Build on the True Foundation

The Third Throne

John David Clark, Sr. - June, 1996

"For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received,. . . ." (2Cor.11:4)

"The Lord is in His holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven", prophesied David (Ps.11:4). Some prophets actually saw the throne in heaven of which David spoke. "In the year that King Uzziah died", said Isaiah, "I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, and His train filled the temple" (6:1). Later, the apostle John was carried into heaven, and he described in detail both the "throne in heaven, and [the] one [who] sat on the throne" (Rev.4:2). Ezekiel was completely overwhelmed by the glory of God's throne, saying, "When I saw it, I fell upon my face" (1:28). Others, including Jesus (Rev.3:21), also spoke of God's throne.

A centerpiece of the gospel is that there is a second throne in heaven, the throne of Christ Jesus. Quoting an ancient prophecy, the author of Hebrews reminds the reader of the Father's invitation to His resurrected Son: "Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool" (1:13). That Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father is mentioned on several occasions by the apostles; so, it is revealed by these men that there is a second throne (the throne of Jesus) in heaven.

These two thrones in heaven are occupied by the only two beings whom we are ever to worship. Both God and the Lamb of God (Jesus) are said to be "worthy of worship." The worship of angels is forbidden (Col.2:18), as is the worship of any other creature. The Father and the Son, the living God and His "express image", are alone holy, and to these two belong all worship and reverence.

But there is another character described in the Bible who envies the worship and devotion which belongs to God. This evil cherub, called Lucifer, determined in his heart that he, too, should sit on a heavenly throne. Through Isaiah, God revealed the secret thoughts which were in Lucifer's heart: "Thou hast said in thine heart, `I will ascend into heaven . . . I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation . . . . I will be like God.'" Despite the fact that one third of the angels supported his quest for godhood, he failed to obtain a share of the glory of the Father and the Son and was cast out of heaven. Jesus said, "I saw Satan fall as lightning from heaven." Someone less determined than Lucifer would have given up the idea of reigning as God on a throne with him. Not Satan. For what he failed to accomplish in heaven, he has succeeded in doing here on earth.

Christians everywhere teach that there is a "third divine person" with the Father and the Son. Recently, one of the best known charismatic ministers in the world said on his television program that when the saints of God arrive in heaven they will see three thrones there: one for the Father, one for the Son, and one for the "Holy Spirit". Although some trinitarians would disagree with his expectation to see three thrones, this crazy statement is generally in keeping with the spirit of Christian doctrine concerning the Trinity.

But where was the third throne when Moses was given his heavenly vision? And when heaven was opened up for the dying young martyr Stephen, why did he not see a third throne? And Isaiah, Micaiah, and Zechariah - where was that third throne when they glimpsed the holy, heavenly places of God? The apostle John was "caught up in the Spirit" into heaven, and in his Revelation painted a very detailed picture of heaven. But no third throne. Why?

The answer is simple. There is no third throne, because there is no third divine person. Satan's idle dream never became a heavenly reality, and never will.

Satan's desire was, and is, to be thought of as God, to be honored as God, to be feared as God. He deceived a third of the angels into doing his will, and they were cast out with him (Rev.12:9); thereafter, he sought to gain a following from the inhabitants of earth. To this end, he disguised himself ("as an angel of light" in Paul's words); and he has succeeded. A third of the angels and all mankind is no small following. To Mohammed and Joseph Smith he came as an angel. To Buddha and to Charles Russell he came as a revelation. With the world's religions, both great and small, but especially with Christianity's doctrine of a Trinity, he has succeeded in deceiving the whole world.

Satan can never truly be like God; his way of realizing his twisted dream among those who believe in Christ is to persuade them that there is a third divine person, besides the Father and Son, to whom worship and praise and prayer should be directed. In doing that, he has a kingdom - but only in the hearts of deceived men.

My friend, the only way Satan can ever accomplish his desire to be like God is to deceive men into acting and speaking as if he were God. For Christians, he has become a "third divine person". This he has accomplished with the aid of well-intentioned but misguided ministers who advance the doctrine of a third person in "the godhead". In other words, the "third person" which Christianity proclaims is not God's Spirit. God's Spirit is not a person; it is God's life, as the Scriptures plainly teach. This single, simple, holy truth alone exposes Christianity's "Holy Spirit" as an imposter, a thief and a liar, and an abomination which makes desolate every child of God who receives him into his heart. But if it is not the Spirit of God, the question, then, becomes, "WHO IS THAT THIRD PERSON?"

For whom does that imagined third throne in heaven exist? Christians have taught for almost two millennia that God is a unity of three divine persons: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; but, no such thing is taught in the Scriptures, or even implied by them. Who then is the intruder? The Father is a real person. The Son is a real person. Who is that "third person of the Trinity"? It cannot be God's Spirit, for God's Spirit is not a person at all! From whom did the notion that there is a trinity og divine persons originate? I think you know.

Satan was cast out of heaven for promoting that idea and for attempting to become the third divine person in a "triune god". He sinned in attempting to become an equal partner with the Father and the Son. Yet, Christianity teaches that there is a triune godhead, and Christians call that imagined third person the "Holy Spirit". But the real identity of that third divine person is breath-taking to consider.

WHO IS THAT THIRD PERSON? YOU MUST GIVE AN ANSWER!

WHO IS CHRISTIANITY'S THIRD PERSON?

By the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, Satan has become in the eyes of many on earth what he failed to become in heaven: equal with God. The truth is, Christianity always has been contrary to the truth of Christ. Christianity was invented by Satan for the sole purpose of sharing the glory that belongs to Christ Jesus and his Father.

There is no third throne in heaven, to be sure; but, Christianity demands that those who love Jesus make place for a third throne in their hearts, and to think of the occupant of that throne as they think of the Father and the Son: to worship him as the Father and the Son are worshipped, and to fear him as the Father and the Son are feared. Christians call that third person "Holy Spirit", and they pray to him as they pray to God; they praise him as they praise God, and they worship him as they worship God. But who is he, really? Who is so bold as to claim to be "Holy Spirit", a person equal in all respects to Christ Jesus and his Father?

Who is that "third person" who "as God sitteth in the temple of God [the church], showing himself that he is God"? Who is this imposter? He is Satan, the devil, who has offered to a weak-willed church his own filthy, religious spirit instead of the real Spirit of Christ. He has called himself holy, but the "Holy Spirit" he offers through Christian ministers is not holy at all. It delivers no one from sin; it heals no one; it does not speak in tongues when it enters. It is a dumb, rebellious, religious spirit. That is why instead of Christianity's "Holy Spirit" bearing witness in tongues when it enters (as God's Spirit always does), Satan's ministers are trained to persuade men simply to believe and confess that they have received God's Spirit. This is their principal function. But when that happens, when a person is persuaded simply to claim to have received God's Spirit, the Spirit which that person has actually received is Christianity's version of the "Holy Spirit": the spirit of antichrist, which is the filthy, religious spirit of Satan himself. When that dumb spirit is received into a person's fleshly temple, it does not confess (in tongues) that Jesus Christ is come (1Jn.4:1-3); on the contrary, one of Satan's ministers has to talk for him, announcing his arrival.

Satan's version of the holy Spirit supplanted the Spirit of Christ in the early church, and it has reigned as God in the religion of Christianity since the last days of the apostles. John and Paul both saw it developing and warned the church to resist its alluring call. Their warnings notwithstanding, God's holy Ghost was cast aside in preference for the more socially acceptable "Holy Spirit" which has plenty of style, but no power and no eternal substance. It can never "guide into all truth", for there is no truth in it, being the spirit of the father of lies. This "new and improved" holy Ghost was even attractive to the Roman Emperors, and by the turn of the fifth century A.D., Satan's version of the faith of Jesus, Christianity, had become the official state religion. Since that success, Satan, as the "third person of the godhead", has shared the praise and worship which Christians have offered to God.

Friend, what difference does it make what men call anything? The fact that Christianity calls the spirit which it honors holy does not make it holy; nor does the fact that Christians say the Spirit of God is a person make God's Spirit a person; nor yet does Christianity's doctrine of the Trinity make God a triune being. Christianity's Holy Spirit, the "third person" of the "Trinity", is none other than Lucifer, the "son of the morning", who long ago determined to be honored as God, and with Christianity has reached the pinnacle of his success. Yet, everywhere that he enters with his doctrine and his dead ceremonies, slow spiritual death follows. Christianity has put to death every revival of holiness which the Father has ever sent to us; and the reason this has happened is that those who were revived offered their thanksgiving and their praise for those blessings to the triune god of Christianity instead of to the God who gave it!

Yes, Satan has disguised himself now as the "Holy Spirit", in hope that we will prepare room in our hearts for him as a third divine person; and Christianity's doctrine of the Trinity encourages, indeed demands that we do just that. But when we make room for that spirit in our hearts, it brings slow, confused death, robs us of our joy, and ruins our fellowship. John called this speechless spirit the spirit of antichrist, and said that many in his day had already received him into their hearts as God. Paul, seeing the same perversion of the gospel in his day, said "the mystery of iniquity doth already work." Yes, it is a mystery, a frightening, sobering mystery of iniquity which was already spreading in Paul's day. I tremble to see it myself, and hope in God's mercy to be able to understand and believe the truth concerning this mystery, a mystery which for so long has been hidden in darkness, but is now being revealed.

Christianity's god is not God; its Jesus is not the real Jesus; and it's holy Spirit is not holy at all. Christianity has never saved a single soul. And the blessings which we received while we were in Christianity came not through Christianity, but in spite of it. If we had done nothing but rely upon Christianity's doctrines, traditions, and forms, we would be as dead and hopeless as it is. For this reason, the Spirit is gently but earnestly pleading with the precious children of God who are still in Christianity, "Come out of her, My people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her [coming] plagues." Amen.

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