“To the assembly in Pergamum write: …I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is.” (Revelation 2:12–13)

Why did Jesus issue this statement to the assembly in Pergamum? Was it merely an observation? Or could it be he was alerting his people to an imminent and extreme danger?

Here is the historical fact:

“Pergamum served as the residence of the [Greek] Attalid dynasty… When Attalus III died without an heir, he bequeathed the kingdom to Rome (133 BC). Rome accepted it.” —Encyclopedia Britannica.

That transfer happened 133 years before Christ—before Jesus ever came on the scene. Every Roman Emperor from that point forward was the legal heir to Satan’s throne. And just as importantly, the kingdom Satan’s throne represented.

That isn’t fringe. That isn’t hype. That is a historical fact coupled with biblical truth.

Let’s consider this from a practical application.

Imagine showing up to your church one day to find out that your pastor had, along with other pastors in his denomination, been invited to deal with a major doctrinal conflict. Instead of settling it in-house, they had invited a high official of the Church of Satan to come and preside over the proceedings. Once in progress, that high official imposed something he claimed would settle the issue; and your pastor and his colleagues—for the sake of unity rather than biblical faithfulness—willingly accepted it and signed off on it. And you only found out about it when your pastor came back to tell your congregation what they all agreed upon, including what you were to believe about God from now on.

How would you feel about that?

Because that is roughly what happened when the bishops convened the Council of Nicaea under the authority of the legal heir of Satan’s throne and then returned home to impose the new doctrine upon all, regardless of their prior beliefs. The big difference was, in their case, they had all the legal and military might of Rome to silence, imprison, persecute, or even execute any dissenters—meaning you if need be. And they did.

The doctrine they imposed was called “the Trinity”—built on words coined from pagan philosophy (“same substance,” “coequal,” “coeternal”) and hijacked from Scripture and redefined beyond recognition (“hypostasis,” “persons”)—none of it the language of the apostles.

And untold millions of Christians have unknowingly been handed the result ever since. You may be one of them.

Here’s what I can say with certainty: anything leading you toward trusting Satan over the simple commands of God isn’t going to end well. God commands ‘one He’; Satan’s legal heirs command three He’s. I want to help you choose wisely.

Jesus also said: “For there is no good tree that produces rotten fruit, nor again a rotten tree that produces good fruit.” (Luke 6:43)

Paul wrote:

“But I will continue to do what I am doing, in order to cut off the opportunity from those who want an opportunity to be found as our equals in that which they boast about. For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for the Adversary disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will be according to their works.” (2 Corinthians 11:12–15, REV)

No doctrine is exempt from this test—including the Trinity.

The Roman emperors were the legal heirs to Satan’s throne. That’s a historic fact.

A rotten tree cannot produce good fruit. That’s a biblical truth.

Either Jesus didn’t know what he was talking about, or he was giving us a profound warning that we need to listen to.

There’s no getting around the fact that Roman Emperor Constantine imposed “same substance” on the bishops gathered in Nicaea in 325 AD. An unbaptized pagan emperor acting in his capacity as Satan’s legal heir presided over that council—and he is the one who insisted that homoousios was the solution to the church conflict presented for his oversight.

One can only justify it and defend it or face it for what it is and reject it.

One path is bondage. The other is healing, liberty, and spiritual sight.

“Be careful that you don’t let anyone rob you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elemental spirits of the world, and not after Christ.” (Colossians 2:8)

TIMELINE

Here’s a brief timeline for some of the major contributing events:

~1400–1200 BC—Moses records the Shema: “Fear Yahweh your God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments… Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one…You shall fear Yahweh your God; and you shall serve him…” ‘One He’ by commandment (Deut. 6:2, 4, 13). No persons. No substance.

133 BC—Attalus III bequeaths the Greek kingdom of Pergamum to Rome. Satan’s throne transfers to Rome’s Emperors (like Constantine), making them the legal heirs.

~150 AD—Numenius of Apamea restores “the forgotten doctrine of Three Gods” to the philosophical schools. He is the first to assign personality (“persons”) to Plato’s abstract forms and, with others like Plotinus, first articulates a “triune” god, paving the way for the Trinity of the fourth century.

~165 AD—Justin Martyr introduces Numenius’s multi-personal God into Christian theology.

~200 AD—Tertullian coins “una substantia, tres personae”—one substance, three persons. Here, pagan philosophy’s ‘one substance’ entered Christian thought. Thereafter, Trinitarians interpret all Scripture through the lens of pagan categories rather than seeking biblical answers within Scripture.

325 AD—Constantine, legal heir to Satan’s throne, imposes homoousios (“one substance”) at Nicaea by imperial decree. Thereafter, all Trinitarians who refer to God as one “substance” rely on the authority of the one holding the throne of Satan for their doctrine of God.

381 AD—Emperor Theodosius finalizes the Trinity at Constantinople by imperial decree, outlawing free theological debate and branding Nazarenes, Ebionites, Unitarians, and all who refused the new creeds as heretics. Gregory of Nyssa went further, explicitly condemning Jewish monotheism—the faith of Jesus himself (John 4:22)—as heresy.

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