Christian thread? Christian thread

Don't let this one slide. The shills are working overtime.

Attached: 1554775045910.jpg (600x800, 369K)

Other urls found in this thread:

twitter.com/NathanJohnZona1/status/1165814207264296966
twitter.com/NSFWRedditVideo

Attached: 1566016107299.jpg (1024x1024, 296K)

Attached: 1565238393819.jpg (676x879, 116K)

Attached: 1565223001239.jpg (639x819, 75K)

Attached: 1564485436307.jpg (726x564, 121K)

Attached: 1564143705765.png (881x703, 150K)

More than two billion people profess to be Christian. Most belong to churches that teach the Trinity—the doctrine that the Father, the Son, and the holy spirit together form one God. How did the Trinity become an official doctrine? More important, is this teaching in harmony with the Bible?

THE Bible was completed in the first century C.E. Teachings that led to the development of the Trinity began to be officially formulated in 325C.E.—more than two centuries later—at a council in the city of Nicaea in Asia Minor, now Iznik, Turkey. According to theNew Catholic Encyclopedia,the creed attributed to the Council of Nicaea set out the first official definition of ‘Christian orthodoxy,’ including the definition of God and Christ. Why, though, was it deemed necessary to define God and Christ centuries after the Bible was completed? Is the Bible unclear on these important topics?

IS JESUS GOD?

When Constantine became sole ruler of the Roman Empire, professed Christians were divided over the relationship between God and Christ. Was Jesus God? Or was he created by God? To settle the matter, Constantine summoned church leaders to Nicaea, not because he sought religious truth, but because he did not want religion to divide his empire.

“To us there is but one God, the Father.”—1Corinthians 8:6,King James Version

Constantine asked the bishops, who may have numbered into the hundreds, to come to a unanimous accord, but his request was in vain. He then proposed that the council adopt the ambiguous notion that Jesus was “of one substance” (homoousios) with the Father. This unbiblical Greek philosophical term laid the foundation for the Trinity doctrine as later set forth in the church creeds. Indeed, by the end of the fourth century, the Trinity had essentially taken the form it has today, including the so-called third part of the godhead, the holy spirit.

WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?

Jesus said that “the true worshipers will worship the Father with ... truth.” (John 4:23) That truth has been recorded in the Bible. (John 17:17) Does the Bible teach that the Father, the Son, and the holy spirit are three persons in one God?

For one thing, the Bible does not mention the word “Trinity.” For another, Jesus never claimed to be equal to God. Instead, Jesus worshipped God. (Luke 22:41-44) A third line of evidence concerns Jesus’ relationship with his followers. Even after he was raised from the dead to the spirit realm, Jesus called his followers “my brothers.” (Matthew 28:10) Were they brothers of Almighty God? Of course not! But through their faith in Christ—God’s preeminent Son—they too became sons of the one Father. (Galatians 3:26) Compare some additional scriptures with the following statement from the creed attributed to the Council of Nicaea.

What the Nicene Creed says:

“We believe ... in one Lord Jesus Christ ... that is of the substance of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God.”

What the Bible says:

“My Father isgreaterthan I [Jesus].”—John 14:28.*

“I [Jesus] ascend untomy Father,and your Father, and tomy God,and your God.”—John 20:17.

“To us there is butone God,the Father.”—1Corinthians 8:6.

“Blessed bethe God and Fatherof our Lord Jesus Christ.”—1Peter 1:3.

“These things saith the Amen [Jesus], ... the beginning of thecreation of God.”—Revelation 3:14.*

QUICK FACTS:

“The Nicene Creed is actually not the product of the First Council of Nicea (325) ... but of the First Council of Constantinople (381),” saysThe New Westminster Dictionary of Church History.

“The Council of Nicea in 325 stated the crucial formula for [the yet future Trinity] doctrine in its confession that the Son is ‘of the same substance ... as the Father.’”—Encyclopædia Britannica.

Mary—Mother of Jesus not “Mother of God”

Mary was Jewish by birth, and she was a direct descendant of KingDavid. (Luke 3:23-31) She was highly favored by God for her faith and devotion. (Luke 1:28) God chose her to become the mother of Jesus. (Luke 1:31,35) Along with her husband, Joseph,Mary had other children.—Mark 6:3.

Although the Bible shows that Mary became a disciple of Jesus, not much additional information is given about her.—Acts 1:14.

Why do some consider Mary the mother of God?

The earliest evidence of devotion to Mary dates from the late fourth centuryC.E. At that time, the Catholic Church became the State religion of the Roman Empire. As a result, many who had a pagan background became nominal Christians. The church had also adopted the unscriptural teaching of the Trinity.

Thedoctrine of the Trinityled many in the church to conclude that if Jesus were God, then Mary must be the mother of God. In 431C.E., a church council in Ephesus officially proclaimed Mary the “Mother of God.” Mariolatry—the excessive veneration of Mary—flourished after this Council of Ephesus. And as those from a pagan background joined the church, images and icons of the Virgin Mary gradually took the place of their fertility goddesses, such as Artemis (Diana, to the Romans) and Isis.

In 432C.E., Pope SixtusIII ordered a church to be built in Rome in honor of the “Mother of God.” It was built near the site of an earlier temple erected in honor of Lucina, the Roman goddess of childbirth. One author described this church as “an enduring symbol of the assimilation of the Great Mother of the pagan cults to the cult of Mary after the Christianization of Rome.”—Mary—The Complete Resource.

No, the Bible does not teach that Mary is the mother of God, nor does it suggest that Christians should either worship or venerate Mary.*Consider:

Mary never claimed that she was the mother of God. The Bible explains that she gave birth to “the Son of God,” not God himself.—Mark 1:1;Luke 1:32.

Jesus Christ never said that Mary was God’s mother or that she was worthy of special devotion. In fact, he corrected a woman who gave special attention to Mary’s happy role as his mother, saying: “No, rather, happy are those hearing the word of God and keeping it!”—Luke 11:27, 28.

The terms “Mother of God” and“Theotokos”(God-bearer) are not found in the Bible.

The expression “Queen of Heaven” in the Bible refers, not to Mary, but to a false goddess worshipped by apostate Israelites. (Jeremiah 44:15-19) The “Queen of Heaven” may have been Ishtar (Astarte), a Babylonian goddess.

Early Christians did not worship Mary, nor did they give her any special honor. One historian states that early Christians “would have rejected cults and probably feared that undue attention to Mary might evoke a suspicion of goddess worship.”—In Quest of the Jewish Mary.

The Bible says that God has always existed. (Psalm 90:1,2;Isaiah 40:28) Since he had no beginning, he cannot have a mother. Furthermore, Mary could not have held God in her womb; the Bible makes clear that even the heavens cannot contain him.—1Kings 8:27.