 2nd century--a 100 yrs after most of the New Testament had been written. The counterfeit Christianity spawned by Simon the Sorcerer was promoting 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' supporters greatly outnumbered the persecuted true Church of God.
You will find a prophecy of these 2 churches int he book of Revelation. In the 12th chapter is the prophecy of the true Church of God, greatly persecuted, Jesus called 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 (vers8) when this religio-political medieval Holy Roman Empire is brought back to life! It is now in the preliminary stages of forming, starting from the Common Market.
Summary
Finally, in briefest summary: God is a FAMILY composed at present of the TWO Persons of John 1 1:1-4, but with many thousands, already begotten by God's Spirit, in God's true Church, soon to be born into that divine family at Christ's return to earth. Jesus Christ, by his resurrection, was BORN a divine Son of God (Rom 1:4) the first so born into the God family (rom. 8:29)
Both God and Christ are composed of spirit, formed and shaped as a human person, but with eyes like flames of fire and faces bright as the sun full strength!God is the 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 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.
Ref: the book Mystery of The Ages by..Herbert W. Armstrong..get this book.
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