Post on 26-Dec-2015
Session 4 – The Early Church Apologists
We will look at many of the church fathers who fought against heresies
Many things that we will look at are relevant to today and heresies that are still around
Keep in mind! During everything we will go over there was great persecution going on
Justin Martyr (100-165 A.D.)
Justin Martyr is the best known 2nd century apologist in the
early church
He was a Greek Philosopher who was trained in stoic philosophies and others
He was not raised a Christian, but converted to Christianity after he had his Greek education
Justin Martyr debated publically with Christians and Non-Christians on issues
of apologetics and the faith
His works include:
Discourse to the GreeksOn the Resurrection
On the Sole Government of GodHortatory Address to the Greeks
Dialogue with TryphoSecond Apology
First Apology
His first Apology was written to the emperor
His second Apology was written to the senate
He was writing due to persecution of the church, he argued that Christians
were good citizens
Two other works he wrote are called Against all Heresies and Against Marsion
Marsion was on the Gnostic side of things
He believed the God of the OT and the God of the NT (Jesus) are different Gods
He believed the OT God created matter (which is evil) and he believes Jesus is the good God
He was not a fan of the Old Testament
He did not believe in the Bodily resurrection due to his Gnostic teachings (we’ll discuss later)
He made his on Canon (including Luke and Paul)
Justin Martyr tried to find common ground with a lot of Greek thinking
He used his Greek education in his apologetic, and looked for areas where Greek thinking and
the Bible overlap
This was seen as bad by some church fathers, and even today we have debates on how we should do apologetics, and what resources
we can utilize
Tertullian (155–230 A.D.)
Tertullian argues that Christians are good citizens when persecution is going on
He was a Roman Lawyer, so he went on the offensive and had strong opinions often
He was not always a Christian, was born to a Roman Centurion and became a Christian at
some later time
He wrote on the problem of the lapsed
Clement of Alexandria (cir. 150-215)
Clement's first major work is titled “Exhortation to the Greeks” and is basically a call to the educated Greco-Roman society to hear the
gospel of Jesus.
His other significant apologetic is “Miscellanies,” a strange work that covers a multitude of topics
without any apparently clear outline.
What is clear in this work is that Clement is attacking the various Gnostic leaders who had
made an impact in second century Egypt, chiefly Basilides and Valentinus
“I call him truly learned who brings everything to bear on the truth, so that from geometry,
music, grammar, and philosophy itself, culling what is useful, he guards the faith against
assault.” - Clement of Alexandria
Irenaeus of Lyons (135-202 A.D.)
His primary work is Against Heresies
Full title: “Refutation and overthrow of knowledge, falsely so-called”
Eusebius uses a lot of material from Irenaeus when writings his Ecclesiastical history
Irenaeus argues against the ideas and philosophies of the Gnostics in most cases
“Error, indeed is never set forth in its naked deformity, lest, being thus
exposed, it should at once be detected. But it is craftily decked out in
an attractive dress, so as, by its outward form, to make it appear to the
inexperienced more true than truth itself.” Irenaeus of Lyons
One of my favorite quotes by Irenaeus
We learn from the author himself that he grew up in the faith and actually sat at the feet of Polycarp
as a young boy (A.H. III.3,4). Eusebius gives us more from a letter of Irenaeus which no
longer survives:
"For when I was a boy I saw you in lower Asia with Polycarp....I remember the events of that time
more clearly than those of recent years. For what boys learn, growing with their mind, becomes
joined with it; so that I am able to describe the very place in which the blessed Polycarp sat as he
discoursed, and his goings out and his comings in…
and the manner of his life, and his physical appearance, and his discourses to the people, and the accounts which he gave of his intercourse with John
and with the others who had seen the Lord. And as he remembered their words, and what he heard from
them concerning the Lord, and concerning his miracles and his teaching, having received them from
eyewitnesses of the 'Word of life,' Polycarp related all things in harmony with the Scriptures...I listened to
them attentively, noting them down, not on paper, but in my heart. And continually, through God's grace, I
recall them faithfully.” (E.H. V.20,5-7)
Understanding Gnosticism
Originally many skeptics said the church fathers were exaggerating the Gnostic beliefs
Until the Nag Hammadi discovery
The Nag Hammadi Library, a collection of
thirteen ancient codices containing over fifty
texts, was discovered in upper Egypt in 1945.
This discovery includes a large number of primary "Gnostic
Gospels" -- texts once thought to have been
entirely destroyed. Scriptures such as the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Philip, and the Gospel of Truth
were discovered.
These texts were written in the
second centuryThey have a very “New Age” feel
to them
Gnostic beliefs (which is a philosophy, not an organization) have some variation to them, but
all tend to agree a certain points
Gnosticism says that the material word is evil (matter is bad)
It offers secret knowledge needed to acquire salvation (which is different for them)
They believed the spirit is trapped inside the body
Origen of Alexandria (185—254 C.E.) Who was a big name in the early church addressed Gnosticism (as did almost everyone else)
Origen said: "kind of doctrines which are believed in plain terms through the apostolic teaching are the following:- First, that God is one, who created and set in order all things, and who, when nothing existed, caused the
universe to be. He is God from the first creation and foundation of the world, the God
of all righteous men,..
…of Adam, Abel, Seth, Enos, Enoch, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, of the twelve patriarchs, of
Moses and the prophets. This God, in these last days, according to the previous announcements made through his prophets, sent the Lord Jesus Christ, first for the purpose of calling Israel, and
secondly, after the unbelief of the people of Israel, of calling the Gentiles also. This just and good God,
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, himself gave the law, the prophets and the gospels, and he is God both of the apostles and also of the Old and
New Testaments.”
There were also proto Gnostic ideas in the first century which Paul may be addressing some
places in scripture
1 John 4:2: “By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has
come in the flesh is of God,”
There are many places in scripture where it sounds like they may be dealing with
developing Gnostic ideas
A smaller group the church had to deal with was called the Ebonites
Irenaeus addresses this group in Against Heresies
The Ebonites mean the poor, it started in Palestine and move to some other areas in Asia
They were Jewish Christians that believed Jesus was the Messiah, but not God
(more of a prophet)
They didn’t like the writings of Paul, they rejected his epistles
They emphasized the imminent return of Christ, and the literal millennium
kingdom coming to earth
They are avid followers of James and what he wrote
They were a smaller group that eventually faded away
Monarchianism was another heretical view
There were two strands of Monarchianism
The views they had have resurfaced
One view (called Modalistic Monarchianism) believes that God the father, son, and spirit
are the same person in different modes
The other view (Dynamic Monarchianism, also Adoptionism) holds to the ideas of Unitarianism
Modalistic view
Turtullian spent time speaking against this view specifically as well as others like Justin Martyr
The first person historically identified for introducing Modalism was Noetus
So disturbing was Noetus to the Christian community that Hippolytus devoted an entire work against him entitled, Against the Heresy
of One Noetus
What did Noetus say his view was?
“If therefore I acknowledge Christ to be God, He is the Father Himself, if He is
indeed God; and Christ suffered, being Himself God; and consequently the
Father suffered, for He was the Father Himself” (Against Noetus 1, in Roberts
and Donaldson, 1994: vol. 5:223; emphasis added)
“The Scriptures speak what is right; but Noetus is of a different mind from them ... Theodotus employed when he sought to prove that Christ
was a mere man…
Hippolytus of Rome, (born c. 170—died c. 235)
Hippolytus was a leader of the Roman church from about 199–217
In addressing the views of Noetus he wrote the following
But neither has the one party nor the other understood the matter rightly, as the Scriptures
themselves confute their senselessness, and attest the truth. See, brethren, what a rash and audacious dogma they have introduced, when they say without shame, the Father is Himself
Christ, Himself the Son, Himself was born, Himself suffered, Himself raised Himself. But it
is not so. The Scriptures speak what is right; but Noetus is of a different mind from them”
(Against Noetus 3, in Roberts and Donaldson, 1994: vol. 5:224).
In his First Apology, Justin Martyr also addressed this issue and said the following:
“For they who affirm that the Son is the Father, are proved neither to have become acquainted with the Father, nor to know that the Father of
the universe has a Son; who also, being the first-begotten Word of God, is even God.” (63, in
Richardson, 1970: 284-85):
This was not a minor issue to the early church like it is to most of us today
“Unity into a Trinity, placing in their order the three Persons—the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit three …” (Against Praxeas 2, in Roberts and Donaldson, 1994: vol. 3:598).
Turtullian was the first to use the word trinity, and it was in addressing this issue
It’s interesting the arguments used by modalists haven’t changed since
the early church
“They [modalists] are constantly throwing out against us that we are preachers of two gods and
three gods, while they take to themselves pre-eminently the credit of being worshippers of the
One God” (Against Praxeas 3, in Roberts and Donaldson, 1994: vol. 3:599)
“In the case of this heresy,” Tertullian writes, “which supposes itself to possess the pure truth, in thinking that one cannot believe in One Only God in any other way than by saying that the Father,
the Son and the Holy Ghost are the very selfsame Person” (Against Praxeas 2, in Roberts and
Donaldson, 1994: vol. 3:598).
Adoptionism
It was a condemned heresy in the early church
In his most important work, The Refutation of All Heresies, Hippolytus speaks of the beginnings of
dynamic Monarchianism and its distinctive theology (VII:23, in Roberts and Donaldson, 1994:
vol. 5:114-15):
He writes the following addressing it:
“But there was a certain Theodotus, a native of Byzantium, who introduced a novel heresy ... he alleges that (our Lord) appeared in some such
manner as I shall now describe. (According to this, Theodotus maintains) that Jesus was a (mere)
man, born of a virgin, according to the counsel of the Father, and that after he had lived
promiscuously with all men, and had become pre-eminently religious, he subsequently at his
baptism in Jordan received Christ, who came from above and descended (upon him) in the form of a
dove...
And this was the reason (according to Theodotus) why (miraculous) powers did not
operate within him prior to the manifestation in him of that Spirit which descended, (and) which proclaims him to be the Christ. But (among the followers of Theodotus) some are disposed (to
think) that never was this man made God, (even) at the descent of the Spirit; whereas
others (maintain that he was made God) after the resurrection from the dead.
And this was the reason (according to Theodotus) why (miraculous) powers did not operate within
him prior to the manifestation in him of that Spirit which descended, (and) which proclaims him to be the Christ. But (among the followers of Theodotus)
some are disposed (to think) that never was this man made God, (even) at the descent of the Spirit; whereas others (maintain that he was made God)
after the resurrection from the dead.
This was the more popular view of the two, and still has it’s strands in “Christianity” today