Kerinthians - Gnostic Heresy

Dissent from the Creed - Heresies Past and Present
by Richard M. Hogan
Kerinthian, Ebionite, Elchasaite, and Mandean Heresies

   Gnostics believed in God, but they thought God did not create the material world. A lesser being who created the material world and ruled through the aid of evil beings was the creator of the world. Human beings exist in the material world created by the lesser god. But without the knowledge of this lesser god, human beings have been given a "spark," a divine element, which belongs to the true God. Gnosis also means knowing the true God and knowing that true human happiness consists through union with God.

   Gnosticism embraces dualism. There are two principles: good and evil. Evil is material and physical. Good is spiritual and divine. There is an anti-god, who is not equal to God, but who governs through evil and who created the spiritual world . The point of life is to come to the God who is all good and to escape the god who is evil.

   Taking ideas and practices from Christian, Jewish, and Gnostic sources, a series of religious movements developed about the turn of the second century in the lands east and north of Palestine. Among these movements was one begun by a certain Kerinthos.

Kerinthians

   According to Irenaeus (bishop of Lyons, c. 200), Kerinthos lived in Asia Minor about the end of the first century (c. 100). He was probably influenced by Gnostic ideas and heterodox Jewish movements as well as by the Judaizers within Jewish Christian circles.

   Kerinthos emphasized the observance of the Sabbath and the Jewish laws. He also taught that Jesus was the natural son of Mary and Joseph, but not God the Son. According to Kerinthos, God recognized Jesus' justice and wisdom and so at the time of Jesus' baptism, Christ (God the Son) descended on Jesus. From that time on, Jesus taught about the Father and performed miracles. But Christ left Jesus before his passion and death. Further, Kerinthos distinguished between the highest God and the creator of the world, who did not know the highest God. This last idea has tinges of Gnosticism and might have attracted some who held Gnostic beliefs.

   Kerinthos's teaching on Christ is clearly heterodox, but in denying the divinity of Christ and the virgin birth as well as the concept of God dying for our sins, his ideas have been more acceptable in Jewish circles, but not to faithful Christians. Of course, his emphasis on the Jewish law and the observance of the Sabbath attracted the Jews as well as the Judaizers in Christian circles, but again diverged from orthodox Christianity and Judaism. The notion of  a highest God and the God-creator also is unacceptable in an Orthodox Christian context or for that matter in an Orthodox Jewish belief system.

   Kerinthos does not seem to have gained a very large following. Nevertheless, even at this early date in the life of the Church, Christians were troubled by anyone questioning the divinity of Christ. Irenaeus tells us that St. John wrote his fourth Gospel in response to Kerinthos. This is an intriguing remark. It would explain the wonderful emphasis in St. John's Gospel on the divinity of Christ. The truth is probably that Kerinthos's teaching was one of stimulus among many (not excluding the divine influence of the Holy Spirit) which prompted St. John to give us the fourth Gospel.

The Koran worngly states that the Jews Worshiped Ezra as "the Son of God"

Two of the most obvious mistakes in the Koran is that Christians worship Jesus as the biological son of God and that Jews worship Ezra as the biological son of God. Islamic apologists often try to say that there was Gnostic Christians that believed Jesus was the biological son of God and therefore that is why that is in the Koran. The only problem with this argument is that none of the know Gnostic groups believed that. Additionally their presence in Arabia is pure conjecture. The bigger problem though is the statement that Jews worshiped Ezra as the biological son of God. No matter how you look at this statement it is wrong. The Jews never worshiped Ezra as Orthodox Christians worship Jesus and they never worship Ezra as the biological son of God. There has never been any group of Jews, heretical or otherwise, who worshiped Ezra as the Son of God. If the Koran was the creation of Allah you would think he would at least know what it is that the Jews believed. If Allah didn't even know what it was that the Jews believe then the Koran is not the creation of God, but of Muhammad which makes Islam a lie.

A great article on the subject was written at: http://answering-islam.org/Responses/Saifullah/ezra.htm

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Jihad in the West  by Paul Fregosi
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
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The jihad originates in the Koranic teaching and was practiced by Muhammad in his lifetime against Jewish and Pagan tribes in the Arabian peninsula, and soon after his death against the Persians and against the Christian peoples of the Byzantine empire, Syria, and Palestine. Hundreds of years later it terrified Europe. "From the fury of the Mahommedan, spare us, O Lord" was a prayer heard for centuries in all the churches of central and southern Europe. Fear of the Jihad had not entirely vanished even now, particularly among peoples who have known Muslim domination. The French expert on Islam, Maxime Robinson, reminded us of it a few years ago in the June 17, 1994, issue of the Paris newspaper Le Monde: "There are some words that scare people, jihad is one of them. When Serbian leaders want to satanize the Bosnian army they declare that Alija Izet Begovic (the Bosnian Muslim leader) has proclaimed Holy war, the jihad, the feared weapon of Islam."

Have people been shrinking for the last several thousand years?

According to Muhammad people are shrinking. This of course is just plain wrong. People have gotten taller over the centuries not shorter:

Bukhari Hadith 4:543

Narrated Abu Huraira:
The Prophet said, "Allah created Adam, making him 60 cubits tall. When He created him, He said to him, "Go and greet that group of angels, and listen to their reply, for it will be your greeting (salutation) and the greeting (salutations of your offspring." So, Adam said (to the angels), As-Salamu Alaikum (i.e. Peace be upon you). The angels said, "As-salamu Alaika wa Rahmatu-l-lahi" (i.e. Peace and Allah's Mercy be upon you). Thus the angels added to Adam's salutation the expression, 'Wa Rahmatu-l-lahi,' Any person who will enter Paradise will resemble Adam (in appearance and figure). People have been decreasing in stature since Adam's creation.

Muhammad unwittingly called Jesus God

Muhammad did not understand Christian theology. Jesus is understood to be God in Christian theology because he has the attributes of God not because he explicitly calls himself God. One of the attributes of God is Judgement of mankind (see Matthew 25:31-46).  Only God judges mankind. When inventing Islam Muhammad borrowed the idea of Jesus sitting in judgement over mankind from Christianity. When he did so he unwittingly claimed that Jesus was God.

Bukhari Hadith 4:658

Narrated Abu Huraira:
Allah's Apostle said "How will you be when the son of Mary (i.e. Jesus) descends amongst you and he will judge people by the Law of the Quran and not by the law of Gospel (Fateh-ul Bari page 304 and 305 Vol 7)

Muhammad wrongly believe Moses and Adam were Contemporaries

Muhammad wrongly believed Moses and Adam were contemporaries:

Bukhari Hadith 4:621

 Narrated Abu Huraira:

Allah's Apostle said, "Adam and Moses argued with each other. Moses said to Adam. 'You are Adam whose mistake expelled you from Paradise.' Adam said to him, 'You are Moses whom Allah selected as His Messenger and as the one to whom He spoke directly; yet you blame me for a thing which had already been written in my fate before my creation?"' Allah's Apostle said twice, "So, Adam overpowered Moses."

Coptic Egypt - The First Church of Alexandria P1

Coptic Egypt - The Christians of the Nile
The First Church of Alexandria
by Christan Cannuyer
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The Greek historian Herodotus, writing in the 5th century BC, characterized the Egyptians of his time as "excessively religious, more so than any other people in the world." Indeed over three millennia the civilization of pharaonic Egypt centered on the cultural concept we call religion, even though the ancient Egyptian language has no such word. While all the civilizations of the Middle East were fundamentally religious, in Egypt religion was omnipresent in all human activity. Its optimistic vision of the world distinguished it from other ancient Near and Middle Eastern religious practices, as did the view, which dates to the era of the pyramids (c. 2600 BC) that death is not an end, but a new beginning, a passage to the next life.

Coptic Egypt - The Christians of the Nile

Coptic Egypt - The Christians of the Nile
by Christan Cannuyer

The Copts are the Christians of Egypt. Theirs is among the most ancient forms of Christianity, born in the time of Jesus. The name derives from the Arabic Qibt, an abbreviation of the Greek name Aigyptios (Egyptian); this in turn is a derivation of Hikuptah, House of the Energy of Ptah, the religious name for Memphis, the capital city of ancient Egypt. Coptic Christianity mingles remnants of pharaonic practices, elements of Hellenistic and Byzantine Egyptian culture, and the dynamism of Arab civilization.

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Jihad in the West  by Paul Fregosi
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
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"The sword is the key to Heaven and Hell" Muhammad told his followers. 600 years earlier, Christ had said, "He who lives by the sword shall perish by the sword." Muslims who kill are following the commands of Muhammad, but Christians who kill - and there are many - are ignoring the words of Christ. Therein perhaps lies one of the basic philosophical differences, as well as one of the ethical differences, between Islam and Christianity.

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Jihad in the West  by Paul Fregosi
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
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Although there have been Jihads in the three old continents, I have limited this history to Europe. The world is too vast a stage. Asia, particularly the formerly Christian Near East and Central Asia, and the subcontinent of India undoubtedly deserve the history of their own jihads also. So does Africa,with the Muslim conquest of old Christian Egypt and North Africa, as well as large parts of West and East Africa with animist and black tribal religions. But for this first general history of the jihad, Europe provides sufficiently extensive setting.

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Jihad in the West  by Paul Fregosi
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
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The jihad appears more and more as an interminable fact of life, almost a freak of nature. Like the Earth going around the Sun, the jihad seems to have power, if not perpetual motion, at least of perpetual continuity. In this domain of the stars and planets, a friend of mine once compared it to Haley's  Comet. "It steaks across the sky, then vanishes again." The comparison is not quite true. Haley's Comet appears very rarely and does no damage. Jihad appears quite frequently and does a lot of damage. So does its modern terrorist version. So does its modern terrorist version.

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Jihad in the West  by Paul Fregosi
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
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In the past, individual muslims fought in wars against infidels in a supposed gesture of piety and loyalty. Yet the wars themselves were - and still are - usually essentially territorial and political. No change is visible in the offing. The Encyclopedia of Islam, published in Leyden in 1913, is quite explicit: "Islam must be completely made over before the jihad is eliminated." But the elimination of the jihad seems nowhere in sight. On the contrary, it is probably more deeply imbedded in the muslim mind than at any time in the past two centuries, and its elimination seems very far off indeed.

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Jihad in the West  by Paul Fregosi
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
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There are still many muslims who believe that it is islam's manifest destiny to conquer the whole world. Obliged to face the realities of the modern world, many may not be too sure about this article of their faith. But, just the same, many still ardently cling to it, even among the millions of immigrants who have made their home in France and Britain. The fundamentalists and those who have faith in the message of Ayatollah Khomeini do. So do those we can call muslim revivalists, devout and sincere followers of the "prophet" but unwilling to take part in the militant postures and actions of the fundamentalists. Profoundly disturbed by the moral degradation of Western society today, they are convinced the future belongs to islam.

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Jihad in the West  by Paul Fregosi
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
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For well over a 1,000 yrs the jihad has been first and foremost a fighting war, an imperialist form of war, like the wars of colonial or continental Rome or, more recently, of Britain, France, Spain, Germany, Russia, and the United States. The muslims make no distinction between religion and state, hence the "holy" tinge that their imperialist wars have acquired. Let us not be deceived by the religious coloring muslims gave to their territorial conquests. The jihad wars were sheer imperialism, just as ours were.

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Jihad in the West  by Paul Fregosi
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
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To understand the jihad we must be clear in our minds about what it is and, first of all, what it is not. To start, it is not what most people think it is. The purpose is not to convert unbelievers to islam by force. This may have been so in its the first century of life, when the choice given to the defeated was conversion to islam or death, but this was soon changed to conversion to islam, death or tribute in the form of a special tax. It was the case of "your money or your life"! The purpose the jihad became, and basically still is, to expand and extend islam until the whole world was under muslim rule. The jihad is essentially a permanent state of hostility that islam maintains against the rest of the world, with or without fighting, for more sovereignty over more territory. We should at this point recall the words of Jacques Ellal who, on his forward to Bat Yeor's "The Decline of Eastern Christianity" reminds us of an almost forgotten basic fact concerning the jihad: "Jihad is a religious obligation. It forms part of the duties that the believer must fulfill: it is islam's normal path to expansion." The jihad is an institution in islam which in Christian language we would call a sacrament. It is part of the normal functioning of the muslim world, a religious duty which the devout muslim has to perform if called upon.

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Jihad in the West  by Paul Fregosi
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
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Should we take the ayatollah's word's as the vaporing of an angry old man or as a recall of the past, a reminder of the present, and a warning of things to come? The choice is ours. But the past calls for our special attention, as well as the present. The jihad "war of conquest" is a historical reality that has lasted more than 1,300 yrs. The terrorist jihad that exists today is a topical political reality. The advent of the Ayatollah Khomeini on the international scene has strikingly heralded the return to the world of an aggressive islam after more than a century of quiet: Western imperialism and colonialism and colonial domination shackled islam to the west for a century and stifled the jihad until the mid-20th century.

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Jihad in the West  by Paul Fregosi
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
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Forgetting that the jihad was nearly 500 years old when the Crusades set out on their 1st campaign to recover the Holy Land, muslims see the Crusades as the starting point of the long military confrontation between islam and the Western World. The Ayatollah Khomeini, modern hero and saint to hundreds of millions muslims, said the jihad "means the conquest of non-muslim territory. The domination of koranic law from the end of the earth to the other is...the final goal...of this war of conquest." So it was for hundreds of years before the Crusades, so it has been since.

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Jihad in the West  by Paul Fregosi
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
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The jihad has been the most unrecorded and disregarded major event of history. It has, in fact, been largely ignored. For instance, the Encyclopedia Britannica gives the Crusades eighty times more space than the jihad. In the New South Wales State Library there were 108 entries listed in the catalog cards for Crusades, but only two for jihad! The jihad has been largely bypassed by Western historians. The jihad has affected the lives - and continues to do so - of far, far more people and regions in the world than the long extinct Crusades ever did.

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Jihad in the West  by Paul Fregosi
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
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The jihad, the islamic so-called holy war, has been a fact of life in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Near and Middle East for more than 1,300 years. Hundreds of books have appeared on the Christian counterpart , the Crusades, to which jihad is often compared, although they lasted less than 200 years and unlike jihad, which is universal, were largely confined to the Holy land. Moreover, the Crusades have been over for more than 700 years, while jihad is still going on in the world.