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false religion called in Revelation
17:5: "Mystery. Babylon the great,
the mother of harlots and abomina–
t ions of the earth ."
By that doctrine, along with
others, Satan has DECEIVED all tra–
ditional Christianity.
The Trinity Doctrine
The generally accepted teaching of
traditional Christianity is that God
is a Trinity- God in three Per–
sons- Father, Son and Holy Spirit
(which is called a "Ghost").
How did this Trinity doctrine
ent er traditi.onal Christianity?
It most emphatically did not
come from the Bible. l have quoted
R evelation 12:9 saying that all
nation s have been deceived by
Satan the devil. How, then, did the
wily Satan introduce this doctrine
into "Christianity" ?
The his tory of this question is
interesting.
lt
seems incredible that
a being like Satan not only could
have deceived the whole world, but
also "Christianity" - the very reli–
gion bearing Christ's name and
supposed to be his true religion.
Yet , paradoxically, Satan did!
He did it through his great false
church, started A.D. 33 by Simon
the Sorcerer, described in the 8th
chapter of the book of Acts as the
leader of the Babylonian mystery
religion in Samaria. It is recorded in
II Kings 17:23-24 that Shalmane–
ser, king of Assyria, who had
invaded and conquered the northern
ki ngdom- the kingdom of Israel–
moved the people out of their land
of Samaria, north of Jerusalem, and
moved into that land people of the
Babylonish mystery religion from
the provinces of Babylon. They
were, of course, gentiles. They
inhabited this area of northern PaJ–
estine in the time of ·Christ. The
Jews of Judea in Christ's time
would have nothing to do with
them, calling them contemptuously
"dogs." They still adhered to this
paga n Rabylonish mystery religion
in the fi.rst century.
In A.D. 33 , two years after Jesus
Christ from heaven founded the
Church of God on that day of Pen–
tecost , the deacon Philip, who later
became an evangelist, went down to
Samaria and preached Christ's gos–
pel. This Simon the Sorcerer carne
with the crowd to hear him.
October 1985
Simon had bewitched the people
of that country, and they followed
him as their leader in the Babylo–
nian mystery religion "from the
least to the greatest, saying, This
man is the great power of God"
(Acts 8:10).
When the people believed Philip,
preaching the kingdom of God, they
were baptized, and this Simon man–
aged to be baptized with them.
Then Simon carne to the apostles
Peter and John, offering money as
a bribe, asking tbem to give him
the Holy Spirit. Peter rebuked him
strongly. But Simon proclaimed
himself a Christian apostle, nev–
ertheless, and called the pagan
Babylonian mystery religion
"Christianity." He accepted the
doctrine of "grace" for the forgive–
ness of sin (which the pagan reli–
gions had never had), but turned
grace into license to disobey God
(Jude 4). He aspired to turn his
pagan religion , under the name
"Christianity," into a universal
religion, to gain tbereby the políti–
ca! rule of the world.
Simon, the "Pater" (Peter) of
his counterfeit religion, did not
accomplish this in his lifetime. But
succeeding leaders, with the head–
quarters moved to Rome,
did, later, gain political
control over the Roman
Empire and its medieval
successor, call ed "The
Holy Roman Empire:"
This empire is in process
of again being resurrected
in Europe now!
Counterfeit Gospel
By the 6th decade of the
first century, much of the
Middle East had turned
from the true gospel to a counter–
feit (Gal. l :6-7) . As late as the 90s
A.D. the apostle John was still liv–
ing. He wrote the book of Revela–
tion on the Isle of Patmos.
A little later the church started
by Simon in A.D. 33 was trying to
turn the true Christian Passover
(Christ had changed its form from
that of sacrificial lambs to unleav–
ened bread and wine) into Babylo–
nian ceremony, now called, in
English, "Easter"-named after
the goddess Astarte or Ishtar (pro–
nounced Easter).
After the death of the apostle
John, a disciple of his, Polycarp,
waged a controversy over the Pass–
over-Easter question with the bish–
op of Rome, by then leader of the
church started by Simon.
Still later, another disciple of
Christ 's true Christianity, Polyc–
rates, waged a still hotter contro–
versy over the same Passover-Easter
question with another bishop of
Rome. This theological battle was
called the Quartodeciman Contro–
versy. Polycrates contended, as Jesus
and the original apostles taught, that
the Passover should be observed in
the new Christian form introduced
by Jesus and by the apostle Paul
(1 Corinthians 11 ), using unleav–
ened bread and wine instead of sacri–
ficing a lamb, on the eve of the 14th
Nisan (first month in the sacred cal–
endar, occurring in the spring). But
the Rome church insisted that it be
observed on a Sunday.
About the same time another
controversy was raging, between a
Dr. Arius, of Alexandria, a Chris–
tian leader who died A.D. 336, and
other bishops, over calling God a
Trinity. Dr. Arius stoutly opposed
the Trinity doctrine and had many
followers .
In A.D. 325, the Emperor Con-
stantine called the Nicene Council
to settle these controversies. Con–
stantine was not then yet a "Chr is–
tian," but as political ruler he
assumed control. The Council
approved both the Easter-Sunday
doctrine and the Trinity. Constan–
tine, then civil ruler, made it a
LA
w.
But he was not able to make
it TRUTH!
Satan has deceived the entire
world in regard to the very nature
of WHO and WHAT God is- as well
as of Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Also of the GOV ERNMENT OF Goo,
based on the spiritual LAw OF Goo,
19
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