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Three was considered among all the pagan nations as the chief of the mystical numbers, because, as Aristotle remarks, it contains within itself a beginning, a middle, and an end. Hence we find it designating some of the attributes of almost all the pagan gods. The thunder-bolt of Jove was three-forked; the sceptre of Neptune was a trident; Cerberus, the dog of Pluto, was three-headed. In Freemasonry the number three is the most important and universal in its application of all the mystic numbers. (Lexicon of Freemasonry.)
["If the number three is sacred among Masons, the number nine, or three times three, is scarcely less so. The Pythagoreans, remarking that this number has the power of always reproducing itself by multiplication, considered it an emblem of matter, which, though continually changing its form, is never annihilated. Thus:—
It was also consecrated to the spheres, because the circumference of a sphere is 360 degrees, and 3 and 6 and o are equal to 9. In Freemasonry 9 derives its value from its being the product of 3 multiplied into itself; consequently in Masonic language the number 9 is always denoted by the expression 3 times 3. For a similar reason 27, which is 3 times 9, and 81, which is 9 times 9, are esteemed as sacred numbers." (Lexicon of Freemasonry.)]
No writer ever avowed or taught a belief in any tenet of religious faith more fully or plainly than Plato sets forth the doctrine of the Trinity in his Phaedon, written four hundred years B.C. His first term for the Trinity was in Greek: 1, Agathon, the Supreme God or Father; 2, the Logos, which is the Greek term for the Word; and 3, Psyche, which the Greek Lexicon defines to mean "soul, spirit, or ghost." In this exposition of the Trinity adopted by the Greeks, and published four hundred years B.C., we have the identical doctrine of the Christian Church. In the Platonic or Grecian Trinity, the first person was considered the planner of the work of creation, the second person the Creator, and the third person the Spirit, which moved upon the face of the waters in the first chapter of Genesis, and infused life into the mighty deep at creation; who presided at the baptism of Christ as it had done at his conception or generation, and as it does at the incarnation and re-incarnation of all men.
Mr. Basnage quotes a Christian writer of the fifth century as declaring the Athenian sage Plato marvellously anticipated one of the most important and mysterious doctrines of the Christian religion; but had that Christian writer known anything about the ancient religions of the world he lived in, he would not have marvelled that Plato should have taught a doctrine that was as old as revealed religion itself, and which Plato had probably derived, either directly or indirectly, from Hindoo writers. The oldest form of the Trinity that we know of is found in the Brahminical system, the terms of which are: 1, Brahma, the Father or Supreme God; 2, Vishnu, the Incarnate Word or Creator; 3, Siva, the Spirit of God or Holy Breath, which, in the Buddhist traditions, moved on the face of the waters at creation, and imparted life and vitality into everything created. In Psalm xxxiii. 6, we read, "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them, by the breath of his mouth." In Genesis ii. 7, "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives, and man became a living soul."
No writer ever avowed or taught a belief in any tenet of religious faith more fully or plainly than Plato sets forth the doctrine of the Trinity in his Phaedon, written four hundred years B.C. His first term for the Trinity was in Greek: 1, Agathon, the Supreme God or Father; 2, the Logos, which is the Greek term for the Word; and 3, Psyche, which the Greek Lexicon defines to mean "soul, spirit, or ghost." In this exposition of the Trinity adopted by the Greeks, and published four hundred years B.C., we have the identical doctrine of the Christian Church. In the Platonic or Grecian Trinity, the first person was considered the planner of the work of creation, the second person the Creator, and the third person the Spirit, which moved upon the face of the waters in the first chapter of Genesis, and infused life into the mighty deep at creation; who presided at the baptism of Christ as it had done at his conception or generation, and as it does at the incarnation and re-incarnation of all men.
Mr. Basnage quotes a Christian writer of the fifth century as declaring the Athenian sage Plato marvellously anticipated one of the most important and mysterious doctrines of the Christian religion; but had that Christian writer known anything about the ancient religions of the world he lived in, he would not have marvelled that Plato should have taught a doctrine that was as old as revealed religion itself, and which Plato had probably derived, either directly or indirectly, from Hindoo writers. The oldest form of the Trinity that we know of is found in the Brahminical system, the terms of which are: 1, Brahma, the Father or Supreme God; 2, Vishnu, the Incarnate Word or Creator; 3, Siva, the Spirit of God or Holy Breath, which, in the Buddhist traditions, moved on the face of the waters at creation, and imparted life and vitality into everything created. In Psalm xxxiii. 6, we read, "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them, by the breath of his mouth." In Genesis ii. 7, "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives, and man became a living soul."
Plus:
"Many of the early Christians, in turn, found peculiar attractions in the doctrines of Plato, and employed them as weapons for the defense and extension of Christianity, or cast the truths of Christianity in a Platonic mold. The doctrines of the Logos [Greek for "the Word"] and the Trinity received their shape from Greek Fathers, who, if not trained in the schools, were much influenced, directly or indirectly, by the Platonic philosophy, particularly in its Jewish-Alexandrian form."
Hastings' Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics explains:
"Christianity took over from Greek philosophy, and to some extent developed independently, the profound and fruitful idea of the distinction between time and eternity, and between becoming and being. First clearly stated by Parmenides, c. 500 B.C. . . . , it is worked out in considerable detail by Plato, c. 390 B.C., especially in his Phædrus and Symposium."
"Christian theology," notes the Encyclopædia Britannica, "took the Neoplatonic metaphysics of substance as well as its doctrine of [essences, or natures] as the departure point for interpreting the relationship of the 'Father' to the 'Son.'"
What, though, did Jesus mean when he said, "I and the Father are one"? J. H. Bernard, D.D., states in A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to St. John:
"A unity of fellowship, of will, and of purpose between the Father and the Son is a frequent theme in the Fourth Gospel . . . , and it is tersely and powerfully expressed here; but to press the words so as to make them indicate identity of ousia [Greek for "substance," "essence"], is to introduce thoughts which were not present to the theologians of the first century."—Compare John 5:18, 19; 14:9, 23; 17:11, 22.
Interestingly, the French encyclopedia Alpha states: "Most religious traditions or philosophical systems set forth ternary [threefold] groups or triads that correspond to primeval forces or to aspects of the supreme God." Another French work points to the Greek philosopher Plato (of about 427 to 347 B.C.E.) and declares:
"The Platonic trinity, itself merely a rearrangement of older trinities dating back to earlier peoples, appears to be the rational philosophic trinity of attributes that gave birth to the three hypostases or divine persons taught by the Christian churches. . . . This Greek philosopher's conception of the divine trinity . . . can be found in all the ancient [pagan] religions."—Dictionnaire Lachatre.
Naturally, Christendom's priests and clergymen, for the most part, deny this pagan philosophical origin of the Trinity dogma. The authoritative French Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique devotes 16 columns of small type to its arguments against the relationship between Plato's trinity and Christendom's triune God. Yet, this work has to admit that Catholic "Saint" Augustine himself—said to have been "of decisive importance for the Western [Roman] development of the Trinitarian doctrine"—recognized this relationship. Moreover, the Encyclopædia Britannica (1976, Macropædia) states:
"Such a Hellenization did, to a large extent, take place. The definition of the Christian faith as contained in the creeds of the ecumenical synods of the early church indicate that unbiblical categories of Neoplatonic philosophy were used in the formulation of the doctrine of the Trinity."
According to the Nouveau Dictionnaire Universel,
"The Platonic trinity, itself merely a rearrangement of older trinities dating back to earlier peoples, appears to be the rational philosophic trinity of attributes that gave birth to the three hypostases or divine persons taught by the Christian churches. . . . This Greek philosopher's [Plato, fourth century B.C.E.] conception of the divine trinity . . . can be found in all the ancient [pagan] religions."—(Paris, 1865-1870), edited by M. Lachâtre, Vol. 2, p. 1467.
John L. McKenzie, S.J., in his Dictionary of the Bible, says:
"The trinity of persons within the unity of nature is defined in terms of 'person' and 'nature' which are G[ree]k philosophical terms; actually the terms do not appear in the Bible. The trinitarian definitions arose as the result of long controversies in which these terms and others such as 'essence' and 'substance' were erroneously applied to God by some theologians."—(New York, 1965), p. 899.
The Church of the First Three Centuries says:
"The doctrine of the Trinity was of gradual and comparatively late formation; . . . it had its origin in a source entirely foreign from that of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures; . . . it grew up, and was ingrafted on Christianity, through the hands of the Platonizing Fathers."
By the end of the third century C.E., "Christianity" and the new Platonic philosophies became inseparably united. As Adolf Harnack states in Outlines of the History of Dogma, church doctrine became "firmly rooted in the soil of Hellenism [pagan Greek thought]. Thereby it became a mystery to the great majority of Christians."
The church claimed that its new doctrines were based on the Bible. But Harnack says: "In reality it legitimized in its midst the Hellenic speculation, the superstitious views and customs of pagan mystery-worship."
In the book A Statement of Reasons, Andrews Norton says of the Trinity:
"We can trace the history of this doctrine, and discover its source, not in the Christian revelation, but in the Platonic philosophy . . . The Trinity is not a doctrine of Christ and his Apostles, but a fiction of the school of the later Platonists."
'Fourth century Trinitarianism was a deviation from early Christian teaching.'—The Encyclopedia Americana
"Many of the early Christians, in turn, found peculiar attractions in the doctrines of Plato, and employed them as weapons for the defense and extension of Christianity, or cast the truths of Christianity in a Platonic mold. The doctrines of the Logos [Greek for "the Word"] and the Trinity received their shape from Greek Fathers, who, if not trained in the schools, were much influenced, directly or indirectly, by the Platonic philosophy, particularly in its Jewish-Alexandrian form."
Hastings' Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics explains:
"Christianity took over from Greek philosophy, and to some extent developed independently, the profound and fruitful idea of the distinction between time and eternity, and between becoming and being. First clearly stated by Parmenides, c. 500 B.C. . . . , it is worked out in considerable detail by Plato, c. 390 B.C., especially in his Phædrus and Symposium."
"Christian theology," notes the Encyclopædia Britannica, "took the Neoplatonic metaphysics of substance as well as its doctrine of [essences, or natures] as the departure point for interpreting the relationship of the 'Father' to the 'Son.'"
What, though, did Jesus mean when he said, "I and the Father are one"? J. H. Bernard, D.D., states in A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to St. John:
"A unity of fellowship, of will, and of purpose between the Father and the Son is a frequent theme in the Fourth Gospel . . . , and it is tersely and powerfully expressed here; but to press the words so as to make them indicate identity of ousia [Greek for "substance," "essence"], is to introduce thoughts which were not present to the theologians of the first century."—Compare John 5:18, 19; 14:9, 23; 17:11, 22.
Interestingly, the French encyclopedia Alpha states: "Most religious traditions or philosophical systems set forth ternary [threefold] groups or triads that correspond to primeval forces or to aspects of the supreme God." Another French work points to the Greek philosopher Plato (of about 427 to 347 B.C.E.) and declares:
"The Platonic trinity, itself merely a rearrangement of older trinities dating back to earlier peoples, appears to be the rational philosophic trinity of attributes that gave birth to the three hypostases or divine persons taught by the Christian churches. . . . This Greek philosopher's conception of the divine trinity . . . can be found in all the ancient [pagan] religions."—Dictionnaire Lachatre.
Naturally, Christendom's priests and clergymen, for the most part, deny this pagan philosophical origin of the Trinity dogma. The authoritative French Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique devotes 16 columns of small type to its arguments against the relationship between Plato's trinity and Christendom's triune God. Yet, this work has to admit that Catholic "Saint" Augustine himself—said to have been "of decisive importance for the Western [Roman] development of the Trinitarian doctrine"—recognized this relationship. Moreover, the Encyclopædia Britannica (1976, Macropædia) states:
"Such a Hellenization did, to a large extent, take place. The definition of the Christian faith as contained in the creeds of the ecumenical synods of the early church indicate that unbiblical categories of Neoplatonic philosophy were used in the formulation of the doctrine of the Trinity."
According to the Nouveau Dictionnaire Universel,
"The Platonic trinity, itself merely a rearrangement of older trinities dating back to earlier peoples, appears to be the rational philosophic trinity of attributes that gave birth to the three hypostases or divine persons taught by the Christian churches. . . . This Greek philosopher's [Plato, fourth century B.C.E.] conception of the divine trinity . . . can be found in all the ancient [pagan] religions."—(Paris, 1865-1870), edited by M. Lachâtre, Vol. 2, p. 1467.
John L. McKenzie, S.J., in his Dictionary of the Bible, says:
"The trinity of persons within the unity of nature is defined in terms of 'person' and 'nature' which are G[ree]k philosophical terms; actually the terms do not appear in the Bible. The trinitarian definitions arose as the result of long controversies in which these terms and others such as 'essence' and 'substance' were erroneously applied to God by some theologians."—(New York, 1965), p. 899.
The Church of the First Three Centuries says:
"The doctrine of the Trinity was of gradual and comparatively late formation; . . . it had its origin in a source entirely foreign from that of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures; . . . it grew up, and was ingrafted on Christianity, through the hands of the Platonizing Fathers."
By the end of the third century C.E., "Christianity" and the new Platonic philosophies became inseparably united. As Adolf Harnack states in Outlines of the History of Dogma, church doctrine became "firmly rooted in the soil of Hellenism [pagan Greek thought]. Thereby it became a mystery to the great majority of Christians."
The church claimed that its new doctrines were based on the Bible. But Harnack says: "In reality it legitimized in its midst the Hellenic speculation, the superstitious views and customs of pagan mystery-worship."
In the book A Statement of Reasons, Andrews Norton says of the Trinity:
"We can trace the history of this doctrine, and discover its source, not in the Christian revelation, but in the Platonic philosophy . . . The Trinity is not a doctrine of Christ and his Apostles, but a fiction of the school of the later Platonists."
'Fourth century Trinitarianism was a deviation from early Christian teaching.'—The Encyclopedia Americana
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