THEOLOGICAL ERRORS WE HAVE BELIE

St. Irenaeus of Lyons once wrote: "Error, indeed, is never set forth in its naked deformity, lest, being thus exposed, it should at once be detected. But it is craftily decked out in on attractive dress, so as, by its outward form, to make it appear to the inexperienced (ridiculous as the expression may seem) more true than truth itself."[1] The church has always called theological errors “heresy”. The word "heresy" comes from the Greek hairesis, which means "choosing," or "faction." That such “factions” occurred in the early Church is obvious from these words of St. Paul: "For there must also be factions among you, in order that those who are approved may have become evident among you," (1 Cor. 11:19).

At first, the term heresy did not carry the negative meaning it does now. But, as the early church grew in its scope and influence throughout the Mediterranean area, various teachers proposed controversial ideas about Christ, God, salvation, and other biblical themes. It became necessary for the church to determine what was and was not true according to the Bible.

For example, Bishop Arius of Alexandria (320 AD) taught that Jesus was a creation. Was this true? Was this important? Other errors arose. The Docetists taught that Jesus wasn't human. The Modalists denied the Trinity. The Gnostics denied the incarnation of Christ. Out of necessity, the church was forced to deal with these heresies by proclaiming orthodoxy. And in so doing, condemnation upon these heresies and the heretics became a reality.

The civil authorities have often perpetrated heresy, in an attempt to lessen the impact of God’s authority being expressed through the Church. Heresies such as Arianism challenged the unity and economy of God in the Trinity. This raised a challenge to God’s representative authority. Others such as Apollinarianism, Monophystism, and Nestorianism challenged the Church’s consensus concerning Christology. These heresies tended to produce humanistic reasoning. Pelagianism elevated man to a divine level as his works saved him. This promoted rebellious thought and action. And the controversy over icons challenged the authority conveyed through symbols, raising the issue of how visible the Kingdom of God should be in the world. These heresies had to be dealt with by councils of bishops, led by courageous men who represented the authority of God in the face of rebellion.

Unfortunately, some of those who attempted to defend and establish the truth did so by killing those who disagreed with them. What would prompt such hostile actions against those who merely had "differences of opinion" on biblical subjects? To understand how this could happen we must consider that, when Christianity arose, it arose in the midst of a hostile environment. Judaism and the Roman Empire both warred against its people and it’s teaching. Persecutions arose and Christians were killed for their faith. In the Diaspora (dispersion) of the late first century, Christians were scattered throughout the Mediterranean area due to the persecutions in Israel. The Roman Empire, with its theology of many gods, periodically persecuted Christians. Therefore, Christians tended to follow this learned pattern of persecuting and killing heretics, rather than trying to restore or convert them. Heresy has the ability to damn because they have the ability to confuse the gospel sufficiently to make it powerless. For this reason, to many ancient Christians, heresy became one of the most serious of offenses.

Theologically, the Bible teaches condemnation upon false doctrines and false teachers. Gal. 1:8-9 says, "But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed" (NASB). If one puts faith in a false God, such a one is lost because a false god cannot save anyone. This is why God says in Exodus 20:3, "You shall have no other gods before me." Faith is not what saves, but faith in the true God and in Jesus Christ the Savior is what saves.

The main Christian heresies are against God the Father, the Spirit, Jesus, Virgin Mary, man himself, the Church, and the Bible. It becomes necessary to define those doctrines that separate Christian from non-Christian. It would make no sense to persecute anyone over a doctrine that is not essential to the faith. Essentials of the faith would include who God is, who Jesus is, salvation by grace, and Jesus' resurrection. From these subjects we have derived doctrines known as the Trinity and the hypostatic union (Jesus' two natures: God and man). The Bible tells us that these doctrines concerning God, Christ, salvation, and resurrection are essential to the faith. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that Christians know their faith and know how to defend it against the doctrines that compromise the essentials.

To commit heresy, one must refuse to be corrected. A person who is ready to be corrected or who is unaware that what he has been saying is against Church teaching is not a heretic. According to the beliefs of the early Church, a person must be baptized to commit heresy, and all heresies seem to have some form of baptism or its equivalent. This means that movements that have split off from or been influenced by Christianity, but that do not practice baptism (or a similar rite of initiation), are not heresies, but separate religions. Islam, for example, is one such false religion, and not a heresy. With this in mind, let’s look at some of the major heresies of Church history and when they began.

During the formative years of Christianity there were several heresies that had to be addressed by the Apostles and Writers of the New Testament. Early on there were Judaizers were who wanted to make Christianity a branch of Judaism The Circumcision heresy may be summed up in the words of Acts 15:1: "But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brethren, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.’"

Many of the early Christians were Jews, who brought to the Christian faith many of their former practices. These New Testament Nazarenes accepted some of the theology of Pharisee Jews, while those initiated into deeper levels became well versed in deeper Essene doctrines. They recognized in Jesus the Messiah predicted by the prophets and the fulfillment of the Old Testament. Because circumcision had been required in the Old Testament for membership in God’s covenant, many thought it would also be required for membership in the New Covenant that Christ had come to inaugurate. They believed one must be circumcised and keep the Mosaic Law to come to Christ. In other words, one had to become a Jew to become a Christian.

This sect eventually became the melting pot, especially after the fall of Jerusalem in 68 A.D., for a wide array of converts from all seven of the ancient Jewish sects, several Samaritan sects, numerous gnostic and Pythagorean groups, as well as converted and semi-converted Roman and Greek pagans.

God made it clear to Peter in Acts 10 that Gentiles are acceptable to God and may be baptized and become Christians without circumcision. Paul vigorously defended the same teaching in his epistles to the Romans and the Galatians—to areas where the Circumcision heresy had spread.

These were two strange heretical sects. Simonians of Acts 8, Simon wanted to buy with money the power of the Spirit, believed in the transmigration of souls, and denied the humanity of Jesus Christ.

Cerintheians denied that God was the creator of the world; held that after the Resurrection Jesus Christ would establish a terrestrial kingdom where the just would spend a thousand years in the enjoyment of sensual pleasure; and denied the divinity of Jesus Christ. Reputed by St. John in the Gospel and the Epistles (Jehovah's Witnesses)

This was one heretical group in the early church who taught immorality and idolatry. They are condemned in Revelation 2:6,15 for their practices in Ephesus and Pergamon. Thyatira apparently had resisted the false prophecy they preached (Rev. 2:20-25). The Nicolaitans have been linked to the type of heresy taught by Balaam (Num. 25:1-2; 2 Pet. 2:15), especially the pagan feasts and orgies that they apparently propagated in the first-century church. St. Peter warned against false teachers and described their destruction. Peter described his generation of false leaders as those with eyes full of adultery, who never stop sinning by seducing the unstable. He further said that they bore a curse as experts in greed. Peter wrote that they left the straight way and followed the way of Balaam (2 Pet. 2:15). In Revelation 2:14, the church at Pergamos was complimented for faithfulness under persecution, but also warned that some followed after Balaam in offering meat to idols and in immorality. Balaam was a money hungry false prophet who had a close encounter with the God of Israel, but not close enough. God is sovereign and did not allow Balaam to curse His people. As God wills, He changes curses into blessings.

Gnosticism, one of the most serious heresies in early Christianity, even predates Christianity. Gnosticism had affected the culture and church of the time and even an earned a mention in 1 John 4.

The word "Gnosticism" comes from the Greek word "gnosis" which means "knowledge." There were many groups that were Gnostic and it isn't possible to easily describe the nuances of each variant of Gnostic doctrines. However, generally speaking, Gnosticism taught that salvation is achieved through special knowledge (gnosis). This knowledge usually dealt with the individual's relationship to the transcendent Being.
Here is what Gnostic theology teaches. The unknowable God was far too pure and perfect to have anything to do with the material universe, which was considered evil. Therefore, God generated lesser divinities, or emenations. One of these emanations, Wisdom desired to know the unknowable God. Out of this erring desire the demiurge an evil god was formed and it was this evil god that created the universe. He along with archons kept the mortals in bondage in material matter and tried to prevent the pure spirit souls from ascending back to god after the death of the physical bodies. Since, according to the Gnostics, matter is evil, deliverance from material form was attainable only through special knowledge revealed by special Gnostic teachers. Christ was the divine redeemer who descended from the spiritual realm to reveal the knowledge necessary for this redemption. In conclusion, Gnosticism is dualistic. That is, it teaches there is a good and evil, spirit and matter, light and dark, etc. dualism in the universe. The "Serpent", in Eden revealed to Adam and Eve "secret knowledge", and the Gnostics claim they have guarded this "secret knowledge" through history. So, this secret knowledge actually comes from the Serpent, from Satan!

What we know about Gnosticism is gained from the writings of Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Tertullian, Origen, and some later manuscripts discovered in the eighteenth century such as the "Codex Askew, Codex Bruce, the Berlin Gnostic Codes and, most recently, the Nag Hammadi collection."^[2]Nag Hammadi is a town in Upper Egypt near ancient Chenoboskion and 13 codices discovered were discovered about 1945.
                The danger of Gnosticism is easily apparent. It denies the incarnation of God as the Son. In so doing, it denies the true efficacy of the atonement since, if Jesus is not God, He could not atone for all of mankind and we would still be lost in our sins.
                Due to the multitude of influences, Gnosticism varied largely in its forms. With the emergence of Christianity bits and pieces of Christian faith were integrated into Gnosticism. There is debate whether or not this is a Christian heresy or simply an independent development. The evidence seems to point to the later. Nevertheless, the Gnostics laid claim to Jesus as a great teacher of theirs and as such requires some attention. It is possible that 1 John was written against some of the errors that Gnosticism promoted.

The battle cry of the Gnostics was: "Matter is evil!" This idea was borrowed from certain Greek philosophers. It stood against Catholic teaching, not only because it contradicts Genesis 1:31 ("And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good") and other scriptures, but because it denies the Incarnation. If matter is evil, then Jesus Christ could not be true God and true man, for Christ is in no way evil. Thus many Gnostics denied the Incarnation, claiming that Christ only appeared to be a man, but that his humanity was an illusion. They said that Christs' divine spirit only descended into the man Jesus with his baptism and left him before his Crucifixion, leaving the man, not a Messiah to suffer on the cross.

Some Gnostics, recognizing that the Old Testament taught that God created matter, claimed that the God of the Jews was an evil deity who was distinct from the New Testament God of Jesus Christ. They also proposed belief in many divine beings, known as "aeons," which mediated between man and the ultimate, unreachable God. (Modern Scientology embraces this concept). The lowest of these aeons, the one who had contact with men, was supposed to be Jesus Christ.

The greatest challenge to traditional Christianity posed by Gnosticism was by Marcion (AD 100-160). The son of a bishop, probably even a bishop himself, Marcion came to Rome some time after AD 138. Against God the Father: Marcion in 110 taught the existence of two gods, the evil one of the Old Testament and the good one taught by Jesus; Jesus is not the Messiah, he denied the Incarnation of Christ and did not really die on the cross. According to Marcion, the God of the Hebrew Bible was inconstant, jealous, wrathful, and legalistic. Jesus revealed to the world a hitherto unknown god, who was different from the God of the Hebrew Bible. Jesus's god was free from passion and wrath, wholly benevolent. Jesus was not the Messiah promised by Judaism; that Messiah was to be a conqueror and a political leader. Rather, Jesus was sent by a god greater than the Creator.

For some fault not definitely known to history he was excommunicated by his father. At this time it appears that he was suffragan bishop to his father, to whom he appealed for re-admission into the Church. Reconciliation being refused him, he traveled to Rome where he united with Cerdo and began propagating heretical doctrines. With his expulsion from the church for heresy, his followers formed themselves into a separate body, calling themselves the Marcionites, though they are also known as the first Dissenters.

Gnosticism survived long into the middle ages, and echoes of it are still to be heard in the teachings of the current day theosophical movement. (Marcionism survived until about the fifth century AD).

St. Paul, in Colossians fights this heresy, defending the uniqueness of the person and redemptive work of Jesus Christ in the face of suggestions that Jesus was only one of the many angelic intermediaries between God and man. He also emphasized that salvation was complete in Christ, countering the legalistic ascetism of Gnosticism (Colossians 2:20-30).

Docetism was an error with several variations concerning the nature of Christ. Generally, it taught that Jesus only appeared to have a body, that he was not really incarnate, (Greek, "dokeo" = "to seem"). This error developed out of the dualistic philosophy, which viewed matter as inherently evil, that God could not be associated with matter, and that God, being perfect and infinite, could not suffer. Therefore, God as the word could not have become flesh per John 1:1,14, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us. " This denial of a true incarnation meant that Jesus did not truly suffer on the cross and that He did not rise from the dead.

The basic principle of Docetism was refuted by the Apostle John in 1 John 4:2-3.

Ignatius of Antioch, Irenaeus (115-190), and Hippolatus (170-235) wrote against the error in the early part of the second century. Docetism continued, however, until it was condemned at the Council of Chalcedon in 451.

Monarchianism
Monarchianism was an error concerning the nature of God that developed in the second century A.D. It arose as an attempt to maintain Monotheism and refute tritheism. Unfortunately, it also contradicts the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity. Monarchianism teaches that there is one God as one person: the Father. The Trinity is that there is one God in three persons: Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Trinity is monotheistic, not polytheistic as some of its critics like to assert. Monarchians were divided into two main groups, the dynamic monarchians and the modal monarchians.

Dynamic Monarchianism teaches that God is the Father and that Jesus is only a man, denied the personal subsistence of the Logos and taught that the Holy Spirit was a force or presence of God the Father. Present day groups in this category are the Jehovah's Witnesses, Christadelphians, and Unitarians. Additionally, some ancient dynamic monarchianists were also known as Adoptionists who taught 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. Ancient teachers of dynamic Monarchianism were Theodotians, a Tanner in Byzantium around 190 A.D., and Paul of Samosata a bishop of Antioch in Syria around 260 AD.

The word "Monarchian" was first used by Tertulian as a nickname for a group of heretic’s known as Patripassionists in the West and Sabellians in the East, but was seldom used by theancients. In modern times it has been extended to include an earlier group of heretic known as Theodotians. Thus there are two branches of what are now known as Monarchians, the Theodotians and the group comprised of the Patripassionists and the Sabellians. These two branches are also sometimes classified as Dynamistic and Modalist Monarchians respectibely, and at other times are united under the single name of Antitrinitarians. Their founder was Praxeas, a native of Phrygia and an early anti-Montanist. We know him only through Tertullian’s book "Adversus Praxeam", where he is described as being inflated with pride as a Confessor of the Faith because he had spent a short time in prison. He was probably the first of the Monarchians to visit Rome, where he was well received by the Pope about 190-198, with whom he used his influence against the Montanists.

Modal Monarchianism teaches that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are just modes of the single person who is God. In other words, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not simultaneous and separate persons, but consecutive modes of one person. Praxeas, a priest from Asia Minor, taught this in Rome around 200 AD. Modern groups in this general category are the Oneness Pentecostal groups known as the United Pentecostal and United Apostolic Churches. However, the present day modalists maintain that God's name is Jesus. They also require baptism "in Jesus' name" not "in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit" for salvation.

Modern Modalism is probably the most common theological error concerning the nature of God. It is a denial of the Trinity that states that God is a single person who, throughout biblical history, has revealed Himself in three modes, or forms. Thus, 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. Modalism denies the distinctiveness of the 3 persons in the Trinity even though it retains Christ’s divinity.

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.

Another form of Monarchianism is "Kenosis", derived from the Greek word "kenoo" which means "to empty." It is used in Phil. 2:7. The text of Phil. 2:5-8 is worth recording here.

The kenosis theory states that Jesus gave up some of His divine attributes while He was a man here on 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.

This Theologian taught that if Jesus knew all things, as is implied in His divine nature, then why did He not know the day or hour of His own return. The answer is that Jesus cooperated with the limitations of humanity and voluntarily did not exercise His attribute of omniscience. He still was divine but was moving and living completely as a man.

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. 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.

Adoptionism is another error concerning Christ that first appeared in the second century. Those who held it denied the preexistence of Christ and, therefore, His deity. Adoptionists taught 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 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. Theodotus of Byzantium was the most prominent adherent to this error. Adoptionism was condemned as a heresy by Pope Victor (A.D. 190-198).

Adoptionism was later revived in the 8th Century in Spain by Elipandus, Archbishop of Toledo, and Felix, bishop of Urgel. This was a variation of the first error but it held that Christ was the Son of God in respect to his divine nature, but that as a man, he was only adopted as the first born of God. In 798 Pope Leo III held a council at Rome that condemned Adoptionism as a heresy.

Montanus, a priest of Cybele who became a Christian, in 156 had revelation of the Spirit and his teachings were above those of the Church, he spoke in ecstatic visions and urged their followers to fast and pray, so that they might share the personal revelations. (beware Pentecostals, Charismatics...)

He belief that the Trinity consisted of only a single person. He proclaimed that everybody in the Church must be perfect and the Christians who fell from grace could not be redeemed. The most widely known defender of Montanists was undoubtedly Tertullian, a champion of orthodox belief, who believed that the new prophecy was genuinely motivated and began to fall out of step.

Montanism is also known as the Phrygians because it was founded by Montanus in Phrygia (a small province in Turkey). The sect was convinced that the end of the world was imminent and that Christ was to return in the immediate future. The movement was a response to what Montanus saw as the relaxation in Christian zeal by the church itself. All his 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. One can't help but still feel today, on reading such broad details about this sect, that there was a strong air of fanaticism about this group.

Montanus was converted about the year 150 and soon after began to fall into fits of ecstacy and to utter "prophecies". Maximilla and Priscilla deserted their husbands and became "prophetesses". Expelled from the Church, Montanus set up for himself, organizing a body of preachers to be supported by the voluntary contributions of his followers. Eusebius says that he died miserably by hanging himself. Montanus began his career innocently enough through preaching a return to penance and fervor. His movement also emphasized the continuance of miraculous gifts, such as speaking in tongues and prophecy. However, he also claimed that his teachings were above those of the Church, and soon he began to teach Christ’s imminent return in his hometown in Phrygia. There were also statements that Montanus himself either was, or at least specially spoke for, the Paraclete that Jesus had promised would come (in reality, the Holy Spirit).

Scholars are divided as to when Montanus first began his prophecy, having chosen dates varying from c. AD 165 to as late as AD 177.^[1] Montanus travelled among the rural settlements of Asia Minor after his conversion, and preached and testified what he purported to be the Word of God; however, his teachings were regarded as heresy by the orthodox Church for a number of reasons. He claimed to have received a series of direct revelations from the Holy Ghost. In some of his prophecies Montanus spoke in the first person as God. Many casual readers and even many uninformed scholars such as church father Cyril of Jerusalem have misinterpreted this as Montanus claiming to be God or the Holy Spirit. However, scholars of Montanism agree that these words of Montanus exemplify the general practice of religious prophets to speak as the passive mouthpieces of the divine, and to claim divine inspiration (similar to modern prophets stating "Thus saith the Lord"). That practice occurred in Christian as well as in pagan circles with some degree of frequency (Pelikan 101, Tabernee 93). Montanus was accompanied by two women, Prisca, sometimes called Priscilla, and Maximilla, who likewise claimed the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. As they went, "the Three" as they were called, spoke in ecstatic visions and urged their followers to fast and pray, so that they might share these personal revelations. His preachings spread from his native Phrygia (where he proclaimed the village of Pepuza as the site of the New Jerusalem) across the contemporary Christian world, to Africa and Gaul.

It is generally agreed that the movement was inspired by Montanus' reading of the Gospel of John— "I will send you the advocate [paraclete], the spirit of truth" (Heine 1987, 1989; Groh 1985). The response to this continuing revelation split the Christian communities, and the more orthodox clergy mostly fought to suppress it. Bishop Apollinarius found the church at Ancyra torn in two, and he opposed the "false prophesy" (quoted by Eusebius 5.16.5). But there was real doubt at Rome, and Pope Eleutherus even wrote letters in support of Montanism, although he later recalled them (Tertullian, "Adversus Praxean" c.1, Trevett 58-59).

Prisca claimed that Christ had appeared to her in female form. When she was excommunicated, she exclaimed "I am driven away like the wolf from the sheep. I am no wolf: I am word and spirit and power."

The most widely known defender of Montanists was undoubtedly Tertullian, onetime champion of orthodox belief, who believed that the new prophecy was genuine and began to fall out of step with what he began to call "the church of a lot of bishops" (On Modesty).

Although the orthodox Christian church prevailed against Montanism within a few generations, inscriptions in the Tembris valley of northern Phrygia, dated between 249 and 279, openly proclaim their allegiance to Montanism.

A letter of Jerome to Marcella, written in 385, refutes the claims of Montanists that had been troubling her (letter 41). 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 Branch Davidians of the past century did the same thing.

Some modern writers have suggested that some of its emphasis on direct, ecstatic personal presence of the Holy Spirit bears resemblance to all forms of the Charismatic Movement. There is more of a similarity to spiritualism. As the prophetess, while in a trance is not speaking for God. Instead the entranced prophetess claims to be the actual voice of God.

The beliefs of Montanism contrasted with orthodox Christianity in the following ways: The belief that the prophecies of the Montanists superseded and fulfilled the doctrines proclaimed by the Apostles. The view that Christians who fell from grace could not be redeemed, also in contrast to the orthodox Christian view that contrition could lead to a sinner's restoration to the church. The prophets of Montanism did not speak as messengers of God: "Thus says the Lord," but rather described themselves as possessed by God, and spoke in his person. "I am the Father, the Word, and the Paraclete," said Montanus (Didymus, De Trinitate, III, xli); This possession by a spirit, which spoke while the prophet was incapable of resisting, is described by the spirit of Montanus: "Behold the man is like a lyre, and I dart like the plectrum. The man sleeps, and I am awake" (Epiphanius, "Panarion", xlviii, 4).

Some of the Montanists were also "Quartodeciman" ("fourteeners"), preferring to celebrate Easter on the Hebrew calendar date of 14 Nisan, regardless of what day of the week it landed on. The orthodoxy held that Easter should be commemorated on the Sunday following 14 Nisan. (Trevett 1996:202)

Origenists:
A heresy originated from the followers of Origen. He was born at Alexandria in 185, another great Christian and writer who entered into heresy. This heresy taught that by a second crucifixion of Christ, all, even the damned in hell, would be pure spirits; and believed that the blessed in heaven could be expelled from that abode for faults committed there. Second Council of Constantinople condemned the errors in 553.

Origen was one of the most learned and spirited men of his time. His father was St. Leonidas, the martyr, who had him educated in every branch of sacred and profane literature. So great was the zeal of Origen for Christianity that he besought his mother to allow him to join his father when he was in prison during the persecution that he too might shed his blood for Christ. His earlier years were devoted to intensive study and successful teaching, and as time went on his fame for learning and wisdom grew so that all the priests and doctors consulted him in any difficult matter. He was one of the most voluminous writers the world has ever seen. He was ordained to the priesthood at Caesarea, but the Bishop of Alexandria refused to recognize him. The suffering and torture he endured under the Decian persecution broke his strength, and he died at Tyre in 254. After his death, some of his followers fell into heresy by expanding upon and emphasizing certain ambiguous and obscure aspects of Origen’s teachings.

A Persian named Manes, born in 216, proclaimed himself as the "promised Paraclete", "Messenger of the True God", the title was later applied to Muhammad. S. Augustine was a Manichean, repented, and fought it very hardly. The Manicheans believed in a plurality of gods; rejected the Old Testament absolutely, and of the New they retained only what had been revised and redacted by Manes; they held that Christ had no real body; denied free-will; recognized no baptism or marriage; believed in the transmigration of souls, and held that each man had two souls.
Returning to Persia, he made at first a favorable impression upon the king, Ormuzd I. Ormuzd’s favor, however, was of little avail, as he occupied the Persian throne only a single year, and Bahram I, his successor, caused Manes to be crucified, had the corpse flayed, and the skin stuffed and hung up at the city gate as a terrifying spectacle to his followers, whom he persecuted with relentless severity. Manes’ death is fixed at about 276-277.

The Sabellianists taught that Jesus Christ and God the Father were not distinct persons, but two aspects or offices of one person. According to them, the three persons of the Trinity exist only in God’s relation to man, not in objective reality. Nipos (Nepos), Bishop, in defending the doctrines of this sect nearly brought about a schism in the Church, but unity was preserved by the Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria.

The fundamental idea of millenarianism may be set forth as follows. At the end of time Christ will return in all His splendor to gather together the just, to annihilate hostile powers, and to found a glorious kingdom on earth for the enjoyment of the highest spiritual and material blessings. He Himself will reign as its King, and all the just, including the Saints recalled to life, will participate in it. At the close of this kingdom the Saints will enter heaven with Christ, while the wicked, who have also been resuscitated, will be condemned to eternal damnation. The duration of this glorious reign of Christ with His Saints on earth is frequently given as 1000 years.

The Novatians held that idolatry was an unpardonable sin, that confirmation was no sacrament, that mortal sins committed after baptism could not be forgiven; condemned second marriages, and refused Communion to those who had contracted them, even at the time of death.

This was a schismatic sect which took its name from Novatus (Novatian), a Roman priest who made himself anti-pope. He was a learned and eloquent man but, according to St. Cyprian, was turbulent, seditious and avaricious. St. Cornelius states that Novatus was possessed by Satan for a season, apparently while a catechumen. He was baptized by aspersion as he lay on a bed of sickness, but apparently was never confirmed. How he became a priest is not clear. He was accused by Cornelius of cowardice during the persecution of Decius. At the beginning of 251 the persecution relaxed and St. Cornelius was elected Pope. Some days later Novatus set himself up as a rival pope and had himself consecrated bishop. A council of sixty bishops was assembled under Pope Cornelius before the end of 251 in which Novatus was excommunicated.

Donatus the Great, a Bishop, considered the Church was not the Church because it was always wrong, they held that the true Church consisted only of the elect, themselves, and declared baptism to be invalid unless conferred by a Donatist. Validity of sacraments depends on character of the minister. In other words, if a minister who was involved in a serious enough sin were to baptize a person, that baptism would be considered invalid.

Donatism developed as a result of the persecution of Christians ordered by Diocletian in 303 in which all churches and sacred scriptures of the Christians were to be destroyed. In 304 another edict was issued ordering the burning of incense to the idol gods of the Roman Empire. Of course, Christians refused, but it did not curtail the increased persecution. Many Christians gave up the sacred texts to the persecutors and even betrayed other Christians to the Romans. These people became known as "traditors," Christians who betrayed other Christians. (Note: traditor, not traitor)

At the consecration of bishop Caecilian of Carthage in 311, one of the three bishops, Felix, bishop of Aptunga, who consecrated Caecilian, had given copies of the Bible to the Roman persecutors. A group of about 70 bishops formed a synod and declared the consecration of the bishop to be invalid. Great debate arose concerning the validity of the sacraments (baptism, the Lord's Supper, etc.) by one who had sinned so greatly against other Christians

The Donatists were gaining "converts" to their cause and a division was arising in the Catholic church. They began to practice rebaptism which was particularly troublesome to the church at the time and was condemned at the Synod of Arles in 314 since it basically said the authority in the Catholic Church was lost..

The Donatist issue was raised at several ecumenical councils and finally submitted to Emperor Constantine in 316. In each case the consecration of bishop Caecilian was upheld. However, persecution fuels emotions and by 350 the Donatists had gained many converts and outnumbered the Orthodox in Africa. But it was the apologetic by Augustine that turned the tide against the Donatist movement which eventually died out in the next century.

The problem with Donatism is that no person is morally pure. The effectiveness of the baptism or administration of the Lord's Supper does not cease to be effective if the moral character of the minister is in question or even demonstrated to be faulty. Rather, the Church leaders decreed that the sacraments are powerful because of what they are, visible representations of spiritual realities. God is the one who works in and through them and He is not restricted by the moral state of the administrant.

One of the first major heresies that plagued the early church and was popular with civil authorities was Arianism. Arius taught that Christ was a creature made by God. By disguising his heresy using orthodox or near-orthodox terminology, he was able to sow great confusion in the Church. He was able to muster the support of many bishops, while others excommunicated him.

Arianism was a form of Subordinationism; a broader heresy concerning the Trinity. It is an error that states that though the Son is divine, he is not equal to the Father in being, attributes, and rank. This heresy is based upon several false doctrines. Arians said that the Word (Logos) or Son of God is (1) not eternal, but is rather (2) a created being, and (3) is not of the same essence as God the Father. Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria, Egypt, proposed this view around AD 320. The slogan, “there was a time when he [the Word] was not” expressed Arius' position. To this, his opponents countered that the Word is divine and therefore eternal. Arius taught that only God the Father was eternal and too pure and infinite to appear on the earth. Therefore, God produced Christ the Son out of nothing as the first and greatest creation. The Son is then the one who created the universe. Because the Son relationship of the Son to the Father is not one of nature, it is, therefore, adoptive. God adopted Christ as the Son. Though Christ was a creation, because of his great position and authority, he was to be worshipped and even looked upon as God. Some Arians even held that the Holy Spirit was the first and greatest creation of the Son.

The Arians asserted that the divine quality of the Son, the Logos, took the place of the human and spiritual aspect of Jesus, at Jesus' incarnation. Thus, they denied the full and complete incarnation of God the Son, second person of the Trinity. In asserting that Christ the Son, as a created thing, was to be worshipped, the Arians were advocating idolatry. Jesus was, to them, a lesser, created being, denied the divinity of Christ and consequently Virgin Mary was not the Mother of God.

It was the greatest of heresies within the early church that developed a significant following. Some say, it almost took over the church. St. Athanasius, was Arius’ chief opponent, who taught that Mary was the Mother of God. Therefore, Jesus was divine in her womb.

Why did the Arian controversy prove difficult to solve? After the failure of his advisor in ecclesiastical matters, Hosius of Cordova, to settle the dispute, Constantine decided to convene a great council of bishops, which gathered at Nicea in 325. Although he was not even baptized, he presided at the sessions, thus giving an indication of the Caesaropapism, which would become characteristic of Byzantine Christianity. The council condemned Arius, and to this Constantine added his sentence of banishment for Arius as well as for his main supporters. Arius was exiled to Illyria, where he soon died. But then, through a series of political circumstances, Arianism enjoyed a revival. His more extreme followers, however, continued insisting on the radical difference between God and the Son or Word. For this reason they were called anomoeans, from a Greek word meaning “different.” Others straddled the fence by declaring that the Son was “similar” to the Father, and not clarifying the matter any further. These were called homoeans, from a word meaning “similar.” Many who sought to safeguard the divinity of the Son, but who feared that the term homoousios was capable of an interpretation that erased all distinction between the Father and the Son, preferred to use the term homoiousion--of a similar substance.

Three years after the Council of Nicea, Constantine began to reverse his policies, partly through the influence of Arian bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia. It was then that he ordered Athanasius and other Nicene leaders into exile. Finally opponents of Arianism, particularly Athanasius and the cappadocian fathers, managed to allay the fears of the homoiousians and thus prepared the way for the final condemnation of Arianism in the council of Constantinople, in AD 381. This council of bishops reaffirmed and expanded the decisions of Nicea.

The debates between the Great Councils of Nicea and Constantinople led to a consensus of belief were the occasion for the formulation of the doctrine of the Trinity. The controversy was also important for our understanding of Christology. It was the Councils of Nicea and Constantinople that categorically affirmed the divinity of the Son. The key word affirming this in the Creed of Nicea was homoousion, “of the same substance,” meaning that the Father and the Son are both equally divine.

By the time of the Council of Constantinople, however, several of the tribes north of the Danube, particularly the Goths and the Vandals, had been converted to Christianity in its Arian form. These tribes later invaded the West, and Arianism had a brief revival in areas such as Italy, Spain, and North Africa. Arianism appealed to the leaders of the Germanic tribes for the same reasons that it appealed to many Byzantine leaders. It promoted the glorification of man. In this form of humanism that makes man ultimate by undercutting the ultimacy of God, man (in civil authority) became freed to pursue his own glorification and ultimacy.

2. The Son advances God and enters in by adoption. 6. God is invisible to all beings.

4. The Son does not know His own essence. 8. The Father is more excellent than Christ the Son.

These views are still held by the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses, and variations of this have somewhat infected modern Protestantism. Those who would rebel against the historical authority and historical doctrines of the Church have always found the precepts of Arianism useful and comforting.

Apollinarianism was the heresy taught by Apollinaris the Younger, bishop of Laodicea in Syria about 361. He taught that the Logos of God, which became the divine nature of Christ, took the place of the rational human soul of Jesus and that the body of Christ was a glorified form of human nature. In other words, though Jesus was a man, He did not have a human mind but that the mind of Christ was solely divine, and not in any way human. Apollinaris taught that the two natures of Christ could not coexist within one person. His solution was to lessen the human nature of Christ.

Apollinarianism was condemned by the Second General Council at Constantinople in 381. This heresy denies the true and complete humanity in the person of Jesus, which in turn, can jeopardize the value of the atonement since Jesus is declared to be both God and man to atone. He needed to be God to offer a pure and holy sacrifice of sufficient value and He needed to be a man in order to die for men

Jovinianus, a monk, was accused of heresy, but may not actually be a heretic. He was condemned after he denied the perpetual virginity of the Virgin Mary. Condemned by Pope Siricius in a Council held at Rome in the year 390, and soon after in another Council held by St. Ambrose in Milan. Jovinanus and another priest named Vigilantians also condemned the worship of images and relics; the invocation of the Saints; the celibacy of the clergy; and held it useless to pray for the dead. You can judge the degree to which these views are heretical. The Roman Catholic Church considers these things to be heretical.

Whereas the Christological controversies were centered in the East, heresies involving the doctrine of Predestination took hold in the West. Predestination is a hot topic, but the truth is that God knows everything, present, past and future. He knows already if you and I are going to Heaven or to Hell, but He does not predestine it. We are Free to make choices about our own lives, and the fact that God already knows, it does not take away our free will.

Lucile, a priest, taught that God absolutely and positively predestined some to eternal death and others to eternal life, in such a manner that the latter have not to do anything in order to secure salvation; that Christ did not die for the non-elect, since they are destined for hell. Condemned in 475 in the Council of Lyons. Calvin and others would later teach this error.

The most serious of these Predestination Controversies was Palagianism. This heresy derives its name from Pelagius who lived in the 5th century A.D. and was a teacher in Rome, though he was British by birth. Palagianism denies inherited original sin as a result of Adam’s sin in the Garden. It claims that we become sinful only through the bad example of the sinful community into which we are born. Conversely, it also denies that we inherit righteousness as a result of Christ’s death on the cross. Palagian doctrine is that we become personally righteous by instruction and imitation in the Christian community; by following the example of Christ. Pelagius stated that man is born morally neutral and can achieve heaven under his own powers. According to him, God’s grace is not truly necessary, but merely makes easier an otherwise difficult task.

Pelagius, a "saintly" man according to St. Augustine, claimed that children are born without original sin, as pure as Adam was before he fell; men neither die because Adam fell, nor rise again in consequence of Christ’s resurrection; un-baptized as well as baptized infants are saved; the Mosaic Law is as good a guide to heaven as the Gospel. Condemned at the Council of Ephesus in 431.

Pelagianism was a heresy altogether different than the other major heresies to occupy religious minds during the time of the late Roman empire. Had previous heresies tried to provide alternative faiths on the holy trinity, then, Pelagianism concerned itself with man. It is a heresy dealing with the nature of man. 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 said that Adam only hurt himself when he fell and all of his descendents were not affected by Adam's sin. 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 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

Pelagianism fails to understand man's nature and weakness. Pelagianism is a heresy against Man. People are by nature sinners Eph. 2:3; Psalm 51:5).

We were affected by the fall of Adam, contrary to what Pelagius taught. To what extent the heresy survived is not documented. Though one can surely state that Pelagianism is still with us today. Most Christian parents would struggle to see their new born infant as anything but innocent, and few of them would think they did not possess the free will

Pelagius was condemned by the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus and excommunicated in 417 A.D. by Pope Innocent I. Little is known about Pelagius. He is spoken of by several of his contemporaries as a Briton. In 409, to avoid Alaric’s siege of Rome, he escaped with his convert and pupil, Caelestius, to Northern Africa, and had gone from there to Palestine before the meeting of the Council of Carthage in 411, which condemned Caelestius. Pelagius is not heard of after 418, but there is a tradition that he was 70 years of age when he died in some obscure town in Palestine. He appears to have been a very good man (St. Augustin called him "saintly"), of more than common moral strictness and purity, if not a man of any great spiritual depth or intellectual grasp. He fell into heresy through contact with a Syrian priest named Rufinus (not, however Rufinus of Aquilea who disputed with St. Jerome).

Pelagius has been condemned by many councils throughout church history including the following:

Semipelagianism can be traced to John Cassianus, Abbot of the Monastery of St. Victor. He was a celebrated and holy man, who, although never formally canonized, was venerated as a Saint, and whose name appears as such on the Greek Calendar. He was the first to introduce the rules of Eastern monasticism into the West. Being the son of wealthy parents, he received a good education. He first entered a monastery in Bethlehem but later withdrew into the Egyptian desert, being attracted by the holiness of the hermits there. During a visit to Rome he was elevated to the priesthood, and subsequently founded two monasteries at Marseilles, one of which he ruled as Abbot.

After Augustine refuted the teachings of Pelagius, some, like Cassianus, tried a modified version of his system. This, too, ended in heresy by claiming that humans can reach out to God under their own power, without God’s grace; that once a person has entered a state of grace, one can retain it through one’s efforts, without further grace from God; and that natural human effort alone can give one some claim to receiving grace, though not strictly merit it. The errors of the Semipelagians were condemned in the year 432 by Pope Celestine I. Further condemnation came in 529 by Pope Felix IV, in the Synod of Orange and the Synod of Valence, both of which Councils were confirmed by Pope Boniface II.

Nestorius, a morally good but heretical monk, taught that there were two separate persons in Christ, one divine and the other human; and claimed that Mary was the mother of the human person only, not of the divine, not the Mother of God. Condemned at the Council of Ephesus in 431.

Nestorianism is the error that Jesus is two distinct persons. The heresy is named after Nestorius, who was born in Syria and died in 451 AD, who advocated this doctrine. Nestorius was a monk who became the Patriarch of Constantinople and he repudiated the Marian title "Mother of God." He held that Mary was the mother of Christ only in respect to His humanity. The council of Ephesus was convened in 431 to address the issue and pronounced that Jesus was one person in two distinct and inseparable natures: divine and human. Nestorius was deposed as Patriarch and sent to Antioch, then Arabia, and then Egypt. Nestorianism survived until around 1300.

The problem with Nestorianism is that it threatens the atonement. If Jesus is two persons, then which one died on the cross? If it was the "human person" then the atonement is not of divine quality and thereby insufficient to cleanse us of our sins.

While the Council of Nicea produced a creedal statement that was a consensus of the Church’s basic beliefs, there were those who still did not accept Nicene Christology. Apollinarius pressed Christ’s deity to the exclusion of his human experience and left the church with a demigod. Nestorius exaggerated the two separate natures (human and divine), and so divided the unity of God's person. Eutyches went to the opposite extreme, and asserted only one nature in Christ (called monophysitism).

Antiochene theologians were instrumental in the condemnation of the Apollinarians in A.D. 381, at the Council of Constantinople. But fifty years later the Antiochene Nestorius, who was patriarch of Constantinople, was condemned at the Council of Ephesus for declaring that Mary was "bearer of Christ"--Christokos--and not "bearer of God"--Theotokos. Nestorius meant that the distinction between the divinity and the humanity of Christ does not allow one to speak as if the divinity had been borne by Mary.

cyril of alexandria became the champion of Alexandrian Theology, which was against the Nestorians. He combined theological ability with a pugnacious temperament, which soon manifested itself against pagans, Jews, and heretics. His zeal, if not his intention, was responsible for the lynching of the pagan philosopher Hypatia, as well as for several mob actions against Jews. It was in the Nestorian controversy, however, that he shone as a brilliant polemicist and an able politician. Cyril secured the condemnation of Nestorius by synods in Rome and Alexandria and wrote a dogmatic letter and twelve anathemas against Nestorius. He also presided at the council of ephesus, which condemned Nestorius.

His own Christology was typically Alexandrine, and he may well have been the first to use the phrase hypostatic union, which became the hallmark of orthodoxy. What he held was that the humanity of Christ had no hypostasis, no subsistence of its own, but rather subsisted in his divinity. Since sometimes he used the term "nature"--physis--as equivalent to "hypostasis," later Monophysites claimed his authority in support of their heretical beliefs. Therefore, although variously interpreted, his writings still hold great authority both in Orthodox and in Monophysite churches.

The Council of Ephesis gathered in AD 431, in order to deal with the debate caused by the teachings of the Nestorians. Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople, declared that Mary should not be called "bearer of God," but rather "bearer of Christ." His concern, typical of Antiochian theology, was to preserve the full humanity of Jesus by distinguishing between it and his divinity. Nestorianism was a apostasy based upon (1) the denial of the incarnation of the Word (Logos) of God, (2) the worship of a human being, and (3) a degrading of the Eucharist to worship of the bread and wine. Nestorius claimed that Christ eventually reached a point of progress and achievement in which he became in union with God. He did not believe that Christ was by nature in union with the Godhead. Under Nestorian reasoning, redemption would be impossible. It would be Greek folly (humanism) if salvation were primarily the work of Christ the Man, as many Nestorians taught.

Eutyches, an abbot of 300 monks, proclaimed the Jesus had only one nature: divine, He is God but not man. Monophysitism is an error concerning the nature of Christ that asserts Jesus had only one nature, not two as is taught in the correct doctrine of the hypostatic union: Jesus is both God and man in one person. In monophysitism, the single nature was divine, not human. It is sometimes referred to as Eutychianism, after Eutyches 378-452.

Monophysitism arose out of a reaction against Nestorianism which taught Jesus was two distinct persons instead of one. Its roots can even be traced back to Apollinarianism, which taught that the divine nature of Christ overtook and replaced the human one. The Monophysites were horrified by Nestorius’s implication that Christ was two people with two different natures (human and divine). They went to the other extreme, claiming that Christ was one person with only one nature (a fusion of human and divine elements). Monophysitism was confined mainly to the Eastern church and had little influence in the West. In 451, the Council of Chalcedon attempted to establish a common ground between the Monophysitists and the Orthodox, but it did not work and divisions arose in the Eastern church that eventually excommunicated the monophysitists in the 6th century

The consensus reached at Ephesus, in dealing with Nestorianism, indicated that Christ emptied himself as he assumed humanity. The council declared that only God can be worshipped, and established the doctrine of Economic Appropriation to affirm the two natures in true union without confusion. Maintaining the essence of God, Christ was believed to have maintained all the characteristics of God. Christ temporarily emptied himself of certain attributes and became one personality with two natures (fully human and fully divine). How this was accomplished was seen as a mystery.

The reason that it was so important for the Church to define the nature of Christ is tied to the struggle for religious supremacy that was going on in the ancient world. If the natures of Christ were confused or mixed, pagan mysticism could creep into Christian theology. If Nestorian or Monophysite beliefs were allowed, every man had the potential to become his own Christ. This would propitiate the State’s claim on divinity, as well as personal and collective mysticism. Furthermore, if the natures are mixed or confused, the State becomes the judge, rather than God’s representative authority. Law is logical and basically a product of nature, man, and history. Statist theology, which springs from the confusion over the nature of Christ, has moved steadily toward legal positivism; belief that the only law is the law of the State.

In 451, at the Council of Chalcedon, Antiochene theology, with the support of Bishop Leo of Rome, gained a victory in the condemnation of Monophysitism, an extreme form of Alexandrian theology. But the conflict continued, and in AD 553, at the Second Council of Constantinople, three of the great figures of Antiochene theology were condemned for their rebellion against the accepted consensus of the previous ecclesiastical councils.

The Council of Chalcedon (AD 451) condemned the teachings of Eutyches on Christology, as well as the previously condemned views of the Apollinarians and Nestorians. Two years earlier, at what Pope Leo called a Robbers’ Synod, extreme alexandrian theology had been affirmed, and even the more moderate forms of Antiochene theology had been rejected. Leo's Tome, which reaffirmed the ancient Western Christology of “two natures in one person,” had not even been read. At Chalcedon those actions were reversed, and the bishops rejected the extreme expressions of both Alexandrians and Antiochenes.

In the Council of Chalcedon, Western Religion was established and Satanic rebellion was handed a great defeat. This council made possible the development of liberty. It centered on the definition of the two natures of Christ and the union of these natures. The difference of being were said to be of degree, and not of kind. From the Greek perspective, salvation is not an act of Grace, but an act of self-deification. Chalcedon made it clear that Christianity and all other religions and philosophies could not be brought together.

The Creed of Chalcedon supports and clarifies the Nicene Creed. It states: “We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable (rational) soul and body; consubstantial (coessential) with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the Manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to the manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Substabsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the prophets from the beginning ( have declared ) concerning him, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself has taught us, and the creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us.”

The four great negatives of the Chalcedon Creed are: (1) Without confusion (2) Without change (3) Without division and (4) Without Separation. These terms describe not only the nature of Christ, but also the nature of the Church. These four negatives also define the substance of the Eucharist, in which the real presence of the undivided Christ can be seen. It is interesting that both Luther and Calvin based their conflicting views of the Eucharist on the Chalcedon Creed.

The denial of the human nature of Christ is a denial of the true incarnation of the Word as a man. Without a true incarnation there can be no atonement of sin for mankind since it was not then a true man who died for our sins. It was condemned as heresy, and Eutyches was excommunicated at the Sixth Ecumenical Council in 680-681. This Doctrine was embraced by most of the Churches in Egypt and Ethiopia where it is still prevalent in the Coptic Church.

Another attempt to elevate humanism above divine authority surrounded the Iconoclast controversy that for many years plagued the Eastern Orthodox Church. The controversy regarding the use of images, or Icons, in worship, raged in the Eastern church during the eighth century. It began in AD 725, when Byzantine Emperor Leo III ordered the destruction of a much-venerated image of Christ. Emperor Leo the Isaurian held that the veneration of sacred images was idolatry. This outbreak commenced about the year 723 and led to much violence. A group of people known as iconoclasts (literally, "icon smashers") appeared, who claimed that it was sinful to make pictures and statues of Christ and the saints.[4]

The initial outburst against icon veneration was followed by other decrees against images. The iconoclasts (destroyers of images) based their actions on the biblical injunctions against images and also on the criticism of their Moslem neighbors. Political and economic interests were added, which the iconoclastic emperors sought to further by curtailing the power of the monks, who were the main defenders of images. The emperors and civil government preferred to have the trappings of the State and Imperial Monarchy be more visible to the public than the images of the Kingdom of God. Political and economic interests became involved as the iconoclastic emperors sought to curtail the power of the monks, who were the main defenders of images. The emperors and civil government preferred to have the trappings of the State and Imperial Monarchy be more visible to the public than the images of the Kingdom of God.

Iconoclasm[5] (Eikonoklasmos, "Image-breaking") disturbed the peace of the Eastern Church and caused the last of the many breaches with Rome. that prepared the way for the schism of Photius in 858 and the Great Schism of the 11th century, and was echoed on a smaller scale in the Frankish kingdom in the West. The story in the East is divided into two separate persecutions of the Catholics, at the end of each of which stands the figure of an image-worshipping Empress (Irene and Theodora).

The icons of the Church represented divine intervention in the human situation, and depicted God as the protector and preserver of mankind. This was a role that the Empire sought to portray. When the people looked at religious icons, they thought of God and his works. The Emperors preferred the people to look to the Empire for their sustenance and well-being, and so it was inevitable that such a conflict would arise. This was yet another humanistic and rebellious challenge to God’s representative authority-- the Church Episcopate.

In 787, the seventh ecumenical council gathered at Nicaea under the auspices of Pope Adrian I and regent Empress Irene. This council condemned the heresy and upheld the use of images, although distinguishing between the "respect and veneration" due them and the “true worship” (latria) to be reserved for God. Pope Gregory II excommunicated the Emperor. Even after the council, there was a revival of iconoclasm in the East, until regent Empress Theodora on March 11, 842, finally restored the images. This event is still celebrated in the Eastern churches as the Feast of Orthodoxy.

In the West Charlemagne refused to accept the decrees of the council, terming them “idolatry.” He was another ruler who wanted to elevate civil authority over that of the Church. The decline of Carolingian power finally brought the Frankish church to agreement with the use of images. However, Islam and many Protestant Reformers later took up the iconoclast error.

The main issue involved in the Iconoclast controversy may have been whether God or the State should be seen as the protector and preserver of mankind and the purveyor of divine authority, but there was a theological issue as well. Was the use of icons a form of idolatry? If the icons are truly being worshipped, the criticism against their use is valid. Only God, the creator of heaven and earth, must be worshipped. But if the images portray the interaction of God’s authority with mankind, and if they represent a continuing incarnation, then their use is valid. Since the Saints exist as a cloud of witnesses (Heb. 12:1-2), Icons can be seen as windows or conduits to heaven. How the Icons are used in worship, and what they convey to the people, determines whether or not they are valid symbols that should be used in worship. If they point people to God and to God’s representative authority, then they have a legitimate place in the worship of the Church.

Another issue also arose as to whether or not an Icon can sponsor baptism. All creation in heaven and earth participate in baptism, either knowingly or unknowingly, because baptism is the token or seal of covenants made by God with his creation. An Icon cannot personally direct the life, verbally support, or physically sponsor any actions on the part of believers. The represented Saint in heaven can and probably does support the baptized.

It should be noted that the image (Icon) does not have any power within itself, just as a person does not have power within himself. All power is given from the Father to the Son, and through the Holy Spirit to the Church. Icons, like people, can serve as vessels through which God can work his will. The providence of God is represented in iconography. Icons should not be worshipped, but they should be honored (venerated) as representing the Kingdom of God.

The restoration of the Holy Icons begins in the 9th century AD, and continues until the capture of Constantinople by the Franks in 1204 AD. Architecture, painting, music and poetry cease to be forms of art, each following its own way, independently of the others, in search of appropriate effects and become liturgical and dogmatic. It follows that from its very nature, church art is liturgical art. This is why the image of the Orthodox Church, the icon, does not define itself as an art belonging to one or another historical epoch, nor as the expression of the national peculiarities of one or another people. But only by its function, which is as universal as Orthodoxy itself, being determined by the essence of the image and its role in the Church. Since in its essence the icon, like the word, is a liturgical art. It never served religion but, like the word, has always been and is an integral part of religion. It is one of the instruments for the knowledge of God, and a means of communion with him.

An heretical sect that owed its origin to Sergius, Patriarch of Constantinople, who was assisted in great measure by Cyril (Cyrus), Bishop of Phasis and later Patriarch of Alexandria. Sergius taught that there were two natures, but only a divine will in Christ. Condemned by the Council of Constantinople in the year 680. Please, look at Monophysites of the Fifth Century .Paulicians.

Mannalis, a teacher of the New Testament, believed in a plurality of gods; denied the Incarnation; Christ had not been crucified; believed in the transmigration of souls. Constantine of Mananalis, called himself Silvanus, founded what appears to have been the first Paulician community at Kibossa, near Colonia in Armenia. He began to teach about 657. He wrote no books and taught that the New Testament, as he presented it, should be the only text used by his followers. After preaching for 27 years and having spread his sect into the Western part of Asia Minor, he was arrested by the Imperial authorities, tried for heresy and stoned to death.

Tritheism is the teaching that the Godhead is really three separate beings forming three separate gods. This erring view is often misplaced by the cults for the doctrine of the Trinity which states that there is but one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The doctrine of the trinity is, by definition, monothestic. That is, it is a doctrine that affirms that there is only one God in all the universe.

Tritheism has taken different forms throughout the centuries. In the early church the Christians were accused of being tritheists by those who either refused to understand or could not understand the doctrine of the Trinity. In the late 11th century a Catholic monk of Compiègne in France, Roscelin considered the three Divine Persons as three independent beings and that it could be said they were three gods. He maintained that God the Father and God the Holy Ghost would have become incarnate with God the Son unless there were three gods.

Present day Mormonism is tritheistic -- but with a twist. Mormonism teaches that there are many God's in the universe but they serve and worship only one of them. The godhead for earth is to them really three separate gods: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The Father used to be a man on another world who brought one of his wives with him to this world - they both have bodies of flesh and bones. The son is a second god who was literally begotten between god the father and his goddess wife. The holy ghost is a third god. Therefore, in reality, Mormonism is polytheistic with a tritheistic emphasis.
Of course, tritheism clearly contradicts the teaching of the Bible regarding monotheism.

Catharism was a complicated mix of non-Christian religions reworked with Christian terminology. The Cathars had many different sects; they had in common a teaching that the world was created by an evil deity (so matter was evil) and we must worship the good deity instead. It is not known whether dualism came to Europe from the East as a complete system or whether Eastern ideas merged with extant heresies, but by the mid twelfth century various Gnostic and Manichaean beliefs appeared along the trade routes into northern Italy and southern France. Some groups of dualists were called Bogomils or Cathari, but the most common European name for them was Albigenses. This movement centered in Albi in Languedoc. Albigenses taught that there are two opposing forces in the world, one good and the other evil. It was debated as to whether the power of evil was independent of the Spirit of God or was one of his fallen angels. In either event it was the evil spirit who created the world. Consequently, the physical world was evil because it had entrapped spirit in matter. Human beings were in a difficult position in this system due to the fact that the soul is spiritual and therefore good, but the body is evil. Therefore a person must try to liberate his soul from the evil flesh as effectively as possible. By living the proper life one could escape the flesh; otherwise the spirit would be doomed to reincarnation.

From this doctrine Albigenses or Cathari derived a fanatical Puritanism, which condemned marriage, procreation, food, war, civil government, and the use of objects in worship. They taught that the spirit was created by God, and was good, while an evil god created the body, and the spirit must be freed from the body. Having children was one of the greatest evils, since it entailed imprisoning another "spirit" in flesh. Logically, marriage was forbidden, though fornication was permitted. Tremendous fasts and severe mortifications of all kinds were practiced, and their leaders went about in voluntary poverty.

These extreme positions were often compromised in practice, but many Albigenses refused to take oaths or eat any certain foods. They divided themselves into the few, or perfect, who tried to live by a strict code of their faith and the many, or believers, who tried to purify themselves. One became perfect by receiving the sacrament of consolamentum. If this was not done during a person's active life, it was administered when he was dying.

The Albigensians formed one of the largest Cathar sects. This movement began during the middle ages that developed in the town Albi in Southern France. This error taught that there were two gods: the good god of light usually referred to as Jesus in the New Testament and the god of darkness and evil usually associated with Satan and the "God of the Old Testament." Anything material was considered evil including the body that they thought was created by Satan. 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. The Albigenses denied the resurrection of the body since it was considered evil.

The Albigenses taught that Jesus was God but that He only appeared as a man while on earth. It also taught that the Catholic church of the time was corrupted by its power and wealth. Their asceticism and humility compared to the great affluence of the clergy helped to bring many converts to this evangelistic movement.

There were two types of Albigenses: believers and Perfects. Believers were Albigenses who had not taken the initiation rite of being a Perfect. Perfects denounced all material possession. They abstained from meat, milk, cheese, eggs, and sexual relations. To become a Perfect a believer had to go through consolamentum, an initiation rite involving the laying on of hands that was supposed to bring the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Infrequently, suicide was practiced as a way to rid oneself of the evil human body.

This sect’s claim to be the only true church placed it in a struggle to the death with the established Roman Catholic Church. Given its exclusivism and claims to superiority, Catharism was doomed to destruction. However, its call to purity of life and committed spirituality in a day of moral and religious laxity earned it a place among those who have sought renewal in the Christian movement and, perhaps, helped prepare the way at some points for the Protestant Reformation.

In 1208, Peter de Castelnau, an official representative of the Pope, was murdered by an Albigenses. The Roman Church was horrified by this act of the Albigenses. Since they had been growing in number, becoming a threat, and would not convert to Christianity, Pope Innocent III ordered them to be wiped out. The persecution was fierce and the movement was stopped. Through the Inquisition, the establishment of new mendicant orders, and the use of crusades, the movement was crushed. In the process the Provencal civilization of southern France was destroyed.

Petrobrosians
Peter de Bruis, a monk, rejected the baptism of infants; condemned altars and churches; prohibited the veneration of the Cross; rejected the Mass and Holy Eucharist; and denied the utility of prayers for the dead. These errors were all condemned by the Second Council of the Lateran in 1139. Peter de Bruis, tired of the restraint of the cloister, apostatized, and fled to the province of Arles, where, about 1118, he began to preach his errors Twenty years later the populace of St. Gilles, near Nimes, exasperated by his burning of cross, cast him into the flames.

Henricians
Henry of Lausanne, a Cluniac Monk, rejected the rites and authority of the Church and insisted upon personal responsibility as opposed to authority in religious matters. Henry left his monastery and began to preach to the people. He joined in with the Petrobrosians in Provence, was arrested and confined to a cell as a heretic. Subsequently release, he was again arrested and died in prison in 1149.

Waldenses
Another movement began in the city of Lyons in the decade 1170-80. Peter Waldo, a wealthy merchant of Lyons, carried out literally the counsel of Christ: "If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast and give to the poor". Following a spiritual experience in 1176, Waldo gave away his property and adopted a life of strict gospel simplicity and poverty. This action of his created a great stir in Lyons and he soon had imitators, many of whom began to preach in the streets. Touched by his example, many men and women became his followers. Thus, the most perfect example of reformist dissent in the twelfth century was composed of simple lay people, many of whom were illiterate.

These "Poor Men of Lyons" did not intend to challenge the authority of the church, but the hostility of first the local clergy and finally the papacy drove them into opposition. Their condemnation by the Archbishop of Lyons in 1181 was formalized in 1184 when Pope Lucius III declared the movement heretical and called for its destruction. Thereafter, although they were subject to periodic persecutions of great violence, the Waldenses developed quickly in Languedoc and the Piedmont. From here they spread to central and eastern Europe.

Peter Waldo taught that the Catholic Church erred in accepting temporal property; they condemned tithes; believed in only two sacraments, Baptism and the Eucharist; held that layman could absolve from sin, but that a sinful priest could not; rejected indulgences, fasts and all the ceremonies of the Church; made no distinction between mortal and venial sins; claimed the veneration of sacred images to be idolatry, and condemned all oaths to be unlawful.

In common with most popular religious movements of the period the Waldensian belief was personal and anticlerical. They had the New Testament, the prophets, and selections from the fathers translated into the vernacular. They believed that the Bible should be the supreme authority in their lives, and insofar as the established clergy did not conform to the teachings of the Gospels, it was condemned. Ultimately the Waldenses declared themselves a counterchurch, the "true church," in opposition to the Roman Church, whose clergy and sacraments were renounced as invalid.

The Waldenses believed in the divinity of Jesus Christ and salvation by Christ. They accepted, at least in theory that all true believers were entitled to preach, evangelize, and give the sacraments. They celebrated the Eucharist, though at one point it was reduced to an annual (Holy Thursday) occasion. An initiation ceremony or baptism, which seems to have resembled the Cathari sacrament, was also common. Their reading of the New Testament convinced the Waldenses that purgatory was a myth. From this they concluded that prayers for the dead and indulgences were worthless. They banned the taking of oaths, despised lies, and condemned the death penalty.

In many areas the Waldenses resembled the Cathari. Both dissenting groups rejected the Roman Church, believed in evangelism and poverty, and abstained from killing and oaths. However, the Waldenses were not dualists; they did not reject creation and engaged in many debates with the Cathari concerning this issue. Still the two groups were often confused. The division of Waldensian society into the "perfect" and the "believers," in the Cathari tradition, may reflect this. Many of its beliefs later entered the mainstream of the Protestant tradition.

Waldensian thought changed and altered throughout the Middle Ages. In 1207 a significant number of the membership were brought back into the Roman Church following a debate with Catholic clergy. Those who returned were given special dispensations to practice their rigorous life style as the "Catholic poor." In addition, there were disagreements within the brotherhood over articles of faith. However, the general requirements of Waldensian belief emerge clearly from the source materials of the period.

Third Council of the Lateran condemned Waldo and his followers as heretics by numerous synods and councils. In a lot of ways Waldo was a forerunner of the later Protestant reformers.

A heresy concerning the nature of God. It is derived from two brothers of the surname Sozinni who lived in the 1500's in Poland. Socinianism denies the doctrine of the Trinity claiming it denies the simplicity of God's unity. Instead, God is a single person with the Holy Spirit as the power of God. Since it emphasizes the unity of God, there could be no divine and human union in a single person as Christ. Therefore, Socinianism denies the incarnation and deity of Christ as well as Christ's pre-existence. It teaches that Jesus was only a man. However, as is separate from the unitarians, it taught that Jesus was a deified man and was to be adored as such. Nevertheless, since Jesus is not divine by nature, His sacrifice was not efficacious; that is, it did not result in the redemption of people who would trust in it. Instead it was an example of self-sacrifice. The followers of Socinianism also rejected infant baptism, hell, and taught the annihilation of the wicked. The Bible was only properly understood through rationalism. Of course, this system of belief is wrong since it denies the doctrine of the Trinity and deity of Christ

Protestant groups display a wide variety of different doctrines. However, virtually all claim to believe in the teachings of sola scriptura ("by Scripture alone"—the idea that we must use only the Bible when forming our theology) and sola fide ("by faith alone"— the idea that we are justified by faith only).

The great diversity of Protestant doctrines stems from the doctrine of private judgment, which denies the infallible authority of the Church and claims that each individual is to interpret Scripture for himself. This idea is rejected in 2 Peter 1:20, where we are told the first rule of Bible interpretation.

Rosicrucians
This movement, that began in 1610, traces its roots to the Egypt before Christ. and all the groups claim to be founded by "Christian Rosenkreutz" who is a character of the "Fama Fraternitatis" novel written by the German Lutheran Johann V. Andreae in 1610... but he never existed!... in 1617, Andreae published an article stating that the "Fama" was a novel, a satire, without any basis in real life, affirmation he sustained until the moment of his death... and he believed that the teachings of Rosicrucianism were false and that the history of the movement was dotted with legends and fabrications.

Rosicrucianism is the religion "by correspondence"... and of lies!... claiming to be "dedicated to the investigation, study, and practice of natural and spiritual laws", anchored in "Egypt", with many occult and Hindu practices, and the basic beliefs of pantheism and reincarnation, with some Masonic rituals

About the Bible, all is lies!: They say "the Bible is the regulator of life, the end of all true study, the compendium of the Universal World"... but to say that the God of the Bible does not exist, he is the "Supreme Intelligence", a form of "pure energy", but "not a person".

Universalists:
Samuel Gorton, a New England mystic, who aired his views as early as 1636. The belief did not receive definite organization, however until 1750, when James Relly organized a Universalist church in London. They deny the divinity of Christ; believe in the universal salvation of all; deny the Sacraments; free will; good works, and the doctrine of the Trinity.

Jansenists
Jansenism was probably the single most divisive issue within the Roman Catholic church between the Protestant Reformation and the French Revolution. Founded by Cornelius Jansenius, Holland, and Bishop of Ypres. He lived and died a member of the Catholic Church, but it was from his writings, published after his death, that Jansenism took its rise. Predestination was accepted in an extreme form and was so essential to Jansenism that its adherents were even referred to as Calvinists by their opponents. It came into conflict with the church for its predestination doctrines and for its discouragement of frequent communion for the faithful.

Born in 1717 when 4 Craft Lodges gathered at the Apple Tree Tavern in London. A secret fraternal order of Free and Accepted Masons, spread by the British Empire, with actually 5 million members; 3 million in the USA, with 250,00 on the black "Prince Hall" Masonry.
Some Masons define it as "a beautiful system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols"... also as "the realization of God by the practice of Brotherhood": To reach God by doing good works to your neighbor. It has been described as "the biggest, richest, most secret and most powerful private force in the world"... and certainly, "the most deceptive", both for the general public, and for the first 3 degrees of "initiates": Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason (the basic "Blue Lodge”).

You can't be a Mason and a Christian or a Muslim: Most Christian and Muslim leaders forbid Freemasonry... because it is a most deceptive secret society. Freemasons have been excommunicated from the Catholic Church by 8 Popes, and condemned by Baptists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Russian Orthodox Church

In 1741, Ann Lee Jane Wardley, with the help of her brother James, organized this sect in England in the year 1747. Later they were joined by Ann Lee, of Manchester, who claimed to be Christ in His second reincarnation. She came to America in 1774. They are called "Shakers" because in their meeting they had emotional movements of the body, sometimes so strong as to cause convulsive rolling on the floor. They live isolated from the world in "communes", with very strict abstinence life. The few remaining Shakers live in a community in Maine. They deny Christ in worship and substitute in His place "The Highest Good, wherever it may be found." Christian Denominations

Unitarians
In 1774 Theophilus Lindsay. In 1774 in England on the basis of "Socinianism" of the 16th Century, denying the Trinity, and proclaiming that Jesus was not God; the atonement of Jesus is invalid, and salvation is only by works. . They deny the divinity of Christ; accept or reject the Bible according to private judgment.

It is also a product of the eighteenth century enlightenment, including rationalism and anti-supernaturalism... it holds that all living beings attain complete salvation, against all teaching of the Bible... and still they call themselves Christians... and with the Unitarians they carry on this schizophrenic torch. Unitarian-Universalist Association: In 1959 the "Unitarian Church" merged with the "Universalist Church". Today they have 200,000 members in 1,000 churches.

This is a group of churches that call themselves Christians, use the Bible as their Sacred Scripture or one of them, and may even have the name of Christ in the title of their church... but they say that "Jesus is not God", or that Jesus Christ is God as much as you and I are God, like the Mormons.

Mormons
In 1830, Joseph Smith. He claimed to have received a new revelation in 1827, which resulted in the "Book of Mormon", published at Palmyra, N.Y. Smith was killed by a mob in Carthage, Ill., in 1844, and Brigham Young succeeded him as leader of the sect. There are three gods, the Father, the Son Jesus, and the Spirit... all of them were created, and you can become God like Jesus or the Father. Adam’s sin was one of lust; believe the bond of marriage to be eternal; and believe in a happy Millennium on this earth.

Adventists
In 1844 William Miller, known initially as Millerites, stress the doctrine of the imminent second coming of Christ. Several specific dates were set as the Coming since 1844, but Christ never came. Seventh-Day-Adventists are the larger group and started also about 1844 adding a very special issue: The Seventh Day, Saturday, is the Day of the Lord, and Sunday is the Day of the Antichrist; if you celebrate the Day of the Lord on Sunday, you are of the Antichrist, proclaim the Adventists, about 2,000 million Christians!. They were lead by Joseph Bates and James and Ellen White since 1844 but was not formally organized until 1863.

In 1852 Charles T. Russel started a major heretical movement, that may well actually be a false religion, rather than a heresy. This group, the children of the Adventists, officially announced the Second Coming of Christ and the Armageddon. Because Christ did not come back, they had to reschedule it for 6 dates: 1914, 1918, 1920, 1925, 1941, and 1975.

Their official name, is not "Jehovah's Witnesses", but an Incorporated Society, the "Wathtower Bible and Tract Society". In this movement, the leaders are elected by the number of "stocks" they have and the "President of the Society" is the one who has more stocks. The actual President has been Milton G. Henschel, since 1993.

This group denies the Doctrine of the Trinity, the Divinity of Christ, the Immortality of the Human Soul, and the blood transfusions. They expect to either be one of the 144,000 ministers of Jesus when He comes, or one of the multitude in Heaven of Revelation 7.Many of their doctrines are reminiscent of Arianism, Gnosticism, and Catharism.

Spiritism is the ancient practice trying to communicate with the death, through a "medium". In 1848, the ancient belief was popularized by sisters Kate and Margaretta Fox, 12 and 15 years-old, 1848, in Hydesville, New York, with the famous "rappings" supposedly coming from a peddler who had been murdered in the hose some years previously. In 1888 the Fox sisters confessed that the rappings were accomplished by a method of cracking their toes. The sisters work out a code: One tap: No; three taps: Yes.

"Spiritualism", is Spiritism, but under the form of a Christian worship... it is "a deception", because some people may think they are attending a Christian service while they are going to get hot Spiritism. And it is a "sacrilege" to use Christian methods and objects to deliver Anti-Christian Spiritism... The church may include a pulpit, pews, crucifix, and organ... the service resemble the gatherings of a Christian church, using the Bible, with Christian payers and songs, but it is Spiritism, with "trances" and "psychic readings".

In 1843, five years before the Fox sisters, Mr. Davis, a cobbler in New York, claimed to be a medium. He started another branch of this religion. He wrote "Principles of Nature", a Spiritists classic and established a church. The services resemble the church gatherings of small Christian denominations and usually mimic Christian services. "Jesus Christ", is a total different person for a Christian and a Spiritualist: For a Spiritualist Jesus is God, but as much as you and I are God, as much as every human being is a divine child of God, just a part of the Infinite Intelligence. A great deception of Satan is the claim of the Spiritualists that the Bible is Spiritualist: They claim "Jesus Christ was the master medium of all time"; they point to the Transfiguration as an example of spirit materialization, and Pentecost as the greatest séance in history.

The Bible and the Church, condemn all kinds of Spiritism and mediums with the strongest terms: It is "prostitution against God", "stone them to death" (The Occult). "Child of the Devil", reprimands St. Paul to the medium Bar Jesus in Acts 13.

This false religion/heresy began in 1879 Mary Baker Eddy. The "science of healing", is "Anti-Christian", "Anti-Science", with Hindu doctrine, and it is not a Church. "Jesus Christ" is not God, he was not the Christ. "God", is not the Christian God, but a "Hindu one". "Salvation", is by recognizing that each person is as much a Son of God as Jesus is. There is no evil, no devil, no sin, no poverty, and no old age. A person is reincarnated until he learns these truths and becomes "perfect”.

Another heretical church was founded in Tennessee, 1909, by George Hensley who died of a snakebite in 1955. Their "ceremonies", last for hours, with music and rhythmic clapping to hypnotize the dozens of poisonous snakes all over the hall.

In 1954, Lafayette Ronald Hubbard began this movement in California after writing "Dianetics". It is a Hindu interplanetary fiction novel, with a kind of "Catholic Confession", called "auditing" and is very Gnostic in its doctrine.

This heretical group was the creation of Victor Paul Wierwille in 1957, in Ohio. His book "Jesus Christ is not God" says it all... to practice "speaking in tongues" 30 minutes per day for salvation.

This movement was founded in 1954 in Montana by Mark L. Prophet. It is now lead by Elizabeth Clare Prophet, after the death of her husband in 1973. It is a Hindu religion, with biblical connotations, specially the "I Am" of Ex.3:14. Jesus is not God. He was only the "mediator" between God and men, the role now Mrs. Prophet has. Salvation is by doing good Karma (deeds), to reincarnate in a better form.
They have built huge underground shelters, able to accommodate 100,000 people, stocked with food for protection from an impending nuclear holocaust... And it is not that "universal", because most of their members live in Montana, nearby the Shelters.

Formed in 1961 by the merger of the American Unitarian Association and the Unitarian Universalist Church of America, this heretical group wants to speak as one on social and political questions. They unite the Unitarians and Universalists of the 18th Century and the Socinians ot the 16th century. It has been labeled as the "schizophrenia" of Christianity, trying to unite the Christians, by denying the Trinity, the deity of Jesus, and proclaiming universal complete salvation of all living beings. Luther tried to destroy the roofs of Catholicism; Calvin its wall; and Socinus its foundation.

Founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre of France, after the Vatican II, 1965, this heresy is European. Lefebvre consecrated 200 priests against the authority of the Pope. They celebrate the Mass only in Latin, with the old order of St. Pius X. Their main "objection" is the change in the Consecration of the word "many", by the word "all", but St. Paul uses both words talking about the same issue in successive verses, Romans 5:18,19: Jesus died "for all" human beings, but only "many" will appropriate his redemption. The Fraternity has been excommunicated from the Catholic Church

Churches for Homosexuals, Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches

Started in 1968, Troy Perry who claims that he and other homosexuals experienced on "coming out of the closed". It has very good intentions, however, the worst attitude about any vice, including homosexuality, is "to boast" about it, and "to applause others who practice it", as it says in Rom.1:32... no one should be proud or boast to be a murderer, or an alcoholic, or a thief, or a liar, or a prostitute, or a divorcee, or a homosexual... the reason why God chastised so severely Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19 is because they were proud of their immoral sexual activities, and they applauded those who openly did them or boasted about them. The Church is universal, catholic, not one for a murderers, another for alcoholics, another for homosexuals

David Berg, who changed his name to Moses Berg, and is called "MO". Sex for Jesus" is their logo and they will offer the "MO letters", saying "Jesus loves you". Founded in 1969, these "Communes" encourage and practiced homosexuality, incest, adultery, fornication, adult-child sex, polygamy, and are violently Anti-Semitic.

During the1980s, the term "New Age", was coined by the spirit medium Alice Bailey of the Theosophical Society of America. who died in 1949. New age has been catalogued as the AIDS of all heresies. The "New Age" of Aquarius was an Astrology doctrine of the 1980s, proclaiming the human race is at the verge of a "gigantic quantum leap". It claims to realize that every human is God. When that happens, it will be the "New Age", a glorious time with only one nation on earth, one language, one government, one religion, one monetary system. There will only be love on earth, and a "golden age" without hate, violence, wars, crime, racism.

The New Age is an umbrella, a collection of belief systems. Unlike most formal religions, it has no holy text, central organization, membership, formal clergy, geographic center, dogma, creed, etc. It is nothing "new", just the old time ancient religions, cults, all kind of superstitions, and false Hinduism and Mormonism. There are, in the New Age methods, anything but the truths of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Zen Buddhism. New Age religion includes yoga meditation, mysticism, spiritualism, crystals, pyramids, clairvoyance, biofeedback, reincarnation therapies, tarot cards, ouija boards, astrology, tea leaves, occult devices, dream therapy, holistic healing, astrological charts, parasychologic mystic experiences, telepathy, self-hypnosis, mind control, spiritistic channelling, balancing the yin and yan, witchcraft rituals, hypnosis, meditation, the use of hallucinogenic drugs or any kind of drug, Egyptian knowledge, mantras, angiology, extraterrestrial beings, neurolinguistic trainers, herbologists, and guided imaginary.

[1] Irenaeus Against Heresies 1.2

[2] 1. Achtemeier, Paul J., Th.D., Harper’s Bible Dictionary, (San Francisco: Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc.) 1985.

[3] The list of councils was taken from http://public.csusm.edu/guests/rsclark/Pelagius.htm

.[4] God had commanded the making of religious statues (Ex. 25:18–20; 1 Chr. 28:18–19), including symbolic representations of Christ (cf. Num. 21:8–9 with John 3:14).

[5] An Iconoclast is a person who destroys icons, that is, sacred paintings or sculpture. Conversely, people who revere or venerate religious images are called iconodules.