Preface
“Christian verity” teaches polytheism! Text of the Athanasianum
But, “Press
spokesman Thomas Schneider from the working group on Worldview questions
demanded: “This sect ... rejects the Trinity ... Christians should clearly
distance themselves in public from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints (Mormons).” Sektierer als Gastredner bei WillowCreek“,
2016
„The LDS-Mormons are definitely dangerous and
are to be categorised as a sect. In Europe, however, they do not pose a social
hazard, as they are too insignificant for that. In the US one cannot make this
statement so clearly, since – compared to the share of the population,
politically they are represented above average... The Mormons are dangerous,
because they reject the Nicene-Trinitarian confession.” “Religion Dispatches“ of May 27th, 2011
This statement is the usual one, but on the
other hand there are concerns about Trinitarianism among the confessors of the
Nicene faith:
“The Bible does not develop a doctrine of the
Trinity. There is no chapter in Holy Scripture that deals with this seemingly
important topic..." Aleksandar Vuksanović „Entwicklung der Trinitätslehre in
den ersten drei Jahrhunderten", St. Galler Studientag 2016.
The Evangelical Church of Germany
recently admitted:
“The discussion about the Trinity
began in the fourth century AD. It is very philosophical, since the doctrine of
the Trinity does not appear explicitly in the Bible.” EKD 2020
It's even the other way around. “Biblical truth” forces us to
speak of three gods. The Athanasianum says this clearly with this text:
“For like as we are compelled by the Christian
verity; to acknowledge every Person by himself to be God and Lord;…”
In other words, “Christian verity”
teaches polytheism.
At the same time, this high Christian
confession prohibits “Christian truth”:
“So are we forbidden by the Catholic
religion; to say, there are three Gods, or three Lords… This is the Catholic faith; Anyone who does
not truly and firmly believe in it cannot be saved.”
Such threats are intended to incite
fear.
This intention alone is an element that
contradicts the spirit of the Gospel.
The Trinitarian Creed is considered
sacred by all major churches, although it has caused little more than confusion
and misfortune. A curse threatens those who firmly say: “The “Christian truth” (that
there are three gods) is more valuable than the Catholic faith.”
The Catholic faith cannot replace the
truth.
How can it be that smart people have
been praying nonsense for centuries? There has never been anyone who could
understand that one plus one plus one equals one. Prof. Bernd Oberdorfer,
Augsburg, expert in systematic theology, addresses the unresolved problem
openly: “Embarrassment is the most harmless thing that befalls many
Christians (including quite a few theologians) when the subject of the doctrine
of the Trinity comes up. Must anyone who believes in Jesus Christ also adopt
Goethe’s paradoxical “witch’s basics” that God is one and three at the same
time? „Zeitzeichen“, evangel. Kommentare, Aug. 2004
Or? “Embarrassment is the most
harmless thing that affects many Christians (including many theologians) when
it comes to the doctrine of the Trinity… Everyone who believes in Jesus Christ,
must believe that we also accept the paradoxical “foundations of witchcraft”
(Goethe), that God is one and three at the same time? “„Zeitzeichen“, evangel. Kommentare, Aug. 2004
Prosper Alfaric, a former priest of the
Catholic Church, asked mockingly: “Can (one) play a greater trick on a
Christian than asking him the question: What is God?” “Die sozialen Ursprünge des Christentums "
But,
the
theologians of the World Council of Churches insist on the creeds of Nicaea and
Constantinople and thus on supposedly Christian monotheism.
According to the official text, only the
church or denomination that professes the “Trinitarian God” can become a member
of the World Council of Churches.
I have been a critical and faithful member of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 1946, when I turned 16
years old. I know my church on 4 continents. At home and abroad, I attended
services in Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches as well as meetings of
Baptists, Jehovah's Witnesses and many others. I found good things everywhere.
I have friends in all of these communities. My conclusion is that the church
representatives of the World Council of Churches place too much emphasis on lip
service and too little on the Christian lifestyle of each individual.
The fact that its leadership did not exclude
the Russian Orthodox Church with its Patriarch Kirill in 2022 - after Kirill,
as a close friend of V. Putin, agreed with him to wage war against Ukraine - is
more than surprising. Both are enemies of the individual rights that the
Almighty bestows on every human being.
As far as is known, the majority of ROK
priests support Putin and his actions due to his apparent desire for dominance.
In just a few words, Kyrill blatantly
expressed his true thinking, his anti-Christian feelings: “…Western
liberalism is the work of the devil…” David Nauer. Correspondent for
Radio SRF in Russia
Mr. Kyrill proclaims it again and again:
“Western liberalism must be eliminated.” But liberalism – whether
Western or Eastern – always functions in freedom, free from paternalism and
interference from state control.
Only an actual crime can make someone a
criminal.
Only then must the perpetrator be
punished.
In fact, expulsion of the Russian
Orthodox Church was also being considered. Rejected!
And this with the knowledge that some
clergy of this church were regulated because they organized prayers for peace
after a year of great raids. It said: The Russian Orthodox Church professes the
“Trinity”.
There is no question: the activists of
this large organization - the World Council of Churches - act with the best of
intentions. There is an urgent need to bring people of goodwill together and
stick together to build peace. On the other hand, whether someone holds
trinitarian, tritheistic or even polytheistic beliefs is up to them. It says
nothing at all about his moral qualities.
No amount of lip service can answer who
a Christian is.
But as German Christians today admit,
discussion of the Trinity only began in the fourth century AD.
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints, like Christians of the first 300 years, believe in the
majority of gods.
Tertullian's (160-220) remark ad
Praxean c. 13. is significant: "But we teach two, the Father and the Son,
and actually three with the Holy Spirit, according to the nature of being,
which requires plurality..." Max Mühl "On the problem of
Christology." in Octavius by Minucius Felix, 1986
Church Father Irenaeus (160-?) “Clearly
emphasizes the divinity of the Son and the Spirit, both have a personal nature
since they act together with the Father.” www. dogmatic. “Pre-Nicene
Theology”, 2009, University of Bonn, p. 145
The Nicene Creed came about because
Constantine wanted it.
It was a novelty that Constantine
introduced in 325 under the threat of violence.
The top German theologian Adolf von Harnack
stated matter-of-factly: “This was a “great innovation, the elevation of two
unbiblical expressions (Father, Son and Holy Spirit are “unius
substantiae” G.Sk.) to key words of
the Catholic faith. It secured the uniqueness of this faith... Essentially, not
only Arius was rejected, but also Origen... henceforth the Church had to bear
the burden of a religious formula that was alien to it.” „Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte “
In fact, this brand-new doctrine of God has
always been a burden to truth seekers, just as the black parts of Christian
history have been to this day. However, in the original text - in Nicene Creed -
it initially sounds quite harmless: (Jesus is) “one being with the Father”.
Later, those who spoke the creed in church services simply accepted it.
From now on, the Church had to “... obey
the wishes of Constantine, even if it did not approve of them... Just as
Constantine does not mention Christ, the Church (equipped
with the new faith G. Sk.) is not
connected to Christ ... (or: No more reference to Christ).” Heinz Kraft, Habilitationsschrift
„Konstantins religiöse Entwicklung“ Heidelberg - Uni Greifswald, 1954
Innovations are deviations from the original. Some
of the bishops gathered at Nicaea did not contradict the emperor for long.
“The academics have not recognized that
Christian teaching is a complex of unchanging, revealed truths.” Hertling SJ
Geschichte der katholischen Kirche bis 1740
Any change in Christ's
teaching is heresy.
Regardless of whether the actions were
mainstream or fringe, the desire to correct God's masterpiece is arrogance.
Christ always compared his father Elohim to an
earthly father and he has a face.
According to Nicaea, the belief that the
Trinitarian God had a human face was considered a grave sin.
The Swiss Johannes Calvin (1509-1564)
was one of the merciless Trinitarians. The famous Spanish doctor Michael
Servetus also felt his sometimes-evil attitude in 1553.
The Calvinists roasted him on a pile of
selected green wood because he said: “I have not found the triune God in the
Bible.” And Martin Luther's friend Melanchthon wrote a congratulatory
letter to the murderers - albeit years after the death of the great reformer.
Servetus would have dared to commit the unmistakable crime of concluding: “God
has a human face.” In doing so, the heretic Servetus was simply saying the
same thing as Pope Benedict XVI. Centuries later: Dante's “Divine Comedy”... inspired
him to speak about the face of God “...The deepest interior of the inaccessible
light is a delicate human face. This is... "even more moving than the
revelation of God in the form of the Triune Circle of Knowledge and Love."
God, the Infinite Light... has a human face. “First encyclical of
January 23, 2006
Who started? Who began to believe in
the Trinity?
On the Christian side, the integration
of the new - the Trinitarian - God into church life goes back to Athanasius
(around 296-373) and his bishop Alexander (250-326).
Elder Arius (260-337), a tall man who
always spoke in a hushed voice, was sharply attacked by Bishop Alexander of
Alexandria at a meeting around the year 318 for saying to a group: “I
believe that the only “true God” resembles us humans. We were created in his
image. He is different from his Son Christ, who is subordinate to him.”
Alexander of Alexandria, a hothead and
already in poor health, was furious: “No! You are a false teacher! God is
spirit. This is recorded in the Gospel of John. HE is everywhere, has no shape
or form.” Athanasius adopted this argument at some point.
It should make a decisive contribution
to the division of the Christian world.
When you consider what Bishop Augustine
of Hippo (354-430), a close friend of Ambrose of Milan, who was a merciless
defender of Trinitarianism, said on this topic some 80 years later, whole walls
of thought immediately collapse: “Augustine writes to the Spanish theologian
Consentio: “You ask whether the body of the Lord still contains bones and blood
and the other parts of the body?” (…) I believe that the body of the Lord is in
heaven as it was on earth when he was in the Heaven ascended." Christoph Markschies, „Alta Trinita Beata -
Die Frage nach der Leiblichkeit des mitthronenden Christus“ Mohr-Siebeck, 2000
verweist auf Aug. ep 205,2 bei Goldbacher „Texte der Kirchenväter“
2.Band München 1963, S. 118
It wasn't long before the Alexandrian
bishop Alexander viewed those - and that was the absolute majority of all
Christians at the time - who imagined God with a face, as mortal enemies. At
some point the world-historically serious words fell from his lips: “You
have to resist Arius to the death” Pfarrer Ernst Ferdinand Klein,
„Zeitbilder aus der Kirchengeschichte“
This was about to happen on a terrible scale.
Arius was persecuted, as were his followers.
The Arian Ostrogoths, who ruled Italy from
around 400 to 550, were particularly affected. They were gradually beaten
together during a 17-year war under Emperor Justinian. This happened even
though they were famous for their tolerance and never harassed the Pope.
This happened because they saw no reason to
worship the “triune God.”
But Justinian celebrated the destruction of
tens of thousands of families who tried to keep Christ's commandments and
exulted: "Ordained by God... we bring wars to happy ends... We are so
dependent on the help of Almighty God that we have." neither weapons
nor... "We must trust our soldiers, nor our generals, nor our own talents,
but rather place all hope solely in the providential wisdom of the highest
Trinity..." Mischa Meier „Justinian, Herrschaft, Reich und
Religion“
Emperor Constantine, meanwhile, had his own
special idea of God, which he learned in his youth and apparently never gave
up:
As the son of the Roman co-emperor Constantine
Chlorus, who died in 306, he grew up in Nicomedia (in northwestern Turkey) as a
hostage for his father's loyalty. There, at Diocletian's imperial court, his
religion was formed. There, during the pagan services he was required to
attend, the following was impressed upon him:
“The emperor is like the ruler of the
universe... Diocletian (244-311) was
the “dominus et Deus”, the Lord and God, the Lord God. One eulogist raved: “You
who are equal to those who begot you, through them you rule the world
incomparably, you who are the diis geniti et deorum (begotten of the gods and
creator of the gods). … The Numina (the spirits. G.Sk.) of Jupiter and Hercules themselves live in
you - we call on you, every victory is sacred to us. You are with us as present
Deus. That's why we're not worried. It
is an honor for us to lay our lives at your feet - hail! Your dominion is not
limited to the regions of the earth, but extends beyond it to the regions of
the eternal heavens. Just as we become happy on earth through you, as if we
came into your presence, today we stand in the Adyton - the Holy of Holies and
give you our loyalty. We surround you like the incense of your holy
priests..." Emperor
Diocletian was not present at many speeches, but "...in one such case a
priest held up the image of the emperor, for it was always believed that the
emperor and his Images are one.” Alexander
Demandt „Diokletian und die Tetrarchie“ – „Aspekte einer Zeitenwende
By the way, Athanasius (296-373), the main
defender of the doctrine of the Trinitarian God, used exactly this expression
during and after the time of the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea in 325: "In
the picture both are one."
An experienced historian of antiquity
confirms: "Athanasius compared the relationship between God the Father
and God's Son to that between the emperor and his image... the Father is seen
in the Son and the divinity of the Father can be recognized in the Son."
Emperor and Image are one.” Alexander Demandt „Diokletian und die Tetrarchie“ –
„Aspekte einer Zeitenwende
Constantine was actually a henotheist.
For him too, the relationship with the gods
remained a “mystery of faith”. He was the spitting image of Sol
Invictus. He has proven this several times. After his victory over his rival
for power, brother-in-law Maxentius, in 312, a coin depicts Constantine and the
god he invoked shortly before the battle for success: "Sol Invictus".
They are one in the picture...
It was important to Constantine that the
emperor and his painting were one, that Diocletian was one with God. It became
his basic idea.
It was to have a future, albeit an unhappy one
that would cause enormous harm to Christians.
For Constantine, his intentions as ruler of
the First Ecumenical Council – to which he came disguised as the god Sol
Invictus – had long been clear. Of course, they will cry because it is new to
them. But, he will show them, no one is allowed to contradict the God Emperor,
that would be blasphemy.
This suggested that violence would follow
violence among Christians, as lightning follows the friction of cloud masses.
Many evangelizers still plug their ears so as
not to hear the truth:
Emperor “Constantine inserted the
unbiblical word "essentially identical" Greek Homoousios Latin
“consubstantialis”, which was later so controversial. The subordination of the
Son to the one God and Father, as generally taught by Origen and the theologians
of ancient times, is now replaced by an essential, substantial equality of the
Son with the Father." Prof. Hans Küng “Kleine Geschichte der
katholischen Kirche
In May 330, five years after the First
Ecumenical Council, a festival was held in the circus of Constantinople in
honor of the emperor. Then the mask of the emperor falls: “It is reported
that the colossal statue of Constantine on the porphyry column... was venerated
by pagans and Christians, and that they attempted to propitiate the image of
Constantine... with sacrifices and to honor it with festivals of lamps and
incense.” (She) worshiped him as a god and made intercessions that were
intended to ward off terrible things... Constantine as Apollo Helios
corresponded to the representation of Christ as the sun god..." Frank Kolb
„Herrscherideologie in der Spätantike“
And this is how we find him again in the
Vatican:
Wikimedia
Commons: Mosaic of the Vatican Grottoes under St. Peter's Basilica on the
ceiling, the tomb of Julii. Depiction of Christ as the sun god Helios or Sol
Invictus on his chariot.
Modern historians confirm:
"If one leaves the level of theoretical
discussions and looks at the beliefs of the 'little people', then the
differences between pagan and Christian piety quickly become blurred, and then
Constantine experiences divine veneration from followers of the old pagan as
well as the new." Manfred Clauss „Kaiser und Gott“, - Herrscherkult im römischen Reich
Did Paul already have him in his sights?
The great apostle to the Gentiles predicted
that an adversary would appear before the second coming of Christ.
“Don’t
let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the
rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man
doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will
exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that
he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God” 2 Thessalonians – Chapter 2: 3-4. New International Version
The Bible commentary on this text reads: “The
expression of sitting in the temple of God is probably a vivid expression of
the fact that the Antichrist wants to oust God and take his place.” “The author
assumes that the compulsion to worship the emperor is close “The future will
lead to severe persecution of the church.” German Präambel to the “Revelation of John”, Standard
Translation 1980
In the limited space of the first thousand
years of Church history, there was only one man who had the necessary
qualifications or power and the will to play the prophesied role: Emperor
Constantine (280 - 337).
Anyone who resisted his demands lived
dangerously.
He was a tyrant of the worst kind.
"He had captured officers and Germanic princes who were
resisting the servitude torn apart by wild animals in the amphitheatre, for
example in an arena in Trier..." Constantine also showed no mercy to the
civilian population and left death and scorched earth in the conquered areas.” Bettina von Engel
„Konstantin und seine Familie in Trier“ Vortrag bei der Ascoli Piceno-Trier
Gesellschaft, 2007
The same spirit of inhumanity prevailed
on a large scale since Constantine.
“In England, from 1660 to 1685, around
25,000 people were imprisoned because of their different beliefs and 15,000
families were ruined …” Johann Ignaz von Döllinger “Papsttum”
To at least somewhat understand or
rationally defend the Trinitarianism that arose at Nicaea in 325 still requires
the comparative boldness of people who want to cut the fog into pieces. As soon
as they want to understand what the description of the Trinitarian God says,
they are faced with the problem of understanding that their God is a "being
who exists in three persons or hypostases, but not in three substances."
What drove the believers of many
centuries to place the “Catholic faith” above “Christian truth”?
After evaluating hundreds of documents,
the concise answer is: “fear”. Immediately after his secret speech in June
1956, N. S. Khrushchev (1894-1971) answered why he danced the Kozachok for
Stalin: “fear”.
But the “Good News” aims to overcome
fears and anxieties: “Don’t be afraid!”
Goethe, Leo Tolstoy, Isaac Newton and
many others, they were not impressed by the threat that no one would be allowed
to believe in polytheism.
On January 6, 1813, Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe wrote “about the fullness of being and the multidimensionality of the
religious self”: “With the many directions of my being, I cannot have
enough of one way of thinking; As a poet and artist, I am a polytheist, a
pantheist. On the other hand, as a natural scientist, one thing is more
important than the other.” Ursula Homann (Arnsberg) "...wie hast du's
mit der Religion?
Isaac Newton (1643-1727) used the term
“apostasy” to describe the process of “substitution.” Newton, who read
both Greek and the original text of the Vulgate, condemned the Trinitarianism
proclaimed at Nicaea as an apostasy from early Christianity. He recognized that
the “essential, substantial equality (sameness) of the Son with the Father”
that produced the Nicene Creed led to the development of unimaginable things.
“This apostasy should begin with you
distorting the truth about your son's relationship with the Father by equating
them. And that's why God began this prophecy with a demonstration of your true
relationship: He showed the Son's submission through one essential character,
namely His.” The Newton Project, Untitled
Treatise on Revelation. 1 Yahuda Ms. 1.4, National Library of Israel,
Jerusalem, Israel
The majority of council members at the
time resisted this. But “Emperor Constantine used threats and announced
reprisals. Each bishop present at Nicaea was interviewed individually. He is
presented with the confession (Nicene Creed) and at the same time
given the choice of either signing or going into exile..." Rudolf Leeb
„Konstantin und Christus“ – die Verchristlichung der imperialen Repräsentation,
Walter de Gruyter, 1992
The Catholic source “Familia Spiritualis
Opus” confessed in 2013: "Everything seemed to be fine, but some
bishops had only paid lip service because Emperor Constantine had threatened to
banish those bishops who had not signed the confession..."
“More than thirty years later, the
Homousians still reject the Nicene “homousious” because, among other things,
Constantine had used force to force the signatures of the bishops in Nicaea...” H. Chr. Brennecke „Ecclesia in republica“ Theologiegeschichte“, de
Gruyter
This passage from Nicaea, mentioned,
baffled even the wisest. Bishop Basil, one of the participants, even compared
the post-conciliar situation with this: “Naval battle in the night, in which
everyone fights against each other, ... and as a result of the conciliar
disputes there is terrible disorder and confusion and incessant chatter in the
church!” Pfarrblätter, Bischof
Koch Okt. 2008
Quite a few in pious circles justify
their shaky position with the claim: “Arius denied the divinity of Jesus
Christ.” kathPedia 2019
That's not
true either.
But more and more people in the know are
of a different opinion.
Thomas Hägg, a researcher of the 21st
century, also rehabilitated the vilified man: “…the arch-heretic Arius is a
traditionalist. He stands firmly on the ground of the church’s teaching
tradition.” "Kirchen
und Ketzer" 2004 mit Unterstützung des norwegischen Forschungbeirates für
Klassische Philologie und Religionswissenschaft, Uni Bergen
As we know from Wulfila (311-383), Arius
taught the same things as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The divinity of Christ is unmistakably
emphasized: “Jesus is the “filius unigenitus, Dominus et noster”... we
believe in God the Father and in his only begotten Son, our Lord and God,
Master and Designer of all creatures, who did not even.“ Gert
Haendler „Die Rolle des Papsttums in der Kirchengeschichte bis
1200“
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints believe that the only “true God” is Elohim. Only he is
invoked by Mormons in the name of Jesus Christ. He was always Almighty, without
beginning and without end. He is the architect of the universe.
The members of this church are therefore
both monotheists and polytheists. This is unique and biblically based.
Original Christian commitments and
teachings should never be “replaced.” If this happens, it is a misdemeanour, if
not a felony.
