Program 12: One Yah Vs. Triune Godhead

Scripture unequivocally states that only Yahuwah is God. A triune godhead comes from ancient paganism.

Welcome to WLC Radio, a subsidiary of World’s Last Chance Ministries, an online ministry dedicated to learning how to live in constant readiness for the Savior's return.

For two thousand years, believers of every generation have longed to be the last generation. Contrary to popular belief, though, Christ did not give believers “signs of the times” to watch for. Instead, he repeatedly warned that his coming would take even the faithful by surprise. Yahushua urgently warned believers to be ready because, he said, “The Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” [Matthew 24:44]

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

Main Program

Part 1:

Miles Robey: Hello and welcome to WLC Radio. I’m Miles Robey.

Dave Wright: And I’m Dave Wright. We’re glad you could tune in!

Miles: Today, Dave’s going to be sharing with us something that just might shock you. He’s . . . well, I don’t want to say he’s going to attack one of Christianity’s “sacred cows” but that’s pretty much what you’re going to do, isn’t it?

Dave laughs: Well, I’m not sure “attack” is the right word, but I do believe I can demonstrate that one of Christianity’s most cherished beliefs is not Biblical and, further, that it actually originates in ancient paganism.

Miles: Wow. Well, I’m sure our listeners are eager to hear what this is and I know I want to hear what you have to say. But before we get started, I just want to give a quick heads-up to our first time listeners.

Scripture invites us to “call upon the name of the Lord.” Psalm 116 says: “I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord” while Isaiah 12 tells us: “Praise the Lord, call upon His name, declare His doing among the people.”

But, to call on His name you need to know what it is, don’t you?

Dave: Yeah. Right.

Miles: “God” and “Lord” are nothing more than titles that are used to apply to false gods, magistrates, title nobility, what have you. So here, on WLC Radio, we prefer to use the Father’s actual name, which is Yahuwah, or Yah. And the Son’s name is Yahushua.

Dave: I like that you can hear Yahuwah’s name in the name of His Son.

Miles: I do, too! Yahuwah/Yahushua. It’s nice.

Okay, let’s get into today’s topic. I want to leave as much time as possible because I have to say, Dave, you kind of shocked me when you told me what you wanted to talk about today.

Dave chuckles: Well, Miles, I was a bit shocked myself to discover that something I’d always believed was true was not supported by Scripture and, in fact, came from paganism. But, as we always say at WLC: don’t take our word for it. I’ll lay out some facts in our program today, but there’s so much more information available. Everyone needs to study it out for themselves! Let the Father impress you as to what is truth.

Miles: All right. Fair enough. So what’s this all about?

Dave: As everyone knows, there are lots of different denominations in Christendom, with just as many varieties of belief.

Miles: Right.

Dave: But there is one belief in particular that identifies Christianity AS Christianity. There is one belief that virtually all of the denominations hold in common, and the small handful that do not believe this doctrine are viewed as cults by the rest of Christendom.

And that is, a belief in a triune godhead. A belief in the trinity cannot be proven from Scripture. The Bible doesn’t teach it. In fact, it teaches just the opposite! But the trinity is the foundational doctrine of Christianity.

Miles: That’s interesting. I was going to say that a belief in Yahushua is the foundational doctrine of Christianity, but I can see what you’re saying. It’s belief in Yahushua as THE Son, of THE Father, who are united as one godhead with the Holy Spirit.

Dave: The trinity really is the foundational doctrine of modern Christianity. It’s the one doctrine that sets Christianity off from other religions. An article by the BBC a few years ago stated, quote: “Christians believe that there is only one God, whom they call Father as Jesus Christ taught them. They recognise Jesus as the son of God and believe God functions as a Trinity.”

The Catholic Encyclopedia calls the doctrine of the Trinity “the central doctrine of the Christian religion.”

Miles: And yet, you’re saying that it’s not supported by Scripture?

Dave: That’s right. The Bible does not teach a triune godhead. That is a belief that comes directly from ancient paganism. In fact—

Miles: Okay, wait just a second before you go on. How can you say there is no Holy Spirit when the Bible repeatedly refers to it?!

Dave: I’m glad you asked that. First, I’m not saying there is no Holy Spirit.

Miles: You’re not.

Dave: No. You’re right. Scripture does repeatedly refer to the “Holy Ghost,” “Holy Spirit,” or the “Spirit of Yah.” That’s true. What I am saying, however, is that the “Spirit” referred to in Scripture is not some disembodied third person of some mystical godhead.

We don’t have time to get into precisely what the Bible says the Holy Spirit IS, but for now, suffice it to say that yes, there is a “Spirit of Yah” but it is NOT some mysterious “third person” of a “godhead.”

Miles: All right . . .

Dave: Again, this whole concept comes from ancient paganism. The earliest record of belief in a trinity comes from Sumeria. This ancient triune godhead consisted of Anu, the “Father” and “King of the gods”; Enlil, the “creator” god; and Enki, the “lord of wisdom.”

It was in ancient Babylon that a mother figure entered the “holy” trinity. Babylon’s trinity contained: Nimrod, his wife Semiramis, and her son, Tammuz.

Now what’s interesting is that Semiramis was styled as the “Mother of God” and, get this: the “Queen of Heaven.” Sound familiar?

Miles: Yeah! That’s-that’s how Catholics refer to Mary!

Dave: Yep. And that’s where it began. Back in ancient Babylon’s idolatrous trinity.

But there’s more. Egypt had a trinity, too. Osiris, the Father; Isis, the Mother; and Horus, the Son.

Hindus have a trinity in Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. The Greeks worshipped Zeus, Athena, and Apollo, claiming that the three “agreed in one.”

Miles: A triune godhead really permeated ancient paganism, didn’t it?

Dave: Richard Cassaro wrote a book entitled Written in Stone. In there, he presents evidence of an extremely old, very powerful three-in-one religion that was spread across Europe centuries before Yahushua.

Cassaro contends that this belief was so ingrained that, at first, it actually prevented the spread of Christianity in Europe!

Miles: Seriously?

Dave: Seriously. He writes: “This ancient Three-In-One religion was a self-empowering body of wisdom that endowed Europe's masses with legendary sixth-sense faculties . . . It also endowed them with the fabled ability of mind over matter. A people thus enabled are naturally difficult to influence and nearly impossible to control. Hence the desire of the Church founders—whose goal has always been to gain hegemony over the masses—to eliminate this ancient magical wisdom from the continent, giving them a firmer base to establish their new Christian religion and uproot the existing belief systems.”

Obviously something had to be done if Christianity was going to convert the powerful, difficult-to-influence pagans. The solution was to create a Christian counterpart. A Christian trinity.

Miles: God the Father; God the Son; and God the Holy Spirit.

Dave: Right. The thing everyone needs to understand is that the early Christians were NOT Trinitarian. I don’t care that there are references to a “Holy Spirit” in Scripture. There is a “Holy Spirit.” The “Spirit of Yah.” But the point is: the early Christians did not think of the Holy Spirit as being some mystical, disembodied third-person of the godhead. They didn’t believe that!

Miles: That’s news to me. We tend to think the beliefs we have today are the beliefs held by the first Christians, but they aren’t always the same, are they?

Dave: No, there were a lot of changes in doctrine that entered Christianity in the third, and especially, the fourth centuries.

Victor Wierwille wrote a book on the subject in which he stated, and I quote:

“Although other religions for thousands of years before Christ was born worshipped a triune god, the trinity was not a part of Christian dogma and formal documents of the first three centuries after Christ.”

Did you catch that, Miles? For the first three centuries after Yahushua, there was no belief in a triune godhead among Christians!

Miles: Incredible!

Dave: Then Wierwille goes on to state, quote: “That there was no formal, established doctrine of the trinity until the fourth century is a fully documented historical fact.

“Clearly, historians of church dogma and systematic theologians agree that the idea of a Christian trinity was not a part of the first century church. The twelve apostles never subscribed to it or received revelation about it.”

He then asks: “So how then did a trinitarian doctrine come about?” Then he answers his own question, stating: “It gradually evolved and gained momentum in late first, second and third centuries as pagans, who had converted to Christianity, brought to Christianity some of their pagan beliefs and practices!”

Miles: That’s incredible. We go through our lives, believing that this is a Biblical doctrine, we contemptuously dismiss as a cult those few denominations that say it’s not Biblical, and then we learn that it is, in fact, NOT BIBLICAL! Wow.

Dave: Biblical scholars always know more than they admit. You start digging into this, you’ll discover that even Trinitarians themselves admit that this unbiblical doctrine did not appear until four hundred years after Yahushua!

Miles: Really? Can you give us some examples?

Dave: Well, the 1967 edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia states, quote: “ . . . one should not speak of Trinitarianism in the New Testament without serious qualification . . . when one does speak of an unqualified Trinitarianism, one has moved from the period of Christian origins to, say, the last quadrant of the 4th century. It was only then [in the last part of the fourth century] that what might be called the definitive Trinitarian dogma [of] ‘one God in three Persons’ became thoroughly assimilated into Christian life and thought.”

Miles: Huh. Not until the end of the fourth century! Wow. So, where did this come from? I mean, our modern version. We don’t have a mother figure in our Christian trinity. Where did the Christian version of the trinity come from?

Dave: The Christian version of the trinity, as it’s understood today, is drawn almost in its entirety from the Greek philosopher, Plato.

Miles: A pagan.

Dave: Yep. The Platonists believed in an “Unknown Father”; a “Word” or Logos—and what do we call Yahushua? The Word. Remember John 1? “In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with Yah; and the Word was Yah?” [John 1:1]

So, later, the pagan converts to Christianity see this, they grab onto it and run with it, and suddenly, Yahushua is restyled as the second in a triune godhead.

Miles: So how did it get from Plato into Christianity?

Dave: Plato’s ideas were popular with early theologians like Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Augustine. Through them, much of Greek Platonism entered Christianity.

William Frend was an English ecclesiastical historian, archaeologist and Anglican priest. He wrote a book entitled, “The Rise of Christianity” in which he talks about it. Pagan influence on the development of Christian doctrine was so widespread that, he says, quote: “We find Christianity tending to absorb Greek philosophical values, until by the end of the third century the line between the beliefs of educated Christian and educated pagan in the east would often be hard to draw."

Miles: That’s really saying something, that by the end of the third century, there wasn’t much difference in the beliefs of the educated Christian versus the beliefs of the educated pagan.

Dave: It demonstrates how much Christianity changed! The early centuries of the Christian era were a time of flux. Even though people traveled, there was no near-instantaneous transfer of information like we have today. Different ideas did develop, but Christianity as we know it today really cohered together at the Council of Nicaea.

The Roman emperor, Constantine, has been called a saint by Catholics, but he was actually a pagan that wasn’t baptized until he was on his death bed.

Miles: Oh, yeah. He really was bad news. Didn’t he kill his own son or something?

Dave: That’s right. He did legalize Christianity, but it wasn’t because he was a Christian!

Miles: Wasn’t he head of Roman pagan sun worship? Didn’t they call him “Pontifex Maximus” or something?

Dave: Yes. The title now used by the pope used to refer to the high priest of the College of Pontiffs and was the highest in the state religion. That was Constantine. He was both emperor and high priest of the state religion. In fact, he never did renounce the title of Pontifex Maximus.

Anyway, he legalized Christianity for political purposes! And, conveniently for him, the Bishop of Rome wanted to extend his power and influence by converting pagans! It was a match made in . . . hell, really.

The Council of Nicaea was convened in the year 325 for the express purpose of uniting Christians. The side-effect was to make Christianity more palatable to the pagans.

Miles: So what were they discussing? We’re so used to Christianity being fairly united, what was it that they were divided upon?

Dave: Interestingly enough, the main point under discussion was the nature of Yahuwah. This is where the trinity really conquered Christianity. A lot of the bishops were opposed to the doctrine as being unbiblical. This was called “Arianism.” They believed that Yah was the one true God. Period. No trinity. Just Yahuwah God and Yahushua was His son. They didn’t believe in a triune “godhead.”

Miles: Interesting.

Dave: However, Constantine made it clear that all the bishops would remain at the Council until they united. And they did – for three years! Some evidence suggests that bishops who refused to bend in their beliefs were assassinated while others were exiled.

But, ultimately, they did unite. Doctrines and Scriptural interpretations promoting the individuality of Yahuwah were set aside in favor of a pagan Trinitarian theology.

Miles: Right here’s an important point I think we need to highlight before we go on. Compromise, just for the sake of unity, should always raise red flags. You think about it, compromise for the sake of unity is an identifying characteristic of error!

Dave: And that’s exactly what happened at the Council of Nicea. Bishops who refused to accept the trinity were murdered or exiled. But more than that, a precedent for compromise was set. And you see it to this day: people will twist statements to apply in more than one way just to achieve an appearance of “unity in diversity.”

Arthur McGiffert, in his book, A History of Christian Thought, says that they actually “authorized a double interpretation in order to win Eusebius and his followers.”

Miles: Huh! And Biblical truth was supplanted with pagan error for the sake of superficial “unity.” Amazing.

Dave: And all to feed the ambitions of Emperor Constantine and Sylvester, the Bishop of Rome.

Miles: Well, there you have it. Stay tuned, folks. When we return, Dave is going to delve into the Biblical angle of this topic. What do we do with those texts that certainly appear to be teaching a triune godhead?

Back in a moment!

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Part 2:

Miles: So, Dave.In our first segment you laid out some pretty compelling evidence that the earliest Christians did not believe in a trinity, and that the adoption of the pagan, triune godhead was politically motivated.

Dave: Right.

Miles: Well, then, how do you explain some of these passages in the Bible? I mean, I’m sure I’m not the only one thinking of various Bible verses and, to be honest, they really do sound like the writer believed in a Trinity!

Dave chuckles: I know. Well, let’s take a look at some of those passages. First though, I think it’s important to keep in mind that even Bible scholars who believe in the trinity admit that the trinity doctrine, as it is believed today, was unknown to the Bible writers.

Miles: That’s astonishing!

Dave: Well, it is. Edmund Fortman wrote a book called The Triune God. In it, he traced the historical development of the Trinitarian doctrine. Now, Fortman himself believed in a trinity! And yet, even he was compelled by honesty to state that the Old Testament contained no overt references to a Triune God.

He further stated: “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.”

Here’s a man, to all appearances an intellectually honest one. He’s written a book with the express purpose of detailing the historical development of this belief, and honesty compels him to admit that if you read a Triune God into any of the Old Testament passages, you’re reading into it your own ideas. Because the sacred writers did not have that in mind when they wrote!

Miles: Wow.

Dave: And he doesn’t stop there! He goes on to state that even the New Testament writers, quote: “Give us no formal or formulated doctrine of the Trinity.” Unquote. Then he adds: “Nowhere do we find any Trinitarian doctrine of the three distinct subjects of divine life and activity in the same Godhead.”

Miles: And, despite this, he still believed in the Trinity?

Dave: Yes. And this isn’t the only source that admits this. The Oxford Companion to the Bible says, quote: “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.”

Even Martin Luther did not completely repudiate the doctrine of the trinity and yet, in one of his sermons, he admitted, and I 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.”

Those in the know, know that the trinity-doctrine cannot be proven from Scripture!

Shirley Guthrie, Jr., was a professor of theology at Columbia Theological Seminary for nearly 40 years. He wrote: “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.” He said that the language used to describe the doctrine “is taken from classical Greek philosophy.”

And they aren’t the only ones. This is why I said earlier: don’t take my word for it. You don’t have to! Just dig in and start studying it out for yourself. You’ll see that Bible scholars very readily admit the doctrine of the trinity came in later. It was not part of the belief system of Apostolic Christianity.

Miles: That’s good advice. I do want to look into this some more. I’ll admit that when you first shared today’s topic with me, I was skeptical. But now, yeah. This is something I want to study out for myself.

Dave: Roger Olson and Christopher Hall are two professors of theology. They wrote a book entitled The Trinity in which they wrote, quote: “It is understandable that the importance placed on this doctrine is perplexing to many lay Christians and students. Nowhere is it clearly and unequivocally stated in Scripture . . . How can it be so important if it is not explicitly stated in Scripture?”

Then they explain: “The doctrine of the Trinity developed gradually after the completion of the New Testament in the heat of controversy, but the church fathers who developed it believed they were simply exegeting [or explaining] divine revelation and not at all speculating or inventing new ideas. The full-blown doctrine of the Trinity was spelled out in the fourth century at two great ecumenical (universal) councils: Nicea (in 325) and Constantinople (in 381).”

Millard Erickson, a professor of theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, states that the Trinity is not clearly or explicitly taught anywhere in Scripture, and yet it’s widely regarded as a central doctrine, that is indispensable to the Christian faith!

Miles: You grow up believing in a certain doctrine and then, suddenly, you’re told it’s nothing but a man-made tradition, it’s hard to wrap your head around.

Dave: I know. It is. But it’s true. The scholars know this. It’s the faithful lay people filling the pews that don’t know.

Charles Ryrie wrote a respected book entitled Basic Theology in which he clearly stated, quote: “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.”

Miles: Okay, hold on a minute. I hear what you’re saying. But what about, say for example, First John 5:7 which says: “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”

How can you, or all these scholars, or anyone say the doctrine isn’t in the New Testament, and yet it’s right there!

Dave: I’m glad you asked. It’s a good point but the answer may shock you. You ready for this?

Miles: Not sure I can be more shocked than I already am. Go for it.

Dave: You’re right. First John 5:7 clearly spells out the doctrine of a triune godhead. The thing is, those verses were not actually written by John. It was added at a much later date.

Miles: What?! You’re saying some uninspired scribe or monk or whomever added it to the Bible.

Dave: Yes.

Miles: It was not originally part of Holy Writ.

Dave: No.

Miles: Wow.

Dave: You can’t find it in any of the Greek manuscripts until the 11^th century.

Miles: That’s a thousand years later!

Dave: That’s right. I’m telling you, this is a tradition of men, adopted from the pagans.

Miles: Incredible.

Dave: Well, what it did, was change Christianity from the inside out.

Miles: How so?

Dave: We often talk about “Judeo-Christianity.” Meaning: a belief whose historical roots are in both Judaism and Christianity. But Christianity differs from Judaism and the biggest area of difference, of course, is that Christians accept Yahushua as the Messiah. Jews don’t.

Miles: Right. Okay.

Dave: So by acknowledging Yahushua as the Messiah, Christianity departed from traditional Judaism. However, the early Christians were still very similar to the Jews in their beliefs.

• They still worshipped on the seventh-day Sabbath
• They calculated the Sabbath by the Biblical luni-solar calendar, not the Roman Julian calendar
• They abstained from unclean meats
• They observed the annual festivals

Apostolic Christianity was a pure religion that was a close reflection of the divine roots from which it had sprung.

Miles: That’s true. Apostolic Christianity looked a lot more, well, Jewish for want of a better term, than today’s Christianity.

Dave: And it’s not because it took them awhile to lay aside Judaism! They immediately quit sacrificing animals! Apostolic Christianity with its close ties to Judaism was a very pure faith.

However, with the assimilation of paganism into the church in the fourth century, especially with the acceptance of the trinity into Christian theology, Christianity underwent a fundamental change. It quickly became something that bore little resemblance to its pure, heaven-ordained origins.

The New Encyclopedia Britannica with surprising accuracy pinpoints the reason for this. It says, and I quote: “The Trinitarian creed of Christianity . . . sets it apart from the two other classical monotheistic religions [Judaism and Islam].”

Miles: All right. So the doctrine is unscriptural. But we all know Satan does nothing without reason. Why this? Why go to so much effort over the last 16 centuries to get Christians believing this lie?

There are a small – really small! – handful of denominations that don’t believe in the trinity, but everyone views them as weird. They’re dismissed as cults, sometimes for no other reason than they reject this doctrine!

Why? What’s the purpose behind such a big deception?

Dave: With a trinity, focus is shifted away from Yahuwah. That’s the reason for this doctrine.

But the effect is far reaching. With attention placed upon “God the Son” as Saviour, and God the Holy Spirit as Mediator, the belief arises that they are working together in our stead.

Miles: Riiiight . . . and so?

Dave: The danger of this subtle shift in emphasis is that it removes from the believer the need to do anything . . . other than simply “accept Jesus.”

Miles: Okay. You’ve lost me here. I’m not seeing the problem with that.

Dave: Scripture teaches that Yahuwah is to work IN us. Philippians 2 states: “For it is YAH who works IN you both to WILL and to DO for His good pleasure.” [Philippians 2:13]

This is Yahuwah’s plan to restore in the redeemed His own image! He is to work IN us. But suddenly, by having two members of the so-called “Godhead” work in our stead, there is no need for repentance or holy living. All one has to do is “just accept.” This is foundational to cheap grace, where the believer has only to claim “belief” and nothing more, not even obedience, is required. It’s a close cousin to the heresy of “once saved, always saved.”

Miles: Awww! I see. So, what you’re telling me is, by bringing the doctrine of the trinity into Christianity, the devil tried to destroy it, fundamentally, from the inside out.

Dave: That’s exactly right.

Miles: Wow. That’s huge. That’s awful, but huge. It’s incredible that something that has no basis in Scripture could now be the primary fundamental belief of Christianity.

Dave: Right! Satan really won a victory there.

Miles: Well, before we completely run out of time, I want to take just a few minutes to talk about the true nature of Yahuwah. You’ve given us a good foundational start for our own study of the topic, but if He’s not one-third of a triune godhead, what is He?

Dave: That’s a fair question and I want to let Scripture answer it. The Bible clearly presents Yahuwah as a single entity. Could you read Deuteronomy 6:4 for us? This is what is known as the shema. It’s one of only two prayers specifically commanded in the Books of Moses.

Miles: Huh. That’s interesting. Okay, here we go. Deuteronomy 6:4 says: “Hear, O Israel, Yahuwah our Elohim is one Yahuwah.”

Dave: Thank you. “Hear, O Israel, Yahuwah our Elohim is one Yahuwah.”

The word Elohim, here, is the plural form of El which means “God.” The use of the plural term emphasizes the Father’s importance. It was a common literary device in ancient Hebrew. The use of the plural magnified the person’s stature.

This was not intended to imply a triune godhead. The very first commandment states unequivocally, “I am Yahuwah thy Elohim . . . Thou shalt have no other elohim before Me.” [Exodus 20:2 and 3.]

Notice what it does not say. It does not say: “We are Yahuwah and Yahushua your godSSS.” There is only one El, one “God”, and that is Yahuwah.

The New Testament writers, also, were united in their rejection of a trinity. Let’s take a quick look at what Paul said. Flip over to First Corinthians 8 and read verses 4 to 6 for us.

Miles: All right. It says . . . “There is none other Theos [or God] but one. For though there be that are called theos [gods], whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) but to US there is but one Theos, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Master Yahushua the Annointed, by whom are all things, and we by him.”

Dave: Notice Paul says there is ONE theos, or god, and that is Yahuwah, and one Master, Yahushua. He never calls Yahushua the self-originating source of all life. Only the Father, Yahuwah, is that.

In an article called “The Lost Doctrines of Christianity: The Trinity Doctrine,” the author wrote, quote: “Most theologians know that the Trinity doctrine is not scriptural. 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.”

Miles: So why do Christians just accept this?

Dave: Well, most Christians are taught not to question. They’re taught that their denomination has all truth and to question is to a show lack of faith. They accept the doctrine of the trinity for no other reason than it’s all they’ve ever been taught. They don’t know there was a time when the subject was extremely controversial with people actually losing their lives for the sake of the truth.

Anthony Buzzard and Charles Hunting in their book, The Doctrine of the Trinity, said: "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."

Miles: And in all of this, attention is stolen from the Father and His love for us.

Dave: Exactly! It was a brilliant move by Satan. We teach our toddlers to pray to “Dear Jesus” rather than to the Father. And we are to pray in Yahushua’s name, but nowhere in Scripture are we told to pray to Yahushua.

The Saviour himself always told us to pray to the Father.

Miles: My wife was telling me about a friend of hers who prays to the Holy Spirit rather than the Father. Because, after all, if the Holy Spirit is part of the godhead, why not?

Dave: Sure. And yet, the affect is to shove the Father aside. Catholics pray to Mary who they call the “Mother of God” and the “Queen of Heaven”—just as the ancient Sumerians referred to Semiramis!

And all the while, the One who loved sinners so much that He gave His only begotten son to die for their redemption, is viewed as a stern, unforgiving, impersonal God.

In closing, I wish to leave you with one final Bible verse. Listen and let the words sink in. It’s from Isaiah 45, verses 21-22:

Yahuwah declares: “There is no other Elohim besides Me, A just El and a Saviour; There is none besides Me. Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am El, and there is no other.”

Miles: Amen.

When we return, we’ll answer some questions from our Daily Mailbag.

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Daily Mailbag

Miles: We’ve got a question today coming from Marcos in Salvador, Brazil.

Dave: I like how, with modern technology, we can hear from believers all over the world.

Miles: It’s really nice, isn’t it? Following truth always requires going against the flow. It’s such a solitary walk for many. Knowing that there are other sincere believers out there is very encouraging.

Dave: It really is. So what does Marcos have to say?

Miles: He writes: “Greetings, WLC! Could you please explain to me what is meant by ‘rest’ in Hebrews 4? It seems that a lot of people interpret this to mean the Sabbath is no longer a binding requirement but that’s inconsistent with the fact that the Creator’s law is unchanging. If you could provide an explanation, I’d appreciate it.”

Dave: That’s a good question, Marcos. It delves past surface meaning and goes straight to the meat of what is being said here. As with every other passage of Scripture, we need to take a look at the surrounding passages. Hebrews 4 continues to develop a theme begun in chapter 3.

In these two chapters, the author of Hebrews outlines three “rests.” The first “rest” is, of course, found in Yahushua. He is the “anointed.” “Christ” means “Anointed” and he is our anointed High Priest.

Miles: I remember that! Hebrews 7 says of Yahushua: “Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.”

Dave: That’s right. So the first rest is found in the Saviour. We enter that rest when we invite him, today, to reign supreme in our thoughts, emotions, loyalties, and affections.

The second “rest” is one all believers long for but which we will only experience. When this “mortal shall put on immortality” and “death is swallowed up in victory.”

Miles: That makes sense. So what’s the third rest?

Dave: The third rest is that of the weekly, seventh-day Sabbath. As Marcos is perceiving, there are depths of meaning here that are profoundly beautiful.

See, when we rest on the weekly Sabbath, just as the Creator did at the creation of our world, we are looking forward, by faith, to when we will one day enter into that rest in the true “Promised Land.”

Miles: So, let me get this straight: what you’re saying is, the weekly Sabbath rest is a foretaste of the ultimate rest that awaits Yah’s faithful.

Dave: Exactly. And we enter into that rest by faith—now—when we worship on the true seventh-day Sabbath.

Now some Christians, mistakenly believing that the obligation of the Sabbath commandment was “done away with” at the cross, have incorrectly interpreted Hebrews 4, verses 9 and 10. Let’s read that really quick.

Miles: Hebrews 4:9 and 10?

Dave: Yep. You got that?

Miles: Yeah, it says . . . “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of Yah.

For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as Yah did from His.”

Dave: In these verses, we’re actually being told to enter the very rest which Yahuwah entered! When did Yahuwah rest?

Miles: Uh, well, “And Yahuwah blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which Yahuwah created and made.” [Genesis 2:3]

Dave: Right! Genesis 2. So then, joining with Yahuwah, worshiping Him on the day that He sanctified, becomes symbolic of that greater rest where we leave off our own efforts to be saved, and rest in the salvation already completed, that is a free gift to all who will accept it by faith.

It’s ironic that in this passage where the writer of Hebrews intended to demonstrate the continuing obligation of the Sabbath, these same verses have been twisted to mean that the Sabbath has been “done away with.” But that’s not what those verses are saying at all!

Miles: What you’re saying is consistent with Isaiah 66. Verse 23 makes it clear that, even in the earth made new, the Sabbath will still be kept. It says: “And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith Yahuwah.”

Dave: Right! Right! And the neat thing about this verse is that it also reveals which calendar will be used to calculate the Sabbaths. The reference to “new moons” lets us know the Sabbath in the new earth will be calculated by the luni-solar calendar of Creation. Because you don’t have “new moons” on the papal, Gregorian calendar in use today!

Miles, chuckles: Nope! You don’t. Okay, we’ve got time for one more quick question. Sharon, in Bristol, England asks: “I find your name intriguing. Why do you call yourselves “World’s Last Chance”?

Dave: Well, Sharon, the name “World's Last Chance" was chosen for our website, and now our radio station, because it reflects our beliefs. Every one of our beliefs rests upon a solid foundation of Scripture. In the last chapter of the last book of the Bible, a warning is given that a time is coming when Heaven will declare probationary time is over.

It’s found in Revelation 22 and says: “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.” [Revelation 22:11]

These words announce the close of probationary time.

Miles: Could you take a moment to explain what you mean by “probationary time”?

Dave: When mankind sinned, a second chance was given the human race. Without that second chance, we would have all been lost. But with Yahushua's death on the cross we were all given a second chance. A second chance to choose for ourselves whether we’ll be loyal to our Maker or join Satan in rebellion.

The acceptance of advancing truth is, quite literally, The World's Last Chance.

Miles: These are serious times. If you have any questions, drop us a note. Just go to our website at WorldsLastChance.com and click on Contact Us. We want to hear from you.

Daily Promise: (Laura Lee)

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

The Chinese philosopher, Lao-Tze, said: “Silence is a source of great strength.” When the Prophet Elijah had fled the anger of Jezebel, Yahuwah did not forsake him. Instead, He used the opportunity to teach Elijah an important lesson – one that we need to learn, too.

Elijah learned that the presence of Yah was not in anything big, and mighty, showy, or noisy. Instead, it is found in silence and stillness as the believer turns aside from earthly distractions to spend time with the Creator. 1 Kings, chapter 9, records the story. Elijah was told:

“Go forth, and stand upon the mount before Yahuwah. And, behold, Yahuwah passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before Yah; but Yahuwah was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but Yahuwah was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but Yahuwah was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave.”

If you are in a situation where you don’t know what to do, if you feel like a snowball caught in the avalanche of life, listen for Yahuwah’s still small voice speaking to YOUR heart.

He will tell you what to do! He’ll open a path before you that is safe to follow. In the first chapter of James, believers are given the promise:

“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of Yah, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”

I like that! To “upbraid” means to reproach or severely reprove. To upbraid someone means to treat him with contempt. Yahuwah promises that if you go to Him for wisdom, He will freely give it to you. And He’s not going to scold you or make fun of you for needing to ask! Go to Him for wisdom and guidance. Pray and listen for His voice in the silence. He will hear and answer you!

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

Ending Points

Miles: Wellll . . . Wow! You grow up thinking a certain way, believing something is true, and then only to be slapped in the face with reality, it’s rather disorienting.

Dave: It is.

All churches have some truth, but that is no reason to remain a member. If it teaches belief in this diabolical pagan doctrine, you need to leave.

Miles: Well, what about Jehovah’s Witnesses? They don’t believe in a trinity.

Dave: No, they don’t. And they are right about that. That is one of the truths they hold. However, they believe in other errors. For example, they cling to worshiping on the pagan Sunday.

Listen. The doctrine of the trinity is a dangerous one.

Miles: How so?

Dave: Well, it creates this-this . . . mental wall, if you will, between you and the Father. I know someone who prays TO the Holy Spirit. How is that any different than praying to Mary? Or even Jesus?

Miles: That’s true. The Saviour never told us to pray to him. He always told us to pray to the Father.

Dave: Absolutely. And if you don’t have the confidence to pray to the Father for yourself, if you don’t have the experience of praying and receiving answers directly from Him, how are you going to have the confidence to stand firm for truth?

The doctrine of the trinity, just as the idea of Mary as co-Redemptrix, and co-Mediatrix, diverts attention from the Father and on to these other entities.

Okay, so how many people have the confidence in the Father to cling to the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Miles: You just said something, Dave, that I think is really important. You said “confidence.” That’s exactly what we need. We need, as individuals, confidence that the Father loves us and cares about us. That He is looking out for us.

Dave: And if our attention is diverted away from Him and on to some disembodied spirit, so will our love and gratitude be diverted away, and there goes our confidence in Him and His love for us as individuals.

Miles: Well, you’ve given us a lot to think about today.

And listen, friends, as with everything else: don’t take our word for it. Study this topic out for yourself. There’s more information on our website as well as information elsewhere on the Internet. It was news to me that the early Christians were not Trinitarians. There was a reason for that.

So again, study this out for yourself. Know what you believe—for yourself, so that you can have confidence in the Father’s love for you.

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.