Politics is evil.

 Religion NEVER sanctifies politics. Even that one nation founded by the Lord JEHOVAH Himself, can trace the beginning of its fall to the beginning of politics.

1Samuel Ch.8:7ASV"And JEHOVAH said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee; for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not be king over them."

JEHOVAH tried his best to warn the people of the Hazzard of turning to politicians for security/salvation rather than him. Especially re:the threat to the relative liberty they enjoyed at the time see Judges ch.17:6

1Samuel Ch.8:11-18ASV"And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: he will take your sons, and appoint them unto him, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and they shall run before his chariots; 12and he will appoint them unto him for captains of thousands, and captains of fifties; and he will set some to plow his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and the instruments of his chariots. 13And he will take your daughters to be perfumers, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. 14And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. 15And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. 16And he will take your men-servants, and your maid-servants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. 17He will take the tenth of your flocks: and ye shall be his servants. 18And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king whom ye shall have chosen you; and JEHOVAH will not answer you in that day."

Conversely politics always Corrupts religion.

John ch.19:15NIV"But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”

“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.

“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered."

But note please that they did not say we have no king save God Almighty. They were too preoccuppied with pleasing men for that. That simply was not where their hearts were see Matthew ch.15:8.

A preoccupation with pleasing men is an inevitable by product  of any attempt to merge religion with politics. This invariable shift in focus from pleasing JEHOVAH to pleasing men is an issue ,because while JEHOVAH'S Servants ought not to be gratuitously offensive in our tone or manner re:the publishing of the divine message see 1Peter ch.3:15 . Our focus must remain on pleasing our master the Lord JEHOVAH.

Acts Ch.5:29NLT"But Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than any human authority. "

Ps. Matthew Ch.10:7NIV"As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’" JEHOVAH'S Servants were not instructed to herald the approach of JEHOVAH'S Republic but of JEHOVAH'S Kingdom.

On the most high God and his son

 The God and Father of Jesus Christ is the most high God (human councils notwithstanding)

Psalms ch.83:18KJV"That they may know that thou alone, whose name is JEHOVAH, Art the Most High over all the earth."

Thus no one not numerically identical to JEHOVAH can be the God of Israel or the most high God

If the claim is that the triune God is JEHOVAH Then it logically follows that no one other than this triune God can be called JEHOVAH in as much as Jesus nor the Father are triune according Trinitarian orthodoxy then neither Jesus nor the father can be called the most high or the God of Israel

it is also claimed that no member of the trinity is a God there are not three gods but three persons.

So the fact that the father is called the God and one God is a problem because it means that the father is A God in his own right also the Father is the God of the son

Revelation ch.3:12 KJV" that overcometh, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out thence no more: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and mine own new name. "

There fore the Son is definitely not the most high

Acts ch.3:13NIV"The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Servant Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied before the face of Pilate, when he had determined to release him. "

Luke ch.1:32NIV"He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The LORD God will give him the throne of his father David,"

So the God and Father of Jesus is the Most High God I.e JEHOVAH

How is the resurrection at revelation ch.20 the first.

 Revelation ch.20:4,5NASB "Then I saw thrones,and they sat on them,and judgment wad given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God,and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image,and had not received the mark on their forehead or on their hands;and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection."  

Now if the mere temporary restoring of the imperfect human life that we currently endure counts as a resurrection in the sense being employed in the book of revelation, this certainly cannot be called the first resurrection. There being a number of such resurrections previously see John ch.11:43,44 Hebrews ch.11:35. Thus in the book of revelation sense a resurrection must mean(at least) a restoration of the life our father Adam lost. For it is only in this sense that the resurrection mentioned at revelation ch.20:4,5 could possibly be the first. And if this resurrection is truly the first of such resurrections is expecting that one of like manner (say, the one mentioned as following the millennium ch.5b) unreasonable? 

Clement of Rome on the supremacy of the Father.

    

Clement of Rome (AD 45-101) : "The apostles received the gospel for us from Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ was sent from God. So Christ is from God, and the apostles are from Christ: thus both came in proper order by the will of God."[4] Also, "Let all the heathen know that thou [the Father] art God alone, and that Jesus Christ is thy Servant..."[5] 

Micah 5:2 and the true origin of Israel's messiah

 Micah5:1 JPS"But thou, Beth-lehem Ephrathah, Which art little to be among the thousands of Judah,

Out of thee shall one come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel;

Whose goings forth(mozaah) are from of old, from ancient days.(Olam)"

Strong's:Feminine of mowtsa'; a family descent; also a sewer (marg.; compare tsow'ah) -- draught house; going forth.

Common theme going forth from the belly.

Compare:

Hebrews ch.1:10-12NIV"He also says,

"In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth,

and the heavens are the work of your hands.

11They will perish, but you remain;

they will all wear out like a garment.

12You will roll them up like a robe;

lie a garment they will be changed.

But you remain the same,

and your years will never end.” 

Here our brother Paul quotes psalms102:25,26 and applies them to Jesus ,earlier on at verse 2 he had made the point that the Son was the one through whom JEHOVAH made the ages. Thus both JEHOVAH and his agent could be credited with the production of the physical world. Also both JEHOVAH and his subordinate would need to proceed physical world to logically be made responsible for its existence 

Hebrews ch.1:2NIV"but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. "

Thus the verse could apply to both the ultimate source of the power and wisdom manifest in the creation and the primary instrument of that source.

Note please that the creation in question is perishable ,thus we are not discussing anything spiritual, likely the ages in question refer to humanity or human civilization,

Compare:

Genesis ch.1:26JPS"And God said: ‘Let US make(Hebrew asah) man in OUR image, after OUR likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.’" 

Thus here is the living intelligent instrument through which JEHOVAH accomplished his work that is the only way this instrument could be said to bear God's image an expression that must always pertain to either a human or superhuman Son of God.

Compare:

Hebrews ch.1:3"The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. "

Compare:

Proverbs ch.8:30JB" I was by his side, a master craftsman, delighting him day after day, ever at play in his presence,"

Compare:

Colossians ch.1:15-17"The Son is the IMAGE of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. "

John tried to tell Israel the true origins of the one walking among them 

John ch.1:30NIV"This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ "

Of course from an earthly standpoint Jesus does not precede John in any sense.And it does no good to make this preceding abstract because John would also have existed abstractly in JEHOVAH'S mind prior to his birth,and is also the product of a divine miracle. John's ministry also precedes Jesus' 

John continues:

John ch.1:31NIV"The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all."

Thus John showed why Jesus is greater than himself.

Jesus tried to tell Israel his true origin 

John ch.6:62NIV"Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit e and life."

If heaven refers to his being born again why would he need to return there ,heaven of course refers to no particular vector but the superhuman state he surrendered in order to become a sacrifice for our sins

Hebrews ch.2:9NIV"But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone."

One cannot return to where one has never been and one need not return to where one has never left ,the glory and honor then is a restoration of a previous superhuman glory.

John ch.17:5"And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I HAD with you before the world began."

Here our Lord prays for the restoration of his forfeited superhuman glory which forfeiture was necessary to meet the legal requirements of the atonement.

Hebrews ch 2:14NIV"Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil"

Hebrews ch.2:16NIV"For surely it is not angels (spirit beings)he helps, but Abraham’s descendants."

This cannot refer to the new creation because he never forfeited his place in the new creation thus there would be no need to plea for any such restoration.

John ch.3:13NIV"No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. "

Jesus is saying that he is unique among all men who ever lived for this reason , obviously Jesus never ceased being part of the new creation,thus this is a strike against the idea that"heaven" pertains to the new creation in this verse , once Jesus became part of JEHOVAH'S new creation he could not exit same without disqualifying himself as Savior.

As stated before heaven refers to his previous superhuman glory. He laid it aside to legally qualify as Savior and upon being born again he reclaimed it hence his prayer at John ch.17:5

John ch.8:23NIV"But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.”"

Sin began in heaven, so the pall that was cast over JEHOVAH'S workmanship would extend into heaven ,thus it is fitting that the one that JEHOVAH would rate his first and foremost work in heaven and earth be tested so as to vindicate JEHOVAH'S Workmanship this vindication of JEHOVAH'S Godhood is the primary issue that must be settled.

Begotten not made?

John ch.1:18LSB"No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him."

John ch.1:18NWT Study Edition"No man has seen God at any time;+ the only-begotten god+ who is at the Father’s side+ is the one who has explained Him.+"

John ch.6:57LSB"As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me." 

If the first cause argument is to retain coherence the most high God MUST be unbegotten/self-sustaining. As to what is meant by JEHOVAH'S Begetting of his unique son ,Jesus helps us by using his resurrection of those who faithfully follow him up to their deaths as an analog. Thus JEHOVAH does not merely sustain his Logos he caused his origin.

Birth language as applied to JEHOVAH in scripture always refers to creation/recreation 

Psalm ch.90:1,2LSB"Lord, You have been our dwelling place from generation to generation.

2Before the mountains were bor

Or You brought forth the earth and the world

Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.",

Note the birth language used to describe JEHOVAH'S very temporal Creating of the planet.

What about the Begetting of the unique Son of the God.

Acts ch.13:33LSB"that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, ‘You are My Son; today I have begotten You.’"

Thus the very temporal resurrection of the son is called a Begetting of him, and to be clear the resurrection is a creative act by JEHOVAH.

Psalm ch.104:29,30LSB"You hide Your face, they are dismayed;

You take away their spirit, they breathe their last

And return to their dust.

You send forth Your Spirit, they are created;

And You renew the face of the ground."

If our Lord's Begetting in time via re-creation does not invalidate his sonship the neither should his Begetting in time via creation.

Colossians ch.1:15KJV"Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: "

More on the trinity's needless complication of the first cause argument.

  Is the word Trinity as used in Christendom's famous/infamous doctrine to be thought of as a collective noun or an abstract noun? 

The only way that even an apology for coherence can be ascribed to the trinity dogma is for its proponents to find a way to both eat their cake and keep it too (so to speak). 

So there can be no admission that the supposedly real distinction among the persons sharing in this Godhead(?)or the distinction between each person and the Godhead itself has any meaningful implication for the divine identity. Thus the trinity is God, each of the numerically distinct persons sharing in his/its essence is also God. Mind you each of these divine persons is as much God as the trinity itself/himself and thus entitled to the same level worship. Yet we are told to ignore logic and common sense and scripture and not regard any of this as a naked violation of the bible's prohibition against polytheism 

 Deuteronomy6:4ASV"4Hear, O Israel: JEHOVAH our God is one JEHOVAH: " 

The O.T depicts the God of Abraham as a single person named JEHOVAH who ALONE is entitled to the highest worship by reason of his being the sole ultimate source of our existence and redemption, being supreme in wisdom and power he is able humiliate any rival claimants to his status/office. Thus there is a HUGE gap between the identitarian theology of the scriptures and the anti-identitarian theology of Christendom which renders any definitive identifying of the Lord JEHOVAH impossible. One way to narrow the gap would be to proclaim the trinity än abstraction. Thus the trinity would then be put in the same realm as color,music ,math once the trinity was accepted as some kind of axiomatic abstraction it could be claimed that we should not expect it to be subject to mathematical examination any more than the color red. The problem is that 1)the trinity fails on its own terms in that the term fully God implies supremacy(as defined by the dictionary) according to scripture and that is impossible in the economy of the trinity especially if the trinity itself is to be understood as a mere description of the the relationship among the participants of the divine substance. 2)abstractions have no agency the color red has never caused anything nor has the number ten nor has any other abstraction ,thus to assign the role of cause to an abstraction is nonsensical let alone the role of the first cause, our God JEHOVAH is depicted as the concrete reality, indeed it does not get any more concrete 

Revelation1:4ASV"John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from him who is and who was and who is to come; and from the seven Spirits that are before his throne; " 

Thus no abstraction can be identified as God almighty and any description of JEHOVAH that renders his identification as the supreme(as defined by the dictionary) being impossible must be rejected.

 

A priest who honours his God.

 1Samuel ch.2:30ASV"Therefore JEHOVAH, the God of Israel, saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now JEHOVAH saith, Be it far from me; for them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed."  

The Christ being preached by Christendom seems to me to more closely resemble the Satan of the bible (see 2Corinthians11:14) than that loyal and submissive servant of JEHOVAH portrayed in Scripture. A "priest" who honors himself above his God like high priest Eli whom is rebuked by JEHOVAH in the above quote for permitting his sons to help themselves to the best part of the offering meant exclusively for the Lord JEHOVAH. The Lord JEHOVAH makes it clear in this quote that it is well beneath his dignity to receive any offering or countenance any mediation from such a "priest".

Only the true Christ(i.e the Christ of scripture) can mediate acceptably for our sins. In him JEHOVAH has provided a priest who honors his God and not himself.

1Samuel ch.2:35ESV"And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. And I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever."

 John ch.7:18ASV"He that speaketh from himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh the glory of him that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him."

John ch.8:50ASV" But I seek not mine own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth."

The apostle John and his Lord Corrected per Trinitarian logic.

John ch.4:12NIV"No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us."

Well that can't be true 

1John ch.1:1NIV"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. "

Our brother John and his fellow apostles were Eyewitnesses of the risen Christ i.e the posthuman /superhuman Christ ,who our Trinitarian and Modalists interlocutors insists is the most high God.

Thus John and the Christ who inspired his statements must be mistaken, happens to best of us.

Revelation ch.3:12NIV"The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name."

But the most high worships no one as He is on no one's debt 

Job ch.41:11NIV"Who has given me anything that I need to pay back? Everything under heaven is mine."

Only those in debt to JEHOVAH owe him worship. 

Revelation ch.4:11NIV"“You are worthy, our Lord and God,

to receive glory and honor and power,

for you created all things,

and by your will they were created

and have their being.”

Giving devotion to those not entitled to it is idolatry not worship.

So once again as per Trinitarian logic we must correct Jesus Christ and his apostle.

 

The New World Translation study bible's Commentary on Acts ch.20:28

  the blood of his own Son: Lit., “through the blood of the own (one).” Grammatically, the Greek expression could be translated “with the blood of his own” or “with his own blood,” so the context has to be taken into consideration. In Greek, the expression ho iʹdi·os (“his own”) could stand alone without a clarifying noun or pronoun, as seen by how it is rendered at Joh 1:11 (“his own home”); at Joh 13:1 (“his own”); at Ac 4:23 (“their own people”); and at Ac 24:23 (“his people”). In non-Biblical Greek papyri, the phrase is used as a term of endearment to refer to close relatives. A reader of this verse would logically understand from the context that a noun in the singular number is implied after the expression “his own” and that the noun referred to God’s only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, whose blood was shed. Based on this, quite a number of scholars and translators acknowledge that the word “son” is to be understood here and render the phrase “with the blood of his own Son.”

Acts ch.20:28 Contemporary English Version "Look after yourselves and everyone the Holy Spirit has placed in your care. Be like shepherds to God's church. It is the flock he bought with the blood of his own Son.+"

Acts ch.20:28Good News Translation"So keep watch over yourselves and over all the flock which the Holy Spirit has placed in your care. Be shepherds of the church of God,+ which he made his own through the blood of his Son.+"

Acts ch.20:28American Standard Version,"Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit hath made you bishops, to feed the church of the Lord which he purchased with his own blood."

Acts ch.20:28Darby Bible Translation"Take heed therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock, wherein the Holy Spirit has set you as overseers, to shepherd the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own. "

Acts ch.20:28New English Translation"Watch out for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God that he obtained with the blood of his own Son. "

On the posthuman Christ

 1Peter1:18NIV"For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value." 

For the analog to a commercial transaction to be precise the exchange of cost price and merchandise must be permanent. Neither the buyer nor the seller has any right to even part of what they traded away. 

Thus Christ once he had paid his human existence ,as represented by the blood that once sustained it,as the purchase price of our redeemed souls, could not legally reclaim said human existence if our atonement was to have a solid legal foundation. 

Thus we are to understand the meaning of this prayer at John as a plea for the restoration of his prehuman/superhuman glory.

John ch.17:5NIV"And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I HAD(but do not presently do) with you before the world began." 

This scripture(quoted below) at Hebrews suggest that the Lord JEHOVAH did indeed hear this plea favorably.

Hebrews ch.5:7,8NASB"In the days(Permanently gone) of [c]His humanity, [d]He offered up both prayers and pleas with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him [e]from death, and He [f]was heard because of His devout behavior." 

The expression "days of his humanity" suggest a past state of affairs.

Galatians ch.1:1NIV"Paul, an apostle (not sent from men nor through human agency, but through Jesus Christ..." 

Having seen the post human Christ first hand our brother Paul knew that Christ was no longer human. Indeed to inherit the heavenly kingdom he needed to be divested of his humanity the heavenly hope is a post human hope. 

1Corinthians15:50NIV"Now I say this, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood(the human) cannot inherit the (superhuman)kingdom of God; nor does [u]the perishable inherit [v]the imperishable."

Proverbs ch.8 Rotherham's Emphasised Bible.

 8.1Doth not wisdom cry aloud? And understanding send forth her voice?

2 At the top of the high places above the way, At the place where paths meet she taketh her stand:

3 Beside the gates at the entrance of the city,—At the going in of the openings she shouteth:—

4 Unto you O men I call, And my voice is unto the sons of men;

5 Understand, ye simple ones, shrewdness, And ye dullards understand sense;

6 Hear for princely things will I speak, And the opening of my lips shall be of equity;

7 For faithfulness shall my mouth softly utter, But the abomination of my lips shall be lawlessness;

8 In righteousness shall be all the sayings of my mouth, Nothing therein shall be crafty or perverse;

9 All of them shall be plain to them who would understand, And just to such as would gain knowledge.

10 Receive my correction and not silver, And knowledge rather than choicest gold.

11 For better is wisdom than ornaments of coral, And no delightful things can equal her.

12 I wisdom inhabit shrewdness,—And the knowledge of sagacious things I gain.

13 The reverence of Yahweh is to hate wickedness: Pride, arrogance and the way of wickedness; And a mouth ofRiches and honour are with me, Lordly wealth, and righteousness;

14 Mine are counsel and effective working, I am understanding, mine is valour:

15 By me kings reign, And dignitaries decree righteousness;

16 By me rulers govern, And nobles—all the righteous judges:

17 I love them who love me, And they who diligently seek me find me:

18 Riches and honour are with me, Lordly wealth, and righteousness;

19 Better is my fruit than gold—yea fine gold, And mine increase than choice silver;

20 In the way of righteousness I march along, In the middle of the paths of justice:

21 That I may cause them who love me to inherit substance, And their treasuries I may fill.

22 Yahweh had constituted me the beginning of his way, Before his works At the commencement of that time;

23 At the outset of the ages had I been established, In advance of the antiquities of the earth;

24 When there was no resounding deep I had been brought forth, When there were no fountains abounding with water;

25 Ere yet the mountains had been settled, Before the hills had I been brought forth;

26 Or ever he had made the land and the wastes, Or the top of the dry parts of the world:

27 When he prepared the heavens there was I! When he decreed a vault upon the face of the resounding deep;

28 When he made firm the skies above, When the fountains of the resounding deep waxed strong;

29 When he fixed for the sea its bound That the waters should not go beyond his bidding, When he decreed the foundations of the earth:—

30 Then became I beside him a firm and sure worker, Then became I filled with delight day by day, Exulting before him on every occasion;

31 Exulting in the fruitful land of his earth, Yea my fulness of delight was with the sons of men. perverse things do I hate.

32 Now therefore ye sons hearken to me, For how happy are they who to my ways pay regard!

33 Hear ye correction and be wise, And do not neglect.

34 How happy the man that doth hearken to me,—Keeping guard at my doors day by day, Watching at the posts of my gates;

35 For he that findeth me findeth life, And hath obtained favour from Yahweh;

36 But he that misseth me wrongeth his own soul, All who hate me love death.

It's not just non trinitarian Christians who find Sharp's rule rather dull

 probably the most telling blow against this 200-year-old controversial rule is the rejection of it by so many of the most respected trinitarian Bible language experts! Even Wallace himself (who desperately tries for some kind of “absolute” scriptural proof for a trinity idea) complains that

“so many grammarians and exegetes objected to the validity of Granville Sharp’s Rule with reference to texts dealing with the Deity of Christ”!  

He specifically mentions “the great Greek grammarian,” G. B. Winer (trinitarian) and “one of the greatest grammarians of this [nineteenth/twentieth] century,” J. H. Moulton (trinitarian) as rejecting this “rule”!

     I have also seen that the Roman Catholic scholar Karl Rahner rejects this rule as do C. F. D. Moule and Henry Alford. Even famed trinitarian scholar Dr. James Moffatt (“probably the greatest biblical scholar of our day”) showed his rejection of the “absoluteness” of this rule by his rendering of Titus 2:13.  

In fact, even very trinitarian Daniel B. Wallace complains that the common translation of Titus 2:13 as found in the KJV (“the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ”) treats “‘God’ and ‘Savior’ separately”! - Compare 2 Peter 1:1, 2 KJV). The same separation can be seen in the ASV (Titus 2:13), the Douay Version, and the NEB (footnote). In vol. 5, p. 257 the respected The Expositor's Greek Testament says: "In the present case [Jude 1:4], however, the second noun (kupiov) belongs to the class of words which may stand without the article .... A similar doubtful case is found in Tit. ii. 13.... Other examples of the same kind are Eph. v. 5 ... 2 Thess. i: 12 ... 1 Tim. v. 21 (cf. 2 Tim. iv. 1) ... 2 Peter i. 1." [Except for kupiov, emphasis has been added by me.]

 

It is no secret to NT Grammarians that when you have more than one noun connected by "and" (kai in NT Greek) and the first noun has the article, the following nouns may or may not have the article but they can still be understood to have the article.  

 

Moulton's Grammar of New Testament Greek says:

 

"(f) Repetition of Article with several nouns connected by kai

 

"The art. may be carried over from the first noun to the other(s)" - p. 181, Vol. 3, 1963.

 

We might compare Matt. 22:32 (all nouns with article) with Mark 12:26 (first article understood with following nouns).

 

So compare the KJV rendering of Titus 2:13 (which “treats ‘God’ and ‘Savior’ separately”) with that of 2 Peter 1:1, KJV.  

 

(KJV) 2 Peter 1:1 "Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" 

Also compare:

 

(ASV) 2 Peter 1:1 "Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained a like precious faith with us in the righteousness of our God and the Saviour Jesus Christ."

 

(Weymouth NT) 2 Peter 1:1 "Simon Peter, a bondservant and Apostle of Jesus Christ: To those to whom there has been allotted the same precious faith as that which is ours through the righteousness of our God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ."  

 

     Even clearer are the renderings by the trinitarian scholars who translated The New American Bible, 1970 ed. (2 Thess. 1:12; Titus 2:13); NAB, 1991 ed. (Titus 2:13); New American Standard Bible (1 Tim. 5:21); Revised Standard Version (1 Tim. 5:21); NRSV (1 Tim. 5:21); The Jerusalem Bible (1 Tim. 5:21); NJB (1 Tim. 5:21); Today’s English Version (1 Tim. 5:21); New English Bible (1 Tim. 5:21); The Living Bible (2 Thess. 1:12); Phillips (Titus 2:13); Modern Language Bible (2 Thess. 1:12; 1 Tim. 5:21); Douay Version (2 Thess. 1:12); King James II Version (2 Thess. 1:12); Good News Bible (2 Thess. 1:12; 1 Tim. 5:21); The Amplified Bible (1 Tim. 5:21); Barclay’s Daily Study Bible, 1975 (2 Thess. 1:12); Riverside NT (Titus 2:13; 2 Thess. 1:12; 1 Tim. 5:21 ); New Life Version (2 Thess. 1:12; 1 Tim. 5:21); Easy-to-Read Version(1 Tim. 5:21).

We can find numerous translations of Titus 2:13 (probably the most-used scripture for this “proof”) which render it as referring to two persons.

Titus 2:13 

 

Bible translations old and new:

 

 

13 lokynge for that blessed hope and appearynge of the glory of ye greate God and of oure Sauioure Iesu Christ - Coverdale

 

13 lokynge for þe blessed hope & appearinge of the glory of the greate God, & of oure sauioure Iesu Christ, - The Great Bible 

 

13 Looking for that blessed hope, and appearing of that glorie of that mightie God, and of our Sauiour Iesus Christ, - Geneva

 

13 abidinge the blessid hope and the comyng of the glorie of the greet God, and of oure sauyour Jhesu Crist; - Wycliffe

 

13 lokinge for that blessed hope and glorious apperenge of ye myghty god and of oure savioure Iesu Christ - Tyndale

 

13 in expectation of that desirable happiness, the glorious appearance of the supreme God, and of our saviour Jesus Christ, - Mace

 

13 awaiting the blessed hope of the appearance of the Glory of the great God and of our Saviour Christ Jesus, - Moffatt

 

13 expecting the blessed hope; namely, the appearing of the glory of the great God, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ; - The Living Oracles

 

13 looking for the blessed hope, and appearing of the glory of the great God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ; - Noyes 

13 waiting for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of the great God and of our Savior Christ Jesus, - Riverside

 

13 looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, - Sawyer

 

(KJV) Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

(New American Bible - 1970) as we await our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of the great God and of our Savior Christ Jesus

 

(New American Bible - 1991) as we await the blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of the great God and of our savior Jesus Christ

 

(New American Bible - 2010) as we await the blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of the great God and of our savior Jesus Christ

 

(A New Translation in Plain English - Charles K. Williams) while we wait for the blessed thing we hope for, the appearing of the glory of the great God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ

 

And while we live this life we hope and wait for the glorious denouement of the Great God and of Jesus Christ our saviour. - Phillips

 

We are to be looking for the great hope and the coming of our great God and the One Who saves, Christ Jesus. - NLV 

13 Looking for that blessed hope, and appearing of that glory of that mighty God, and of our Savior Jesus Christ. - GNV

 

"looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the mighty God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ," - NMB  

 

According to An Idiom-Book of New Testament Greek, by C. F. D. Moule, Cambridge, England, 1971, p. 109, at Titus 2:13, the sense "of the Great God, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ ... is possible in [New Testament] Greek even without the repetition [of the definite article before the second noun]."

 

Noted British NT scholar and trinitarian clergyman Henry Alford wrote: "I would submit that [a translation which clearly differentiates God from Christ at Titus 2:13] satisfies all the grammatical requirements of the sentence: that it is both structurally and contextually more probable, and more agreeable to the Apostle’s [Paul’s] way of writing: and I have therefore preferred it." - The Greek Testament, p. 421, Vol. 3.

Elijah Daniels 

 

Yet more on why the trinity dogma is poor philosophy.

 Revelation4:11NWT2013Edition:"You are worthy, JEHOVAH our God,to receive the glory and the honor and the power,because you created all things ,and because of your will they came into existence and were created."  

Jehovah God alone is worthy of absolute worship because he alone is both necessary and sufficient as a cause and preserver of the cosmos. Obviously there cannot be anyone else who is both necessary and sufficient. To take the emotion out of the equation let us consider another trinity. Food,water and air. Let's call these three the trinity of life. Given a moderate climate an abundant supply of these three elements would be sufficient for a prolonged life. Of course no single element of these three would be sufficient to sustain a prolonged life though it would be absolutely necessary. But lets say we discovered that we could survive on just water. Then water alone would be both necessary and sufficient. The other two elements would become merely optional. What if we found that any of the three elements (i.e food/water/air) could sustain our lives by itself. Then all three would be come optional none of them would in/or of themselves be necessary. Thus we see that the three can either be all necessary or all optional but not both. The problem with Christendom's trinity is that each of the three elements are being presented as being both necessary and sufficient in and of themselves. Which of course is as we have demonstrated an absurdity. Another issue is that JEHOVAH is supreme. According to the dictionary this implies that he is peerless. A thing that cannot be stated of any of the constituents of Christendom's Trinity.

Ps. Webster's definition of supreme:

Definition of supreme

1: highest in rank or authority

The supreme commander

On the bible's identitarian theology.

 Deuteronomy4:24ASV"For JEHOVAH thy God is a devouring fire, a jealous(Demanding exclusive Devotion) God." 

The entire focus of the bible is the clear and incontrovertible identification of this single person entitled to our exclusive Devotion . Hence the importance of His personal name .

Exodus3:15ASV"And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, JEHOVAH, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name forever, and this is my memorial(How I am to be remembered) unto all generations. " 

Malachi1:11ASV"For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name'shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense'shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name'shall be great among the Gentiles, saith JEHOVAH of hosts" 

Psalm ch.8:1ASV"O JEHOVAH, our Lord, How excellent is thy name in all the earth, Who hast set thy glory upon the heavens!"

Those who belittle the sacred name are doing Satan's bidding. The Lord JEHOVAH placed his name 7000+ (i.e more than the next five most common names mentioned in the bible combined) times in the holy text for the sake of his agenda(i.e the publishing and exalting of said name) ,any attempt to hinder that agenda is doomed to frustration . The category to which the person bearing this name of names belongs is an exclusive one,

 so exclusive in fact that the God and Father of Jesus is its only member. Hence he is described in ways that exclude every other person or thing from his ontological vicinity . It's not merely that he has no peers ,he has no approximates. 

Psalm83;18ASV"That they may know that thou(Second person singular) alone, whose name is JEHOVAH, Art the Most High over all the earth." 

This single person named JEHOVAH is superlative (as defined by the dictionary)re:every attribute that would make one worthy of being considered a deity. This excludes the possibility of there being any other coequal person with whom he shares a mystical union which union is required to exhaust the category of supreme deity. No, God the Father i.e JEHOVAH exhausts the category of supreme divinity singlehandedly according to scripture. 

1Kings8:27ASV"But will God in very deed dwell on the earth?(It's a rhetorical question not a puzzle) behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot (note,the hard negative)contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded!' 

There is an impassable gulf between the uncreated and the created. Just as JEHOVAH cannot cause the created to possess the nature of the uncreated. He likewise cannot cause the uncreated to possess the nature of the created. 

Hosea11:9ASV"9I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee; and I will not come in wrath." 

Numbers ch.23:19ASV"God is not a man, that he should lie, Neither the son of man, that he should repent: Hath he said, and will he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and will he not make it good?" 

To maintain that JEHOVAH'S exclusion from his creation is not an immutable(as defined by the dictionary) fact is to reduce the above quotations to meaningless word salads. Those words were not propounded merely for the comfort of JEHOVAH'S servants at that time and place but for his people ever after, in every time and place. The limits of the created can NEVER apply to the uncreated. 

JEHOVAH alone is absolutely necessary for the origin and sustenance of the creation including his heavenly and earthly children. JEHOVAH alone is the ultimate source of ALL the information and energy manifest in creation.

Isaiah45:18ASV"For thus saith JEHOVAH that created the heavens, the God that formed the earth and made it, that established it and created it not a waste, that formed it to be inhabited: I am JEHOVAH; And there is NONE else." 

Thus even though JEHOVAH routinely uses prior creations as raw materials or instrumentalities in producing later creations he can still legitimately take full credit for their existence.

e.g Genesis6:7ASV,"And JEHOVAH said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the ground; both man, and beast, and creeping things, and birds of the heavens; for it repenteth me that I have made them.'" 

Of course JEHOVAH did not miraculously produce any of the people and animals living at that time, they came to be as result of natural processes set in motion by the creator ,yet as the ultimate source of ALL the information and energy that made said processes possible the Lord JEHOVAH could take full credit for their existence. This would certainly not be case if he did not unilaterally exhaust the category of supreme (as defined by the dictionary) divinity. Thus redundancy is not a Characteristic of the Lord JEHOVAH. Thus to sumarise the biblical JEHOVAH is superlative(as defined by the dictionary)

The biblical JEHOVAH is absolutely immutable(as defined by the dictionary) 

The biblical JEHOVAH is absolutely essential (as defined by the dictionary)to the origin and sustenance of the both the physical and superphysical creation.

On the fallacious reasonings of reductive spiritualists.

 Our souls must be concretely distinct from our bodies because we are capable of abstract thinking on morals and math and the like? Really? Or our souls are concretely distinct from our bodies because though the material making up our bodies constantly changes our inner identity does not?

Are we capable of abstract thinking from the womb? Why not? Why would our concretely distinct souls be limited in any way by the size or state of development of our brains? In as much as those making these arguments claim that we don't need a brain at all to do abstract thinking and moral reasoning. But some of us beg to differ.

Is there a dog heaven? Because the notion of a continuous self despite a changing body can also be employed to argue for a concretely distinct dog self that would exist after the death of the the dog body. But most of those making these kinds of "arguments" would likely balk at such a thought.

Here is the thing about the so called near death experiences that many are left to depend on for virtually the entirety of their reasoning for the reductive spiritualism paradigm. These are not post death experiences. If I want to know what the experience of living in Venezuela is like I'm not going to rely on a source who has live his whole life in Guyana because the two countries share a border. A near Venezuela experience is not the same as a actual Venezuela experience. Ninety five plus percent of those who experience near death trauma recall no such NDEs. Why not? Are some souls more reductive than most?

Most of those so called NDEs yield unverifiable/unreliable information. That's right reductive spiritualists are left relying on an anomalous finding within an anomaly for virtually the entirety of their argument. The sacred text provides an alternative explanation for this anomalous anomaly. We note that necromancy was forbidden on pain of death by our loving heavenly Father the Lord JEHOVAH. Why? There are malignant superhuman intelligences who have a stake in turning men away from the one true hope for the dead i.e the resurrection.

Job14:14,15NIV"If someone dies, will they live again?

All the days of my hard service

I will wait for my renewal b to come.

1 5You will call and I will answer you;

you will long for the creature your hands have made.

Would a re-imprisonment of ones freed spirit soul in a body of flesh that hampers rather than enhances its powers be something to look forward to? 

Job was rather hoping in JEHOVAH to live AGAIN. A very different hope to some mysterious afterlife. 

But of course to actually be resurrected one must first actually die.

1Corinthians15:35,36NIV"But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. "

So either there is an afterlife or there is a resurrection,one can't have it both ways.

The unchristian Cross

        Extracts from:

HISTORY OF THE CROSS:
THE PAGAN ORIGIN
AND
IDOLATROUS ADOPTION AND WORSHIP,

OF THE IMAGE.

BY
HENRY DANA WARD, M.A.,
U.S.A.
1871.

CHAPTER I.

THE CROSS OF CHRIST 

STAUROS and ZULON, are the only words in the Greek Testament descriptive of the wooden cross of Christ. Neither of them admit of the radical idea of a cross in English, or in any other modern language. In all the languages of Christendom, a cross consists of one line drawn through another. Two sticks, one crossing the other, are essential to constitute, and to present the universal idea of, a material, visible cross.
No such idea is conveyed by the Scripture words stauros and zulon. Stauros means "an upright pale," a strong stake, such as farmers drive into the ground to make their fences or palisades- no more, no less. To the stauros the Roman soldiers nailed the hands and the feet of the King of glory, and lifted Him up to the mockery of the chief priests and elders of the people. Over Him, on the stauros, Pilate put His title: "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." And no mortal is at liberty to affirm any other form of stauros on which our Saviour was lifted up than is implied in the meaning of that word, which alone the four Evangelists in the four Gospels use to describe the wood on which Jesus was lifted up.
ZULON, which I write for the easier pronounciation zulon, means "wood cut ready for use, a stick, cudgel, or beam; any timber; a live tree." This is, as I have said, the only word besides stauros employed in the New Testament to signify the cross of Christ. The Evangelists use this word to signify the clubs or staves with which the company were armed when they arrested Jesus by night in Gethsemane. In the Acts, and rarely in the Epistles, it signifies the wood or timber on which Jesus was impaled alive.
Zulon, then, no more than stauros, conveys the English sense of a cross. Zulon and stauros are alike the single stick, the pale, or the stake, neither more nor less, on which Jesus was impaled, or crucified. Stauros, however, is the exclusive name given by all the Evangelists to the wood of Christ's cross. The stauros Jesus bore, on it He was hanged, from it He was taken down dead. The Evangelists use this word also in the figurative sense: "Come, take up thy stauros, and follow me" (Matt. xvi. 24, Mark viii. 34, Luke ix. 23). "He that taketh not his stauros and followeth after me, is not worthy of me" (Matt. x. 38). Neither stauros nor zulon ever means sticks joining each other at an angle, either in the New Testament or in any other book.

THE BRAZEN SERPENT.

When Israel in the wilderness murmured against God, the Lord sent fiery serpents among them, and much people of Israel died. The penitent people besought Moses to pray the Lord to take away the serpents. Moses's prayer was answered, not by removing the serpents, but by providing a remedy against their bite. By command of the Lord, "Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole. And it came to pass that if the serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass he lived"(Numb.xx. 9). The healing power was not in the "pole," neither was it in the brazen serpent, but in the word of the living God. The healing virtue resided not in these lifeless forms singly or jointly, but in the faith of the word which turned the eyes of the wounded to look that they might live. After the lapse of eight centuries, Judah came to believe there was miraculous power in that image, and they worshipped it. They did not make an image; they worshipped with incense, the same which Moses, by divine command, had made, and had elevated in the healing sight of the congregation. They worshipped it, not as the work of their hands, but as an instrument of salvation, set up by their great lawgiver. Notwithstanding, that good King Hezekiah, such as " after him was none like him , nor any that were before him," when he removed the high places and brake the images, and cut down the groves, brake in pieces also "the brazen serpent that Moses had made ; and he called it Nehushtan," i.e., brass(2 Kings xviii. 4). So, were the veritable wood of Christ's cross now before our eyes, it should sooner be cut -in pieces, and burned for wood, than be adored with incense, and reverence, and love. Is it any holier and better to reverence and love an image of that wood, to kiss it, to wreathe it with laurel, to bow down and worship before the image, which, whether of wood or stone, is man's device, wrought into shape by the hands of man ? 
Not an instance of exalting or honouring the visible form of the cross occurs in the New Testament. On the contrary, it is the emblem of our humiliation and sorrow, which being endured in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, through Jesus and the resurrection, "when our captivity will be turned again, as the streams in the south, our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing;" for we shall not only see Him as He is, but be like Him, having our vile body changed into the likeness of His glorious body, and our joint inheritance of all things  with Christ Jesus in eternal life.

THE PUNISHMENT OF THE CROSS.

This was Inflicted on hardened criminals, and on resolute enemies, and on vile murderers and slaves, among all the renowned nations of antiquity. The manner and circumstances of the execution do not concern us now, so much as the instrument, respecting which Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible " gives large information. "In Livy," says Smith, evencrux means a mere stake. More generally, the cross is called arbor infelix -Livy, Seneca ; or lignum infelix-Cicero. The very name of the cross was abhorrent not only to the flesh, but even to the eyes, ears, and thoughts of Roman citizens-Cicero proRab.5." Yet the learned Dr Smith himself follows the learned of every name in Christendom, whether scoffer or believer, in confounding the cross monogram in various forms and fashions, calling and considering them as one and the same thing. .......Crosses must have been commonly of the simplest form, "because they were used in such marvellous numbers. Of Jews alone, Alexander Jannaeus crucified 800, Varus, 2000, Hadrian, 500 a day; and the gentle Titus so many that there was no room for the crosses, nor crosses for the bodies."-Smith's Dict. of the Bible. Alexander the Great crucified 2000 Tyrians, and both the Sogdian king and people, for their brave defence of their several countries. And Augustus crucified 600 Sicilians. Under such circumstances, men could not be particular about the form of the stauros, or the manner of applying it. Some were nailed, others were  tied hand and foot and lifted up on the stauros; others on the tree. Others, also , were spiked to the earth with the stauros driven through their body, and others were spitted on it. Thus the crucifying or impaling was executed in the cruelest manner, and the sufferers were left to rot unburied, or to be devoured by the birds and beasts. In deference to the Mosaic law, the bodies were in Judea removed and buried, and the crosses were burned, to avoid legal defilement by the accursed thing, as it is written: "His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but in any wise thou shalt bury him that day (for he that is hanged is accursed of God); that the land be not defiled " (Dent. xxi. 23).

......page 20.

With these facts before us, showing the many and divers forms which the most learned and accurate are wont to call by one common name, " the cross," which name contradicts the form of the wood on which Christ suffered according to the Scriptures; and further, showing the corrupt use of this symbol in orgies of the ancient heathen, we are better prepared to take up the thread of the story from its beginning in the counterfeit Barnabas, and to follow it down through the labyrinth of error, until the initial of Tammuz has come to supplant the monogram of Christ on the standard of Rome, and to be exalted as the banner of Christendom. These are no dreams, but realities set forth not in opposition to the Church of our crucified Lord but in fidelity to the glorified Lord of the Church. For though Aaron and all Israel made of their ornaments the golden calf, and danced, feasted, and shouted before it, "Behold , these be thy gods, 0 Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt;" and though the chief Pontiff and all Christendom make an ornament of the image of the cross, and lift it in reverence and worship, on their person, on the church spire, and on the communion-table in the house of God and say, " Behold the cross of thy Lord and Saviour! behold, these be thy Saviour, O Israel, which redeemed thee from the bondage of corruption! " the images alike are idols-the image of the calf and the image of the cross, both are a pretence and an abomination, supplanting, with a dumb show, the presence of the living God, and closing the heart against Jesus Christ crucified Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God" (I Cor. i. 24).

A GRAND MISTAKE.

Many Romans and some others think that by exalting an image of the cross, they honour the Lord Jesus Christ, in the spirit of the Apostle, who exclaims : " God forbid that I should glory, save in the stauros of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Gal. vi. 14). They little consider that the stauros is death to this world with shame and reproach on the sufferer. They little consider whether it is indeed honouring an upright man, our Friend, to set up in His name an image invented to commemorate Him through the ignominious weapon with which His relentless enemies put Him to death. Such honour more befits His enemies than His friends. Yet the very murderers themselves would be understood to glory in their deed, should they make such image their personal badge,-the recognised banner of their polity and the test of their brotherhood, and a charm of their person. It is time to shout aloud with Imbert: "Worship Christ, not the wood!" And, though rejected of men, we may hope with Him to be accepted of the Lord.

CHAPTER III

A SUMMARY.

The Scripture sense of the word stauros, for the cross of Christ, is in the concrete a pale, a strong stake, a wooden post; and in the abstract, it is a voluntary and patient suffering of shame, reproach, and torment unto death, in whatever form it may please God to lay it on us, whether by the rack, the wild beasts, the fire, or the hatred and persecution of godless men, for the sake of truth and righteousness, and in the hope of everlasting life. The Scriptures never speak of the stauros as an image or a sign, but always as a reality, cognisable to the senses, in every case known, by the sorrows and anguish of the sufferer. "Pilate wrote a title and put it on the stauros," i.e., the wood. "Jesus said, He that taketh not his stauros, and followeth me, is not worthy of me ;" i.e., the stauros of personal shame and suffering for the truth and righteousness of God. "The preaching of the stauros is to them that perish, foolishness;" i.e., they see no sense in suffering wrong and injury patiently-"Lest they should suffer persecution for the stauros of Christ ;" ie., contumely and reproach for believing in the suffering and crucified Saviour. "Far be it that I should glory save in the stauros of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world; " i.e., not the stauros of wood, but the self-sacrifice and offering of the body of our Lord Jesus Christ on the wood. In every sense, the Scripture stauros, first, is a pale or wooden and, secondly, the shame, the reproach, and the patient suffering of innocence before the world for righteousness' sake. Joseph bore this form of the stauros while imprisoned by the captain of Pharaoh's guard, till the Lord delivered him; and so Ignatius, being condemned in Antioch to be torn and devoured by the wild beasts for the faith of Christ, bore his stauros from } Antioch to Rome, where, in the amphitheatre, he suffered it, despising the agony and the shame. In every Scripture sense, the stauros of Christ is a living reality, and never that lying vanity, a senseless image and sign of the wood.
Inquiring about this image, three things surprise us: 
I. The fact that a great variety of wholly unlike forms are, by the common and universal consent of the learned, called by the same name, "the cross," and are understood to mean the cross or stauros of our Lord Jesus Christ.
II.That the figure of the cross, used among the primitive Christians, was X(hi), the Greek initial of Christ, for a sign of Christ, as authors to this day make in their manuscripts X for Christ, and Xmas for Christmas, and Xian for Christian.
III. The third thing that exceedingly surprises us is, to find that this sign and image commonly called the cross, was a profane symbol in heathen mysteries, exalted and honoured from Babylon to Jerusalem ' from the Nile to the Ganges, and from Syria to Britain many centuries before our era. These are facts fully established, but not generally known.
Following up our inquiry, we learn how, when, and by whom this pagan symbol found entrance among Christians, and we shall soon learn how it came at length to supplant the sign of Christ in the churches and on the banners of Christendom. For no writer of the age and the school of the apostles ever mentions, or alludes to any sign, image, or form of the stauros, other than its name implies, one pale or stake; except a certain man under the assumed name of " Barnabas, the companion in labour of Paul, the apostle." The counterfeit Nicodemus follows in the same path, setting forth the power of the sign of the wood in Hades. Minutius Felix and Tertullian, in the beginning of the third century, follow, coyly teaching that it is no worse for Christians to worship the wooden cross, than for the pagans to worship their wooden gods and trophies and eagles Cyprian,A.D.-950-8, acknowledges the sign in the form of the initial of Christ-not the pagan image, but "Christi signum, signum Dei-the symbol of Christ and of God." And, finally, we learn that Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, A.D. 350, comes boldly forth for the sign of the wood, and for the wood of the stauros,} without saying ever a word about the form of the image of the stauros, or about worshipping it. He neither made nor vended images; but he pretended to have the original wood, with portions of which he parted, as a special favour to them that were worthy; and the wood grew in his keeping, so as, in his own words, " to fill the whole world," which many believed, if he did not.
It is time to awake to the fact that the Tammuz or old heathen cross, led the whole column of images, such as of the virgin, of the apostles, of the saints and martyrs, and of our blessed Lord himself, with their several altars, into the Catholic Church, by degrees, from the latter half of the fourth to the latter half of the eighth century; when image-worship was firmly and for ever established in the Roman Catholic Church by the seventh Ecumenical Council, which was the second Council of Nice, held A.D. 787. It is time to awake, for the same strong tide of formalism, which then overflowed Christendom, is now coming under the form and fashion of the same image of the Tammuz cross, to overwhelm the Protestant world. The self-styled Infallible in the flesh, whose mark is the cross, is no less confident of possessing the kingdom o the whole earth now, than the Jews were in the expectancy of that kingdom, when they crucified the Lord of glory.
The Greek initial of Christ is a sign bringing to the memory of Christians, in the midst of the torments of heathen persecution, both the name and the sufferings of Christ, with His victory over death, and His soon coming again to judge the quick and the dead, and to give His faithful followers inheritance in His everlasting kingdom. Hence they learned to recognise their fraternal fellowship in Christ by the sign of His monogram. Gibbon says, "In all occasions of danger and distress, it was the practice of primitive Christians to fortify their minds and bodies by the sign of the cross, which they used in all their ecclesiastical rites, in all the daily occurrences of life, as an infallible preservative against every species of spiritual and temporal evil."-Gibbon, chap.xx
That the persecuted and suffering believers should " fortify their minds and bodies by the sign of the stauros "of wood is inconceivable; but it is natural that, in their circumstances, they should fortify their faith by the sign of the initial of our Lord's name, X for Christ. That this custom came at last to be superstitious is evident. After the boasted vision of Constantine, and the invention and the multiplication of the wood, in the name of the cross, had supplied the whole world, many superstitious practices of the heathen were adopted, perverting the faith, and changing the significant sign of Christ's name into the present sign of the murderous tree.

.......page 74

IS THIS GLORYING IN THE IMAGE OF THE WOOD PLEASING TO GOD?

Could our blessed Lord himself be pleased with the evil tree? Could He make an idol of the wood on which He was nailed, then lifted up, and left to drink the vinegar and the gall in death? Can it be pleasing in His sight for His citizens to make an ornament of the image of that wood on which He was lifted up, amid the scoffs and jeers of the chief priests and rulers of His chosen people ? Can it be pleasing to the blessed Jesus to behold His disciples glorying in the image of that instrument of capital punishment on which He patiently and innocently suffered, despising the shame? It was a shame, else how did the innocent Sufferer despise the shame ? It was an infamous shame. Why should a rational man make an image of the instrument of it? Reverence and love the image! Lift it up and make an ornament of it! Bow down before it, and kiss the thing with his lips! It is monstrous. Were the crown of thorns taken from the Saviour's wounded head, or the rod with which they smote the Judge of Israel on the cheek, or the nails which fastened His bands and His feet to the tree, really brought to our view, they would, with the spear which pierced His side, be objects of abhorrence to every loving heart. We hear of " Israel's judicial blindness." What else is this which leads Christendom to boast of the instrument on which "Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many ?" (Heb.3 ix. 28). That it is most unnatural will plainly appear when we bring the case home to our own heart. Suppose we take up reverently in honour, and glory in, and even kiss a weapon which, in cruel hands had, without the slightest provocation, slain our best friend and benefactor-our elder brother-and brought him to an untimely, shameful, and agonising death ! No mortal in his senses is capable of such perverseness, while yet many, under the delusion of the cross, are daily guilty of it. Neither can it be conceived that such honour to the evil instrument would be agreeable to our departed brother, could his immortal spirit look on it. Would he not rather, in a burst of indignation, exclaim, ill the language of Christ, " Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say, " If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets " (Matt. xxiii. 29).

THE BEARER OF THIS CROSS DOES NOT PRAY IT MAY
PASS FROM HIM.

No language is too strong to express the indignation of our loving Brother at conduct so shameful, so unnatural. Nor does it improve the matter to pay this homage to an image of the murderous weapon, to lift it up, to gild, and wear it for a charm of the person, for an ornament of the house, and of the house of God. It does not lessen the offence to make this idol minister to the pomp of public worship, to the pride of life, the vanity of fashion, or sale of an article stamped with the image. No; this pagan image is a false cross, from which the holy apostles would shrink in horror, however the multitude of their successors honour it. This is a make-believe cross of pearl, gold, and precious stones, which the wearer cannot pray that it may be taken away from him, and which the multitude naturally covet, should it please God to give it them! How impious and blind to call this image the cross of Him who said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee. Take away this cup from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what thou wilt " (Mark xiv. 36). All the images of the heathen are an abomination in His sight. How much more those of Christendom, and, most of all, "the glory cross," borne in solemn procession, adorned and set up in the house of the living God, to honour the most cruel death of His be loved Son at the hand of envious murderers! How much better such manners are in this age than those of the thirteenth century, when the visible head of the churches ordained festivals sacred to the memory of the various instruments of torture which afflicted our Lord unto death, the reader will judge."

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Of interest are these comments from Jesus: God, Man, or Myth (The Truth Seeker, 1950), which states:

"A stauros was a mere stake, and horrible to contemplate, it was used in the cruelest fashion to execute criminals and other persons..... It was sometimes pointed and thrust through the victim's body to pin him to earth; or he was placed on top of the stake with it's point upwards so that it gradually pierced his body; or he was tied upon it and left exposed till death intervened; and there were other methods too. There is not a scrape of evidence that a stauros was ever in the form of a cross or even of a "T" shape............

"If Jesus had been executed, mythically or historically, it would not have been with outstretched arms on a cruciform structure.Cutner reports that scholars have been aware of the error but have been unable to resist the TRADITIONAL MISTRANSLATION. In the 18th century some Anglican bishops recommended eliminating the cross symbol altogether, but they were ignored.There is no cross in early Christian art before the middle of the 5th century, where it (probably) appears on a coin in a painting. The first clear crucifix appears in the late 7th century. Before then Jesus was almost always depicted as a fish or a shepherd, never on a cross. Constantine's supposed 4th century vision of a cross in the sky was not of the instrument of execution: it was the Greek letter "X" (chi) with a "P" (rho) through it, the well-known monogram of Christ, from the first two letters of XPISTOS. Any Bible that contains the word "cross" or "crucify" is dishonest. Christians who flaunt the cross are unwittingly advertising a pagan religion."