Introduction
A Heretic is a person, as far as the early Christian church fathers are concerned, who followed and taught the unorthodox doctrine. Thus as per the early church, heresies constituted any teachings that disagreed with the laid down Christian doctrine as taught by Jesus as well as the apostles and passed down to them on crucial matters such s the deity of Christ, God’s nature and salvation through grace among many others.
Early church fathers
These were great Christian writers who passed on and explained Christian doctrine during the 2nd to the 8th-century era. Any church father, who had qualities such as, being relic, holy, orthodoxy as well as having the approval of the church was referred to as a father. Whereas it was not clear as to whoever brought about heresy in the church, however a variety of these fathers including Iraneus, Hippolytus and Justin Martyr believed Simon Magus to have been the person behind these heresies.
Father Iraneous acknowledged that Simon Magus, the Samaritan to have been the person who was referred to by Luke. Reference was widely made concerning the magical capabilities of this person during the reign of Claudius Caesar and as so he was honored with a statue. It is said that this man was highly respected as if he was God; nevertheless some of his teachings were heretic as he led many to believe that he was the one who appeared to the Jews as the son. Based on this understanding many Church Fathers formed the idea that he was the originator of all sorts of heresies.”
The center of most of the early Christian heresies constituted the oneness doctrine (Jesus and Trinitarianism) the early church fathers agreed that whereas the oneness doctrine seemed to be Biblical however it was wrongly interpreted. Wrong interpretation such as that held by Sabellianism portrayed Jesus to be not only the son but also the father and the Holy Spirit. Such a view placed Jesus to be only person in God’s Head. Clarification on the above issue was reached as it was decided as follows.
Oneness- “God is one, but not a plurality of three persons, and that the one God is Jesus Christ. In other words God is absolutely one with no distinction of persons (Deut. 6:4;) because Jesus Christ is all the fullness of the God’s head incarnate (John 20:28; Colossian 2:9). The father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are only three manifestations or modes or titles the Jesus manifests himself as”
Trinitarianism – “The father is God, the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God. But the father is not the Son or the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is not the father and the son. These three in the God’s head are not three Gods, but are one, of one substance, power and eternity”.
Early church fathers were keen on refuting the heretical views that entered the church. As a result many trinity quotes were written to counter heresy that was being taught within the church. The majority of the early church fathers received their teachings about the doctrine of Christ of the gospel, directly from the apostles. These people (Fathers) having had the occasion to be with the apostles offered the most credible account of the doctrines orthodoxy.
To the early church fathers any person who denied the deity of Christ, same as whoever identified Jesus and the Father as being the same person was considered heretic. Such a person together with his teachings was not acceptable to the early church. Such doctrine came into recognition after Constantine became an Arian and used his political power and restored it in the church. It is noteworthy that even the council of Nicea did not accept this heresy. Thus were it not for Constantine’s use of political power this heresy could not have gained entry into the church as an accepted doctrine.
Most of the time early Church Father’ interests were centered on establishing the truth as far as the Christian Dogmas were concerned. The Pope was considered to have replaced St. Peter in establishing the truth. The early church on diverse epochs in history had various degrees of power to deny or punish heretics.
Sometimes the power of determining what was right or wrong was placed with the collective body of bishops (Council of Bishops or ecumenical councils). These councils having established what orthodoxy was, anyone who failed to comply with it was thereafter seen as heretic. Excommunication was the early method that was applied in punishing heretics as the church was less powerful during this period. However the year 385 saw the burning of a heretic for the first time known as Priscillian.
Let me examine some Heresies the early church fathers fought.
Gnosticism
This theology first appeared in the second century. Its teaching was fundamentally heresy as it did not believe that Jesus could have existed both as human and divine. They believed that every matter was evil including the human body. According to the teachings of this theology Jesus was not a human, simply because he originated from God who himself did not matter. They did not believe in salvation brought about by Jesus even though they him to have been divine. To them, salvation could only be achieved through extraordinary supernatural knowledge that was available only to the privileged (Gnostics) and not to everyone. Since this group had adapted various Christian writings including the gospel. The church in order to stamp this adopted common canon of scripture. To counter the effects of these groups, early church fathers wrote statements of faith that explained Christian belief clearly.
Arianism
This heresy sprang up through a priest known as Arias who was under Bishop Alexandar. Unlike the Gnostics, Arians denied that Jesus had divine qualities. Their belief was not centered on the Holy Trinity as they believed that God existed in one distinct person and thus Jesus being a creature of God could not have been God. Whereas they did not accept Jesus as being God, they viewed him as being between God and man.
To resolve the problem brought about by Arius, Constantine convened a council of all bishops. This council came up with a Creed that defined Jesus as being both human and God, subsequently denouncing the Arian theology. The Nicene Creed formulated by the council acted as the defining point in Christianity.
Manichaeism
Advocates of this heresy believed in the existence of two gods. Their belief was that a single Deity could not be responsible for good things and evil things. Thus as far as they were concerned, one God acted as the creator of good while the other was responsible for creating evil things. Those who held the heresy believed that a person could not be held accountable for his or her sins.
Monarchism
Some texts refer to this heresy by the name of modalism or sabellian. It was the architect of Noetus of Smyrna. The advocates of this theology maintained that the trinity referred to only one person but with three different manifestations. Thus as far as they were concerned The Father, the Son and The Holy Spirit referred to one and the same person. Thus they are temporary forms of the same God. Whereas it does not deny Christ’s deity, it does not acknowledge the son as being eternal Son.
Docetism
The mastermind of this belief system is considered to be Julius Cassianus. Docetism was rooted in the Gnostic philosophy and it viewed Jesus physical body to have been an illusion or anomaly. According to the teachings of Docetism spiritual Christ entered human Jesus during his baptism and left upon his crucification, they considered the main objective of Jesus to have been delivery of people from the dominion of matter (evil). Thus according to them, Jesus could not have come as matter as that was what he was supposed to overcome.
Resurrection was not within the realm of this belief. The church strongly denounced this quoting Ignatius “some ignorantly deny him (Jesus) or rather have been denied by him, being the advocates of death rather than the truth. These persons neither have the prophets persuaded, nor the Law of Moses, nor the law of gospel even to this day, nor the sufferings we have individually endured. For they think also the same things regarding us. For what does any one profit me, if he commends me best, blasphemers my lord, not confessing that he was (truly) possessed of body? But he who does not acknowledge this has in fact altogether denied him… in as much as they are unbelievers”
Nicolaitans
Nicolaitans, basing their belief on their leader Nicolaus, referred to themselves as apostles only to be found to be liars. Like blind men the followers of this heresy believed that they had authority of the apostles since their leader Nicolaus, was ordained by the apostles as a deacon. They believed in complete freedom in finding knowledge. Their main agenda was sexual immorality. Their way of belief was that physical contamination had nothing to do with Spiritual righteousness. This school of thought was considered by early church Fathers to be misleading hence it was strongly condemned. The early Church found it to be against orthodoxy teachings which acknowledge that a Christian’s body is the Lord’s Temple and as, it is the Holy Spirit’s dwelling place. The Bible further stresses that, whoever defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy and that a Christian is that temple.
Montanus
Montanus was the author of this philosophy which sprang up some time at 275 AD. Wherever he went, he was always in the company of his two disciples namely Priscilla and Maximilla in his evangelistic missions. According to Montanus, he himself was God’s mouthpiece while the two women were his prophetesses. His version of spiritual gifts led him to part ways with the Christian mainstream, as he believed in utterances that were prophetic promulgating new revelations. The believers of this heresy viewed their leader to have revelation authority being remitted directly by the Holy Spirit. They referred to themselves as the new prophecy. Its use of ecstatic semi-conscious states in religious practices was highly opposed by the early church.
Pelagianism
After the council of Nicea many heresies seemed to have been settled, however Pelagius surfaced with different teachings. Pelagius being a British monk was not happy with the way the Roman Christians behaved as he saw lack of piety and purity in them. He formed that such behavior was due to the Grace doctrine. Consequently he marshaled a clique of followers to denounce predestination, original sin, as well as the doctrine of Grace. In essence, Pelagius and his followers were categorical that the sin of Adam and Eve could not taint humans and as such babies are born pure. According to this theology, man was construed to be at liberty to choose to live sinless life.
This theology could not be withstood by St. Augustine of Hippo as it was causing division within the early church. He wrote various articles entrenched on the theology of doctrines of salvation through grace, original sin necessity of baptism for salvation as well as the damnation of un-baptized infants.
Nestorianism
This heresy was the architect of two men namely Theodoram and Nestorius. As far as this theology was concerned Jesus Christ existed in two different natures, that Christ was the man who became God as opposed to God who became man, the mother of God was not Mary. Thus according to the teachings of this heresy Christ, was nothing more than a teacher or a prophet. At the council of Ephesus this heresy was strongly denounced and one of its founders was exiled.
Conclusion
Heresy is simply a doctrine that strays from the established Christian belief. Orthodoxy theology is considered to be the mainstream thought of Christianity as it is believed to be based on divine revelation. Whoever rejects this orthodoxy,/is considered a Heretic. Heresies were first manifested as early as the 1st century. This comprised animism, monophyly, donatism, docetism, Montanism, autism among others.
Some heresies articulated faith in novel prophets increasing to the body of Christian revelation. Notable on this idea was Montanism heresy. Gnosticism on the other hand believed in some form of knowledge based on Greek philosophy. Excommunication was the method employed to combat heretics until 12th century when inquisition was introduced. During inquisition period heretics were executed. It was not until the 16th century that the western doctrinal unity of Christendom was brought to an end.
Reference
Ehrman, Bart D. (2003). Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew. New York: Oxford.
No Longer Jews: The Search for Gnostic Origins by Carl B. Smith Hendrickson Publishers (2004).
John Coffey (2000), Persecution and Toleration in Protestant England 1558-1689, P.23.
R. Gerberding and J. H. Moran Cruz, Medieval Worlds (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004) p. 58.
Bock, Darrell L. The Missing Gospels: Unearthing the Truth Behind Alternative Christianities, Cambridge History of Christianity Volume 1 Eddie Snipes. Heresies and Heretics in the Early Church (section 1). Web.
Tim Warner. Part 1: The Early Church Fathers Declared “Oneness” (Sabellianism) Heresy. Web.