October 2017 – Page 3 – TrueFreeThinker

Cherubim and Serpent in Flavius Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews

Herein we prove quotations and citations on Cherubim and Serpent (within a Satanic context) from Flavius Josephus (37 AD-100 AD). The fuller complete result consists of quotations of those sections within the text that refer to Angels, Cherubim, Seraphim, Devil, Satan, demons, serpent and dragon. The point is not to elucidate these references but to provide relevant partial quotations and citations. See my section on Angels here, Cherubim and Seraphim here, Satan here and Demons here.

Antiquities of the Jews Book VII

14:9 …hundred talents, and three hundred other talents of pure gold, for the most holy place, and for the chariot of God, the cherubim, which are to stand over and cover the ark.

Antiquities of the Jews Preface

1:4 But while all the living creatures had one language, at that time the serpent, which then lived together with Adam and his wife, shewed an envious disposition, at his supposal of their living happily…she again accused the serpent…she persuaded Adam with the same arguments wherewith the serpent had persuaded her, and had thereby brought him into a calamitous condition. He also deprived the serpent of speech, out of indignation at his malicious disposition towards Adam.

In the next segment, we will consider Josephus on Demons.

Miracle Baby Causes Atheist to Pray

The following news story seemed both politically and polemically relevant.

Gene Warner, “Women & Children’s Cares for Ontario ‘Miracle Baby’-Shortage at Hospital Where Ava Was Born Necessitated Journey,” Buffalo News, July 02, 2009

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One-week-old Ava Isabella Stinson – all 2 pounds of her – has made quite a dramatic entrance into the world.

First her birth. Last Thursday, her parents, Natalie Paquette and Richard Stinson, rushed to a Hamilton, Ont., hospital, where she was born 20 minutes later – more than three months before her due date.
She weighed 2 pounds 4 ounces at birth.

Then came another complication that doctors couldn’t treat – there was no room at the inn for Ava in the Hamilton area.

Lack of any empty beds in a neonatal unit in Hamilton’s McMaster Children’s Hospital forced authorities to prepare to take Ava across the border to Women & Children’s Hospital in Buffalo.

But an intense storm that afternoon grounded the helicopter, so the McMaster neonatal transport team brought her here by ambulance_

“It happens all the time,” Ryan said [Dr. Rita M. Ryan, Women & Children’s chief of neonatology]. “They have a certain number of NICU beds [in Southern Ontario], and sometimes they run out”_

When there are no beds available at McMaster, hospital officials look for other neonatal beds in Ontario. If none can be found, they look to the United States_

Ava’s story, with all its cross-border twists and turns, also remains a human one.

Stinson said he has found only one way to explain the whirlwind of events in the last week.

“I was an atheist,” he said in a lengthy phone interview from his Hamilton home. “Now I’m considering going to church and being a believer. There’s got to be someone up there who’s saving our little daughter.”

On Tuesday morning, Stinson got up and prayed for little Ava. That day, he and Paquette learned their baby had been taken off the ventilator the day before.

“That’s enough for me to be a believer,” he said_

“She’s the smallest baby in the world,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
And he’ll never forget the first time he saw Ava.

“The first thing I did was cry. Then I cupped her head in my right hand. Her head was way too small for my hand. I was talking, and she reached up and touched my finger”_

The whole experience has changed Stinson, and not only in a religious way. He also has a different view of Americans.
“The American people have been so awesome, I’d like to go back there and vacation,” he said_

“I’m just going to tell her she’s a celebrity – and a miracle baby.”

Is the Bible Skeptical About Miracles? – The Timing Test for Miracles

Let us consider perhaps the closest we could get to testing whether a miracle has taken place.

The New Testament presents a very interesting occurrence which provides one of the very best tests for ascertaining whether a miracle took place-from John 4:46-54.

So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.”
The nobleman said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies!”Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your son lives.” So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way.

There you have it; the nobleman asked for a healing and Jesus claimed to have granted it.

Next we find that,

And as he [the nobleman] was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, “Your son lives!”

There it is; Jesus claimed to have healed the son and it was so.

And now comes the test:

Then he inquired of them the hour when he got better. And they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.”So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives.” And he himself believed, and his whole household.

This again is the second sign Jesus did when He had come out of Judea into Galilee.

This is quite a test; matching up the time of the claim to have preformed a healing to the time when the healing actually took place-and it was so.

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Michael Shermer and the Greatest Miracle

The greatest miracle has already occurred and that was the creation of the universe.

During his debate with John Lennox, Michael Shermer made some interesting comments about the universe’s conception. How does he propose we resolve the infinite regress which is set on its tracks by the assertions of a previously existing universe giving rise to the one in which we live? Michael Shermer proposes that the answer is found by inebriation. The lesson is that if you get drunk enough you can resolve the problem.

Certainly, his statement was surely stated with tongue firmly ensconced in cheek but I think that it does speak volumes and sheds light on his actual, sober, explanation.

There is something about appealing to inebriation that is reminiscent of the manner in which Michael Shermer actually deals with the issue. The realm of inebriation is the realm of limitless possibility; people develop “beer muscles” and can take on the world. They lose their inhibitions in search of anything that will (momentarily) satisfy. And besides saying, “I loooove you maaaaan!” the realm of possibility is wide open, “Wow maaaaan, what if…” “Yeah, dude!”

Let us keep in mind that in Michael Shermer we are speaking about Mr. Skepticism himself (or pseudo-skepticism as was hinted to in Expelled). Yet, when it comes to the origin of our universe he is left with, I suppose, the only thing that we have-theories.

Fair enough. Yet, he asserts, “It’s a little early in the history of science, only four centuries old, to say ‘We now know enough about everything to say, ‘It can’t possibly be explained by natural forces therefore, there has to be a supernatural force.” Thus, he considers the theory of collapsing black holes producing expanding bubble universes to be “one answer,” other answers being that we do not yet know.

Is this “one answer”? It is as much of an answer as theorizing that our universe is inside of a marble with which an alien child is playing.

Firstly, it is not an answer to merely invent assertions off of the top of one’ head. Merely piling materialistic stories upon materialistic stories about how thinks could have, may have (should have?) happened may be “intellectually satisfying” at some level or another but is no answer. Atheists tend to reject supernatural options that at least have some merit with material options that have no merit.

I wonder when “science” will mature. Perhaps someone could set an age limit-has anyone checked science’s identification card? He sets its age at 400 although it is millennia older. Perhaps he only considers “science” to be the materialist cooption of “science” which has increased to the point that some people actually believe that even though science has nothing to say about the existence of the supernatural, it disproves it. Some atheists oppose the supernatural based on methodology that does not deal with the supernatural.

Just when will science be considered mature, or over the hill-with regards to Michael Shermer’s claim that it is a virtual babe in arms? One thousand years? Two thousand? Two million? Fifty billion trillion quintillion? Just when will atheists allow us the privilege of coming to a supernatural conclusion?

Here is the bottom line: atheists commit the fallacy of expected future human omniscience. This is a faith based view based on worldview adherence. The argument is basically that one cannot scientifically or logically infer the existence of the supernatural until human beings learn everything that there is to know and everything about everything that there is to know-not until we know everything, how everything works, every cause for every effect and how everything interacts in every possible combination.

Meanwhile, atheists can give as “one answer” anything that they could possibly imagine. Where you to ask for evidence, that is easy enough: “scientists are working on it.”

The greatest miracle has already occurred and that was the creation of the universe. Just because this violated the atheists worldview and they go on to invent modern day cosmogenic myths does not change this fact.

Until such time as all of our deepest questions about life the universe and everything can be explained by absolutely materialistic means theism is the default position.

The Myth of Warfare Between “Science,” “Religion” and “Miracles”

Cherubim in Philo of Alexandria

Herein we provide quotations and citations on Cherubim from Philo of Alexandria (20 BC-50 AD). The fuller complete result consists of quotations of those sections within the text that refer to Angels, Cherubim, Seraphim, Devil, Satan, demons, serpent and dragon. The point is not to elucidate these references but to provide relevant partial quotations and citations. See my section on Angels here, Cherubim and Seraphim here, Satan here and Demons here.

Cherubim in Philo of Alexandria’s The Cherubim, Questions and Answers on Genesis, On the Life of Moses and On Flight and Finding.

The Cherubim Part 1

I “And God cast out Adam, and placed him opposite the paradise of happiness; and he placed there the cherubim and a flaming sword, which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of Life

IV Then also, “The flaming sword and the cherubim have an abode allotted to them exactly in front of paradise.”

VI But God very appropriately assigns to the cherubim and to the flaming sword a city or abode in front of Paradise.

VII But we must now consider what the figurative allusions are which are enigmatically expressed in the mention of the cherubim and of the flaming sword which turned every way…Accordingly, by one of the cherubim is understood the extreme outermost circumference of the entire heaven…But the other of the cherubim is the inner sphere.

VIII This, then, is one of the systems, according to which what is said of the cherubim may be understood allegorically…And may we not say, according to another way of understanding this allegory, that the two cherubim are meant as symbols of each of the hemispheres?

IX Now, of this ruling authority and of this goodness, being two distinct powers, the cherubim were the symbols, but of reason the flaming sword was the symbol…And do thou, O my mind, receive the impression of each of these cherubims unadulterated, that thus becoming thoroughly instructed about the ruling authority of the Creator of all things.

Questions and Answers on Genesis, I
57 Why God places a cherubim in front of the Paradise, and a flaming sword, which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life? (#Ge 3:24). The name cherubim designates the two original virtues which belong to the Deity, namely, his creative and his royal virtues.

On the Life of Moses, II
XX But the ark is the depository of the laws, for in that are placed the holy oracles of God, which were given to Moses; and the covering of the ark, which is called the mercy-seat, is a foundation for two winged creatures to rest upon, which are called, in the native language of the Hebrews, cherubim, but as the Greeks would translate the word, vast knowledge and science. Now some persons say, that these cherubim are the symbols of the two hemispheres, placed opposite to and fronting one another, the one beneath the Earth and the other above the Earth, for the whole heaven is endowed with wings.

On Flight and Finding
XIX The images of the creative power and of the kingly power are the winged cherubim which are placed upon it. But the divine word which is above these does not come into any visible appearance, inasmuch as it is not like to any of the things that come under the external senses, but is itself an image of God, the most ancient of all the objects of intellect in the whole world, and that which is placed in the closest proximity to the only truly existing God, without any partition or distance being interposed between them: for it is said, “I will speak unto thee from above the mercyseat, in the midst, between the two Cherubim.”

In the next segment, we will consider Philo on the Devil, Serpent and Dragon.

On Natural Laws and Miracles

“there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature.”1
-Fred Hoyle

Atheists oft argue that miracles cannot occur because the laws of nature are immutable. By a convenient inference they further argue that since miracles do not occur, the supernatural does not exist.

I mostly wish to brainstorm in a few directions as I do not claim to be as omniscient about the laws of nature-as some of my atheist friends appear to consider themselves:

What are the laws of nature?
The laws of nature are: gravity, electromagnetism, strong nuclear force and weak nuclear force. Yet, the point of my question was not intended to list and discuss them but was to point out that what we term “the laws of nature” is our taxonomy of inferences derived from observations of the natural world. One question to keep in mind is whether we have discovered all of the laws of nature as of yet.

Are they immutable?
Perhaps. They certainly appear to be. Yet, in order to answer in the affirmative we must first presuppose that we know all of the laws. Assuming that we do; we must further assume that we know of every possible action and interaction of these laws in every possible scenario and in every possible combination.

What if they are not immutable?
In such a case, God can bend them.

What if they are immutable?
In such a case, God can “break” them. According to such a scenario God would have created what we understand to be immutable laws for the very purpose of displaying His ability to “break” them and in doing so alert us to the miraculous.

Can God break, or manipulate, the laws of nature?
Some atheists claim that God cannot exist for the very reason that the laws of nature cannot be broker, or bent. However, answering presuppositionally; God created the laws of nature, God invented them, God holds the patent on them, has the template of them, God put them into place and can manipulate them like a guitarist who strung her guitar can strum the strings, or place them in whatever order, or tightness them she pleases.

Lastly, note that as our scientific knowledge increases the more parochial concepts such as the impossibility of God due to presumed immutable laws fades away:

In hindsight, it is an irony that while modernity in its positivistic spirit started out with the notion that the reality perceived by our senses is the only knowable reality there is, we now end up with the idea that the true nature of physical reality is quite different from what we experience through our senses. The legend of the tangibility of matter, or what may be called “the matter myth,” which served as the basis for the certainty of knowledge, was lost.2

Here, within science, were raised the problem of reality (an ontological problem), issues of the limits of human knowledge (an epistemological problem), and the problem of testability (a methodological problem).

Relativity and quantum physics, which serve as the pillars of contemporary science, and more recently chaos theory, are now presenting us with a radically new physical view of the world in which positivistic, deterministic, and materialistic philosophies no longer have secure places. They present us with deeper, greater, and more mysterious aspects of nature.

Scientists now proceed to the area that traditionally belonged to metaphysics, discussing the possibility of the ultimate reality of the universe, the origin and finality of the cosmos, the problem of consciousness, and the like. The natural sciences, as they touch upon the edge of objectivity and empirical testability, raise many questions about the world to which science itself cannot provide definite answers within its limited framework. In these frontiers of science, our metaphors are running out and our common sense often breaks down. We have to wrestle with the limits of our knowledge, logic, and rationality. Here in science the fundamental epistemic problems are naturally raised, as they were in religion and theology in earlier centuries.

We now start to take seriously, especially in fundamental physics and cosmology, the things that are not seen. As recent developments in theoretical physics and cosmology witness, as speculative as they may be, some theories quite beyond what can be directly measured by physical apparatus are possible and are indeed commonplace. It not only raises a possibility for the epistemology of the unseen in general, but also makes its ontological discussion feasible.3

Is the Bible Skeptical About Miracles? – Lazarus Comes Forth

In John chapter 11 we learn of the death of Lazarus of Bethany.

Lazarus’ sisters, Mary and Martha, had sent for Jesus with a message stating, “Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick.”
Jesus offers an odd response, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Odder still he stayed put two more days. Afterward, upon leaving for Lazarus’s home he stated, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up” to which the disciples responded, “Lord, if he sleeps he will get well.”

Yet, we learn that Jesus was employing a common idiom for death as He explains, “Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him.”
It is noteworthy that Jesus often did and said odd things which are not understood until the completes His actions. The things He did are as important and telling as the things that He did not do, or waited to do.

We find that it took Jesus four days to travel from Bethany to Jerusalem, a distance of two miles.

“Now Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and_said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.'”

As the conversation ensues we learn that Jesus told her that Lazarus will rise again and that she thought that He referred to an eventual, general, resurrection. Employing various idioms, Jesus states, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” To which she responded, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

Next Martha goes out to meet Jesus and states, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”

“Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’They said to Him, ‘Lord, come and see.’Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, ‘See how He loved him!’

And some of them said, ‘Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?'”

Upon reaching the tomb Jesus asks that the stone which sealed the tomb be removed at which time, and before a crowd of mourners, Martha states what everyone knew, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days” (or as the quaint Authorized King James Version put it, “he stinketh”).

“Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?’ Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying.And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, ‘Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.’Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come forth!’

And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth.”

Lazarus had been sick and died, been declared dead, had his corpse prepared with wrappings and spices for encasement in the cave (until a year later when his bones would have been placed within an ossuary). These were well known facts and yet, a resurrection from the dead was evidenced.

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Is the Bible Skeptical About Miracles? – Moses as Skeptical Scientist

What would you do if you saw a burning bush? A bush that had every appearance of being on fire and yet, was not being consumed by it?

Would you instantly say, “Lord God Almighty!!!!!!!!!”

Would you say, “What a fascinating coincidence! The natural laws are interacting in a rather unexpected manner. Perhaps, someday we will find a materialist answer. S’mores anyone?”

Well, if you were like Moses you would do neither. Yet, in a way, he a bit of both (short of the s’mores).

In Exodus 3:2-3 we find Moses at Horeb and we learn that “Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, ‘I will go over and see this strange sight-why the bush does not burn up.'”

Moses’ first reaction is to think critically, skeptically and scientifically: he thought about what he was seeing, he planed a course of action, he approached the phenomenon and he determined to examine it.

Then, “When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, ‘Moses! Moses!_I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.’ At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God” (Exodus 3:4, 6). The reference to looking at God is in reference to v. 2 which stated, “There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush.” Angel of the LORD being a term synonymous for God Himself. It is likely a reference to a Christophany, a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. But this is theological minutia which goes beyond the scope of this essay.

Now, what would you do if God told you, very clearly, to go and do something?

Would you instantly say, “Yes, of course, here I go!”

Would you say, “Wow maaaaaan, I’m like sooooo hallucinating!”

Well, if you were like Moses you would do neither.

“‘I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.’ But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’ And God said, ‘I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain'” (Exodus 3:10-12).

Moses does not march off in lockstep but questions why he is chosen and for the task at hand. God recognizes that Moses, a sheep herding nobody, will need some evidence that it is God who is talking to him, sending him to confront Pharaoh who at the time was one of the, if not the, earth’s most powerful ruler. God states that Moses will succeed in bringing the Israelites out of Egypt and that they will enjoy the freedom of worshipping God at Horeb.
Thus, Moses will engage upon a scientific experiment, as it were. He engages upon an act knowing that he will either be unsuccessful or successful.

That he would be unsuccessful is most likely since Moses was one single man, who was a nobody, with no authority, and no army (and not even the support of the Jews, at that time). This would be evidence that God did not send him but that he just ate a bad falafel the night before which caused him to hallucinate.

That he would be successful would quite literally a one man against the world scenario. This would serve as confirmation that he had an encounter with God.

Next comes an exchange from which there is much to infer:

“Moses said to God, ‘Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?’ God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you'” (Exodus 3:13-14).

God declares that He is the I AM, “I am who I am,” or “I will be what I will be.” This is understood to mean the self-existent one, the one who is, the one who is not moved by any greater external force. God is known as the one who is, was and is to come, the beginning and the end, the Alpha and Omega.

Consider that time, space and matter came into being at a particular point, at the very beginning of time, space and matter. The Bible’s very first verse states, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”Look at it this way: “In the beginning [time], God created the heavens [space] and the earth [matter].”

Moreover, consider it this way: “In the beginning [time], God [a preexistent being] created [infused with energy, omnipotentlly designed] the heavens [space] and the earth [matter].”

Furthermore, it is reasonable to draw the following inferences:Since time came into being at a particular point-whatever existed “before” then was timeless, or eternal.Since space came into being at a particular point-whatever existed “before” then was infinite, or not restricted to locality.

Since matter came into being at a particular point-whatever existed “before” then was immaterial, or spirit and not affected by any natural laws.

Moses’ skeptical and scientific inquisitive nature would come into play time and time again as is exampled in life his story as found in the Bible.

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Trinity : A Consideration of Anti-Trinitarian Views, part 2 of 2

Having concluded a consideration of various biblical statements which demonstrate that God is a Triune being, a Trinity, as each member of the Trinity is identified by likewise attributes, each is a person, each is co-equal and co-eternal let us now consider various anti-Trinitarian views.

Jehovah’s Witnesses:
The Watchtower Bible and Tract Association-the Jehovah’s Witnesses-deny God’s Triune nature as we shall see (more information on Jehovah’s Witnesses is found here).
Reasoning from the Scriptures, p. 405

some Trinitarians emphasize their belief that Jesus Christ is God, or that Jesus and the Holy Ghost are Jehovah. Not a Bible teaching.

Make Sure of All Things (Brooklyn, NY: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1953), p. 188

Not a triune god, which false doctrine would deny his almighty supremacy.

Mankind’s Search for God, p. 356-357

Christ Jesus as the Word was a spirit creation and came to earth in obedience to his Father’s will_The holy spirit is God’s active force, or energy in action, not a person.

In the view of Jehovah’s Witnesses Jehovah is the God (capital “G”) and Jesus is a god (lower case “g”). Thus, they are polytheists in that they affirm the existence of various gods even if they designate one as major and others a minor.
In the Jehovah’s Witnesses “translation” of the Bible, the New World Translation John 1:1 reads,

In [the] beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.

That little word, that letter, “a” is enough to move from monotheism to polytheism.

Also, note how since they believe that Jehovah created Jesus they cannot allow the Bible to state what the Bible states. Consider how they insert brackets into the text of Colossians 1:15-17,

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; because by means of him all [other] things were created in the heavens and upon the earth, the things visible and the things invisible, no matter whether they are thrones or lordships or governments or authorities. All [other] things have been created through him and for him. Also, he is before all [other] things and by means of him all [other] things were made to exist.

The bible sates that He, Jesus, created “All things…is before all things…all things were made to exist” but since their doctrine contradicts the words of the Bible they make the Bible say that Jesus created “All [other] things…is before all [other] things…all [other] things were made to exist.”

Christian Science:
Note immediately that Mary Baker Eddy’s Christian Science is neither Christian nor scientific but is akin to mind science or science of mind groups which promulgate various concoctions of eastern philosophy/mysticism packaged in Christian terminology.

Anecdote: very early in my Christian walk I heard about Michael Behe’s book Darwin’s Black Box.

Having never even heard of Christian bookstores I had no idea where such books were available. Yet, I recalled that in my neighborhood there was a “Christian Science Reading Room.” Ah yes, Michael Behe is a Christian and he was writing about science so…

Well, I went in to ask about the book and was told that they do not carry anything like that. Of course, the “Christian Science Reading Room” is a “Christian Science” study center-what did I know.

Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (Boston, MA: Published by the Trustees under the Will of Mary Baker G. Eddy, 1875), p. 331

God is individual, incorporeal. He is divine Principle, Love, the universal cause, the only creator, and there is not other self-existence. He is all-inclusive, and is reflected by all that is real and eternal and by nothing else.
He fills all space, and it is impossible to conceive of such omnipresence and individuality except as infinite Spirit or Mind. Hence all is Spirit and spiritual. Life, Truth, and Love constitute the triune Person called God, – that is, the triply divine Principle, Love. They represent a trinity in unity, three in one, – the same in essence, though multiform in office: God the Father-Mother; Christ the spiritual ideal of sonship; divine Science or the Holy Comforter.

Mary Baker Eddy, ibid., p. 256

The theory of three persons in one God (that is, a personal Trinity or Tri-unity) suggests polytheism.

Mary Baker Eddy, ibid., p. 361

Christ, as the true spiritual idea, is the ideal of God_The Christian who believes in the First Commandment is a monotheist_and recognizes that Jesus Christ is not God, as Jesus himself declared, but the Son of God.

Mary Baker Eddy, ibid., p. 332

The Christ is incorporeal, spiritual, – yea, the divine image and likeness, dispelling the illusions of the senses; the Way, the Truth, and the Life_The corporeal man Jesus was human.

Mary Baker Eddy, The First Church of Christ Scientist and Miscellany (Boston, MA: Published by the Trustees under the Will of Mary Baker G. Eddy, 1913), p. 261

Christ is the Truth and Life born of God – born of Spirit and not of matter. Jesus, the Galilean Prophet, as born of the Virgin Mary’s spiritual thoughts of Life and its manifestation.

Mary Baker Eddy, Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896 (Boston, MA: Published by the Trustees under the Will of Mary Baker G. Eddy, 1896), p. 84

The spiritual Christ was infallible; Jesus, as material manhood, was not Christ.

By now, you can readily see how knowing the biblical statements about the Trinity, about God’s nature in general and about the attributes of the members of the Trinity in particular you can dispel false doctrines.

For example, “God the Father-Mother; Christ the spiritual ideal of sonship; divine Science or the Holy Comforter” not according to a study of the Bible.

Was Christ a “spiritual idea” or “incorporeal, spiritual” but a separate being named Jesus was “was human”?

Note that Luke 1:30 announces the birth of Jesus “behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus” and 2:10-11 goes on to state that this Jesus who was born was “born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Thus, Jesus who is the Christ was born to Mary and Joseph and not Jesus who took on the Christ nature later on in His life.

Early Church Fathers:
Let us conclude by noting what some early church fathers thought about Jesus’ divinity and the Trinity.

1st Clement AD 95-96,

For, as God liveth, and as the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost live,-both the faith and hope of the elect, he who in lowliness of mind, with instant gentleness, and without repentance hath observed the ordinances and appointments given by God-the same shall obtain a place and name in the number of those who are being saved through Jesus Christ, through whom is glory to Him for ever and ever. Amen.

Ignatius AD 110,

Nevertheless, I have heard of some who have passed on from this to you, having false doctrine, whom ye did not suffer to sow among you, but stopped your ears, that ye might not receive those things which were sown by them, as being stones of the temple of the Father, prepared for the building of God the Father, and drawn up on high by the instrument of Jesus Christ, which is the cross, making use of the Holy Spirit as a rope, while your faith was the means by which you ascended, and your love the way which led up to God.

Ye, therefore, as well as all your fellow-travellers, are God-bearers, temple-bearers, Christ-bearers, bearers of holiness, adorned in all respects with the commandments of Jesus Christ, in whom also I exult that I have been thought worthy, by means of this Epistle, to converse and rejoice with you, because with respect to your Christian life ye love nothing but God only. For the Son of God, who was begotten before time began, and established all things according to the will of the Father, He was conceived in the womb of Mary, according to the appointment of God, of the seed of David, and by the Holy Ghost.

These things [I address to you], my beloved, not that I know any of you to be in such a state; but, as less than any of you, I desire to guard you beforehand, that ye fall not upon the hooks of vain doctrine, but that you may rather attain to a full assurance in Christ, who was begotten by the Father before all ages, but was afterwards born of the Virgin Mary without any intercourse with man. Some of them say that the Son is a mere man, and that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are but the same person, and that the creation is the work of God, not by Christ, but by some other strange power.

Polycarp AD 155,

Wherefore also I praise Thee for all things, I bless Thee, I glorify Thee, along with the everlasting and heavenly Jesus Christ, Thy beloved Son, with whom, to Thee, and the Holy Ghost, be glory both now and to all coming ages. Amen.

IrenaeusAD 160-180,

Wherefore, as I have already stated, no other is named as God, or is called Lord, except Him who is God and Lord of all, who also said to Moses, “I AM That I AM. And thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: He who is, hath sent me unto you;” and His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who makes those that believe in His name the sons of God. And again, when the Son speaks to Moses, He says, “I am come down to deliver this people.”
For it is He who descended and ascended for the salvation of men. Therefore God has been declared through the Son, who is in the Father, and has the Father in Himself-He who is, the Father bearing witness to the Son, and the Son announcing the Father.-As also Esaias says, “I too am witness,” he declares, “saith the Lord God, and the Son whom I have chosen, that ye may know, and believe, and understand that I am.”

Tertullian,

In various ways has the devil rivaled and resisted the truth. Sometimes his aim has been to destroy the truth by defending it. He maintains that there is one only Lord, the Almighty Creator of the world, in order that out of this doctrine of the unity he may fabricate a heresy. He says that the Father Himself came down into the Virgin, was Himself born of her, Himself suffered, indeed was Himself Jesus Christ.

Note also other historically significant references:
In 112 AD, while he was Governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor, Pliny the Younger (Plinius Secundus) wrote to Emperor Tarjan in Epistles 10.96,

the method I observe towards those who have been denounced to me as Christians is this: I interrogate them whether they were in fact Christians; if they confess it, I repeat the question twice, adding the threat of capital punishment; if they still persevered, I ordered them to be executed_they were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a God.

Also, in 170 AD Lucian of Samosata wrote the following in, The Death of Peregrine 11-13,

The Christians, you know, worship a man_deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage.

These attest to early church belief in Jesus’ divinity.

Lastly, note that a church was been discovered in Megiddo, Israel which dates to 200-250 AD. Excavations uncovered a large tile floor and wall remnants. There are mosaics of fish which were the original Christian symbol. Also found were some inscriptions inlaid into the mosaic one which reads, “Akeptous, the God-loving, offered this table for (the) God Jesus Christ, as a remembrance” (“Akeptous” is the name of the woman who offered this “remembrance”).

In this regard my essays Historical Jesus – Three Centuries Worth of Citations and Flavius Josephus, the Historical Jesus and Pseudo-Skepticism Outdated By Four Decades may be of interest.

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