Heresies of the Week: Dispensational Premillenialism, Millenialism, Premillenialism, and Postmillenialism

For more on these eschetological heresies, check out this post from last fall.  Next week will cover four more related heresies.

Dispensational Premillennialism: see Premillennialism and Millennialism. The main distinction is that Dispensational Premillennialism teaches that the second coming occurs before the tribulation (following the rapture); whereas Classical Premillennialism teaches it occurs after the tribulation (with the rapture following the tribulation). They also believe that the Church and Israel are distinct entities, with Israel having a special place of prominence.  Like both Millennialism and Premillenialism, this teaching denies that Death and the Devil have already been vanquished in Christ's death and resurrection.

Millennialism is also known as Chiliasm. This is a specific form of Millenarianism, with close ties to Premillennialism (like Classical Premillennialism, Millennialism is a post-tribulation belief where the second coming occurs after the tribulation, whereas Dispensational Premillennialism teaches that the second coming occurs before the tribulation). This belief claims that there will be a Golden Age in which Christ reigns for one thousand years on earth prior to the Final Judgment and the New Heavens and New Earth appear. This is not the end of the world, but rather a penultimate age prior to the end of the world. Some believe that before the Final Judgment there will be a final great battle with Satan and his army of demons. This teaching clearly denies that Christ has already conquered Death and the Devil; that His work is as of yet unfinished with Satan (the orthodox teaching would be that while Satan can still tempt us because of Original Sin, he no longer holds power over us through death because of Christ’s fully atoning work).

Premillennialism is an eschatological heresy predominant in protestantism. It is the belief that Jesus will return and physically reign over a literal one thousand year kingdom just before or just after His Second Coming. Premillennialists also believe in a rapture of believers and seven-year tribulation period (Dispensational Premillennialism believes the rapture and tribulation will happen before the thousand years kingdom in that order, Classical or Historic Premillennialism believes the rapture will happen after the tribulation, which occurs after the thousand year’s kingdom but before the second coming). They hold that the Church and Israel are the same entity (Dual Covenant Theology).

Postmillennialism is an eschatological heresy which teaches that Christ’s second coming will occur after the Millennium (some hold this to be a literal one thousand years, others that it is symbolic of a long period of time), a Golden Age of prosperous Christian ethics. It is in contrast to Premillennialism and the orthodox doctrine of Amillennialism—both of which are well established in various Christian denominations. Postmillennialism is considered rare compared to the other two. They also teach that Satan will gradually be defeated by expansion of the Kingdom of God before the second coming (like Millennialism, this denies that Christ has already completed His work on the Cross and already vanquished Death and the Devil). Many Postmillennialists are also followers of Preterism. Calvin defended both Premillennialism and Postmillennialism in different works.

Heresies of the Week: Covenantalism and Dispensationalism

Heresies are generally (willful or unintentional) misunderstanding points of doctrine.  In that sense, Covenantalism isn't a heresy, but because it is a significant building block of other heresies (largely eschatological), I've included it here.

Covenantalism is a protestant (largely Calvinist) heresy also called Covenant Theology, Federal theology or Federalism. Covenant Theology teaches that everything God has done in dealing with mankind is done under three overarching theological (meaning not explicitly expressed in the Bible, but thought to be theologically implicit) covenants: redemption, works and grace. This is considered less a point of doctrine or dogma, and more a structure by which the Bible is organized.

Dispensationalism is a 19th century protestant eschatological heresy that uses Biblical interpretation to foresee a series of “dispensations” (periods in history) which God relates to humans in different ways under different Biblical covenants. All Dispensationalists subscribe to Premillennialism, and most (but not all) hold to a pretribulation rapture. Dispensationalists also believe that the nation of Israel (not the same as the state of Israel) is separate from the Christian Church and God has yet to fulfill His promises to the nation of Israel (Dual Covenant Theology). Dispensationalism has caused some protestants to interpret Revelation as predicting future events (Futurism), some past events (Historicism) and other to associate it with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 (Preterism).

Heresy of the Week: Nestorianism

Like many other heresies, this week's heresy attempts to use human reason to understand the divine.  That which seems illogical to us would very likely make more sense if we had a grasp of infinite knowledge, but since we don't, many like to try and understand that which we simply can't--and that need to "know" often leads to the creation of heresies. 

Nestorianism is a 5th century heresy that states there is no union or intermixing or touching of the two natures of Christ. This was declared a heresy at both the 431 First Council of Ephesus and the 451 Council of Chalcedon. Some individual churches broke off after this to form the Church of the East (not the same as the Eastern Orthodox Church, also known as the Assyrian Church). Nestorianism is seen as the antithesis of Monophysitism. Nestorianism teaches that Jesus and the Christ are two separate beings, loosely united in one nature: human. This was a heretical rational attempt to explain and understand the incarnation of the Divine into humanity. He also challenged the title of “Theotokos” (“bringer forth of God”) for the Virgin Mary, saying such a title denies Jesus’ full humanity. His suggested replacement was “Christotokos” (“bringer forth of Christ”). Nestorian opponents viewed this as an Adoptionism-like heresy. Nestorianism survived well into the 14th century.

Heresy of the Week: Manichaeism

Part two of the series on major Gnostic sects...

Manichaeism (also known as Manichaeanism) is one of the major Gnosticism sects, at its height from the 3rd-7th centuries where it thrived in the Mesopotamian area, although it survived in part until at least the 14th century in China, and even into the 18th century in small Catholic and protestant sects. The founder of Manichaeism, Mani, was originally follower of Mandaeism Gnosticism until he broke off to form his own sect. It contained elements of Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism, emphasizing a cosmic struggle between the ‘good’ spiritual world of light, and the ‘evil’ material world of darkness. Throughout human history, it teaches, light is gradually removed from the material world and restored to the world from which it came. It was considered a “soldier’s religion” and was popular among the Roman legions (which is how it made its way to China). It promoted an attitude of moral dualism, meaning a moral course of action involved a clear (often simplistic) choice between good and evil. The Albigensism, Bogomilism, Patarenism, and Paulicianism movements were accused of being Neo-Manichaean movements. Bagnolianism is considered a sub-Manichaeism sect, and Bardaisanitism is believed to have influenced Manichaeism. Their key belief is that a powerful, but not omnipotent, good entity (God) is opposed by a semi-eternal evil entity (Satan). Humanity, the world and the soul are seen as the byproducts of a battle between the Primal Man (God’s proxy) and Satan. While the soul is seen as defining a person, it is under the influence of both light and dark. Nothing is intrinsically evil, but seen as possessing both light and dark.

Heresy of the Week: Valentinianism

Week one of a two week series on major Gnostic sects (the other "major" sect, Mandaeism, was earlier this year).

Valentinianism is a Gnosticism-family heresy, starting in the 2nd century. It was one of the major Gnostic sects. Valentinianism is a very complex system of Aeons (heavenly archtypes representing 15 syzygies, or sexually complementary pairs), of whom Sophia is the most important (even though her weakness caused her to fall from Pleroma, the ‘fullness’). Like with most Gnostic sects, the Old Testament God was the Demiurge, the imperfect creator of the world. As man was the highest being created, he could participate in both the spiritual and material realms. Redemption consists of freeing oneself from the material world. Redemption is achieved by gaining gnosis, or knowledge. Knowledge, not faith, was the key to salvation. Many of what we consider today to be Gnostic Gospels came from the Valentinian sect. Sethianism is considered to be the forerunner of Valentinianism, and it is related to Basilidianism. Bardaisanitism is believed to have influenced Valentinianism.

Heresy of the Week: Bardaisanitism

Sorry for the delay this week--the life of motherhood...

This week's heresy is considered to be a basis for two of the most well-known Gnostic sects--Valentinianism and Manichaeism.

Bardaisanitism (also known as Bardesanitism) is a 2nd and 3rd century Gnosticism heresy. They believed that the good God gave man absolute free will to work out his own Salvation through gnosis, and who allowed the world to be good and evil, light and dark. Even inanimate objects were considered to have a measure of liberty or freedom. Ultimately for salvation, light must overcome dark in whatever man or object. They believe that in 6,000 years from when they lived, the world would end and be replaced by a world without evil. They believed the sun, moon, planets and starts were also living beings. Astrology and the Zodiac were of importance to them. They believe that the Holy Ghost is feminine. They also denied that Christ had a body (Monophysitism), and held a Docetist view that Christ was not born of a woman. Bardaisanitism was considered influential over Valentinianism and then Manichaeism. They were considered to be obscene and overtly sexual.

Heresy of the Week: Osteenism

A modern heresy, Joel Osteen is just my favorite target (hence why he gets the "honor" of a heresy named after him)--but there are many, many others who perpetuate his dangerous nonsense.  This heresy has swept American megachurches and non-denominationalism in particular.

Osteenism (also known as Prosperitism) is the heresy of the Prosperity Gospel (also known as Prosperity Theology and Health and Wealth Theology), which emerged in the 20th century. They claim the Bible teaches that financial blessing is the will of God for Christians, and that faith, a positive outlook and donations to Christian ministries will always increase one’s material wealth. This is taught as an aspect of the path to Christian dominion over society, arguing that the promise of dominion to Israel extends to Christianity today. There is a significant emphasis on personal empowerment and teach that God’s will is for His people to be happy. If atonement (or a large contribution to an approved religious entity) is made, it will remove sickness and poverty. Any material woes are a sign of broken or weak faith. One simply needs to confess that God promises security and prosperity to those faithful to Him to receive those blessings. It is named for Joel Osteen, a prominent televangelist and proponent of this heresy (though far from the only false teacher of this doctrine).