68: Why So Many Churches?: Truth Comes Under Attack – Part 2

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Welcome to the Ready for Eternity podcast, a podcast and blog dedicated to inquisitive

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Bible students exploring Biblical truths that might not be fully explored in typical sermons or Bible studies.

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My name is Eddie Lawrence. Heresy struck early in church history, and the church fought to defend truth, and those battles still shape us today.

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This is part two of Why Are There So Many Churches? The church's response to heresy shaped

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Christianity for centuries to come. False teaching didn't wait for the church to mature.

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Deception appeared almost immediately after Pentecost. The apostles spent much of their time correcting errors and defending truth.

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This early battle against heresy explains much about how our denominations formed.

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The church's defensive strategies, some brilliant and others problematic, echo through history down to the present.

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Understanding this struggle helps us appreciate both our theological heritage and our current divisions.

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Three major heresies threatened the early church's foundation. One was

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Gnosticism. Gnosticism was a broad and influential movement that taught that salvation came through secret knowledge revealed only to a spiritual elite.

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Gnostics believed the physical world was evil or inferior, and that only the spirit was truly good.

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Gnostics characterized humanity into spiritual types. Only certain individuals possessed the inherent capacity to receive knowledge and achieve salvation.

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This introduced spiritual elitism, suggesting that only some possessed the capacity for salvation while others were inherently excluded.

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Gnosticism threatened the early church by distorting the gospel, devaluing

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Jesus' humanity, and dividing humanity into the spiritual elites and ordinary people.

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A second heresy was Marcionism. Marcion of Senope rejected the

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Old Testament entirely and taught that the God of Israel was a different, lower

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God than the loving Father revealed by Jesus. He also edited the

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New Testament to exclude anything that sounded too Jewish, keeping only parts of Luke and some of Paul's letters.

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His views forced the church to clarify the continuity between the Old and New Testaments and to begin defining an authoritative list of Christian scriptures.

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Marcionism threatened the church by attacking the unity of the Bible, undermining

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Jesus' Jewish roots, and promoting a distorted gospel. A third major heresy in the early church was

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Montanism. Montanists and his followers believed that the Holy Spirit was delivering new, final revelations through them, often in ecstatic and highly emotional prophecies.

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Montanists believed the Holy Spirit was giving them fresh truth that superseded earlier scriptural revelation.

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They called for radical purity, strict fasting, and even welcoming martyrdom.

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While Montanists affirmed some true doctrines, the church eventually rejected them for placing their prophecies on par with scripture and rejecting the authority of bishops.

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Montanism threatened the church by creating confusion over spiritual authority, encouraging division, and challenging the sufficiency of scripture.

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Each heresy attracted followers, and each threatened to destroy

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Orthodox Christianity. Several factors made the early church vulnerable to deception.

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For one, the New Testament canon was still being formed. Churches had not yet reached universal consensus on which

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New Testament documents God had inspired. Churches possessed different collections of texts, and uncertainty made it easier for false teachers to promote their own writings.

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Another vulnerability was charismatic personalities who led many different movements.

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Persuasive speakers attracted crowds regardless of their message's truth. People followed dynamic leaders rather than testing their teaching.

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Also, cultural philosophy influenced church thinking.

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The Greco -Roman world emphasized dualism, the separation of spirit and matter.

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Many Greeks pursued secret knowledge and mystical experiences. Therefore, culture conditioned some believers to find some of these unbiblical ideas attractive.

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Early church leaders developed a strategy to combat heresy. They established three standards that would preserve apostolic truth.

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First, churches began compiling lists of authoritative writings. This process was informal, but gained momentum as heresies spread.

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Leaders asked crucial questions. Which books came from the apostles or their close associates?

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Which texts had been widely accepted by the churches? Which writings aligned with known apostolic teaching?

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This careful process eventually produced our New Testament, but it took centuries to complete, and it wasn't without controversy.

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Creeds were another response of the church to heresy. Short, memorable statements of faith emerged to counter false teaching.

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These creeds clearly affirmed essential church doctrines. The most famous, the

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Apostles' Creed, addressed Gnostic errors directly. It declared that Jesus was born of the

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Virgin Mary, affirming his humanity, and suffered under Pontius Pilate, confirming his physical death.

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Creed served as teaching tools and loyalty test. Anyone who could not affirm these basic truths expressed in creeds was immediately suspect.

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And the third response to heresy was apostolic succession. Church leaders argued that true doctrine came through the apostles and their successors.

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They claimed an unbroken chain of authority from Jesus through the apostles to current bishops.

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This concept directly challenged Gnostic claims about secret knowledge. If the apostles had received hidden truths, their successors would know about them.

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Since bishops denied any secret teaching, then they claimed that none existed.

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Eventually there was the rise of what was referred to as Catholic Christianity.

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The word Catholic means universal, or according to the whole. Early church leaders used it to mark off true believers from heretical groups.

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At this early date, Catholic was not the name of a denomination. It was a claim to continuity with the apostles and a marker of orthodox teaching.

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That is, teaching according to the whole, the whole church. Calling themselves

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Catholic was a bold declaration. It said, we are the true church and others are pretenders.

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This strategy worked, the Catholic church became the dominant form of Christianity, but it also planted seeds of future problems.

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For example, what happened when different regions developed different practices? What occurred when bishops disagreed with each other?

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Who decided which bishop represented true Catholic teaching?

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These questions would eventually split the church into competing branches. Key leaders emerged during this crucial period who became known as the church fathers.

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They were early Christian leaders and writers, mainly bishops, theologians, and martyrs, who shaped the doctrine, structure, and defense of the church in its first few centuries.

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Men like Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, and Polycarp of Smyrna carried apostolic teaching to the next generation.

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These apostolic fathers wrote letters that still influence Christianity today.

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They defended orthodox doctrine and established church structure. Their writings became very influential.

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But they also began centralizing authority in ways the apostles never intended.

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Simple biblical leadership gave way to complex hierarchies. This trend towards centralization reveals an unavoidable tension.

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The very structures intended to preserve apostolic truth also transformed how the church operated.

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Fighting heresy resulted in movements which would lead to institutionalization.

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The early church's beautiful simplicity eventually gave way to complex structures that evolved to combat deception.

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For better or worse, leaders created systems and institutions intended to preserve and protect apostolic teaching.

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Their motive wasn't wrong. Paul told Timothy to guard what has been entrusted to you in 1

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Timothy chapter 6, verse 20. The church needed ways to identify and reject false teaching.

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But like many well -meaning human solutions, each one created new problems.

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For example, creating creeds risked oversimplifying complex truths.

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Short statements couldn't capture every nuance of biblical teaching. Some important doctrines got less attention than others.

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Another problem was that emphasizing apostolic succession concentrated power in human hands.

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Bishops gained enormous influence over church life. The system worked when bishops were faithful, but failed when they weren't.

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Not every solution led to new problems. One of the major responses to heresy, the formation of the

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New Testament canon, stands out as a success. It wasn't imposed by councils, but recognized through widespread church consensus.

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The church affirmed writings already trusted for their apostolic origin and consistent use, even if regional differences lingered for a time.

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So what are the lessons for today? The early church's battle against heresy teaches us several important lessons.

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First, false teaching appears early and often. Every generation faces deception and we can't assume our time is different or that we're immune to error.

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Number two, scripture must remain our final authority. The church's response to heresy was not entirely successful because it didn't always base conclusions exclusively on biblical truth.

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When we drift from scripture, we drift from safety. Third, sound doctrine requires careful thinking.

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Scripture praises the Bereans for examining scripture daily in Acts chapter 17, verse 11.

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We must test every teaching against God's word. Fourth, structure serves truth, not the reverse.

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The church develops structures and institutions to preserve apostolic teaching.

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When these become more important than truth, we've lost our way. And finally, unity around truth matters more than unity for its own sake.

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The early church separated from heretics to preserve the gospel. Sometimes, division is necessary to maintain faithfulness.

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Today's church faces similar challenges with false teachers promoting secret knowledge, cultural philosophy influencing scripture interpretation, and charismatic personalities attracting followers regardless of truth.

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We must base our response on clear biblical standards and reliable, biblically qualified leadership.

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We must learn from history and avoid the pitfalls that divided the church.

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Most importantly, we must remember that defending truth serves a higher purpose. Jesus prayed for unity among believers so that the world may believe.

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The early church fought heresy to preserve the life -saving gospel message. And that same urgency should drive us today.

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In a world full of competing voices, people need to hear the clear, unchanging truth of the gospel.

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A truth worth fighting for and preserving for future generations. Thanks for listening to the podcast.

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We hope this episode has deepened your understanding of scripture. If you found this content valuable, please share it with your friends.

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For more biblical studies, visit our website at readyforeternity .com. That's the word ready, the number four, and the word eternity.

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Readyforeternity .com. Be sure and leave a comment on the Ready for Eternity Facebook page or reach out on Twitter.

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That's all for now. Keep studying your Bible, growing closer to God, and getting ready for eternity.