The Changing Face of "Christianity"

Recasting God

Christ and his disciples taught that there is only "one God the Father," distinguished by his personal name, Jehovah, which appears some 7,000 times in early Bible manuscripts. (1 Corinthians 8:6; Psalm 83:18) Jesus was created by God; he is "the firstborn of every creature," says the Catholic Douay Version of the Bible at Colossians 1:15. Thus, as a created being, Jesus frankly stated: "The Father is greater than I am." -John 14:28.

But by the third century, certain influential clerics, enamored of the trinitarian teaching of pagan Greek philosopher Plato, began recasting God to fit the trinitarian formula. In the following centuries, this doctrine unscripturally elevated Jesus to equality with Jehovah and made God's holy spirit, or active force, into a person.

Concerning the Church's adoption of the pagan concept of the Trinity, the New Catholic Encyclopedia says: "The formulation 'one God in three Persons' was not solidly established,certainly not fully assimilated into Christian life and its profession of faith, prior to the end of the 4th century. But it is precisely this formulation that has first claim to the title the Trinitarian dogma. Among the Apostolic fathers, there had been nothing even remotely approaching such a mentality or perspective."

Similarly, The Encyclopedia Americana says: "Fourth century Trinitarian did not reflect accurately early Christian teaching regarding the nature of God; it was, on the contrary, a deviation from this teaching." The Oxford Companion to the Bible calls the Trinity one of a number of "later creedal formulations." Yet, the Trinity was not the only pagan concept assimilated into the church.

Next time: Refashioning The Soul

Watchtower, 2000