HOME PAGE

CHURCH MINISTRIES
What We Offer

WE BELIEVE
Our Doctrine

OUR MISSION
The Purpose of Our Church

OUR PASTOR
A Brief History

ARTICLES
BY PASTOR
STEVE RITCHIE
Articles & Testimonies
From Pillar of Truth Church

PUBLICATIONS

BIBLE STUDIES
Request a Bible Study

DIRECTIONS

E-Mail
Contact Us

Apostolic-
Churches.com
Worldwide Directory of Apostolic Pentecostal Churches and Ministries

www.awcf.org
Apostolic World Christian Fellowship

Most people who do not call themselves Catholics but believe in the false doctrine of the Trinity fail to realize that they hold the central teaching of their mother. Even the Catholic Church itself calls them Catholic in the Quicumque Vult of Catholicism. The Quicumque Vult states that "A Trinitarian is a Catholic even though he or she may profess to be a Protestant.
Therefore, Protestant Denominations such as Methodist, Lutheran, Anglican, Wesleyan, Presbretyrian, and many others who claim to have left the Catholic Church, do not know that they have continued to indulge in the same spiritual fornication of their Mother.
Many other Denominations such as various Baptist and Pentecostal groups have also retained the central teaching of their mother by refusing to reject the false doctrine of the Trinity along with Trinitarian Baptism into the Titles, rather than into the saving name of Jesus Christ.
On October 4th, 1965 100 million Americans watched on T.V. as Pope Paul VI greeted the crowd at Yankee Stadium: "We are most happy to greet at the same time, with all reverence and sincerity, Those Christian brothers here present, separated from us, yet united with us by baptism . . . we keep them all in our hearts and in our prayers."

Friend, if you are united with the Catholic Church in baptism then the Bible calls you a daughter of the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the earth. The Catholic Church is clearly the whore spoken of in the book of Revelations. The Bible tells us that the whore pretends to be the true bride of Christ while sitting on the city of seven hills. It is no coincidence that the Vatican is located in Rome. Rome was known for centuries as "the city of seven hills." Revelation 17:5-9 identifies the great whore: "And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the great, The Mother of Harlots and abominations of the earth . . . And here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sits." Ancient Roman coins called Rome "The City of Seven Hills." This is where the Vatican sits.
Satan has clearly used the Catholic Church to corrupt Christianity with Pagan ideas stemming from ancient Babylon. The concept of three divine persons being worshipped as one deity came from ancient Babylon, not the Bible. (See The Origen Of The Trinity)

WHAT IS THE CATHOLIC FAITH?

THE CATHOLIC FAITH IS THE TRINITARIAN ATHANASIAN CREED

"Whoever will be saved; before all things it is necessary that he hold THE CATHOLIC FAITH. Which faith except everyone do keep whole and undefiled; without doubt he will perish everlastingly. AND THE CATHOLIC FAITH IS THIS: THAT WE WORSHIP ONE GOD IN TRINITY, AND TRINITY IN UNITY. Neither confounding the Persons: nor dividing the substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, another of the Holy Spirit. . . And in this Trinity none is afore, or after another: none is greater or less than the other. But the whole three Persons are co-eternal together, and coequal. So that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped. He therefore that will be saved: must thus think of the Trinity. . ."

TRINITARIAN CONTRADICTIONS AND ONENESS THEOLOGY IN EARLY CHURCH HISTORY

If the Athanasian Catholic Creed is true, why did not the apostles of the first century graphically spell out such a doctrine for us? And if the speculations of the Athanasian Creed were true, why did the early Trinitarian founding Fathers of the second and third centuries all teach that the alleged Trinity of three persons were not coequal and coeternal? There is not even one Christian writer in the first three centuries of the church who recorded that there existed a belief in the coequality and co-eternality of the alleged three persons of the Trinity.
One of the earliest Trinitarian Apologists on record was Justin Martyr. In the middle of the second century (about 140-150 A.D.) Justin wrote: "Jesus Christ . . . we reasonably worship Him, having learned He is the Son of the true God Himself, and holding Him in the second place, and the prophetic Spirit in the third . . . " (Quote from Justin's First Apology)
Justin further writes: "There is a second God after the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."
Here we have a sharpe contradiction between the teachings of early Trinitarian Theology and the Trinitarian Theology of the fifth century. To Justin, Jesus is a second God who is in second place, (a subordinate less powerful position after the Father) and the Holy Spirit is in third place (a subordinate less powerful position after the Son).

The earliest Trinitarian writers all agree with Justin. They taught that Jesus Christ was a second divine person who was inferior to the Father and not coequal with Him.
In the late second century Tertullian writes: "The Father and the Son differ from one another in measure."

Origen was a Trinitarian teacher of the third century. Origen taught that Jesus Christ was "a second God of another substance or essence from the Father." Origen further writes that Jesus is "the most ancient of all creatures." Origen clearly taught that Jesus was a second God who was created. Not coequal and coeternal as the latter Trinitarian teaching of the fifth century and subsequent centuries have taught.

With so many glaring contradictions between the fifth century Athansian Creed and the teachings of all early Christian writers of the first few centuries, how can we believe and trust in an alleged Trinity that differs from the teachings of every single Christian writer of the first three centuries of the church?

Even more astonishing is the fact that all of the earliest post apostolic Christian writers on record who had lived contemporaneously with the apostles, not only did not teach that God was a Trinity of three divine persons but they actually taught a theology which agrees with modern dayOneness Pentecostal Theology.

Clement the Bishop of Rome (90-100 A.D.) - who was mentioned by Paul in Philippians 4:3 - taught in 2 Clement 14:1-5 that Christ is the Holy Spirit. "If we say that . . . the Spirit is Christ, then he who does violence to the Church does violence to Christ. Such a man will not share in the Spirit, which is the Christ. This flesh is able to receive so great a life and immortality because the Holy Spirit is closely joined to it . . ."

Notice how Clement calls the Spirit "Christ" and then identifies this Spirit as the "Holy Spirit."
Hermas, a prophet in Rome (100 A.D.) - mentioned by the apostle Paul in Romans 16:14 - also taught that the Spirit of the Son and the Holy Spirit are one and the same: "The angel of repentance, he came to me and said to me, I want to show you what the Holy Spirit, which spoke with you in the form of the Church, showed you; for that Spirit is the Son of God."
Jack N. Sparks, (a Trinitarian) records in his preface to The Shepherd of Hermas: "You wouldn't call Hermas a precise theologian. His terminology in speaking of the Son and the Holy Spirit is so confusing that he seems to identify the two as the same Person."

Moreover, Hermas' Theology which was received and recognized by the late first century and early second century Roman Bishop's Clement and Grapte agrees with the Oneness Pentecostal scriptural belief that it is necessary to be water baptized in the name of Jesus Christ to enter into the Kingdom of God:

"Why is the tower built on water? As I said to you before, you are a sly one concerning the scriptures and you seek diligently. Well, if you seek , you will find the truth. Hear then why the tower is built on water: because your life has been and will be saved through water." The Shepherd of Hermas/Visions Chapter 11:5

"Did you see that the stones which entered through the portico were placed in the structure of the tower (tower being used symbolically for the church) but the ones that did not so enter were returned to their own place? . . No one will enter the Kingdom of God unless he takes his holy name. For if you want to enter a city and that particular city has been walled around and has one entrance, could you possibly enter that city except by the gateway it has? If then, you cannot enter the city except through its gateway, so, a man cannot enter the Kingdom of God other than by the name of the Son . . . The portico [Doorway] is the Son of God; this is the only entrance to the Lord. . . Whoever does not receive his name cannot enter into the Kingdom of God."

The Shepherd of Hermas Chapter 89:3-8

"They needed, to come up through the water in order to be made alive, for otherwise they could not enter the Kingdom of God unless they set aside the deadness of their former life. So even those who had fallen asleep received the seal of the Son of God and entered into the Kingdom of God. For before he bears the name of the Son of God; the man is dead, and whenever he received the seal he sets aside the deadness and receives life. So the water is the seal. Therefore they go down into the water dead and they come up alive."

The Shepherd of Hermas Chapter 93:2-4

Ignatius was appointed the second Bishop of Antioch by the apostle John. Historians agree that Ignatius' theology was modalistic monarchian - the scholarly term used for Oneness Theology.

Ignatius wrote to Polycarp:

" . . . and expect him, who is above all time, eternal, invisible, though for our sakes made visible: impalpable, and impassable, yet for us subject to sufferings; enduring all manner of ways for our salvation."

Historian Virginia Corwin writes:

"If one term must be chosen to indicate the tendency of his thought, Ignatius must be said to be monarchian."

If Ignatius was Monarchian in theology, Polycarp and most of the early Christians of Asia Minor must have been as well, due to the fact that Ignatius was in close fellowship with the churches throughout Asia Minor.

THE ESSENTIALITY OF ONENESS THEOLOGY

Many professing Christians are opposed to anything that brings division among various Christian Denominations and churches. Yet Jesus warned us that "Not every one that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; But he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 7:21) The Bible plainly teaches that the great majority of those who will profess Christ in the last days will not be saved. Jesus exclaimed, "Enter in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads unto life, and few there be that find it." (Matthew 7:13,14) No matter what we want to think, the scriptures teach that the vast majority of professing Christian Believers will not enter into eternal life.

God's word further warns all professors of Christianity to beware of false teachers who would receive the promise of the Holy Spirit and prophesy in his name while deceiving God's people as "workers of iniquity." Jesus was not joking when he warned us to beware of false teachers.
Satan is a master deceiver who has successfully deceived the vast majority of professing Christians. Therefore it is vitally important that we obey Jude verse 3: "When I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints."W
Have you ever thought of how many people are truly contending (fighting) for that faith? The apostle Paul was so grieved over the soon coming entrance of false teaching into the Church that he wept night and day with tears: "For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock . . . Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears." (Acts 20:29-31)
Paul wrote by the inspiration of the Spirit that these false teachers would be as grievous wolves, "not sparing the flock" of Christ. In other words, the entrance of false teaching would cause the deceived in the flock of Christ to perish much like wolves devour unsuspecting sheep.
Paul further predicted the main source of this false teaching: It would come through pagan philosophy which would pervert the teaching that "in Christ dwells all the fullness of the deity." (Coloss. 2:8-12)

Scripturally and Historically we can prove that the doctrine of the Trinity is foreign to the Bible (from Pagan Philosophy) and to the faith of the majority of early Christians.
The first person to use the word Trinity wrote that the great majority of believers of his day, the late 2nd century, rejected the concept of three divine persons comprising the deity. It was Tertullian who called the majority of second century Christians "Modalistic Monarchians" (See Below For Definition).

MODALISTIC MONARCHIANISM:

How can Christians reconcile the Monotheism of the Christian faith with the existence of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? Enter the word Modalistic, from the root word "Mode:"
" . . . a particular form or manifestation of an underlying substance." 1 Timothy 3:16 states that our "God was manifest in the flesh." Hence Modalistic teaching professes the belief that God is only one "hypostasis" (substance or being) who manifests Himself in different modes of existence yet continues to eternally exist as one single Monarch. The word Monarch is taken from two root words; mono, meaning one; and arch, meaning ruler. Hence a Modalistic Monarchian is one who believes in One God who is a sole ruler or monarch rather than three divine persons of a Trinity. This One Monarch has manifested Himself in different modes of operation while remaining One underlying Spirit or Substance. Thus Jehovah God modally exists as Father (our Heavenly Parent), Son (The eternal Word made flesh as our redeemer), and Holy Spirit (The Spirit of God the Father in action and emanation).

Tertullian apparently called them Monarchian because they professed to hold a strict belief in a single Monarchy held by only one Divine Being, King, or Monarch, rather than three divine persons or beings.

Tertullian was forced to admit that the majority of believers of the second century A.D. were Monarchian and not Trinitarian believers:
"To be sure, plain people, not to call them ignorant and common - of whom the greater portion of believers is always comprised - inasmuch as the rule of faith withdraws them from the many gods of the [heathen] world to the one and the true God, shrink back from the economy (the trinity) . . . They are constantly throwing out the accusation that we preach two gods and three gods . . . We hold, they say, the monarchy."

Sounds familiar! Do not Oneness Christians of today preach that those who profess a belief in three divine persons of an alleged trinity are preaching two and three gods? Since the Trinitarian writer who invented the word "Trinity" himself admitted that the majority of Christian believers were Monarchian (Oneness) in their theology in the late second century, we can convincingly assert that Trinitarians were in the minority within the first hundred years after the death of the first century apostles.

Although Oneness adherents do not believe that church history ought to be used to prove the Oneness position, it is comforting for us to know that the vast majority of Christian believers who lived within one hundred years after the death of the apostles believed in the same like precious faith that we hold so dear today.

It truly makes a whole lot of sense to believe that the majority of the early Christians would not have automatically departed from the first century apostolic faith immediately after the apostles had so vigilantly poured out their life blood into the churches they themselves founded. Paul's constant warnings about the entrance of false teachers and his constant charges to preach sound doctrine must have alarmed the majority of the post apostolic bishops who succeeded the apostles.

The annals of Church history proves that the majority of Bishops who immediately succeeded the apostles faithfully continued to preach the true gospel just as ardently as they had received it from the apostles. The surviving writings of the post apostolic bishops proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were Oneness in Theology and not Trinitarian.

Most Trinitarians are not aware that the annals of church history proves that the Modalistic Monarchian Bishops of 325 A.D. wholeheartedly ratified the early Nicene Creed which is falsely believed by many to support Trinitarianism. Yet the Nicene Creed of 325 A.D. actually supports Monarchianism while openly exposing latter Trinitarian Theology. The anathema at the end of the creed graphically opposes the fifth century form of Trinitarian Theology as formulated in the Athanasius Creed: "But for those who . . . assert that the Son of Godis of a different hypostasis (substance of Being) or substance, or is subject to alteration or change - these the Universal and Apostolic Church anathematizes."

THE MAJORITY OF BELIEVERS IN THE SECOND CENTURY REJECTED EARLY TRINITARIANISM

Tertullian wrote: "To be sure, plain people, not to call them ignorant and common - of whom the greater portion of believers is always comprised - inasmuch as the rule of faith withdraws them from the many gods of the heathen world to the one and the true God, shrink back from the economy (the Trinity) . . . They are constantly throwing out the accusation that we preach two gods and three gods . . . We hold, they say, the monarchy."
Therefore, many Christians were called "Monarchians" because they held to the belief that God is one indivisible Monarch rather than the belief that God is three divine persons (three Monarchs). Oneness Christians of today are often called "Modalistic Monarchians" because they believe that God is one divine Monarch who can function in different manifestations or modes of existence all at the same time and yet still be only One Divine Spirit or Monarch. For if God were really three divine and coequal persons then there would be three Kings. And If there are three Kings than God is not really One God but three Gods.