Fixed Mel’s BBCode to embed the video.
I haven’t watched the video so I have no opinion; but I see him talking about Jesus’ “lost years” and Joseph of Arimathea in Britain.
Which throws some preliminary flags for me in itself. 
(Though admittedly I’m prejudicially suspicious about that, not having seen it either.)
Just to be fair, here’s that hour-plus lecture, too.
I did a Google, Bing and Yaoo search on Dr. Martin Trench. What I can’t find is where he obtained his degrees (i.e. his PhD). Perhaps someone here can help me out? Then I can check if these degrees are accredited by a valid agency. For example, in the US, it’s usually a regional accreditation agency, recognized by the US Department of Education. In other countries - like South Africa - it could be the South African government itself, that recognizes UNISA (i.e. University of South Africa). But for me, if the person doesn’t have valid academic credentials and he/she calls themselves a doctor, I wouldn’t take much stock in what they say.
I found this but it does not say where the degrees were taken:
Thanks, Pilgrim. If I go to most church sites, it usually lists where the minister, priest or bishop got his/her degrees (i.e. if it mentions they have degrees or titles). Usually they are from an accredited school, recognized from a recognized accreditation agency (i.e. by the US Department of Education, government of South Africa, etc). If he doesn’t name the school and claims to have a doctorate, then how do we know he actually received a doctorate or a doctorate from a non-diploma mill? And how can we trust anything he tells us? Perhaps someone should ask the church he is associated with?
sigh why does everyone put so much stock in accredited ‘education’? Do you have any idea how many doctors have no idea how to critically think? The system is designed to mold you into what they want. It is a mere brainwashing. No different with Theology or any other field. When we talk about modern medicine you have to think a little bit - Do we really know much more now than we did before? In some ways, but why do we suffer from every ailment known to man? Because modern medicine doesn’t take the root seriously. The root is exercise and eating. Not fake exercise such as walking a mile or so, or merely taking the stairs instead of the elevator. Exercise is working on a farm, running to get your heart rate up, lifting heavy objects, anything that makes you want to quit, because it is hard and difficult. That is exercise and that is why most people are unhealthy, because they think their 8 glasses of water and low intensity exercise is what it takes to be fit and healthy. Meanwhile, they drink the caffeine laced expresso which stains their teeth and gets them on a caffeine addiction. Modern medicine, for the most part, is a joke when it comes to preventative medicine. If health care costs are ever going to decline, people need to be screen on their life-style choices. Want to sit on the couch and eat chips all day? Fine, pay 5x the premium so we can cover your heart disease problem.
Now, this may go off topic a bit, but the reason I bring this up is because it is clearly demonstrable in any field how having an accredited degree is bogus way to find out the worth of someone’s ideas. “Experience” is what should be viewed, not education. Now, I am sure someone is going to come up with some sort of wise-crack rebuttal and in prep for that, I’ll say this: There are exceptions to this rule. But let us remember that Jesus himself had no credentials… So, I’d rather not use that argument against people. Some of the most knowledgeable and experienced people in this world are ‘researchers’ who 'love to research! Meanwhile, most people picked a field to make money, not because they enjoy it. So, I am betting the vast majority of people with PhD’s just don’t enjoy what they do, so I am sure many of them just drift away, collecting a paycheck, teaching old methods rather than challenge them. I also don’t want to take anything away from someone with a PhD, because there are some outstanding people with those credentials. But the credentials themselves don’t prove the person. The person proves the credentials. We have it backwards.
Hmm. Not sure what to make of the degree thing, but I’m not terribly enamoured of official degrees (or where they are from) anyway.
This is definitely not the first time that I have heard of the zodiac’s connection to Christianity.
I think his point about not caring about the mosaic law has to do with the fact that we are no longer under law, and I guess I didn’t have a problem with it because I had a good sense of where he was coming from.
Edit: On his Facebook page, He only lists himself as Martin Trench, and does not use the title Dr.
Perhaps whoever posted the videos on YouTube just made an assumption since he is the pastor of a church.
Alex, although I appreciated some points Martin Trench made, e.g., about the dangers of literalism leading to legalism, and the “ages” pointing to Universal Reconciliation, I also think that he (in the vein of Frank Schaeffer), is guilty of
Some “fundamentalist” beliefs (in no particular order):
•The inerrancy of the Bible
•The Creation account in Genesis, including Adam and Eve
•A global flood sent by God, and Noah’s Ark
•A personal devil, and a literal future antichrist
•The miracles of Christ
•The Virgin Birth of Christ
•The bodily resurrection and physical return of Christ
•The substitutionary atonement of Christ on the cross (including Gustaf Aulen’s version of the ransom theory, Christus Victor)
•Dispensational eschatology (e.g., one or more raptures of Christians, a literal millennial reign of Christ in a kingdom on earth)
•Eternal Conscious Torment
My own viewpoints have changed radically in the last five years, so that I have given up some views in this list, and taken on others:
Like Michael Hardin, I now believe God has never been violent–but from the viewpoint of Richard Murray, not René Girard. And I now believe the Scriptures are only part of a progressive revelation, reflective of the human mediators’ growing recognition of God’s goodness (C.S. Cowles). The Scriptures can only point to **THE Word of God: Jesus **(Rev. 19:13).
Unlike Dr. Trench, I still believe catastrophism, as seen in Flood geology, explains sedimentation and the fossil record. And I still reject macro-evolution (inorganic matter to single-celled organism to fish to amphibian to reptile to mammal to man).
And, also unlike Hardin or Trench, I still believe in a personal devil, and a literal antichrist. I think Adolph Hitler was probably a prototype of the antichrist. Hitler brought order out of chaos in Depression-era Germany, and I suspect antichrist will someday do likewise…even with “all power and signs and lying wonders” (2 Thessalonians 2:9).
In college, I took a graduate seminar on Alexander the Great. The professor knew very well the symbolism for Alexander in the Book of Daniel, i.e., the belly and thighs of bronze of Nebuchadnezzar’s statue, the he-goat attacking the ram, the beast like a leopard with four wings. The professor could only dismiss the book as having been written after the fact, since he considered predictive prophecy impossible. I, on the other hand, still thrill at Daniel’s Seventy Weeks!
BTW Regarding the signs of the zodiac showing “The Gospel in the Stars,” Trench should realize that the author of the definitive work on the subject, Joseph A. Seiss (1823-1904), was also the premier scholar for a futurist interpretation of Revelation! But according to Trench, Seiss would have been one of those “crazy” people who push the prophetic scriptures off to the future.
Blessings.
Melchizedek- see Pilgrim’s quote above. That is from here: gatewayalliancechurch.com/meet-our-staff/
I don’t know whether there is cause for concern regarding the degree and doctorate not being ‘verified’??
Gabe, I agree that a formal degree or doctorate does not ‘make’ someone more educated or to be more trusted than anyone else. If you are going to make it public knowledge that you have certain qualifications, it’s not unreasonable for folk to attribute respect for the years of study that someone has undertaken. It does seem unusual that Martin’s qualifications are not verified. 
Okay, we’re kind of overlapping here, so I’m going to fold this thread back into Alex’s original one, which has a lot more discussion and information (including recently).
Thanks for that illuminating post Hermano.
It’s a big ask, but if you’ve got time 9or anyone else for that matter) I’d be interested what you make of this:
ezekielwatch.com/portals/69/ … eflood.pdf
I think he’s very thought provoking… I think he gets some things right but other things I’m much less sure about 
My gut feeling is he’s seeking truth but might have gone down some dead-ends & jumped to conclusions that are too speculative (& historically questionable according to Sobornost). He’s now posted a bibliography for further investigation: martintrench.com/the-ancient-bib … es-part-9/
As others have noted, it’s not clear where he got his degrees, which is puzzling… so I’ve just asked him on Facebook.
I agree he was too dismissive & not gentle enough for my liking in the Q&A. I think he’s probably right about some of his answers but that we should try to be extra gracious & gentle when telling someone they are wrong (particularly because sometimes they are actually right & we’re in the wrong but don’t know it yet ).
Alex- thanks for messaging Martin on facebook. I am sure he is sincere in his beliefs and love for God. I believe there is something he is ‘into’ that is dodgy and hence the Holy Spirit gave me a gift of discernment. I have been victim to many a wrong teaching and so I always pray about new ideas/teachings I come across. (In the past, I’d just look into something I found interesting without seeking God about it). Interestingly, when I’ve prayed about UR, I’ve not had any kind of ‘warning’. I was feeling very doubtful of UR several months ago. I kept praying to God to confirm to me if UR was true. One morning I was really praying about this and fretting about it. I checked my facebook after praying, and saw a message from my non Christian sister. She’d sent me a link to a song (Mike Scott- ‘what do you want me to do’). I looked it up on youtube but for some reason I clicked on the wrong song by mistake. It was this one: ‘Bring Em all In’
Bring em all in, bring em all in, bring em all in
Bring em all in, bring em all into my heart
Bring em all in, bring em all in, bring em all in
Bring em all in, bring em all into my heart
Bring the little fishes
Bring the sharks
Bring em from the brightness
Bring em from the dark
Bring em from the caverns
Bring em from the heights
Bring em from the shadows
Stand em in the light
Bring em all in, bring em all in, bring em all in
Bring em all in, bring em all into my heart
Bring em all in, bring em all in, bring em all in
Bring em all in, bring em all into my heart
Bring em out of purdah
Bring em out of store
Bring em out of hiding
Lay them at my door
Bring em all in, bring em all in, bring em all in
Bring em all in, bring em all into my heart
Bring em all in, bring em all in, bring em all in
Bring em all in, bring em all into my heart
Bring the unforgiven
Bring the unredeemed
Bring the lost and nameless
Let 'em all be seen
Bring 'em out of exile
Bring 'em out of sleep
Bring 'em to the portal
Lay them at my feet.
Mike Scott - Bring 'Em All In Lyrics | MetroLyrics
You must listen to that song. It’s wonderful (and the other one too). Anyway, it was like God was answering my prayers so directly: ‘I am bringing em ALL in Catherine. Don’t worry about it’. I still have my moments of doubt but I will always hope that God is saving everyone, and to hope for such a thing is surely good. 
One last point. I assume Martin is at least a hopeful URist. I noticed he’d commented on Robin Parry’s blog. 
What I find that helps me is to research and verify what anybody says, whether they have letters after their name or not. Then you will bypass the step of researching credentials and start at researching the actual information you’re curious about.
If you are a HR person looking to hire someone then yes. It’s a good idea to check credentials.
But for studying theology researching their letters seems to be a sidestep when you should be verifying anything anyway. Unless maybe I’m missing something?
I think you’re right, TurtleJoy. It’s the things said that matter and not so much whether a person has letters behind their name. If they’re misrepresenting themselves AS having this or that “qualification,” though, that misrepresentation might be significant.
Good point . In that case I’d be extra skeptical of anything they’d try to say. Even if their real reason for misrepresentation was simply just to look scholarly, I suppose there our some who do that for more sinister reasons if they are planning to insert lies with the truth.
I’m excited to pass on a message from Martin Trench:
Thanks again Alex for messaging Martin, and thank you Martin for taking the time to respond to our ‘concerns’. 
I would just like to clarify my position: I certainly don’t judge someone by their ‘wordly’ credentials/qualifications.
The Q and A session at the end of the film was unedited I’m assuming and thus its content can be evaluated and thus my resulting reaction to the ‘law’ question and response.
Each person must heed their own conscience and ‘warnings’ that they have come to know as part of their ‘spirit’/consciousness.
I mean no disrespect to Martin and pray God’s blessings on him and his ministry.
For an enlightening treatment of “ages,” please consider this online chapter titled, “The Ages Presented” by scholar Charles Pridgeon; or the entire book, *Is Hell Eternal or Will God’s Plan Fail? *in .pdf from here.
Of possible interest to Martin Trench, because of his own CMA (Christian and Missionary Alliance) association, consider the fascinating Charles Hamilton Pridgeon:
“Is hell eternal, or just a limited time of purification? In his later years, Pridgeon came to believe that there would be a ‘restitution’ of all things. This universalism came to be called Pridgeonism and the Pridgeon doctrine, and the Assemblies of God condemned it as heresy. Pridgeon had been orthodox in his earlier days. He had founded a missionary society that sent missionaries to China, India, and Africa. He encouraged a remarkable outpouring of the Spirit among students at the Pittsburgh Bible Institute, which he had founded. In 1918 he began airing his controversial beliefs about hell.” ~From 1,001 Things You Always Wanted to Know About the Holy Spirit, by Stephen Lang.
"The Evangelization Society (TES) of the Pittsburgh Bible Institute was founded by Charles Hamilton Pridgeon (1863-1932) in 1920. Having been ordained to the Presbyterian ministry, he was influenced by A. B. Simpson and the doctrines of the CMA. Having established the Pittsburgh Bible Institute ca. 1902, he traveled overseas in 1908-1909 to investigate possible sites for ministry. This trip resulted in the dispatching of missionaries to China. In 1920 he founded the Evangelization Society of the Pittsburgh Bible Institute. In the winter of 1920 Pridgeon attended a revival conducted by Aimee Semple McPherson, causing him to urge his students to pray for the baptism in the Holy Spirit. ~From 1936 Handbook of the Christian Movement in China, pp. 127-128.
Blessings!
That was interesting and helpful info. from Martin; thanks for following up on that, Alex. It is of some personal interest to me that he is associated with CMA churches. My father was a Village Missions pastor for many years, and his first (well, second really; but the first I was old enough to remember) church was a CMA church!
I did read the book (online) by Pridgeon early on in my journey to universalism, and found a number of things very helpful and insightful.