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Compilation of Heresies

A heresy is a set of beliefs, theories or ideas that contradict with the truths being taught by the Church, and

therefore is rejected by the authorities of the Church. A person who has been baptized into the Church and

knows the truth, yet believes a teaching outside of the truth and refuses to be corrected, commits heresy.

The Church has encountered false teachings or heresies since the beginning of Christianity. It is important

for the faithfuls to be deeply rooted in their faith so as not to be easily swayed or deceived by such false

doctrines.

Arianism

"I and the Father are one," Jesus Christ says in John 10:30, proclaiming His divinity and communion with

God the Father. However, Arianism does not acknowledge this truth. Arianism was developed in the 3rd

century. Its name was derived from an Egyptian priest named Arius, who denied the oneness of the Father

and the Son in the Holy Trinity, but recognized that Jesus Christ is above human beings due to the miracles

He performed, but is still below or inferior to the Father. This heresy contradicts Jesus’ omnipresence as

seen in John 1:1.

The nature of Christ was studied and taught by 3rd century theologian Paul of Samosata. His findings

established that Jesus Christ was a creation of God rather than an eternal Being. According to Paul, Jesus

was a man who rose to divinity rather than God who became man. This was first known as the Samosatene

doctrine and became a major threat to the early Christian faith.

A significant number of Christians in the early Church were highly educated according to Greek standards,

therefore it made sense for them to try to exhaustively comprehend the nature of Christ using Greek

analytical methods. The Samosatene doctrine was seen as a sensible deduction, and was debated upon at

Antioch by at least three church councils between AD 263 and 268 However, the third council denounced

his doctrine and Paul was dismissed from office in AD 269.


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Fifty years after Paul of Samosata, Arius of Alexandria recovered the Samosatene doctrine and presented

it to the Church once again. He endorsed that the Logos (the Word, as in Jesus Christ) was not the same as

the Father, the Son was a creation of God, and that there was once a time when God the Father existed but

the Son did not. He put emphasis on the Father, making the Son a lesser Being. This is what he debated

about with Alexander I of Alexandria (19th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark), who

was giving a sermon regarding the likeness of the Son to the Father. Their argument developed what was

called the Arian controversy. Alexander I accused Arius of heresy but his charge was weak and unsupported

at the time. As a result, Arius’ doctrine became one of the most talked-about issues in the early Church,

raising many debates regarding Christ’s divinity, His humanity, His death, and more.

The debates sparked by the Arian controversy soon captured the attention of Emperor Constantine who

wanted to resolve it and create a proper conclusion by calling a council—the First Council of Nicaea—to

hear the case. Arius presented his writings and provided biblical basis for them such as verses from the

Sacred Scripture like John 14:28 wherein Jesus Christ says “the Father is greater than I”, as well as

Colossians 1:15 which describes Jesus as “the firstborn of all creation.” The dispute continued until majority

of the bishops present in the Council of Nicaea formed and concurred upon a creed which highlighted

homoousious (meaning “one in essence”), stating the oneness of Jesus Christ with the Father, a

contradiction to Arius’ doctrine. Arius was exiled to Illyricum in AD 325, and a decree was made by

Emperor Constantine against the Arians (Arius’ supporters), ordering any composition written by Arius to

be destroyed by fire.

Today, Arianism can be observed in Jehovah’s Witnesses due to the similarities in their doctrines.

Docetism
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Docetism is a heresy that agrees that Jesus Christ was divine, but disagrees that had a real body while He

walked the earth. According to this doctrine, Jesus only appeared human, that he took the form of a ghost

or an illusion. This contradicts the truth that Jesus had a physical body, evident in how he got tired in John

4:6, and thirsty in John 19:28. It also opposes the death and resurrection of Christ—the fundamental truth

of the gospel, since Jesus would need to be human in order to die and resurrect.

The doctrine became popular among Christians, and Bishops Ignatius of Antioch, Irenaeus, and Hippolatus

wrote arguments against them. Apostle John also wrote about being from God if one acknowledges that

Jesus came in flesh in 1 John 4:2-3:

"By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the

flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; and this is the spirit

of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world."

In AD 451, Docetism was condemned at the Council of Chalcedon.

Nestorianism

In the Nestorian doctrine, the human and divine persons of Jesus Christ are distinct. It denies the actuality

of the Incarnation, and endorsed that Jesus Christ was a man who was inspired by God, rather than a man

made by God.

Nestorianism derived its name from a disciple of the school of Antioch named Nestorius, and was

contributed to by John Cassian of Marseilles, who taught that Christ was only human who gained union

with divinity as a reward of His passion. Nestorius was first denounced by St. Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria.

The chief Nestorian theological authority, Theodore of Mopsuestia, was recognized as a guardian of faith

in A.D. 486, and a Nestorian church was established. Scholars of the doctrine also played a huge part in the
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development of the Arab culture. Its supporters eventually spread to Egypt and flourished in China from

the 7th to the 10th century.

Nestorianism was condemned as a heresy at the Council of Ephesus in 431 and the Council of Chalcedon

in 451, which led to the Nestorian Schism.

Tritheism

This heresy describes the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three separate beings rather than three persons of

one being. Tritheism contradicts the Doctrine of the Trinity, denoting that there are three gods as opposed

to only one true God as stated in Isaiah 44:6:

“Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel And his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: ‘I am the first and I

am the last, And there is no God besides Me."

Tritheism was considered by a Catholic monk of Compiègne in France, Roscelin, asserting that there could

be three independent gods. The modern day doctrine of Mormonism is similar to tritheism, which teaches

that there are various gods in the world and in the universe, and the godhead for earth is three separate gods

which are supposedly the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Gnosticism

Gnosticism is derived from the Greek word “gnosis”, meaning “knowledge.” It teaches that salvation is

gained through special knowledge which is dependent on one’s individual relationship to a higher Being.

This contradicts the truth in John 14:6 where Jesus declares that He is the way to salvation, as well as the

Latin phrase, “extra Ecclesiam nulla salus” meaning “outside the Church, there is no salvation,” declared

by St. Cyprian of Carthage.

Gnosticism was an attempt to move the human mind towards a higher truth. For two centuries, it posed as

a threat to Christianity because it highlighted the power of the human mind rather than the power of the
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grace of God and His divine revelation to man. Gnosticism was rebuked by Hegesippus and Irenaeus, and

proved that the doctrine did not belong to the deposit of faith; it was not aligned to the teachings of the

bishops of the Church.

Sources:

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (1998). Heresy. Retrieved from

https://www.britannica.com/topic/heresy

Williams, R. (1983). THE LOGIC OF ARIANISM. The Journal of Theological Studies, 34(1), new

series, 56-81. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23963208

Gascoigne, Bamber. (2001) History of Arianism. Retrieved from

http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ac61

Early Christian History. Heresies: Arianism. Retrieved from

http://www.earlychristianhistory.net/arius.html

Orthodox Wikipedia. (2012). Paul of Samosata. Retrieved from

https://orthodoxwiki.org/Paul_of_Samosata

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (1998). Paul of Samosata. Retrieved from

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Paul-of-Samosata

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Arius. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arius

Zondervan Academic (2018). What is Docetism? Retrieved from

https://zondervanacademic.com/blog/docetism

Matt Slick. Docetism. Retrieved from https://carm.org/docetism

Got Questions. What is Docetism? Retrieved from https://www.gotquestions.org/Docetism.html

Early Christian History. Heresies: Docetism. Retrieved from

http://www.earlychristianhistory.net/docet.html
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Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Nestorianism. Retrieved from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestorianism

Chapman, J. (1911). Nestorius and Nestorianism. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert

Appleton Company. Retrieved from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10755a.htm

Matt Slick. (2011). Tritheism. Retrieved from https://carm.org/tritheism

Matt Slick. Gnosticism. Retrieved from https://carm.org/gnosticism

Arendzen, J. (1909). Gnosticism. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

Retrieved October 11, 2019 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06592a.htm

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