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.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
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
A great article on the subject was written at: http://answering-islam.org/Responses/Saifullah/ezra.htm
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Jihad in the West - The Holy War that Isn't P12
Jihad in the West by Paul Fregosi
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
Paragraph 12
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."
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
Paragraph 12
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.
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)
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."
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
Paragraph 1
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.
The First Church of Alexandria
by Christan Cannuyer
Paragraph 1
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.
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