T2

2. Where did the godhead/trinity ancient idea come from?

- triads of gods

- pagan dieties

- godhead is a pagan term

- laying foundation for later thought from church fathers.

(a) Triads of gods

In many ancient and not so ancient religions, we have triads of gods. While these are not an actualy trinity, we can see the influence that would exist.

Some ancient triads of gods:

The "Hecate" goddess of Greek Mythology - An ancient Fertility goddess, also identified with Persephone, as Queen of Hades (underworld), and protector of witches.

The "Hecate" or "Hekate" is characterized as a Trinity, that existed within pagan mythology as a three faced goddess. The three faces represented the "Maiden", the "Matron" (or Mother), and "the Crone".

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

Irish Catholic St. Brigit - the goddess of the flame to the ancient Celts, she has survived into our time as "St. Bridget" in the Irish catholic church. To this day her 'eternal flame' burns in Kildare, Ireland and her ancient sacred wells are still revered and visited. It is believed by pagan catholics that Brigit, Lady of the Fairies - watches over their sacred green places and, if you look into her Magickal Mirror, you can see the Faerie Realm. Here she is presented as a cloverleaf Trinity.

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigit for more detailed information.

Brigit is a Christopagan Era Irish goddess

born 451 AD - died 525 AD

Brigit wasn't turned into a devil like so many other goddesses. The Irish Celtic people loved this deity, so that they retained all her characteristics as a pagan-catholic saint! They would not have had anything to do with catholicism (pagan christianity) if they couldn't keep Brigit.

She is a triple goddess.

It is possible his triple aspect of the goddess is where the idea of exploiting the Trinity concept may have also emerged. The three-leaf shamrock was originally of "The Three Mothers", as well as the three phases of the moon being her symbols. She shares some attributes with the ancient Greek triple goddess Hecate.

There is a Swedish St Bridget also. Brigit's fame has been far and wide. Even as far as Africa, having come to Haiti in the hearts of deported Irish and Scottish indentured servants. However she went through a radical transformation, and her distant relative Maman Brigitte bears little resemblance, being rather a goddess of vengence. She, did, however, retain the healing aspects, being called on to cure those at death's door.

Imbolc (Candlemas and Groundhog Day), the Celtic spring festival, honors Brigit. The Druids called this sacred holiday Oimelc, meaning "ewe's milk". Held on February 1st or 2nd, it celebrated the birthing and freshening of sheep and goats. The catholic version of Imbolc (Candlemas), also, involves much elaborate rituals and feasting, and to this very day, many Irish homes have a St Brigit's cross for protection, still made from rushes as in days of old.

Hinduism

Idol worship and rituals are at the heart of Hinduism and have tremendous religious significance. All Hindu deities are themselves symbols of the abstract Absolute, and point to a particular aspect of the Brahman.

The Hindu Trinity (Trimurti) is represented by three members of a godhead :

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

Brahma - the creator,

Vishnu - the protector

Shiva - the destroyer.

Ancient Babylon

In The Creation Story (1902), the author was spoke merely of two triads,

(a) Anu, Ea, Bel - a triad consisting of Anu, Bel and Ea, Anu came to be regarded as the father and at first, king of the gods.

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

and

(b) Sin, Ramman, Shamash

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

While strictly speaking this is not a true trinity, we see the grouping of dieties into 3's or a loose trinity. Again we are seeing the building blocks of a trinity basically in place. It was not until christendom came along , that a formal christendom trinity was spelled out.

Note we use the word "Christendom" - Chitendom is the kingdom or "mainstream" or "popular christianity". Chritendom represents what most people think of as christianity, but in reality is NOT the christainity that Jesus and the Apostles taught on how to follow God.

Why 3 gods / triple-gods / trinity?

As we observe the impact of a trinity or triple gods or the number "3" flowing from ancient pagan religions, how many times have we also heard from friends or people in the office "bad things happen in threes"? Its important to remember that 3 is a number sacred to pagan folk religions, witchcraft and ancient pagan cultures, and many of these cultures and religions still influence Christendom down to this day. While this is a broad statement, it can be demonstrated through wider reading and is beyond what we are doing here.

(c) What is the Godhead?

The Godhead is a concept central to the trinity. The trinity teaches that God has 3 features - Father, Son and Holy Spirit , and all these combine in the godhead.

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

Godhead refers to the view of the abstract and essential divine nature of God.

Binitarianism - the belief that the Godhead is composed of two separate beings, Father and the Son, while the Holy Spirit is the power of God and not a separate being.

Godhead (Christianity) - In Christendom, the divinity of Trinity is sometimes referred to as the "Godhead". In some nontrinitarian sects, several divine beings are referred to collectively as "the Godhead."

Godhead (Hinduism) - Brahman.

Godhead (Vaishnavism) - The conception of Godhead according to the Gaudiya Vaishnava school of Hinduism refers to the original spiritual abode or home of Krishna or Vishnu. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada often referred to Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead and of returning back home, back to Godhead, to live eternally with Krishna. In the initial stages of Gaudiya Vaishnavism a practitioner desires to perfect himself in order to attain the qualification to enter into Krishna’s abode. However, a higher and more esoteric concept is to realize ones position as an eternal servitor of Godhead and to serve wherever one may be, without consideration of returning to Godhead. In other words, to surrender fully to the will and whim of God."

Edward B. Robinson's "The Godhead" based on Cao Dai teachings

Godhead (Judaism) – In Judaism, the term "Godhead" is sometimes used to refer to the unknowable aspect of God which lies beyond His actions or emanations (as it were).

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

"To the Gnostics, the pentacle symbolizes the magic and mystery of the nighttime sky. For the Druids, it is the godhead."

From a pagan website, we see that those practising witchcraft believe in a pagan godhead :

"Godhead is one unique and transcendent wholeness, beyond any limitations or expressions; thus, it is beyond our human capacity to understand and identify with this principle of Cosmic Oneness, except as It is revealed to us in terms of It's attributes and operation."

But where is the godhead actually found in the Bible?

It is not found anywhere in the Bible - the Godhead is clearly a man-made pagan idea.

Jesus warned us against accepting the ideas or doctrines or dogmas or philosophy of men in place of sound scriptural truths from the Bible. Jesus also said to test everything we hear and compare it to Gods word in the Bible.

"Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. (Mark 7:7) 7:7 NASB/W/Strong’s N0’s

Compare NSB open Mark 7

"And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. (Col 2:4) 2:4

I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument. Compare NSB Colossians 2

"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." ( Col 2:8 ) 2:8

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than * according to Christ.

Compare NSB Colossians 2

"Which all are to perish with the using; after the commandments and doctrines of men?" (Col. 2:22) 2:22

(which all refer to things destined to perish with use )--in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men ?

Compare NSB Colossians 2

(d) Laying the foundation for false teaching by the church "Fathers"

Now many people will be upset that we should label the church "fathers" doing false teaching. By false we mean teaching wrong things, even if it meant they did it in the best of intentions. But how could the church "fathers" teach such an appalling wrong doctrine? Well we for instance take the internet for granted, but back in the early church, information was limited and not easy to get at. However, people would still have had access to copies of original scriptures, and quite clearly if they had read them, it was obvious there was NO TRINITY in the Bible.

From research, it shows quite clearly that there has been influence by pagan triads of gods or triple gods or pagan "saints" on the early church. Many christains would have been previously pagan so in some ways, to ease the blow of moving into christainity, some early church bishops etc would have allowed some pagan beliefs to be brought into the church and re-labelled as christain feats or saints or beliefs. Obviously this is wrong, but it happened.

Many early church fathers were involved in or practised Platonism or Philosophy ( like Augustine of Hippo ) and this influence would have influenced their views of the world.

But central to all this was the Nicene Creed - formulated by the political genius Emperor Constantine. The creed, whether people like the idea or not, was formulated by the Bishops to unify squabbling bishops, as commanded by Constantine. Based on historical documents, we can safely say while people think Constantine was christian, he was not. He alligned himself with God superficially, in order to grow his empire and to harness the structure of the church for ease of administration of his empire. Based on speeches by Eusbius, we can also see that Eusbius never actually called Coonstantine Christian, but instead hinted at it. Obviously, had Constantine been Christain, he would have announced it loudly in his court, but it never happened publically as far as we know. The 30th anniversary of Constantines rule was celebrated by a long speech by Bishop Eusbius, and Constantine was labelled publically ( and by Constantines consent ) as a replacement figure for Jesus Christ.

See Page 35-Page 42 "Constantine versus Christ" by Alistair Kee, 1982, ISBN 0334002680

This is not heresy, rather this is what is recorded in history. Obviously as Constantine in effect replaced Christ as Gods representative on earth as outlined in Eusbius's speech in front of the court and Constantine, then no christian would EVER claim to be Jesus Christ. This marks Constantine as a non-Christian, as someone who linked himself publically to the God of the Christains. As Constantine never declared himself as Christian, we could conclude that the politician in Constantine decided for his own personal benefit he would look christian, without actually being Christian.

This then makes sense of how Constantine could allow a pagan Trintiy to become a solution for a divided ( Trinity vs Arian ), because as we have seen, the trinity is non-biblical. But the pagan sun-worshipping Constantine just wanted a harmonious religious creed, so he could harness the christian church for his own adminsitrative purposes, in effect becoming the new Roman Imperial Cult.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_imperial_cult for more information.

So we now have a creed come out of Nicea that was pushed by Emporer Constantine , the same pagan sun worshipping emporer who unified his religious world so he could use it for his own purposes. To the Bishops he gave land and power and prestige - how many could resist? Now also Christiianity was the official religion of the land. And constantine, the sly and ever briallian tactician and politician, had conveniently hooked his empire to the rising Christain world, and to its God, Yahweh.

Constantine built many churches etc, because he needed the christians on side. He did, like any shrewd politician would, camoflaged himself to suit his own needs, and adopted only an appearance of Christainity. But it was a two way street - for Rome to give protection to Christendom as the offical religion and give the Bishops land and power over people and law, Christendom had to return the favour, so moving away from true Christainity as taught in the Bible, and so a large part of the early church corrupted itself.

"Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" (Amos 3:3). 3:3 NASB/W/Strong’s N0’s

Do two men walk together unless they have made an appointment ?

Compare NSB Amos 1 thru 6

But while the Bishops got power, land and prestige, they had to trade some of their integrity before God for this.

We should also acknowledge that many bishops had been persecuted prior to this under the previous emporer, so we are not dealing with people who will sacrifice themselves for their beliefs.

Sadly, early church fathers like Augustine then built upon this corrupted foundation - the early church traded its integrity before God for political power and a "quiet life".

We will see in later sections how Augustine wrote essays on the basis for "a Just War", so giving his master ( the Emporer ), the "moral" basis for violating one of the 10 Commandments, and also providing the Emporer the basis for commanding people into wars , with the churches "moral" blessing, to suit the Emporers political needs.

And this was the state the early "christian" church at approx 400AD.