Page 150 - Countering Trinitarian Arguments With Historical Reference

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church Edited by F. L. Cross, 1963, pages 564-565 “Gnosticism. The name, derived from the Greek word ‘knowledge,’ given to a complex religious movement which in its [Catholic] Christian form comes into clear prominence in the 2nd century. It is now generally held that [Catholic/Orthodox] Christian Gnosticism had its origins in trends of thought already present in Pagan religious circles....The systems of teaching range from those which embody much genuine [Platonic] philosophical speculation to those which are wild amalgams of Mythology and magical rites drawn from all quarters, with the most slender admixture of Christian elements.”
McClintock and Strong Article “Trinity,” Vol. 10, page 553. “Toward the end of the 16th century, and during the 2nd, many learned men [Pagan Philosophers] came over both from Judaism and paganism to [Catholic] Christianity. These brought with them into the [Catholic] Christian schools of theology their *Platonic ideas and phraseology.”
The Story of Civilization: Part III Caesar and Christ A History of Roman Civilization and of Christianity from their beginnings to AD 325, by Will Durant, 1944, page 595. “[Catholic/Orthodox] Christianity did not destroy paganism; it adopted it. The Greek mind, dying came to a transmigrated life in the theology of the [Catholic] Church, the Greek language, having reigned for centuries over philosophy, became the vehicle of Christian literature and ritual; the Greek Mysteries passed down into the impressive mystery of the Mass. Other pagan cultures contributed to the syncretism result. From Egypt came the ideas of a divine Trinity, from Egypt the adoration of the Mother and Child, and the mystic theosophy that made Neoplatonism and Gnosticism, and obscured the Christian creed; there too, Christian monasticism would find its exemplars and its source. From Phrygia came the worship of the Great Mother; from Syria the resurrection drama of Adonis;...The Mithraic ritual so closely resembled the eucharistic sacrifice of the Mass that Christian fathers charged the Devil with inventing these similarities to mislead frail minds. [Catholic Trinitarian] Christianity was the last great creation of the ancient pagan world.”
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church Edited by F. L. Cross, 1963, page 818 “Logos (Greek Word or Reason). The expression is used in (esp. Greek) theology for the “Word of God,” the Second Person of the Trinity. The term was known both in Jewish and Pagan antiquity. Heraclitus (c. 500 B.C.) conceived it in a pantheistic way as the universal reason governing and permeating the world, and the Stoics took it over and popularized it. In the Platonized thought of Alexandria, its character changed from an immanent power to an intermediary agent between God and the world and as such influenced Philo...In patristic times the Logos doctrine was taken up by St. Ignatius and developed by the *Apologists of the 2nd century. (*Clement and Origen of Alexandria Egypt) The latter saw in it a welcome means of making the (Catholic) Christian teaching acceptable to Hellenistic (Platonic) Philosophy, but did not always escape the danger of falling into unsound Gnostic speculations.”
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