Douglas G. Hanscomb | The Origin of the Trinity
by Douglas G. Hanscomb
First Apostolic Church of Maryville (Maryville, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: John 8:32, Revelation 22:18, Jeremiah 20:9

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/douglas-g-hanscomb--douglas-g-hanscomb
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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Good morning everyone. >> Morning. What an honor it is this morning to not only be in his house in this beautiful place that the Lord has prepared for our families but also to be able to feel the shakina >> glory of our God. If Sister Hansum and I lived in this area, this is where we go to church. Right here. >> Right here. Yeah. Yeah. God bless you. You may be seated this morning. Thank you. This is without doubt the hour of the apostolic church. People are hungry to know the truth. It wasn't too long ago that a Catholic archbishop called me. When Sister Hansum and I got home, he had left a message on the machine and he introduced himself as Archbishop Ron McCarthy. And he said, "I have read your book from Rome to Jerusalem." and he said, 'I want to chat.' So I called him, prepared to defend my apostolic heritage. And as we talked, we had so much in common. While I was at the Trappist Monastery at Oka, northwest of Montreal, he was at the Trappus Monastery in Georgia. This man, 71 years old, he had the authority to excommunicate bishops living in Florida. And as we began to talk, I felt a hunger in his voice. And he said, "You talked about baptism in Jesus' name." He said, "And you talked about being baptized by immersion. Why in Jesus' name?" And I simply told him what you told me 53 years ago. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name given among men whereby we must be saved. And I said, Ron, when Jesus walked out in the water with John, John did not carry a cup with him. Jesus came straightway out of the water and he said, "You talked about the baptism of the Holy Ghost." He said, "I'm interested in that." >> 71 years old, raised in the Roman Catholic Church, and he's still hungry. I told him, "Unless you're born of the water and of the spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God." I led him to a small apostolic church in his town. He said, "I'm going to go there." He said uh kept texting me and he said uh I didn't have on my cassic or my Roman collar. He said they didn't know me from any other 71year-old. And he said the pastor gave an altar call and he said I went up but I went to the pastor and I said sir I don't feel comfortable with people putting their hands on my body. So the the pastor got on the mic and he said, "This man wants to pray. Let's not put our hands on him. Let's respect him." He said, "Bishop, I began to pray." He said, "I felt things divine." He said, "I felt things I never felt before in my 71 years of living." He said, "All of a sudden, somebody touched me." He said it was on my chest. He said I fell backward and they told me I spoke in other tongues as the spirit of God gave utterance for over 30 minutes. He has left He has left the Catholic Church and is serving God today in the beauty of holiness in the state of Florida. He said, "Uh, uh, bishop, I I I want to send you my stole, which is a priestly vestment." He said, "Now that I have the Holy Ghost, I have no further need of it." I said, "Neither do I, Ron, but I'm going to keep it as a souvenir of the power that's in the blood of Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior." I said, "Ron, you know that they're going to excommunicate you." He said, "Bishop, did you say excommunicate me?" He said, "I excommunicated them." >> He said, "This is the greatest thing I ever got a hold of in all of my life." It's okay. Go ahead and praise him this morning. If I could entitle this message in your hearing, it would be on this wise at the end of the day. At the end of the day, for those of you who may not know me, I was uh raised in this province of New Brunswick. uh north uh of the state of Maine on the east coast and u as a 15year-old I had a desire to do something for God and with my family's permission and blessing I entered the seminary uh in Tuvia Quebec. Uh it was there that I finished my high school and my philosophy on to my theology uh with the Brothers of Charity of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Riverside, California, right up to when I was going to take my perpetual vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. God intervened and led me to an oldfashioned apostolic church. James D. McKillip was my pastor. It was there that I repented of my sins, was baptized in Jesus' name, and God filled me with the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Now John in the eighth chapter says, "And ye shall know the truth, >> and the truth shall make you free." Ladies and gentlemen, at the end of the day, the only thing that's going to matter about anything is the truth. >> It is the truth. Now, in order to have the truth, you've got to want the truth. >> You've got to be hungry for the truth. The only thing as a young seminarian that I had to offer God was hunger, >> but it was enough. Salvation is God's response to a hungry heart. >> Now, James D. McKillip taught me to love the house of God. The days of just coming to church are over. >> We've got to love the house of God. The days of just reading our Bible is over. We've got to love the word of God. Can we slip our hands up just for a moment? If there is someone here today that has not been baptized in Jesus' name, you've been baptized in the titles. Um, I want you to know we love you. We are not picking on you. We're not trying to intimidate you. >> But we are lovers of truth. >> Over the past 53 years, I have not forgotten my hunger for truth. >> I have not forgotten either my confusion over the Trinity doctrine. as a seminarian. So this morning I want to go down memories lane to the seminary of theology. Uh it was Latin. It's called Institute Valent. The will of God by Mary Immaculate. And I want you to go down memories lane with me to that seminary. You may have to use your imagination somewhat, but the seminary is still operating. They are still training priests and seminarians to travel the world. and they're still trying to figure out this issue on the trinity. It comes through revelation. Now to understand the monotheistic nature of the God of Abraham, we must dive into the word of the Lord. I challenged my Catholic dogma at that time concerning the Trinity doctrine. Explain it to me, somebody. Well, it's hard to explain. Well, the reason it's hard to explain is because it never existed. >> The Jesuits, now we are in the lecture hall, and you're sitting with me behind the desk as seminarians. And the Jesuit priest comes out and he talks to us about the trinity doctrine. Now the Jesuits started in the 16th century as a militia. They were soldiers, armed soldiers to protect the pope. But of course now it has involve evolved into probably the most educated group within the Catholic Church. So I just want to and you'll excuse me if I I reference my book but I just want to talk to you about this trinity. Now, this is writing from the Roman Catholic Encyclopedia. It's not the Botanica. It's not from an apostolic author. These are Roman Catholic theologians that wrote this. And listen to what they say. And you're sitting here in the seminary. There are few teachers of trinitarian theology in the Catholic seminaries who have not been badgered at one time or another by the question. But how does one preach the trinity? And if the question is confusion on part of the students, perhaps it is no less confusing on the part of the professors. Now it goes on and says among the apostolic fathers there have been nothing remotely approaching such mentality or perspective among the second century apologists as that of plurality within the godhead. I don't want to confuse you with a bunch of stuff but this is Catholic writing. The formation, one God in three persons, was not solidly established, certainly not fully assimilated into Christian life and its profession of faith prior to the end of the fourth century. The Old Testament, again, this is not from an apostolic author. The Old Testament clearly does not envisage God's spirit as a person. God's spirit is simply God's power. The New The majority of New Testament texts reveal God's spirit as something not someone. I was at the seminary of philosophy at Notraam Jakap when the announcement was made that John L. McKenzie, the Jesuit scholar, had just received the much coveted Cardinal Spellelman Award. John L. McKenzie was a Jesuit. He taught at Dupal University in Chicago. This man could speak 11 languages fluently. He was known in Rome as one of the most outstanding theologians of all times. And this is what he wrote about the Trinity that none of us at the time could understand. I asked the question to my professor and you're there with me today. Is there one God or are there three gods? They said, "Oh, there's only one God." But you say there are three separate identities in the Godhead. An identity is an individual. Is there one or are there three? This is what John L. McKenzie wrote uh about the trinity. He said the trinity of God is defined by the Catholic Church as the belief that in God are three persons who subsist in one nature. The belief as so defined was reached only in the fourth and fifth centuries AD and hence is not explicitly and formally a biblical belief. Now I have here two pieces of wood. This was cut out of a tree. This is the real deal. This is also a piece of wood, but it's plywood. A lot of the characteristics of the real deal are in this piece of wood. But there's also glue and there are chemicals. >> This is man-made. Ladies and gentlemen, if we're going to be saved at the end of this journey, we've got to stay with the real thing. We've got to stay with the word of our Oh, go ahead. I feel like you want to Come on, somebody. Come on somebody. Heaven and earth will pass away but his word will never pass away. Now to understand the monotheistic nature of the God of Abraham. You could see as a seminarian how my confusion deepened after studying the encyclopedia, after studying our church dogma, my confusion deepened. But after God filled me with the Holy Ghost, you see friends, when you take the Holy Ghost out of the equation, you take God out of the equation because the Holy Ghost is God. >> Then you have only your intellect to lean upon. But could I say today, we are not going to be judged by our philosophies, our theologies, or our ideologies. We're going to be judged by the word of God. So after God filled me with the Holy Ghost, I asked myself the question, is it the apostolic church telling the Roman Catholic Church that I was a big part of that there is no trinity? Or is it the Roman Catholic Church telling the apostolic church there is no trinity? Whatever the case, there is no trinity. There's never been a trinity. There is no trinity. And there will never be a trinity >> here. O Israel, you know the scripture. >> The Lord, the Lord our God is how many? >> Everybody put your finger up. one. How many are there? There's only one. Only one. But to understand the monotheistic nature of the God of Abraham, we've got to go through the millennials of time. We've got to go back in Hebrew history, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They worshiped the monotheistic God. It should have been Abraham, Isaac, and Esau. We've all We've all made the statement at one time or another, "I'm about to starve to death." Esau was not starving to death. He walked up to Jacob and he said, "Jacob, what good is my birthright going to be if I die?" But he be begrudgingly learned that when you feed the flesh, you lose the birthight. >> I'm going to ask you to lift both of your hands to God right now, somebody. When you feed the flesh, you lose your birthright. >> And then down to the monarchial period, King David, Basheba's son, Solomon, Jeroboam. Through the many dark days of Hebrew history, God was seen as the monotheistic God, the one God. And then down to the prophecy of Joel and then to the intertestamental period, it's better referred to as the 400 silent years. Even though there was not a prophet during that time, they still believed that God was one, that God was one. Then over to the anodominai side. Uh medieval Latin better said would be uh anodominai in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ. The birth, the death, the resurrection of the Messiah. Still one God. The apostles did not know about a doctrine called the trinity doctrine. >> They believed as in Judaism, there's only one God. After the death of the apostles, John about three years ago, I was on the aisle of Patmos and was actually in the cave where John was. Patmos was the Alcatraz of the Mediterranean during the days of John the theologian. And he he said this, "If any man >> adds to >> the prophecy of this book, >> God would add to him the plagues that are in the It's very important, folks. >> We don't touch what is already settled in heaven. >> We don't add to it. We don't take away from it. I'm glad to report today. It's still repentance. It's still baptism in Jesus' name. It's still the infilling of the Holy Ghost. And it's still living a holy and a separated life. Go ahead, clap your hands. I I'm just feeling like you're wanting to. In the church there were 21 ecumenical councils. The first one was called by Constantine in 3:25 over the nature of the Christ and this trinity doctrine. The 21st ecumenical council was called by Pope John the 23rd in 1962. It was called the second Vatican council. Uh he died in 1963. His successor Pope Paul V 6 finished the council and closed it in 1965. Those councils through the ages were all about doing what John said not to do, adding to and taking away from the word of the Lord. After the death of John within a hundred years a man was born by the name of Tertilian. He was from he was a pagan from northern Africa. His name was Quintis Septimus Florence Totilanos. He was born in 155 and he died in 220. He did not in he did not coin the word trinity. He introduced it to the apostolic church in the third century. What did John L. McKenzie say the Jesuit? It was in the 3rd and fourth century that the groundwork was laid for the trinity >> and that's Tertilian. >> Then time went on. Constantine was the first Roman emperor to become a Christian. Well, actually he wasn't a Christian, but he was the most powerful man in the Roman Empire. The same year that he called the council to discuss this trinity issue, he had his his his oldest son Chrisus executed because of room rumor that the boy had an affair with his second wife Fosta. Well, after the fact, Constantine's mother told him it was not Christmas. it was your wife Foster because she wanted her son to succeed you on the throne. So then he proceeded to have his second wife Foster executed as the parent source of the rumor. He was not uh baptized until he was baptized on his deathbed. Not a Christian, but the most powerful man in the empire. He turned pagan temples into Christian churches. He was the best thing that could have happened to the apostolic church in the sense that he allowed Christianity in the empire. But on the other hand, he was the worst thing that could have happened to the apostolic church because then it became ecclesia vivid reg. The church lives under Roman law. The keys now are no longer in the hands of Peter but in the hands of the emperors >> at the council in Nioa. fourth century. Just like John El McKenzie the Jesuit said, Constantine laid the foundation for this trinity doctrine. He oeded it. But it because of opposition of you people, because of the opposition of the apostolic church, it could not be ratified for 56 years down the road at the second ecumenical council called by Emperor Theodosis I in Constantinople. He not only ratified the trinity doctrine that earlier was not heard of but he made it civil law. Now it's against the law not to believe in the trinity. And if you profess not to believe in the trinity it meant death by the state. So the church had a choice. We follow the Roman emperors with their trinity doctrine or we go back underground. They chose to go back underground. For the last 14 years, I have spent a lot of time in mainland China working in the under the communist regime, the Buddhist nation. But could I tell you something about an underground church? People are still getting the Holy Ghost. >> People are still getting baptized in Jesus' name. >> I have bapti baptized families in their trash cans because they were afraid to go to the river. I learned two things about the communist government in China. They can persecute. They can prosecute. They can kill. But they cannot stop the moving of God's spirit. Come on. I'd like to talk to you just a little while about this man called Michael Cervidas. Is this okay? Michael Cervitus was from the country of Spain. God gave him the revelation of the oneness of God. This was in the 16th century. You could go all day long here in Mville going up and down the street saying there's only one God. There is no trinity. and it would not be really a big deal. But in the 16th century to say there was no trinity, you're inviting fire into your life. You're going to be burned to death. And they always used green wood to slow the progression of the flames and extend the agony of the consumed. So it wasn't just to kill somebody, it was to torture them until their hearts stop beating. Michael Cervidas, this is some of his writing. This is what he said. and John Calvin. You see, a lot of these Protestant churches are simply the daughters of the mother church. >> John Calvin was the founding father of the Presbyterian Church. He had Michael Cervidas burned to death in Geneva, Switzerland October 27, 15553 because of his denial of the Trinity. Pope Julius III wanted to burn Michael Cervitus. This is what Michael Cervitus wrote. He said Christ was God sharing God's divinity in full. This does not imply two gods but only a double use of the term God as is as is clear from the Hebrew use of the term. The doctrine of the Holy Ghost as a third separate being lands us in practical theism no better than atheism. Ouch. 16th century Michael. They're going to burn you. If the Catholic Church doesn't burn you, John Calvin is going to burn you in Geneva. In 1974, I was working at a drug rehab center outside of Geneva, little town called River Verdon. I was asked to preach in Geneva. I had the Holy Ghost at the time. I was honored to preach this one God apostolic message on the ground that was partially formulated by the ashes of Michael Cervidas. Then he goes on and he says Christ is one God with the father not a second God. All right. >> Christ came down from heaven as the word of God, sent as a man and put on flesh. The word which was in the beginning was simply the utterance which God gave when he first created the world. Christ was thus the voice of God that became flesh with the function of speaking for God. It was the word originally with God, not a second being that became flesh. Then he goes on and he said, "Christ was a prophet, though the whole of God was in him. Christ is not merely human, but the word of God, both human and divine, both man and God. Though he was a man, yet he was inseparable from God. God has manifested himself in three different dispositions. Christ was Elohim really the father. >> He sent this information to John Calvin. And John Calvin, who was a former Roman Catholic, said, "If he comes to Geneva, I will see to it that he not leave alive this great reformer." Martin Luther, founding father of the Lutheran Church, daughter of Catholicism. He hated the Jews. He made the statement, "We are at fault for not killing one of them. Burn their synagogues. Get them out of your country." Just after Martin Luther's death, 3,000 Jews were slaughtered in Frankfurt, Germany. A few hundred years later, Adolf Hitler came on the scene. Martin Luther was without doubt the forerunner of Adolf Hitler. Hitler used the teaching of Martin Luther to justify the Jewish Holocaust. Martin Luther was seen as a hero in Nazi Germany, the dictator who claimed 50 million lives. Hitler, just for your information, was not agnostic. He was not an atheist. He was Roman Catholic. His mother, Clara Hitler, was a devout Catholic in Austria. He saw himself as a prophet in the Catholic Church. That's why Pope Pas I 12th could not say anything about the Second World War because for years the Catholic Church persecuted the Jewish people. I'm glad today that I know who he is. >> Let's lift our hands one more time, somebody. Michael Cervidas was hiding in France. When Pope Julius III learned that he was in France, he sent the Grand Inquisitor of France to capture him. Michael Zervitas was arrested and put in a jail. Somehow he managed to escape. Instead of going back to his neat little town in Spain, guess where he went? He went to Switzerland. Why would he go to Switzerland? John Calvin was there. He not only went to Switzerland, he went to Geneva where John Calvin lived. He not only went to Geneva, he went to John Calvin's church and sat on the back pew. Why? You know he's going to burn you. You know he's been looking for you. Something was burning on the inside of Michael Cervidas. I've got to tell somebody the truth. They need to know that there are not three separate identities in the Godhead. But God is God and God is alone. He's the alpha. He's the omega. He's the lily of the valley. He's the rose of Sharon. Jeremiah put it on this wise. His word is in my heart like fire shut up in my bones. >> At the end of the day, ladies and gentlemen, the only thing that's going to count is the truth. At the end of your journey, the only thing that's going to matter is the truth. Cervitas chose death over compromise. I'm going to tell you, I'm going to read to you the end of Michael Sevitus. John Calvin had him arrested and put in a dungeon. Cervidas was shackled and imprisoned within the stony interior of a 16th century dungeon. As he was led from the warm light of day into the depths of his confinement, he felt the menacing chill of darkness sweep across his face. Cold, hungry, and alone. Cervitas would not see the light of day for another two and a half months. As the crowd gathered on October 27, 1553, this is the burning of Michael Cervidas. Michael Cervitas was dragged from the darkness of his captivity. His imprisonment had left him in a filthy and impoverished condition. Feeling the sharp, cruel claws of reality, clamping down upon him and being irretrievably broken by John Calvin, he lowered his head as his accusers read these words. We condemn thee. Michael condemn him for what? Believing in the God of Abraham. Believing that there was only one God and he was alone. That there was none before him and none after him. We condemn thee, Michael Sevitus, to be conveyed in bonds to your place of execution there to be burned alive and with thee the manuscript of thy book and the print of volume until thy body is consumed to ashes. Thus thou shalt end thy days as a warning to all others who might wish to repeat thine offense. Cervitas felt the coarsely hewed timber scrape across his back as he was pressed firmly against the wooden stake. The heavy chain attached to the stake was then pulled tightly four or five times around Cervitus's emanciated body. It seemed with every constructive pass death drew even closer between the lengths of chain and the wasted body of Michael Cervidas were placed his book and manuscript pertaining to the Godhead which had early been sent to John Calvin under seal for his fraternal opinion. Finally, in a harsh spirit of scorn, a crown of leaves was placed upon his brow. The leaves had been soaked in sulfur. The putrid mixture ran down the martyr's body. The wood was then kindled and the murder began. as his executioners echoed in their own minds a loud voice of self-righteous indignation when the flames of torment burst forth from the green wood. Michael Cvedus, the man who would not recant, would not compromise with the Trinity doctrine, knowing that there was only one person in the Godhead, uttered so dreadful a cry that many of his onlookers hid their eyes from the pitiful sight. This man's struggle with death lasted for half an hour. Once the shrill screams of agony subsided, above the glowing embers could be seen a black sickening charred mass which had lost all human human resemblance. Michael Sevitus, the one martyr, had now given all that he had for the truth he so bravely proclaimed. The problem that I had at the seminary of theology was we could not trace the trinity doctrine past the 4th century. He's still God and he's still on the throne. >> He's still one. >> Going to ask you to lift both of your hands again to the Lord. I feel the Holy Ghost in the house. We ought to thank God right now for the revelation of who Jesus Christ really is. Come on. Come on, brother. Come on, sister. Come on, somebody. You may be seated. Before I turn the service over, somebody asked a question, and I I I don't like to talk about this book, but on the back cover there's a group picture. These are Roman Catholic theologians. Riverside, California, 1972. Fire appeared behind my head. That's not a gimmick. It's not the work of a touchup artist or photochild. I want to tell you what happened. I had no connection with the apostolic church. I was Roman Catholic about to be a priest. But the night before was a Saturday or Friday night and I was praying my rosary, venerating the Virgin Mary and the medieval saints. And all of a sudden, I felt this hunger to know God. I didn't know what it was, but I felt like there was something else. And I simply told God, "God, if you made me, you can reveal yourself to me." The next morning, Father Pete Kovas from Riverside, St. Katherine's Church, was at the seminary and he took that picture and that halo of fire appeared over my head. When I first saw it, I thought it's film exposure. In my 53 years of living for God, I never told what I thought it was, and I'm not today. But when you see the picture, I will honor your judgment on the matter. I'd like for us to stand to our feet. I'd like for us to lift both of our hands to God. If you're here today and you've not been baptized in Jesus' name, >> I challenge you, I encourage you, don't go by the traditions of men. Don't go by man-made religious Christianity. Get in the word of God. >> No, you didn't hear what I said. I said get in the word of God. >> The spirit of God >> will lead you. Let's keep our hands lifted to him. Let's keep those hands. Let's keep those hands lifted all across this room. Come on. The Lord is stirring us up this morning. These altars are open for somebody. Come on. Maybe you're feeling pricricked in your heart this morning. Or maybe you're just thankful for the revelation of who Jesus is. I'm going to ask the church body to come to the altars this morning. Come on. Come on and let's lift our voices in this room today. God has showed up in this room. Come on. Because the truth of who he is has been proclaimed and been preached in this house. Come on. Let's thank him for who he is.