Religion Question 2: (3 pages needed in 7 hours)

HERESY IN THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY 12

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Running Head: HERESY IN THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY 1

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The history of Christianity dates back to 2000 years ago in the famous region of Judea. Christianity as a region and faith is grounded in the teachings and personality of Jesus of Nazareth, (Myers, 2000). The faith, beliefs and practices of Christianity are all based on the theological teaching of Jesus as the foundation of the denomination. All Christians know this as the base of their Christianity. However, most of them have not been able to delve deep into their origin of this base and even have less information concerning it.

A major characteristic of this period was grouping of people depending on what they believed. There existed different groups such as the Pharisees, the Sicarii, the Zealots and a group that collaborated with the Rome, (Noll, 2000). All these groups had different views about their faith and they all competed against each other to ensure that each group attracted many followers and remained at the top of all the others.

The Pharisees believed in Torah and could do anything for the Jewish people to survive. The Sicarri was a group characterized by robbery and could harass anyone for their benefits. The zealots were a strong willed group that felt for the Jewish and wanted to drive away the Rome due to the oppression they posed on the Jews, (Plantiaga, 2001). They believed that they could chase away the Rome despite their strength. The last group being led by a scholar Philo believed that there was a connection between the Romans and the Jewish. Philo wrote about allegory which many people today as Christians have acquired different ideas. However, into today’s world allegory has posted a great danger among the Christians since it throws away some content which is very essential. “Don’t wear a box on your head or arm” (Philo). This throws away the importance of the well Christian understanding of their doctrines, (Myer, 2000). Despite this Philo convinced many people in such a way that when the Romans came to introduce about Christianity they found a willing audience. However, for Christianity to root into the region it required the support of many group’s support. With time all these groups revolved until they came to believe of a messiah who was Jesus Christ. This was influenced by the fact these groups worked against each other and due to the failures that they met on their way it resulted into them having to team up. Despite them even coming together there existed some groups which stuck to their beliefs and now were against Jesus such as the Sadducees and the Pharisees. The Romans also did not like the Christians at all and this has been the case up to date. This is evident in the Jews Christian relationship that exists. Many Christians today believe in Jesus Christ and his teachings and miracles form the basis of their faith.

Christians just as a group like any other has main themes. These themes of Christianity ensure that anyone who calls himself or herself a Christian is entitled to know and follow them to the latter. Actually they form a foundation in any Christian life. These themes are mainly three namely; basic belief, the problem of evil and proofs for existence of God. Under basic belief there is a Christian conception about God where He is known as the Most High, all knowing and no human being can be able to attain His powers due to His supernatural nature. There also exists how Christians and Greeks have a perception about human nature and how one should live a life that is satisfying to God. “We become safe from things that can happen to us in material world by withdrawing from any commitments we might have towards particular material things” (Plato and Aristotle).

The Greeks believe that that is the case whereas for the Christians everyone is responsible for his or her own actions and should strive hard to ensure that he or she escapes suffering, pain or any form a thing that can go against Christianity, (Noll, 2000). A subjective relationship also should exist for any Christian. This subjective is in wo ways of loving God and loving our neighbor.” Love God and love your neighbor as u love yourself. (Jesus; mark12:31). Every Christian should also have a distinction between the internal and external self. They are urged to concentrate on their internal self-more than the external self. This is because what one perceives on the inside and thinks is portrayed by actions. A Christian should therefore concentrate more on the inside than the outside part this is because what matters more to God is the inner perception. A Christian should also be characterized by free will. That is any Christian should not do anything just because of a reason but otherwise should do it by will. The will to be committed and serve God as the most High is seen through the commitments one does in His service. This contradicts Plato’s believe that reason should be the key factor on one’s commitments.

Christians are expected also to have virtues which well portray their faith. These virtues help them to act as role models to the society attracting more people to Christianity. These virtues also act as a preventive pillar for Christians from sin, which is also a basic belief. In the theme of the problem of evil ,it is well shows that God is characterized by goodness and powerful that e knows everything that happens. Through this then human beings are said to be moral evil and the world to be just naturally evil. This is because God created everything as good and knows everything that happens yet evil thing things happen. This sends a clear sign of how just people and the world is evil. However, with this knowledge the Christians are expected to sun away from these evils because they have an obligation n towards pure living. also believe in the existence of God. Some even have come up with proofs. In the proof of motion by Thomas says that noting can move without having a propeller and since the world contains things that move then since no one is able to move them, then God exists and He makes that possible.

He also explains that nothing can exist without having an efficient cause and this cause can only be caused by God therefore He exists. He goes ahead to explain more that God exists because nothing good can be just formed from anywhere to achieve a best result. He says that at times a failure can occur and to correct that failure to make sure that it achieves its level best can only be done through a supernatural being’s intelligence of which is god. Therefore, it is quite evidence that God exists. For most Christians they even don’t form their basis about the existence of God on these proofs. They have a strong belief that God exists and is the only one who controls their daily lives. He gives them life and is always concerned of their wellbeing despite their disloyalty at times. They well know that anytime anywhere He is there for them.

These three themes well elaborated above form a very strong foundation for Christianity and every Christian tries his or her level best to ensure that he or she goes according to their say to ensure that the Christian doctrine stands firm and strong. It is believed that there exist other three virtues which form the basis of any Christian life. These are faith, love and hope. Love as said earlier is the basis of any Christian life as Jesus said. He emphasized that to any Christian, love is the key factor to productful evangelism. Love portrayed by a Christian has its wonderful gifts as spelt out in the Bible(Isaiah58:6-12). With love any person can be able to do anything to anyone at no cost or refund and since this is what real living as a Christian entails, every Christian is obligated to portray and act always in love.

The goal of any Christian is to please God and without faith one cannot please God. This is because whoever goes to Him must be able to believe whom He is and that He and do anything that person demands or requires from Him, (Plantiaga, 2001). With faith a Christian is entitled to know that despite any challenge or difficult upcoming situation the virtue; faith can overturn that situation. For hope as a vital virtue in Christianity hope is having the believe and assurance that things which are unknown and unclear will happen. (Romans 8:24-25).

For any Christian hope is that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the old testament promises and that also one day one time He will come back to take them to a land which is characterized by no suffering but only happiness throughout. Hope in Christianity makes a christian to keep the doctrine burning.

A heresy is a belief that contradicts from the real truth or official belief. It has been a frequent issue of discussion in the Christian community. When Christian leaders decide that a belief is heretical, they usually take active efforts to eradicate the belief and remove the believers of those heresies through ways such as excommunication or worse methods. It is believed that one man’s orthodoxy is another man’s heresy. Orthodoxy was known as the ‘revealed truth’. Heresy was both feared and hated. Heresy was in disagreement with almost all Christian doctrines. A person who was in disagreement with the Christian doctrines was called heretic.

Heresy developed earlier from the 2nd century such as Manichaeism and Arianism but became rampant in the High Middle Ages, between 11th and 13th centuries. There was constant rivalry between the Catholics and the heresic people. The Catholics made distinctions between material and formal heresy. Formal heresy is adherence to error in matters of faith while material heresy was holding doctrines through no faults of one’s own. Protestants perspective is that belief can often not be unanimously considered heretical. The Eastern Orthodox Church declares a heresy only at the ecumenical council.

In the 11th century there was more urban cities which did not hold the same religion as the rural areas. Christian popularity spread in so many areas such as Serbia, Russia Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Scandinavia. The high growth of the Christianity religion led to a growing dislike of the churches power in secular matters, as well as the wealth it created. This is where some heretical belief begun to come up such as the Cathars.

The Cathars believed in dualism, this meaning that they were dualistic and believed in both good and evil. The Cathars were popular in the 12th and 13th century in some parts of France and Italy. Cathars associated good things with the intangible things and they believed that good things were spiritual. They associated evil with things that were tangible and worldly. Cathars did not accept the physical birth and death of Jesus Christ. They also did not acknowledge the sacraments that the Christians believed in as the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

In the 1950s Christological heresies came up these include; Adoptionism this says that Jesus was human being who was adopted by God at his conception, at which point he developed a divine nature. Adoptionism has two main forms one is modalism which regards ‘father’ and “son’ as two historical roles of a single divine person. Adoptionism denies the pre-existence of Christ. Under adoptionism Jesus is currently divine and has been so since his adoption, although he is not equal to the father, “Father is greater than I’ this kind is known as subordination. Christians disagreed on adoptionism basically on the nature of Christ while developing the trinity, they made an attempt to explain Jesus of Nazareth both as man and God and God the Father while claiming to be uncompromisingly monotheistic. Which differs from what was affirmed by the ecumerical councils.

The adoption concept is seen in the book of mark. Mark so Jesus as the Son of God references in1:1 “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God”, Mark 5:7 “What do you want with me Jesus Son of the Most High God?” and 15:39 “Surely this man was the Son of God!”. the gospel of John portrays him as the pre-existing “in the beginning”.

The other is Apollinarism, this is the belief that Jesus had the body of a human and lower soul but a divine mind .it further taught that the souls of men were propagated by other souls. The theory states that human beings consist of three parts the body, soul and the spirit. The body is the visible part of man, the soul is invisible but mortal which disappears after death and the spirit is the invisible and immortal part which includes the will and the spiritual and intellectual capacities

This is found in the new testament in 1 Cor.15:44 where St Paul contrast the soulish and the spiritual body. John 8:58 “Before Abraham was, I am” this also shows that Jesus possesses a complete human nature. Apollinarius said that He had no human spirit and maintained that human spirit was generally evil and led to bad desires and therefore the Son of God who was naturally good could not have a human spirit since He was perfect in all ways. He said if our lord was had a spirit this would have been two persons associated together in the same body. The orthodox reply to this argument was that Jesus must have had a human body in order to redeem the human spirit.

Arianism was another heresy; it is named after Arius (c 250-c. 336). He was a priest in Alexandria. Jesus Christ was thought of as a special creation by God for man’s salvation. Goths adhered to Arianism and made it popular in all areas they occupied. This include; Spain, Africa and Italy. Arianism has version s including Socianism- this heresy says that Jesus as an extra ordinary human. It still lives on in two forms, the Unitarians and the Jehovah’s Witnesses. They believe in Jesus only and that there is no Christ.

Another heresy was the Gnosticism which is a religious movement consisting of various belief systems that says that humans are divine souls trapped in material world created by an imperfect god. It was the most dangerous heresy which threatened the early church. It was influenced by philosophers such as Plato. Gnosticism espouses a dualism regarding spirit and matter. They say that matter is evil and spirit is good. Gnostics believe that anything bad thing done I the body including the worst sin has no meaning because real life exist in the spirit and not in the body.

Gnostics claim to have a higher knowledge known only to the certain few. Knowledge is acquired from a mystical higher plane of existence and not from God or the Bible. They see themselves as privileged and know it all people. Gnoistism teach that salvation is acquired through divine knowledge to avoid falling into darkness. They teach and tell people to follow Jesus teachings even though they contradict most of His teaching. John 3:16 says that salvation through believing in Jesus Christ is free and is available for everyone. Whereas the Gnostics say that salvation and knowledge is only for the chosen and certain few people.

Manichaeism is a heresy that states that good and evil are important.it blends Christianity with Gnosticism, Mithraism and even Buddhism. It also offered salvation through knowledge. It taught that life in this world is painful and radically evil. Manichaeism believe that knowledge enables a person to know that even though there are trials in one’s physical life and one present condition, he still does not cease to remain united with the translucent world. Therefore, like gnoisticism, knowledge is the only way to salvation.

Manichaeism explains destiny of humanity and the nature of humanity in a complex mythology. It states that the soul is fallen and entangled with evil and then liberated by the spirit.at death the soul of the person who involved in flesh-fornication procreation, possession eating of meat and drinking of wine and other worldly activities is condemned to rebirth in other bodies. While the soul of a righteous person goes to paradise.

Donatism, was named after its leader Donatus.it included groups of people from north Africa, that emphasized Ascetism. They valued martyrdom and viewed falling short of faith inexcusable. The heresy was in that sacraments should only be given by a pure priest and only the pure and clean in heart and morals should be allowed in church. Church was to be a place of saints and not sinners. Regarded those who valued martyrdom were saints.

Montanism, the movement was begun by Montanus. He claimed to have received direct revelation from the Holy Spirit. Montanism beliefs considered of the Trinity which consisted of one person only as opposed to the three in one that was generally acknowledged by Christians. The Christian church prevailed against Montanism within some few generations.

Heresy as seen above entails really many details for which for a christian to really make a christian foundation he or she should be able to distinguish the different heresies that exist, the impact they make on a christian life and at last make a decision on where to stand. Therefore, christian leaders have a really great obligation towards their fellow Christians. This is to make sure that they well understand about heresies.

Heresy in christianity carries along with it some disadvantages. These may include; the christian faith being open and vague to interpretation, it poses a danger to christianity in the future, it poses many questions to the Christians about Jesus Christ who is their hope and believe and it also affected the willingness of Christians towards their service to God since in some way it installed some sort of doubt.

All these demerits bring in a type of confusion among Christians but the goal of every christian should be able to cope up with the challenges the different types of heresies say and ensure he or she stays rooted to the teachings which are of help and building to the christian life. This at last will yield greater fruits and rewards in the day to day living of a christian and will lead to the expansion of the christian doctrine in the world at large.

Christianity as seen above is a wide topic which entails a lot of things of which every Christian should have the efforts to analyze and see them. This is because on analyzing this topic a christian is enlightened and knows more of how to make this doctrine grow and also how to ensure he or she stays enrooted to it.

The fact that many Christians don’t know about the rise of christianity, the main themes of christianity and the particular heresis of christianity has made them fail many times to accomplish their goals as Christians,(Myers, 2000). Therefore, it is up to every christian to make effort to dig deep into what christianity entails and after doing so then they will be able to live according to what is expected of them.

As it goes knowledge is power and power in it has greater rewards. Every person should make an effort to gain this knowledge about christianity and spread the gospel to all members of the society. This will bring along with it positive results which will lead to the development of the society at large and especially, spiritually. With any society being led by God then success is always their character. Christianity therefore stands to be a great pillar and foundation in any human beings life.

References

Myers, D.G.(2000). The American Paradox: Spiritual Hunger in an age of plenty. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Plantiaga, A. (2001). Warranted christian belief. New York: Oxford University Press.

Noll, M.(2000). Turning Point: Decisive moments in the history of Christianity. Brief overview of Christianity from its origins to the present. Baker Academic Publishers