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Why is it important to know the heresies of the past?
Because history has a bad habit of repeating itself. The best way to keep from falling into heresy, is to recognize it. And since there is nothing knew under the sun, history is the best way.
But they died out 1500-1800 years ago? No strains of, say, Gnosticism have reappeared in modern religious systems such as the “New Age” movement, which sometimes claims to be compatible with Christianity. A good example of the modern echoing the ancient might be seen by comparing the following quote from Star Trek V (spoken in a dialogue between Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy after the enterprise has failed to find “God” in the “center” of the Universe), and a quote from 3rd century heretic Monoimus:
Star Trek V: Dr. McCoy: “Is God really out there?”
Captain Kirk: “Maybe he’s not out there, Bones. Maybe he’s here – [in] the human heart”
Heard this quote again, in the film entitled "Kingdom of Heaven".
Monoimus: “…seek for Him from (out of) thyself, and learn…My God (is) my mind, my understanding, my soul, my body…if you accurately investigate these (points), you will discover (God) Himself, unity and plurality, in thyself, according to that title, and that He finds the outlet (for Deity) to be from thyself.” (The Refutation of All Heresies, Chapter 8, Hippolytus, Translated By The Rev. J. H. Macmahon, M.A)
The Albigenses Heresy
Officially known as heretics, they were also called Catharists (katharos, pure), though in reality they were only a branch of the Catharistic movement, Provençal adherents of a doctrine similar to the Manichaean dualistic system of material evil and spiritual good. They held the coexistence/struggle of two gods, one represented the good god of light usually referred to as Jesus in the New Testament and the other the god of darkness and evil usually associated with Satan and the "God of the Old Testament." Two gods, the Good one and the Evil One, light and dark, the soul and the body, the next life and this life, peace and war, and the like. Anything material was considered evil including the body which was created by Satan.They believed that Jesus only seemed to have a human body. The soul, created by the good god, was imprisoned in the evil flesh and salvation was possible only through holy living and doing good works. At death, if the person has been spiritual enough, salvation comes to the believer. But, if the person has not been good enough, he is reincarnated as an animal or another human. They did not believe in the resurrection of the body, since by its nature all flesh is evil.
The Albigenses were extremely ascetic, abstaining from flesh in all its forms, including milk and cheese. They comprised two classes, believers and Perfect, the former much more numerous, making up a catechumenate not bound by the stricter rules observed by the Perfect. The Perfect were those who had received the sacrament of consolamentum, a kind of laying on of hands. The Albigenses held their clergy in high regard. An occasional practice was suicide, preferably by starvation; for if this life is essentially evil, its end is to be hastened.
God sent upon earth Jesus Christ, who, although very perfect, like the Holy Ghost, is still a mere creature. The Redeemer could not take on a genuine human body, because he would thereby have come under the control of the evil principle. His body was, therefore, of celestial essence, and with it He penetrated the ear of Mary. It was only apparently that He was born from her and only apparently that He suffered. His redemption was not operative, but solely instructive.
They had enthusiasm for proselytizing and preached vigorously. This fact partly accounted for their success, for at that time preaching was unknown in ordinary parish life. In the practice of asceticism as well, the contrast between local clergy and the Albigenses was helpful to the new sect.
The Adoptionism Heresy
This is an error concerning Christ that first appeared in the second century. Theodotus of Byzantium was the most prominent adherent to this error. Those who held it denied the preexistence of Christ and, therefore, His deity. Adoptionism says that Jesus was a human being who was "adopted" by God at his conception, at which point he developed a divine nature. Later versions suggest that Jesus was tested by God and after passing this test and upon His baptism, He was granted supernatural powers by God and adopted as the Son. As a reward for His great accomplishments and perfect character Jesus was raised from the dead and adopted into the Godhead.
This heresy rose again in Spain after 782 by Elipandus, archbishop of Toledo, and Felix, bishop of Urgel (Seo de Urgel). They held that Jesus at the time of his birth was purely human and only became the divine Son of God by adoption when he was baptized.
Response: This error arose out of an attempt by people to understand the two natures of Jesus. The scriptures tell us that Jesus is both God and man: "for Him dwells all the fullness of deity in bodily form," (Col. 2:9). This is known as the doctrine of the Hypostatic Union where in the one person of Christ, there are two natures: God and man.
The Antinomianism Heresy
One of the gravest deceptions of which James speaks is antinomianism. Antinomianism means “anti-law-ism.” It teaches that Christians are free from any need to obey God’s law. Antinomianism lies behind the so-called “lordship controversy” that has raged through evangelical Christianity for the past twenty years. Antinomians say that it is possible to have Jesus as Savior without bowing to him as Lord. They say it is possible to believe in Christ and be saved, while never doing any good works at all.
But no one speaks more forthrightly about it than does James. We must hear him.
We cannot divide Christ as Savior from Jesus as Lord, any more than we can divide God the Father. Jesus is Lord because he is God, and the Father has placed him on the throne. Anyone who rejects Christ as Lord has rejected him as Savior. Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 7:21). These people even use the word Lord, but Jesus, as James, warns that they are deceiving themselves. They are damned.
Jesus tells us plainly, “If you love me, you will obey what I command” (John 14:15). Anyone who does not strive to obey God’s commands does not love Jesus and clearly does not have him as Savior.
Certainly we are justified in God’s court by faith alone, apart from any personal works of merit. But anyone who is saved is placed in union with Christ. And in union with Christ we live out the Christian life in conformity to his laws. We who know God want to please him, even though we stumble often.
James 1:22 says that those who do not seek to obey have deceived themselves. Antinomianism is a soul-damning error that leads only to destruction.
Sproul, R.C., Before the Face of God: A Daily Guide for Living from Ephesians, Hebrews, and James, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books) 2000, c1994.
The Kenosis Heresy
"Kenosis" is derived from the Greek word "kenoo" which means "to empty." The kenosis theory states that Jesus gave up some of His divine attributes while He was a man here on earth. The doctrine comes from a misunderstanding of Philippians 2:7. Here Paul describes how Jesus who was on equal standing with God, emptied himself as He came to earth. These attributes were omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. Christ did this voluntarily so that He could function as a man in order to fulfill the work of redemption. This view was first introduced in the late 1800s in Germany with Gottfried Thomasius (1802-75), a Lutheran theologian.
While this has been a long held belief, condemned as heresy as early as the 4th century, and revived with modern liberalism, there is a resurgence of this doctrine among evangelicals, especially in the charismatic community.
The thought process is that Jesus, although still God, emptied himself of his supernatural abilities. He was a man who was enabled to do miracles based upon the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. While this has been a long held belief, condemned as heresy as early as the 4th century, and revived with modern liberalism, there is a resurgence of this doctrine among evangelicals, especially in the charismatic community. The thought process is that Jesus, although still God, emptied himself of his supernatural abilities. He was a man who was enabled to do miracles based upon the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
The Kenosis theory is a dangerous doctrine because if it were true then it would mean that Jesus was not fully divine. If Jesus was not fully divine, then His atoning work would not be sufficient to atone for the sins of the world.
Christian Response: The correct doctrine is the Hypostatic Union, that Jesus is both fully God and fully man (Col. 2:9) and did not give up any divine attributes while as a man on earth. The understanding of the Philippians 2:7 - In reading the context of Philippians 2, we see that the point Paul is making is that we should be humble and submissive to one another. Jesus is used as the prime example of that, for he gave up his authority and imperfection to become our servant and our sinful punishment. He gave up His rights as God, but he did not give up his attributes as God.
Manichaeism Hersey
This was one of the most influential Gnostic movements of the first several centuries A.D., and it survived well into the Middle Ages in one form or another. Its Persian founder Manichean [Mani or Manes] (216? - 276 A.D.) created a religion that was a curious blend of Gnosticism, Christianity, and the teachings of Persian Magi. He taught a doctrine that that matter was evil and that sin was prevalent everywhere. God being light and spirit, had created our soul but we had material bodies which were subject to Satan and sin. They followed extreme form of asceticism (sex was evil, meatless diet and fasting, prayer etc.) to release the light and escape the material darkness. They denied that Christ had a real body. Other characteristics of Manichaeism were that all religions are equally valid, Dualism - two cosmic kingdoms, which included a Kingdom of Light (the Primal God) and the Kingdom of Darkness (Satan); accepted as prophets: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Zoroaster, Buddha, Jesus, Paul, and (let’s not forget himself) Mani; a docetic meaning that Christ was "a divine being clothed in the semblance of man"; there were five grades or levels of believers (similar to the three of Valentius); believed in cycles of life (reincarnation) and let’s not forget preached strict asceticism.
The most famous convert from Manichaeism was St. Augustine, who repudiated Manichaeism in 384 A.D., and later stated:
“THROUGH the assisting mercy of God, the snares of the Manichaeans having been broken to pieces and left behind, having been restored at length to the bosom of the Catholic Church, I am disposed now at least to consider and to deplore my recent wretchedness. For there were many things that I ought to have done to prevent the seeds of the most true religion wholesomely implanted in me from boyhood, from being banished from my mind, having been uprooted by the error and fraud of false and deceitful men.” (St. Augustin, On Two Souls, Against the Manichaeans, translated by Albert H. Newman, D.D., Ll.D.)
There is some evidence that Manichaeism thought survived well into the Middle Ages, where it ran afoul of the Inquisition in the 13th century. The target of the Inquisition was a group of people known as Cathars (also known as the Albigensians), which comes from the Greek word katharoi, meaning pure.
The Modalism Heresy
In the third century, Sabellius, a Libyan priest who was staying at Rome, invented a new heresy called modalism. He claimed there is only one person in the Godhead, so that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all one person with different "offices," rather than three persons who are one being in the Godhead, as the orthodox position holds.
The heresy of modalism, also called Sabellianism, and Patripassianism, is an unorthodox or heretical view of God. It was called Sabellianism after its founder, Modalism after the three modes or roles which it claimed the one person of the Trinity occupied, and Patripassianism after its implication that the person of the Father (Pater-) suffered (-passion) on the cross when Jesus died. Modalists denies the orthodox trinitarian view that there are three distinctions of co-eternal persons are within the Godhead. Modalists believes that the so-called “persons” of the Trinity are modes of God substance, not distinct persons. It claims that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are just ways in which God expresses Himself. Modalists claim that God simply manifests himself in different modes or forms at different times. Like water, which can be manifested in one of three different modes at different times: liquid, solid, and gaseous, the Trinity is said to be only three different modes of the same essence. So, God is a single person who first manifested himself in the mode of the Father in Old Testament times. At the incarnation, the mode was the Son. After Jesus' ascension, the mode is the Holy Spirit. These modes are consecutive and never simultaneous. In other words, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit never all exist at the same time, only one after another.
Present day groups that hold to forms of this error are the United Pentecostal and United Apostolic Churches. They deny the Trinity, teach that the name of God is Jesus, and require baptism for salvation. These modalist churches often accuse Trinitarians of teaching three gods. This is not what the Trinity is. The correct teaching of the Trinity is one God in three eternal coexistent persons: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The Montanism Heresy
Montanism is named after its founder Montanus, though the movement is also known as the Phrygians. The sect was founded in about AD 156 by Montanus in Phrygia (a small province in Turkey). The movement was a response to what Montanus saw as the relaxation in Christian zeal by the church itself. It emphasized prophecy, direct revelation from the Holy Spirit, and a strict moral code. Two women, Priscilla and Maximilla, were leaders who delivered messages while in states of ecstasy. All it's followers, not merely the priests, were discouraged from marriage. Second marriages were absolutely forbidden. Martyrdom was invited, any followers who declined a chance of martyrdom was condemned. Also harsh regimes of fasting were followed. The sect also was convinced that the end of the world was imminent and that Christ was to return in the immediate future.
There was a strong air of fanaticism about this group.
The movement continued until the sixth century when emperor Justinian vehemently suppressed it. Loyal to their creed, as well as fanatical, the montanists of Constantinople rather committed suicide than surrender. They gathered in their churches and then set light to them, perishing in the flames. |
The Pelagianism Heresy
Pelagianism derives its name from Pelagius who lived in the late 4th century A.D. and was a teacher in Rome, though he was British by birth. Pelagius challenged the very function of the church, claiming that the law as well as the gospel can lead one to heaven and that pagans had been able to enter heaven by virtue of their moral actions before the coming of Christ. This was a heresy dealing with the nature of man. "Pelagianism is that teaching, which stresses man's ability to take the initial steps toward salvation by his own efforts, apart from special grace" (Elwell, Ed., Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, p. 833). Pelagius, whose family name was Morgan, taught that people had the ability to fulfill the commands of God by exercising the freedom of human will apart from the grace of God. He denied original sin, the doctrine that we have inherited a sinful nature from Adam. He taught that children are born innocent of the sin of Adam. Pelagius taught that human beings have a natural capacity to reject evil and seek God, that Christ's admonition, “Be ye perfect,” presupposes this capacity, and that grace is the natural ability given by God to seek and to serve God. He said that Adam only hurt himself when he fell and all of his descendents were not affected by Adam's sin and can keep all of God's laws. Pelagius taught that a person is born with the same purity and moral abilities as Adam was when he was first made by God. He rejects the idea that man's will has any intrinsic bias in favor of wrongdoing as a result of the fall. He taught that people can choose God by the exercise of their free will and rational thought. God's grace, then, is merely an aid to help individuals come to Him. “An external aid provided by God. He leaves no room for any special interior action of God upon the soul.... By merit alone men advance in holiness. God's predestination operates according to the quality of the lives God forsees men will lead" (Ibid, p. 834).
Christian Response:Pelagianism fails to understand man's nature and weakness. We are by nature sinners (Eph. 2:3; Psalm 51:5). We all have sinned because sin entered the world through Adam: "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned" (Rom. 5:12, NIV). Therefore, we are unable to do God's will (Rom. 6:16; 7:14). We were affected by the fall of Adam, contrary to what Pelagius taught.
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Future Heresies
Albigenses -Apollinarianism-Arianism-Socianism-The Bulgarian Heresy-Docetism Donatism-Ebionite-Encratite-Eutychianism-Gnosticism-Manichaeism-Marcionism Monarchianism-Monophysitism-- Monothelitism-- Nestorianism-- Patripassionism-Sabellianism—Tritheism -
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