The Great Heresies [Open]

From Christianity’s beginnings, the Church has been attacked by those introducing false teachings, or heresies.

The Bible warned us this would happen. Paul told his young protégé, Timothy, "For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths" (2 Tim. 4:3–4).

Heresy is an emotionally loaded term that is often misused. It is not the same thing as incredulity, schism, apostasy, or other sins against faith. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, "Incredulity is the neglect of revealed truth or the willful refusal to assent to it. Heresy is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and Catholic faith, or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same; apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith; schism is the refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him" (CCC 2089).

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.

A person must be baptized to commit heresy. This means that movements that have split off from or been influenced by Christianity, but that do not practice baptism (or do not practice valid baptism), are not heresies, but separate religions. Examples include Muslims, who do not practice baptism, and Jehovah’s Witnesses, who do not practice valid baptism.

Finally, the doubt or denial involved in heresy must concern a matter that has been revealed by God and solemnly defined by the Church (for example, the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the sacrifice of the Mass, the pope’s infallibility, or the Immaculate Conception and Assumption of Mary).

It is important to distinguish heresy from schism and apostasy. In schism, one separates from the Catholic Church without repudiating a defined doctrine. An example of a contemporary schism is the Society of St. Pius X—the "Lefebvrists" or followers of the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre—who separated from the Church in the late 1980s, but who have not denied Catholic doctrines. In apostasy, one totally repudiates the Christian faith and no longer even claims to be a Christian.

With this in mind, let’s look at some of the major heresies of Church history and when they began.

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. 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.

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

"Matter is evil!" was the cry of the Gnostics. 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. 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," who mediated between man and the ultimate, unreachable God. The lowest of these aeons, the one who had contact with men, was supposed to be Jesus Christ.

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 home town 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).

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.

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 solemnly condemned in 325 at the First Council of Nicaea, which defined the divinity of Christ, and in 381 at the First Council of Constantinople, which defined the divinity of the Holy Spirit. These two councils gave us the Nicene creed, which Catholics recite at Mass every Sunday.

Pelagius denied that we inherit original sin from Adam’s sin in the Garden and claimed that we become sinful only through the bad example of the sinful community into which we are born. Conversely, he denied that we inherit righteousness as a result of Christ’s death on the cross and said that we become personally righteous by instruction and imitation in the Christian community, 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.

After Augustine refuted the teachings of Pelagius, some 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.

This heresy about the person of Christ was initiated by Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, who denied Mary the title of Theotokos (Greek: "God-bearer" or, less literally, "Mother of God"). Nestorius claimed that she only bore Christ’s human nature in her womb, and proposed the alternative title Christotokos ("Christ-bearer" or "Mother of Christ").

Orthodox Catholic theologians recognized that Nestorius’s theory would fracture Christ into two separate persons (one human and one divine, joined in a sort of loose unity), only one of whom was in her womb. The Church reacted in 431 with the Council of Ephesus, defining that Mary can be properly referred to as the Mother of God, not in the sense that she is older than God or the source of God, but in the sense that the person she carried in her womb was, in fact, God incarnate ("in the flesh").

There is some doubt whether Nestorius himself held the heresy his statements imply, and in this century, the Assyrian Church of the East, historically regarded as a Nestorian church, has signed a fully orthodox joint declaration on Christology with the Catholic Church and rejects Nestorianism. It is now in the process of coming into full ecclesial communion with the Catholic Church.

Monophysitism originated as a reaction to Nestorianism. The Monophysites (led by a man named Eutyches) 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). They are thus known as Monophysites because of their claim that Christ had only one nature (Greek: mono = one; physis = nature).

Orthodox Catholic theologians recognized that Monophysitism was as bad as Nestorianism because it denied Christ’s full humanity and full divinity. If Christ did not have a fully human nature, then he would not be fully human, and if he did not have a fully divine nature then he was not fully divine.

This heresy arose when 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, despite the fact that in the Bible, 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).

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.

The Albigensians formed one of the largest Cathar sects. They taught that the spirit was created by God, and was good, while the body was created by an evil god, 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.

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: "First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation." A significant feature of this heresy is the attempt to pit the Church "against" the Bible, denying that the magisterium has any infallible authority to teach and interpret Scripture.

The doctrine of private judgment has resulted in an enormous number of different denominations. According to The Christian Sourcebook, there are approximately 20-30,000 denominations, with 270 new ones being formed each year. Virtually all of these are Protestant.

Jansenius, bishop of Ypres, France, initiated this heresy with a paper he wrote on Augustine, which redefined the doctrine of grace. Among other doctrines, his followers denied that Christ died for all men, but claimed that he died only for those who will be finally saved (the elect). This and other Jansenist errors were officially condemned by Pope Innocent X in 1653.

Heresies have been with us from the Church’s beginning. They even have been started by Church leaders, who were then corrected by councils and popes. Fortunately, we have Christ’s promise that heresies will never prevail against the Church, for he told Peter, "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18). The Church is truly, in Paul’s words, "the pillar and foundation of the truth" (1 Tim. 3:15).

***Oh, it’s just that the Eucharist is commanded by Jesus, but I realize that the understanding of the Protestant version(s) of Scripture supersede Jesus’ commandments. Call us sentimental, but we think that the instructions of Jesus trump anything that you men happen to come up with.

No .. you don’t. ***

Yes we do. And we have 2000 years of evidence to prove it.

***You simply choose your own select occasions to obey Christ’s literal words. ***

Jesus spoke sometimes literally and sometimes in metaphors and parables. That is why individual interpretation of Scripture is forbidden by Him. It is really important, you know, to understand what He has instructed to do and not do. It will be most instructive to sit in front of the Throne and find out why Protestants insist on defining their own theologies. And then see what the reaction of the Lamb will be when the multitudes of Protestant theologies are trotted out and their proponents attempt to instruct Him.

***For you don’t do so consistently.

Else, you would never refer to your spiritual leaders ... as “Father”.***

Father is a title, much as rabbi, teacher, leader, or in some theological circles, snake oil salesman.

Ahh ... but it's not me who's making the claim that I consistently take Christ at His (literal) word.

Neither are we. We make no secret that our interpretation is informed by His Word not restricted to letters.

Ahh ... then it is as it appears.

Not that Catholics take Christ at His word ... while Protestants don't ... but that each side interprets His words as sometimes literal ... and sometimes not.

It will be most instructive to sit in front of the Throne and find out why Protestants insist on defining their own theologies. And then see what the reaction of the Lamb will be when the multitudes of Protestant theologies are trotted out and their proponents attempt to instruct Him.

Glad to be such a rich source for your fantasy life.

***Not that Catholics take Christ at His word ... while Protestants don’t ... but that each side interprets His words as sometimes literal ... and sometimes not. ***

That is the authority conferred upon the Church, and not upon the heretic and apostate, or even individuals.

Great theologians such as Origen and Tertullian fell into heresy; that is why the Church as an entity is the governing body and not every milkmaid.

***It will be most instructive to sit in front of the Throne and find out why Protestants insist on defining their own theologies. And then see what the reaction of the Lamb will be when the multitudes of Protestant theologies are trotted out and their proponents attempt to instruct Him.

Glad to be such a rich source for your fantasy life. ***

As I said, it will be most instructive.

I'm guessing we could look at kata-phroneses and see "thinking down", "thinking away from", "considering down". The shame is great but He thinks little of it.

I disagree...The verse that it's written in gives us a pretty good sense of how He felt about it...And it in no way suggests that he thought little of it...

In fact, it bothered Him so much, he was sweating blood over it...

Great theologians such as Origen and Tertullian fell into heresy; that is why the Church as an entity is the governing body and not every milkmaid.

Ya, you bet...Your church taught hundreds of years of proven lies with the Isidorian Decretals and the Donation of Constantine and still do to this day...And you still claim to be The Authority of God on Earth...

I KNOW why I'm not in your church...I just can't figure out why you are...

I did kind of figure you disagreed. ;-)

The Bible says "despise", and despise has a meaning. And "thinks little" means that, in comparison with the "mission", the shame and pain and all are not worth considering, not that they aren't there. They are there but despicable.

You see weakness and shame. I see strength and honor.

And we're not saying it's pleasant. We're saying strength is doing what's not pleasant. There's no self-control in my not hitting myself on the head with a hammer. There's considerable self-control in my not having another biscuit, and another, and another....

You see weakness and shame. I see strength and honor.

I never said anything about weakness...I suspect Jesus could have said NO...I likely would have said no...

Of course there was strength...Jesus said nothing about honor...There definately was shame and strength...

You keep saying, "the Law of Moses." Tell me, is that the same "Law" that is so praised by David in Psalm 119? Or maybe the same "Law" that Jesus said in Matthew 5:17 that He did not come to abolish?

The fact is, that the most oft repeated single phrase in all of Scripture is, "Then the L-RD spoke to Moses and said, 'Speak to the Children of Israel, saying...'"

The "Law of Moses" as you so derisively call it, is the Torah of the L-RD. It is the very Words of the Creator of the Universe. And contained within it are scores of repetitions of the phrase, "And this will be a statute forever..."

Choose to obey His commandments or not, but don't pretend to love Him if you derisively abolish His very words...

They were, of course, born Jews. However, having come to believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah, they were at that time Christians, fathers of the Catholic Church promised by Christ in Matthew 16:18.

Snicker. Haven't read much of Paul I suppose. Please read his own defense throughout Acts 22-28. He spoke of being a Jew in the PRESENT tense.

Even your vaunted Jerome records that there were a great number of "Jews" that believed in Jesus as Messiah in the Fifth Century, but they weren't "Christians" because they remained "Jewish." What a confused mess you folks created. They were always Jewish. You don't become "un-Jewish" by beliefs.

Next you are going to tell me that Jesus was "born a Jew" but now He is a gentile? Never mind, I knew you were going there...

***I KNOW why I’m not in your church...I just can’t figure out why you are...***

I keep saying to you and you still don’t understand that it is not my Church. It belongs to Him. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and to His institution on Earth, it is my privilege to follow.

I do not belong to a church of one, sir. How is yours doing?

For a full and Catholic dismissal of the Isidorian Decretals, follow http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05773a.htm.

And as for the forged and equally unimportant Donation of Constantine, it is beneath anyone who wishes to be taken seriously to even mention them.

You used a lot of verbiage just to say you have no idea what languages Peter understood. A simple "no" or "I don't know" would do.

The Reformed claim that only they understand. I guess that leaves the rest of us out.

This is a slap at who? Name names and give examples to prove you understand what the Reformed believe. Otherwise admit you just threw that out as filler.

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