Heresies in the Early Church

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    What is heresy?

    The word "heresy" only appears once in the KJV but is translated as "sect" in most modern biblical translations.

    “But this I admit to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect I do serve the God of our fathers...[1]


    Major heresies in the early church

    Gnosticism

    Quartodecimanism

    This wasn't a true "heresy" but the amount of division that it caused in the early church was significant.

    The dispute among churches relating to the fixing of the day of Easter was referred to as Quartodecimanism (Easter should be observed on the fourteenth Nisan, irrespective of the day of the week that may happen to be). This was the belief that was primarily held by eastern churches.

    Anti-Quartodecimanism held that the crucifixion should be commemorated on the Friday of the week, whether or not it fell on the fourteenth, and the resurrection on the following Lord’s day. This was the view primarily held by the western church (and was officially adopted at the Council of Nicea (A.D. 325)).[2]

    We have devoted a separate article to the discussion of the Controversy over the Date of Easter.

    Montanism

    Sometime around the year 157 A.D., in the Roman province of Asia Minor known as Phrygia, a professing Christian named Montanus began to prophesy ecstatically. Claiming the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he was soon joined by two prophetesses, Maximilla and Priscilla (Prisca). They paid special attention to the biblical teachings about the Paraclete, and they claimed to be the last in a succession of prophets that included the daughters of Philip (Acts 21:8–9). They said they were called to summon all believers to righteous preparation for the heavenly descent of the New Jerusalem.

    By the 170s, this “New Prophecy” movement, as it was known, spread. The heart of Montanist activity was always in Asia Minor, although converts were eventually won in missionary outposts such as Rome, Byzantium, and Carthage. What attracted scores of early Christians to Montanism? Perhaps the answer lies in three words: authority, vitality, and discipline.

    Montanist prophets claimed direct revelations from God, and their utterances (“oracles”) were treasured and preserved as authoritative teaching by the faithful. Here was fresh truth, Spirit-given, for the last days.

    Not everyone was so enamored with the movement. In 192, Serapion, bishop of Antioch, declared that “the working of the lying organization called the New Prophesy is held in abomination by the whole brotherhood in the world.”

    Many of the leaders of the early church objected to Montanism on five main grounds:

    1. “Abnormal ecstasy.” Montanus prophesied in a frenzy, without engaging the rational mind, “contrary to the manner which belongs to the tradition and succession of the church from the beginning.”
    2. No controls. When respected bishops and church leaders sought to practice discernment with Montanist prophets, the prophets refused to submit.
    3. Worldliness. Some questioned the Montanist financial dealings. Others worried about their lifestyle: “Does a prophet dye his hair, paint his eyelids, love adornment, play at gaming tables and dice, lend money at interest?”
    4. Extra-scriptural revelation. Many were concerned that people would hold the oracles of the New Prophecy in higher esteem than the Scriptures.
    5. False prophecies. Maximilla declared that there would be wars and tumults and, after her death, no more prophets but “The End.” Yet, some thirteen years after her death, there was peace.

    On the other hand, a few respected teachers, though they didn’t join the movement, refused to condemn it. Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon, for example, was concerned that those attacking the Montanists would drive the authentic gift of prophecy from the church. Those who did so, he wrote, “do not admit that aspect presented by John’s Gospel, in which the Lord promised that he would send the Paraclete, but they set aside at once both the Gospel and the prophetic Spirit.”[3]

    Montanism which started in the 2nd century was largely over by the 4th century.

    Monarchianism

    Dynamic Monarchianism (aka Adoptionism)

    Modalistic Monarchianism (aka Sabellianism, Modalism, Patripassianism, Oneness, Jesus Only)

    Donatism

    Arianism

    Monophysitism

    Pelagianism

    Adoptionism

    Nestorianism

    Footnotes

    1. ↑ New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Ac 24:14.
    2. ↑ Alan Cairns, Dictionary of Theological Terms (Belfast; Greenville, SC: Ambassador Emerald International, 2002), 358.
    3. ↑ Christian History Magazine-Issue 51: Heresy in the Early Church (Carol Stream, IL: Christianity Today, 1996).


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