Heresy

Either everybody is a heretic or nobody is a heretic in Christianity. To read the first few hundred years of Christian apologists, clerics, historians and Bishops, is to underscore this statement. All the Reformers were heretics in their day, and even amongst their ideological descendants today they would be heretics since they didn’t endorse all the books now reserved for the New Testament. It is ignorance that breeds true heresy, but it is greater ignorance still that causes one to lightly accuse another of heresy.

   The truth is that Christianity was so Hellenized that is became a religion anchored by theories, counter theories, rationalizing, philosophizing, and all things Gnostic— “knowledge.” Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, was the first to write a book against heresies, entitled appropriately Against Heresies. Yet to read Irenaeus today, it seems that he was a heretic with an incredibly bizarre and high regard for his own personal memory. The great Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, wrote against heresies, and then found himself being excommunicated at Antioch. He was pardoned only at Nicea because his slightly Arian points of view were endorsed by Constantine the Great, on whose right hand he sat.

   There are loads of “heresies” in Christianity, both ancient and modern. All define somebody who has a different theory or understanding of some things. Almost always this is in regards to Jesus. To be explicit: how is he God and yet the son of God, a distinct separate entity?  Arianism was the last major “heresy” to propose an explanation. Arius, presbyter of Alexandria, said that “Jesus is more than man but less than God, who existed before the Son.”  Eusebius had certain sympathies for Arius, and did not endorse his removal from ordination. For this, Eusebius and 2 others were provisionally excommunicated by the Patriarchate of Antioch, their case being sent to the council of Nicea in 325 AD.  Eusebius was a moderate in all things, proving that even a moderate can get excommunicated as well. He thought that Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, was over-reacting to Arianism. Alexander and his Alexandrians declared that: “Jesus is God, of the same essence and co-eternal with the Father.”

   It was Alexander’s and his party’s influence at the Council of Nicea that had the important addenda placed in the Nicene Creed calling Jesus homoousios— “of one substance (essence)” with the Father. The Nicene Creed is still the basic Creed of all Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant. Eusebius voted for it, though he felt that the Alexandrians were coming dangerously close to Sabellianism— another heresy, one that said that Jesus was God come in the flesh. Sabellianism claimed unity over trinity, and for this was declared a heresy. They claimed that Jesus was God, acting in a saving capacity. Of course, from a Jewish point of view Sabellianism in this assertion seems like the only heresy that isn’t heresy. They may have tried to understand it according to their concepts of gods being portrayed differently according to a particular attribute they had, but they understood the unity of God. What does the Scripture say? Isaiah:

   Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled. Who is among them that can declare this, and shew us former things? Let them produce their witnesses, that they may be vindicated. Let them proclaim so the people will say, “It is true.”

   Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am the one: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour. I have declared, and I have saved, and I have made it known. There was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God. From this day forth, I am the one; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I work, and who can undo it?

   Let now everybody come forth and bear witness: that God is the LORD. Since there is no saviour but he, guess who Christ is? From this day forth, I am the one; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I work, and who can undo it?

   Let Israel believe and declare it, so that the Gentiles can finally figure out at last just what Emmanuel means.

     Out of all the heresies, it seems only fitting that truth itself was declared a heresy.

     As Jewry is on the verge of becoming both true Christianity and true Judaism again, now that God opens their hearts and minds, and brings forth the witnesses to declare that the former things have come to pass, let not the Jews fall snare to the gross amount of Gnostic rambling of  Hellenized Christianity. The LORD is God. He is ONE. He came to us, just as he said he would. As his spirit could dwell in a building of stone and gold, so could he fashion himself a body from the womb and walk out amongst us in something far better than a temple: a body from which he would speak and teach, and then show the ultimate sacrifice. Forget the Greek denigration of the body. It is a wonderful creation, and God did not do something vulgar by coming in the flesh.

“O LORD my God, thou hast multiplied thy wonderful works, and in thy thoughts there is none who shall be likened unto thee: I declare and spoke: they exceeded number. Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body thou hast prepared me. Whole burnt offerings and sacrifice for sin thou didst not require. Then said I, Behold, I come: in the volume of the book it is written concerning me— I desire to do thy will, O my God, and thy law in the midst of mine heart. I have preached righteousness in the great congregation; lo! I will not refrain my lips; O LORD, thou knowest my righteouesness. I have not hid thy truth within my heart, and I have declared thy salvation; I have not hid thy mercy and thy truth from the great congregation.” (Psalm 40)

   Indeed, indeed, who can comprehend? “O LORD my God, thou hast multiplied thy wonderful works, and in thy thoughts there is none who shall be likened unto thee: I declare and spoke: they exceeded number.” True, who can comprehend it? They introduce some of the most astounding lines in the Scriptures: “A body thou hast prepared me. Behold, I come: in the volume of the book it is written concerning me.” The very fact this is incomprehensible reveals the divine handiwork; that it is from the mind of he who cannot be comprehended— how that Holy Place can  be the house of God and at the same time his same spirit walks amongst us and teaches us. How he can call his own body that he fashioned “Son” while at the same time he is the LORD, the Father of us all, the creator of all things! Yet he is the LORD, and there is no other God but he. It is unfathomable. (See Messianic Prophecies) The body is a fascinating design, in which we are meant to dwell for eternity. Though we are a soul and a body, God did not intend them to dwell separately. (See Resurrection)

   Isn’t it kind of wonderful when you think about it? Our God really is so great, so awesome that he can never be endured as he is; never seen or beheld for his great glory. Yet we should be made in his image in our souls, and that the body he fashioned for our tabernacles should be so marvelous that he would take on one himself that he could communicate with us directly. It really is phenomenal. He does us honour while at the same time praising his handiwork. He gives us true reason to boast: because he is so great and has chosen us; and because he has made us so wonderful it was not demeaning for him to fashion for himself a tabernacle like he gave us. This tabernacle he named Saviour. The true incarnation of God’s desires for his creation.

   In Psalm 40 the path to understanding was laid out: “in the volume of the book it is written concerning me.”

Surely, the LORD is God, and he has visited his people, for the salvation of all mankind. Emmanuel has come. God with us. Isaiah 9  For unto a child is born, unto us a son is given. The government will be upon his shoulders. He shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the expansion of his government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David, to establish it and to sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever more. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will do this.

Zechariah 2:

Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the LORD. And many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto thee. And the LORD shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again. Be silent, O all flesh, before the LORD: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation.

Consider the pronouns used above. The LORD speaks of himself. You can have all your Gnostic Greek ramblings if you like, but I prefer the “volume of the book.” There is a time when one can truly brag of Jewish heritage, when one realizes that there is no God but the LORD, and that he did all these things he swore to do in order to reveal himself to us and all nations. He is raised up from his holy habitation, and he dwelt amongst us.
 

The Septuagint contains an interesting variation:

LXX

Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Sion: for, behold, I come, and will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the LORD. And many nations shall flee for refuge to the LORD in that day, and they shall be for a people to him, and they shall dwell in the midst of thee: and thou shalt know that the LORD Almighty hath sent me to thee. And the LORD shall inherit Juda his portion in the holy land and he will yet choose Jerusalem. Let all flesh fear before the LORD: for he hath risen up from his holy clouds.

True of then and today. So many nations followed after the LORD because of his coming. Consider how civilization has changed because of this, and know that the LORD has sent him. Flee again unto the LORD for refuge, and take up again the Scriptures, for surely he will choose Jerusalem again, and his word will be a refuge for all time.