By COGwriter
One of the least know, but major influencers, of Greco-Roman, and even certain Protestant, teachings was Gregory Thaumaturgus.
Here is a link to ta related video: Gregory Thaumaturgus, Signs, and Lying Wonders.
November 17th is observed by some Greco-Roman Catholics in honor of the third century bishop known as Gregory Thaumaturgus, whom they also call saint Gregory of Neocaesarea.
Here is some information from a Roman Catholic source about him:
Gregory was of a distinguished pagan family. He was born at Neocaesarea, Pontus, and studied law there. About 233, he and his brother, Athenodorus, accompanied his sister, who was joining her husband in Caesarea, Palestine, while they continued on to Beirut to continue their law studies. They met Origen and instead of going to Beirut, entered his school at Caesarea, studied theology, were converted to Christianity by Origen, and became his disciples. Gregory returned to Neocaesarea about 238, intending to practice law, but was elected bishop by the seventeen Christians of the city. It soon became apparent that he was gifted with remarkable powers. (St. Gregory Thaumaturgus. CatholicOnline, http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=656 accessed 10/31/15)
Gregory was from a pagan family, which likely influenced some of his views and doctrines. Pontus was also the home of the famous apostate Marcion. Although I had heard of Gregory years ago, until I was doing research for the book Fatima Shock!, I had not realized how much he affected the history of the Greco-Roman churches, as well as to some degree, the Church of God.
Signs and Lying Wonders
Notice some prophecies from the Old Testament:
1 "Come down and sit in the dust,O virgin daughter of Babylon; Sit on the ground without a throne,O daughter of the Chaldeans! For you shall no more be called Tender and delicate. 2 Take the millstones and grind meal.Remove your veil, Take off the skirt, Uncover the thigh, Pass through the rivers. 3 Your nakedness shall be uncovered,Yes, your shame will be seen;I will take vengeance, And I will not arbitrate with a man."
4 As for our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is His name,The Holy One of Israel. 5 "Sit in silence, and go into darkness,O daughter of the Chaldeans;For you shall no longer be called The Lady of Kingdoms. 6 I was angry with My people;I have profaned My inheritance,And given them into your hand.You showed them no mercy; On the elderly you laid your yoke very heavily. 7 And you said, 'I shall be a lady forever,'So that you did not take these things to heart,Nor remember the latter end of them.
8 "Therefore hear this now, you who are given to pleasures,Who dwell securely,Who say in your heart, 'I am, and there is no one else besides me;I shall not sit as a widow,Nor shall I know the loss of children'; 9 But these two things shall come to youIn a moment, in one day:The loss of children, and widowhood.They shall come upon you in their fullness Because of the multitude of your sorceries, For the great abundance of your enchantments.
10 "For you have trusted in your wickedness; You have said, 'No one sees me'; Your wisdom and your knowledge have warped you; And you have said in your heart,'I am, and there is no one else besides me.' 11 Therefore evil shall come upon you;You shall not know from where it arises. And trouble shall fall upon you; You will not be able to put it off. And desolation shall come upon you suddenly, Which you shall not know. (Isaiah 47:1-11)
So, a woman, called the Lady of the Kingdoms and the daughter of Babylon, will be involved in sorceries. Her destruction is also prophesied in Revelation 18--this is the same woman as can be seen by comparing Isaiah 47:8-11 to Revelation 18:7-8 and 23.
In Acts 8 we read about one involved in sorcery and feigning Christianity. He is known as Simon Magus,. Here is some of what the New Testament reveals about him:
9 But there was a certain man called Simon, who previously practiced sorcery in the city and astonished the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great, 10 to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, "This man is the great power of God." 11 And they heeded him because he had astonished them with his sorceries for a long time. 12 But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized. 13 Then Simon himself also believed; and when he was baptized he continued with Philip, and was amazed, seeing the miracles and signs which were done.
14 Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, 15 who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. 16 For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
18 And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, 19 saying, "Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit."
20 But Peter said to him, "Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money! 21 You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. 22 Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. 23 For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity."
24 Then Simon answered and said, "Pray to the Lord for me, that none of the things which you have spoken may come upon me."
25 So when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans. (Acts 8:9-25)
He also promoted a woman, who he claimed was the mother of all:
2. Now this Simon of Samaria, from whom all sorts of heresies derive their origin, formed his sect out of the following materials: -- Having redeemed from slavery at Tyre, a city of Phoenicia, a certain woman named Helena, he was in the habit of carrying her about with him, declaring that this woman was the first conception of his mind, the mother of all, by whom, in the beginning, he conceived in his mind [the thought] of forming angels and archangels. For this Ennoea leaping forth from him, and comprehending the will of her father, descended to the lower regions [of space], and generated angels and powers, by whom also he declared this word was formed. But after she had produced them, she was detained by them through motives of jealousy, because they were unwilling to be looked upon as the progeny of any other being. As to himself, they had no knowledge of him whatever; but his Ennoea was detained by those powers and angels who had been produced by her. She suffered all kinds of contumely from them, so that she could not return upwards to her father, but was even shut up in a human body, and for ages passed in succession from one female body to another, as from vessel to vessel. She was, for example, in that Helen on whose account the Trojan war was undertaken; for whose sake also Stesichorus was struck blind, because he had cursed her in his verses, but afterwards, repenting and writing what are called palinodes, in which he sang her praise, he was restored to sight. Thus she, passing from body to body, and suffering insults in every one of them, at last became a common prostitute; and she it was that was meant by the lost sheep.
3. For this purpose, then, he had come that he might win her first, and free her from slavery, while he conferred salvation upon men, by making himself known to them. For since the angels ruled the world ill because each one of them coveted the principal power for himself, he had come to amend matters, and had descended, transfigured and assimilated to powers and principalities and angels, so that he might appear among men to be a man, while yet he was not a man; and that thus he was thought to have suffered in Judaea, when he had not suffered. Moreover, the prophets uttered their predictions under the inspiration of those angels who formed the world; for which reason those who place their trust in him and Helena no longer regarded them, but, as being free, live as they please; for men are saved through his grace, and not on account of their own righteous actions. For such deeds are not righteous in the nature of things, but by mere accident, just as those angels who made the world, have thought fit to constitute them, seeking, by means of such precepts, to bring men into bondage. On this account, he pledged himself that the world should be dissolved, and that those who are his should be freed from the rule of them who made the world.
4. Thus, then, the mystic priests belonging to this sect both lead profligate lives and practise magical arts, each one to the extent of his ability. They use exorcisms and incantations. Love-potions, too, and charms, as well as those beings who are called "Paredri" (familiars) and "Oniropompi" (dream-senders), and whatever other curious arts can be had recourse to, are eagerly pressed into their service. They also have an image of Simon fashioned after the likeness of Jupiter, and another of Helena in the shape of Minerva; and these they worship. In fine, they have a name derived from Simon, the author of these most impious doctrines, being called Simonians; and from them "knowledge, falsely so called," received its beginning, as one may learn even from their own assertions. (Irenaeus. Adversus haereses, Book 1, Chapter 23, Verses 2-4. Excerpted from Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1. Edited by Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson. American Edition, 1885. Online Edition Copyright © 2004 by K. Knight).
So, Simon wanted people to accept his sorceries and put their trust in him and a woman (Helena).
The Apostle Paul warned:
7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thessalonians 2:7-12)
Although real Christians are to "walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7), most people in the end times will allow themselves to be deceived.
And, sadly, this follows a long history of deceit.
Enter Another Woman?
Around 238-244 A.D. Gregory (died roughly 270 A.D.) seems to have been the first to have claimed to have seen an apparition of Mary (the possible apparition associated with the protoevangelicum of James is not considered to have happened according to most Greco-Roman Catholic scholars).
Gregory of Nyssa wrote the following about him:
Gregory the Great ... (14) “He was schooled in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,” so also the Great One, coming through all the schooling of the Greeks ...
(27) Gregory ... (29) asked that he be given by God a manifestation of what is hidden. And he did not feel confident in preaching the word until the truth had been revealed to him in some visible way. For while he was concentrating during the night ... someone appeared in a vision, in human shape, elderly looking, very dignified in garb ... the latter calmed his distress of mind with a quiet voice and said that he had appeared to him by divine command on account of the matters about which he was uncertain, so that the truth of the orthodox faith might be disclosed ...
(30) Then as the figure suddenly extended his hand and by the line of his fingers indicated to him what appeared at his side, he turned his eyes to where the hand was pointing and saw, across from the one he had seen, another vision, in female form, larger than human size. ...
(31) he heard through a kind of word those who had appeared to him discussing with each other the doctrine about which he was pondering, so that he not only was instructed as to the true knowledge of the faith but also recognized the ones who had appeared by their names, since each of them addressed the other by their proper name. For he is said to have heard from the one who appeared in female form as she urged the evangelist John ... to show the young man the mystery of the truth; and that the latter said that he was ready to indulge the mother of the Lord also in this, since it pleased her. And when he had thus uttered the doctrine, balanced and clearly defined, they again vanished from view. ...
(32) Now the words of the initiation are these: ...
Perfect Trinity: in glory and eternity and sovereignty neither divided nor estranged.
... there is nothing created or subservient in the Trinity ...
(34) Immediately after he arose from his remote retreat, he felt an inner impulse toward the city in which he would have to organize the church for God. He knew that the whole region was held fast by the deception of demons, and that a temple of the true God had never been built, but that the whole city and its environs were filled with altars, temples, and images, since the whole nation shared the same eagerness to beautify the sacred precincts of idols and the holy places and perpetuate idol-mania among men with the help of processions, sacred rites, and abominations performed on the altars. Like a noble soldier through whom the momentum is changed when he joins the battle-line, thus also this Great One begins his achievement of mastery with the demons themselves. How?
(35) On his way to the city from his place of retreat, as night was falling and a fairly heavy rain made him stop, [916A] he entered some temple with his followers. That temple was a notable one, where the temple custodians were visibly possessed by the attending demons while a kind of divination and oracle was being produced by them. Entering the temple with his companions, he immediately brought terror on the demons by the invocation of the name of Christ, and when with the sign of the cross he had purified the air which was filthy with the stench of sacrifices, he passed he whole night according to his custom, keeping vigil in prayers and hymnody, so that a house made abominable by the blood on its altars and its images was transformed into a house of prayer.
(36) When he had passed the night in this fashion, at dawn he was set to continue further on the journey. But when the temple custodian at dawn presented the customary service to the demons, he said that the demons appeared to him and said the temple was barred to them because of the one who was resting in it. He, using various exorcisms and sacrifices, tried by these means to get the demons to move back into the temple. But when, despite everything he tried, the effort was ineffective, since the demons no longer responded to his invocation as they used to, the temple custodian, aroused with anger and rage, seized that Great One, threatening every kind of terrible thing: to haul him off to the authorities, to use force against him, to denounce his effrontery to the emperor, that, although he was obviously a Christian and an enemy of the gods, he dared to be in temples, and that his entrance had turned away the power at work in the sacred precincts and the mantic operation of the demons no longer visited the sites as usual.
(37) But in a high-minded fashion he shook off the rash and ignorant rage of the temple custodian, and counting on the assistance of the true God against all the threats, he said that he was so much convinced of the power of the One fighting on his behalf that he could drive them away from wherever he wished and make them settle in whatever places he might will, and promised to furnish immediate demonstrations of what he had said. The temple custodian, marveling and very dismayed at the magnitude of his power, summoned him to show his power by these things and to make the demons enter the temple again.
(38) When the Great One heard this, he tore off a little piece of paper31 and gave it to the temple custodian, inscribing a word of command to the demons. Now the letters in this phrase read thus: “Gregory to Satan: Enter!” The temple custodian, taking the petition, placed it on the altar, then presenting the sacrifices and pollutions which are their custom he saw again what he had seen before the demons were evicted from the sanctuary.
(39) When these things happened he began to grasp the fact that Gregory possessed a divine power, by which he appeared to have overwhelming superiority over the demons. ...
When the Great One told him briefly the mystery of true religion, the temple custodian was affected in a way normal for one uninitiated in things divine, and he supposed that it was far beneath our idea concerning God to believe that the Divine had appeared to human beings in the flesh. But when [Gregory] said that this faith was not confirmed by arguments, but commanded assent by the wonders that had happened, the temple custodian sought to see a further marvel from him, so as to be convinced of the faith through an event. Then it is said that the Great One did the most unbelievable wonder of all.
(40) For when the temple custodian asked that one of the great huge rocks they could see, impossible for human strength to move, should be transported to another place solely through the power of faith at Gregory’s command, it is said that that Great One, nothing daunted, immediately ordered the rock as if it were a living thing to be translated to the place which the temple custodian had indicated. But when this had happened, the man straightaway believed in the word and left everything: people, home, wife, children, friends, priesthood, shrine, possessions; instead of all that had belonged to him, he claimed for himself the association with the Great One and a share in his labors and that divine philosophy and instruction ...
(95) he gave to peoples everywhere an increase of devotion toward the divine by decreeing festivals in honor of those who had borne up bravely for the faith. Taking up the bodies of the martyrs here and there, gathering together on the anniversary by the yearly cycle, they rejoiced as they kept festival in honor of the martyrs.
(96) And this too was a proof of his great wisdom, that in reeducating his whole generation to a new life at one time, while taking charge of nature like a sort of charioteer and harnessing them safely by the reins of the knowledge of God, he allowed his subjects to cavort a little in the yoke of faith through merriment. Since he understood that in bodily rejoicing the immaturity and lack of discipline of the multitude remained stuck in the error of idolatry, in order that first of all the main thing might then be achieved in them, namely, to look to God instead of to vain religious practices, he let them rejoice at the memories of the holy martyrs, and experience good emotions, and exult, so that when with the passage of time their life had been naturally transformed to what is more noble more and more strict, their faith would be directed to that end. This is already achieved, even in the multitude, as all feelings of gladness have been transferred from the pleasures of the body to the spiritual form of rejoicing.
(97) Building the church community in this fashion, and concerned to see everyone transferred from idols to the saving faith before his departure from this life, since he foreknew his own departure he zealously searched throughout the whole city and the area round about, wishing to learn if any still remained outside the faith.
(Gregory of Nyssa. ON THE LIFE AND WONDERS OF OUR FATHER AMONG THE SAINTS, GREGORY THE WONDERWORKER. As included in: Halton TP, et al, eds. THE FATHERS OF THЕ CHURCH ST. GREGORY THAUMATURGUS LIFE AND WORKS. Translated by Michael Slusser. THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA PRESS, 1998, pp. 41, 47, 52-58, 83-85)
This apparition allegedly appeared to Gregory before he became a bishop. Gregory is also known as “Gregory the Wonder Worker” and Saint Gregory Thaumaturgus (wonder worker). He had been trained by allegorical teacher Origen in Alexandria. He was known for pushing non-biblical doctrines and non-biblical holidays.
Related to Gregory, Roberts and Donaldson reported:
He was believed to have been gifted with a power of working miracles, which he was constantly exercising…the demons were subject to him…he could cast his cloak over a man, and cause his death…he could bring the presiding demons back to their shrine. (Roberts A, Donaldson J. Ante-Nicene Christian Library. Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325. Edited by Alexander Roberts, and James Donaldson. Volume 20: The Works of Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius of Alexandria, and Archelaus. Syriac documents attribute. Originally 1871, modern printing by Elibron.com, 2006, p. 3)
Because Gregory’s power over demons and other “wonders” were apparently accepted by many, he had influence. It seems that Gregory’s enchantments and/or sorceries: (cf. Isaiah 47:5-12; Nahum 3:4), along with Imperial persecutions, may have greatly assisted the Greco-Roman faction essentially eliminating the organized faithful in Asia Minor. Gregory was also a factor in the Marian cults that began to rise up around that time. His writings teach praise and excessive devotion to the “Holy Virgin,” including the blasphemous teaching that Mary “blotted out” Eve’s “transgressions.” He was amongst the earliest ones to promote the expression the “Trinity” and the "Perfect Trinity" and the pagan idea idea that humans had an immortal soul.
Here, where the mystery of the Holy Trinity was revealed by the archangel to the Holy Virgin according to the gospel (Gregory Thaumaturgus, Homily concerning the Holy Mother of God, Section 35. Translated from the Armenian by F. C. CONYBEARE The Expositor 5th series vol.3 (1896), p. 173. http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/gregory_thaumaturgus_homily.htm viewed 11/13/12).
We prove, then, that the soul is simple…that what is simple is immortal…If, therefore, the soul is not corrupted by the evil proper to itself, and the evil of the soul is cowardice, intemperance, envy, and the like, and all these things do not despoil it of its powers of life and action, it follows that it is immortal. (Gregory Thaumaturgus. On the Soul, Chapters 5, 6. Translated by S.D.F. Salmond. From Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 6. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886. Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0608.htm> viewed 06/05/11)
What is different is not the same. Therefore the soul, since it is simple and not compounded of different parts, and is uncomposite and cannot come apart, for that very reason is imperishable and immortal. (Gregory the Wonderworker. TO TATIAN, ON THE SOUL. As included in: Halton TP, et al, eds. THE FATHERS OF THЕ CHURCH ST. GREGORY THAUMATURGUS LIFE AND WORKS. Translated by Michael Slusser. THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA PRESS, 1998, p. 184)
The gospel never uses the expression trinity, nor does it teach that the soul is immortal. To the contrary, in Ezekiel 18:4 the Roman Catholic Douay-Rheims Bible teaches ” the soul that sinneth, the same shall die” and “The soul that sinneth, the same shall die” in Ezekiel 18:20 (see also Did Early Christians Believe that Humans Possessed Immortality?). Yet, but Gregory put his own interpretation on scripture (in the trinity case, he was referring to Luke 1:35 which was not proof; and the immortality of the soul he did not cite scripture). Gregory was a major reason that the trinity started to get accepted much outside of Montanist circles; Origen, too, was a factor (see also Did the True Church Ever Teach a Trinity?).
Gregory, himself, wrote:
(3) First we shall put forward what God is, and then in this way we shall come with exactitude to the demonstrations. (4) It is an entirely simple and undivided substance, since it is what is simple and bodiless by nature. But perhaps the doctrine of the difference of names tells against me, abolishing the singleness of form of the Most Great by the number “three.” So on account of the singleness of form must we abandon the confession of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Heaven forbid! For the attribution of names will not damage the undivided unity of the Greatest. ...
(6) I think that the Son is never divided from the Father, nor the Holy Spirit again from the latter (Gregory the Wonderworker. TO PHILAGRIUS [EVAGRIUS],1 ON CONSUBSTANTIALITY. As included in: Halton TP, et al, eds. THE FATHERS OF THЕ CHURCH ST. GREGORY THAUMATURGUS LIFE AND WORKS. Translated by Michael Slusser. THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA PRESS, 1998, pp. 175, 176)
The pagan ideas of immortality of the soul--which was Satan's first lie recorded in Genesis ("You will not surely die" Genesis 3:4)--and the trinity, which denies Jesus really came in the flesh (2 John 7), are doctrines of demons, as is claiming doctrines from Marian apparitions. The Apostle Paul warned:
1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, (1 Timothy 4:1-2)
The Bible warns about a woman and sorceries:
1 "Come down and sit in the dust,
O virgin daughter of Babylon;
Sit on the ground without a throne,
O daughter of the Chaldeans!
For you shall no more be called
Tender and delicate. ...5 "Sit in silence, and go into darkness,O daughter of the Chaldeans;For you shall no longer be calledThe Lady of Kingdoms. 6 I was angry with My people;I have profaned My inheritance,And given them into your hand.You showed them no mercy;On the elderly you laid your yoke very heavily. 7 And you said, 'I shall be a lady forever,'So that you did not take these things to heart,Nor remember the latter end of them.
8 "Therefore hear this now, you who are given to pleasures,Who dwell securely,Who say in your heart, 'I am, and there is no one else besides me;I shall not sit as a widow,Nor shall I know the loss of children'; 9 But these two things shall come to youIn a moment, in one day:The loss of children, and widowhood.They shall come upon you in their fullnessBecause of the multitude of your sorceries,For the great abundance of your enchantments. (Isaiah 47:1, 5-9)
4 Because of the multitude of harlotries of the seductive harlot,
The mistress of sorceries,
Who sells nations through her harlotries,
And families through her sorceries. (Nahum 3:4)
'Lady of the Kingdoms' is a title that many call their improper version of Jesus' mother Mary today.
The Catholic Encyclopedia claims Gregory the Wonder worker developed the first creed with the word meaning “Trinity”:
The first creed in which it appears is that of Origen’s pupil, Gregory Thaumaturgus. In his Ekthesis tes pisteos composed between 260 and 270, he writes:
There is therefore nothing created, nothing subject to another in the Trinity: nor is there anything that has been added as though it once had not existed, but had entered afterwards: therefore the Father has never been without the Son, nor the Son without the Spirit: and this same Trinity is immutable and unalterable forever (P.G., X, 986).
It is manifest that a dogma so mysterious presupposes a Divine revelation.
The last statement should give many pause as it was allegedly from seeing one or more apparitions of Mary (and supposedly the Apostle John) that Gregory the Wonder Worker gained his “revelations.” Gregory was a supporter of Rome and Alexandria was a major factor in spreading more acceptance of the trinitarian position, especially throughout Asia Minor and Antioch (see also Did the True Church Ever Teach a Trinity?).
There was a supposed creed that Gregory Thaumaturgus (see Gregory the Wonder Worker) claimed to get in a vision he falsely thought was from the Apostle John in the third century, but it differs in many ways from the creeds in this article--also it does not seem to have been widely adopted as a creed:
A DECLARATION OF FAITH.
There is a perfect Trinity, in glory and eternity and sovereignty, neither divided nor estranged. Wherefore there is nothing either created or in servitude in the Trinity; nor anything superinduced, as if at some former period it was non-existent, and at some later period it was introduced. And thus neither was the Son ever wanting to the Father, nor the Spirit to the Son; but without variation and without change, the same Trinity abideth ever. (St. Gregory of Pontus, the Wonder-Worker: A DECLARATION OF FAITH. translated by S. Salmond, 1871. http://www.voskrese.info/spl/thaumcreed.html last accessed 02/29/20).
Notice that it mentions "a Perfect Trinity" even though the 'trinity' did not get placed into a formally-accepted creed before 380 A.D.
Claiming that the Trinity abides forever is a false gospel—a closed Godhead is in conflict with God’s plan as people such as Theophilus of Antioch wrote. Furthermore, neither the Apostle John nor his successors in Asia Minor had been trinitarians. Furthermore, at the time that Gregory wrote of this statement, most of the Greco-Romans did NOT hold to a trinitarian view of the Godhead.
Now consider that this type of change is in conflict with the original teachings. Such changes were condemned by the Apostle Paul:
8 But even if we ourselves or an angel from heaven preaches to you a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let God's curse be on him. (Galatians 1:8, NJB).
Just because Gregory claimed to have seen and heard Jesus’ mother Mary and the Apostle John, that is not a reason to accept something in conflict with the original faith.
As far as the 'creed' goes, check out What Was the Original Apostles' Creed? What is the Nicene Creed?
Furthermore, if the Father has never been without the Son, then Jesus never died--but He did. Gregory's statement is a denial that Jesus came in the flesh. The Apostle John warned about that:
7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. 8 Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward.
9 Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; 11 for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds. (2 John 7-11)
People should stay away from Gregory's deceptive doctrine of antichrist.
Gregorgy, himself, also wrote:
But our Savior, too, when he made all things clean, said, “It is not what enters that defiles someone, but what comes out. (Gregory the Wonderworker. Canonical Epistle. As included in: Halton TP, et al, eds. THE FATHERS OF THЕ CHURCH ST. GREGORY THAUMATURGUS LIFE AND WORKS. Translated by Michael Slusser. THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA PRESS, 1998, p. 147)
Because of his “miraculous abilities,” his ideas apparently had more acceptance than what the Bible taught, and many were adopted. While the Greco-Roman-Protestant faiths like to act like the trinity was an original doctrine, it was not.
In the 2nd century, Valentinus and Montanus promoted versions of it, but both were denounced by Church of God leaders such as Polycarp of Smyrna and Serapion of Antioch. Sometime after denounced by COG leaders, they were eventually put out of the Church of Rome as apostates. Furthermore, even into the 325 A.D. Council of Nicea, only about 10-15% of the Greco-Roman bishops accepted at that time (Gruner N., Priest. Part II FATIMA: Roadblocks and Breakthroughs. The Fatima Crusader 110, Fall 2014, p. 48; Feldmeth N. Early Christianity. CD Lecture. Fuller Theological Seminary, c. 2003). However, because of the trinitarian nature of Emperor Constantine's ties to Mithraism, he endorsed it--and by 381 it became the official doctrine of any called Catholic. And, Gregory was a factor in getting the 10-15% to accept it by 325 A.D.
Notice something else Gregory wrote related to Mary:
O holy virgin…She is the ever-blooming paradise of incorruptibility, wherein is planted the tree that giveth life, and that furnisheth to all the fruits of immortality…Thus the holy Virgin, while still in the flesh, maintained the incorruptible life…the holy Virgin has surpassed even the perfection of the patriarchs (Gregory Thaumaturgus. The Second Homily on the Annunciation to the Holy Virgin Mary. http://www.tertullian.org/fathers2/ANF-06/anf06-24.htm#TopOfPage viewed 11/13/12)
The Bible does not teach that Mary led an "incorruptible life," but that Jesus did:
14 Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:14-16)
We are to go to Jesus The Bible does not say to go to Mary. Plus, all, including Mary, have sinned:
21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, (Romans 3:21-25)
This means that Mary is not superior to Christians.
Stating or implying that Mary did not sin is in biblical error.
Perhaps it should be added that Dr. Ludwig Ott’s 20th century book Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma teaches:
The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary is not explicitly revealed in scripture… Neither the Greek nor the Latin Fathers explicitly (explicite) teach the Immaculate Conception of Mary. (Ott L.Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, 4th ed . TAN Books, Rockford (IL), Nihil Obstat: Jeremiah J. O’ Sullivan. Imprimatur: + Cornelius, 7 October 1954., Printed 1974, TAN Books, pp. 200-201)
And it was more than Marian ideas that Gregory Thaumaturgus influenced. He also wrote:
All who worthily observe the festival of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, the mother of God, acquire as their meet recompense the fuller interest in the message, Hail, thou that art highly favoured! It is our duty, therefore, to keep this feast, seeing that it has tilled the whole world with joy and gladness. And let us keep it with psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs. Of old did Israel also keep their festival, but then it was with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, of which the prophet says: I will turn their feasts into afflictions and lamentation, and their joy into shame. But our afflictions our Lord has assured us He will turn into joy by the fruits of penitence. (Gregory Thaumaturgus. The Second Homily on the Annunciation to the Holy Virgin Mary. http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/06092.htm accessed 04/15/16)
Now, people in Asia Minor, including Greco-Roman Bishops like Anatolius of Laodicea were still endorsing the Days of Unleavened Bread (see Should Christians Keep the Days of Unleavened Bread?), while Gregory wanted Marian veneration to take place instead.
Bishop “Gregory the Wonder Worker” was also involved in the councils looking into Paul of Samosata who at the time was considered the Greco-Roman Bishop of Antioch (Roberts A, Donaldson J, Volume 20, p. 3).
Gregory assisted in getting Greco-Roman influence to succeed there. The Prophet Isaiah warned that the “Lady of the Kingdoms” used sorceries since her “youth” (Isaiah 47:5,12), and Gregory’s use of “powers” in the formative years of the Greco-Roman confederation seems consistent with that biblical prophecy (he also had influence in various parts of Asia Minor (Gregory Thaumaturgus. Canonical Epistles IV,VII. Ante-Nicene Fathers; also Drijvers JW, Watt JW. Portraits of spiritual authority: religious power in early Christianity, Byzantium, and the Christian Orient, Volume 137 of Religions in the Graeco-Roman world. BRILL, 1999, pp. 107-108).
Actually, in Antioch with the successor to Paul of Samosata, we seem to see for the first time, a bishop outside of Italy that was apparently installed because of direction from the Church in Rome, and the mystic Gregory Thaumaturgus was involved in this. This, to a degree, marked a major expansion of influence of the Church of Rome outside of Italy (it also had some previous influence in Corinth).
The Catholic Encyclopedia credits his influence in expanding their church (which it calls “the Christian Church” below):
Among those who built up the Christian Church, extended its influence, and strengthened its institutions,…Gregory of Neocaesarea holds a very prominent place…To attract the people to the festivals in honour of the martyrs, we learn that Gregory organized profane amusements as an attraction for the pagans who could not understand a solemnity without some pleasures of a less serious nature than the religious ceremony.
Here is something about him as basically told by the late 16th/early 17th century Roman Catholic Cardinal Baronius who related some of Gregory Nyssen of th 4th century taught:
GREGORY THAUMATURGUS, OR THE WONDER- WORKER.
This Gregory was a pupil of Origen, and bishop of New Cesarea, in Great Armenia. ...
The official historian of the Roman Catholic Church, Cardinal Baronius, ... we further accept his testimony, "that Gregory Thaumaturgus, the bishop of Great Armenia, first of ali commanded the wooden crosses which were set up by him in certain places, to be adored : ante omnes cruces ligneas, quibusdam in locis a se collocatas, adorari. "-Bar. Ann. , A.D. 311. , sec. 23.
Of all bishops, this wonder-worker is declared, on the highest. Roman authority, to be the first to introduce the worship of wooden crosses by his own command. Gregory Nyssen, a century later, celebrating the memory of his great namesake, tells how he brought about that conversion of the heathen which followed. To save his life in the Decian persecution, this Bishop Gregory fled the country. After the persecution had spent itself, he returned home, and instituted festal days commemorating the martyrs, and commanded the worship of the wooden crosses. And says Nyssen, " When he saw how the simple and illiterate multitude persisted in their false esteem of images, in order that he might by all means perfect what is most excellent in them, to wit : that forsaking vain superstitions, they should turn unto God, he permitted them to make merry, solace themselves, and riot in joy, in honour of the holy martyrs ! " "And why not? " asks Cardinal Baronius on a like occasion. " Is it not lawful to transfer to pious uses things consecrated by a sacred rite, which things were impiously used by the pagans in superstitious worship ; that by ahigh contempt of the devil, in the veryway he delights to be worshipped, Christ may be honoured of all ? "-Ann. vol. i. p. 198. This laurel is plucked from Satan's brow, to entwine Emmanuel's crown, which the Cardinal graces with words of Theodoret, triumphing over the fallen gods of the heathen, and saying : " Our Lord brought His own dead into the temples of your gods, which gods, vain indeed, and stript of their glory, He dismissed : but gave honour to His martyrs. Instead of feasts of Pan, of Jupiter, and of Bacchus, solemnities, with a feast, are performed in honour of Peter, Paul, Thomas, Sergius, and other holy martyrs. So what was done in heathen superstition, the same having been sanctified for the worship of the true God, might be done in the service of the true religion. " Bar. Ann. vol. i. p. 198. (Ward, pp. 39-40)
Cardinal John Henry Newman wrote the following:
Confiding then in the power of Christianity to resist the infection of evil, and to transmute the very instruments and appendages of demon-worship to evangelical use, … the rulers of the Church from early times were prepared, should the occasion arise, to adopt, to imitate, or to sanctify the existing rites and customs of the population, as well as the philosophy of the educated class. St. Gregory Thaumaturgus supplies the first instance of this economy. … The bodies of the Martyrs were distributed in different places, and the people assembled and made merry, as the year came round, holding festival in their honour. This indeed was a proof of his great wisdom ... for, perceiving that the childish and untrained populace were retained in their idolatrous error by creature comforts, in order that what was of first importance should at any rate be secured to them, viz. that they should look to God in place of their vain rites, he allowed them to be merry, jovial, and gay at the monuments of the holy Martyrs, as if their behaviour would in time undergo a spontaneous change into greater seriousness and strictness, since faith would lead them to it; which has actually been the happy issue in that population, all carnal gratification having turned into a spiritual form of rejoicing." There is no reason to suppose that the licence here spoken of passed the limits of harmless though rude festivity; for it is observable that the same reason, the need of holydays for the multitude, is assigned by Origen, St. Gregory's master, to explain the establishment of the Lord's Day also, and the Paschal and the Pentecostal festivals, which have never been viewed as unlawful compliances; and, moreover, the people were in fact eventually reclaimed from their gross habits by his indulgent policy, a successful issue which could not have followed an accommodation to what was sinful. (Newman JH. An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine. J. Toovey, 1845, p. 358).
We are told in various ways by Eusebius, that Constantine, in order to recommend the new religion to the heathen, transferred into it the outward ornaments to which they had been accustomed in their own. It is not necessary to go into a subject which the diligence of Protestant writers has made familiar to most of us. The use of temples, and these dedicated to particular saints, and ornamented on occasions with branches of trees; incense, lamps, and candles; votive offerings on recovery from illness; holy water; asylums; holydays and seasons, use of calendars, processions, blessings on the fields; sacerdotal vestments, the tonsure, the ring in marriage, turning to the East, images at a later date, perhaps the ecclesiastical chant, and the Kyrie Eleison , are all of pagan origin, and sanctified by their adoption into the Church. (ibid, pp. 359-360.)
Sadly, it is partially because of Gregory that “Christianity” took on more of the trappings of pagan worship and the Marian cults had been allowed to grow and flourish. Then, partially because he did so, Emperor Constantine was able to get wider acceptance of his pagan agenda.
Gregory greatly influenced theological thought and several widely accepted false doctrines were originated and/or promoted by him. The fact that he reportedly caused the death of enemies by throwing his cloak upon them has not sufficiently diminished his influence–but should have.
Sadly, many do not realize that some of their cherished, and false, religious doctrines came from one who was either demon possessed or at least influenced by demons.
Here is a link to ta related video: Gregory Thaumaturgus, Signs, and Lying Wonders.
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Thiel B. Gregory the Wonder Worker. http://www.cogwriter.com/gregory-the-wonder-worker.htm 2012/2015/2016/2017 2021 2025 2026 0324
For more information, please check out the following:
Fatima Shock! What the Vatican Does Not Want You to Know About Fatima, Dogmas of Mary, and Future Apparitions. Whether or not you believe anything happened at Fatima, if you live
long enough, you will be affected by its ramifications (cf. Isaiah 47;
Revelation 17). Fatima Shock! provides concerned Christians with enough Catholic-documented facts to effectively counter every false Marian argument.
Fatima Shock! YouTube Dr. Thiel highlights a few points of why no one would support Fatima, etc. as discussed in the documented book Fatima Shock!
Did Early Christians Believe that Humans Possessed Immortality? What does John 3:16, and other writings, tell us? Did a doctrine kept adopted from paganism? Here is a YouTube video titled Are humans immortal?
Did the True Church Ever Teach a Trinity? Most act like this is so, but is it? Here is an old, by somewhat related, article in the Spanish language LA DOCTRINA DE LA TRINIDAD. A related sermon is available: Trinity: Fundamental to Christianity or Something Else? A brief video is also available: Three trinitarian scriptures?
Mary, the Mother of Jesus and the Apparitions Do you know much about Mary? Are the apparitions real? What happened at Fatima? What might they mean for the rise of the ecumenical religion of Antichrist? Are Protestants moving towards Mary? How do the Eastern/Greek Orthodox view Mary? How might Mary view her adorers? Here is a link to a YouTube video Marian Apparitions May Fulfill Prophecy. Here is a link to a sermon video: Why Learn About Fatima?
Which Is Faithful: The Roman Catholic Church or the Continuing Church of God? Do you know that both groups shared a lot of the earliest teachings? Do you know which church changed? Do you know which group is most faithful to the teachings of the apostolic church? Which group best represents true Christianity? This documented article answers those questions.