Program 141: Paganism, Plato & the Trinity

A triune godhead was a pagan doctrine that corrupted Christianity over 300 years after Christ. Apostolic Christians were unitarians.

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* * *Part 1: Paganism, Plato & the Trinity

Miles Robey: American writer, Michael Crichton, once said, quote: “If you don't know history, then you don't know anything. You are a leaf that doesn't know it is part of a tree.” Unquote.

The problem is, what if the history you’ve been taught is incorrect or misleading?

Hello and welcome. This is Miles Robey and you are listening to WLC Radio. Today, Dave Wright is going to be sharing with us some of the history behind one of the most well-known doctrines in Christianity, and that is the doctrine of the trinity. Dave?

Dave Wright: Thanks, Miles. Yes, the doctrine of the trinity is one of the most widely-accepted doctrines in Christian theology. It is believed to be “foundational to the Christian faith.” The Catholic Encyclopedia goes so far as to call it the “central doctrine of the Christian religion” and most denominations agree. In fact, the handful of Protestant denominations that deny the existence of a triune godhead such as Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses—

Miles: Unitarians, Christian Science.

Dave: Those, too. They’re all dismissed as “cults” by other mainline denominations.

Miles: That’s true. I always heard them denounced that way.

Dave: But what if we’ve been wrong? What if the origins of the trinity doctrine are not Scripture but some other source? Would it change your belief in the idea of a three-in-one god?

Miles: I think for most of us that would depend on just what that other source was and whether or not you could prove it.

Dave: Fair enough. But it’s important to verify our beliefs because what we think we know is the truth, isn’t always the truth. For example, what’s one fact you can give me about, oh . . . the Great Wall of China?

Miles: Well, it’s in China. It was built to keep out invaders. Most of what we see today was built by the Ming Dynasty.

Dave: Anything else?

Miles: It’s the only man-made object we can see from space.

Dave: That’s the answer I was looking for! I think most of us have been taught that but it’s simply not true.

Miles: So where did that idea come from?

Dave: Well, it was probably first said to try to convey the size of the Great Wall, which is truly gargantuan. However, from low space, at 180 miles up, the Great Wall is not the only thing that can be seen, nor is it the most easily seen. You can see highways, airports, bridges, dams. You go further up, though, not only can you not see it with the human eye, but you can’t see it in photographs, either. Only with radar imagery.

Miles: Interesting.

Dave: There are other common myths, such as the idea that dogs can only see in black and white, or that if you touch a baby bird, it’s mother will reject it because she can smell you on it. All of these are well-known myths, but they simply are not true.

Miles: I remember reading something once that applies here. I don’t remember where I read it, but it really stuck with me. It said something along the lines of the fact that certain doctrines have been accepted as truth for many years is not proof that our beliefs are infallible. Age won’t make error into truth, and truth can afford to be fair. No true doctrine will lose anything by investigation. Something like that.

Dave: That’s very good. And it’s true. Just because we were all raised believing in a triune godhead, just because that doctrine has been around for over a thousand years, just because it has become the central, foundational doctrine of modern Christianity, does not mean that it can be supported from Scripture.

Miles: All right, so where does it come from then?

Dave: Well, you really can’t pinpoint just one source. Broadly speaking, it comes from ancient paganism but it morphed over time and was drawn from a number of different pagan sources.

Miles: Before we get into that, I want to take just a moment to share with our listeners one passage of Scripture that is probably popping into their minds even as we speak.

Dave: Sure! Go ahead.

Miles: I want to talk about 1 John 5, verses 7 and 8 for just a moment. In fact, when you first shared with me that the trinity doctrine wasn’t Scriptural, my first thought was, “What do you mean it’s not Scriptural? What about 1 John 5:7 & 8?”

Dave: To be honest, that was my first thought, too! Why don’t I read it really quickly so people will know what we’re going on about?

It says: “For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one.”

Certainly sounds like it’s teaching the trinity here, doesn’t it?

Miles: It really does! That’s why, before we go further, I want to make it clear that this was not actually part of John’s original letter.

Respected New Testament scholar, Bart Erhman, writes, quote:

This doctrine [of a trinity] does not appear to be a doctrine pronounced by the historical Jesus, Paul, or any other Christian writer during the first hundred years or so of Christianity.

It cannot be found explicitly stated in the earliest Christian writings. The only passage of the New Testament that declares the doctrine (1 John 5:7-8) was not originally part of the text but was added by doctrinally astute scribes at a later date (it is not found in any Greek manuscripts until the 11th century.)

Unquote. So, yeah. This is not something that appears in the most ancient manuscripts. It was added later.

Dave: And here’s the thing: Bible scholars know this! They’ve always known this. We’re the ones, the faithful laymen, who haven’t known.

Edmund Fortman is a Jesuit scholar that wrote a book entitled The Triune God. I’ve marked a quote here that I’d like you to read. Y-yeah, right where it’s underlined.

Miles: It says, quote:

The Old Testament . . . tells us nothing explicitly or by necessary implication of a Triune God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  . . . There is no evidence that any sacred writer even suspected the existence of a [Trinity] within the Godhead.  . . . Even to see in [the Old Testament] suggestions or foreshadowing’s or ‘veiled signs’ of the trinity of persons, is to go beyond the words and intent of the sacred writers.

. . . The New Testament writers . . . give us no formal or formulated doctrine of the Trinity . . . Nowhere do we find any Trinitarian doctrine of the three distinct subjects of divine life and activity in the same Godhead.

Unquote. Wow! That’s quite a statement.

Dave: The main point I want to make absolutely clear before we move on is that the doctrine of a triune godhead is not only not found in Scripture, but that religious leaders and Bible scholars know this. I don’t care if you’ve heard sermons preached about it. Those who know their Bibles know it’s not found in Yah’s word.

A few more quotes. Here. Read this one from the HarperCollins Encyclopedia of Catholicism.

Miles: All right, uh … quote: “Today, however, scholars generally agree that there is no doctrine of the Trinity as such in either the Old Testament or the New Testament … It would go far beyond the intention and thought-forms of the Old Testament to suppose that a late-fourth-century or thirteenth-century Christian doctrine can be found there … Likewise, the New Testament does not contain an explicit doctrine of the Trinity.”

Dave: Martin Luther, the German leader of the Protestant Reformation, said, quote: “It is indeed true that the name 'Trinity' is nowhere to be found in the Holy Scriptures, but has been conceived and invented by man.”

Unquote. Did you catch that? He said it had been “conceived and invented by man.”

Miles: That’s amazing.

Dave: The late Charles Ryrie was an American Bible scholar and theologian. He was a professor and dean of doctoral studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. In his book, Basic Theology, he made a very telling admission.

I have his book here. Would you please turn to page 89 and read the bracketed paragraph?

Miles: Okay, it says: “Many doctrines are accepted by evangelicals as being clearly taught in the Scripture for which there are no proof texts. The doctrine of the Trinity furnishes the best example of this. It is fair to say that the Bible does not clearly teach the doctrine of the Trinity . . . In fact, there is not even one proof text, if by proof text we mean a verse or passage that 'clearly' states that there is one God who exists in three persons.”

Dave: I’ve got a couple more statements from theologians I’d like you to read. Here and . . . here.

Miles: First one says: “One of the great marvels of Christian history has been the ability of theologians to convince Christian people that three persons are really one God.”

Second one says: “Because the Trinity is such an important part of later Christian doctrine, it is striking that the term does not appear in the New Testament. Likewise, the developed concept of three coequal partners in the Godhead found in later creedal formulations cannot be clearly detected within the confines of the canon.”

Dave: Notice in that last quote what he said: “Because the Trinity is such an important part of—later—Christian doctrine.” It doesn’t matter what we’ve assumed, or what we’ve been taught, or what we’ve extrapolated. The truth is, Scripture does not teach a triune godhead.

Miles: So, you’ve studied this more than I have. Where does it come from then? It had to come from somewhere.

Dave: Well, again, like I said, it’s not possible to pinpoint one specific source. The idea of a trinity is found throughout all of ancient paganism. Some religions had more than one trinity, but each was considered to be “three-in-one.” 

Miles: Can you give us some examples?

Dave: Sure! Probably the earliest record of belief in a trinity is found in Sumeria. Not SAMaria, mentioned in the Bible. SUMeria, which predated Abraham. This ancient triune godhead consisted of Anu, the “Father” and “King of the Gods;” Enlil, the creator god; and Enki, the “lord of wisdom.” 

In the Babylonian trinity, a mother figure completed the so-called “holy” trinity of Nimrod, Semiramis, and Tammuz.  Semiramis, as the wife of Nimrod and the mother of Tammuz, the “Saviour,” was styled as the “Mother of God” and referred to as the “Queen of Heaven.”

Miles: Now that is shocking! That’s what Mary is referred to by some Christians!

Dave: Of course. Because apostolic Christianity was corrupted by paganism, so in many ways, modern Christianity bears a striking resemblance to ancient paganism.

Miles: Especially Babylonian paganism: the wearing of crucifixes, hot cross buns—

Dave: Lent.

Miles: Yeah, Lent. All of that came from Babylon.

Dave: The Egyptians had their trinity, too, with Osiris, the father, Isis, the mother, and Horus, the son. The Hindu trinity consists of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. The Greeks, too, had their own version of a trinity. They worshipped Zeus, Athena, and Apollo.

Miles: Weeellll . . . the Greeks worshipped a lot more than that.

Dave: True, as did the Egyptians, Hindus, Babylonians, etc. However, what is significant about Zeus, Athena, and Apollo is that the Greeks claimed those three in particular, quote “agreed in one.” Unquote. So you can see that the concept of a three-in-one godhead was already there.

But the truth is, you can find a trinity all across the ancient world, both in theology as well as in symbols and motifs. The Roman trinity was Jupiter, Mars, and Venus.

Miles: It’s interesting that so many of these trinities had female goddess figures in them.

Dave: Satan always corrupts and twists. Did you know that in Hebrew, the word for “breath,” which is often translated in Scripture as “spirit” and is the word used in “holy spirit” is a feminine word?

Miles: Oh, that’s right. I had forgotten that.

Dave: A lot of these pagan trinities had elements in common. Primarily, of course, is that the three beings were considered to be part of one triune god. Often, one was the father, one was the mother, and one was the son. The son was also the husband of the mother, and was considered the father incarnate.

Miles: Seriously! They had that in common, too? I mean, in common with the Christian trinity?

Dave: Well, yes, because the Christian trinity was formed after the pagan trinity.

Miles: Right. Right. It’s just shocking.

Dave: All three were always deified as gods but were often said to be one in three forms. Other times, the trinity was seen as one god playing three roles. Frequently, the father was overlooked and worship was focused on mother and son.

Miles: Hm. Shades of Catholicism.

Dave: Of course. Because Catholicism and later, Protestantism, embraced these beliefs into Christianity.

A copy of Life magazine, published October 30, 1950, contained a fascinating quote from the “Assumption of Mary.” It says, quote: “Our opponents sometimes claim that no belief should be held dogmatically which is not explicitly stated in scripture … But the Protestant Churches have themselves accepted such dogmas, as the Trinity, for which there is no such precise authority in the Gospels.”

Miles: Wow. What a denunciation. As Protestants, we like to pride ourselves on claiming that our beliefs are drawn solely from Scripture—sola Scriptura. But in so many areas, we’ve just followed along in the wake of Catholicism, never questioning or studying for ourselves.

Dave: And we need to! We need to question. We need to study for ourselves. We need to know that every belief we hold is founded on the word of Yah alone. We can’t afford, through just laziness or carelessness, to continue to cling to pagan beliefs that honor Satan and dishonor Yah.

One final quote I’d like you to read. This is taken from a book called The Mystical Woman and the Cities of the Nations by Thomas Dennis Rock. Would you read that for us, please?

Miles: It says: “The ancient Babylonians recognised the doctrine of a trinity, or three persons in one god—as appears from a composite god with three heads forming part of their mythology, and the use of the equilateral triangle, also, as an emblem of such trinity in unity.”

Dave: Scripture is clear: there is only one God and that is Yahuwah. Yahushua is His only begotten, fully human son. Anything else comes from paganism.

Miles: We’re going to take a short break but when we return, I’d like you to explain just how this obviously pagan belief was able to infiltrate apostolic Christianity. We’ll be right back.

* * *

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* * *Part 2: Paganism, Plato & the Trinity

Miles: During our break, I was just reading over some more of these quotes you’d printed off. Here’s one from the HarperCollins Bible Dictionary. It says: “The formal doctrine of the Trinity as it was defined by the great church councils of the fourth and fifth centuries is not to be found in the New Testament.”

So, I guess my question is, how did this belief enter the Christian faith? The quotes you shared in our last segment are very eye-opening. For myself when studying this subject, I just dug out my concordance and looked up every single use of the word “spirit” or “holy spirit” or “holy ghost” in the Bible and every single one referred to breath. Yah’s breath, our breath. That’s all it was.

So how did we extrapolate from that to come up with an entire third person of the Christian trinity?

Dave: One word: Hellenization.

In The American Journal of Theology, Volume 13, number 4, Dr. George Gilbert published a fascinating article entitled “The Hellenization of the Jews between 334 BC and 70 AD.” In his article, he states that following the conquests of Alexander the Great, quote: “…the impact of Greek civilization on the Jews which then took place gave to the period an importance that almost ranks it with the period of the great prophets, or with that of Moses and the beginnings of the Hebrew state.”

Miles: Wow. That’s quite the statement.

Dave: And this occurred prior to the New Testament being written. So, even though Rome had conquered Greece, Greek philosophy was still heavily influencing the culture, the education, and the mindset of the times.

Dr. Shirley Guthrie was a theology professor at Columbia Theological Seminary. He’s probably best known for this book here, called Christian Doctrine. Would you please turn to page 76 and start reading at the bottom where it’s marked?

Miles: “The Bible does not teach the doctrine of the Trinity. Neither the word 'trinity' itself nor such language as 'one-in-three,' 'three-in-one,' one 'essence' (or 'substance'), and three 'persons,' is biblical language. The language of the doctrine is the language of the ancient church taken from classical Greek philosophy.”

Huh. So, again, how did Greek philosophy transition into Christianity? Was it because the early Jewish Christians had already been exposed to Greek philosophy?

Dave: Not at all. Remember, this came in 100 years or more after Christ and when it came in, it came in via those whose lineage was pagan, not converts from Judaism.

Quintus Turtullianus, more commonly known as Tertullian, was a very prolific early Christian writer from Carthage. He was born in the middle of the second century CE. From what I’ve read, he was the first to introduce the term “trinity.” However, it was just an introduction of the term. What he actually taught about the trinity is different from what is believed today.

Miles: Soooo, if he introduced the term, that means that the doctrine of a triune God that we are taught today did not exist in Christianity before Tertullian.

Dave: That’s correct. Tertullian was a Christian apologist.

Miles: Yeah. Christian “apologetics.” Trying to make excuses for inconsistencies and contradictions rather than digging for the truth.

Dave: Basically. Anyway, Tertullian introduced a lot of pagan ideas into Christian practices.

Miles: Like what?

Dave: Well, uh … when he baptized people, he always dipped them three times, rather than just once. He made the sign of the cross (which, you’ll recall, originated in Babylon) on the forehead of worshipers. He also taught oblations for the dead. And the thing is, he freely admitted that these teachings had been adopted from pagan practices! He admitted you couldn’t support them from Scripture.

Miles: Why?

Dave: He believed he was “flattening the curve” of difference between pagans and Christians. He thought that the pagans would find it easier to join Christianity if they encountered familiar pagan rituals in the church.

Miles: That’s . . . that’s really screwed up.

Dave: It is. Greek thought—and to this day, Western thought—was and is heavily influenced by Plato.

Miles: Wasn’t he influenced by Socrates?

Dave: Yes, in fact, Plato was one of the youths Socrates was accused of corrupting!

Anyway, most people will recognize Plato’s name. However, what I don’t think most people realize is just how influential Plato really was in shaping Western thought. Michel Foucault was a French philosopher and writer. In The Hermeneutics of the Subject, he went so far as to state that Plato was one of the founders of Western religion!

Miles: That’s really saying something. For centuries, the West has been known as being predominantly Christian. Just like, we hear “India” and we think “Hindu,” or the Middle East and it’s easy to think “Muslim.” To be a founder of Western religion means he heavily influenced Christianity as we know it today.

Dave: Yes. And that’s exactly what he did. In school, my history teachers focused on Plato’s idea that this world is kind of a shadow world, an imperfect copy of the spiritual world that is perfect. But that’s not all he taught. The idea of an “immortal soul” originated primarily with Plato. It doesn’t come from Scripture.

Miles: So you’re saying Christians today think more like Plato than, say, the Hebrews.

Dave: Absolutely. Christianity has come a long, long way from its Jewish roots. But even then, Greek philosophy influenced the Jews. One of these was Philo. He lived approximately 20 BCE to 50 CE.

Miles: I’ve heard of him! Some people believe his writings actually influenced the Nicene Creed.

Dave: Oh, really?

Miles: Yeah, that “Light of Light, very God from very God” part. After hearing that, I was curious and looked it up. I think they’re probably right.

Dave: So we’ve got one of the most foundational creeds in Christendom, being drawn in part from Philo, who was himself heavily influenced by Plato. See how this works?

Have you heard of Jaroslav Pelikan?

Miles: No.

Dave: He was a professor at Yale. His focus was history of Christianity, Christian theology, and medieval intellectual history; a very well-educated man. He actually read and commented on all 38 volumes of the writings of the early Church fathers. He wrote this series—multiple volumes—entitled The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine. According to Pelikan, the Neo-Platonists of the second and third centuries did more than just follow in the steps of the Greek philosophers. They developed new ideas as well.

Plotinus, a Hellenistic philosopher in Roman Egypt, claimed that there are three main principles. He called these the One, the Intellect, and the Soul.

Further, he said that these three were of “one essence.” Sound familiar?

Miles: Totally! That’s what Christians say the triune godhead is: one in purpose and essence.

Dave: Plotinus taught that the physical is evil while the spiritual is good. Augustine of Hippo, widely viewed as one of the most important of the so-called “Church Fathers,” seems to have been influenced by this sort of belief. He made sex to almost be a sin—even within the bounds of marriage!

Miles: Yeah, a real hypocrite. He had an affair for years. His lover even gave birth to a son before he decided he wanted to marry a 10-year-old heiress instead. He ended up not marrying her, but still.

Dave: Scholars are well-aware that plenty of the early Church fathers were influenced by Greek philosophy. You just read what they had to say and it’s obvious they know!

Miles: Like whom?

Dave: Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria. Theodosius. Tertullian. I’ve read quite a bit of their writings and it quickly became clear that none of these men were trinitarian.

Miles: Really!

Dave: Really. You go back and read what they’ve written in context and it’s very clear they were not. For example, Tertullian believed the son was beneath the Father. Justin Martyr was an Arian! Meaning, he believed the son was created as the first part of Creation. That’s not trinitarian belief!

Based on his research, Jaroslav Pelikan believed that many of the early Church fathers were actually modalists rather than trinitarian.

Miles: Modalists?

Dave: Today we call it Oneness theology. It’s the idea that “God the Father” manifested Himself in three different forms or modes. He was Yahuwah in the Old Testament, Yahushua in the New Testament, and now is the Holy Spirit.

The focus of the early Church fathers was “Logos theory,” not the trinity. To put it another way, they wanted to understand how Yahuwah related to the neo-Platonist “Word.” Most of them very clearly did not believe the Father and the son were equal. Instead, they believed the son was subordinate to the Father.

Miles: That’s not what the Trinity doctrine teaches at all!

Dave: Separated as we are by 1500+ years, we forget how much infighting there was in early Christianity over differences in doctrine. Athanasius I of Alexandria was anti-Arian—the Arians, again, believed that Yahushua was a created being, subordinate to the Father. Athanasius opposed this belief. He was actually present at the Council of Nicea, invoked by Constantine the Great. It was at this first Council of Nicea that the Nicene Creed was formalized and where anti-Arianism was established. To put it another way, it was at this council in the fourth century that the son’s exaltation to equal status with the Father was formalized into Christian theology.

But what most people don’t know is that later, Arius himself—the proponent behind Arian theology that Yahushua was not eternally preexistent with the Father—quoted from the Bible and writings of various early Church fathers to Emperor Constantine.

Miles: I thought Arius was exiled after he lost at the Council of Nicea.

Dave: He was, but over time, Constantine softened his stance. Anyway, Arius quoted Scripture and the earlier Church fathers to Constantine. Constantine actually reversed his position and exiled Athanasius, the main guy behind trinitarianism! Constantine himself became Arian and was baptized on his deathbed by an Arian bishop, Eusebius of Nicomedia.

Miles: Interesting. I don’t think most of us realize how much infighting there was, theologically speaking, in these early years. It’s easy to assume that Christendom as we know it today was inherited intact from the apostles.

Dave: But that’s not the case. So, then, some time after Constantine’s death, along comes Origen. He was very much influenced by Greek philosophy. He taught that we were all immortal souls in heaven before we were born. He also believed that, in the end, everyone will be saved.

He had a school in Alexandria where the students were encouraged to study Greek philosophy.

Miles: Wait, wasn’t Origen excommunicated and his writings burned?

Dave: He was. But what’s interesting is that a chap by the name of Rufinus actually changed Origen’s writings to help get that excommunication vacated after Origen’s death.

Miles: How do you know that?

Dave: Rufinus admitted it! But more than that, Rufinus’ “quotes” of Origen’s works don’t match up with the fragments of Origen’s writings that we still have.

The thing is, apostolic Christianity was in a battle to the death against the incursion of pagan philosophy. They continued to hold Church councils where they continued to argue Modalism (or, Oneness theology), Arianism, Unitarianism, Adoptionism, Docetism, and more.

Miles: They really were all over the place, weren’t they?

Dave: Oh, yeah! Remember: when Constantine first legalized Christianity, then later supposedly converted, it was for political reasons. He wanted a united empire. But how was he to unite his empire if the very religion he wanted to use to unite it couldn’t agree?

Miles: Yeah, that’d be kind of hard.

Dave: So that’s when they started having all these church councils. While Arius was claiming the son was created, Athanasius was exalting the son to equal status with the Father, and the semi-Arians in the East were preaching that the son was begotten, but not eternally pre-existent.

Miles: It really was a mess. And so early on, too!

Dave: Well, yes and no. It’s a matter of degrees. One thousand seven hundred years ago seems pretty early to us. But it was still a full 300 years after Christ. That’s a lot of time for Platonic philosophy to make inroads. By this point, most Christians were not of Jewish lineage.

Constantine convened the Council of Nicea for a number of reasons. Some of those, we’ve covered in earlier programs.

Miles: Right. One of the things they did was outlaw the use of the Biblical calendar for calculating Passover and instead imposed the pagan Easter.

Dave: Yes, that was one of the controversies. But it wasn’t the only one. They also wanted to determine the true nature of the son. Was he divine? Was he a created being? Was he begotten but not divine?

Miles: So, basically, theology was established by popular vote.

Dave: Pretty much, although it included some people being sent into exile. Some sources have claimed there were even a few murders involved.

Miles: Real “holy” men, weren’t they?

Dave: Well, ultimately, it was decided—voted—that Yahushua was not of similar essence as Yahuwah but was, in fact, of the same essence. It was declared—voted—that Arianism was unorthodox.

There were only about three men who clung to their conscience and voted against the council. They were promptly exiled.

Miles: So, by saying Yahushua was of the same essence, they exalted him to the level of the Father Himself.

Dave: Right.

Miles: They had “God the Father.” Now they had “God the Son.” What about “God the Holy Spirit”?

Dave: That actually wasn’t decided until a few decades later in 381 CE. The thing you’ll never hear Trinitarians admit, though, is that the debate over the true nature of Christ continued long after the Council of Nicea. Emperor Constantine and his sons converted to the Arian view. Then, some 20 years after Constantine’s death, the Third Council of Sirmium actually declared Arianism to be the truth.

Miles: I’m sure that went over well!

Dave: Like a lead balloon. That’s where we got the rise of the Cappadocian fathers: Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus. They fought to support the trinity doctrine.

Now what’s interesting is that Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa were actually brothers. Their father was Basil the Elder. He was heavily influenced by Greek philosophy and, likewise, molded the thinking of his sons with this same philosophy.

Basil the Great later wrote a document about the Holy Spirit in which he presented him as the third person of a triune godhead. He claimed the Holy Spirit was co-equal and co-eternal. His reasoning influenced the Council of Constantinople in 381 CE.

Miles: So that’s when Christianity finally got its triune godhead.

Dave: Trinitarians won. A three-in-one god was made a mandatory doctrine … but three hundred and fifty years after Christ! And it is because they were all readers of Greek philosophy—the Cappadocian fathers, I mean. They wanted to explain how three individual persons, with different minds and wills, could be one God rather than three.

Miles: So how’d they resolve that?

Dave: Well, they never quite got there. They played around with Plotinus’ three principles of the One, the Intellect, and the Soul being of the same essence, but ultimately they had to admit they couldn’t logically make three persons into one being.

Miles: Well, you have to admit, it is a rather confusing doctrine. It’s even referred to in Christianity as a “mystery.” As in, “Don’t ask too many questions. Just accept it without understanding it because it’s a mystery!”

Dave: The thing to remember is that all of this confusing jumble of beliefs came as the Church drifted away from pure, apostolic Christianity and into paganism.

Miles: 1 Corinthians 14:33: “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace.”

Dave: Precisely! A three-in-one godhead isn’t a “mystery”! It’s foolishness! And it comes from pagan philosophy, not Scripture.

Miles: It’s always important to make sure our beliefs are founded on Scripture, not some other source.

Don’t go away folks. When we return, we’ll be taking questions from our Daily Mailbag. Stay tuned.

* * *

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First John 4, verse 16 says: “Yahuwah is love, and he who abides in love abides in Yah, and Yah in him.”

Yahuwah is love. That is the very core essence of His being and that doesn’t change just because someone dies or even when someone dies who was not a believer. Yah’s character remains the same.

In Malachi 3, verse 6, the Father states, quote: “I am Yahuwah, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”

If you would like to know what the Scripture says regarding death, visit our website. We have articles, videos, and radio programs that reveal the truth about what happens after death. This beautiful study uncovers a previously misunderstood aspect of the Father’s character, and what it reveals is pure love.

Visit us today! You can trust the Father’s love in life and in death.

* * *Daily Mailbag

Miles: Hey! I think this is the first time we’ve ever received a question in our daily mailbag from . . . well. Let’s see if you can guess.

Dave: You’re determined to increase my knowledge of geography, aren’t you?

Miles: Our question today comes from a country that has 30 different languages and is home to the world’s oldest desert.

Dave: Hmmm . . . what countries contain the Sahara desert?

Miles: I didn’t say the world’s largest desert. I said the world’s oldest desert.

Dave: Well, then, you’ve got me. I’ve got no clue.

Miles: Namibia! The Namib desert is believed to be the oldest desert in the world and the country has thirty different languages.

Dave: That’s interesting. I didn’t know that. So what question do we have today from Namibia?

Miles: It’s one I think we can all benefit from. Moses, from Walvis Bay, writes: “Greetings, brothers, in the wonderful name of our Lord and Saviour, Yahushua. My wife and I were recently blessed to become parents for the first time. We want to raise our son for Yahuwah. Are there any Biblical principles we should keep in mind as we raise our child for Yah?”

Dave: What a great question! I’ll be honest, while my wife and I certainly wanted to do right by our children, I’ll have to admit I never really thought about specific Biblical principles to instill.

Miles: Yeah, I don’t think we did, either. Now I wish we had! It’s a great question and, even if our kids are older, one we can still learn from and incorporate into our parenting as well as our own lives. So. Principles. What Biblical principles are important for raising godly children?

Dave: Well, I would say teaching a child that the purpose of life is to give glory to Yah is a foundational principle. You’ve got your laptop. Would you please read 1 Corinthians 6, verses 19 and 20? This is something we should all bear in mind.

Miles: “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from [Yah], and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify Yahuwah in your body and in your spirit, which are [Yah’s].”

Dave: We were bought with a price. We have been redeemed at great cost. Knowing this, knowing how much we are loved is something that will help instill a healthy self-worth in any child. Not vanity, but a healthy self-worth that leads to love for Yah.

Miles: We love much because we have been forgiven much.

Dave: Right. Now, turn to 1 Timothy, chapter 3. Here, Paul is talking about the characteristics a person should have who wishes to be a leader in the church, but these sample characteristics should hold true for all believers. You have it? 1 Timothy 3, verses 1 to 7.

Miles:

This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?); not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

Dave: That last has to do with a good reputation and avoiding the appearance of evil. These are all things that anyone, man or woman, should be aware of when living to glorify Yah.

Turn now to Philippians, chapter 3. Philippians 3, verses 7 and 8. This is something we don’t talk about very much, but it’s one of life’s principles as a Christian, and if a child understands this growing up, he or she won’t be frightened or discouraged when it happens, and that is that following Christ will cost you.

Miles: It says, “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Yahushua my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”

Dave: Following truth regardless of the cost is a very important principle that must be instilled from childhood.

Miles: But how do you do that?

Dave: Well, one way is to teach your children to be independent-minded and not worried about what other people think of them. If you raise your kids to be worried about what others think, how will they have the courage to stand alone for truth when the whole world is united against it? Raising a child to be unafraid of others’ opinions is one of the greatest gifts you can give your kids.

Miles: That’s a good point. Obviously, Daniel and his three friends’ parents instilled that quality in them. That’s how they were able to stay faithful even in a pagan court. And that started right away when they asked for the simple, healthful food they were used to eating at home.

Dave: They knew they wouldn’t be able to keep clear minds if indulging their appetites. Again, those are principles they were taught as children by their parents.

Another principle I learned from my wife. It’s a really powerful one and that is, if you’re going to make a mistake, always err on the side of kindness. Children learn by example. If you are harsh and unforgiving with them, they’re not likely to believe you when you tell them that their heavenly Father is loving and forgiving.

Miles: Good point. I mean, as parents, we all make mistakes, but we need to remember that the sort of parent we are to our children is how they will envision Yahuwah being. If we’re harsh, stern, unapproachable, that’s how they’ll view Yah.

Dave: And if we’re patient and forgiving with our children when they fail, they’ll view Yah as patient and forgiving.

Miles: A principle I believe is very important is to teach children to always take their problems and struggles to Yah, even at an early age. Philippians 4:13 says “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” What a great way to strengthen a child’s faith, to teach them that!

Dave: It really is. Two more things. First, teach your children to always keep an attitude of gratitude.

Miles: 1 Thessalonians 5:18: “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of [Yah] in Christ Yahushua concerning you.”

Dave: Precisely! Because when we maintain an attitude of thanksgiving, our faith will be strengthened and we will see opportunities that, if we’re focused on the negative, we’ll miss.

Finally, teach your child to differentiate between manmade traditions and Yah’s will.

Miles: Oh, that’s a good one. So many very sincere people burden themselves down with all of these manmade definitions of righteousness. And focusing on the manmade rules and regulations takes our eyes off Yah and onto our fellow man.

Dave: And it really does become a burden! But Yahuwah’s requirements are very simple and straightforward. Would you read Micah 6 verse 8 for us?

Miles: I don’t need to look it up. I’ve got it memorized. It says: “He has shown you, O man, what is good, and what doth Yahuwah require of thee but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.”

Dave: So simple. So clear. There is nothing there of manmade rules and traditions. It also goes along with what Yahushua said in Luke 10:27 where he said: “Thou shalt love Yahuwah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.”

These are principles that will help your children throughout their entire life to remain faithful and glorify their Father which is in heaven.

Miles: Okay, looks like we’ve time for another question. Erica from Vancouver, British Colombia in Canada wants to know if we have a presence on social media.

Dave: We do! You can find us on Facebook as World’s Last Chance. You can also follow us on Twitter. We tweet updates on new releases as well as breaking news in events in the world. Sharing the tweets is a great way to share a quick thought, directing people’s minds to things of eternal value.

Miles: All right. One last question. Kirk from Linz, Austria writes, “Is there a special quality that we, as believers, should focus on in particular if we want to successfully overcome?”

Dave: Actually, yes. There is. Remember, that salvation is a gift, so our efforts to overcome must be expended in the right way. No one will gain entrance into Yah’s eternal kingdom by working their way there.

Miles: So, what should we focus on?

Dave: Building our faith in Yah’s word. 1 John 5 verse 4 tells us that “whatever is born of [Yah] overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” Focus on Yah’s character. To know Him is to love Him, and your faith will grow.

Miles: I once read somewhere that faith is a plant that will grow quickly if nurtured. I took those words to heart and, yeah. I was really surprised at how quickly my faith strengthened when I made it habit to choose to take Yah at His word.

Keep sending in your questions and comments. We always enjoy hearing from you. Just go to WorldsLastChance.com and click on Contact Us. You can also check out the Q&As on our website!

* * *Daily Promise

Hello! This is Elise O’Brien with your daily promise from Yah’s word.

Viktor was lured into the easy money of drug dealing in his 20s. In the 1990s, he ran a major drug operation, smuggling illegal drugs into Central Asia. In 1996, however, his drug empire collapsed when authorities caught him in possession of 4 kilos of heroin. It seemed the end of the world to Viktor, but Yahuwah was just getting started!

Viktor’s cellmate had a copy of the Gospel of Saint John sent to him by his mother. He offered to lend it to Viktor. At first, Viktor wasn’t interested. Finally, one night when he couldn’t sleep, he decided to give it a try. After a few minutes, though, he gave up. He didn’t understand what was being said.

After more sleepless nights, Viktor tried it again. As he read, the spirit of Yah began working on his heart. Looking back, Viktor later said, that he knew nothing about prayer but he called out to Yahushua anyway, saying: “You know, I am not sure that you exist, but I want eternal life and I want to be born again.”

Remembering that dark time in his life, Viktor says: “I continued reading in the Bible alone in my cell with no Christians around. It was just me and the book.”

The change in Viktor soon became apparent. When some other inmates offered him drugs, Viktor viewed them clearly for the first time. He saw that the drugs represented death, while the Gospel of Yahuwah offered life. He deliberately chose life and refused the drugs.

Not long afterward, Viktor became sick. Doctors discovered he was seriously ill and told him he had only about a year and a half left to live. Most people would feel overwhelmed with such news, but Viktor wasn’t! His fellow inmates were shocked that instead of fear, Viktor had peace because he had given his heart to Yah and trusted that, whether he lived or died, his soul was safe with Yahuwah.

To everyone’s amazement, though, Viktor did not die. He lived long enough to finish out his jail sentence. Many convicts, released from prison, return to the life they lived before, but not Viktor. With a second chance at life, he determined that he wanted to work for Yahuwah. This was a dangerous proposition. Tajikistan, where Viktor lives, made the 2017 World Watch List of the 50 most dangerous countries for Christians. Nevertheless, Viktor is committed to sharing the truths that brought him peace and joy in Yahuwah.

When I read Viktor’s story, I thought of 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verses 17 to 19, which says, quote:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of Yahuwah, who has reconciled us to Himself through Yahushua Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that Yahuwah was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Your past doesn’t matter if Yahuwah is your future. Whatever you have done, He can forgive if you will reach out to Him and accept His gift of salvation. In fact, He waits with eager longing to accept every child of Adam who turns to Him in faith.

We have been given great and precious promises. Go and start claiming!

* * *Part 3: Paganism, Plato & the Trinity

Miles: So, I’ve got a question for you, Dave. What would you say is the purpose behind this huge three-in-one God heresy? I mean, for a doctrine based in paganism to come to be accepted as foundational Christian dogma, that’s huge! I know Satan wants people to be lost, but he’s not an idiot. What’s he attempting to accomplish by promoting such a doctrine?

You’d think the very strangeness of it, the obvious self-contradictions would have been enough to wake people up before now as to the foolishness of this belief, but it’s hung around almost as long as Christianity itself!

Dave: That’s a really insightful question. There’s actually a number of reasons for it. We don’t have time to get into them all; maybe in a later program we can. But one reason has to do with the pagan trinities we discussed. In many of these trinities, there was a father, a mother, and a son.

What’s interesting is that while they started out as trinities, often the father came to be shunted aside. He wasn’t mentioned! The mother and the son were worshipped by themselves.

Ultimately, that is what this horrific heresy does. You can see it in Christianity—

Miles: That’s true! You can! I remember, as a kid, I was always taught to pray to “Jesus.” We sang about Jesus, about him being a friend of little children. Later, he was the friend of sinners. We sang of his love, his kindness, his birth, his death, his return … and on and on and on. But the Father? That was all thunder and lightening, fear and judgment.

Dave: “Before Jehovah’s Awful Throne.”

Miles: Yeah!

Dave: And for Roman Catholics and the Orthodox churches, they have Mary. They even pray to Mary rather than the Father.

At its core, the trinity diverts attention away from Yahuwah and His very real sacrifice at Calvary. That diverted attention is placed on the son. Or mother. And, of course then, we love him. We feel closer to the son and feel that he loves us because, after all, he suffered and died for us to “appease” an angry god, right?

Miles: Yeah, that’s the message that gets through.

Dave: Well, the reasoning is simple. Diabolically effective, but ultimately simple. It is an observable phenomenon that gratitude awakens love in the heart.

As the Father’s love and tender care for us is seen and recognized, our sin-hardened hearts are softened. We feel gratitude. This, in turn, inspires greater trust and still more love. But when all the focus is on the son, what happens? We start viewing the Father as some distant, angry God that must be appeased. In a very real way, the trinity diverts attention from Yah, but in so doing, it also diverts worship away from Yah.

By splitting the one God into three, Satan could shift focus to the very human son of God. Yahushua was sinless, yes, but he was fully human.

Miles: Soooo … idolatry.

Dave: Idolatry masquerading as true devotion.

Regardless of what they say, Christians today—at least, trinitarian Christians—are not monotheists. True monotheism means you worship Yahuwah alone. You don’t worship the human son, or his mother. You worship Yah alone.

Miles: Put that way, this whole subject is much larger than I, and I think most Christians, have realized. As we’ve said before in previous programs, the final battle is over worship because who you obey, reveals who you worship.

Dave: And who you worship reveals which god rules supreme in your soul. This is important because when the entire world is united against the truth, are you going to have the courage to stand for truth and truth alone? The only way any of us can is if our hearts are hid with Christ in Yah.

All of Satan’s deceptions and delusions are designed to win souls away from Yahuwah and the pagan doctrine of the trinity is no different.

Miles: Thank you, Dave. This has been a very revealing discussion today. My appeal to our listeners is simply this: please. Study this out for yourself. We’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Dave and I, the entire WLC team: we don’t expect you to just “take our word” for it. Study it. Study Scripture. Study the history of the development of Western thought and Western religion. Truth is too important to gamble on. We need to know the truth, because the truth will set us free.

Join us again tomorrow, and until then, remember: Yahuwah loves you . . . and He is safe to trust!

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This program and past episodes of WLC Radio are available for downloading on our website. They're great for sharing with friends and for use in Bible studies! They're also an excellent resource for those worshipping Yahuwah alone at home. To listen to previously aired programs, visit our website at WorldsLastChance.com. Click on the WLC Radio icon displayed on our homepage. 

In his teachings and parables, the Savior gave no “signs of the times” to watch for. Instead, the thrust of his message was constant … vigilance. Join us again tomorrow for another truth-filled message as we explore various topics focused on the Savior's return and how to live in constant readiness to welcome him warmly when he comes.

WLC Radio: Teaching minds and preparing hearts for Christ's sudden return.