T6-7-8

6. Secular Power and the early church's losing its way

- Developement of un-Christian traditions

Its worth a short section on the role of the Bishops in the early church under constantine. Obviously the bishops were now signed up to the trinity doctrine, so we ask now what were the spritual fruits of the Bishops?

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Christianity

"Constantine also played an active role in the leadership of the Church. In 313, he issued the Edict of Milan, legalizing Christian worship. In 316, he acted as a judge in a North African dispute concerning the Donatist controversy. More significantly, in 325 he summoned the Council of Nicaea, effectively the first Ecumenical Council (unless the Council of Jerusalem is so classified), to deal mostly with the Arian controversy, but which also issued the Nicene Creed, which among other things professed a belief in One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church, the start of Christendom. "

"The reign of Constantine established a precedent for the position of the Christian Emperor in the Church. Emperors considered themselves responsible to God for the spiritual health of their subjects, and thus they had a duty of maintain orthodoxy.[52] The emperor did not decide doctrine—that was the responsibility of the bishops—rather his role was to enforce doctrine, root out heresy, and uphold ecclesiastical unity.[53] The emperor ensured that God was properly worshiped in his empire; what proper worship consisted of was for the Church to determine. This precedent would continue until certain emperors of the fifth and six centuries sought to alter doctrine by imperial edit without recourse to councils, though even after this Constantine's precedent generally remained the norm.[54] "

So we now find a blending of politics and religion - Christendom is born. Consequently, despite the statement that the "bishops determined issues of faith", in real terms, the emporer was the overall controller of the faith. No longer would the word of God be taught as it was, rather it was taught in line with the Emporers wishes, and man-made doctrines frequently altered the meaning of Gods word (e.g. the trinity, apostolic succession, praying to saints etc ).

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Christianity

"By the late first and early second century, a hierarchical and episcopal structure becomes clearly visible; early bishops of importance are Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp of Smyrna, and Irenaeus of Lyons.

This structure was based on the doctrine of Apostolic Succession where, by the ritual of the laying on of hands, a bishop becomes the spiritual successor of the previous bishop in a line tracing back to the apostles themselves.

Each Christian community also had presbyters, as was the case with Jewish communities, who were also ordained and assisted the bishop; as Christianity spread, especially in rural areas, the presbyters exercised more responsibilities and took distinctive shape as priests. Lastly, deacons also performed certain duties, such as tending to the poor and sick."

Not once in the Bible is "Apostolic Succession" EVER mentioned. Christain communities of course have elders and those who assist the congregation, but never was there to be apostolic succession. Apostolic Succession is purely a man made doctrine. The laying on of hands is a purely physical practice intended to publically proclaim the successor of a Bishop.

I have included this so anyone can see how rapidly the "churches" who labelled themselves "christian" were moving away from the unchanging Word of God.

Surely we see how quickly the church has allowed man-made un-Biblical doctrines to become important. With this devlopment comes a movement away from pure worship of the Word of God. And of course once this begins, as Jesus said :

"Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?" ( 1 Cor 5:6 )

.......and it did. The leaven is un-biblical man-made traditions.

When you wonder "how did we get to such a state, when we look carefully at church history, we can see how the church drifted from the Word of God.

7. Conclusion.

- summary

We hope you have enjoyed reading this article on the trinity. We have tried to make it cover as much material as was needed, without going into unnecessary detail.

The key points are as follows:

(1) Not ONCE is the trinity EVER mentioned explicitly in any Bible

(2) God cannot lie.

(3) Yahweh the God of the Bible is a God of order - He would not create a mess called the trinity, based on just the basics of what we know about Him.

(4) Ancient triads of gods and Neoplatonism has created a pagan foundation for the trinity idea to sprout from

(5) The Bible always says that God is God ALONE. Never has Gods word said anything else. -- scriptures required in earlier sections

(6) The idea that Jesus and Gods breath are members of the trinity cannot be supported by Gods word.

(7) Constantine has been shown to be highly likely to be pagan ( a sun worshipper ) right up until his death , and used christianity as his new administration framework for

the empire. Constantine never once decalred himself a christian in any recorded writings.

(8) Constantine required unity to maintain order in his empire. As he was a pagan and master politican, he would have been content with signing decrees that stabilised his

empire - in this case we point to the evidence that the Nicene Creed did this.

(9) Constantine committed many un-christain acts including murdering his wife and son. Constantine provided money for churches, but this does not prove he was christian.

(10)Constantines vision and use of the Labarum ( the "XP" symbol ) doenst prove he was christian. 40000 soldiers with him did not see the same vision - odd....

(11) The early church became in effect part of the official state administration - the church traded its independance and integrity before God to change into Christendom.

(12) Many post-Nicene writers like Augustine provided writings that un-Biblically gave the emporer the moral "authority" to wage war and kill.

(13) Many man-made traditions ( like the trinity ) crept into the church and are un-Biblical and false and against Gods word.

(14) Not ONCE is the trinity EVER mentioned explicitly in any Bible

8. References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hecate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimurti

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anu

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramman

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godhead

http://citypages.com/detail.asp?ArticleID=14819

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_imperial_cult

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tertullian

http://www.onlinebible.net/bibles2.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_I

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labarum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Council_of_Nicaea

http://www.seiyaku.com/customs/crosses/chi-rho.html

http://www.greeklatinaudio.com/john11.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_war

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christendom

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantinian_shift

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athanasius

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Christianity

A note on references -

Where possible all articles quoted in this document have been quoted from articles included in the section above. All efforts have been made to ensure as high degree of accuracy as possible is attained. However, it is upto the reader to independently verify everything. Most web based articles ( like those in wikipedia ) have been created using other books etc.

As always, do your own research to verify all things - as we are told :

"Instead, test everything. Hold on to what is good." ( 1 Thess 5:21 )

This means check what is said/written, and compare it to Gods word. Amen.