Digging Out the Embedded Church - The Maranatha Community

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and the order of the Church which had come down from the first apostles, preserved through an episcopal succession. He believes that the Church can identify this succession in the names of bishops descended from the Apostles. He refers to the disputes beginning at Corinth mentioned in Clement‟s letter and sees Rome as the Church that has apostolic authority to correct the errors of the Corinthians. The truth handed down is Biblical truth but it is expounded by faithful men who are consistent in their teaching with the apostles‟ doctrine. But there were false counter-apostolic views abroad from a very early date. There were also men who divided the church, not doctrinally, but by their style of church discipline, which went counter to the general conduct of the churches. Some of the heresies were ephemeral; some were long-lasting; and some can even be found today, mainly in sects which have risen up since the 19 th Century. Jerome (c.345-420 AD) said that there was something in the distinction that a schism was a separation from the Church while a heresy was a denial of orthodox doctrine; but he noted that every schism had within it a fault in doctrine. We can see in the Church‟s response to these challenges to its faith the formation of responses that have become the bases for unity which we can rediscover and celebrate today. Almost all the heresies in the Early Church, up to the 4 th Century, have to do with opinions concerning either the Person of Christ (some denying his complete humanity, others impugning his full deity) or the relationship of Father, Son and Spirit within a Triune Godhead. THE MAIN HERESIES AND SCHISMS OF THE EARLY CHURCH Let us look at the main heresies and schisms of the first 400 years of the church. Docetism The first challenge to apostolic teaching can be found within the New Testament itself in the form of a heresy often termed Docetism. As John was writing his letters in the province of Asia towards the end of the 1 st Century, he challenged the view that the real humanity of Christ only appeared to have a real body of flesh and blood (dokeo – „I seem or appear to‟). The roots of this heresy lay in Gnosticism (from gnosis – knowledge), widespread in the 1 st Century, which claimed an inner knowledge of the way things were in the universe. Later, in Christianised forms, Gnosticism was to trouble the Church considerably, so that in the next century Irenaeus of Lyons wrote strongly against it as a deviation from Christian truth. Gnosticism, if unchecked, would have seriously diminished an apostolic view of the person of Christ and his redemptive work, because Gnosticism presupposed an antithesis between the physical and the spiritual. Matter was evil, only spirit was good. This dualistic view could not accommodate the idea of a supreme, good God taking on a material form in human flesh. Some Christian Gnostics tended to see the God of creation as opposed to the supreme good God, because a good God could not have been involved in the creation of matter. Page 15
A certain Docetic teacher, often identified as Cerinthus, was troubling the church in John‟s region by denying, further, that Christ, the Messiah, died on the Cross. He seems to have been teaching that Jesus was only an ordinary man until his baptism, when a higher power came upon him. This power left Jesus just before his Crucifixion. By his dualism, this teacher thus separated Christ (Messiah) from Jesus the man. John, the apostle of love, sternly refutes such teaching. Listen to him in his first letter: „Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognise the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.‟ (1 John 4.1-3) And he continues: „This is the one who came by water and blood – Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.‟ (1 John 5.6-7) Note how John has no hesitation in calling such a teacher „anti-Christ‟, as one who denied both the real humanity of Christ and that in his humanity he died on the Cross. John was passionate for unity in the church, but only on the ground of truth. Paul probably had incipient Gnostic views in mind in Colossians when he asserted Christ to be our true gnosis (Colossians 2.3) and not an inferior being, but the very fullness (pleroma) of Deity. If Docetism had won the day, Christ would have been a phantom figure and Jesus‟ death only that of a man. Marcionism Gnostic views were widespread, and in Rome, in about 160 AD, Marcion, a wealthy ship owner, son of a bishop, and a native of Sinope in Pontus on the Black Sea, began to teach dualist views, particularly in relation to the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. He had been excommunicated from the church in 144 AD. He saw the Old Testament to be revealing an inferior God to the one seen in the New Testament. The God of the Old Testament was inferior in not being loving and gracious like the God of Jesus; he was the Demi-urge creator which Gnostics talked about. Marcion saw in 10 of Paul‟s letters, which he interpreted as being against the law of the Old Testament, the true Christian Gospel. The rest of the New Testament writings, except most of Luke, he rejected. His movement became known as Marcionism and was a threat to mainstream „catholic‟ Christianity. But out of the church‟s tussle with Marcionism came the very necessary step of deciding which scriptures circulating among the churches were authentic and canonical and which were not. So it did the church an immense service. By the end of the 2 nd Century a canon of Scripture, largely the same as the mainstream churches‟ canon today, came into Page 16
Page 1 and 2: Digging Out the Embedded Church Dis
Page 3 and 4: The Maranatha Community comprises t
Page 5 and 6: Introduction CONTENTS Chapter 1 Chr
Page 7 and 8: ead, nicely browned on top. He plac
Page 9 and 10: HOW DO WE DIG OUT THE EMBEDDED CHUR
Page 11 and 12: That the Church should express this
Page 13 and 14: For Alfeyev, „Faith is a gift, th
Page 15 and 16: „heresies„ of the Early Church
Page 17 and 18: Traditionally, the Church has made
Page 19: CHAPTER 1 CHRISTIAN UNITY IN THE EA
Page 23 and 24: Novatianism When the persecutions o
Page 25 and 26: The fortunes of the Arian party in
Page 27 and 28: An attempt was made in 482 AD (29 y
Page 29 and 30: was development in the interpretati
Page 31 and 32: CYPRIAN AND AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO The
Page 33 and 34: position would see baptism as not t
Page 35 and 36: The Eastern Church‟s relationship
Page 37 and 38: insisted from the second Lateran Co
Page 39 and 40: There is so much that Orthodoxy sha
Page 41 and 42: we do not talk to each other. Our t
Page 43 and 44: The question of heresy does not com
Page 45 and 46: They were missionary-minded and the
Page 47 and 48: Lollard ideas lingered in English r
Page 49 and 50: CHAPTER 4 THE SECOND GREAT SPLIT: W
Page 51 and 52: unity‟s sake in subsequent centur
Page 53 and 54: Erasmus wrote he asserts, through o
Page 55 and 56: attle-cry, is perhaps the most famo
Page 57 and 58: Regulations for the good ordering o
Page 59 and 60: Eucharist was not just a commemorat
Page 61 and 62: CHAPTER 5 QUOTATIONS ON THE THEME O
Page 63 and 64: How rare then it is to meet a man w
Page 65 and 66: are often much bigger divisions bet
Page 67 and 68: St Germanus of Constantinople - 8 t
Page 69 and 70: manner. He declared that men could
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S L Greenslade - 20 th Century: „
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CHAPTER 6 HOPES FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY
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imminent return of Christ (Komensky
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a concern that merchant adventurers
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also anti-Socinian. Calixtus himsel
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The Eastern Churches were not rent
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everyone - from outward forms to in
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Women were not usually members of t
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work in America, shows him, though
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The aim of the conference was to br
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From 1768 Harris‟s home at Talgar
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twice more to congregations of Whit
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denominations was not their distinc
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It was from the overseas Protestant
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THE OXFORD TRACTARIAN MOVEMENT Anot
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the Church of England‟s doctrinal
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„We pray that… all who desire t
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thereof, in prayer, in the remembra
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honours the Lord and his Word; the
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apostolic church enjoyed, and that
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episcopate were too radical for mos
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Denominations began to form their o
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In this Shanghai Conference‟s Rep
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With so much talk of unity and coop
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„The liturgical movement in weste
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• Sharing a corporate life of wit
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• Our acknowledgement of the Apos
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(h) The Evangelical Church in Germa
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It changed nothing in respect of do
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Some Evangelical Protestants want t
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• It is in continuity with the
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But things have changed. Richard Ma
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evangelism - (and) state what the r
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Repentance and faith are at the hea
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outcome of being justified. Agreeme
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Virgin‟s salutary influence on me
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h) Confession The sacrament of pena
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demanding way would be sin. The que
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If the opportunity for the Church t
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Ministers, priests and laypeople in
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West Kirby, near to my home, the Si
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n) Shared Study Courses There is a
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Even some Protestant churches today
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Vincent de Lérins spoke of a „pr
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It is not likely, in the foreseeabl
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Christ and are trying their best to
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upon the name of our Lord Jesus Chr
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Perhaps this dying process is now b
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economic factors giving rise to suc
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deeper ecumenism, one that does not
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APPENDIX 1 THE NICENO-CONSTANTINOPO
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APPENDIX 2 FOUR BIBLICAL TEXTS ON T
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The „apostles and elders‟ of th
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„The purpose of the Reformation C
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What all three traditions have in c
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Cromwellian period, in a treatise o
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BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BOOKS AND DOCUMENTS
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Cullman, Oscar, The Earliest Christ
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McCarthy, Tim, The Catholic Traditi
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Letter concerning the civil princip
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Coptic Orthodox Church, 10 Council
Page 193 and 194:
Parousia, 24, 68, 93 Paul VI, 10, 1
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