A Synopsis of Ancient Heretics
"The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun." Eccles. 1:9
These words penned by the author of Ecclesiastes are especially true regarding heretical teachings attacking the truth of God's Word in our time. To gain an understanding of the doctrinal errors and aberrant teachings within the Body of Christ today it is important to take time and study the original errors which attacked the Church at its inception. Truly, "there is no new thing under the sun." Error today is spread to more people and is disseminated more rapidly than ever before, yet the content of this error is for the most part very ancient. The majority of these statements come from Earle E. Cairns "Christianity Through the Centuries," David Christie-Murray "A History of Heresy," and Groliers CR Rom Encyclopedia.
| Ebionites | Gnostics | Neoplatonists | Manicheanism | Montanism | Monarchianism |
| Sabellianism | Arianism | Nestorianism | Monothelitism | Adoptionism | Closing Remarks |
Legalistic Heresies
Ebionites were a heretical group centered in Palestine that existed after Bar Kochba's revolt was put down by Rome around 135 A.D. The Ebionites emphasized the unity of God and His role as Creator of the universe. They held fast to Jewish law and believed it to be the highest expression of His divine will. They believed His law was still binding on man and was to be completely obeyed. Ebionites regarded Christ as a human being, not God the Son. Jesus achieved a measure of divinity when the Holy Spirit came upon Him at His baptism. They used Matthew's gospel and naturally, disliked the teachings of Paul. They taught Christians were held to the law of Moses and that physical circumcision was an essential ingredient to salvation.
| "They practiced a rigorous asceticism and stressed the binding character of the Mosaic Law. After the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, the Ebionites settled in Transjordan but remained outside the mainstream of Christianity. They are often identified with the Nazarenes, a similar sect described by 4th-century writers" Groiler's Encyclopedia CR Rom 1996 |
Philosophic Heresies
Gnosticism was the greatest of the philosophic threats and the New Testament authors were encountering its attempts to infiltrate the Church even before the canon of Scripture was closed. Gnosticism was primarily a concept stemming from Greek philosophy. According to David Murray in "A History of Heresy" for the Gnostic salvation was not by "mere faith and love but by revealed speculative knowledge, esoteric intuition or by magical rites, instruction and initiation." There is much today in Charismatic teachings which hearkens back to many original concepts found within Gnostic groups. Gnostic's were often sensitive, intelligent, and religious men who beliefs and systems of thought came from personal experience. When they used the Scriptures they interpreted them allegorically, thus making the Scriptures mean whatever they wanted. Early Church Fathers regard Simon Magus (Acts 8:10)as the father of Gnosticism. He is said to have written the Gnostic work entitled The Great Revelation in which Simon is the Messiah, not Jesus. Menander was one of Simon's disciples and he preached that those who followed him would not die, and that Jesus was not crucified by Simon Magus. Gnostic's believed all matter was evil, and that there is a clear separation between the material and spiritual world. The gap between the spiritual (pure world) and the physical (evil world) was bridged by a series of emanations from the Highest God of the Gnostic's. They dealt with the issue of Jesus by teaching a form of Docetism in that Jesus body was not a real body, it only appeared to be real. Thus Jesus could be a pure spiritual being in the midst of an evil world and not be contaminated by it. Christ came upon the body of Jesus only for a short time and left the man Jesus to die on the cross. Christ's missions was to teach special gnosis to His followers that would help man save himself by intellectual process. The Patron Saint of Heresy Hunters named Irenaeus wrote Against Heresies in which he explains and refutes several Gnostic schools of thought. He refutes Marcion, Saturninus, and Basilides. Marcion even wrote his on canon of Scripture which included an abridged version of Luke's gospel and 10 of Paul's letters. Due to the Gnostic's attempt to subvert true Christian teaching the early Church formed a short creed as a test of Orthodoxy and gave the office of bishop more prestige and the bishop became a center for Christian unity and a arbitrator over doctrinal issues.
Manicheanism was started by Manichaeus who was from Mesopotamia. He lived from 216 to 276 A.D. and his religion was a synthesis of Christianity and Zoroastrianism. He came up with a dualistic universe of 2 opposing principles. Salvation to Mani consisted of being able to liberate the light (of the soul/spiritual) from the lower physical (evil) body. This freeing of the soul came through being exposed to the Light, Christ, via the elite priestly caste. The followers of Mani stressed the superiority of being unmarried over that of being married and it is believed that this concept may have helped lead to the Catholic belief of the necessity of an unmarried priesthood.
Neoplatonism came into the Church through Ammonius Saccas (174-242 A.D.). Plotinus was his disciple and he became the leader of this movement. His concepts were written down by Porphory known as the Enneads. These teach a metaphysical monism versus a dualistic concept of the universe. For the Neoplatonist the universal goal is for the reabsorption of creation back into the divine essence. This view is very close to that of Hinduism which also is non-dual in its cosmology. Neoplatonism gave rise to mysticism within the Church. Mysticism simply defined is this: through various practices man can come to know God directly and immediately by intuition or spiritual illumination, by passing the working of the mind or intellect. Quakers and many Charismatic's subscribe to this belief.
Theological Heresies
Montanism was started by Montanus a former pagan priest. He reintroduced alleged charismata back to the Church. He called himself a prophet and two women with him were viewed as prophetesses. They were very ascetic and held that the end of the age was upon them and that the New Jerusalem would descend upon Phrygia. Please go to my section on Montanism and Neo-Montanism. Today's Charismatic and Pentecostal Christians are Montanists in almost every respect.
Monarchianism were people who overly stressed the unity of God in opposition to the teaching that the One God had three distinct personalities. Cairnes says "they were concerned with an assertion of monotheism but ended up with an ancient form of Unitarianism." Their main proponent was Paul of Samosata. He taught Christ was not divine, but a good man, who achieved divinity at his baptism along with saviorhood.
Sabellianism came to us from a man named Sabellius. He taught what is called Modal Monarchianism. To him the One God manifested Himself as Father, Son, and Spirit, but were in reality just One God. God assumed various modes but was not really three-in-one. His view denies the separate personality of Christ and the Holy Spirit. Today this view lives on in another branch of Pentecostalism called Oneness Pentecostals, or United Pentecostals, or Apostolic Pentecostals.
Arianism Arius denied the full deity of the preexistent Son of God who became incarnate in Jesus Christ. He held that the Son, while divine and like God ("of like substance"), was created by God as the agent through whom he created the universe. Arius said of the Son, "there was a time when he was not." Arianism became so widespread in the Christian church and resulted in such disunity that the emperor Constantine convoked a church council at Nicaea in 325 (see NICAEA , COUNCILS OF). Led by ATHANASIUS, bishop of Alexandria, the council condemned Arianism and stated that the Son was consubstantial (of one and the same substance or being) and coeternal with the Father, a belief formulated as homoousios ("of one substance") against the Arian position of homoiousios ("of like substance"). Nonetheless, the conflict continued, aided by the conflicting politics of the empire after the death of Constantine (337). Three types of Arianism emerged: radical Arianism,which asserted that the Son was "dissimilar" to the Father; homoeanism, which held that the Son was similar to the Father; and semi-Arianism, which shaded off into orthodoxy and held that the Son was similar yet distinct from the Father. After an initial victory of the homoean party in 357, the semi-Arians joined the ranks of orthodoxy, which finally triumphed except in Teutonic Christianity, where Arianism survived until after the conversion (496) of the Franks. Although much of the dispute about Arianism seems a battle over words (Edward GIBBON scornfully observed that Christianity was split over a single iota, the difference between homoousios and homoiousios), a fundamental issue involving the integrity of the Gospel was at stake: whether God was really in Christ reconciling the world to himself. Today many cults, such as the Way International are Arians. Bibliography: Gregg, R. C., ed., Arianism: Historical and Theological Reassessments (1987); Gwatkin, H. M., Studies of Arianism, 2d ed. (1900); Newman, John Henry, The Arians of the Fourth Century (1833; repr. 1968). Copyright (c) Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc.
Nestorianism A 5th-century Christological heresy, Nestorianism takes its name from Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople (428-31), who argued against the Alexandrian use of the title Theotokos, meaning "God bearer," or "Mother of God," for the Virgin Mary. Nestorius believed Mary was the mother of Christ only in his humanity. Nestorius taught that Christ had two natures adivine and human nature. Nestorius was condemned by the Council of Ephesus (431; see EPHESUS, COUNCIL OF), which was convened specifically to settle the dispute. There the Theotokos was officially affirmed and orthodox doctrine on the nature of Jesus Christ clarified: Christ was pronounced true God and true man, as having two distinct natures in one person --a position that was reaffirmed by the Council of Chalcedon in 451 A.D. Nestorius was deposed as bishop and sent to Antioch, although the debate continues as to whether Nestorius himself was actually a Nestorian and a heretic. Today a Nestorian church survives in the East and has since taught, in opposition to the orthodox doctrine, that there are two persons in the incarnate Christ, human and divine. Copyright (c) Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc.
Monothelitism was a 7th-century Byzantine doctrine that accepted the teaching of two natures in JESUS CHRIST, as defined (451) at the Council of CHALCEDON, but declared that he had only one will or mode of activity (energeia). The Monothelitic formula was adopted (624) by Byzantine Emperor HERACLIUS as a compromise that might be acceptable to the Monophysites (see MONOPHYSITISM) of Egypt and Syria. Sergius, patriarch of Constantinople, championed the doctrine and won the support of the Egyptian and Armenian Monophysites. The Christological controversies of an earlier age soon reappeared, however. Sergius sought the support of Pope HONORIUS I, who approved the Monothelitic formula, specifically rejecting the Chalcedonian teaching of "two wills." Monothelitism was condemned by Honorius's successors and by the Third Council of CONSTANTINOPLE (680). Because the writings of Honorius had contributed to the spread of this teaching, he also was condemned, although he was not accused of the formal teaching of heresy. Agnes Cunningham Copyright (c) Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc.
Adoptionism, was a theological doctrine propounded in the 8th century by a Spanish bishop, Elipandus of Toledo. Concerned to distinguish between the divine and human natures of Christ, Elipandus held that in his divinity Christ was the son of God by nature, but in his humanity by adoption only. The doctrine was opposed by the English scholar Alcuin and condemned as heresy by the Council of Frankfurt (794). Similar views were held by PAUL OF SAMOSATA and the followers of MONARCHIANISM. Belloc, H., Great Heresies (1938). Copyright (c) Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc.
Today the Church faces much of the same challenge as when it was started almost 2,000 years ago. Again we must earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. All of the heresy and error we see rampant in the Body is not new. Much of it can be boiled down into basic categories of former errors fought by the Church centuries ago. We can learn much from the early Church Father's and I recommend that their writings and how they refuted the heretics of their day be studied so we too can wage a successful war against those who pervert the true revelation of God.
"Error, indeed, is never set forth in its naked deformity, lest, being thus exposed, it should at once be detected."
Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons "Against Heresies" Book I
