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Contra Stavrinides
by Frank Nelte
PART II: THE ORIGIN OF THE CHURCH'S NEW TEACHING
"God is one being in three hypostases --- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit".
Where does this come from?
"From the Council of Constantinople in 381 A.D. onwards the formula: THREE HYPOSTASES IN ONE 'OUSIA' came to be everywhere accepted as an epitome of THE ORTHODOX DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY TRINITY."
"If anyone does not confess that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are ONE NATURE OR ESSENCE, ONE POWER OR AUTHORITY, WORSHIPPED AS A TRINITY OF THE SAME ESSENCE, ONE DEITY IN THREE HYPOSTASES OR PERSONS, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA. For there is one God the Father, of whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and one Holy Spirit, in whom are all things."
The most important of these Catholic Creeds are:
"The distinctiveness of each nature is not nullified by the union. Instead, the properties" of each nature are conserved and BOTH NATURES CONCUR IN ONE PERSON" AND IN ONE HYPOSTASIS"
It is a fact that nearly every attempt at codifying orthodox Christian doctrine since the 5th century a.D. has used these above three creeds either "explicitly or implicitly" (to borrow a phrase from Dr. Stavrinides) as the foundation for its statements.
This is also true for the "creed" Dr. Stavrinides has devised for the Church of God today, although it is considerably shorter than its historical predecessors.
"THE TRINITY TEACHES EXACTLY WHAT THE BIBLE DOES".
"Is the Catholic Church God's Church or is it not? Has God EVER worked through the Catholic Church? Does God give knowledge and understanding ABOUT HIMSELF through the Catholic Church or not?"
Yes, certainly, facts need to be examined on their own merit, irrespective of their source. But Dr. Stavrinides tries to circumvent these questions by separating "theology" from "the Bible". Some of his statements are:
"Christians have a limited grasp of theology"
"We don't know what theology REALLY is"
"BY 'THEOLOGY' I DO NOT MEAN ANYTHING THAT IS 'BIBLICAL THEOLOGY'"; etc. .
Examining these statements logically, this means: since the theology he expounds in his lectures is not anything that is "Biblical theology" and since we Christians don't know what theology "REALLY" is, does it mean we are to look to "non-Christian" pagans to tell us about the nature of God? Do those who are not Christians "really" have a better understanding about the nature of God than those to whom God's Spirit has revealed "the deep things of God" (I Cor 2:10)? Do we, of all people, have to go to the unconverted to tell us what the God we worship is really like?
BEFORE viewing these tapes, every minister should spend a few hours looking into the history of these Catholic Councils and studying the various creeds they produced. With that information as background, it is much easier to follow Dr. Stavrinides' reasonings ... because one will know in advance what conclusions he is driving towards.
"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." (Colossians 2:8)
The Greek for "through (his) philosophy" is "dia tês philosophias" and this is the only use of this word in the N.T.. It is an old word from "philosophos", from "philos" and "sophos" meaning: one devoted to the pursuit of wisdom. In the next phrase Paul explains the type of wisdom he means: "and vain deceit", in Greek "kai kenês apatês". This is an old Greek word for "trick" and "guile", descriptive of philosophy. The word "tradition" is an old Greek word ("paradosin") which means: a giving over, a passing on. "Philosophy" had really started to come to the fore in the 5th century B.C. from Socrates onwards; and it has been passed on "as a tradition of men" ... right down to our time where people are still studying the writings of these ancient philosophers.
Dr. Stavrinides may be quick to "argue" that Colossians 2:8 refers to one SPECIFIC discipline of philosophy ... gnosticism, or perhaps even asceticism. But that is not what Paul wrote! He used the word "philosophy", when he could just as easily have used the words "gnosticism" or "asceticism", which he did not do! Also, such an argument ignores the inspiration of Almighty God. God's Word is timeless: back then the ideas to guard against may very well have been gnosticism and asceticism; today we need to guard against the philosophy of Origen --- the hypostasis-idea.
WHY are we looking to the Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church for understanding about God, when they have never at any stage been "the body of Christ", the Church that God works through?
The excuse that "theology" is somehow the domain of professional pagan philosophers, who don't have the Spirit of God, who don't really understand God's revelation to mankind, the Bible and that "theology" has nothing to do with the Bible is nonsense!
The Bible is God's ONLY recorded revelation to mankind. Knowledge and understanding about the nature of God is not something a man can think up and reason out ... be that man a Greek philosopher, a Catholic "theologian" or an Indian in the Amazon jungle.
It is a FACT that Revelation 17:1-18 very clearly identifies a false church, pretending to be the true Church of God. And it is equally clear that this refers to THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND ITS DAUGHTER-CHURCHES ... that includes the GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH!
WHY would God on the one hand pronounce "the judgment of the great whore" ("to krima tês pornês tês megalês") and on the other in effect tell us: "if you really want to understand about My nature, let this 'great whore' tell you what I am like"? It just doesn't make sense!
The whole presentation is nothing more than an old Catholic teaching, dressed up for modern consumption.