Ad Heresies

Christological

What the Church has reaffirmed these in the Face of every Christological Heresy

1. Person of the Trinity 

2. One divine person with two natures (divine & human) 

   1. 100% divine (Son of God) 

   2. 100% human (Son of Mary) 

3. Christ or Messiah (Son of David) 

4. Rose from the dead and 1s seated at Father’s right hand 

The Heresies which have Taught Contrarieties

1. Adoptionism – the belief that Jesus was born merely human and that he became divine later in his life.

2. Apollinarism – the belief that Jesus had a human body and lower soul (the seat of the emotions) but a divine mind. Apollinaris further taught that the souls of men were propagated by other souls, as well as their bodies.

3. Arianism – teachings adopted by the theologian Arius which state that Christ had been given every honor but divinity, which conflicts with the doctrine of the hypostatic union (Christ's nature was wholly divine and wholly human) which was held by the Church.

4. Docetism – the belief that Jesus' physical body was an illusion, as was his crucifixion; that is, Jesus only seemed to have a physical body and to physically die, but in reality, he was incorporeal, a pure spirit, and hence could not physically die

5. Macedonians (religious group) or pneumatomachians – belief that the Holy Spirit was a creation of the Son and a servant of the Father and the Son

6. Melchisedechians – considered Melchisedech an incarnation of the Logos (divine Word) and identified him with the Holy Ghost

7. Monarchianism – emphasizes the indivisibility of God (the Father) at the expense of the other persons of the Trinity.

8. Monophysitism or Eutychianism – the belief that Christ has only one nature (divine), as opposed to the Chalcedonian position which holds that Christ has two natures, one divine and one human, or the Miaphysite position which holds that the divine and human natures of Christ were united as one divine-human nature from the point of the Incarnation onwards.

9. Monothelitism – the belief that Jesus Christ had two natures but only one will. This is contrary to the orthodox interpretation of Christology, which teaches that Jesus Christ has two wills (human and divine) corresponding to his two natures

10. Nestorianism – the belief that Christ exists as two persons, the man Jesus and the divine Son of God, or Logos, rather than as two natures (True God and True Man) of one divine person.

11. Patripassianism – the belief that the Father and Son are not two distinct persons, and thus God the Father suffered on the cross as Jesus.

12. Psilanthropism – the belief that Jesus is "merely human": either that he never became divine, or that he never existed before his incarnation as a man.

13. Sabellianism – the belief that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three aspects of one God, rather than three distinct persons in one God.

Misc. Early Church Heresies with Responses

1. Antinomianism – the idea there is no obligation to obey the laws of ethics or morality as presented by religious authorities

   1. Romans 13:1-2: Authorities ought to be obeyed until they contradict justice or charity which are God's commands

   2. Christ, Himself, paid the temple tax and subjected Himself under Pilate (John 19:11; Matthew 17:24-27)

2. Audianism – the belief that God has human form (anthropomorphism) and that one ought to celebrate Jesus' death during the Jewish Passover (Quartodecimanism).

   1. It is unclear to us in what sense this makes sense

3. Circumcellions – Circumcellions had come to regard martyrdom as the true Christian virtue.

   1. Even some saints like Francis of Assisi dreamed of martyrdom, however, dying in witness to Christ is not a universal necessity. Martyrdom is materially lived in being a witness to the truth, this is the only sense in which it relates to the virtue and vocation of the Christian life. Pius X in one of his encyclicals on the priesthood, "Be men crucified to the world and for the the world has been crucified."

4. Donatism – Donatists were rigorists, holding that the church must be a church of saints, not sinners, and that sacraments administered by traditores were invalid.

   1. If every priest had to be as pure as Christ, Himself, no sacrament would ever be valid. As the scripture says a righteous man sins seven times a day. On the contrary, the Church has claimed the priest, when administering the sacraments, participates in Christ the Head, i.e. "in persona Christi capitis".

5. Ebionites – Jewish sect that insisted on the necessity of following Jewish religious law and rites, which they interpreted in light of Jesus' expounding of the Law. They regarded Jesus as the Messiah but not as divine.

   1. Paul deals with this in the Epistles and at the Council of Jerusalem. Christianity is more than just fulfilled Judaism since charity is that which fulfills the law, the obligation of Old Law is overridden by a commitment to charity. (there may be technicality in word choice here but this is the main idea)

6. Euchites / Messalians – belief that the essence (ousia) of the Trinity could be perceived by the carnal senses; that the Threefold God transformed himself into a single hypostasis (substance) to unite with the souls of the perfect; that God has taken different forms to reveal himself to the senses; only such sensible revelations of God confer perfection upon the Christian; and the state of perfection, freedom from the world and passion, is attained solely by prayer, not through the church or sacraments.

   1. It seems like this position is Gnostic except in the direction of the flesh rather than the other world. Formally, it seems to reinterpret the premise in light of the conclusion. It is as though they realize God became man then, he must have done so before and continues to do it now". This is directly dissonant with what God revealed to man up until the Incarnation. It was difficult to believe that the Messiah was Divine because Judaism was very clear about holiness being separated. The error here is the ambition to know in a way negligent of logic. 

7. Luciferians – strongly anti-Arian sect in Sardinia

   1. Some scholars suggest this group was to the Council of Alexandria as the Traditionalist Catholics were to the Second Vatican Council. A bishop named Lucifer of Cagliari and his followers refused to accept Arains as Christians after the conversion especially bishops and the validity of their Baptism after having been Arain.

8. Marcionism – Early Christian dualist belief system. Marcion affirmed Jesus Christ as the savior sent by God and Paul as his chief apostle, but he rejected the Hebrew Bible and the Hebrew God. Marcionites believed that the wrathful Hebrew God was a separate and lower entity than the all-forgiving God of the New Testament.

   1. It does not follow that there are two Gods of two different covenants. As such the comparison or dichotomy, is found not in reality but in our perspective. Christianity, without a doubt, provides a better understanding of the one true God but does not do this apart from the Old Testament but rather has seen the Old in Light of the New Perspective. The folly of the Marcion position is it makes hasty judgments about God's nature that we post-fall humans have a distorted view of anyway.

9. Montanism – 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 encouragement of ecstatic prophesying; the view that Christians who fell from grace could not be redeemed; a stronger emphasis on the avoidance of sin and church discipline, emphasizing chastity, including forbidding remarriage.

   1. Faith gets distorted when one aspect of the faith is overemphasized or underemphasized. In either case, it is distortion. The belief that revelation is not done is resonant with the Mormons. The problem although is firstly formal, if it had any material merit it would arise from the common determination of all premises to a singular conclusion as is proper to the one true God, who has one true revelation.

   2. The effect of the latter, made these folks into Pelagians.

10. Pelagianism/Semipelagianism – the belief that original sin did not taint human nature and that mortal will is still capable of choosing good or evil without Divine aid.

    1. This belief does not incorporate the concept of Grace, nor does it make any sense of Christ's taking on flesh and death, at least not in addition to providing direct and clear communication to man.

    2. More can be read on this under the Sola Fidei section on this page

Other Heresies

Medieval Period

1. Bogomils – Gnostic dualistic sect that was both Adoptionist and Manichaean.

2. Catharism – Catharism had its roots in the Paulician movement in Armenia and the Bogomils of Bulgaria, with a strong dualist influence against the physical world, regarded as evil, thus denied that Jesus could become incarnate and still be the son of God.

3. Conciliarism – claims that the council (and laity) is always above the ordinary (and extraordinary) magisterium.

4. Free Spirit – mixed mystical beliefs with Christianity. Its practitioners believed that it was possible to reach perfection on earth through a life of austerity and spiritualism. They believed that they could communicate directly with God and did not need the Christian church for intercession.

5. Iconoclasm – idea that icons and images must be destroyed, as they have no place in the worship of God

6. Fraticelli (Spiritual Franciscans) – extreme proponents of the rule of Saint Francis of Assisi, especially with regard to poverty, and regarded the wealth of the Church as scandalous, and that of individual churchmen as invalidating their status.

7. Henricians – rejection of the doctrinal and disciplinary authority of the church; recognition of the Gospel freely interpreted as the sole rule of faith; refusal to recognize any form of worship or liturgy; and condemnation of the baptism of infants, the Eucharist, the sacrifice of the mass, the communion of saints, and prayers for the dead.

8. Waldensians (Waldenses or Vaudois) – spiritual movement of the later Middle Ages, headed by Peter Waldo

Renaisannce Period

9. Hussites – program of the Hussites is contained in the four articles of Prague, which were agreed upon in July 1420. These are often summarized as: Freedom to preach the Word of God, celebration of the Lord's Supper in both kinds (bread and wine to priests and laity alike), no secular power for the clergy, punishment for the mortal sins.

   1. As far as heresies go not too far off base, there was probably a proper way of getting what they were after that was none heretical

10. Lollardy – practice of the followers of Wycliffe

11. Girolamo Savonarola – Savonarola called for simplicity in church interior and rigorous moral stances

Protestant

12. Calvinism – belief that God chooses to save certain people, not because of any foreseen merit or good in themselves, but totally by his sovereign choice. Calvinism has been summed up in five points, known as TULIP.

    1. Total depravity – idea that all humanity are totally depraved, and outside of God's intervention, incapable of doing good works

       1. Although in Genesis 1 it does not explicitly say Man was good it is grealty implied

          1. After Man was created Good said his creation was "very good"

          2. It says we are made in His "image and likness"

    2. Unconditional election – God chooses those he wants to save regardless of merit by predestination.

       1. If God is Love and merit has nothing to do with salvation whatsoever, why would he only choose favorites?

       2. In the Old Testament God needed to choose a few in order to instill His mission in them since the state of humanity is not capable of proper heroics especially the kind love would demand in the context. Rather, God worked with humanity growing it in understanding of Him whom it had forgotten. It is clear that the Church was tasked with expanding the chosen unto all the Earth (Matthew 28:19).

       3. Does a good God choose who is to be spared? Does Love Itself withhold Himself from some of His people? No only does the creature freely reject Him who does not impose Himself.

    3. Limited atonement – Jesus died only for the chosen elect.

       1. My question on tenet 2 extends to this as well.

    4. Irresistible grace – God's saving grace cannot be resisted.

       1. If God did not make us free, there is no such thing as moral living, which makes man only an animal with an immortal soul. What would be the point of faith at all?

       2. Grace must be both receivable and resistible to call us free and sovereign creatures which Calvin seems deny:

          1. See main point 2 on election above

          2. There is a difference between grace being undesirable to resist and impossible to resist

    5. Perseverance – or "Eternal Security". Once saved, one cannot lose salvation. However, the only way to tell if someone has been saved is if they persevere.

       1. View this discussion on it

       2. Given the 4 prior tenets, this makes sense, but only because of those prior tenets. It is inconsistent with Scripture

          1. Mt 7:21 — Not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” will be saved 

          2. Mt 24:13 — he who perseveres to the end will be saved 

          3. Rom 11:21-22 - spare branches, continue or be cut off. 

          4. 1 Cor 9:27 - “I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” 

          5. 1 Cor 10:12 - “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!.” 

          6. Gal 5:4 - “You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.” 

          7. Gal 5:4 — “you have fallen from grace” 

          8. Phil 2:12 - “work out salvation with fear and trembling.” 

          9. Heb 4:1 - “the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.” 

          10. Heb 6:4-6 — describes “enlightened” Christians who have fallen away from Christ 

          11. Heb 10:26-29 - “worse punishment ... for the man who has spurned the Son of God, and profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace” 

          12. Jas 5:19-20 - Christians can “wander from the truth,” which leads to “death” 

          13. 2 Pet 2:1 - “even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.” 

          14. 2 Pet 2:20 — some have come to knowledge of Christ but they have returned to sin and their end is worse than their beginnings 

          15. 1 Jn 5:16-17 - some sins are mortal, some not 

    6. The 5 Tenets listed here are emphatically different from any prior understanding of Christian faith and laud a very grim anthrolpolgy.

13. Consubstantiation – during the sacrament, the fundamental "substance" of the body and blood of Christ are present alongside the substance of the bread and wine, which remain present.

    1. This is, in the grand scheme of things it seems to me, is a moot point as distinct from "transubstantiation."

    2. Jesus does not join Himself to the nature of bread and it does not have the same meaning thereby of literally being His flesh and blood as for told in John 6. Nestorians would be sympathetic to this position.

    3. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, Luther intended to claim that Christ penetrates the substance of bread at the moment of reception so as to end up physically received, however, this is difficult to support. 

14. Impanation – the assertion that "God is made bread" in the Eucharist. High medieval theory of the Real Presence of the body of Jesus Christ in the consecrated bread of the Eucharist that does not imply a change in the substance of either the bread or the body.

    1. This just a vaguer understanding of consubstantiation in truth

15. Memorialism – belief held by some Protestant denominations that the elements of bread and wine (or juice) in the Eucharist (more often referred to as The Lord's Supper by memorialists) are purely symbolic representations of the body and blood of Jesus, the feast being established only or primarily as a commemorative ceremony.

    1. For this and the previosu few heresies consult Other Issues under Protestantism to find more on the Eucharist