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What the experts have said about the trinity is really remarkable. I will now invite you to simply read and evaluate the subject yourself. Here is the material. "The Holy Trinity- the basis for the doctrine of the Trinity... The question as to how to reconcile the encounter with God in this threefold figure (The Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit) with faith in THE ONENESS OF GOD, which WAS THE JEWS' AND CHRISTIANS' CHARACTERISTIC MARK OF DISTINCTION over against paganism, agitated the piety of ancient Christendom in the deepest way... Christ as the Logos, UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF NEOPLATONIC PHILOSOPHY, BECAME the subject of a speculative theology... This question was answered through the Neoplatonic metaphysics of being... In Neoplatonic philosophy both the nous and the idea of the world are designated the hypostases (essences, or natures) of the transcendent God. Christian theology took the Neoplatonic metaphysics of substance as well as its doctrine of hypostases as THE DEPARTURE POINT FOR INTERPRETING THE RELATIONSHIP of the 'Father' to the 'Son' in terms of the Neoplatonic hypostases doctrine... The Neoplatonic concept of substance... was foreign to the New Testament itself... The dispute on the basis of the metaphysics of substance... LED TO CONCEPTS THAT HAVE NO FOUNDATION IN THE NEW TESTAMENT." -Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th edition, 1984, Vol. 4, page 485. B "It is a well confirmed historical fact that beginning in about 130 A.D. many of the Church Fathers- the Apologists- were converts from paganism and trained pagan philosophers. These included Justin Martyr (ca. 100-165), Tatian (ca. 200) and Theophilus of Antioch (ca. 160-200). Indeed their knowledge of the Old Testament came through their readings of the PHILOSOPHER Philo. Tertullian EXPLICITLY EMPLOYED written works of PAGAN PHILOSOPHERS in support of his Christian philosophy (De Test. Animae I). Such fathers as Justin Martyr (Apol. I, 4, 5, 7, 20) and Athenagoras (ca. 177) (Supplic. 5, 6), in order to defend Christianity, stated that THEY WERE FOLLOWING SOME OF THE PRACTICES ADVOCATED BY THE BEST OF THE PAGAN PHILOSOPHERS. Clement of Alexandria (ca. 150-215) actually undertook to create a new Christian philosophy he termed the 'true philosophy' (Strom. II, 11)." - Robert A. Hermann, "Oneness, The Trinity, And Logic", pg 18. 1 William B. Chalfant, "Ancient Champions of Oneness", pg 116-117: 'Indeed, Numenius of Apamea (fl. c. 175 A.D.), a Syrian pagan philosopher, and one of great influence upon the Alexandrian Trinitarians, BOASTED THAT HE HAD GONE BACK 'TO the fountainhead of PLATO, SOCRATES AND PYTHAGORAS, to the ancient traditions of the Brahmins, Magi, Egyptians and Jews, AND HAD RESTORED to the schools the forgotten doctrine of THREE GODS'. Bigg calls Numenius the founder (along with the Catholic Clement of Alexandria) of Neo-Platonism. (Chalfant here quotes Charles Bigg, from "The Christian Platonists of Alexandria" Oxford at Clarendon Press, 1913, page 2 251-252.) "...The rejection of Modalism (oneness) and the recognition of Christ as the Logos forced upon the West the necessity of rising FROM FAITH TO A PHILOSOPHICAL AND, IN FACT, A DISTINCTIVELY NEOPLATONIC DOGMATIC." -Adolph Harnack, "History of Dogma 3" as quoted by William B. Chalfant, in "Ancient Champions of Oneness", pgs. 121-122. "...AUGUSTINE found his ultimate demonstration of the TRINITY IN PAGAN PHILOSOPHY... like Origen... based his reasoning on the metaphysics of PLATO, WHO DECLARED THAT MAN IS A TRICHOTOMY consisting of body, mind, soul. Using this as A POINT OF DEPARTURE, Augustine found it a reflection of the trinal unity of the godhead." -William B. Chalfant, quoting Larson, in "Ancient Champions of Oneness", pg 123. p "It is not difficult to understand why his opponents asserted that Augustine had never ceased to be a Manichee. HIS SYSTEM IS IN TRUTH THAT OF THE GNOSTICS, the ancestors of the Manichees." William B. Chalfant, "Ancient Champions of Oneness",

pg 124 (Chalfant here quotes Charles Bigg, from "The Christian Platonists of Alexandria" Oxford at Clarendon Press, 1913, page 289.) A "Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)- 'The deity stands in lonely self-contemplation outside the world... his intellect (nous) is the only thing through which He stands in immediate contact with it...' Plato (428-328 B.C.)- (taught that gods, by definition) 'are exalted above pleasure and pain, and are untouched of all evils.'... THUS THE TRINITARIANS MADE A FATHER, WHO WAS IMPASSABLE (i.e. incapable of suffering or feeling pain), the first person, and then a second person (whom they styled the Logos, Mind, or nous), who was passable... WHAT THE TRINITARIANS WERE SAYING WAS THAT... THEY DID NOT BELIEVE JESUS CHRIST TO BE THE ALMIGHTY GOD." The above as quoted by William B. Chalfant, in "Ancient Champions of Oneness", pg. 1 122. "The thing that most people do not realize is that THE IDEA OF TRINITY WAS CENTRAL TO MITHRA WORSHIP. It (Trinity) was taught in the oldest Chaldean, Egyptian, and Mithraitic schools. The Chaldean Sun-god, Mithra, was called 'Triple,' and the Trinitarian idea of the Chaldeans was a doctrine of the Akkadians, who themselves belonged to a race which was the first to conceive a metaphysical trinity." -Blavatsky, vol. 2 sec.1 page 46, as quoted from Three Persons- from the Bible? Or Babylon, by Thomas Weisser, page 26. B "The Trinity doctrine... traces it's history to a rebellious extremist named Tertullian... And it is not improbable that the development of the doctrine of THE TRINITY, WHICH FORMED NO PART OF THE ORIGINAL JEWISH CHRISTIANITY, may be traced to Egyptian influence; as the whole of the OLDER EGYPTIAN THEOLOGY WAS PERMEATED WITH THE IDEA OF TRIPLE DIVINITY, as seen by both in the triads of gods which the various cities worshipped, and in the threefold names, representing three differing aspects of the same personality, under which each god might be addressed." -Joseph Crafton Milne, "A History of Egypt, pg 155. Vol. 5. as quoted in After The Way Called Heresy, by Thomas Weisser, pg 21. i "The Cappodicians, theologians who reconciled the faith of current philosophy, and apprehended it abstractly, did not pure and simple... They boldly characterized the PLURALITY A PHASE OF TRUTH PRESERVED IN GREEK POLYTHEISM" -Adolf von Dogma", pg 142-143. D

Athanasius with the retain his teaching OF HYPOSTASES, E.G., AS Harnack, "History of

"It is a solution BY HARMONIZATION, an attempt to COMBINE, as Gregory of Nyssa characterizes it, THE MONOTHEISM OF THE JEWS AND THE POLYTHEISM OF THE GREEKS. THE METHOD OF HARMONIZATION USED BY THEM WAS TO THIN DOWN THE JEWISH MONOTHEISM AS A CONCESSION TO GREEK POLYTHEISM." -Wolfson, Harry A. "The Philosophy of the Church Fathers", pg 578-579, as quoted in After The Way Called Heresy, by Thomas Weisser, page 32. p "In the Trimurti, Brahma... The Lord God, though one without a second, assumes the three forms respectively of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva... though three in form, are one entity... It may, however be noted that, whereas THE TRINITY IS PRESENTED IN SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY AS A MYSTERY, IT IS A FUNDAMENTAL DEFINITION OF HINDU RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY!" -Edward Rice, Eastern Definitions, pg 387. as quoted in After The Way Called Heresy, by Thomas Weisser, Page 34. A "Trimurti... the Hindu Trinity of gods, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, conceived as an inseparable unity..." Webster's Dictionary. i "THE ANCIENT BABYLONIANS, just as the modern Romans, RECOGNIZED IN WORDS THE UNITY of the Godhead; and, while worshipping innumerable minor deities... they distinctly acknowledged that there was One infinite and Almighty Creator, supreme

over all... IN THE UNITY OF THAT ONE ONLY GOD OF THE BABYLONIANS, THERE WERE THREE PERSONS, and to symbolize that doctrine of the Trinity, they employed... the equilateral triangle... just as is well known the Romish Church does at this day... THE RECOGNITION OF A TRINITY WAS UNIVERSAL IN ALL THE ANCIENT NATIONS OF THE WORLD... The triune emblem of the supreme Assyrian divinity shows clearly... though blasphemously, the unity of Father, Seed, or Son, and the Holy Ghost... Will anyone after this say that the... church must still be called Christian, because it holds the doctrine of the Trinity? So did the Pagan Babylonians, so did the Egyptians, so do the Hindus at this hour..." -The Two Babylons, chapter 2, by Rev. A. Hislop. Again each person must decide and evaluate what is best for them. If any person lack wisdom they should ask God in faith and wait upon him for the answer. He will never leave nor forsake you and cannot lie. As he alone is the judge. And he will judge us in that day by his word. That will be our final exam! Those who already accepted Christ Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, by placing their trust in him and being baptized in his name, have only to endure unto the end to be saved. When the Catholic Church turned from its original and true belief that the fullness of God was in Christ Jesus and baptism in the same name; the Roman Empire stopped fighting the church and instead embraced it. Around 200 A.D. Tertullian (Who was credited with coining the word "trinity" in reference to God, from pagan Plato's work of Timaeus.) and Hippolytus of Rome succeeded in fully changing the mode of water baptism. Though Justin Martyr in 145 A.D. changed it to a trinity with Jesus still at it's center. The name of Jesus was not totally removed until the time of Tertullian. Yet every baptism recorded in the New Testament had been performed "in the name of Jesus Christ," but Romans totally opposed that, and outlawed it. They ordered to use the generic terms or the titles of the "father, son, and Holy Ghost." In doing so, they forced all to abandon the "only name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved", (Acts 4:12) in baptism. And it became forbidden for all to baptize by the very formula the Apostles and the entire early church had used. And by and large, only the titles have been used since that time. And water baptism (In the Catholic and Protestant Churches alike) has been stripped of the saving name of Jesus until this very day!