The real problem with the Nicene Council
Did William Branham have a good understanding of church history?
What William Branham got wrong about the Nicene Council
William Branham referred dozens of times to the Nicene Council being held at "Nicaea, Rome" (see quotes below). But the city of Nicaea, where the council was held, was nowhere near Rome. The First Council of Nicaea was a council of Christian bishops convened in Nicaea in Bithynia (present-day Iznik in Turkey) by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD 325.
William Branham also taught that the doctrine of the Trinity started at the Nicene Council.
Quotes of William Branham
But they had the worship of one true God. In that little faction, they set up in the program (which many of you historians know), of making the trinity three different Gods. They had one God, the Father, with a long beard. I seen the pictures right at the Vatican. They had another one, God, the Son, with a younger man and a little bird flying around like a dove, calling the Holy Ghost. Now, they lost sight there, of the true picture of the one true God. God is not three Gods. God is one God. God has three offices, the trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, but it isn’t three different Gods. If it is, we’re pagan. But that never started in the early church; they knowed different from that. It started in the middle age, when the unity of brethren was broke up, and the love.
Now, of course, we people today, we believe that there’s three, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost is the three persons of the one true God. It’s three offices, not three Gods. But that same… Listen now, we think that was ridiculous in the Catholic church, but we brought it right down here at Pentecost and tore yourselves to pieces with it—set up another organization, started something else.[1]
A trinity of frogs! A frog is an animal that always looks backward. He never looks where he’s going; he looks where he’s come from. See? Don’t you see? Where was trinitarianism born at? Remember, “three unclean spirits,” individual spirits. Are you getting it? [Congregation says, “Amen.”—Ed.]
- Notice, they look back to the Nicaea Council where the trinity doctrine was born at, not in the Bible. There’s no such a thing. They look back to the Nicaea Council at Nicaea, Rome, where the trinity was born at. Notice where they come from. Notice. And the trinity of frogs came out of an old trinity, give birth to a new trinity, their mother. What’d it come out of? A trinity, “the dragon,” see, “the beast,” and “the false prophet.” A trinity, new. For when were these frogs come out? When did it? Notice, they was there all the time, but it wasn’t manifested until between the Sixth and Seventh Vial, just before the Seals opened (Hmm?) to reveal it. “For in the Message of the seventh angel, the mysteries of God would be known,” all these trinitarian things, and false baptisms, and everything was to be made manifest. God help us to see what’s Truth! And not think it’s somebody trying to say something to…
I feel that spirit resenting That, you see. I’m not speaking of myself, brother. I’m speaking of the Angel of the Lord that’s in the camp. That’s exactly right.[2]
Footnotes