Masterpiece 66
The Nicene Council
and the Godhead
Pastor, Brian Kocourek
1. Last Sunday we spoke on the Seed for the season,
and we read from paragraphs 110 through 113 for our text. There was something else
in that paragraph that we did not get into, so we will take this communion
service to look into this additional thought that brother Branham tells us here
in paragraph 113. He was speaking about how the seed has to die, (well, not
really die because the life in it does not die, but the shell has to die or rot
away in order for the Life that is in that seed to come into manifestation, or
in order for the life that is in the seed to come forth into
expression.
2. Then in paragraph 113 of THE MASTERPIECE 64-0705 Brother
Branham says,
“Now historians, remember, and you who's going to hear this tape, check it up
and find out if that's not right. The church died at
3. So brother Branham is placing the death of the
early church with the event that took place at Nicaea Rome in 325 A.D. That is
what brother Branham is referring to here. So what was the council at
4. The Roman Emperor Constantine Ist, was in charge over the opening
session and took part in the discussions. He had hoped that a general council
of the church would solve the problem created in the Eastern church
by Arianism, which was a heresy that was proposed by Arius of
5. They take Colossians 1:15 which
is speaking of Jesus and says, “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
and they take this first born of every creature and say he is the
first of the creation of God which is error, Because Jesus was not a created
being, He was birthed, and there is quite a difference.
6. They also take revelations 3:14 which states that
Jesus is the beginning of the Creation of God. They read this as though it is
saying that Jesus was created and that he was the first created being. But the
word translated as beginning was the Greek word “arch” which actually refers to
rank and position as “being the head of”, and is not referring to Jesus as
being the first Created being. Thus the Jehovah Witnesses refer to Revelations
7. In Colossians 1:15
Paul used the word prototokos
which comes from two Greek words, Proto meaning first and tokos
meaning born, thus rendered “first born”. This word speaks of “an heir”, or a “begotten
one”, the first born, and Paul did not use the word “proto”-“ktistos” which also is comprised of two Greek words Proto
meaning first and ktistos meaning creation,
and therefore speaks of “first creation”.
8. Therefore what Paul is telling us in Colossians is
that Christ is first in rank above all creation; and therefore He is the head of
all things, and He is the Heir of all things, and He is prior to all creation.
9. Now, the Jehovah
witnesses have a fair argument against the Trinitarian doctrine of Godhead, and
they have a fairly good argument concerning the fact that the man Jesus was a
man and not God. But they know nothing of duality that Brother Branham taught
and they fail in their assessment of the Man Jesus because they fail to link
Him to God via Seed, Duality, and Expression. And where they fall short the
most in their understanding concerning the Godhead is that they place Jesus as
a lesser God, and as a part of the creation of God. But He was far above being
just a mortal man like you or I. They liken Him to a higher ranking than the
angels, the prophets, and apostles. But they fail to link Him with the duality
Brother Branham ascribed to Him, making the body worthy of veneration and
worship.
10. 16 For by him were all things created,
that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they
be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created
by him, and for him: 17 And he is before all things, and by him all
things consist. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is
the beginning, the firstborn from
the dead; that in all things he might
have the preeminence.
11. Now, the word
preeminence simply means the first in rank and influence, and he most certainly
does.
12. So we see that the first real challenge to the
unity of the Church was over the doctrine of the Godhead, and the church
divided over this doctrine before
13. From his sermon Taking sides with Jesus
14. So you see the purpose of minister meetings is to
study the deeper things of God, not compromise on the Word in order to have a
larger circle of fellowship. That never was God’s plan, but that is exactly
what the emperor Constantine did in usurping authority over the church.
15. The fuss was over Arianism which taught that Jesus
was not God, but the Son of God, and therefore not in the Godhead but the
Godhead was in Him, Now, that may seem pretty Good but
it drifted from there into Unitarianism. According to the Encyclopedia
Brittanica, “Arianism was a Christian heresy first proposed early in the 4th century
by the Alexandrian presbyter Arius. It affirmed that Christ is not truly divine
but a created being. (Now, where we differ with Arias and the Jehovah
witnesses who have taken up his gauntlet, is that we
do not believe that Christ was created. We believe he was birthed by God. In
other Words, he was a part of God, and God birthed forth this Son).
16. Arius' basic premise was the uniqueness of
God, who is alone self-existent and immutable; (that means
unchangeable) and that the Son, who is not self-existent, cannot be God. Because the Godhead is unique, and the word unique means there is
but one.
17. In other words, Arias believed there is only One God, that is what “unique” means, it means none other like
it. Just One of a kind. and
therefore the Godhead cannot be shared or communicated, so the Son cannot be
God. And because the Godhead is immutable (which means it can not
change; and that is what we see in Malachi 3:6, “I am God, I change Not.” and Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ the Same yesterday, today and forever”,
therefore we understand that God changes not.) but Arias believed the Son of
God is mutable, (that means he could change and did change) because
he is represented in the Gospels as being subject to growth and change, and
therefore because he can change he cannot be God.
18. The Encyclopedia Brittanica continues, “So we
see that Arias looked at immutability as the main attribute of God, and because
the Son is not immutable, he thus could not be God. Now, where Arias as
the Jehovah Witnesses also make their mistake, is that they thus concur The
Son must, therefore, be deemed a creature who has been called into existence
out of nothing and has had a beginning. And thus they conclude, Moreover, the Son can have no direct knowledge of the Father
since the Son is finite and of a different order of existence.
19. Now, although we
agree that the Son had a beginning, because by nature of being a son one has a
beginning, but we do not attribute that beginning to an act of creation, but to
a birth. Because creation comes from nothing to something, whereas birth comes
from the Life of Another, into its an expression of that life in another
being, and that is where we believe the
Son of God came from, he came from God Himself, and thus was an expression of God
in Human form. We also disagree with the thought that the son could not have
knowledge of the Father. because the Son of God
Himself said in his own words, “no man knows the Father but the Son and those whom the Son
reveals him.” And we believe that God indwelt His Son, and lived in
that Son in a duality of being, or sharing of that Body. Thus by God inhabiting
the body of His only begotten Son, (this co-existence) brought into the Son the
knowledge of the Father. For if God inhabited the Body of His Son, then God
also inhabited His brain, and thus the Mind of God entered the Son and as Paul
said, “let the
mind that was in Christ be in You”.
20. Now, that is what
Jesus prayed when He said, “that they may be One Father, even as You
and I are one, that they might be one in us.
21. We find this in John
22. And we know the
way they were one is because the Glory that was in God was in Christ and that
Glory was given to us by Jesus that we might be one with God, in the same way
He was one with the Father. And we know that Glory is the word doxa which is
the opinion, assessment and judgment which are God’s on thoughts expressed.
That is what Jesus said in John 17: 22 And the glory (that’s
the word doxa)
which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are
one: So you see the same mind that God gave to Jesus, Jesus gave to
us, for the reason of being one with God as He is one with God.
23.
Now we just read from JOHN
¶ And now I
am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy
Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they
may be one, as we are. And
how is it that we might be One even as which means in the same manner as Jesus
and His Father were One? Jesus said, JOHN
24. Therefore it is very apparent that we are one by
receiving the same Word which Jesus received from His Father, thus bringing us
into the same Glory or the same mind as the Father. And
the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even
as we are one:
25. And brother Branham
bears witness to this as well in his sermon, HARVEST TIME 641212 87 PP. 034 Jesus said, "That they might be one, Father, as You and I
are one." Not for
some man to be over something, it never will work; one
denomination wants to take over the other, and one man over the other. But that
you might be one with God, like Christ and God was one; that's what the
prayer is. That... He was the Word, and Jesus
prayed that we might be the Word, reflecting Him. That's His prayer to
be answered. See how Satan scruples it up in the carnal mind? But that wasn't
Jesus' prayer, at all, that we might all congregate together and all have a
certain creed and so forth. Every time they do it, they go further and further
from God. He wants us to be one with God, and God is the Word. Each individual in his heart must be that one with God.
26. Now, there is no way
that we could have the same mind that was in Christ unless we have the same
genetic disposition that Christ had with God. And only a true born son could
have the same disposition, because every seed must bring forth after is kind.
Therefore, we are a privileged people because as Sons we are able to receive
the very mind that was in Christ.
27.
That is what John meant when he said in John 1: 12 But
as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on his name:
28. Now, this power to become means given an ability to make a right
decision. In other words, given an ability to have a right
mind. And this ability which comes only by predestination, allows us to
think the thoughts o f God. It allows us to receive the very mind of Christ.
29. That is why Jesus could say in, Matthew
11: 27 All
things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the
Father; neither knoweth any man the
Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
30. Therefore we disagree with Arias who believed that
the son could not know the Father directly because the Father Himself had come
into His Son and was living and abiding in His son. But those were his teachings, that is what he
said, “Moreover,
the Son can have no direct knowledge of the Father since the Son is finite and
of a different order of existence.”
31. And that is contrary to what William Branham
taught when he said, “He was a duel being, Sometimes
it was the Son of God talking and sometimes it was God talking in Him.
Where we disagree with Arias concerning the Godhead is that he looked at Christ
as being a created being, whereas we see him as a uniquely birthed Son. Thus as
sons we are also privileged to know God even as we are known by Him.
32. The Apostle John
said in, 1 John 3: 2 Beloved, now are we the
sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that,
when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
33. And we know this
appearing is the phaneroo of God, when He comes to be manifested in His true
character. And thus when God manifested Himself in His true character, we see Him as He
truly is and thus in seeing God as He truly is, we thus begin to manifest
change to what we truly are.
34. Now, in getting back to what brother Branham said
concerning the council at
35. Now, this happened at
36. Again from the Encyclopedia Brittanica we read, “The
Pope at the time was Pope Sylvester I, he did not attend this Nicaean council
but was represented by legates. The council condemned Arius and, with
reluctance on the part of some, incorporated the non-scriptural word homoousios ("of one substance") into a creed (the Nicene Creed)
to signify the absolute equality of the Son with the Father. The emperor then
exiled Arius, an act that, while manifesting a solidarity
of church and state, underscored the importance of secular patronage in
ecclesiastical affairs.”
37. Church Age Book Chapter 1 - Introduction - The
Revelation of Jesus Christ P:29
They didn't believe in three Gods in the
beginning of the church. You can't find that sort of belief amongst the
apostles. It was after the apostolic age that this theory came in and really
became an issue and a cardinal doctrine at the Nicene Council. The doctrine of
Godhead caused a two way split at
38. And so we see that when the church lowered its bars and came to an
ecumenical meeting which was sponsored by the Emperor Constantine, it was then
the church died.
Church
Age Book Chapter
5 - The Pergamean Church Age P:147 And
that is what
39. And we see that happening today. I know it is not
a popular thing to speak the truth, because the truth hurts. But Truth is
truth, and as long as you walk in the light as He is in the Light you are
having fellowship with Him, but the moment you let down the bars and begin to
compromise on the Word, the Word will take its flight, and the Holy Ghost will
leave the church as it did back then.
40. Look, it is not an
easy thing to walk with the Lords despised few, and in fact that is what
brother Branham said in his sermon Shalom 64-0119 P:97 Lord God, don't
never let me get my mind, like Judas, upon a extra dollar, upon some fashion of
the world, or somebody to pat you on the back, and say, "Oh, Brother
Branham, this is..." No, no. God, never let that happen to me. I'll just
take the way with the Lord's despised few. I'll be a brother to man, do
everything that I can, Lord, love people with all my heart. But, Lord, never
let me move from this Word.
41. You know, we look at size as being successful. We look at all the
churches that are growing and we say, they are prosperous and they are growing,
but that is not the way of God’s Church. If we stand as Jesus did and
compromise not on the words he said, then we can not expect bigger numbers, we
must expect smaller.
42. The only way to grow a church is to compromise what this Word of God
says in order to make room for more make believers. Always remember, “many more are the
children of the prostitute that she which has a husband.”
43. Warning then judgment 63-0724 P:37 And, oh, how sometime it's hard to do such
things as that to tell people. If the prophet don't
watch, he'll get in trouble, because he'll kind a go off to one side, trying to
make it easy, or compromise a little bit here and a little bit there. But the
real prophet's got the order from God, should never compromise nothing; he
should absolutely lay it right on the line. That's the reason He used the
spirit of Elijah so much (See?), because that, that spirit always carried out
His orders. You see? See, it brought His orders just exactly what it was, and
always a "Come back to the Word." See? Always bring them back to the
Word.
44. And that is what
brother Branham is telling us that the Masterpiece in this Hour will reflect
the Masterpiece God had in Christ Jesus, because it is straight back to the
word. “The son can
do nothing in himself, but whatsoever the Son seeth the Father do, the Son
doeth likewise.” Have not I sent
thee 62-0124 P:45 The reason that God sends a prophet, the people get so far
away from God by traditions of the elders and so forth, and they bring
everything into the church that's worldly. And first thing you know they
compromise a little here and a little there, and a little here and a little
there. And the first thing you know it's nothing but an organization. It's
nothing but like a lodge. The people come there and have all kinds of soup
suppers, and dances, and buncos, and everything else.
And the church is no more than a lodge. That's right.
45. In closing I would like to say that if you read brother Branham’s
sermon entitled Influence of another preached
on
46. I feel the same way. God has allowed us to do what other churches
fifty times our size could not do. This summer we will be giving away our 100th
laptop, and when we first begun to give away laptops with the entire
Message on them, and the doctrine of the Message on them, the largest church in
47. I look at this little group and see that by the Grace of God this
ministry is doing what no others are doing out there. Brother Branham said we
should conduct minister meetings and discuss the doctrine and train up young
ministers to keep this Message alive, and that is what we have been doing all
around the world by the grace of God. And by His grace I continue to go to
where no others will go because there is a need for His Children to know who
they are, and they can not know who they are until they know Him. Others who
hold ministers meetings will not teach doctrine, They
avoid it lest there be infighting among them. They hold ecumenical councils of
sorts because the emphasis on their meetings is unity and a bigger circle of
fellowship.
48. But through the doctrine of Christ which we teach, God is instructing
His Children to better know and understand their roles in His family. And we
could not know our roles without first knowing Him, and that He is here, as
Brother Branham said, “My ministry is to declare Him, that
He is here.” And so we do the
same, and preach the same.
49. That is what he said in his sermon, From
that time 62-0713 P:102 How
many knows there's a difference between the appearing of Christ and the coming
of Christ? It's two different words. Now's the appearing, the coming will soon
be. He's appearing in the midst of us, doing the works that He once did, in His
church. Now, you're a part of that church, and by grace you believe. I am a
member of that church. Now, I'm not a preacher. You know I'm not. I have not
the education to do it. Sometimes I feel reluctant standing here by men of God,
who's called to that office. There are apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors,
and evangelists. Not all are apostles, not all are prophets, not all are
teachers, not all evangelists. I'm standing here, But my ministry is a
different ministry from a pastor or teacher. I'm not. And if I say things
wrong, brethren, forgive me. I don't mean it. But this is my ministry (See?) to
declare Him, that He's here.
50. And to those who are teaching this as doctrine, we are but stewards
of this great light and its doctrine that was given to us. And as Stewards we
will be held accountable with what we do with it. All the churches I know that
are big churches, began as little ones, but the ministries went out throughout
the lands gathering from the little flocks to create their big flocks, but I
have not done that, and have refused to do that. I have not sought to increase
the membership of this church. And I have not sent out my books and tapes to
make money, or build a congregation. I do not charge for the books and CD’s,
and I send mostly to countries where the brethren could not pay for them
because they do not have money.
51. Yet through this ministry, as small as it is locally, nevertheless
God has used it to take the doctrine to over 160 countries so far and as a
result we receive thousands of emails each year from ministers from countries
all over the world. And many of them tell us that they take these sermons that
you hear each week and they teach them to their own congregations, and their
people are being blessed. I do not believe we will ever know or understand the
impact of what God is doing here until we reach the other side.
52. In Congo the ministers have been getting together for the past to
years since we held minister meetings there to teach the Doctrine, and they
continue to meet monthly and take the sermons preached here as the study
materials for their own minister meetings. It is very humbling to see what God is doing
all over the world, and that we have had a part in it. All around the world,
men of God are translating these sermons into their own language. I know of no
other ministry in this Message that this is being done, where the doctrine is
being taught to so many around the world. I do not take credit for what is
happening, you’d have to be either arrogant or crazy to think this is the work
of any man. We do not have a big machine operating here. Nevertheless, this is
God’s work, and it keeps us humble to know that.
53. Then if God is doing these things, how could we ever compromise on
this Message as the early church did at Nicaea Rome? Instead we see the
opposite from these meetings. Men, humble enough to admit that before they came
to our meetings, they had been preaching the Message in error for twenty years
or more. Men admitting that for 20 years or more although believing the
Message, yet they did not understand what the Message was about until they came
to these meetings. Men who are elders to me in this Message and yet my children
in this Gospel. Oh, amazing Grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like
me. It makes me ashamed of myself, to
know that I could have given God more than I have, and I could have yielded
myself to Him earlier in my life, and been more pleasing to him, through out my
life. But nevertheless, as Jesus said, “whatsoever my Father commands me to say, that is what I teach.”
And “the Bride
will have Thus Saith the Lord or she will keep still.”
54. So, pray for us as we go to these foreign lands, because the
conditions are not easy for travel, and the devil is always trying to stop the
meetings, by throwing up obstacles everywhere. So we covet your prayers.
55. May God bless you all. Let us pray.