Bachelor of Christian Studies

BC-022 History of Christianity during Early Period (AD 1-600)

Heretical Teachings

Lecture by- Rev. P.C. Vanlalhruaia

• Introduction- The Christians in the second and third centuries had to fight a war on two
fronts- while the church was fighting for its existence against in the face of attempts by the
Roman state to abolish it, it was also fighting to preserve purity of doctrine within the
church.

• Today, terms like ‘heretics’, heretical’, ‘cultic movement’, etc. are being replaced by a more
positive term ‘heterodox’, so as to give a fair chance of what the movement was about and
how it can thrive within the Christian faith.

• Heterodoxy is a set of beliefs or opinions that are not in agreement with accepted doctrinal
beliefs of a church. The word is derived from ‘hetero’ which means ‘other’ of a different type
and ‘doxa’ which means opinion. It means the opinions or beliefs of certain people that are
different to the doctrinal position of a church in that point of time and place.

• Gnosticism: The origin of Gnosticism is not known. Some related its origin to Simon Magus
whom Peter severely rebuked in Act 8. But many scholars believed it to be rooted in the
Greek philosophy. Though there are many different groups of Gnostics with minor variants
the main points of Gnosticism are-

• 1. Denial that the good God created the world, and that all material things are evil: They
believed that there is a supreme God- Bythos, who is the first cause, self-existent, infinitely
remote and unknowable, without attributes, beyond time and change. Since, as they
believe, matter is evil; the world cannot be the handiwork of Bythos. They taught out of the
supreme God emanated a large number of inferior deities- some beneficent and some
malignant. The world, with its mingled good and evil, was created through these
emanations.

• 2. Salvation is by knowledge: The Greek Gnosis is a special knowledge which transcended

the simple faith of the Church. Salvation is to be attained by knowledge. The elect few have
a divine spark that has become imprisoned in matter and has lost its memory of its true
heavenly home. That soul is to be aroused from its sleep-walking condition through
knowledge.

• 3. Division of Humankind into 3 Classes: They divide humankind into 3 classes- the Spiritual
who alone can attain salvation; the Physical who are capable of faith and of a certain degree
of salvation and, the Material who are without hope.

• 4. Belief in Cosmic Dualism: They were dualists believing that the spirit is everything and the
body nothing if not actually evil.

• 5. Denial of resurrection of the body: Consistent with dualism they denied the resurrection
of the body preferring the Platonic doctrine of the immortality of the soul.
• 6. Duality of Spirit and Body: Spirit is of divine origin and good; body is inherently earthly
and evil. They were very hostile to the physical world, to matter and the human body. Some
of them believed that the fall was the fall of the divine element which then is imprisoned in
the material world and also in material body of man. Jesus came into the world to release
this imprisoned spirit.

• 7. They usually advocate a morality of strict ascetism while some of them taught the
opposite- allowing bodily passion to run its own course as it cannot affect the spirit.

• Gnosticism was the most d widespread of all heresies in the early church creating confusions
among Christians. The Church Fathers took it seriously and wrote many books in their fight
against Gnosticism. Justin wrote Against All Heresies, Against Marcion and Against
Hermogenes. Irenaeus Denunciation and Refutation of the so-called Gnosis and
Demonstration of the Apostolic Teachings. Tertullian and Clement of Alexandria also wrote
profusely against the Gnostics.

• Gnosticism stimulated Christian scholars to study the Scripture more carefully resulting in
several scholarly commentaries and intelligent treatises in defense of the faith. It also
fostered asceticism which later resulted in the rise of monasticism.

• Manicheanism:

• Manicheanism was not really a heresy but a philosophical religion founded and developed
by Mani/Manichaeus; a Persian. It was a synthetization of Persian (Zoroastrianism), Christian
and other oriental religious ideas.

• His father was a member of a Christian sect- Elakasaites which blended Christian teachings
with Judaism. He was brought up in the sect but rejected the teaching of the sect. He began
his own teaching around 242 CE. Though he won the favor of Shapur I, he was imprisoned by
Bihram I, and died in prison in 276 CE.

• Mani/Manichaeus believed in two opposing and eternal principles- dualistic philosophy.

Man, according to him came into being by emanation from a being who in turn was a high
emanation from the ruler of the kingdom of light. Opposed to the king of light was the king
of darkness, who managed to trick man so that man became a being mingled with light and
darkness. Therefore, man, a particle of light, has been entangled in the dark material world.

• Salvation was a matter of liberating the light in his soul from its bondage to the matter of his
body. The living Spirit of Good had sent many messengers including Mithra, Jesus and
himself- who was the greatest and the last one, to help rescue the imprisoned particles of
light.

• To attain salvation interior illumination is necessary and the fellowship of the Manichee
church.

• Manicheanism laid much stress on ascetic life. To overcome evil extreme asceticism, severe
fasts is necessary. They denied marriage as sex instinct was regarded as evil.

• Manichaeanism spread speedily westwards as far as North Africa and Gaul. It survived
longest in Asia, reaching China. Augustine of Hippo; who converted to Christianity in 387 CE
was also a disciple of the Manichaeans during the years he was seeking for truth.
• But after his conversion, Augustine devoted much energy in refuting this philosophy in
Against the Manichaeans.

• Montanism:

• emerged in Phrygia after 155 CE as an attempt on the part of Montanus to meet the
problems of formalism in the church and the dependence of the church on human
leadership instead of on the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

• As many others Montanism in this period, Montanus was opposed to the rise to prominence
of bishops in the church and felt the inspiration of the Holy Spirit was declining seriously.
Therefore, believed that the time had come to return to the spontaneous inspiration of the
Holy Spirit which was so vital in the NT times.

• Unfortunately, as so often happens in such movements, he swung to the extreme opposite

and developed a fanatical misinterpretation of Scripture. He made his appearance about 156
CE and was soon joined by two prophetesses, Prisca and Maximila, who left their husbands.

• Montanism was, not a heresy at first, but a protest movement against the growing
formalism, worldliness and disregard of the spontaneous gift of the Holy Spirit. But it
eventually became a heresy when it exaggerated certain teachings to the extreme.

• Montanism claimed that the promise of the Holy Spirit had not been fully fulfilled, except in
Montanus himself. He became a passive instrument through whom the Holy Spirit spoke and
thus the promise of Jesus to give the Holy Spirit was completely fulfilled and a new
dispensation of the Holy Spirit began.

• Montanism claimed that the heavenly kingdom of Christ would soon be set up in Pepuza in
Phrygia. Many of his followers moved to Pepuza to wait for the return of the Lord.

• In order to prepare for that coming, they practiced strict asceticism. They emphasized
fasting which they believed had become too formal in the existing church. They advocated
celibacy as a higher form of Christianity, self-denial, abstinence from eating meat and
prohibited second marriage.

• In 162 CE a Synod held in Asia Minor condemned Montanism as heresy because of the
extreme or exaggeration on some certain points of their teachings. But it still developed and
spread rapidly, reached Rome by 170 CE and caused confusion. By 200 CE it even reached
North Africa, particularly Carthage.

• The Council of Constantinople in 381 declared that Montanists should be looked upon as
pagans. But Tertullian, one of the greatest of the church fathers, found the doctrine
appealing and became a Montanist.

• Montanism was and is a warning to the church not to forget that its organization and its
formulation of doctrine must never be divorced from the satisfaction of the emotional side
of man’s nature and the human craving for immediate spiritual contact with God.

• Monarchianism:

• Monarchianism was a trinitarian heresy. Monarchianism may be said to have erred because
of its excessive zeal in emphasizing the unity of God in opposition to an attempt to conceive
God as three separate personalities. It concerned with an assertion of monotheism but
 ended up with an ancient form of Unitarianism, which denied the real deity of Christ. Their
problem was how to relate Christ to God.

• Christianity, being existed in the world of polytheism, some tried to explain the doctrine of
the unity of God. In trying to describe the unity of God in Trinity, they fell into heresies.
There were two kinds of Monarchianism- Dynamic Monarchianism and Modalistic
Monarchianism.

• Dynamic Monarchianism- Again there were two groups of dynamic monarchianist. The first
group was led by Theodotus, a prominent Christian in Byzantium, a tanner by profession.

• He taught that Jesus was a mere man, born of course of virgin Mary according to the will of
God. He was so holy that the divine Christ or the Holy Spirit descended on him at his
baptism, so that he became Christ and worked miracles. Jesus was not divine in his nature,
but because he was possessed by the divine Christ, he was adopted Son of God. Theodotus
was condemned and excommunicated by Victor, bishop of Rome.

• The second group was led by Paul of Samosata, bishop of Antioch. He was a man of ill repute
for his immoral and dishonest character, but was very influential.

• He taught that Logos was one attribute of God which inspired Moses and the prophets. Jesus
was merely a man, but he was filled with the Logos, by which Jesus was united to God, not
one with God in substance, but moral, yet inseparable.

• By means of this union, Jesus rose again from the dead. God then granted him a kind of
delegated or adopted authority.

• Between 264 and 269 three Synods/Councils investigate Paul’s teaching and declared him a
heretic. He was expelled and banished by emperor Aurelius his teaching existed for some
time but died down soon.

• Modalistic Monarchianism- Modalistic Monarchianism was more popular than Dynamic

Monarchianism. The founder seemed to be Noetus of Asia Minor (180-200 CE) and Praxeas
taught his teaching in Rome.

• Sabellius, an influential Egyptian Presbyter, was the most famous teacher of Modalistic
Monarchianism. After 200 CE in his wish to avoid any danger of tritheism he formulated the
teaching thar bore his name- Sabellianism. He went to Rome and spread his teaching there.
He was excommunicated by Callistus, bishop of Rome.

• The teaching of Modalistic Monarchianism is quite simple. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are
not distinct persons, but one person in in three modes of manifestation. God was
manifested as Father in Old Testament times, later as the Son to redeem man, and as the
Holy Spirit after the resurrection of Christ. Thus, there were not three persons in the
Godhead but three manifestations.

• Conclusion: Early Christian converts either came from a Jewish background of salvation by
works or from the intellectual environment of Greek philosophy. These converts tended to
carry their old ideas into their new environment.

• Others tried to make Christianity appear intellectually respectable to the upper classes in the
state.
• In some instances overzealous leaders developed a particular interpretation to correct real
or fancied evils in the church and got many to follow their heretical ideas until heresies
finally resulted in schisms.