Orthodoxy

The Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines the word orthodox as “accepted as true or correct by most people; supporting or believing what most people think is true.” The same dictionary defines orthodoxy as “the quality or state of being orthodox; an orthodox belief or practice.” Wikipedia defines orthodoxy as “adherence to correct or accepted creeds, especially in religion.”

In Christianity, have all creeds and doctrines been found to be biblically noncontradictory and true? There are many examples from the Bible that proves the answer to be negative. If there is one truth that my fellow Christians should accept, it is this: It is not all that is orthodox that is biblically correct or true. A few examples from the Bible testify to this fact.

1. When the Israelites were getting close to the promised land of Kena’an (Canaan), Moses sent twelve people to explore the land. They spent forty days in exploring the land, and when they returned ten of them gave a fearful report to the people. But Joshua and Caleb gave a contrary, minority report. The people believed the majority report, thereby making it “orthodox” but this elicited the anger of God, not only on those who gave the bad report but on all the people who believed the false and faith-destroying report. See Num. 13:1-14:38.
2. King Ahab of Israel planned to go to war against the Syrians to reclaim the Israelite town of Ramoth in Gilead which had been annexed by the Syrians. Before going to war he had to consult God to find out whether he should go to the war and what the outcome will be. But he consulted about 400 false prophets – prophets of Baal – who gave him a uniform prophecy of victory in the war. But these prophets didn’t know that their uniform prophecy was instigated by a demon (cf. 1 Tim. 4:1). Only one prophet named Micaiah was a true prophet of God among the large number of prophets. Only him heard from God and was allowed to see what was taking place in the divine realm. He gave Ahab the true prophecy that was spurned.  Ahab rejected the unpopular but true prophecy of Micaiah. He followed the “orthodox” prophecy to his own destruction. His great son Jonathan was killed along with him. But for the goodness and mercy of God, king Jehoshaphat of Judah would have lost his life in that battle. See 1 Kings 22:1-40.
3. During His earthly ministry, one major sore point in Jesus Christ’s interaction with the Jews was in regard to their “orthodox” beliefs and practices. Many of the people’s beliefs and practices evolved from the traditions of men rather than from the scriptures (cf. Mark 7:3-13). Because these manmade traditions had passed over many generations the people were made to believe in them as the truth delivered by God. But the truth is that these manmade traditions did not come from God. Jesus Christ called these orthodox but manmade traditions “plants that my heavenly Father has not planted [which must] be pulled up by the roots” (Matt. 15:13 NIV, words in square brackets added by me).

It is very unwise for any Christian to believe that once many people believe in a teaching, then it must be biblically correct and true. To this day, there are many beliefs and practices that Christians have been made to believe to be true, right from their infancy, but are in fact repugnant to the teachings of the Bible. While some of these teachings are believed in by a group of Christians, some have been believed in by almost all of Christendom. Only a remnant of Christians have been able to see their falseness.

It is also very wrong for a Christian teacher to say a person is teaching falsehood simply because what he is teaching opposes what many people have been fooled into believing in. A false teacher is one who persist in teaching what opposes the sound teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Tim. 6:3). Even after their errors have been shown to them, the teachers of falsehood never depart from their erroneous or false teachings. And it is extremely difficult to make their indoctrinated or brainwashed followers come to see the truth in the Bible. This is one of the big problems bedeviling Christianity today. So much of human ideas have been sunk into many Christians that many clear and explicit words or passages in the Bible make no meaning to them. Whenever they read the Bible, the meanings they make of what they read are the false human ideas that have been repeatedly and manipulatively sunk into them over a long period of time.

Should You believe every Orthodox Teaching?

 The only biblical basis for the acceptance of any teaching is its complete conformity or harmony with the whole of the scriptures. The Bible has given us clear instruction that we must test every teaching and accept only those that are in no way at variance with the whole of the scriptures (1 John 4:1). God has set for us a standard in the conduct of the Bereans who spent time to search the scriptures on their own just to ensure that what Paul and Silas taught them were in accordance with the scriptures (Acts 17:10-12). It is totally unwise for any Christian to believe in any teaching on the sheer ground that many people believe in it. That is untenable. Even if a Christian abdicates the duty of testing any teaching to anyone else, the job of doing the test still remains his personal responsibility. It does not matter whether the person doing the resting for you is your pastor, parent, or teacher. On no account must we accept any teaching on the basis of the personage of the teacher or on the ground that many people believe in it. Here, I use two popular doctrines in Christendom as examples.

The Pretribulation Rapture

The key text on which this doctrine is based is 1 Thes. 4:17 where the phrase “caught up to meet the Lord in the air” has been termed the rapture. The teachers of this doctrine have continued to misinform Christians that this event will, among many of their falsehoods, take place before the great tribulation and it will be the first phase of Christ’s second coming. But in verse 15 of the chapter, Paul, Silas and Timothy told the Thessalonian believers that what they were writing to them were what Jesus Christ had taught – on the resurrection of the dead at the time of Christ’s second coming (1 Cor. 15:23). All that the three apostles taught in 1 Thes. 4:13-17 which is the favourite text of Pretribulation Rapture Theorists have no shred of connection with the great tribulation foretold by Jesus Christ in Mark 13:19-20 (Matt. 24:21-22). But they crudely and falsely link 1 Thes. 4:13-17 with the great tribulation. Moreover, in the very place where Jesus Christ foretold of the great tribulation, He unequivocally stated that the catching up of resurrected and living saints to meet Him in the air will take place on the day of His second coming which will take place after the great tribulation. If, as clearly stated by the Lord (Mark 13:24-27; Matt. 24:29-31) and accepted by Rapture Theorists, His second coming will be after the great tribulation, how can the “catching up into the air” which will take place on the day of His second coming be before the great tribulation?

There are many other teachings in the Pretribulation Rapture Theory that are antithetical to biblical teaching. They say the Rapture is the first phase of Christ’s second coming. The Bible nowhere says Christ’s second coming will be in two phases. They say the Rapture will take place at any moment. But the Bible says there are definite events which will precede Christ’s second coming during which the “rapture,” using their term, will take place. These include the apostasy mentioned in 2 Thes. 2:1-3 and the phenomenal changes that will take place in the universe (Mark 13:24-25; Matt. 24:29). They also teach that at the Rapture, Jesus Christ will be invisible to the people of the earth. No single verse of the Bible supports that teaching. All that is shown in the Bible is in direct opposition to this teaching. See, for example, Matt. 24:27,30,31; Acts 1:9-12; Rev. 1:7; 6:15-17; Mark 13:26. In all these passages the Bible says all eyes will see Jesus at His second coming. What they tern the rapture is the catching up of the saints of God to meet Christ in the air on the day of His second coming. The catching up serves two purposes: (I) to meet (Greek: apantesis) Him which connote going to welcome Him; (ii) gathering the saints from all parts of the earth and to immediately touch down with Him at the Mount of Olives (Zech. 14:4; cf. Acts 1:9-12).

We see therefore that although the Pretribulation Rapture teaching is very popular among my fellow Evangelicals/Pentecostals, it is a popular but false teaching which was invented in the early 1830s by an Irish cleric known as John Nelson Darby (1800-1882). This false teaching was made popular among American and English Evangelicals through Cyrus Ingerson Scofield (1843-1921) who put the novel doctrine as a footnote in the first (1909) and second (1917) editions of his Scofield Reference Bible.

The Trinity

This is the number one orthodox teaching which is grossly repugnant to biblical truth. This is one doctrine that qualifies to be called “The Big Lie.” Shortly, I will give only two out of the many proofs that it is a false doctrine. But before I do that, I want my reader to know that it is much easier to deceive people than to convince people that they have been deceived. Satan is also at work in all deceptions.

I have heard many preachers, teachers, and theologians say that anyone who does not believe in the Trinity cannot be a Christian. It makes me wonder a lot. I wonder if these people have ever read the Bible. If indeed they have, how come they don’t see the copious and explicit truth that is in almost all the pages of the Bible? I see the answer in the words of the Lord which in the KJV reads, “Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand” (Matt. 13:13 KJV, emphasis added by me). Here, Jesus Christ was saying that although the unbelievers are not blind, they’ll not see the truth; although they are not deaf, they’ll not hear what God is saying. Why? The god of this age through the agency of false teachers have closed their minds to the truth. Therefore, whenever they read the Bible, they see nothing in it than the false interpretations that have been repeatedly taught to them for so long a time.

There are so many points that can be brought in refutation of the Trinitarian dogma. But for purpose of this article, I will give only two:

• If you read through the 44 lines of the Athanasian Creed (the 44 verses of the creed are called lines), you’ll see in it that the Trinity is made up of three persons – the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. Each of them is said to be uncreated (Line 8), incomprehensible (Line 9), eternal (Line 10), Almighty (Line 13), God (Line 15), and Lord (Line 17). Now here is what Lines 25-27 say:

“And in this Trinity none is afore [before] or after another; none is greater or less than another. But the whole three persons are coeternal and coequal. So that in all things, as aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped.”

By saying that none of the three persons come before or after another, the Trinitarian creed has created three self-existed Gods which it affirms by saying they are coeternal. And by saying that none of the three persons is greater or less than another, they defined the word “coequal”. This is another falsehood in the Trinitarian teaching. Jesus Christ who is the embodiment of truth (John 14:6) said it from His own mouth that “the Father is greater than I” (John 14:28). And after His ascension to heaven, He made a superlative emphasis to the fact that the Father remains His God (Rev. 3:12). So, it was not only in the flesh that the Father was His God. Even prior to His incarnation, the Father had been His God. Psalm 45:6,7 says that as a God, God (the Father) is His God. The Father remains His God forever. No one is coequal with the Almighty Father.

Does the Bible teach that there are three self-existed Gods? Never! The Bible teaches that there is only one God and that the one God is one singular being (John 5:44; 17:3; 1 Cor. 8:6; 1 Tim. 1:17; 2:5; He is called the Father of all beings (Eph. 4:6) because He is the one who gave life or existence to all beings, including our Lord Jesus Christ. The Father is the only self-existent Being. Jesus Christ derived His existence from the Father. That is why the Father is called “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 1:3,17; 1 Pet. 1:3; Rev. 1:6; 3:12; John 20:17). The Holy Spirit as clearly shown in the Bible is the divine power of God. It is neither a literal person like God and Jesus Christ nor is it a God.

Conclusively, the Trinitarian teaching of the existence of three self-existent beings making up the one God is grossly antithetical to what the Bible has revealed about the one God whose name is YHWH (Yahweh). The repeated use of the phrase “yet they are not three…but one…” in the Athanasian Creed does not in any way obliterate, erase, eclipse, or annul the Tritheism (Polytheism) that the creed has created. There is no logic or magic that can make three self-existent, coeternal and coequal Gods one God. If what the Trinitarian creed teaches were to be accepted, then one must be prepared to reject the Bible which says the Father is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ (John 20:17; Eph. 1:17; Rev. 3:12). The Father cannot be the God of the Son if both of them were self-existent, coequal and coeternal. It would also mean that Jesus was wrong when He said, “the Father is greater than I” (John 14:28).  You either reject the word of God in the Bible or you reject the invention of the fourth century philosophers known as the Trinity. The two are mutually exclusive. For those of us who accept the Bible as containing the wholesome word of God, all men may be liars, God will forever remain true (Rom. 3:4).

• In the same Athanasian Creed, it is written that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man (Line 30). Line 32 says He is “Perfect God and perfect man, of reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting.” Line 33 says, “Equal to the Father as touching His Godhead [Godhood], and inferior to the Father as touching His manhood.” Line 34 says, “Who, although He is God and man, yet He is not two, but one Christ.” Then Line 35 says, “One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of that manhood into God.”

This is not only incongruous with biblical teaching but fantastically absurd. Let us examine these lines a little.

First, they say Jesus is both God and man, not by conversion of His Godhood into manhood but by taking on of manhood into God. This means that He has been a hybrid of God and man at His incarnation. They also say that He is equal with God in His Godhood but inferior to God in His manhood. So what they want us to believe is that He was equal to God and inferior to Him at the same time. This is impossible; this is an absurdity. The claim that the Son is coequal with the Father has been disproved by the Psalmist (Psa. 45:6,7) and Jesus Christ Himself (John 14:28).

We have read in 1 Tim. 6:16 that God possesses immortality which means He is incapable of dying. So if in Christ’s incarnation He was both God and man dwelling in one body, how was He able to die? Did God that He was die? Additionally, as a man He was mortal. How was mortality and immortality able to coexist in the same body? Remember that mortality and immortality cannot dwell in the same body at the same time. There must be a change from one state to the other (1 Cor. 15:50-54).

These and many other glaring contradictions between the Bible and the Trinitarian dogma leaves one with no iota of doubt that the Trinitarian dogma, though an orthodox doctrine, is patently false.

The Bible called Jesus a God who became flesh (John 1:1,14). This implies that His Godhood was removed by the Almighty and replaced by His manhood during His incarnation. That was why God had to anoint Him with His holy spirit to empower Him like any other human being (Acts 10:38). That was also why He frequently had to hide Himself whenever the Jews attempted to stone Him. He knew He was 100 percent human, zero percent God. This is affirmed by Paul when he wrote, “Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying. Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people.” Heb. 2:14-15, 17 NLT, underscore emphases added by me).

In His incarnation, Jesus Christ was 100 percent human. He was not God and man at the same time. The formulators of the Trinitarian theory did not understand the scriptures.

Conclusion

The fact that a doctrine is orthodox does not necessarily mean it is a true teaching and must be believed by every processing Christian. The Bible has put on our shoulders the duty of examining every teaching. If a teaching is found to be in harmony with the whole of the scriptures, we must accept it. If it is found to contradict some parts of the Bible, we should not gullibly and naively accept it. To do so is unwise.

It is equally infantile for any Bible teacher to say that once a doctrine is orthodox, then everyone must believe in it. And I make bold to say that those who say we must believe in the Trinitarian theology do not understand the Bible.

There are many doctrines that are believed in by so many people which don’t stand the test of the scriptures. And there is hardly any denomination in which there is no false or erroneous teaching or practice. It is time all Christians begin to reexamine all that we have been taught right from our childhood days. We should also stop placing too much dependence on the teachings of our “great” men of God. We should convince ourselves that no papa, pastor, bishop, apostle, father-in-the-Lord, or whoever, is infallible. Only God is infallible. If we know this truth, then let us learn to listen to one another. Know also that most of the denominational leaders who always chant “beware of false teachers” have been found to be notorious peddlers of false doctrines. This fact calls for alertness on the part of all Christians, no matter the group we belong to. Let all of us start to examine whatever is taught to us like the Bereans did. If the word of God matters to us, we will take decisive steps to ensure that no false teacher gives to us any orthodox or unorthodox doctrine which is false.