Read the Beforeitsnews.com story here. Advertise at Before It's News here.
Profile image
By MONKS AND MERMAIDS (A Benedictine Blog) (Reporter)
Contributor profile | More stories
Story Views
Now:
Last hour:
Last 24 hours:
Total:

Image and Icon - 3: Crucifixion, Epitaphios, Bridegroom, Mandylion and Shroud by Father Alex Echeandia OSB, Prior of Pachacamac, Peru

% of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents.


III

a) Icons of the Crucifixion
b) Icons  of the “Epitaphios”
c) Icons of the “Bridegroom”

 

 

 

Crucifixion
 
 

I do not have at my disposal the original icon of the crucifixion that Father Alex used in his exposition, but I will rectify this as soon as possible.  Meantime, this icon is of the same tradition.   Please accept my apologies. – Fr David

 
The icon of the Crucifixion is a good example of the simplicity of an icon composition. It show Christ dead on the cross with his eyes closed, angels weeping above him, at the sides the Mother of God and John the Apostle. Christ turns towards his mother who is so close to him that they are almost touching. His body is curved to signify the arch of Christ’s suffering and the scale of justice now is inclined in favour of mercy, because all that is evil has been captured by the Redemption of Christ.  
 
The icon does not show any dramatic moment like Christ being nailed to the cross, nor does it portray triumph, rejoicing or celebration at his victorious triumph over death. It is more likely a representation of a funeral mourning, a sense of prayer loaded with suffering. Figures in the scene don’t show any great emotional expression in their faces; all are silent witnesses.
 
John is also silent, the look of his face, the gesture with his hand shows him meditating on what she is experiencing as she witnesses the death of her Son. Death and birth are related at this moment. Simeon’s words are brought to mind as she experiences: “A sword will pierce your heart.” The giver of life is contemplated in a shameful death. Among the Russian Orthodox on Wednesday in the First Week of Lent they echo the hymn: 

“My Son, what is the meaning of this mystery? Why do You, who give eternal life to all, suffer willingly a shameful death on the cross? ” 

At the foot of the cross, Mary’s motherhood which began at Christmas is renewed. 

Details on the icon of the Crucifixion have a meaning. The size of the cross is astonishing. The base of the cross comes out of the ground in an unusual way because Golgotha is hardly represented. Frequently in icons the Golgotha is depicted like a little mound.  Here, it looks as if the cross was planted in the earth, it looks like a tree. Those who contemplate it are venerating a new tree, a tree from the paradise that has been re-opened by Christ. 
 
Many icons also emphasise the way in which the ransom was paid at the Crucifixion of Jesus for the sin of Adam. It is frequently seen as a stream of blood coming down from Jesus’ feet pierced with nails. It flows down onto Adam’’s skull that is hidden in the cave of Golgotha. In the Eastern Liturgy for Friday it says: 

Just as the enemy captured Adam with a tree heavy with fruit, so you O Lord, captured the enemy with the tree of your cross and sufferings. Now the second Adam has come to find the one who was lost to restore life to him who was dead.”

 
Another important element in the icon is the plea of those who are suffering silently, a personal prayer to the Crucified Lord. Keeping to the Gospel narrative, the centurion and the other two Marys are frequently depicted.  They are mourning as in a funeral. This atmosphere is expressed by the simplicity of the buildings and colours.  In contraposition, Christ is shining with the whiteness of his cloth,  like the Sun shining out from his flesh. 
 
Epitaphios
 
This icon is also called the “entombment of Christ.” However, the literal meaning of this name is a composite word from the Greek επί, epí, “on” or “upon”, and τάφος, táphos, “grave” or “tomb”. The Epitaphios is really a common short form of the Epitáphios Thrēnos, the “Lamentation upon the Grave”, which is the main part of the service of the Matins of Holy Saturday, celebrated in Good Friday evening. 
 
Today it is most often found as a large cloth, embroidered and often richly adorned, which is used during the services of Good Friday and Holy Saturday in the Eastern Orthodox Churches and those Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Byzantine Rite. It also exists in painted or mosaic form, on wall or panel.
 
The scene is taken from John’s Gospel (John 19:38-42) It shows Jesus lying on the stone, and around him, mourning his death, frequently are placed his mother Mary, John the beloved disciple, Joseph of Arimathea; and Mary Magdalene, the other women and Nicodemus. Sometimes they place angels and evangelists in the corners. Sometimes the body of Christ appears alone and sometimes with His mother. This scene of Mary and Christ displays similar interpretation of Mother and child in the Elousia icons. 
 
Epitaphios is used on the last two days of Holy Week in the Byzantine rite as part of the ceremonies marking the death and resurrection of Christ. It is then placed by the priest and deacon on the Holy Table (altar table) before Vespers, where it remains throughout the Paschal season, until the Ascension Thursday, in relation to the cloths left in the tomb at the resurrection of Christ. It can be anointed with perfumed oil, and the chalice veil and the Gospel book are placed on top of it. 
 
 
The Bridegroom Icon
 
 
One of the first images in this subject appeared in XII century. In the XIII century it is found frequently in icons, miniatures of codices and on walls of churches, mainly within the sanctuary. Unlike the Epitaphios icon relating to mourning and lamentation for the dead Christ, this icon shows Christ in an apocalyptic vision, and the celestial Jerusalem is depicted in the background behind Christ and Our Lady.  
 
The book of the Apocalypse in the vision of Juan refers to the new heaven and new Earth illuminated by the glory of God and the Lamb is the source of light (AP. 21:1). Moreover, this city also symbolises the earthly Jerusalem, because Jesus Christ was crucified outside the walls Christ. 
 
The body of Christ is illuminated with greater intensity than the head; and this is to the fact that the head (Christ) was crucified for his body, the Church.. The same Church that Christ redeemed with his death in the cross now appears behind the main figures as the celestial Jerusalem. It is, therefore, The single act of salvation occurred in Christ’s own body for the Redemption of the world. Thus, it is not the head, Christ head that is illuminated because Christ as head did not need to be saved from anything. It was the body. The icon reflects what our faith believes. 
 
In icons of Christ the halo represents the crown of thorns. Inside the halo the cross is delineated, because it is the reason for Christ’s glory and our salvation. In it appear “I am”,  written in Greek. This is a reference to the name of God, described in the passage of the Old Testament, where God revealed His Name to Moses in the burning bush with His Name, in Hebrew יהוה, YHWH.   
 
The naked body, humiliated by the death on the cross, is held by Our Lady, as he rise from the tomb. Behind the cross there is a text written: “Do not cry by me, Mother, when you see in the tomb the one you conceived virginally in your womb: indeed, I shall rise and shall be glorified, I shall raise to everlasting glory those who ceaselessly celebrate you with faith and love.” 
 
This icon is called the Bridegroom and associates Mary with the Passion. By this act she is sharing his sufferings as well as the fruit of this cosmic act of Redemption. In fact, Mary is dressed as a bride,  adorned with pearls, ready for the wedding. This becomes a  sign of the new alliance that Christ makes with His Church.  She holds her Son as well as her spouse.   Indeed, Christ in his wounds shows the signs of his sacrifice; even more, He shows his victory over death. Doing so, Christ with his blood purifies his bride, the Church. 
 
Finally, the colours of Mary’s garments show her human condition.  Blue and green symbolize her humanity by nature. The red colour symbolizes her divinity by Grace. That is to say, Mary, in her humanity is overshadowed by divinity. In Christ Pantocrator the opposite is depicted: that is to say, his divine nature assumed his human nature from Mary. By the Incarnation, Divinity became human; by Grace, human nature is divinized. This is the Mystery that brings the New Jerusalem into being.

 

 
The History of the Mandylion of Edessa

 

 

 

According to Iconographic Tradition, King Abgar of Edessa wrote a letter to Jesus, asking him to come and cure him of an illness. This story is found in the History of the Church (1.13.5-22) written by Eusebius of Caesarea who claimed that he had transcribed and translated the actual letter in the Syriac chancery documents of the king of Edessa. In this earliest account, Christ replies by letter, saying that when he had completed his earthly mission and ascended, he would send a disciple to heal Abgar. The image “not made by hands”, that Jesus sent  to cure the king, was known later to the Byzantines as the Mandylion (“holy towel”). 

 

 

I present two interesting texts: the first one is an excellent account of the “History of the image of Edessa”, written by Professor Sebastian Brock, Oxford University. You will find here a connection he makes between the mandylion and Adai and his disciple Mari, later related to the “Anafora Adai andMari” http://www.jaas.org/edocs/v18n1/Sebastian%20Brock-mandili-Final.pdf 
 
The second text, here below, is a quick account on the image of Edessa, its journey and a brief analysis of the icon. Enjoy!  
 
The Image of Edessa Revealed, by Joe Nickell
 
The Legend
 
The story of the Edessan Image is related in a mid-fourth-century Syriac manuscript, The Doctrine of Addai. It tells how King Abgar of Edessa (now Urfa in south-central Turkey), afflicted with leprosy, sent a messenger named Ananias to deliver a letter to Jesus requesting a cure. In the letter (according to a tenth-century report [qtd. in Wilson 1979, 272–290]), Abgar sends “greetings to Jesus the Savior who has come to light as a good physician in the city of Jerusalem” and who, he has heard, “can make the blind see, the lame walk . . . heal those who are tortured by chronic illnesses, and . . . raise the dead.” Abgar decided that Jesus either is God himself or the Son of God, and so he entreats Jesus to “come to me and cure me of my disease.” He notes that he has heard of the Jews’ plan to harm Jesus and adds, “I have a very small city, but it is stately and will be sufficient for us both to live in peace.”
 
Abgar, so the story goes, instructed Ananias that if he were unable to persuade Jesus to return with him to Edessa, he was to bring back a portrait instead. But while Ananias sat on a rock drawing the portrait, Jesus summoned him, divining his mission and the fact of the letter Ananias carried. After reading it, Jesus responded with a letter of his own, writing, “Blessed are you, Abgar, in that you believed in me without having actually seen me.” Jesus said that while he must fulfill his mission on earth, he would later send one of his disciples to cure Abgar’s suffering and to “also provide your city with a sufficient defense to keep all your enemies from taking it.” After entrusting the letter to Ananias, “The Savior then washed his face in water, wiped off the moisture that was left on the towel that was given to him, and in some divine and inexpressible manner had his own likeness impressed on it.” Jesus gave Ananias the towel to present to Abgar as “consolation” for his disease.
 
Quite a different version of the story (see Wilson 1979, 277–278) holds that the image was impressed with Jesus’ bloody sweat during his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22: 44). (This anticipates the still later tradition of Veronica’s Veil, wherein Veronica, a woman from Jerusalem, was so moved by Jesus’ struggling with his cross on the way to execution that she wiped his face on her veil or kerchief, thus imprinting it with his bloody sweat. Actually, the term veronica is simply a corruption of the Latin words vera iconica, “true images” [Nickell 2007, 71–76].) In this second version of the story, Jesus’ disciple Thomas held the cloth for safekeeping until Jesus ascended to heaven, whereupon it was then sent to King Abgar.
 
Significantly, the earliest mention of the Abgar/Jesus correspondence—an account of circa ad 325 by Bishop Eusebius—lacks any mention of the holy image (Nickell 1998, 45). Also, in one revealing fourth-century text of The Doctrine of Addai, the image is described not as of miraculous origin but merely as the work of Hannan (Ananias), who “took and painted a portrait of Jesus in choice paints, and brought it with him to his lord King Abgar” (qtd. in Wilson 1979, 130).
 
Historian Sir Steven Runciman has denounced all versions of the legend as apocryphal: “It is easy to show that the story of Abgar and Jesus as we now have it are untrue, that the letters contain phrases copied from the gospels and are framed according to the dictates of later theology” (qtd. in Sox 1978, 52).
 
The Mandylion’s Journey
 
Nevertheless, Runciman adds, “that does not necessarily invalidate the tradition on which the story was based …” (qtd. in Sox 1978, 52). The best evidence in the case would be the image itself, but which image? There have been several, each claimed to be the miraculous original. Obviously, only one could be authentic, but does it even still exist?
 
The Mandylion has a gap in its provenance (or historical record) of several centuries. It was reportedly transferred in 944 to Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire, along with the purported letter from Jesus to King Abgar. The image may once have been incorporated into a triptych of the tenth century. Its side panels, now reposing in the monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai, illustrate the pious legend of Abgar receiving the image. Interestingly, the panels portray Abgar as having the features of Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitos.
 
After the Venetians conquered Constantinople in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade, the Mandylion was reportedly transferred to the West, where its history becomes confused. Three traditions develop, each associated with a different “original” of the image:

Parisian Mandylion. Allegedly obtained by Emperor Baldwin II and sold or donated by him in 1247, this image was eventually acquired by King Louis IX (1214–1270), who had it installed in the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. It was lost in 1792, apparently destroyed during the French Revolution (“Mandylion” 2008; Wilson 1991, 129).

Genoese Mandylion. Although this image reportedly can be traced back to the tenth century, its verifiable history dates from 1362 when then Byzantine Emperor John V donated it to Genoa’s Doge Leonardo Montaldo. After Montaldo died in 1384, the Mandylion was bequeathed to the Genoese Church of St. Bartholomew of the Armenians, arriving in 1388. It remains there, displayed in a gilt-silver, enameled frame of the fourteenth-century Palaeologan style. The image itself is on a cloth that has been glued to a wooden board (“Mandylion” 2008; “Image” 2008; Wilson 1991, 113–114, 137–138).

Vatican Mandylion. This image has no certain history before the sixteenth century, when it was known to be kept at the convent of San Silvestro in Capito. In 1517, the nuns were reportedly forbidden to exhibit it, so it would not compete with the church’s Veronica. And in 1587 it was mentioned by one Cesare Baromio. In 1623 it received its silver frame, donated by Sister Dionora Chiarucci. It remained at San Silvestro until 1870 when, during the war that completed the unification of Italy, Pope Pius IX had it removed to the Vatican for safekeeping. Except when traveling, it still reposes in the Vatican’s Matilda chapel (“Mandylion” 2008; “Image” 2008; Wilson 1991, 139–140).

These are the three Edessan Mandylions that have been claimed as original. Others—such as a seventeenth-century Mandylion icon in Buckingham Palace in London, surrounded by painted panels (Wilson 1979, 111)—need not concern us here.
 
 
Image Analysis
 
The Vatican now concedes (in the words of the official Vatican Splendors exhibit catalog [“Mandylion” 2008]) that “… the Mandylion is no longer enveloped today by any legend of its origin as an image made without the intervention of human hands….”
 
In the summer of 1996, the Vatican Museum’s chemistry and painting restoration laboratory analyzed their Mandylion. It was taken out of its baroque reliquary and removed from its silver-sheet frame (made in 1623). Glued to a cedar support panel was the linen cloth on which the face of Christ was clearly “painted,” although the non-destructive tests were insufficient to specifically confirm that the painting medium was tempera.
 
While “the thin layer of pigment showed no traces of overpainting,” there were nonetheless “alterations in the execution of the nose, mouth, and eyes” that were “observed in the x-rays and thermographic and reflectographic photographs.” Specifically, the nose had once been shorter, “so that the image originally must have had a different physiognomy” (“Mandylion” 2008, 57–58).
The museums’ scholars learned (according to “Mandylion” 2008, 56):
 
The version in the Vatican and the one in Genoa are almost wholly identical in their representation, form, technique, and measurements. Indeed, they must at some point in their history have crossed paths, for the rivet holes that surround the Genoese image coincide with those that attach the Vatican Mandylion to the cut-out sheet of silver that frames the image. … So this silver frame, or one like to it, must also have originally covered the panel in Genoa.
 
 
Iconography

 

 
The Mandylion clearly has been copied and recopied, as if the different versions were just so many “icons” (as they are now called). It is not surprising that many of them appeared. According to Thomas Humber (1978, 92), “Soon the popular demand for more copies representing the ‘true likeness’ of Christ was such that selected artists were allowed or encouraged to make duplications.” Indeed, “there was, conveniently, another tradition supporting the copies: the Image could miraculously duplicate itself.”
 
Because icons were traditionally painted on wood, the fact that both the Vatican and Genoese Mandylions are on linen suggests that each was intended to be regarded as the original Edessan Image. That image was described in the tenth-century account as “a moist secretion without coloring or painter’s art,” an “impression” of Jesus’ face on “linen cloth” that—as is the way of legend—“eventually became indestructible” (qtd. in Wilson 1979, 273).
 
While the original image appears lost to history, Ian Wilson (1979, 119–121) goes so far as to argue that the Edessan Image has survived—indeed, that it is nothing less than the Shroud of Turin, the alleged burial cloth of Jesus! To the obvious rejoinder that the early Mandylions bore only a facial image whereas the Turin “shroud” bears full length frontal and dorsal images, Wilson argues that the latter may have been folded in such a way as to exhibit only the face. Also there is an eighth-century account of King Abgar receiving a cloth with the image of Jesus’ whole body (“Image” 2008). Unfortunately, the Turin cloth has no provenance prior to the mid-fourteenth century when—according to a later bishop’s report to the pope—an artist confessed it was his handiwork. Indeed, the image is rendered in red ocher and vermilion tempera paint—not as a positive image but as a negative one, as if it were a bodily imprint. Moreover, the cloth has been radiocarbon dated to the time of the forger’s confession (Nickell 1998). (Another image-bearing shroud—of Besançon, France—did not come from Constantinople in 1204 as alleged but was clearly a sixteenth-century copy of the Turin fake [Nickell 1998, 64].)
 
The evidence is lacking, therefore, that any of these figured cloths ever bore a “not-made-by-hands” image. Instead, they have evolved from unlikely legend to Edessan portrait to self-duplicating Mandylions to proliferating “Veronicas” to full-length body image—all supposedly of the living Jesus—and thence to imaged “shrouds” with simulated frontal and dorsal bodily imprints. Finally, modern science and scholarship have revealed the truth about these pious deceptions.
References
Humber, Thomas. 1978. The Sacred Shroud. New York: Pocket Books.
Image of Edessa. 2008. From Wikipedia, available online, accessed September 5, 2008.
Mandylion of Edessa. 2008. Vatican Splendors: From Saint Peter’s Basilica, The Vatican Museums and the Swiss Guard. Vatican City State: Governatorato, 55–58.
Nickell, Joe. 1998. Inquest on the Shroud of Turin: Latest Scientific Findings. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books.
Sox, H. David. 1978. File on the Shroud. London: Coronet Books.
Wilson, Ian. 1979. The Shroud of Turin: The Burial Cloth of Jesus Christ? Revised ed. Garden City, N.Y.: Image Books.
—. 1991. Holy Faces, Secret Places: An Amazing Quest for the Face of Jesus. New York: Doubleday.
Investigative Files
Joe Nickell
Volume 19.2, June 2009

 

 

The Shroud of Turin
 

 

 

 

 

The Shroud of Turin is the most analysed artefact in the world, yet remains the world’s greatest unsolved mystery. Could it be the actual burial cloth that wrapped the historical Jesus or is it nothing more than a medieval hoax?  For centuries, scientists and historians, artists and believers have pored over the mysterious Shroud of Turin. 

 

 

 

Here you will find a comment of a new discovery made in Italy: 

 

New testing dates Shroud of Turin to era of Christ, by Doug Stanglin (RNS, USA)
 
New scientific tests on the Shroud of Turin, which went on display Saturday (March 30) in a special TV appearance introduced by the pope, date the cloth to ancient times, challenging earlier experiments that dated it only to the Middle Ages.
 
Pope Francis sent a special video message to the televised event in the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, Italy, which coincided with Holy Saturday, when Catholics mark the period between Christ’s crucifixion on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter Sunday.
 
The Vatican, tiptoeing carefully, has never claimed that the 14-foot linen cloth was used to cover Christ after he was taken from the cross 2,000 years ago, as some believers claim.
 
Francis, reflecting that careful Vatican policy, on Saturday called the cloth, which is kept in a climate-controlled case, an “icon” — not a relic.
 
But Archbishop Cesare Nosiglia of Turin, the “pontifical custodian of the shroud,” said the special display on Holy Saturday “means that it represents a very important testimony to the Passion and the resurrection of the Lord,” The Telegraph reported.
 
The burial shroud purports to show the imprint of the face and body of a bearded man. The image also purportedly shows nail wounds at the man’s wrist and pinpricks around his brow, consistent with the “crown of thorns” mockingly pressed onto Christ before his crucifixion.
 
Many experts have stood by a 1988 carbon-14 dating of scraps of the cloth carried out by labs in Oxford, Zurich and Arizona that dated it from 1260 to 1390 — well more than 1,000 years after the time of Christ.
 
The new test, by scientists at the University of Padua in northern Italy, used the same fibers from the 1988 tests but disputes the earlier findings. The new examination dates the shroud to between 300 B.C. and 400 A.D., which would put it in the era of Christ.
 
It determined that the earlier results may have been skewed by contamination from fibers used to repair the cloth when it was damaged by fire in the Middle Ages, the British newspaper reported. The cloth has been kept at the cathedral since 1578.
 
The new tests also supported earlier results claiming to have found traces of dust and pollen on that shroud that could only have come from the Holy Land.
 
The latest findings are contained in a new Italian-language book — “Il Mistero Della Sindone,” or “The Mystery of the Shroud,” by Giulio Fanti, a professor of mechanical and thermal measurement at the University of Padua, and journalist Saverio Gaeta.

Fanti, a Catholic, used infrared light and spectroscopy — the measurement of radiation intensity through wavelengths — in his test. He said the results are the outcome of 15 years of research.

Here is an excellent video produced by BBC. In addition, there is a video commentary by an Eastern Orthodox expert; and, finally, a talk given by an important Jewish expert on the shroud..  

 
BBC DOCUMENTARY
(THE BEST)
 
The Face of God: Shroud of Turin and Orthodoxy
 
Agora Institute 
The Shroud and the jew: Barrie Schwortz
 at TEDx ViadellaConciliazione
 


Source: http://fatherdavidbirdosb.blogspot.com/2017/07/image-and-icon-3-crucifixion-epitaphios.html


Before It’s News® is a community of individuals who report on what’s going on around them, from all around the world.

Anyone can join.
Anyone can contribute.
Anyone can become informed about their world.

"United We Stand" Click Here To Create Your Personal Citizen Journalist Account Today, Be Sure To Invite Your Friends.

Please Help Support BeforeitsNews by trying our Natural Health Products below!


Order by Phone at 888-809-8385 or online at https://mitocopper.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST

Order by Phone at 866-388-7003 or online at https://www.herbanomic.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST

Order by Phone at 866-388-7003 or online at https://www.herbanomics.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST


Humic & Fulvic Trace Minerals Complex - Nature's most important supplement! Vivid Dreams again!

HNEX HydroNano EXtracellular Water - Improve immune system health and reduce inflammation.

Ultimate Clinical Potency Curcumin - Natural pain relief, reduce inflammation and so much more.

MitoCopper - Bioavailable Copper destroys pathogens and gives you more energy. (See Blood Video)

Oxy Powder - Natural Colon Cleanser!  Cleans out toxic buildup with oxygen!

Nascent Iodine - Promotes detoxification, mental focus and thyroid health.

Smart Meter Cover -  Reduces Smart Meter radiation by 96%! (See Video).

Report abuse

    Comments

    Your Comments
    Question   Razz  Sad   Evil  Exclaim  Smile  Redface  Biggrin  Surprised  Eek   Confused   Cool  LOL   Mad   Twisted  Rolleyes   Wink  Idea  Arrow  Neutral  Cry   Mr. Green

    Total 2 comments
    • Truthseeker

      wow just look at all those idols, your god must be thrilled!

      Do you pray to them often? do they bleed or shed tears?

    • goastdale

      popular & damnable heresies

      #1 “ONE” not triune: ……Mark 12:28…Which is the first commandment of all? 29. …Hear, O Israel; THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD: 30. And ………..this is the first commandment….. 31. And the second is…..
      JESUS IS GOD AND IS THE FULLFILMENT OF ALL THE LAW AND PROPHETS SO IF YOU CAN’T GET THIS “FIRST OF ALL COMMANDMENTS” RIGHT, ALL THE REST OF YOUR “FAITH” AND PREACHING ON LOVE & SIN IS MOOT

      PART 4 & 5 HOW MANY GODS ARE THERE FOR THE ONE GOD TO TALK TO?? Who was Jesus praying to??!?…. The real question should be … How does having multiple different persons keep this one God/being/entity from praying to himself?! (The trinitarian “schizophrenic” “god-head”) The Trinitarians want to have their cake and eat it too as the saying goes. On the one hand they need to say they only worship one indivisible God being/ entity but on the other hand they feel the need for some reason to keep Jesus or God from praying and talking to himself by dividing him up into different persons!?! It never occurs to them that that since there is only one indivisible God to pray too and Jesus is that indivisible God come in the flesh that he would need to talk to himself as to show us how to live, suffer, pray and die for our/ flesh) benefit not his!?!….. So while Trinitarians are quick to complain that God was not talking to himself at Christ baptism or in Gen “let us” they ignore the logical demands of their own theology! If Jesus is the ONE GOD in flesh and the Father is the SAME ONE GOD in heaven then Trinitarianism demands THE ONE GOD is talking to HIMSELF the same “being”! Claiming that God is multiple different persons as the reason for why God is not talking to himself (because God is three different “selfs”) only demonstrates that what they really worship is in fact not a ONE GOD who talks to himself but three different god “selfs”/ and they all talk to each other! When they speak about who God was talking and praying to, they are quick to say “the other person, NOT HIMSELF!” But if you ask them how many gods do they pray to then they will say “ONLY ONE”!?! They expect you to believe that those three different persons are THE ONE GOD-BEING” which is like calling three different cars “THE ONE VEHICLE” (they are text book examples of prov 26:12)

      PART 6: THE ANTI CHRIST….WHERE? WHERE?….EVERYWHERE!!! …..IT”S YOU O TRINITARIAN!

      “WHO” it was (what person) that came “IN THE FLESH”, IS THE DETERMINING FACTOR IN WHAT IT MEANS TO BE “ANT-CHRIST”! Even Islam claims Jesus was the Jewish messiah/Christ who was to come in the flesh) they all deny “WHO” it was (what person) that came (to be the Christ) in the flesh!?!…….To deny the father is to deny the son because they are one and the same person that came in the flesh! https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/part-6-anti-christ-where-everywhere-allen-daves?trk=mp-reader-card

      JOHN 14: 8-20 where Christ specifically identifies himself (his person as the person of both the father and the HS; the only distinction is in “location” and “method of manifestation” …….Note Isaiah 9:6. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: …: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, … the everlasting Father ….The son, father/Holy Spirit are all the same person, NOT like two different persons working together even as “one flesh” ….The “oneness” between Christ and the father is not comparable to a man & his wife, for only a fool would say “When you have seen me you have seen my wife, how sayest thou then, Shew us your wife?” Notice they asked to see THE FATHER and the response was Jn 14:9 ..“HAVE I BEEN SO LONG time with you, and yet hast THOU NOT KNOW ME, Philip…..Now image some fool trying to claim that statement if you asked to see his wife!?!!? You want to see the FATHER but have I been with you but you don’t know me!?!?!

      https://www.scribd.com/doc/305367608/The-Trinity-Heresy
      OR
      https://www.academia.edu/23463667/THE_TRINITY_HERESY
      or
      http://www.globethics.net/gtl/10920799 THE TRINITY HERESY

      Jn 14 continued….…………..17. Even THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH; (Jn 14:6 I AM the way, THE TRUTH,) whom the world cannot receive, .. for HE DEWLLETH WITH YOU, (present tense/standing next to them in the flesh) and SHALL BE IN YOU… (future tense “In them”) 18. I will not leave you comfortless: I WILL COME TO YOU (future tense “In them”) Note: The spirit of Christ is the sprit of God and the holy spirit that is why Christ said “I will come to you” (to comfort them, because Christ is the comforter). The spirit was standing next to them in flesh… ….latter it would come to them to be inside of them (inside of their flesh as the spirit we are given)…..that is why. he would send the spirit…… However, Jesus himself here makes the point that the same person who was the HOLY SPIRIT that would come was standing next to them but lets them know “I will come to you again to be Inside of you”

      The whole point to Gal 3:20.a mediator is NOT A MEDIATOR OF ONE, (HEIS) but GOD IS ONE. (HEIS) again, point blank, identifies the number of persons of God! The “but” points out the contrast between multiple persons in a mediation party v the “one” of God. God is not like a mediation party with multiple different persons. …..”the express image of his person” ( the person of God; singular not plural).Any attempt to lay claim otherwise is willful ignorance and delusional nonsense https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/part-1-echadechadmy-godgod-echad-allen-daves?trk=mp-reader-card

      NOTE: don’t be that one in prov 26:12 over my use of the word “fool” here prov 18:13 (https://www.scribd.com/presentation/322007258/Fools ) “But but, the gospel of John…the Gospel of John …look look…” which is quite ironic since the gospel of John does not leave ANY room for multiple different persons of Jesus and father. However the gospel of John does leave a few verses that facilitate God’s promise in 2 Thess 2:11/ Isaiah 66:4 (take note of “HAND” in verse 2,14..You just can’t make this stuff up…God is surely laughing at these fools; Ps 2:1&4)

      TRINITARIANS CONFESS JESUS /THEY ARE NOT POLYTHEIST BUT ARE MONOTHEIST LIKE A LIAR & THIEF WHO “CONFESS” THEY DO NOT LIE OR STEAL The simple fact is that just because you confess or deny that you are in an adulterous relationship and denounce all forms of adultery has nothing to do with whether or not it is in fact adulterous! .. …A rose by any other name is still just a rose AND calling it a water lily does not change the definition of what a water Lilly or a rose is either!…No, Trinitarians confess & preach literally …”ANOTHER JESUS” 2 Cor 11:4

      https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/part-2-pgs-91-101-chapter-eight-lets-talk-us-allen-daves?trk=mp-reader-card

      - Like a thief in your house caught stealing your things insisting he was not there stealing “I CONFESS I am NOT stealing”. You just do not “properly understand” what he is doing/saying. Further, since you never had a “proper understanding” of what he is doing/saying you have no business accusing him since you do not even know what you are talking about in the first place. It is with and in your own ignorance that you base your “false accusations” & “ad homonym attacks” against him…… Ridiculous of course it is ……2Thess 2:11; Titus 1:16; 2Tim 3:5;

      - A Favorite tool for pathological liars is to use incongruent definitions or create oxymorons out of synonyms such as “a person” and “a being” so as to claim that your god is THREE DIFFERENT PERSONS but ONLY ONE BEING: Which is (1) no different then trying to claim that “THREE DIFFERENT CARS” is “THE ONE VEHICLE” (2) blatant demonstration of the dishonesty & sorcery these children of hell will employ with “a strait face” (which is in part what it means to be a pathological liar)
      ……but, ah i remember how this game is played… “God is three in one” (or 1in 3 or 3in one et al) should have given you a hint, harking back to Satan in The garden…God said you will die…Satan comes along and states no you will be more WISE……today .God said He is one; but Satan’s children come along and say no three is more WISE and humble in the face of God’s grandeur only “a mystery” that can be understood “in faith”. God uses head and right arm to explain the distinctions between father and son.. However, the Trinitarian heretics say to the effect: “NO, that is just a figure of speech, or that is not what God really means. What God is really saying is that God is three different persons”. Fools, hypocrites and blind guides, God said he was One and by your traditions and vain imaginations have taken the words of God and made them of no effect, refashioning God into your image!

      You can download the complete FREE book from
      https://www.scribd.com/doc/305367608/The-Trinity-Heresy
      OR
      https://www.academia.edu/23463667/THE_TRINITY_HERESY
      or
      http://www.globethics.net/gtl/10920799 THE TRINITY HERESY

      https://www.linkedin.com/today/author/0_0wXAPxHFpV6o3_6erj3ZFe?trk=prof-sm

      #2 SECOND COMING Thou Fool! “I come quickly” so “Hold fast
      till i come”… NOT …“in another 2000 yrs I might be coming soon any time now, so hold fast”!?! …those that deny the second coming of Christ in the war of AD70 are practicing a damnable heresy in denying the lord that bought them ( 2Peter 2:1-2 ;2Tim 4:8/ you cant love an appearing you deny& the context is the 2nd coming not the first)… Mat 7:23..”I NEVER KNEW YOU” …..Mat 10:33. But whosoever shall deny me before men……..sound familiar?…. If I said I am coming to your house in this generation when these things happen but no one knows the day or hour what fool would think I might be coming in 2000 years latter!?!? ..2 Tim 4: 4. And
      they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be TURNED UNTO FABLES.
      2Thess 2: 11. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12. That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

      DOWNLOAD FREE THE ENTIRE 480PG BOOK AT SEVERAL LOCATIONS
      https://www.scribd.com/doc/305366745/Revelation-the-First-Gospel-of-the-Kingdom
      or
      http://www.globethics.net/gtl/5455069 Revelation The First Gospel of The Kingdom
      or
      https://www.academia.edu/23464127/REVELATION_THE_FIRST_GOSPEL_OF_THE_KINGDOM

      #3 There is a sharp contrast between THREE groups :

      (1) “PREDESTINED DAMNED” who were NEVER written in the book of life ………..Rev 17: 8 WHOSE NAMES WERE NOT WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF LIFE FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD, …as contrasted …EPH 1: 4. According as he hath CHOSEN US in him BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD

      (2) “MANY CALLED”= ONLY and ALL SAINTS (those who come to Christ) are written in the book of life … Philippians 4:3… ……Rev 21:27; (Only saints are Called and elect; Rom 1:6-7 et al) This is THE CHRUCH and ONLY these can have their names blotted out of the book of life ….….Heb 12:23 to the general assembly and CHURCH of the firstborn … WHICH ………are WRITTEN in heaven,

      (3) THE FEW CHOSEN: Those saints who were alive in group #2 who are now physically dead. They died “faithful” these are the FEW that were chosen faithful…….Rev 3:5. ……; and I
      will not BLOT OUT HIS NAME OUT OF THE BOOK OF LIFE, (Ps 69:28) …. These are the FEW that are CHOSEN and now that they have died and are saved then “once saved THEY CAN NEVER BE LOST”

      Predestination….its true..its all true…download here

      https://www.scribd.com/doc/306868420/Most-True-Christians-Go-to-Hell

      http://www.globethics.net/gtl/10920800 Most true Christians go to hell

      https://www.academia.edu/25217564/Most_True_Christains_Go_to_Hell

    MOST RECENT
    Load more ...

    SignUp

    Login

    Newsletter

    Email this story
    Email this story

    If you really want to ban this commenter, please write down the reason:

    If you really want to disable all recommended stories, click on OK button. After that, you will be redirect to your options page.