Podcasts about marcion

This episode is a response to a tweet from  @redeemedzoomer6053  regarding the question "Do Christians worship the same God as the Jews?". I mentioned Jacob  @faturechi  , Paul Vanderklay  @PaulVanderKlay  , Tripp Parker, Bethel McGrew, Rabbi Tovia Singer  @ToviaSinger1  , Dale Tuggy, Beau Branson, William Hasker, William Lane Craig, Marcion, Michael Heiser, James McGrath, Athanasius of Alexandria, Hilary of Poitiers, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Fred Sanders, and more. Redeemed Zoomer on Paul Vanderklay - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJIUh_rsqAs&t=2sMy video on Worship and Jesus - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bi1t3Es6uCY&t=1sDevelopment of the Trinity - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQt_QO4ASAQ&t=5787sJames McGrath paper on Two Powers - https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1111&context=facsch_papersArizona Christian Study - https://www.arizonachristian.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/AWVI-2025_03_Most-Americans-Reject-the-Trinity_FINAL_03_26_2025.pdf

SPONSORS: ZBiotics: https://zbiotics.com/JULIAN (***TIMESTAMPS in description below) ~ Alex O'Connor is a philosopher, international thought leader & host of the Cosmic Skeptic YouTube Channel. He is a graduate of St John's College, Oxford University. Over the past several years, Alex has delivered addresses across multiple continents as well as debated ethics, religion, and politics with the likes of Jordan Peterson, Douglas Murray, Destiny, Ben Shapiro & more. FOLLOW JULIAN DOREY INSTAGRAM (Podcast): https://www.instagram.com/juliandoreypodcast/ INSTAGRAM (Personal): https://www.instagram.com/julianddorey/ X: https://twitter.com/julianddorey GUEST LINKS - YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/@CosmicSkeptic - IG: https://www.instagram.com/cosmicskeptic/?hl=en - X: https://x.com/CosmicSkeptic JULIAN YT CHANNELS - SUBSCRIBE to Julian Dorey Clips YT: https://www.youtube.com/@juliandoreyclips - SUBSCRIBE to Julian Dorey Daily YT: https://www.youtube.com/@JulianDoreyDaily - SUBSCRIBE to Best of JDP: https://www.youtube.com/@bestofJDP ****TIMESTAMPS**** 0:00 - Intro 1:18 - Discovering Alex O'Connor, David Deutsch Simulation Theory 11:10 - God & Multiverse Coexistence Debate, Difficulty of Interested in Meaning of Life 18:40 - 2 Gods Theory, Gnosticism, “Good” Meaning 26:33 - Forbidden Gnostic Gospels, Marcion of Sinope Gnostic Biblical Cannon 33:33 - Council of Nicea vs Biblical Cannon, Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, Egypt Papyrus 41:39 - Gospel of Mark, Telephone Game Analogy, Sabbath Verse in Mark 2 Breakdown 58:28 - Role of Jesus Christ, John the Baptist Bizarre Anomalies 1:07:35 - Mark's Gospel, John's Gospel & Dating Speculation, Holy Spirit, Repenting Sins 1:28:02 - The 1 Unforgivable Sin, Heart of Christianity (100% Man & God Theory) 1:38:07 - Alex Debunks Wes Huff's Debunk, Codex Sinaiticus & Vaticianus Long-Ending Debate 1:59:06 - Alex O'Connor's View on Wes Huff, Billy Carson, Christian Commenters Hating 2:19:49 - Jesus Debates w/ Pharisees, New Tomb Discussion, Was Jesus Son of God 2:32:00 - Debating was Jesus God, Mistranslation in Bible Point (Jehovah Witness Screwup) 2:41:49 - John 17 Breakdown & Alex's Angle 2:48:57 - Mandaeans & Essenes (John the Baptist Religious Group) 2:54:59 - Gospel of Judas, Gospel of Thomas Bizarre New Age Translation 3:14:33 - Q for Quell (Sayings Gospel), Discussing Punishments for Sins 3:18:21 - Gospel of Jesus Wife (Dead Sea Scrolls) Forgery Breakdowns, Mary Magdalene 3:29:33 - Alex's Interests w/ Bible & Studying Bart Ehrman, Atheism, Ehrman Agnostic 3:40:43 - Fine-Tuning Argument 3:43:07 - Julian on how Alex thinks CREDITS: - Host & Producer: Julian Dorey - Producer & Editor: Alessi Allaman - https://www.youtube.com/@UCyLKzv5fKxGmVQg3cMJJzyQ Julian Dorey Podcast Episode 291 - Alex O'Connor Music by Artlist.io Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Have you ever heard of the ‘Cafeteria Bible?' That's what a man named Marcion developed in the early 2nd century AD and what U.S. President Thomas Jefferson built in the early part of the 19th century. They both chose to keep the parts of the Bible they liked and throw out what they didn't.

Christian Bible BEFORE The Catholic Church Manipulated (brainstorming early Bible project)David Litwa on Marcionite churches: https://www.youtube.com/live/7mYsO2R3tGA?si=ZeP4Z4i52BBCPghE1996+ or Jason Badoon (sp?) English or Greek.Vs very first Bible- doesn't show how they derived. 19th century are flawed.Don't want to depend on Catholic edition with Marcion, Romans 15&16 didn't exist, this is a Catholic fictional PaulNina Livesey: https://youtu.be/S4zDfTawiCQ?si=nqesgojg31brQQ7J

Marcus Bruzzo – Nunca saberemos a verdade https://www.instagram.com/p/DF8XgzWvwOd/ Heart of Darkness https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_of_Darkness Gospel of Marcion – overview https://chatgpt.com/share/67ac9758-5740-8006-a740-a393f07827a1 Bonobos recognize the ignorance of others, a trait once thought to be unique to humans http://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-02-04/bonobos-recognize-the-ignorance-of-others-a-trait-once-thought-to-be-unique-to-humans.html South Africa's history uncovered: the 1,000-year gap they don't teach in school http://theconversation.com/south-africas-history-uncovered-the-1-000-year-gap-they-dont-teach-in-school-248244 Goldman axes diversity rule that has ‘served purpose' ... Read more The post a luz e a matéria, o estranho evangelho de Marcion, as trevas no Congo Belga, bonobos rulz! appeared first on radinho de pilha.

Went a full 90 minutes today starting with Corey Mahler and the Stone Choir Cult's attack on my last evening, followed up by Mahler's amazing promotion of Marcion's gnosticism. I used his false statements about the name Yahweh to go into church history and trace the damage that was done by the loss of the knowledge of Hebrew and how this impacted the development of sub- and anti-biblical traditions. We also looked at a claim by Leighton Flowers about church history (always entertaining), a sola scriptura meme, and a brief inquiry as to whether JD Hall's elders know he is back to doing what destroyed him, his church, and his ministry, only two years ago.

Superabundance. In this episode, we read Origen's commentary on St. Paul's epistle to the Romans. We discuss the accusations leveled at Origen's orthodoxy, exegetical method, and critique of Marcion and discuss how what was written so long ago is relevant to Christians today. SHOW NOTES:  Origen - Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans https://www.thetbs.org/study-materials/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Commentary-on-the-Epistle-to-the-Romans-by-Origen-z-lib.org_.pdf  Origen bio https://www.theopedia.com/origen To a God Unknown - Steinbeck https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_a_God_Unknown   More from 1517: Support 1517 Podcast Network: https://www.1517.org/donate-podcasts 1517 Podcasts: http://www.1517.org/podcasts 1517 on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChDdMiZJv8oYMJQQx2vHSzg 1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/channel/1517-podcast-network/id6442751370 1517 Events Schedule: https://www.1517.org/events 1517 Academy - Free Theological Education: https://academy.1517.org/   What's New from 1517: Bible in One Year with Chad Bird: https://www.1517.org/oneyear Broken Bonds: A Novel of the Reformation, Book 1 of 2 by Amy Mantravadi: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1962654753?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_FCNEEK60MVNVPCEGKBD8_5&starsLeft=1  Junk Drawer Jesus By Matt Popovits: https://shop.1517.org/products/9781956658484-junk-drawer-jesus   More from the hosts: Donovan Riley https://www.1517.org/contributors/donavon-riley  Christopher Gillespie https://www.1517.org/contributors/christopher-gillespie   MORE LINKS: Tin Foil Haloes https://t.me/bannedpastors Warrior Priest Gym & Podcast https://thewarriorpriestpodcast.wordpress.com   St John's Lutheran Church (Webster, MN) - FB Live Bible Study Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/356667039608511  Gillespie's Sermons and Catechesis: http://youtube.com/stjohnrandomlake  Gillespie Coffee https://gillespie.coffee   Gillespie Media https://gillespie.media     CONTACT and FOLLOW: Email mailto:BannedBooks@1517.org  Facebook https://www.facebook.com/BannedBooksPod/  Twitter https://twitter.com/bannedbooks1517   SUBSCRIBE: YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BannedBooks Rumble https://rumble.com/c/c-1223313  Odysee https://odysee.com/@bannedbooks:5 Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/banned-books/id1370993639  Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/2ahA20sZMpBxg9vgiRVQba  Overcast https://overcast.fm/itunes1370993639/banned-books  TuneIn Radio https://tunein.com/podcasts/Religion--Spirituality-Podcasts/Banned-Books-p1216972/  iHeartRadio https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-banned-books-29825974/ 

Comment et pourquoi, parmi tous ces évangiles rédigés entre le 1er et le 4e siècles, ceux de Matthieu, Marc, Luc et Jean furent-ils les seuls à avoir été retenus pour le canon du Nouveau Testament ? Pour quoi quatre et non pas un ou cinq ? Quels sont les critères qui ont présidé à ce choix ?  NOTES  *·        Commentaires des quatre évangiles·        L'infolettre de l'Avent | vidéo·        BIBLIOGRAPHIE | ILLUSRATIONS·        Plateformes d'écoute | Réseaux Sociaux | @Contact | Infolettre | RSS  ·        Épisode enregistré en Vendée (85, France), 12/2024. Image de couverture : Livre de Kells, fol. 27r, Tétramorphe, v.800  - source : Wikimédia Commons. Génériques : Erwan Marchand (D.R.). «Au Large Biblique» est un podcast conçu et animé par François Bessonnet, bibliste. Sous Licence Creative Commons (cc BY-NC-ND 4.0 FR)Soutenez le podcast avec Tipeee  ou Ko-fi  CHAPITRES 00:00 Générique et présentation 01:30 (1) Canon et étymologie 04:20 (2) Quatre évangiles parmi d'autres 08:00 (3) Marcion et le Diatessarôn 12:40 (4) Irénée de Lyon 17:20 (5) Conclusion 21:10 Générique de fin

In the Messiah Galatians 2:11-21 by William Klock We're all familiar with the image of the two masks, side-by-side, representing tragedy and comedy—one face frowning and the other smiling.  The image represents the theatre, whether it's on playbills, or carved on the outside of a building, or use to mark the location of a theatre on a map.  That image is something that goes all the way back to ancient Greece.  Back then all the actors were men, there was no makeup, and many people sat far enough away that it was hard to see who was who.  So that the audience would know who was on stage and what they were about, the actors held masks in front of their faces—a bit larger than life and with exaggerated features and expressions.  The Greeks had a name for this sort of acting and it's come straight into English: hypocrites—hypocrite, hypocrisy.  By St. Paul's day the word had evolved beyond describing actual actors in a play.  It still did, but it commonly referred to someone who was playing a deceitful game of false pretences and pretending to be someone they really weren't. As we move on in Galatians 2, Paul levels this charge at Peter.  Not very long before Paul got word of what was going on in the Galatian churches and wrote this letter, Peter had travelled up to Antioch from Jerusalem.  This was a church of both Jews and gentiles and hat may be why Peter visited.  As we saw last week, Peter and Paul had agreed that Peter had been sent to the Jews and Paul to the gentiles, so here's Peter going to visit the Jews in Antioch. You would think after what had happened when Paul visited Jerusalem, after he stood firm against the “circumcision party” and found that he and Peter were ultimately in agreement with each other, you would think this visit to Antioch by Peter would have gone smoothly, but it did not.  Look at what Paul write in Galatians 2:11-14. But when Cephas [again, that's Peter's Greek name just like Paul is Saul's Greek name] came to Antioch, I stood up to him face to face.  He was in the wrong.  Before certain persons came from James, Peter was eating with the gentiles.  But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, because he was afraid of the circumcision people.  The rest of the Jews did the same, joining him in this play-acting.  Even Barnabas was carried along by their sham.  But when I saw that they weren't walking straight down the line of gospel truth, I said to Cephas in front of them all: “If you're a Jew, but you've been living like a gentile, how can you force gentiles to become Jews?”   This issue of Jews and gentiles just wouldn't go away.  Paul thought it was settled after his visit to Jerusalem, but then it happened again when Peter came to visit in Antioch, and now, like a cancer, it's spread to the churches in Galatia.  No doubt, the agitators in Galatia had already told the churches there their version of what had happened in Antioch, so now Paul tells them what really happened. Before all this, Jewish and gentile believers in Antioch—and Galatia, for that matter—gathered as one people to worship, to pray, and maybe most importantly, to eat the Lord's Supper.  It helps to remember that in those early days, the Lord's Supper was part of or at least attached to an actual meal where the people would fellowship with each other.  This gathering together, this eating together was a profound living out of the power of the gospel.  When Jesus died and rose again, he dealt with sin and that put everyone, Jew and gentile alike, on an even footing.  There was no longer clean and unclean, just and sinner: all in Jesus were clean and just.  And this bringing together of the two peoples, it was God's new creation made visible in the life of the early church—a powerful witness of the gospel itself. We might not think much of it, but it was a big deal.  Jews had been raised, steeped in observance of the law.  Gentiles were sinners and their food was unclean—even their fellowship was unclean.  Think of Peter and his vision in Acts of the sheet let down from heaven full of unclean animals and the Lord telling him to eat.  Revulsion had been instilled in Peter from his birth.  There was a massive “ick” factor.  Our culture, in contrast, has become so accepting of everything that there's not much left we can compare it to, but maybe you can think of the current conspiracy theories about Klaus Schwab telling everyone to “Eat ze bugs”.  It gets people worked up, because of the deeply ingrained revulsion we have in our culture to eating bugs.  It would have been something like that for Jews to fellowship with, to eat with gentiles. On the other end of things, the gentiles knew full well about those Jewish weirdos and their over-the-top purity laws.  Jews were everywhere spread through the Greco-Roman world, so the pagans encountered them regularly in daily life and in business and were well aware of the revulsion they had to eating with them.  So, that the early Jesus people were not only gathering together to worship and pray, but also gathering together around the same table to share bread and wine.  It was a really big deal.  It got everyone's attention. And so Peter came to visit Antioch and, Paul says, he worshipped and he prayed and he came to the Lord's Table with his gentile brothers and sisters.  Everything was fine.  And then the cancer that Paul thought had been stomped out in Jerusalem, the cancer came to Antioch.  Certain people from James came.  Paul doesn't elaborate on what that means, since the Galatians probably knew who those people were.  Maybe they were sent by James.  Probably they came and claimed authority from James that they didn't really have.  Whatever the case, they carried the cancer with them.  Paul calls them “circumcision people”.  They had some connection with the pseudo-family members who had been smuggled into the meeting in Jerusalem and who had insisted that Titus be circumcised.  And Peter caved into their pressure.  He “drew back” and “separated himself” and then when the other Jews in Antioch saw Peter do that, they followed suit.  Even Barnabas.  We get a sense of Paul's shock and dismay that even his partner Barnabas whom he knew knew better, even he went along with this sham.  This is where Paul uses that play-acting term.  Peter and Barnabas and the other Jews acted like hypocrites.  They knew better.  But under pressure from these agitators they withdrew and gathered separately.  They put up masks to placate the agitators and in doing that—not realising what they'd done—they become the people-pleasers so despised by their tradition.  They were gospel people, but to keep the peace they held up anti-gospel masks in front of their faces. Paul knew that this wasn't the real Peter—or the real Barnabas for that matter. They knew better.  Peter had known this for years before Paul had.  The real Peter behind the mask, the real Peter knew in his bones that the good news of Jesus' death and resurrection created one family in which Jews and gentiles stood on equal footing in the Messiah.  This new reality wasn't easy for Jews steeped for a lifetime in torah to adjust to.  There was a massive “ick” factor to overcome.  But the gospel is a powerful thing and so is God's Spirit and adjust they had.  And now, inexplicably to Paul, Peter and the others were dividing what Jesus had made one. Paul says that they weren't walking the straight line of gospel truth.  The word is orthopodeo—where we get our word “orthodpaedic”.  The gospel draws a straight line and they should have been walking it, but they weren't.  So Paul says to Peter, “Look here, you're a Jew, but you've been living like a gentile.”  He means that Peter's been eating with gentile believers and that almost certainly also means that Peter's been eating gentile food that was off-limits to Jews.  “So then,” Paul asks, “How can you force gentiles to become Jews.” Peter probably would have answered that, no, he wasn't trying to force anyone to be a Jew.  They could each just do their own thing.  But that brings up images of the temple, where Jews could enter the temple court, while gentiles were stuck outside in the Court of the Gentiles—they weren't really members of the community, of God's people.  That's why Paul is so insistent here.  There is one people—and Peter knew this and Paul knew—there is one people in Jesus the Messiah, not two.  In the Messiah.  This new community is defined not by ethnicity or ethnic markers but messianically by faith in Jesus and nothing else.  If we're going to divide it up again, well, what's the point?  To do so undermines the gospel itself and we might as well just throw in the towel. So beginning at verse 15 Paul lays out the argument he gave Peter, because it's this same gospel-killing cancer that has infected the Galatian churches.  They need to hear it too.  So Paul writes in verse 15: We are Jews by birth, not “gentile sinners”. For Jews there were two groups of people on this earth: the just or righteous—the Greek word carries both those meanings—and sinners.  Jews were the just, the righteous, chosen by God and marked out by obedience to the torah.  Everyone else was a sinner and this is why they kept themselves separate.  But, Paul goes on: But we know that a person is not declared “righteous” by works of the [Jewish] law, but through the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah.   So God had chosen the Jewish people and then gave them his law so that be living it, they'd be set apart.  It's what marked them out as different from gentile sinners.  And they expected that one day, the Lord would send his Messiah and the Messiah would vanquish the gentile sinners and lead the righteous into God's new age.  But instead—and this was what Paul had to work through after meeting the risen Jesus—instead, the Messiah came and sinners crucified him.  That wasn't how anyone thought the whole Messiah thing would go.  Ordinarily, being crucified would mean Jesus wasn't really the Messiah.  Other men claimed to be the Messiah, they were killed, and that was the end of their messianic claims.  But then God raised Jesus from death.  In doing that he overturned the charge of false messiah laid against him and proved that Jesus was, in fact, the real deal, the Messiah.  Jesus did, in fact, inaugurate God's new age, his new creation.  So why did he have to die?  That's when Paul—and the others—realised that as much as torah provided both a righteous way of living and a means of atonement when they failed to be 100% obedient—there was more to righteousness that torah could never provide.  The very fact that torah was necessary to set apart God's people, highlights that both Jew and gentile alike are subject to the slavery of sin and death.  So Jesus the Messiah let sin rise up and do its worst at the cross, then rose triumphant over it.  Jesus did something that torah could never but do, but in light of Jesus Paul realised, it was something torah had been pointing to all along. Now, there's an unspoken subtext going on here that we need to understand.  Remember that Messiah mean's God's anointed king—the king.  And for Jews, a king represented his people.  So what was true of a king is also true of his people.  This is why godly kings brought blessing on Israel and wicked kings brought curses and ultimately exile.  A king represents his people.  Paul likes to talk about being “in the Messiah” and when he says that, this is what he's getting at.  We'll need to know this as Paul goes on. So as much as Paul and his fellow Jews had always thought that righteousness came through the law, it turns out that God had something greater in store.  A greater righteousness, true righteousness comes through the faithfulness—through the faithfulness of the Messiah.  Jews had been faithful to torah and to the Lord's covenant and that faithfulness marked them out as the “righteous”, but their faithfulness to God was but a shadow of the loving, gracious, self-giving faithfulness to God that Jesus displayed on the cross.  That's the faithfulness that has created a new people of God, a new and “righteous” or “just” people defined by faith in Jesus.  So Paul goes on: That is why we too believed in the Messiah, Jesus: so that we might be declared “righteous” on the basis of the Messiah's faithfulness, and not on the basis of works of the [Jewish] law.  On that basis, you see, no creature will be declared “righteous”.   Peter and now the Galatians had forgotten what it was all about.  Peter seems just to have wanted to avoid conflict—which we see is a problem in other places in Peter's story, not least at Jesus' trial.  For the Galatians it was likely fear of persecution.  Remember that in the ancient word, “religion” wasn't some nice box you opened up on Sunday, and then closed up the rest of the week.  It wasn't something you did in private.  The gods were everywhere and a part of every aspect of life.  The fastest growing cult of the time was the cult of Caesar and if you weren't part of that, well, you were disloyal and unpatriotic.  Jews had a special exemption from all this pagan stuff, but these gentile converts to Christianity were in a tough spot.  When they became Christians they withdrew from all this paganism.  They stopped going to the temples and offering incense to Caesar and doing all the other little things people did throughout daily life and that got them into trouble.  So since Jesus was the Jewish Messiah and following him was sort of a new way of being Jewish, they claimed the Jewish exemption and pretty soon the “real” Jews were insisting that if they were going to call themselves Jews, they'd better at least by circumcised.  But once they did that and strayed off the straight line of gospel truth, they started to forget what the gospel was all about. So Paul reminds Peter and he reminds the agitators in Galatia: this greater righteousness found in the faithfulness of the Messiah, remember, this is why we believed in him!  In light of Jesus death for sins on the cross—remember?—we realised that in the end, torah won't cut it.  Righteousness is found in the faithfulness of King Jesus.  He goes on in verses 17 and 18: Well, then, if in seeking to be declared righteous in the Messiah, we ourselves are found to be sinners, does that make the Messiah an agent of sin?   This is the accusation of the agitators and of the “people from James”.  As part of living out the life of the gospel, Paul and Peter have been eating and fellowshipping with gentiles.  The agitators, stuck in the old, pre-Jesus and pre-gospel way of Jewish thinking, for them that makes Peter and Paul and all the others to be “sinners”—because they're disregarding torah and the boundary markers that have always been there.  If eating with gentile believers for the sake of the Messiah makes them sinners, then that would make the Messiah an agent of sin.  Paul's trying to show them how absurd their accusations are.  No, he's saying:   Certainly not!  If I build up once more the things which I tore down, I demonstrate that I am a lawbreaker. They've forgotten that Jesus has changed everything.  Jesus' death has dealt with sin—for both Jew and gentile.  Gentile believers are no longer sinners.  They're clean.  Paul's reminding them that the boundary markers of God's people have changed because of that.  What now counts is being “in the Messiah”.  They're trying to rebuild what the old walls and in doing so they're undermining the very saving gospel in which they've trusted.  It's a senseless thing to do.  It's like calling the police chief to help you bury the body of the guy you just killed.  It's not going to end well for you. So now, finally, we get to Paul's familiar and glorious text about incorporation into Jesus the Messiah.  Look at verse 19: Let me explain it like this: Through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.  I have been crucified with the Messiah.  I am, however, alive—but it is no longer I; it's the Messiah who lives in me.  And the life I do still live in the flesh, I live within the faithfulness of the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.   I think the best way to see this is as Paul telling the story of the Messiah's death and resurrection as his own story.  This is what it means to be “in the Messiah”. Notice how Paul doesn't just dismiss the law, torah.  One of the first heresies—and one that pops up perennially in church history—was the teaching of Marcion who dismissed the law and the whole Old Testament as irrelevant.  For Paul, though, you can't have the new covenant without the old.  Torah was building towards Jesus and the cross and the giving of the Spirit all along.  So Paul doesn't just say he died to law—which we might think means the law doesn't matter.  He says that through the law, he died to the law.  In Jesus the law fulfilled its purpose and so in Jesus, Paul is now fully alive to God.  How does that work.  Well, Jesus was crucified and in that he dealt with sin.  Remember, again, that the king represents his people.  So Paul says, he has been—in Greek it's literally—"co-crucified” with the Messiah.  Through faith in Jesus, through identification with the Messiah, Paul has died to sin.  And then he says, “I am—however—alive.”  Of course he is.  If he is in the Messiah, if he has been co-crucified with the Messiah, then he has also been co-raised with the Messiah.  I am alive—but—it is no longer I; it's the Messiah who lives in me. Brothers and Sisters, notice how Jesus has changed Paul's identity.  That's what he's getting at here.  By faith he has been incorporated into the Messiah so that even though he still lives in the flesh—that final day when we will be made completely new still awaits us—but even though Paul still lives in the flesh, because he is in the Messiah, he now lives within the faithfulness of the Messiah—the son of God—and now Paul makes it more personal—not just that the son of God died, but that he loved me and gave himself for me.  This isn't just abstract theology.  Jesus, the son of God, was faithful to fulfil torah, and gave himself not just generally for humanity (although that is true), but he gave himself for Paul—for me—for you—out of love, again for you, for me.  Sometimes we need that reminder.  All the theology, all the explanation, all the argumentation to bring false teaching and false gospels to heel is necessary, but in the midst of all that, never forget that Jesus died for you, for me, because  he loves us—not just that he loves humanity as a whole in some general sense, but that he knows and loves each one of us.  He died for you.  He rose for you.  And he's baptised you into his own Holy Spirit so that you can share in his resurrection life. Paul drives home this very personal aspect of the gospel.  Peter knew this.  The Galatians new this.  And that makes it all the more powerful when he ends his argument saying in verse 21: I don't set aside God's grace.  If “righteousness” comes through the law, then the Messiah died for nothing.”   He's reminded them that in his grace, God sent his son to die for you.  But if you start rebuilding that old wall, if you start acting like “righteousness”—he means membership in the community of God's people—if you start acting like “righteousness” comes through the law and the old boundary markers, then what you're really saying is that Jesus died for nothing.  Whether Jews and gentile would eat together might seem like a small thing, but it wasn't.  Eat separately undercut the very foundation of the gospel.  That's not really an issue for us today—although there are some modern-day groups that do add torah to Jesus.  But Paul would have the same thing to say to anyone today who would divide up the people of God or who would exclude these people or those people based on something added to the gospel.  Our identity, Brothers and Sisters, whatever it was in the past or whoever the world around us tell us we are, our real identity, the identity that matters is in Jesus the Messiah and nothing else.  We have died and now live in Jesus. This is especially relevant to us today in the mist of our post-modern culture.  Our world is rapidly tribalizing over identity: things like race and sex and sexual orientation.  The new thing is creating our own identities contrary to those that God had given us.  In other cases we've turned our sins into identities.  And we find these identities so powerfully defining that we bring them into the church and we hyphenate ourselves.  We're black-Christians or we're white-Christians.  There's an ongoing controversy about those who call themselves gay-Christians.  But Paul reminds us that if we are by faith in the Messiah, we have but one identity.  We have died with the Messiah and while we still live, it is no longer we—whatever our colour or language or sex or past sin—it is the Messiah who lives in us—because he loves each of us so dearly that he gave himself for us.  Brothers and Sisters, that's the straight line of the gospel.  Come to the Tablet this morning.  Eat the bread and drink the wine and be reminded that Jesus died and rose again for you and that in him, you have died and been raised.  His life, his faithfulness, his love and grace and mercy are now your identity.  No more masks, no more play-acting, just Jesus the Messiah. Let's pray again our Collect: Lord, give your people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and with pure hearts and minds to follow you, the only God; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Dr. Alister McGrath the Andreas Idreos Professorship in Science and Religion at the University of Oxford. We discuss his book "The Nature of Christian Doctrine : Its Origins, Development, and Function". He has a channel were he shares some of the material from his coursework :  @alistermcgrathchristianthe1158  We mention C.S. Lewis, Paul Vanderklay (  @PaulVanderKlay  ) , Justin Brierley, Richard Dawkins (  @richarddawkins  ), Marcion, Justin Martyr, Novation, the development of the Trinity, Christology, Constantine, and many more.

Marcion was the "arch-heretic" who argued there is a good god and an evil god, the Tanakh (the Old Testament) is not scripture, and edited portions of the New Testament. He was the first influential heretic that the Church had to guard a biblical understand of God and the Tanakh as God's word. The Messianic Jewish community should appreciate the Church for successfully defending God and His scripture. You can also watch on our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube Channel⁠⁠ Follow us on Social Media:     ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ If you are looking for a way to support us and gain early access to our content, you can become a monthly supporter on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribestar⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠    

From before the beginning of time, God planned to call out a people from among the nations and to bring a redeemer from among them. For centuries, the followers of Yeshua forgot that the unfolding of this history of redemption centers on the people of Israel. Our guest today, Dr. Gerald McDermott, has written A New History of Redemption, a book that puts Israel back at the center of God's plan to save the world from sin and death. – Episode Timeline – 00:00 Introduction to Dr. Gerald R. McDermott. 01:44 The root of the irrational support for Hamas from university campuses. 05:44 How does the history of redemption reveal the nature and beauty of God? 09:01 Jonathan Edwards' impact on American Christian theological development. 10:43 Jonathan Edwards as a Christian Zionist. 14:21 Ancient Israelites might better be known as “The Jewish Church.” 16:21 Jewish Election: God has never abandoned his people. 23:37 Allegiance to the Messiah is a central component of faith, even in the Old Testament. 27:20 Understanding prophetic “types.” 37:16 Theophanies and reconciling the verse that states that “No one has ever seen God.” 45:00 Marcion and the gnostics vs Judaism. Body vs Spirit. 49:59 How do we know that the State of Israel is important in God's plan of redemption? 56:16 What comes next in redemptive history, and how can we prepare for that? – Episode Resources – A New History of Redemption https://bakeracademic.com/p/A-New-History-of-Redemption-Gerald-R-McDermott/542788 Other Books By Dr. Gerald R. McDermott https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/133468.Gerald_R_McDermott Messiah Podcast is a production of First Fruits of Zion (https://ffoz.org) in conjunction with Messiah Magazine. This publication is designed to provide rich substance, meaningful Jewish contexts, cultural understanding of the teaching of Jesus, and the background of modern faith from a Messianic Jewish perspective. Messiah Podcast theme music provided with permission by Joshua Aaron Music (http://JoshuaAaron.tv). “Cover the Sea” Copyright WorshipinIsrael.com songs 2020. All rights reserved.

Transcript Address: https://share.descript.com/view/mD2bkZXa9UOJoin us as Garry of the History in the Bible Podcast and Steve explore alternative historical scenarios within early Christianity, focusing on potential impacts if Marcionism or Manichaeism had predominated over orthodox Christianity. Garry and Steve delve into the history and principles of these movements, their potential to reshape Christian doctrine by excluding Judaic elements or integrating with other religions, and the socio-political consequences within the Roman Empire. In this conversation we also touch on the role of Constantine in legalizing Christianity, the influence of Arianism, and how different religious trajectories could have affected the spread of Islam in Europe.  00:00 Diving Into Speculative History: The Marcionite Scenario00:02 Exploring the Impact of Marcionism on Early Christianity00:20 The Rise and Fall of Marcion in Rome02:16 What If Marcionism Had Prevailed? 03:52 Transitioning to Dutch Influences on English04:50 Speculating on Marcionism's Potential Influence07:49 Introducing the Manichean Challenge to Christianity08:07 The Spread and Influence of Manichaeism09:47 Debating Manichaeism's Threat to Christianity17:58 Exploring the Potential of Arianism24:40 Concluding Thoughts on Religious Speculations  You can learn more about the History of Papacy and subscribe at all these great places: https://atozhistorypage.start.pageTo Subscribe: https://www.spreaker.com/show/history-of-the-papacy-podcast_1Email Us: steve@atozhistorypage.comSupport Us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/historyofthepapacyParthenon Podcast Network: parthenonpodcast.comThe History of the Papacy on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@atozhistoryHelp out the show by ordering these books from Amazon! https://smile.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1MUPNYEU65NTFMusic Provided by:"Sonatina in C Minor" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)"Funeral March for Brass" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)"Crusade Heavy Perfect Loop" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Agnus Dei X - Bitter Suite Kevin MacLeaod (incomptech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

In this episode, we discuss whether or not God created the Dodge Dart. Marcion also had a question about whether or not the God of the Old Testament was the same as Jesus. His heretical arguments lead to the formation of the accepted Christian canon. ⁠Subscribe to our free monthly email - ⁠⁠https://standardoftruthpodcast.substack.com/⁠⁠ Please visit our website at ⁠⁠www.standardoftruth.com⁠⁠ If you have any questions or possible topics of discussion for upcoming podcasts, please email us at: ⁠⁠questions@standardoftruthpodcast.com⁠

Everyone has their own third eye whether they realize it or not. Through the Divine Path of Initiation one will learn of the spiritual practices that make it possible to access the third eye center, the seat of the soul, within the temple of the human body. We will discover for ourselves the Mysteries of the Spirit. The Kingdom of the Heavens will open up before us on this inward journey of the soul as we travel through vast realms of Light, Sound and Love on our way back to God. Today we explore Initiation, East and West, at first making use of Marcion's Reconstructed New Testament Apostolicon featuring an amazing, rather old and Gnostic sounding, translation of Saint Paul's First Corinthians chapter two, verses 6 through nine complete with archons and aeons. This manuscript from antiquity actually uses the word "Initiation". The goal of this Initiation is seeing in a new way with another kind of inner spiritual vision, the eye of the soul, and inner hearing with the ear of the soul. This is where we leave the outer world of the five senses behind. This is where we progress from theory, religion or philosophy to the world of practice, of inner experience. This is where the spiritual path truly begins. Also explored: The Gospel of Thomas on what "Eye Has Not Seen, Nor Ear Heard"; the mystic poetry of Sant Tulsi Sahib of Hathras on the ascension of the soul; The Inner Journey Of The Soul Back To Its Origin, by George Arnsby Jones, an initiate of Kirpal Singh; words of encouragement and satsang discourses from Sant Kirpal Singh on Initiation and Surat Shabd Yoga, Inner Light and Sound Meditation practice (sadhana of simran, dhyan and bhajan); recent satsang discourses by Baba Ram Singh also exploring this inward journey of the soul that takes place during meditation, the interior voyage back Home. The goal of this Path is not simply going TO the various inner planes or heavens of creation but to pass THROUGH them on our way back to the Most High Supreme Being given many names such as The Ocean of Love (Anurag Sagar), The Nameless One (Anami Purush, Sat Purush), and The Lord of the Soul (Radhasoami). (RadhaSwami)   The Third Eye in Meditation: “Close your eyes as in sleep, and look sweetly, lovingly, intently into the middle of the darkness lying in front of you. You will see a dark veil. That which sees the dark veil within, without the help of your physical eyes, IS the inner eye.” (Kirpal Singh)   In Divine Love (Bhakti), Light, and Sound, At the Feet of the Masters, Radhasoami   James Bean Spiritual Awakening Radio Podcasts Sant Mat Satsang Podcasts Sant Mat Radhasoami A Satsang Without Walls Spiritual Awakening Radio Website: https://www.SpiritualAwakeningRadio.com    

An Interview with Dr. David Brakke David Brakke challenges the common notion that Christians had a New Testament type of Bible by around 200. Rather, he claims, their Bible was Jewish scriptures plus a wide variety of written texts by Jesus followers used in multiple contexts. Marcion and his followers would have been the exception, since he rejected the Jewish writings. Brakke's recent analysis of two ancient Christian texts concludes that the early Christian years were diverse and served different purposes before the biblical canon was established. Irenaeus, the Church Father of the second century, probably set the tone for an approval or disapproval of certain texts. He thought various texts should reflect the rule of faith for that time, and this would have excluded such texts as Valentinian – or so-called gnostic types of writing. On the other hand, Irenaeus was also aware of 'barbarian Christians' who had no text at all. That didn't seem to concern him. Brakke summarizes from his study of the two second-century texts—the Muratorian Fragment and the Secret Book of James—that Christians were very different in antiquity. In 200, people were not interested in asking for a New Testament. They sort of agree on some ancient writings which were very useful, but others not at all.

Join Resident Bible Scholar Erin Moon along with Jamie and Evan as we deep dive Clement of Alexandria. You'll hear geography lessons, learn about some controversial theological views, and discover why Clement was called a “master of Christian philosophy.” Is Clement of Alexandria the Pedro Pascal of the second century, and what do potatoes have to do with all this? You'll have to listen to find out! MENTIONS Relevant Past Episode: Who the Hell is Lottie Moon? See us at The Popcast Live! Get tickets for Chicago and Dallas here.  Can I get a visual of Clement? Here you go!  Clement of Alexandria Deep-Dive: Explore his writings here Heretic Hoe Down: Listen to Erin talk about Marcion of Sinope on Patreon Hell Deep-Dive: Listen to SWDGISS: Hell What was that about Greek words and eternity? Read this article by Heleen Keizer Bible Scholar Resource: The Universal Christ by Richard Rohr  BONUS CONTENT We have tons of additional content, including monthly Fellowship Hall gatherings, Office Hours episodes, and so much more! You can access them now with a 7-day free trial. You'll be able to listen to over 250 more episodes! Tuition is just $5 a month after the trial period. Become a Seminarian here! THE POPCAST Check out our other podcast: The Popcast with Knox and Jamie. It's a weekly show about pop culture where we educate on the things that entertain but don't matter. Here is our suggested Popcast starter playlist. Subscribe to our Newsletter: The Dish from Faith Adjacent Shop our Amazon Link: amazon.com/shop/faithadjacent Follow Faith Adjacent on Socials: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a Text Message.We continue our examination of Jewish-Christian relations in the early Church by reviewing one teaching and one writing:#1: The teaching of MarcionMarcion of Sinope (AD 85-160) is a historical figure who embodied the sort of potent anti-Jewish sentiment many believe was prevalent in the ante-Nicene era. A great deal is known about Marcion through early writings, making him an excellent case study for us. He taught that the Bible refers to two different gods; the benevolent God of love and mercy proclaimed by Jesus and the “finite, imperfect, angry Jehovah of the Jews.” In his work Antitheses (AD 144), Marcion outlined this contrast, describing the God of the Old Testament as a demiurge—a lesser god who created the physical universe. He considered this deity a harsh Jewish tribal god, as severe and unmerciful as his law. The Old Testament God commanded us to love our neighbor but hate our enemies. He taught vengeance, saying, “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.” By contrast, Marcion argued, the Supreme God of the New Testament commands us to love our enemy and “turn the other cheek.” #2: Justin Martyr's "Dialogue with Trypho"Born in the Roman colony of Neapolis in Samaria (he was neither a Samaritan nor a Jew), Justin Martyr was arguably the most influential Christian apologist of the second century. Dialogue with Trypho is an intellectually impressive and lengthy document. (The English translation runs more than 69,000 words.) Justin works through various theological issues by way of an ambitious dialogue between himself and a Hellenized rabbi named Trypho, famous as one of the most learned Jews in the East. Whether this work records an actual discussion is a matter of debate. However, Justin's remarkable knowledge of the Jews, their objections to Christianity, and their Scripture suggest the content of Dialogue is based on actual conversations with Jews.Defending the Biblical Roots of ChristianityOur websiteOur YouTube ChannelProf. Solberg's BlogSupport our Ministry (Thank you!)

For the second heresy, Dr. Papandrea examines the opposite extreme from the first: these are the Docetics, including the most famous docetic teacher, Marcion and his followers. They concluded that Christ was a god, not necessarily different from the many other gods or demigods in the Greco-Roman pantheon, but that he was not really a human.  Links For more information on Polycarp of Smyrna, listen to Mike Aquilina's Episode 5: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-5-st-polycarp-and-social-network/ To read Polycarp of Smyrna's Letter to the Philippians: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1626&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2365055 To listen to Polycarp of Smyrna's Letter to the Philippians: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/st-polycarp-letter-to-philippians/ For more information on Ignatius of Antioch, listen to Mike Aquilina's Episode 4: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-4-ignatius-antioch-to-know-jesus-christ-our-god/ To read Ignatius of Antioch's Letter to the Smyrnaeans: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1633&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2365056 To listen to Ignatius of Antioch's Letters to the Smyrnaeans: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/st-ignatius-antioch-letter-to-smyrnaeans/ For more information on Irenaeus of Lyons, listen to Mike Aquilina's Episode 10: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/irenaeus-lyon-putting-smack-down-on-heresy/ For more detail on the heresy of docetism and the Marcionites, see the book: Reading the Early Church Fathers: A History of the Early Church and the Development of Doctrine: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/reading-the-church-fathers/ SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's Newsletter:  https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters/ DONATE at:  http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio To connect with Dr. James Papandrea, On YouTube - The Original Church:  https://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginalChurch Join the Original Church Community on Locals:  https://theoriginalchurch.locals.com/ Dr. Papandrea's Homepage:  http://www.jimpapandrea.com Theme Music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed:  https://www.ccwatershed.org/

Cub Kuker Supernatural Podcast EP345 The canonization of the Bible refers to the process by which certain texts are officially recognized and accepted as authoritative scripture. This process was complex and varied across different religious traditions, with the Catholic Church and the development of the King James Version (KJV) representing significant milestones in biblical canonical history. However, this process has provided possible data-loss as well as potential manipulation opportunities throughout the canonization process. In the context of the unique message of Jesus, there is an increasing recognition that his teachings, often presented in the "red letters" in some editions of the Bible, are extremely different and distinct from certain aspects of the Old Testament and even some teachings in the New Testament. Jesus' message often emphasized love, forgiveness, and a spiritual authority as ONE with God, which some believe appears in stark contrast to the elements found in the Old Testament and largely within the New Testament. The idea that Jesus' teaching stands alone, particularly in the red letters, is a perspective held by some who emphasize the distinctive nature of Christ's message, including Marcion of Sinope. Marcion proposed the idea that Jesus brought a new spiritual practice and a transformative understanding of God as the SOURCE, rather than a deity as observed by the status quo of his day. The notion of two different kingdoms—one of extraterrestrial origins and another of metaphysical light—is not a mainstream or widely accepted understanding; however, we will discuss this theory in detail today. It's important to note that interpretations of biblical texts can vary widely, and different individuals or traditions may have diverse perspectives on the meaning and significance of certain passages. Please show respect for all races, religions, orientations, identities, and cultures. × I Explore Supernatural Mythōs. Level-Up In My Community! ↘️

In this episode, we welcome Benjamin Laird to the show. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Aberdeen and is an Associate Professor of biblical studies at the John W. Rawlings School of Divinity at Liberty University. He has written several books about the New Testament to include The Pauline Corpus in Early Christianity, 40 Questions about the Apostle Paul, Five Views on the New Testament Canon, and his latest book Creating the Canon: Composition, Controversy, and the Authority of the New Testament. In this interview, we discuss why he is so interested in the New Testament writings, how the NT writers would have gone about the process of composing their writings, why people don't need to be concerned that we don't have the “original autographs” of the NT writings, the controversy surrounding the Council of Nicea and works of Marcion as it pertains to the creation of the Canon, how the NT writings were spread throughout the ancient world, how confident we can be that our English translations match the meanings of the writings in their original languages, and much more. Let's get into it…  Episode notes and links HERE. Try out the Relay Recovery app HERE. Donate to support our mission of equipping men to push back darkness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cub Kuker Supernatural™ Podcast EP336 In this episode, I delve into the intriguing story of Marcion of Sinope, a significant figure in early Christianity with beliefs that sent shockwaves through the emerging early Christian community. Join me as we explore the life, beliefs, and impact of this enigmatic character. Marcion's beliefs were groundbreaking and highly controversial. He proposed a dualistic worldview, where he distinguished between two gods—an unknown God of love and mercy in the New Testament, and a “little-g” god of justice and judgment in the Old Testament. According to Marcion, the Old Testament was the work of a completely different deity.  Marcion's reasoning can still be clearly seen within our modern Bibles today by using a Strongs Greek/Hebrew concordance if you're willing to suspend disbelief and dig deeper into the roots of the original words. Marcion's rejection of the Old Testament and his selection of a unique Christian canon, featured only a subset of Paul's letters and a modified version of the Gospel of Luke, this led to a major schism in early Christianity. Major conflicts and debates that erupted within the Christian community as a result of his teachings. The impact of Marcionism on the development of Christian theology is polarizing even today, including his (often heretically viewed) formation of a New Testament canon. His controversial ideas prompted early Christian theologians to define the boundaries of orthodox doctrine and decide which texts were authoritative. Join me on this journey through the life and beliefs of Marcion of Sinope, a figure whose legacy, though ultimately marginalized in Christian history, left a lasting mark on the early Christian world and the shaping of the New Testament as we know it today.  Don't forget to like, subscribe, and share this video with fellow truth-seeking enthusiasts! *As always do your own research to formulate your own opinions that are based on authentic data from reputable sources. × I Create Vids About Supernatural Realms. Support Me For More!

On this episode we welcome back Dr. Douglas Hamp, a pastor and leader in theological thought, to unpack the haunting ghost of the Marcion heresy and its subtle imprint on the church's theology today. As centuries roll on, the nuances of this age-old doctrine continue to weave their deceptive threads, shaping and even distorting beliefs. Dive deep with us as we unravel the intricate web and seek clarity amidst doctrinal fog. On another exciting note, we bid adieu to Dr. Judd Burton as our cherished scholar in residence, passing the torch to Dr. Doug. With this change comes exhilarating new ventures, including a monthly book club. Here, Dr. Doug will guide us through the intricate layers of his series, "Corrupting the Image: Angels, Aliens, and the Antichrist Revealed". Stay tuned, enlighten your spirit, and embark on a transformative journey with us. Become a member of Camp Hermon @ www.camphermon.com Sponsor: Kevlar Joe's Coffee Company: https://www.kevlarjoe.com/shop Use promo code for 10% off any order: CAMPHERMON10 Contact: camphermon.com Socials: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086193320933 https://www.instagram.com/camphermonpodcast/ Special Thanks to Tyson & Meesah Kuteyi at Mee + Tee Media for recording and editing our intro! https://www.meeandteemedia.com/ Intro music by The Music Assembly: https://themusicassembly.com/ Outro by 0BLIT3R4T0Rhttps://open.spotify.com/artist/0zAyO50ILQOQ0nj9IR23mF?si=8RgHqqAkS_2UMtUmcXNrKA --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/camphermon/support

Almost 2,000 years ago, Saint Marcion of Sinope and Pope Pius I stood inside a marble foyer in Rome and hurled invectives at each other - each castigating the other with charges of being a wild-eyed heretic. It was a showdown that would forever change the course of Christianity and continues to impact people to this day. Show notes and links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Pius_I https://www.marcionitechurch.org/saintmarcion.html https://www.theveryfirstbible.org/vatican.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahweh https://pre-nicene.org/radio.html (Morning mass) Q&A: How do we recognize the difference between 'Yahweh' and God as revealed to us only through Christ? https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDfH7u-M4kPyOHw2JSMV6kUyHfsi5XN7U How did Marcion compile the first Christian bible in 144 A.D.? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBPOXMF4yYk What else do we know about the origins of the Gospel of The Lord written by the apostle Paul? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bwZbV93Fkw Other resources: Pre-Nicene Christianity Free Bookstore https://payhip.com/TheVeryFirstBible Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PreNicene_TV YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@prenicenetv Roku: PCTV --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/prenicene/message

Almost 2,000 years ago, Saint Marcion of Sinope and Pope Pius I stood inside a marble foyer in Rome and hurled invectives at each other - each castigating the other with charges of being a wild-eyed heretic. It was a showdown that would forever change the course of Christianity and continues to impact people to this day. Show notes and links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Pius_I https://www.marcionitechurch.org/saintmarcion.html https://www.theveryfirstbible.org/vatican.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahweh https://pre-nicene.org/radio.html (Morning mass) Q&A: How do we recognize the difference between 'Yahweh' and God as revealed to us only through Christ? https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDfH7u-M4kPyOHw2JSMV6kUyHfsi5XN7U How did Marcion compile the first Christian bible in 144 A.D.? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBPOXMF4yYk What else do we know about the origins of the Gospel of The Lord written by the apostle Paul? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bwZbV93Fkw Other resources: Pre-Nicene Christianity Free Bookstore https://payhip.com/TheVeryFirstBible Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PreNicene_TV YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@prenicenetv Roku: PCTV --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/prenicene/message

This marks part 2 of a 5-part series where I will read aloud chapters from Manly P. Hall's “The Wisdom of the Knowing Ones: Gnosticism, the Key to Esoteric Christianity.” In this episode, we'll be reading chapter one, “Gnostism, The Key to Esoteric Christianity.” What you'll learn: The impact the teachings of Plato and Aristotle had on the early Christian eraThe difference between creationism and emmanationismWhat is the role of Aristotle in anthropology?How the early Christian church viewed the concept of GodHow the Orthodox church struggled to contain and control the early Gnostic movement (and how it embraced parts of both Christianity and paganism)The contributions of certain early Gnostic teachers and theologians in Alexandria (Basilides and Valentinus)The myth of Pistis Sophia and Yaldabaoth as an understanding of the path of esoteric initiationHow the Gnostics used “abraxas,” also known as Gnostic gems as talismans and ways to identify one another during the time the Orthodox Christian church was attempting to persecute them as hereticsPagan morals: how the Orthodox Christian church attempted to make Pagans out to be cruel “heathens,” when it fact, they also lived by their own values and moral code, and how many of them respected the teachings of JesusUnderstanding the esoteric teachings of the early Christian mystery schoolsWhy the Gnostics rejected much of the Old Testament (the Marcionite Christian Church: what they believed and why Marcion was excommunicated) ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Manly Palmer Hall was a Canadian author, lecturer, astrologer, mystic, and Freemason. Over his 70-year career he gave thousands of lectures and published over 150 volumes of written work. Early in his life, he became drawn to mysticism, esoteric philosophies, and their underlying principles. While visiting London in the early 1930s, Hall acquired from an auction agent at Sotheby's, a substantial collection of rare books and manuscripts about alchemy and esotericism. Owing to economic conditions resulting from the Great Depression, he acquired the collection for an insanely low price due to the economic circumstances of the time. SELECTED READING: “The Wisdom of the Knowing Ones: Gnosticism, the Key to Esoteric Christianity.” (Pages 1-22) YOUR FAVORITE MYSTICAL BEDTIME STORY PODCAST: Can't sleep? This adult bedtime story podcast invites you to escape the burdens of sleeplessness and immerse yourself in a mystical world of relaxation and enchantment. Sometimes our weary minds need a break from the endless scrolling that often accompanies insomnia. Each episode allows you to unwind and prepare to embrace deep sleep while awakening to arcane wisdom at the same time. FOLLOW AND SUPPORT THE PODCAST: Follow the podcast on Instagram at @nightnightb1tch. To make a one-time or recurring donation to support the continued production of NNB, visit https://ko-fi.com/nightnightbitch. Disclaimer: episodes of Night Night, Bitch are for the purpose of research, study, entertainment, meditation, sleep, and discussion. The views and opinions expressed in each episode belong to the original author(s)/creator(s)/speaker(s) and may not necessarily reflect those of Night Night, Bitch, its host, or its affiliates. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scripture discussed: Acts 11:19-21 Example timeline of Acts: https://www.2belikechrist.com/articles/timeline-of-the-book-of-acts  Discussion of the Dating of Acts and the Marcion hypothesis: https://bibleinterp.arizona.edu/opeds/actapo358006 IMAGE: Saint Luke the Evangelist from the Roslin Gospels (13th century), via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Luke_by_roslin.jpg 

Hiding in plain sight: In today's episode we take a closer look at the prologues preceding each of the original ten epistles of the apostle Paul and explore the effect of removing them from today's Judeo-Christian bibles. In removing and perverting context does it have the effect of aiding a larger deception? Links mentioned during the episode: The journey and adventure behind the epistle prologues: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBPOXMF4yYk Original ten epistles (with prologues): https://www.theveryfirstbible.org/ Marcion and the Vatican Library: https://www.theveryfirstbible.org/vatican.html Galatians 2:7 (Judeo-Christian version): https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Galatians-2-7/ Pre-Nicene Christian Ecclesia https://pre-nicene.org/ PCTV on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PreNiceneTV Add PCTV to Roku: https://channelstore.roku.com/details/4fc4f2ce1685d9a25b867ae8b142df1c/pctv-prenicene-christian-television Pre-Nicene Explorer App: https://pre-nicene.org/PreNicene-Explorer-App.html Marcionite Christian Church: https://www.marcionitechurch.org/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/firstbiblenetwork/message

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is.”~Albert Camus (1913-1960), French journalist and philosopher “Man cannot endure his own littleness unless he can translate it into meaningfulness on the largest possible level.”~Ernest Becker (1924-1974), in The Denial of Death “…over the past few decades, people have lost a sense of their own sinfulness. Children are raised amid a chorus of applause. Politics has become less about institutional restraint and more about giving voters whatever they want at that second. Joe DiMaggio didn't ostentatiously admire his own home runs, but now athletes routinely celebrate themselves as part of the self-branding process.”~David Brooks in The New York Times “‘You are enough' is a message that enslaves people…. It burdens them with the obligation of being the source of their own joy, contentment, and peace.” “You are not enough, but when your trust is placed in Jesus, his enough-ness is transferred to you.”~Alisa Childers, singer, songwriter, and author “The true penitent, though he dreads punishment, much more dreads sin…”~Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) “Modern secularism (which insists on keeping faith private) and modern pietism (which keeps Jesus safely contained in the hearts of individual believers) are usually assumed to be adversaries. But this feud is ultimately a battle between brothers. They share conceptual DNA with Marcion and the Gnostics.”~Ken Myers, contemporary Christian thinker “It is not a question of whether we worship, but what we worship.” “We are what we love. And love takes practice.”~James K. A. Smith, Canadian-born contemporary philosopher “The glory of God is man fully alive, and the life of man is the vision of God.”~Irenaeus (c.130-c.202), early Christian leader in Against HeresiesSERMON PASSAGEselected passagesJohn 1 (ESV) 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…. 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 1 John 3 (ESV) 1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. 4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. John 17 (ESV) – The Words of Jesus 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them…. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them. Colossians 3 (NASB95) 1 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas' website.Ron Moseley's book, Yeshua: A Guide to the Real Jesus and the Original Church (Clarksville, Maryland: Messianic Jewish Publishers, 1996) is an interesting read. I have met representatives of this movement before, and read a number of their books, especially once I came into direct personal contact with this school of thought on my first trip to Israel. This school of thought is well described by the term Messianic Judaism, a movement within evangelical Christianity that has been in motion for half a century now. This review is not only a critique of Moseley's book, but also a challenge to the Messianic movement as a whole.ExcellentMany things Moseley and his associates emphasize are correct -- even excellent.Jesus and Paul were Jews. Most Bible readers forget this, and this seriously affects their ability to interpret the scriptures. There's great benefit in setting aside time for study, worship, and cultivating an awe of God (p.42). Yet this is no proof that we need to observe the Jewish calendar. Slowing down and stopping normal work one day a week, attending seminars; going on retreats, having daily devotional times, and so on can serve this purpose equally well. The Jewish background of NT teaching is brought to light, often in a captivating way.The Pharisees' teaching was similar to Jesus' (p.91). I might go even further: if we were to compare our own spiritual heritage to the many Jewish sects active in the first century, theirs is unquestionably the group with which we have most in common.Possibly correctA number of his ideas may be on track, but lack support. I think it is fine for Bible teacher to share his ideas, but only with a confidence in proportion to the evidence itself. This attitude Moseley repeatedly fails to exhibit.His comments on the tzitzit may be right (p.21), though it strikes me as a bit of a stretch. Yet I like this view. John hesitates to enter Jesus' tomb because of his association with the high priestly family (pp.24-25). Could be. But then there are other reasons for which he didn't enter (fear, deference to Peter, being out of breath…). Peter chopped off Malchus' ear to disqualify him for the priesthood, or to insult the priesthood of Caiaphas (p.25). This strikes me as speculative, though I did mention the possibility in my (premium) podcast on Malchus. I think it is more likely Peter was trying to kill Malchus than maim him. Matthew 8:21-22 may refer to secondary burial (pp.27-28). I am familiar with the practice of secondary interment, and have shown ossuaries on many of my tours. Yet such an understanding of Jesus' words does not significantly affect the point Jesus is making, that we are to let nothing, even family obligations, come between us and him. He claims that coins falling into the temple collection containers in effect “sounded the trumpet” (p.28). Yet what is the reference? This sounds like pure speculation. There are many such claims in this book. "Leaven” means giving God your second best (p.110). To prove this, he cites only a secondary source; there is no proof for this assertion. The problem with the teaching of the Pharisees was that it could spread so far and affect so many, not that it was second best. RM's interpretation weakens the point Jesus and Paul make when they resort to this metaphor in their teaching.Definitely wrongYet the patent errors in the book are often not minor, but major.Moseley claims that the “new covenant” is not better than the old, but only an extension of it, or a call to observe it (pp.36, 57). That is certainly not how I and Bible scholars read Jeremiah 31! The Hebrew writer does not put down the old covenant – the fault lay with the people (Hebrews 8) – but he definitely says the new is better. Moseley's group believes that the NT was written in Hebrew, yet I am aware of no evidence. Even among early Christians, the only tradition circulating of which I am aware is that Matthew was originally written in Hebrew (the view of Papias). I believe Semitic thought patterns are discernible in most of the documents of the Greek NT, and without doubt Jesus taught primarily in the language of the people of Palestine, but there is not a shred of manuscript evidence for an original Hebrew NT.   Luke 16:16, commenting on the Law being proclaimed until John, is claimed by Moseley not to indicate any fundamental shift vis-à-vis the Torah (p.41). Moseley is correct that we are under grace and still obligated to obey God's laws; Protestant Bible teachers often stumble over that one, falsely pitting Paul against James, for example. Yet there is more than one way that the Law can remain the word of God for us. I would put it this way. For the ancient Jews, the Torah was the word of God and the law of God; for us, the Torah is still the word of God, yet not the law. “Replacement theology” makes its first appearance 160 AD, with Justin Martyr (p.60). What about Matthew 21:43? Here Jesus says the kingdom will be taken away from the Jews.The moral principles of Torah still apply today (p.50). Please listen to hear my series (“Night of Redemption: A Study of Exodus,” October 2011). We are called to go well beyond the moral level of the Jews. There is a trajectory in the Bible, from paganism to Judaism, and from Judaism to Christianity. The law leads us to Christ, after which point we are mature enough no longer to need it (Galatians 3:21-26). One obvious example is how we treat our enemies. While there are parts of the OT where grace is shown to enemies, in other parts the Jews are told to kill them, even to exterminate them without mercy. Jesus raises the bar. No longer are we permitted to kill, take revenge, or even resist the evil person. How to implement Jesus' teaching in Matthew (also Paul's in Romans 12) may be difficult, yet that does not entitle us to ignore it. Since the Torah was an “everlasting covenant”, it still applies today (p.62). This view shows a lack of understanding of Hebrew idiom, which is unfortunate for one who promotes himself as an expert. Here let me share an excerpt from my paper on Terminal Punishment, which I believe is germane. “We have to let the Bible define its terms... [T]here are a number of scriptures where words such as 'forever,' 'eternal,' and 'everlasting' do not entail a sense of infinite duration. For example, the following list is based (only) on the Greek root aion*, which appears in the LXX and the NT numerous times, with the general sense of (world) age, forever, always, eternity, etc. In none of the following cases does the word aion* bear the sense of infinite eternity. [Whether for the Greek aionios, the Hebrew ‘olam, or the Latin aeternalis, the point is that 'forever' isn't always literally forever, at least in Hebrew thought.]Genesis 6:4—'Men of old' (giants/ungodly persons/fallen ones/sons of Cain) did not live infinitely.Jeremiah 25:12—Destruction of Babylon (though not literally destroyed)Genesis 9:12—Perpetual generationsExodus 21:6—The man or woman would become one's servant'“forever' (!)Leviticus 25:34—Perpetual possession of fieldsDeuteronomy 23:3—“Forever” means the tenth generation1 Samuel 2:22—Young Samuel was to serve at the house of the Lord 'forever'1 Chronicles 16:5—'Forever' ~ 1000 generations—also Psalm 105:8Ezra 4:15, 19—Israelites had been 'eternally' resisting political dominationPsalm 24:7—'Ancient' doorsProverbs 22:28—'Ancient' boundary stoneJonah 2:6—The prophet was confined in (the fish) 'forever'" Moseley claims that “fulfill” in Matthew 5:17-19 means to correctly teach (p.64). Yet when prophecies are fulfilled, they are not merely “correctly taught.” Rather, their words come true, or a deeper parallelism becomes manifest. “Out of Egypt I called my Son” (Matthew 2:15, quoting Hosea 11:1) is fulfilled when Jesus' family returns from Egypt. When Jesus fulfills Psalm 22, Psalm 69, Isaiah 53, and so forth, he is not “correctly teaching” them—though he may have—but rather bringing to pass the plan of God, and bringing to light the truth of God, in accordance with what had previously been written. Christians knelt for prayer, so in reaction the Jews stood (p.60). The ancient literary and archaeological evidence refutes this claim. The preferred position of the early Christians was standing. Moreover, the orans (plural orantes) is well known from ancient art. The ethical requirements of the OT are the same as those of the NT (p.70). Not so, as I mentioned above in my comment on warfare. Back when we lived in the DC area, I pursued this notion, and wanted to include it in my part of the DPI book on the Sermon on the Mount. Tom Jones and Gordon Ferguson shot me down—and I'm glad they did. Back then I was trying too hard to find in the old law justification for many current practices. The point: between the covenants there is not only continuity, but also a radical discontinuity.Certain parts of the law were to be kept by Gentiles (all of it by Jews), in effect creating two levels or standards of commitment (p.79). There is no evidence that Gentiles could be saved through part of the covenant! RM's exegesis of Acts 15 is questionable. Then he claims to have found, out of the traditional total 613 laws in the Torah, many of which still apply to Gentiles (33 positive commands and 135 prohibitions). He overreaches. Let me give two examples. We are to show reverence when enter the house of worship (Leviticus 19:30). I'm all for that, but in Christianity there is no church building (originally). He also states that Deuteronomy 24:15 requires employers to pay workers their wages when the job is done. Yet the passage refers to daily wages, not payment for completing a job. In short, Moseley's method smacks of arbitrariness. In connection with the Feast of Tabernacles, rituals involving water and light had been neglected (p.135). Moseley says that this was part of the ceremonial law. There's only one problem: it's nowhere in the OT! Acts 2:38 refers to Gentile baptism (p.143). Proponents of another eccentric view teach that Gentiles were to be saved by faith alone, and Acts 2:38 baptism was only for the first generation of Jewish converts. In Acts 2:39 the phrase “those who are far off” refers to Gentiles (not the distant descendants of the audience), a point illustrated in such passages as Ephesians 2:17. RM's understanding of conversion is lacking. The Messianic movement often claims that the NT was originally written in Hebrew. On this assumption, they rely on a reconstructed Semitic text of the NT, even though no such ancient manuscripts have survived. Claiming that the Greek NT is less accurate than the "lost" [and hypothetical] Semitic original, they dismiss verses that are problematic for their position. Be aware that no evidence exists for an original "Hebrew Testament." This is pure conjecture.OverstatedThere were some points I wasn't sure which category to place in. They contained some truth, but were pushed too far. Maybe these should be listed under a “maybe correct” heading, but I chose to list them separately.Augustine championed Marcion (p.40). Augustine (354-430 AD) would have vigorously protested this allegation! Marcion  (c.140 AD) rejected the OT completely; Augustine relied heavily it as he promoted his relatively novel ideas, such as original sin and Christian military service. Paul did not intend Greek readers to interpret nomos (law) in the normal way (p.59). It is true that we must discern whether the word means law (generally), the Law of Moses (which is both law in the common sense and Torah in the sense of instruction [

They say that good things take time - and great things take even longer. And such has been the case with the canonization of one of the most important and transformative figures in Pre-Nicene Christian history. Within theological circles, he's known as the real-life Indiana Jones and after almost 2,000 years he's now known as a saint. In today's episode we explore the life of Marcion of Sinope (85-160 A.D.). Marcion Expedition Map: https://pre-nicene.org/Whose-God-Challenge.html Vatican Library Documents Relating to Marcion of Sinope: https://digi.vatlib.it/mss/detail/214664 Saint Marcion Official Page: https://www.marcionitechurch.org/saintmarcion.html The Very First Bible of 144 A.D. https://www.theveryfirstbible.org/ Pre-Nicene Perspective on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@firstbiblenetwork Pre-Nicene Bookstore (free): https://payhip.com/TheVeryFirstBible First Bible Network: https://www.firstbiblenetwork.com/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/firstbiblenetwork/message

Bad ideas are like the many-headed hydra. When one head is cut off, two more spring up. Just when Arianism is getting cured, Nestorianism boils over, and when that pimple is taken care of, Monophysitism appears on the body of Christ, and when the ointment for that is applied, a side effect called Monothelitism develops. And even after resolving these things, they come back, but at least the Church has a cure on the shelf for each of these conditions. They come back in odd and interesting ways, and some heresies like Arianism or sola scriptura take many centuries to fade out. Sorry, did I say fade out? They never fully disappear. Arianism was addressed in 325 at the Council of Nicaea, and a modern version of it is visible in humanism. Sola scriptura was addressed in the Council of Trent in the 1500s, yet the circular logic of that idea keeps every dog chasing its tail. Today, a person could spend every waking minute refuting heresies because it's all over in the language of believers and non-believers. Arguing over these errors make little impact, since those who openly reject official Church teaching have adopted their own authority, either in scriptural interpretations, or in their own mind. The old errors are so commonly held and pronounced, that I can't listen to modern music for an hour without recognizing at least one heresy. I think Luke Bryan is the Pelagius of Country Music, but he is just one of many. A good series would be doing a close-reading of errors in Luke Bryan's greatest hits, because you can find so many heresies passed off as wisdom or truth in his lyrics. It's not just him, so I don't mean to single him out. But we live in an age of various common errors, most commonly, Protestantism, Gnosticism and Pelagianism, which are big words, but with basic problems when we examine them as practiced in the real world. This is why the word “Christian” is so smashed up, misused, and abused that it now looks like the car in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles at the end of the movie. If you think this is false, check out /r/Christianity on reddit.com. It is chaos. That subreddit should be changed to /r/tohu-wa-bohu, which is the Hebrew word for chaos before God created order in the universe. Pope Pius X famously called modernism “the synthesis of all heresies,” and the Protestants posting on social media does us the favor of proving it beyond the shadow of a doubt. You could play Heresy Bingo and have a winner before finishing the first post's comment section. Reddit's generic /r/Christianity feed is like a slop bucket. It's remarkable to read comments there from self-professed Christians, because few seem aware of the first fifteen centuries after Christ's death, and it's not clear they realize that there was a Church operating before the year 2020. So there are many bizarre versions of Christianity floating around, and I used to think that nothing could outdo the “snakes and orgies” crowd that 60 Minutes did a show on many years ago, but I've been proved wrong repeatedly in recent years, as the heresies have erupted in denominations that once seemed to have a reasonable grip on doctrine. But churches like the ELCA and Methodists and even the “cool” Catholic churches have been caught up in the spirit of the times, and thus they will die like dandelions when the autumn of this culture comes, which is always sooner than we think. You cannot get to liturgies featuring drag queens or celebrating the worst sin of Pride without first abandoning Christ and the faith of the apostles. However, the long labor of creating and carrying the church through the gauntlet of time has happened, and for the Church that sticks to those teachings, it will outlast this current chaotic summer, and in the autumn and into winter, the redwood will outlast them all once again and arrive in spring stronger still. So while this makes a lot of people feel worried and lost, or scared that the Catholic Church will fall into error, it should actually give much hope. Because the only Church that will last is the one which remains in full orthodoxy with Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture. The only Church that is interesting or compelling is the one that keeps the Deposit of Faith and rejects all doctrinal errors from 33 A.D. until today, because it is the only Church led by the Holy Spirit. When the breathless apostles first came to Jesus and reported error being used in Jesus' name, he said, “It's ok.” Well, he actually said:John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward. (Mark 9:38-41)To break that down a bit, Jesus was telling the apostles that the others may cast out demons in Jesus' name. That's wonderful. He didn't say, “Go out and club them until they stop.” The Church has occasionally errored in that. But Jesus also didn't say, “Terrific, bring in these outsiders as the new teachers.” They did not become apostles. Jesus didn't adapt his teaching to the outsiders. The thing about Jesus is that you don't get to tell him what to do (unless you are Mary), you come to him on his terms and surrender to him. Pride need not apply. Jesus didn't declare one of these other healers to be “the rock” on which he founded his church. He didn't make these others the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. He allowed other interpretations, but he didn't say they were correct. All directions and corrections are provided to the apostles, which is why they were the chosen ones and the leaders. Even when I was fallen away and considered myself atheist, I knew that if I ever returned it would only be to the Catholic Church (with Greek Orthodoxy as a dark horse in that race), because the only Church that made sense historically, logically, physically, or spiritually was the one that Jesus founded on the rock of Peter, because it was the only one that had fought and outlasted the intellectual, physical, and spiritual march of empires and ideas, and it was clearly different from all other Johnny-come-lately denominations. The non-Catholic denominations may heal people and cast out demons, and that is truly wonderful, but they are wildly prone to poor theology, teaching, and lack the all-important taproot of Tradition to the person of Jesus himself. The original, the real deal, actually still exists if you look for it. I was quite surprised to find holy people still striving for holiness. It may have been the biggest shock of my life when I returned. The first time I saw a grown man kneel for communion and receive it like his life depended on it, I knew I'd been missing the point. When I started meeting with people that studied and strived for holiness, I realized that the lukewarm representations that I had held as standard was a very low standard indeed. Like General Motors, modern Christianity built a lot of models that didn't last. We had spinoffs of spinoffs so that most of those claiming the label “Christian” today would confuse the heck out of Peter, Paul and the apostles. Dostoyevsky famously wrote in the Grand Inquisitor that if Jesus came back to life, the Catholic Church would kill him again to retain its power. But as the Church lacks the power today that Dostoyevsky imagined, the story has not aged well, despite being a terrific read. It's more likely that if Jesus returned as Dostoyevsky imagined (which didn't match anything that Jesus actually said), Jesus would see that most of Christianity outside of the Catholic Church has turned into Imagination Land from Disney's movie Inside Out, starring Bing Bong, the pink elephant, as the high priest. Fortunately, the original model is still in storage and is ready to roll. It has some dents in it, for sure, but it runs fine and those scratches can be repaired. The apostolic Church, the body of Christ, that has had plenty of fallen leaders and brokenness over the years, but the heart is alive. The deposit of faith remains, and as long as the head is Christ, it cannot bless sin, because he did not bless sin. He said to “Go and sin no more.” The faithful cannot elevate the self or feelings in replacement of God. The denial of sin is a no-go in the driver's manual on how to go to heaven. Embracing orthodox belief is how we answer the question, “What is truth?” It is also how communities and individuals get restored to health. From the Body of Christ, life springs forth, age after age. We will not find salvation in heresy any more than we will in our youth sports teams or in a Tinder tryst or in an online mob or in our endless entertainment options. Restoration and the path to salvation will come back from where it began, through the Real Presence in the Eucharist, in gatherings of prayer, in speakers witnessing their conversion stories, in Bible studies, in adoration chapels, in Mass, in retreats, in recovery meetings, and anything that forges community away from the false gods propped up by modernism. To be awakened, we need a massive Ezra moment of deprogramming and teaching, where someone breaks open the scrolls to remind the lost people of a past they know nothing about. In Nehemiah, the people hear the word and understand, and know their sins, and know how they fell into the state of sin, little by little, by departing from orthodoxy. Ezra opened the scroll so that all the people might see it, for he was standing higher than any of the people. When he opened it, all the people stood. Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people, their hands raised high, answered, “Amen, amen!” Then they knelt down and bowed before the LORD, their faces to the ground. (Neh 8:5-6)When the people bow their faces to the ground, they have surrendered. But we have not done so yet. We are still in full competition, both with one another, and even more so with God. And this is what every heresy in history does: it competes with God. Most heresies, from Simon Magus to Nestorius to Henry VIII, had a person with a large ego, often a king, who wanted to hammer the Church into his image and likeness, instead of making the Body of Christ in the image and likeness of God. How are we going to solve this competition problem? How can a culture built on competition, capitalism, winning, and getting whatever we want possibly break that addiction? How can we possibly turn away from serving our desires? That's the easy part. You win that game by not playing. You win in the same way Jesus won it the first time. You win by living in the culture while still being set apart from it. You win by being “called out” of the culture. You go to the desert. You pray, fast, and help the poor, like Jesus. You leave the place of idolatry, like Abraham. You exit the corruption, like St. Anthony to the desert. Like St. Benedict, you reset, apart from the world in the wilderness. Like St. Cyprian, like St. Augustine, like St. Ignatius, like St. Francis, like St. Theresa Benedicta of the Cross - you swim against the current, because the current is taking you the wrong way. You reset and then re-enter the fray, washed anew in the blood of Christ.You win by accepting this sinful world as it is, and while still living in that world, but not being a player in its game. You win by entering into the suffering of others, with love, not affirming their sin, but by witnessing another way. Stop honoring and envying what other people hold as worthwhile. Money, houses, luxuries, sex, entertainment, food, alcohol, cars, boats, drugs, vacations. Stop wanting what the world wants. The entire problem is that you want the wrong things, and this is what leads to every error. How do you step out of this culture? How do you stop wanting garbage in favor of the Bread of Life? We follow the advice of the Truth himself. Jesus said, “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off…And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.” (Mk 9:42-47) The good news for us about this brutal metaphor is that we have something we can rid ourselves of without actual amputation. What causes our sin in most cases today is what sits between our hands and our eyes. The phone. Our culture is the phone, and envy, lust, pride, sloth, greed, and wrath all reach out to your throat through that device. We can cut off the source of at least half of our most common ways of straying with not a single drop of blood spilled. But few of us will choose this, because hugging our sin is the easier path. Narcissus dies by staring into the mirror, forever, in love with himself. The easier path is always the one that doesn't pay off with interest. The easy path is that chosen by Lot, it is the path chosen by those Israelites wanting to return to Egypt in the desert, it is the path chosen by Peter when he denies Jesus, the path chosen by Judas in betraying him, it is the path today of affirming sin rather than fighting it. It is the path chosen by Marcion and Arius and Nestorius and Luther and Calvin and Henry VIII and Joel Osteen. The easier path is always the road to ruin. And who wants to be part of a religion that demands nothing of us, that demands too little, when Jesus has given all to his bride, the Church? We must surrender to win. You certainly do not win by joining the side that appears to winning, or that you think will win, because even if you win, you are still stuck in the game. In fact, if you win, you may be more stuck in the game than before, like how the proverbial quicksand pulls you deeper the more you struggle. How many aspiring employees who climb to Vice President suddenly find that their wealth and prestige now “require” a bigger house and a finer car and better schools for their kids? How many French and Germans and Russians traded in the humble truths of Jesus Christ for the toxic truths of a political party? How many Democrats and Republicans are doing the same in America right now exactly as they were in Dante's Florence so many centuries ago, or in Rome during the glory days of Caesar, or in the last days when the collapse of the Bronze Age? All of these past peoples have turned to dust, but the living God remains, and the Holy Spirit carried the Church along in this final Messianic Age. You do not win by surrendering to the bulldozer of earthly power, on either side. You win by surrendering to the power of Jesus. He is the real ruler over all things. Your way of life will need to change. Your life itself may need to be given up in professing the Truth. But the only way to win at this most important thing is to surrender everything. Ego, pride, self-elevation. Let it go. Otherwise, if your game is here on this earth, whatever you win today, you will need to defend tomorrow, and someday in the future after long years of fighting, you will turn around and see that you have been defending a pile of rubble. When you reach that moment, know that the one Truth is waiting for you to turn your face all the way to look at his sacrifice on the Cross. Rather than dishearten you, this should ignite you. You have been wanting the wrong things. Desires that you had, items that you wanted to own, experiences that you sought to remember - these were the distractions from the real answer to the one test question. How strange I thought it was for Jesus to say, “Rejoice, for the kingdom is among you.” But it is here. It's here, but it's the opposite of the competitive nonsense and little trophies we have been seeking all our lives. This is an incredibly exciting time to be alive, because once again, the world has regressed into the same shape as in the first century, when the apostles lit the fuse for the dynamite of the Gospel. The fuse is once again just waiting to be lit with the fire of the Holy Spirit. The kingdom is here among us, and it is the Catholic Church, with all its flaws. The Church: founded on a rock called Peter, the sinner and the saint, the fallen one transformed into a bold healer. The same answer to “Why did Peter sink?” for an individual is the same answer for the Church founded on the rock called Peter: taking the focus off of Christ and the fullness of him is to sink. To look at him constantly in trust is to experience the unending miracle of walking with God. The kingdom is here, the Church - in the world but not of the world - defending the faith from errors until he comes again. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.whydidpetersink.com

The subtlety of Temptations! Again, and again the fathers show us the relentless work of the evil one in drawing the mind ans the heart of individuals into sin. He can create within our hearts a kind of childishness; a veneer of sanctity or virtue. One can experience, joy or tears or consolation in their soul, but it can all be an illusion, and not truly rooted in repentance. It is for this reason that we so often backslide in the spiritual life. We do not let go of the attachments that we have to the things that lead us into sin. We may repent and go to confession, but within our hearts we still hold on to a multitude of things that give rise to temptation or that stimulate our inclination to particular sins. Fornication in particular is something that is seen as having great weight among the fathers because it is so tied to our very make up as human beings and to our bodily appetites and desires. We can fall into error in our thinking and be corrected of this error even when we cling to it with pride. But once we have acknowledged the error we are unlikely to return to it. However, when the sins of the flesh become tied up with our imagination and memory, and when we give ourselves over to the sin, the deeper the roots become. What is lodged in the imagination and memory is easily taken hold of again through fantasy, at first, and then finally an action. Therefore the sins the flesh often need the greatest commitment to ascetic disciplines in order to uproot them. We were told in the Scriptures that the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent to bear it away. Similarly, there are things that we must be willing to cut out of our life in order to keep us from falling into the same sins again. Our desire and our courage in doing so, however, is often lacking. --- Text of chat during the group: 00:05:54 John Ingram: Greater Cincinnati/N KY   00:08:32 FrDavid Abernethy: page 145 para 42   00:25:53 Ashley Kaschl: Is St. John saying this over sharing/emotionalism be a symptom of this sin?   00:25:53 Louise: Blind to consequences.   00:29:25 Louise: Hooking up maybe to avoid aloneness at all cost.   00:29:26 Debra: Hook Up culture isn't just on Universities   00:32:27 Rory: Being in the moment with prayer, incarnate with God, we are never alone, as a temple of the Holy Spirit   00:36:40 Rory: ?is sin a correction?   00:37:39 Anthony: When I look at the history of heresy, I see that mental and physical errors often go together.   00:39:00 Anthony: Examples that come to mind: Marcion & other Gnostics; Cathars; Lutherans; Munsterites   00:45:48 Louise: As a Catholic child, I was taught that we were forgiven if we recognize our fault, repent (suffer from having caused pain, which would reduce repetition), and to repair (in reality as much as possible). The last two requirements seem to be dismissed these days , especially the third one.   00:48:17 Ambrose Little, OP: It goes both ways. Some heretics go the way of overly puritanical approaches to the Faith.   00:54:31 Ashley Kaschl: The thought troubles me, and there's a lot more to be said, I think, but the penance of not being permitted to receive the Holy Eucharist because of the sin of fornication makes a lot of sense.    Being that we receive the whole Christ, if someone has developed a deeply rooted habit of fornication they would have a kind of morbid, contraceptive disposition of soul that says “I want the pleasure of receiving Christ in the Eucharist, but I do not want His effects.” Even if the soul is fighting against the sin, that person still needs to be freed from that disposition before seeking a union with God they have trained their body and, thus, their soul not to seek above all other things. Obviously it's not so cut and dry but I can see what the footnote is saying

On this episode of The Shaun Tabatt Show, we're joined by author Mike Aquilina to talk about his book Villains of the Early Church: And How They Made Us Better Christians. The early Church faced its share of villains—persecutors like Nero and Julian, heretics like Marcion and Arius. But as Mike Aquilina demonstrates in his book, these villains actually helped to make the Church stronger and more faithful. The threat of persecution made Christians strong and bold. It forced them to think deeply about their faith and to defend it against those who would attack it. The menace of heresy made Christians smarter—it forced them to study the Scriptures and the writings of the Church Fathers in order to defend the true faith. And the villains of the ancient world proved the mettle of heroes like Peter and Paul, Irenaeus and Athanasius. Treachery and adversity inspired the Fathers' clearest teaching, most entertaining invective, and more than a few memorable jokes. In this episode, Mike Aquilina shares some of the most fascinating stories from the early Church, and he shows us how these villains can actually help us to be better Christians today. We'll discuss: The different types of villains that the early Church faced How these villains helped to make the Church stronger and more faithful The importance of studying the early Church fathers How we can learn from the villains of the early Church to be better Christians today If you're interested in learning more about the early Church, or if you're looking for inspiration to grow in your faith, then you won't want to miss this episode of The Shaun Tabatt Show. For more on Mike Aquilina, visit FathersOfThechurch.com. Resources mentioned in this episode: Villains of the Early Church: And How They Made Us Better Christians The Shaun Tabatt Show is part of the Destiny Image Podcast Network.

The word “Christianity” may need to go away for a while, like on a desert retreat. It needs to go off to a sweatlodge with St. Anthony of Egypt again so it can figure out what Jesus intended. Few Protestant denominations remain that teach what “Christianity” really entails or demands. The familiarity of it has bred contempt and complacency, which has led to extremely watered-down versions. This is exactly why St. Anthony and the Desert Fathers exited the culture in the third century. Even back then it had been diluted into a cheap BBQ lighter fluid instead of the 100% explosive ethanol it was on Pentecost. Today, it can be restored to be highly flammable once again, but it won't be done by being “cool” in the culture or by flopping around speaking in tongues or doing fake healings or by affirming sin or denying that the devil exists. It will be restored to it's original strange potency by the same old proven methods: prayer, fasting, and charity. But once again, like in the time of the Desert Fathers, the errors that led people away from proper worship and correct doctrine must be re-visited, because they have been allowed back in. All of them. It almost as if a busload of old heresies showed up at the pool, and barged right in without checking their floaties, food, weapons, and drugs at the door. Many of them don't even bother to wear a swimsuit, as modesty and ideas about sin are old-fashioned. Now the pool is in mayhem. Only a few lifeguards (in red hats) are shouting while others have joined in the orgy. Fortunately, the party is almost over, since it has become a pool no one wants to swim in. The newcomers and families who would like to swim take one look at the chaos and decide to stay home - after all, they can setup their own pool - who needs the community pool? Thus we have many trying to claim the main pool, and millions of little pools where people isolate in their own anti-social backyard. The heresies have stunk up the water to the point that the “Christian” pool is more like a swamp lagoon. Now it will require a lockdown for cleaning. After draining, it needs a full sandblasting before a refill. The intense, long battle against errors about who Jesus was, what Jesus said, and what he taught, waged over centuries, needs to be waged all over again. Today, it's not even clear that people understand the word heresy. And to be fair, it is an ugly word. “Heretic” combines two sounds that make Minnesotans like me shiver: “hair” and “tick.” This sounds like a burrowing insect at the base of my hairline. Where I live, ticks raise goosebumps on people more than snakes. Whenever I've discovered one engorged on a dog's belly, or see one climbing my shirt after a walk in the woods, it gives me a case of the heebie-jeebies. But perhaps this strange association is apt. A tick buried in skin kind of fits well with what heresy does. Because a tiny corruption like that caused by a tick lodging in your skin is much like how a heretical idea poisons and corrupts individuals or entire nations. Heresy is not unlike Lyme disease in that it often has a subtle entry point but leads to an insidious devastation of the body as it spreads. The idea of heresy is something people don't even like to talk about, but I think it needs to be. I doubt that the average Joe Christian has ever heard of Marcionism, or Pelagianism, or any other heresy, but many certainly speak those heresies openly. Ideas long ago denounced as un-Christian are mentioned as if they were orthodox in casual conversation. But this isn't surprising, given the past few centuries of rejecting all authority. Almost everyone now is their own Pope, so even if I mentioned the basics of a heresy, my listener would respond, “Who made you the Pope?” To which I would answer, “Do you see a funny hat on me? Long ago, after a big todo, the Church declared…” And that's exactly where the conversation would end, because the appeal to authority beyond the “Self” would outrage the listener. “The Church has entered the chat.” When that happens, the modern American, Protestant, public school brain exits the chat. It's over. Authority? Are you claiming authority? Are you kidding me? We have hundreds of years of literature and philosophy and theology crammed between our ears, where the only authority is in national power and the self. America itself is a rejection of old-world “authority.” But this continual march of rejecting authority has put the West in an odd state. Because once the highest authority of God and his Church was thrown out, and the Pope put in his corner in Vatican City, the nations must act as the moral authority. They have been doing this for about three centuries now. Mentioning the Church's authority leads to an automatic response. Like a trained bear that can dance, the hearer waltzes off stage on cue. Or, more likely today than ever, this “tamed” bear attacks and mauls the trainer. What's most interesting today is that in our rejection of authority, so few today are called to the priesthood, but nearly everyone is called to the pontificate. Worth noting here is that “pontiff” means bridge-builder. But with a billion mini-popes in the world, we end up having a lot of bridges to nowhere, because all of the bridges lead directly back to the self. This isn't just an issue among Protestants or agnostics, it's rampant within the Catholic Church, too. So many people don't know what the teaching of the Church is that you can hear the echoes of ancient errors every day, even among bishops. Imagine: a bishop that doesn't understand errors that have existed for thousands of years. You don't have to imagine it. This is happening all over Europe and the United States. This is the equivalent of an NFL coach not knowing what is a “first down,” or what a “nickel defense” is used for. Could you imagine a coach who worked for thirty years to reach the top, and then have it be revealed that he thought the game was soccer? No. This seems almost impossible, unless somehow you have cronyism or ideology (or both) interfering with the proper promotion of educated and competent bishops. And this of course is exactly what we have. The creep of heresy gets in like a tic. It's like Soviet Science or modern American sociology, where ideology has replaced the goal of seeking the Truth, the highest Truth. And it replays over and over in history. It's Plato versus the Sophists. It's Athanasius versus Arius. It's Augustine versus Pelagius. It's Marx versus Pope Leo XIII. Heresy is ideology that bleeds into faith and skews the right understanding of God, the Trinity, Jesus, the Sacraments, and the whole Church. And it always starts with the rejection of God, in some form, and the elevation of what a person wants. “Blessed are the heretics,” said Stanley Hauerwas. What he meant by this was that without those pushing errors, we wouldn't see the Truth so clearly. So luckily we have Marcion and Pelagius and Nestorius to illustrate the errors. Their ideas act like bugs on a windshield, where you don't need to stop until it gets really bad, and then you must pull over at the nearest service station and squeegee like a maniac with elbow grease to get the encrusted scum off. Sin works this way; sin is not a big deal, until it is. Until your sin is going to cause a major accident and maybe even kill you, you don't take action to fix the disorder. When you hear a bishop defending an old heresy, often with new words, that was called a heresy long ago, it leads to confusion for the team. Trust in leadership is undermined, especially when the waterboy understands the game better than the coach. You cannot have the offensive coordinator telling the running backs they must run backward from now on. If that ever happened in the NFL, a firing would surely occur. Yet we are not seeing the firings despite wild errors in “coaching” from those in charge in the Church. This is likely because the Church moves slowly, which is good, since they operate like the Ents in Lord of the Rings. Anything worth saying is worth taking a long time to say it. This is one of the great features of the Church so that they don't jump to conclusions. There is something called “The Peter Principle,” which has nothing to do with St. Peter or the Church, but simply states that people will be promoted in their career to one level higher than they should be, right to the point where they are incompetent. This doesn't apply to all bishops, obviously, just a few, but whenever you hear a high-ranking person espouse an idea that was jettisoned as an error many centuries ago, you have to scratch your head and wonder how or why God is working through this. But rest assured that God is doing just that. Errors about Christianity are ever-present in both the culture and the Church, and I suspect this has been the case since Peter finished his first speech on Pentecost, as surely strange interpretations began immediately. There are many bishops sticking to doctrine and the Truth, with Bishop Barron doing a beautiful job of articulating the faith, following in a long line of great articulators, like Saints Cyril, Maximus, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, John Damascene, Newman, Sheen, and many, many others. Teaching Wednesday night religion class recently, a kid raised his hand and told me, “My dad says that Jesus is the good God, and the God of the Old Testament was the one that would squash you.” “Kid,” I said, “Your dad is a heretic.” Just kidding. I didn't say that. “Kid,” I said, “Have you ever heard of Marcion?” Just kidding. I didn't say that either. How many adults today have heard of Marcion? Who has ever heard of Marcion, or Menander, or the Cathars? Few today have heard of these old names except for geeky Catholics who know about the ecumenical councils where the early Church had to settle these disputes. These old heresies argued for exactly what this kid's dad was teaching. This idea springs up repeatedly, and if we haven't heard of Marcion, we've certainly heard of Nazi Germany, which was rife with Marcionism as an offshoot of its hatred and ethnic cleansing of the Jews. (Tip: Marcionism always goes hand in hand with anti-Old Testament thinking and makes a beeline toward anti-Jewish thoughts and behavior.) Any time that Catholicism lacks respect for the Jews, it is in error, and this is why the document known as Nostra Aetate was sorely needed, as a reminder that the Church “recalls that the Apostles, the Church's main-stay and pillars, as well as most of the early disciples who proclaimed Christ's Gospel to the world, sprang from the Jewish people.” I also must add here, that if Jesus is God, and you believe that as I do, then he inspired the entire Old Testament, including the parts that are confusing, and Jesus was a devout Jew, as were Mary and Joseph. So for any Catholic to misunderstand the intensely deep meaning of the Jewish roots of Christianity is to be like the sower's seed on the rocky path. If Jesus is God, and if Scripture is inspired by God, and all of the prophecies of the Messiah were foretold by God, and the story of the chosen people is God winning back the world, then throwing out the Old Testament seems a bad idea. The kid's father who taught Marcionism was doing the same thing that a writer like Dan Brown does in his novels (as wildly inaccurate in history and logic as they are). He finds an old heresy and dusts it off as something fresh and new. Then it's presented as a fact, as a new “orthodoxy” and then believers have to spend lots of time re-arguing what has already been argued and ruled upon. But this is one of the strengths of the Church, actually, in that it has a structure that can do this. We can all see the Protestants lack this authority to rule, which leads to heresy proliferating like a cytokine storm. Truly, if there is one weakness in the Eastern Orthodox churches, it's that they cannot resolve disputes like the Catholic Church can, because the Bishop of Rome can speak from the Chair of Peter, as Christ gave Peter the keys, which is to say, the authority. What's old is new, but none of the heresies are actually new. You can go read St. Irenaeus who wrote Against Heresies in the second century, and most heresies today were already in play. Over time, new errors have come about, and over the centuries others have written books to define these errors, and why they are errors, like St. Alphonsus Liguori with the History of Heresies. There are many. St. Hippolytus of Rome. Denzinger. Belloc. Fortunately, we don't have to go read all of these, we can just read the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It's the Reader's Digest condensed version of about a million pages and scrolls from Adam to Pope Francis. There's a reason these ideas come back to life, and it's because we default toward doubt, not faith. And faith is a gift. With the eyes of faith, the heresies are clear, as the scales fall away from our vision once we see Christ for who he really is, and that is God. Once you can see Jesus and hear the word of God, then it's clear why none of the heresies work in practice. This is why they don't stick. They come and go like an Old Navy shirt - sure, it feels good for a bit, but you can tell how cheap it is, and you'll throw it out after a few years. The heresies sound good when you first discover them. They seem to make sense. This is why it took me a while to figure out that everything that Dan Brown writes is actually a spoof comedy, not a drama. Because his send-ups of heresy as truth and adventures in bad history lessons made me re-arrange my video shelf so that The Da Vinci Code sits right next to Dumb and Dumber. When I need a light-hearted night to let loose, I can choose either movie. The reason heresy is declared and marked as incorrect is not about power and control. It's about what heresies do, and what they don't do. It's about how they misunderstand Jesus and salvation history. It's about a false way to know God. The reason heresies are declared is simple: they do not work. They do not work logically or spiritually. They do not work in the mind, in the soul, or in the body. This is the thing I've been saying in this entire series in talking about sales and practical application. There are many shiny things that seem real, but like advertising for bad products, those things wind up being a mirage in the desert. What works is not just that which sells. Consumers and voters may select bad choices. Mistakes play out over time, long after the sale was made. What becomes heresy is not based on popular opinion, but based on what happens when an error is chosen. There is perhaps nothing more vindicating in the Church's slowness than in its rejection of birth control and abortion, as both of these “cure-all” remedies of the techno-utopian evangelists have blown up spectacularly. What was supposed to solve divorce, unhappiness, and family issues has exploded in divorce, unhappiness, and family issues. What works is that which lasts and endures through the ages. What works isn't always what seems easy, but what works satisfies the intellect, the will, the body, and the soul. Virtue works. Chastity works. Humility works. Faith works. Hooking up with random sex partners and pretending it doesn't matter? That doesn't work. Shouting your abortion? That doesn't work. Believe in yourself instead of something higher? That doesn't work. Perception is reality? That doesn't work. All of these ideas run into the rock of life, the true test, where bad ideas run aground. But we forget this every generation, and we re-learn it in every generation. We forget the Truth because we want to be new and clever, but the bad ideas are always old and warmed-up leftovers. This is why someone like Jean-Paul Sartre can be celebrated for a hundred years for saying, “God is dead,” when he's just saying the same thing every middle-schooler has said since the beginning of time. But when you do so with a Ph.D. it seems to have weight, despite the long-winded argument being the result of never growing past high school rebellion. What happens then is that everyone else also stuck in that ninth-grade rejection of authority, claps their hands and says, “Brilliant!” because it satisfies their egos and excuses their sin. This is why the same heresies pop up and die over and over again because heresies are exactly like dandelions. Orthodoxy, however, is like a redwood tree. Hardwoods grow slowly, apparently weak as saplings, while the wild and fast-growing grasses spring up quickly. But what is apparently hale and hearty in spring dies in the autumn. The hardwoods always win in the end, because they are built to last through the seasons of life, and that includes the winter of suffering. To go back to the sports metaphor, Catholicism is a fourth-quarter faith. It's not for the first drive down the field, or for the halftime show. It's built for the last drive that wins the game. It's for the long haul, made to last, not for showing off and fading away. So, to bring this back to heresy and Marcion: you have to read about Marcion to understand why his idea of “the Old Testament God is not the same as the New Testament” is an error all by itself, and a very dangerous one at that because it twists scripture into a wildly different shape. In the early church, Tertullian and others took up the battle and won the argument, closing the door on Marcionism forever as an error in what the Church founded by Jesus believes. And it's not a “because I said so” argument and defense, it is well-reasoned and logical, and worth exploring. Many of the “Jesus as the dude” arguments are a form of Marcionism, just as much as anti-Semitism has a taproot in Marcionism. But if I don't stop here, this post will turn into a lengthy discussion on this particular heresy, so let's move forward. More to come in part 2. Perhaps a whole series on heresies is needed, but that may require a more focused mind than my own, like those who have already written books on it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.whydidpetersink.com

This is part 6 of the Early Church History class. In the latter half of the second century, two kinds of Christians arose to defend the faith. On the one hand, apologists wrote defenses of Christianity directed at the Roman government. They responded to rumors, arguing that Christians were decent people who should be shown toleration. On the other hand, heresy hunters (or heresiologists) began to combat Christian groups that diverged significantly from apostolic Christianity, such as the Gnostics, Valentinians, and Marcionites. Today we'll briefly overview this fascinating period of Christianity when persuasion not coercion was the means to defeat one's opponents. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43mIuUVqCK0&list=PLN9jFDsS3QV2lk3B0I7Pa77hfwKJm1SRI&index=6 —— Links —— More Restitutio resources on Christian history More classes here Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here —— Notes —— Apologists (Defenders) of the 2nd C. - Quadratus (130?)- Aristo of Pella (c. 140?)- Aristides (c. 145)- Miltiades (c. 160-180?)- Justin Martyr (d. 165)- Athenagoras (c. 170-180)- Melito of Sardis (c. 170-180?)- Appolinaris of Hierapolis (170-180)- Tatian (d. 180?)- Theophilus of Antioch (c. 180-185)- Epistle of Diognetus (150-225) Quadratus of Athens (130) - addressed book to Hadrian (r. 117-138)- claimed to know people healed by Jesus Epistle of Diognetus (150-225) - author ideas: Hippolytus, Aristides, Pantaenus- common criticisms are that Christians are incestuous b/c we call each other brother and sister, cannibals b/c we eat body and blood of Jesus, atheists b/c we didn't believe in the gods, politically subversive b/c we didn't honor the emperor by offering incense to his statue- Diog. 5.1-17 provides an excellent example of an effective apologist Justin Martyr (100-165) - Stoic -> Peripatetic -> Pythagorean -> Platonist -> Christian- founded a school in Rome- claimed Greek philosophers accessed truth of the Logos, thus Christianity is not a novel religion- Justin addressed his case to the Roman emperor and his sons and the senate and the Roman people (First Apology 1.1-2)- Dialogue with Trypho employed the idea of heresy as defined by a key belief—resurrection (see chapter 80) Heresy Hunters - Justin (140-160)- Irenaeus (180-199)- Tertullian (200-213)- Hippolytus (200-230)- Eusebius (324)- Epiphanius (374-377)- Theodoret (452-453) Standard Arguments - too complicated- trace beliefs to heresiarch- unnatural interpretation of scripture- can't trace beliefs back to the apostles- perverted truth leads to perverted morals- new generations recycle old heresies Irenaeus of Lyons (130-202)- Argued against Valentinus, Marcus, Ptolemaeus, Saturninus, Basilides, Carpocrates, Cerinthus, Ebionites, Nicolaitans, Cerdo, Marcion, Tatian, the Encratites, Orphites, Sethians, Cainites, and others- Against Heresies (aka. The Refutation and Overthrow of Falsely Called Gnosis) intended to equip church leaders to protect their unsuspecting flock from getting tricked into believing any forms of Gnosticism Review - Apologists focused on defending Christianity against outsiders by writing to the Roman authorities and laying out a case for toleration.- Justin Martyr taught that Christianity had continuity with Greek philosophers who also accessed the Logos.- Heresy hunters (heresiologists) defended Christianity against insiders who had differing beliefs from theirs.- Christians fought heresy by using key beliefs they knew their opponents couldn't affirm and by labelling them.- Justin and Irenaeus emphasized resurrection and an ultimate kingdom on earth to exclude those who held varieties of Gnostic beliefs.

This is part 3 of the Early Church History class. Today we begin to look at the second century. We'll start by considering Jewish Christian movements, including the Nazarenes and the Ebionites. Next we'll shift gears and explore the cultural pressure of asceticism and how it began infiltrating Christianity. We'll briefly survey the influence of Marcion and his followers before sketching out the various christologies of second century. This episode is a hodgepodge of unrelated topics that overlap in the same time period. This will serve as a good introduction before we get into other topics in the second century. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxFkeSR6LGg&list=PLN9jFDsS3QV2lk3B0I7Pa77hfwKJm1SRI&index=3 —— Links —— More Restitutio resources on history More classes here Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here —— Notes —— Outline Jewish Christianity Asceticism Marcion Gnostics Christologies in the 2nd c. Jewish Christianity Patricia Crone: “Originally, the bastion of law-observing Christianity was the Jerusalem church, the undisputed center of Christianity until the first Jewish war with Rome (AD 66–70). When this war broke out, the Jerusalem Christians reportedly fled to Pella (Ar. Fiḥl) in the Decapolis in Transjordan, and though some returned to the devastated city in 70, they were expelled again after the suppression of Bar Kokhba's revolt in 135, when Hadrian forbade Jews to reside in Jerusalem. Thereafter, Jewish Christians were concentrated in the Aleppo region in northern Syria, in the Decapolis around Pella…and in the Dead Sea region, as we know from Epiphanius (d. 403) and Jerome (d. 420). They would seem also to have been present in the Golan, where excavators of an abandoned village have found lintels decorated with a combination of crosses, menorahs, and other mixed Jewish and Christian symbols, probably indicating that the building was a Jewish Christian synagogue. After Epiphanius and Jerome, however, we have no certain evidence for the existence of Jewish Christians in Greek, Latin, or Syriac sources written before the rise of Islam.”[1] For Nazarenes see Epiphanius, Panarion 29.7.1-6; 29.9.2-4 For Ebionites see Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3.27.1-6 Asceticism ἄσκησις, askesis = exercise, training asceticism is the rigorous pursuit of discipline in avoiding bodily pleasures Examples Acts of Paul and Thecla Proto-Gospel of James Acts of John Marcion of Sinope Lived from 85 to 164 Founded his own churches God of the OT is not the God of the NT Docetism: Jesus only appeared human Canon: list of books in the Bible Gnostics believed in pre-creation myth they were Platonists who accepted his creation account, called Timaeus Valentinus streamlined Gnostic religion and brought Jesus to a more central role followers attended mainstream churches on Sunday, but then studied “deeper truths” during the week Christology in the 2nd Century Dynamic Monarchians (Ebionites, Nazarenes, Didache, 1 Clement, Hermas, Theodotus of Byzantium) Docetists (Marcion, Gnostics, Valentinus) Logos Subordinationists (Psuedo-Barnabas, 2 Clement, Justin, Irenaeus) Modalistic Monarchians (Praxeas) [1] Patricia Crone, “Jewish Christianity and the Qurʾān (Part One)”, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol 74, no 2 (October 2015), 226.

Jordan Daniel Wood is a Catholic theologian and stay-at-home dad of four young daughters. He holds a PhD in Historical Theology from Boston College. I have talked with him before with John Vervaeke, and Nathan Hile. We talk mostly about his book "The Whole Mystery of Christ" and Maximus the Confessor. We also mention Hans Urs von Balthasar, Friedrich Nietzsche, Barton Stone, Alexander Campbell, John Piper, Tim Keller, NT Wright, Marcion, Origen of Alexandria, Athanasius of Alexandria, Augustine of Hippo, Fr John Behr, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thomas Aquinas, Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa, Evagrius Ponticus, Josephus, Hillary of Poitiers, Cyril of Alexandria, Dionysius the Areopagite, Karl Rahner, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, Nestorius, and many more. The Book "The Whole Mystery of Christ" : https://www.amazon.com/Whole-Mystery-Christ-Incarnation-Confessor/dp/0268203474 Our previous conversation on Grail Country: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjyz-HwQM10

This is the longest episode I have done so far! I wanted to offer an accessible episode focusing on the nature of Gnosticism and how it has crept into the Church today. The episode delves into its origin, its leader, Marcion, and the evangelical absorption of gnostic thought in worship and practice. I conclude the episode by discussing ways to rid ourselves of this monster. Resources: Subscribe to special episodes for $1 a month Creation in Six Days by James B. Jordan Gnosis: The Nature and History of Gnosticism --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/uriesou-tenorio-brito/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/uriesou-tenorio-brito/support

1 John Series – Part 2 Biblical Life TV | BLTV1JN002   In this episode, Dr. Lake continues his study on 1 John Chapter 1.  He examines the theological concepts of both the transcendence and immanence of God.  Dr. Lake also examines the heresy of Marcion and how it has affected our theologies today.   Don't forget to download the study notes for this episode at www.kingdomintelligencebriefing.com   Dr. Michael Lake is the Scholar-in-Residence of the Strategic Remnant Learning Center -  Biblical Life Assembly, the Chancellor and Founder of Biblical Life College and Seminary. He is the author of the best-selling books, The Shinar Directive: Preparing the Way for the Son of Perdition, The Sheeriyth Imperative: Empowering the Remnant to Overcome the Gates of Hell, and The Kingdom Priesthood:  Preparing and Equipping the Remnant Priesthood for the Last Days. Dr. Lake is a popular speaker at national Christian conferences and is a frequent guest on many Christian TV and radio/podcast programs in North America.  

Welcome to another episode of the ExCommunicated podcast. We are two ex-Christians joined every week by a guest as we try to find freedom from the church after decades of control. In this week's episode, we continue to look at the Christmas story in the bible and discuss discrepancies. This week we're looking at Luke's Gospel, as well as differences in the genealogies. We hope you enjoyed this episode and feel free to send us an email if you have any experiences that you'd like to share!The aim of this podcast is to work through our own struggles and stories and provide support and hope to any listeners going through the same thing. We'd LOVE to hear from you with feedback, episode ideas or personal stories:excommpod@gmail.comINSTA - @excommpod FACEBOOK GROUP: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1538013896636661/?ref=share_group_linkJoin us next week from 10am to Reclaim Our Sundays!SOURCES: https://www.bartehrman.comhttps://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Life-of-Jesus-Critically-Examinedhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcion_of_Sinopehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3niN4E-XzQVideo Mentioned - history of the entire world, i guess: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuCn8ux2gbsIf you have questions about this episode or would like to share your own experiences, send us a message and we'll discuss it in a future episode! The aim of this podcast is to work through our own struggles and stories and provide support and hope to any listeners going through the same thing. We'd LOVE to hear from you with feedback, episode ideas or personal stories:EMAIL US - excommpod@gmail.comINSTA - https://www.instagram.com/excommpodFACEBOOK GROUP: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1538013896636661/?ref=share_group_linkSUPPORT THE SHOW :) - https://www.buzzsprout.com/1829073/supportIf you've enjoyed our show and got value from our chats, please consider donating to help the show continue!Join us next week from 10am to Reclaim Our Sundays!

Weekly Wisdom and Wonderings: We discuss the importance of developing trust as a leader.Main Topic: Theonomy suggests that the Mosaic law gives us a model for contemporary civil government. Does this align with Scripture? Why is Theonomy problematic? What should Christians do instead?

God Has No Skin in The Game? In this episode, we discuss Tertullian's argument against Marcion about God's being born flesh and blood in his treatise, On The Flesh of Christ. What's at stake when well-meaning Christians disembody God and, consequently, Christians? — SHOW NOTES: Tertullian bio https://www.theopedia.com/tertullian  Tertullian - On the Flesh of Christ - Chapters III & IV: https://ccel.org/ccel/tertullian/christ_flesh/anf03.v.vii.iii.html SUPPORT 1517 Podcast Network https://www.1517.org/podcasts/ Support the work of 1517 http://1517.org/give Warrior Priest Gym & Podcast https://thewarriorpriestpodcast.wordpress.com St John's Lutheran Church (Webster, MN) - FB Live Bible Study Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/356667039608511 Gillespie's Sermons and Catechesis: https://stjohnrandomlake.org/church/media/ Gillespie Coffee https://gillespie.coffee Gillespie Media https://gillespie.media The Banned Pastors https://t.me/bannedpastors CONTACT and FOLLOW BannedBooks@1517.org Facebook Twitter SUBSCRIBE YouTube Rumble Odysee Apple Podcasts Spotify Stitcher Overcast Google Play TuneIn Radio iHeartRadio

The rest of the show covers the second half of the second century. In this period, the little Jesus clubs evolved into the imperial church incorporate. This and the next few episodes cover the three dominant personalities of that period. In this episode I investigate the ‘heretic' Marcion of Sinope. Marcion shook the church to its foundations when he moved to Rome. He rejected the idea that Christianity was based on Judaism and the Old testament. He constructed the first Christian canon: ten letters of Paul, and a reduced version of the gospel of Luke. Decisively expelled by the imperial church incorporate, Marcion returned to Asia Minor and founded a successful rival to the church, one that persisted for centuries. Marcion forced the church to build its own canon, and to raise Paul from obscure letter-writer and martyr, to pre-eminent apostle. 

There are many critics of the Bible, but one of the earliest was the Gnostic Marcion. In today's daily episode, we wrap up the learnings around Valentinus, and are introduced to Marcion - one of the earliest critics of the Bible. My website: https://ungraduated.com/ Ungraduated Book: https://www.amazon.com/Ungraduated-Finding-dropping-outdated-systems-ebook/dp/B09SXCBY6R/ref=sr_1_1?crid=28QTYUU7T5BN4&keywords=ungraduated+book&qid=1655499090&sprefix=ungraduate%2Caps%2C122&sr=8-1 Join the Ungraduated Living Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/454790476338234

The idea of a deficient Demiurge was widespread in early Christian times. Why? Between a literal reading of the Hebrew Bible and pagan polemics, the moral and authoritative standing of the creator was fiercely questioned. From Egyptian priests to Gnostic sects, from Paul to Marcion, we read the ancient Yelp reviews of Yahweh. As a bonus, I provide a spanning exposition of the Sethians, including theology, history, culture, and impact.Astral Guest – Dr. David Litwa, author of The Evil Creator: Origins of an Early Christian Idea.This is a partial show. For the second half of the interview, please become a member or patron at Patreon.This is a partial show. For the second half of the interview, please become an AB Prime member: http://thegodabovegod.com/members/subscription-levels/  or patron at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aeonbyteGet the simple, effective, and affordable Red Circle Private RSS Feed for all full showsMore information on David: https://mdavidlitwa.wordpress.com/Get the book: https://amzn.to/3FvopXOBecome a patron and keep this Red Pill Cafeteria growing: https://www.patreon.com/aeonbyteSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/aeon-byte-gnostic-radio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy