Saturday, 11 June 2022

Earliest Christianity 6 - Heresies and Lies (CW97)

   World War 3 is at Hand

Persecution of Christians
    Jesus' disciples were persecuted initially by the Jewish leadership and then by the Romans until Emperor Constantine, the first Christian Roman Emperor.
    During the Apostolic age, the church flourished with sound doctrine taught by Jesus's disciples. They protected His truth by rejecting heresies of those new rich Pharisees converts.
Acts 15:5  But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying, "It is necessary to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses."

Heresies in Churches
Acts 20:29-30  For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.    
   After the Apostolic Age, Satanic false Apostles (untransformed rich and powerful Pharisees and Scribes) in the leadership of churches defiled His church.
   By the 2nd and 3rd Century A.D, the church faced many heresies including; Docetism, Adoptionism, Arianism and Gnosticism.

1. Docetism - one of the earliest Christian sectarian doctrines, affirming that Christ did not have a real or natural body during his life on earth but only an apparent or phantom one.

2. Adoptionism - an early Christian non-trinitarian theological doctrine, which holds that Jesus was adopted as the Son of God at his baptism, his resurrection, or his ascension.

3. Arianism - an early branch of Christianity that held that Jesus Christ was not one with God the Father, but instead just created by God and a holy man.

4. Gnosticism - Gnostic doctrine taught that the world was created and ruled by a lesser divinity, the 'Demiurge', and that Christ was an emissary of the remote supreme divine being, esoteric knowledge (gnosis) of whom enabled the redemption of the human spirit.

Note - all the above heresies denied the divinity of Jesus and the Triune Godhead, resulting in Jesus' words being treated as inferior to the Law of Moses.

John 1:17  For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
   Misled Christians tried to be Moses disciples. Without the truth of Jesus they are blind and once again under the bondages and curses of the Law. Worst of all they have fallen from the grace of Jesus and have lost their salvation.
   They also looked to Jewish historians (e.g Josephus), who had the spirit of the antichrist, for a better understanding of early Christianity instead of Scriptures.

Mat 5:11-12  "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
    As Jesus' apostles and disciples were recording the teachings of Jesus, these false Apostles and historians produced false and heretic records, books and epistles to discredit (say all kinds of evil against you falsely) our Lord Jesus, His faithful Apostles and later Emperor Constantine.
    By the fourth Century A.D, there were about 50 false Gospels (Gospels of Thomas, Marcion, Mary Magdalene, Barnabas, etc.)  and hundreds of false Epistles.

Canonised Books
   After Emperor Constantine was miraculously saved, he legalized Christianity in 313 A.D. He invited 1,800 persecuted bishops to form the Council of bishops. The council produced the Apostle Creed in 325 A.D and canonised 27 books of the New Testament to nullify those demonic books and destructive heresies.
   After his death in 337AD, Emperor Theodosius 1 in 380 A.D, made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. Misled Christians believe the lies of the Jewish and non-Christian historians but are blind to the fruit and light (righteous works) of Emperor Constantine - God's faithful servant.
   Thank God that Emperor Constantine is highly rewarded for the persecutions and falsehoods from the historians and misled Christians.