HERESY SERIES: PART 2
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QUESTION: The Gnostic heresy believes that there is a “divine spark” of goodness within everyone. The Pelagian heresy believes that mankind is not corrupted by original sin and can therefore live a sin-free life. Do you think that non-Christians have a “divine spark” of goodness within them and/or can they do anything that is viewed by God as good?
Gnosticism is a category of heretical Christian sects that first emerged in the early second century. Gnosticism believes that special and secret knowledge is required to achieve immortality. Gnosticism is from the Greek gnōstikós (γνωστικός), mean to have knowledge. There were significant variations of Gnosticism, but they all generally taught the following: (1) there is a supreme good God, but also a lesser god called the Demiurge; (2) the world is the evil creation of the Demiurge; (3) there is a spark of good spirit in some people that is trapped in their evil body; (4) saving knowledge (gnōsis) is required to liberate this good essence and thereby achieve immortality. One of the major forms of early Gnosticism was Valentinianism. It taught that Jesus (a good spirit) entered the human son of the Virgin at baptism and left during the interrogation of Pilot, before the torture and crucifixion. Our two readings are from Irenaeus and Tertullian, both who explain and refute the Valentinian form of Gnosticism.
Irenaeus of Lyons (c.130–202) was an early church Father who played an important role both in the spread of Christian churches and in the establishment of orthodox doctrine. He is the author of Against Heresies, which is a refutation of Gnosticism. He taught that true doctrine is supported by three pillars: Scripture, apostolic tradition, and teachings that can be traced back directly to the apostles. Irenaeus is the first known person to assert the essential importance of all four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
IRENAEUS READING: These men falsify the oracles of God, and prove themselves evil interpreters of the good word of revelation. They also overthrow the faith of many, by drawing them away, under a pretense of [superior] knowledge, from Him who rounded and adorned the universe; as if, forsooth, they had something more excellent and sublime to reveal, than that God who created the heaven and the earth, and all things that are therein. By means of specious and plausible words, they cunningly allure the simple-minded to inquire into their system; but they nevertheless clumsily destroy them, while they initiate them into their blasphemous and impious opinions respecting the Demiurge; and these simple ones are unable, even in such a matter, to distinguish falsehood from truth. Error, indeed, is never set forth in its naked deformity, lest, being thus exposed, it should at once be detected. But it is craftily decked out in an attractive dress, so as, by its outward form, to make it appear to the inexperienced (ridiculous as the expression may seem) more true than the truth itself … I intend, then, to the best of my ability, with brevity and clearness to set forth the opinions of those who are now promulgating heresy. I refer especially to the disciples of Ptolemæus, whose school may be described as a bud from that of Valentinus. [Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book 1: Preface]
Tertullian (c.155–220) was a prominent Christian theologian from Carthage and the first Christian to produce a large amount of writing in Latin. He is often referred to as the Father of Latin Christianity and as the Founder of Western Theology. His writings are the first to use the word “trinity.” Although a prolific author of dogmatics and apologetics, Tertullian’s most famous work are refutations of heresies. This included Against Marcion, a refutation of Marcionism, and Against The Valentinians, a refutation of the Valentinian form of Gnosticism.
TERTULLIAN READING: I now adduce (what they say) concerning Christ, upon whom some of them engraft Jesus with so much license, that they foist into Him a spiritual seed together with an animal inflatus. Indeed, I will not undertake to describe these incongruous crammings, which they have contrived in relation both to their men and their gods. Even the Demiurge has a Christ of His own – His natural Son. An animal, in short, produced by Himself, proclaimed by the prophets – His position being one which must be decided by prepositions; in other words, He was produced by means of a virgin, rather than of a virgin! On the ground that, having descended into the virgin rather in the manner of a passage through her than of a birth by her, He came into existence through her, not of her – not experiencing a mother in her, but nothing more than a way. Upon this same Christ, therefore (so they say.), Jesus descended in the sacrament of baptism, in the likeness of a dove … he remained in Christ to the last, impassible, incapable of injury, incapable of apprehension. By and by, when it came to a question of capture, he departed from him during the examination before Pilate. [Tertullian, Against The Valentinians, Ch. XXVII]
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