The Gospel of Early Christianity

(Part 3)

Compiled and Presented by Don R. Hender


   Having dispelled the false Christianity of the world effected by Greek Philosophy in the evolving Creed falsely denoted as the Nicene Creed, we now proceed to study Bishop Eusebius' published work of his Ecclesicasitcal History which more accurately presents the true Gospel as actually held by the Early Christian Church.

Ecclesiastical History
Book I - Chapter 3

The Name Jesus and also the Name Christ were known from the Beginning, and were honored by the Inspired Prophets

" . . . the very name Jesus and also the name Christ were honored by the ancient prophets . . .
"Moses . . . consecrated a man [Aaron] high priest of God . . . him [Aaron] he called Christ ['The Anointed One']
"His successor [Joshua/Jehoshua] . . . who had not hitherto borne the name Jesus [Jehoshua] . . . he [Moses] now called Jesus [Jehoshua/Joshua], bestowing the name upon him as a gift of honor . . . For Jesus [Joshua] himself, the son of Nave [Nun], bore a resemblance to our Saviour . . .
"Thus Moses bestowed the name of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, as a mark of the highest honor, upon the two men who in his time surpassed all the rest of the people in virtue and glory; namely, upon the high priest [Aaron] and upon his own successor [Jehoshua/Joshua] in the government."
(EH Book I Chapter 3 paragraph/verse 1-2 & 4-5)

Now in the Jewish prepared scriptures it is the Torah or at first the five Books of Moses which appear first in the Bible. This is not to say that those before Moses did not also write for we as members of the LDS Church know and understand that they did and from such more ancient text it would seem that Moses, likely under the direction of God, did record first in his book of Genesis that history of those who had written and gone before from Adam down to and including even such words from the writings of Joseph. The Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible would indicate so and as a part of that translations does appear in the Pearl of Great Price as the book of Moses, the first 8 chapters of Joseph Smith Inspired translation of Moses writings appear. And in chapters 6, 7 and 8 it is given that the very name of Jesus Christ was given and known unto such as Adam (Moses 6:51-52), Enoch (Moses 7:50), and Noah (Moses 8:23-24). And where as Bishop Eusebius by his time and age no longer had access to these additional writings of Moses, having been lost or withheld from the book of Genesis, we know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was taught unto the children of Adam, Adam hisself receiving it and living the Gospel as also did Enoch and the peole of Enoch. And though Noah taught it in his age and lived it, those people who were lost in the flood did not, they having rejected being wicked and ripened unto destruction.

" . . . the prophets that came after also clearly foretold of Christ by name . . . Jeremiah, for instance, speaks as follows: "The Spirit before our face, Chrsit the Lord, was taken in their destructions; of whom we said, under his shadow we shall live among the nations." And David, in perplexity, says, "Why did the nations rage and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth set themselves in array, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ" to which he adds, in the person of Christ himself, "The Lord said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possessions.

"And we have been told also that certain of the prophets themselves became, by the act of anointing, Christs in type, so that all these have reference to the true Christ, the divinely inspired and heavenly Word, who is the only high priest of all, and the only King of every creature, and the Father's only supreme prophet of prophets." (EH Book I Chapter 3 paragraph/verse 6 & 8)

From this we may suppose that Eusebius in that great library of Caesarea still had access to some writings and understandings which have not come clearly down in the scriptures we have today in our day. And if he had them in his day, it seems fair to say that those who would make of Father, Son and Holy Ghost but one God may will have edited them out to preserve their trinity and overt the Son of God as being separate from God the Father.

But some such still remains in the scriptures such as Psalms 110:1 which states, "THE LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." Which even the Lord Jesus Christ himself does reference in the teaching the he was indeed the very Son of God to the Jews (Mark 12:36, Luke 20:42) And does not John record "Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." (John 1:45) And if you will in the fourth vision of Zechariah does he not see the determination council in the heaven of the pre-existence between Jesus/Jehoshua and Lucifer as Satan before God the Father? (Zechariah 3)

" . . . Isaiah . . . exclaims . . . in the person of Christ himself, "The Spirit of the Lord [Our Father in Heaven via blessing] is upon me; therefore hath he anointed me. He hath sent me to preach the Gospel to the poor, to proclaim deliverence to captives, and recovery of sight to the blind.
" . . . also David addresses him, saying, "Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of equity is the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hast hated iniquity. Therefore God [Jesus/Jehovah as our Ministering God], thy God [God Our Father Who Art in Heaven], hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows."
(Hebrews 1:9) (EH Book I Chapter 3 paragraph/verse 13-14)

And such anointing of Jesus/Jehovah by the Father does even the New Testament Scriptures so state, "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him." (Acts 10:38) And does not even Peter state of him, "Who verily was forordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God." (1 Peter 1:20) And does not Paul also state of Christ, "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philipians 2:9-10). And was not that name so first given in the pre-existent heaven? (Zechariah 3)

" . . . [Jesus/Jehovah] is glorified as the true and only high priest of God. And besides all this, as the pre-existent Word of God, called into being before all ages, he has received august honor from the Father, and whorshiped as God.
"I have of necessity prefaced by history with these matters in order that no one, judgeing from the date of his incarnation, may think that our Saviour and Lord Jesus, the Christ, has but recently come into being."
(EH Book I Chapter 3 paragraph/verse 19 & 21)

From before the foundation of the world was Jesus/Jehovah the very 'Word of God', standing inthe pre-existence side by side with the Father, Our Father Who Art in Heaven. And as recorded by John, with the Father, being commanded and directed by the Father, he Jesus/Jehovah did create all thing of the temporal creation, that whatsoever he did create as the Ministering God of God the Father, that he as Saviour might also redeem unto the glory of the Father in that work in which they are both join, one in purpose, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of the children of God.

Bishop Eusebius understood very well the Mission of Jesus/Jehovah in the Plan of God, and that God the Father had comissioned he first-born son in the spirit to be that Ministering God of Creation and Salvation and Judgement. It would seem that as any today of the restored Gospel or Jesus Christ did Bishop Eusebius also so understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Plan of God as given upon Christ/Jehovah/Jesus, his dispensation, from before the foundation of the world and in that beginning of the ages of time down through and into the very end of the Judgement by the Son for the Father in the end of times. From all eternity to all eternity, thus was the Son of God to stand in the stead of the Father as our Alpha and Omega, our Intercessor, Advocate, and Mediator betwix man and God the Father. This is the 'Economy' of the plan of God, that for as in Adam all die, even so in Jesus Christ shall all be made alive. Bishop Eusebius knew and understood this and that Father and Son, though welded together in purpose and the faith of the Gospel, were indeed two separate and distinct beings and not as those of the Doctrine of the Trinity have us believe and thus forgetting the fulness of the Plan of God the Father for His children through Christ our Lord.

Now one might well think this a fitting place to end for the very essential Gospel of Jesus Christ of the Early Church has been set forth and establish as to what it truely was. Yet there is more which Bishop Eusebius did desire to present concerning that Gospel in Part 4, that it was neither New nor Strange, but in truth had always been.

End Part 3

Part 4