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Apologetics
13. Questions about the Early Church
and
HERESIES
(The
Truth Challenged)
A
series that helps consider the foundations for faith
Contents:
Introductory
Comments
1.
What were the Main Problems facing the Early Church?
-
Setting
the scene for what follows and an example.
2.
Where did the Heresies come from?
3.
What effect did these Heresies have?
4.
Who were the Main People/Groups Promoting these Heresies?
Summary
On
this page we'll be looking at some of the difficulties of
the early centuries of the Christian Church, particularly
the Heresies that arose and which sought
to undermine the Faith in the centuries after Jesus' ascension
and the passing of the Twelve.
On
the previous pages we saw the persecutions that rose against
the Christians, showing that this was a genuine historical
movement to be considered, and the competing belief systems
that existed in those centuries against which a number of
Christian writers wrote.
On
the following pages we'll see the people of the early centuries
of church history who God used to overcome these problems.
For
the time being we focus on the Heresies
that arose in those centuries.
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1.
What were the Main Problems facing the Early Church?
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Answer:
As
we noted previously, the centuries following Jesus were characterised
by persecutions, competition and heresies
Enemy
action |
Intention
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Effect
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Persecutions
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To
frighten Christians and those who might be turning to
the faith. |
The
grace of God in the martyrs showed the reality of the
faith and many were converted.
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Competing
Beliefs |
To
steal away converts or prevent people becoming Christian
believers |
In
fact were revealed as inadequate in the face of Christianity
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| Heresies
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To
distort, confuse and water down the faith. |
The
struggles against untruth meant the New Testament was
written and creeds formulated to establish accepted doctrine.
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Example:
From
Irenaeus Against Heresies Book 1, Chapter
13.-The Deceitful Arts and Nefarious Practices of Marcus.
But
there is another among these heretics, Marcus by name, who
boasts himself as having improved upon his master. He is a
perfect adept in magical impostures, and by this means drawing
away a great number of men, and not a few women, he has induced
them to join themselves to him, as to one who is possessed
of the greatest knowledge and perfection, and who has received
the highest power from the invisible and ineffable regions
above .
By
its very title Irenaeus tells us that there were already many
heresies with which the church had to contend.
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Where did the Heresies come from? |
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The
simple answer to that is from men! As we'll go down this page
we'll see that heresies were the ideas of men grappling with
what they thought was the truth.
Unfortunately
when these men were not sincerely committed to God, they were
left with human reason alone and as a result, often came up
with ideas that were far from the truth.
In
what follows watch for the men from whom these wrong ideas
came.
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3.
What Effect did these Heresies have?
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Answer:
Well,
as we've indicated above, one might expect them to have led
many people astray and even to throw Christianity completely
off course. Instead God raised up a variety of leaders who wrestled
against these ideas and worked their way to the truth.
Out
of this wrestling, God's leaders in the early centuries formulated
various creeds that you will find on a later page, coming to
theological conclusions that have been accepted by the Church
ever since.
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4.
Who were the main People/Groups promoting these Heresies?
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Answer:
The
following are some of the main heresies that arose in this period
of the first three centuries:
4.1
The Ebionites
Ebionites
(Heb. Ebyonim,
"the Poor Ones") were mostly Jewish ex-disciples of
John the baptist, Jesus, or James the Just.
Were
said to have embraced poverty and lived in communities and
believed in one God.
They
taught
that Jesus was the Messiah and was the true "prophet"
but they
rejected the Virgin Birth of Jesus, instead
holding that he was the natural son of Joseph and Mary.
They
believed Jesus became the Messiah
because he obeyed the Jewish Law,
which
they
faithfully followed, although adjusted in order
to uphold their teachings, which included vegetarianism, holy
poverty, ritual ablutions, and the rejection of animal sacrifices.
Early
on they embraced Matthew's Gospel without the birth narrative,
but later abandoned that in favour of the Gospel of the Ebionites
which no longer exists.
They
believed
that salvation came through obeying the Law
which only Jesus did perfectly and thus became the Christ
even though he was only a man.
See
Irenaeus Against Heresies written about 170 AD: Book
1 - ch.26.2
Those
who are called Ebionites agree that the world was made
by God; but their opinions with respect to the Lord are similar
to those of Cerinthus and Carpocrates. They use the Gospel
according to Matthew only, and repudiate the Apostle Paul,
maintaining that he was an apostate from the law. As to the
prophetical writings, they endeavour to expound them in a
somewhat singular manner: they practise circumcision, persevere
in the observance of those customs which are enjoined by the
law, and are so Judaic in their style of life, that they even
adore Jerusalem as if it were the house of God.
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4.2
Nicolaus
Nicolaus
was the originator of the heresy of the Nicolaitans
(see Rev 2:6 in Ephesus and 2:15 in Pergamum) which was also
associated with the teaching of Balaam (Rev 2:14) which disdained
the Jerusalem Council's restrictions on eating meat offered
to idol and on immorality (Acts 15:29, Rev 2:14)
Irenaeus
has it that he was the Nicolas from Antioch, one of the deacons
mentioned in Acts 6:5 who later fell into error. (although later
Clement of Alexandria absolves him of this heresy)
The
heresy seems to have been to water down the moral standards
of Christianity so that adultery was acceptable.
See
Irenaeus Against Heresies : Book 1, ch.26.3
The
Nicolaitanes are the followers of that Nicolas who was one
of the seven first ordained to the diaconate by the apostles.
They lead lives of unrestrained indulgence. The character
of these men is very plainly pointed out in the Apocalypse
of John, [when they are represented] as teaching that
it is a matter of indifference to practise adultery, and to
eat things sacrificed to idols. Wherefore the Word has also
spoken of them thus: "But this thou hast, that thou hatest
the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate."
William
Barclay quotes Sir William
Ramsay describing their teaching: It was an attempt
to effect a reasonable compromise with the established usages
of the Graeco-Roman society and to retain as many as possible
of those usages in the Christian system
i.e.
merging world morality into the Christian system!
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4.3 Cerinthus
Cerinthus,
at the end of the first century and beginning of the second,
was the leader of a sect which was an offshoot of the Ebionites
He
believed in justification by works, in particular the ceremonial
observances of Judaism
See
Irenaeus Against Heresies: Book
1 - ch.26.1
(our
layout):
Cerinthus,
again, a man who was educated in the wisdom of the Egyptians,
-
taught
that the world was not made by the primary God, but by a
certain Power far separated from him, and at a distance
from that Principality who is supreme over the universe,
and ignorant of him who is above all.
-
He
represented Jesus as having not been born of a virgin, but
as being the son of Joseph and Mary according to the ordinary
course of human generation, while he nevertheless was more
righteous, prudent, and wise than other men.
-
Moreover,
after his baptism, Christ descended upon him in the form
of a dove from the Supreme Ruler, and that then he proclaimed
the unknown Father, and performed miracles.
-
But
at last Christ departed from Jesus, and that then Jesus
suffered and rose again, while Christ remained impassible,
inasmuch as he was a spiritual being.
i.e.
- God
didn't make all of creation
- Jesus
was purely human
- after
his baptism the Christ came on his human body and exercised
the ministry
-
the
Christ left the human Jesus who had to die and rise again
b) Book 3, chapter 3, an amusing anecdote:
There
are also those who heard from him that John, the disciple
of the Lord, going to bathe at Ephesus, and perceiving Cerinthus
within, rushed out of the bath-house without bathing, exclaiming,
"Let us fly, lest even the bath-house fall
down, because Cerinthus, the enemy of
the truth, is within ."
c)
Book 3, chapter 11
John,
the disciple of the Lord, preaches this faith, and seeks,
by the proclamation of the Gospel, to remove that error which
by Cerinthus had been disseminated among men, and a long time
previously by those termed Nicolaitans
See
the notes on the Nicolaitans above.
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4.4
Docetism
Docetism
(Gk.dokeo, "to seem")
is the belief that Jesus' only seemed
to have a physical body and to physically die, but in reality
he was incorporeal, a pure spirit, and hence could not physically
die.
This
belief is most commonly linked to the Gnostics (see below) who
believed that matter was evil,
and therefore denied that God would take on a material body.
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4.5
The Gnostics
Gnosticism
was most powerful about 150AD
Prior
to this, the earliest sect calling themselves Gnostics were
the Ophians who worshipped the Serpent
(Gk ophis ) as the one who brought wisdom and knowledge
of good and evil to the human race (see Gen 3) and opposed God,
the Creator of a bad world.
(see
Irenaeus Against Heresies: Book 1 - ch.30 )
They
are linked to Simon Magus (of Acts 8:9-) who is said to have
become a heretic.
The
Teaching of the Gnostics:
i)
A divided world existence
There
is a hostility between this world and
God's kingdom, one evil and one good (dualism), seeing
no good in the created world, only in the spirit.
Salvation
came from being liberated from this world by discovering the
kingdom of God within one's soul
This
was only able to be true of the elect' who were alien prisoners
in this world. Salvation came by bypassing the hostile powers
of this world to ascend to God
This
dualism created:
-
libertinism
being freed from the confines of the world to do what
you like where,
in a queer twist of logic, they said that because the material
world was evil and didn't count in salvation, you could
do what you like in it and hence immorality and licentiousness
were acceptable.
ii)
A divided God
Gnosticism
rejected any notion of God's disclose if Himself.
It
saw two God's
-
the Demiurge, the Aeon, or an Archon (Ruler)
identified with the harsh God of the Old Testament who created
the world (which was bad)
- the
unknown supreme God of the New Testament
iii)
A divided Jesus
Jesus
was first a human being
The
heavenly Archon (ruler) descended on this human and deserted
him at his Passion (in some sects this heavenly Christ descends
again on the risen body after the resurrection and enables him
to teach his disciples for a further eighteen months.)
If
the true Christ lived on the earth it was only with a phantom
body, a body that seemed to be human see Docetism above.
iv)
A confused salvation
Salvation
came through gnosis,
knowledge a mystic knowledge revealed by the God of the New
Testament (the good God) to the teacher of the sect.
Humanity
was divided into:
•
a spiritual elite able to achieve salvation
and,
•
"psychics" capable of a modified
form of salvation and,
•
"material" people cut off from salvation.
There
were lots of Gnostic writings, most of which have not survived,
some being ascribed to Philip, Mary Magdalene, Adam, Peter,
and Paul.
One
of the best known is the Gospel of Thomas, some 114 purported
sayings of Jesus, more of a Gnostic style that of the traditional
Gospel style.
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4.6
Montanism
This
was a pentecostal movement in Phrygia about AD 172 led by Montanus
with two prophetesses.
He
taught that they were now in the age of the Spirit which he
heralded, with a strong emphasis on prophecy.
Tertullian
of Carthage joined them.
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4.7
Arianism
Arius
was a senior presbyter in charge of one of the twelve parishes
of Alexandria who
lived about AD 250-336.
He
taught a divine distinction between God
the Father and Jesus the Son. He maintained the the Son
who pre-existed in heaven was a divine being created by the
Father and probably inferior. The
Son then created the Spirit who was subservient to the Son.
Arius
was a persuasive preacher and convinced many that this was so,
that the Father alone was God and the Son did not possess any
of the divine attributes of of immortality, sovereignty, perfect
wisdom and goodness and purity. Thus this teaching undermined
Christ's standing as the revelation of God and the redeemer
of the world. The Logos or Son took the place of the soul in
the earthly Jesus
Arius
was excommunicated but the row over his teaching rumbled on.
Constantine
called a general assembly of bishops that eventually met at
Nicaea. Out of this came the Creed of Nicaea
(AD 325)
This
was expanded and revised and authorised by the Council of Constantinople
in AD 381 and is now know as the Nicene Creed
which is read in churches today
NB.
Athanasius (c.296 373)
His
writings were very significant in that they worked out the basic
doctrines and sought to counter the heresy of Arianism:
-
Against the Gentiles -- On the Incarnation - a double
treatise in 318, affirming and explaining that Jesus was both
God and Man. In his major theological opus,
-
the Three Discourses Against the Arians, in which Athanasius
stressed that the Father's begetting of the Son, or uttering
of the Word, was an eternal relationship between them, not an
event that took place within time.
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On
this Page we have observed:
- The
existence of many
heresies in the first centuries of the Church.
- These
arose from men reaching their own conclusions about God, Jesus
& salvation.
- The fact that instead
of pulling the Church down, they provoked many leaders to write
against them and become clearer in their understanding of the
truth.
- A list of the main heresies
that arose in that period.
Without
any doubt, these years were years of tremendous battles for
the truth, but out of them came clarity of understanding which
has helped the Church throughout the following centuries until
now.
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