The burning of Michael Servetus

Had one visited the town of Geneva on the 27^th of October 1553, one would have been witness of that tragic scene which William Osler describes so poignantly and dramatically:

“…Shortly after twelve o’clock, a procession started from the town-hall of Geneva-the chief magistrates of the city, the clergy in their robes, the Lieutenant Criminel and other officers on horseback, a guard of mounted archers, the citizens, with a motley crowd of followers, and in their midst, with arms bound, in shabby, dirty clothes, walked a man of middle age, whose intellectual face bore the marks of long suffering.  Passing along the rue St. Antoine through the gate of the same name, the cortege took its way towards the Golgotha of the city.  Once outside the walls a superb sight broke on their view: in the distance the blue waters and enchanting shores of Lake Geneva, to the west and north the immense amphitheater of the Jura, with its snow-capped mountains, and to the south and west the lovely valley of the Rhone; but we may well think that few eyes were turned away from the central figure of that sad procession.  By his side, in earnest entreaty, walked the aged pastor, Farel, who had devoted a long and useful life to the service of his fellow citizens.  Mounting the hill, the field of Champel was reached, and here on sight eminence was the fateful stake, with dangling chains and heaping bundles of faggots.  At this sight the poor victim prostrated himself on the ground in prayer.  In reply to the exhortation of the clergyman for a specific confession of faith, there was the cry, ‘Misericordia, misericordia!  Jesu, thou Son of the eternal God, have compassion upon me!’  Bound to the stake by the iron chains, with a chaplet of straw and green twigs covered with sulphur on his head, with long dark face, it is said that he looked like the Christ in whose name he was bound.  Around his waist were tied a large bundle of manuscript and a thick octavo printed book.  The torch was applied, and as the flames spread to the straw and sulphur and flashed in his eyes, there was a piercing cry that struck terror into the hearts of the bystanders.  The faggots were green, the burning was slow, and it was long before in a last agony he cried again, ‘Jesu, thou Son of the eternal God, have mercy on me!’  Thus died in his forty-fourth year, Michael Servetus Villanovanus, physician, physiologist, and heretic.  Strange, is it not, that could he have cried, ‘Jesu, thou Eternal Son of God!’ even at this last moment, the chains would have been unwound, the chaplet removed, and the faggots scattered; but he remained faithful unto death to what he believed was the Truth as revealed in the Bible.”

THE MURDER OF THIS MAN IS A LEGACY TO THE TRINITARIANS, those HERETICS WHO HAVING REMOVED FAR FROM THE TEACHINGS OF THE LORD AND THE APOSTLES, ARE THEMSELVES APOSTATES FROM THE FAITH ONCE DELIVERED TO THE SAINTS. HAVING EMBRACED PHILOSOPHICAL NOTIONS AS TO THE ONE GOD, WHO IS THE FATHER, AND HIS SON WHO IS THE MESSIAH, AND ARE AN EXAMPLE OF THE HATRED AND HARDHEATEDNESS THAT DERIVES FROM PEOPLE WHO LOVE NOT GOD, NEITHER THOSE BORN OF GOD. WHO ARE INCAPABLE OF HEARING THE PLEADING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, NOR ARE THEY ABLE TO ACCEPT ANYONE IN THE SPIRIT OF MEEKNESS THAT IS THE LORD HIMSELF. FOR IF THEY COULD THESE VERY SAME PEOPLE WOULD TAKE THE LORD OF GLORY AND CRUCIFY HIM AGAIN, IF HE HIMSELF DISAGREED WITH OUGHT THEY TEACH.

                   On the Errors of the Trinity

Any discussion of the Trinity should start with the man. That Jesus, surnamed Christ, was not a Hypostasis but a human being is taught both by the early Fathers and in Scriptures, taken in their literal sense, and is indicated by the miracles he wrought. He, and not the Word, is also the miraculously born Son of God in fleshly form, as the Scriptures teach - not a hypostasis, but an actual Son. He is God, sharing God's divinity in full; and the theory of a communicatio idiomatum is a confusing sophistical quibble. This does not imply two Gods, but only a double use of the term God, as is clear from the Hebrew use of the term. Christ being one with God the Father, equal in power, came down from heaven and assumed flesh as a man. In short, all the Scriptures speak of Christ as a man.

Book VI

The incomprehensible God is known through Christ, by faith, rather than by philosophical speculation. He manifests God to us, being the expression of his very being; and through him alone God can be known. The Scriptures reveal him to those who have faith; and thus we come to know the Holy Spirit as the divine impulse working in us.

Book VII

The eternally begotten Son was a spoken word by which God made himself known. The Hebrew shows that the whole nature of God abode in Christ as Elohim, man being blended with God. The Word was a disposition of God, who begot the Son, a visible being. The Holy Spirit also is a real being as Christ was. The Word was an actual being, creating all things, manifesting God in bodily form.

MY BRIEF COMMENTS

At the outset let me say that, I may not entirely agree with all that Michael Servetus wrote, however it is necessary that this writing be given unto the saints, that they judge with scripture what is being taught. ALSO it is needed that we see how BIGOTRY, HATRED and LACK of LOVE led to a man who TRUSTED IN GOD AND HIS SON, to have been so cruely treated and at the last BURNED SLOWLY TO DEATH....just because he would NOT SAY. 'Jesu, thou eternal Son of God' but believed that Jesu was rather the 'Son of the eternal God'..for this 'heresy' he was MURDERED......(by trinitarians)

The emphasis in the writings of Michael Servetus are mine.....to point the reader to the scriptures and the teachings of the Apostles

THE REFORMERS THOUGH BREAKING WITH ROME DID CARRY OVER DIVERS PHILOSOPHICAL TEACHINGS AS TO GOD AND HIS SON, THUS HOLY TRINITY WAS KEPT, AND SO PAGAN PHILOSOPHY WAS STILL EMBRACED BY MANY, AND THUS WAS LIGHT BEING STILL MIXED WITH DARKNESS. THAT TRINITY WAS AND IS PHILOSOPHICAL NOTION, WE NEED BUT READ THESE WORDS FROM THE CATHECHISM OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH , PUBLISHED JUNE 1994

"The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is a central mystery of Christian faith and life" page 62 para 234

"During the first centuries the Church sought to clarify its Trinitarian faith, both to deepen its own understanding of the faith...." page 66 para 250

"In order to articulate the dogma of the Trinity, the Church ahd to develop its own terminology with the help of certain notions of PHILOSOPHICAL ORIGIN.." page 66 para 251  (emphasis mine)

FIRST WE ARE TO NOTE THAT THE FAITH WAS NOT TRINITARIAN IN THE FIRST CENTURIES, AND SECOND WE NOTE THAT PHILOSOPHICAL NOTION HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE SCRIPTURES, GOD OR HIS SON !!!

PAUL TAUGHT THAT THE RESURRECTION OF THE MESSIAH WAS THE CENTRAL BASIS OF THE FAITH, PAUL TAUGHT (NO TRINITY) AS BEING CENTRAL TO THE FAITH....BUT THE RESURRECTION. READ 1 CORINTHIANS 15; FOR PROOF OF WHAT I SAY.

Presented by Richard Merrell 1986  

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