|
Polytheism - alive and well!
What is polytheism? Webster’s defines it as: “the belief in or worship of many gods, or more than one god.” In contrast, Christianity is monotheistic, which is the belief or doctrine that there is only ONE God. For example Genesis 1:1 says, in any translation and any language that: “In the beginning GOD (singular) created the heavens and the earth.” The Word of God leaves no doubt and is very explicit that there is but ONE God (Deut. 4:35, 39; 6:4; 32:39; 2 Sam. 22:32; Isa. 37:20; 43:10,11; 44:6-8; 45:5,14,18,21,22; 46:9; John 5:44; Rom. 3:30, 16:27; 1 Cor. 8:4-6; Gal. 3:20; Eph. 4:6; 1 Tim 1:17, 2:5; James 2:19; Jude 25). It was the ONE God who walked and talked with Adam and Eve in the Garden, and not until they violated God’s command, not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (representing another god - Satan), did a belief in more than one god become the religion, not only of the gentile nations, but also of God’s nation Israel.
Today, Roman Catholicism (including all daughter churches Lutheran, Protestant, Baptist, Evangelicals, etc., etc.) is the largest denomination that claims to be monotheistic. However, according to their trinitarian definition of God, they claim not only a belief in ONE God, but in ONE God who exists in THREE persons, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. What we have here is a mixing of ONE God with THREE Gods which is syncretism (that comes from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil). It’s a belief in ONE God – that’s good, existing in THREE persons each of whom is God – that’s evil. One of the reasons why the trinity doctrine is a mystery (so acknowledged by all) is because God cannot be ONE and THREE at the same time. Either there is ONE God person, ONE center of thought (monotheism), or there are THREE God persons, THREE centers of thought (polytheism), but it cannot be both, not- withstanding all other claims. The biblical principal that applies here is that “a little leaven leavens the whole lump,” making Roman Catholicism (including all trinitarian daughter churches) a false, polytheistic religion!
What about the Churches of God who deny that God is a trinity, and who love Jesus by keeping His commandments? I make reference here primarily to the daughter churches that have come out of the mother church, the Worldwide Church of God, known today by many different names.
According to the teachings of Herbert W. Armstrong (1892-1986) and the pre 1995 Worldwide Church of God, there existed from eternity and from the beginning (Gen. 1:1; John 1:1) TWO Gods. In his book, Mystery of the Ages, Herbert W. Armstrong wrote on page 41: “So here we find revealed originally two Personages. One is God. And with God in that prehistoric time was another Personage who was also God –one who later was begotten and born as Jesus Christ. But these two Personages were spirit, which is invisible to human eyes unless supernaturally manifested. Yet at the time described in verse one Jesus was not the Son of God and God was not his Father.”
Regardless of who that second God was that Herbert W. Armstrong spoke of, my point in this article is that his teaching was that there were TWO Gods in Gen 1:1 and John 1:1. That, by definition, is polytheism, and is the official teaching of most Churches of God today, not-withstanding their denial to the contrary. ONE God is monotheism, TWO Gods is polytheism!
Where and what is the problem in all of this? The problem is the presumption that Jesus existed as a second God, before He was born 2000 years ago. However, the idea that someone existed before being born is not only illogical, and contrary to the created order, but comes to us from the Roman Catholic trinity, mystery doctrine that teaches that three God beings, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, existed from all eternity. The Satanic deception, coming from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is that, YES, there is a Father, His Word and His Holy Spirit, and that is good. But, they are NOT three persons, NOT three Beings, NOT three centers of thought, for that is evil. God the Father and His Word and His Holy Spirit are ONE God, ONE person, ONE Spirit Being, ONE center of thought, and not three.
To be sure, the Churches of God do not believe and teach that the Holy Ghost is a third God being as in the trinity doctrine, but they do believe that the Word (of God) was a second God being as in the twinity (binitarian) doctrine.
However, the “Word” of John 1:1(Old Testament time) was not a second God being, at least not until the “Word” BECAME a second God being in John 1:14 (New Testament time). Contrary to trinitarian teaching, Herbert W. Armstrong correctly taught that there was NO “God the Father” and NO Son of God in Old Testament time (Gen. 1:1; John 1:1), and not until New Testament time (John 1:14) did God become God the Father, when His Word BECAME flesh, BECAME (through procreation, not incarnation) the Son of God, named Jesus.
God and His Word, the Bible, is 100% monotheistic from beginning to end. There was only ONE God in Old Testament time and there is only ONE God Family in New Testament time.
There are other variations of this teaching of two Gods in Old Testament times where Father and Son existed since some undefined time in eternity, as in the trinity doctrine. But they all have the same problem of teaching existence before birth, a concept that comes from mythological teachings known as the immortality of the soul, and incarnation (and re-incarnation).
God (or a second God) did not become a man as in mythology!
God (the ONE God) fathered a son that was born as a man, as in theology!
God is not a dysfunctional family that began with two males, Father and Son, or God and His Spokesman. God first of all chose for Himself a wife, the nation of Israel, and together as husband and wife (Mary) they gave birth to their firstborn son named Jesus, in the “fullness of time” 2000 years ago.
Yes, most Christian denominations claim to believe in ONE God, claim to be monotheistic, for that is what the Bible teaches. But, at the same time they claim that there were two or three Gods, in one form or another, which is polytheism. That is the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That is syncretism which God hates!
Click here for a printer
friendly version of this article.
Click here to return
to the article index.
|
