Welcome!



When discussing theology, I've come to realize that not only is personal study of doctrine a necessary component to faith, but it is something that shouldn't be kept to oneself. I want to share my journey, both past and ongoing, into the realm of theology. Through this, I hope that you will gain insight into the Christian faith as a whole. Before reading anything else, I suggest you read the introduction and definitions (found in the pages tabs above) so you may better understand where I am coming from in everything I write. Because many of my posts are on heresies, there is also a page above with a family tree of heresies and links to all the posts I have so far on the topic.

21 October, 2013

Heresy of the Week: Marcionism

Part two of last week's heresy of the week (Cerdonianism) is Marcionism.
Marcionism was an early church heresy, beginning in the 2nd century, with a dualistic belief system similar to Gnosticism (some have categorized it as Gnostic, others have not), influenced by Cerdonianism. Marcion taught that the Hebrew God was evil and less than the God of the New Testament. He taught that Jesus was the Savior sent by the all-forgiving God and Paul was his chief apostle. His canon consisted of edited portions of the Gospel of Luke and 10 of Paul’s epistles. All other books were rejected. The primary premise of Marcionism is that the teachings of Jesus are incompatible with the actions of the Old Testament God. They opposed any connection between Jesus and the Jewish religion. The God of the Old Testament (creator God—teaching that the material world is defective because it was created by Him) is considered to be wrathful, whereas the New Testament God was unknown before Christ and is only love and mercy. The main difference between Marcionism and Gnosticism is the lack of pursuit of secret wisdom in Marcionism.

No comments: