Heresy: Difference between revisions
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=What is heresy?= | =What is heresy?= | ||
Message followers often quote Acts 24:14 in support of their following William Branham: | |||
:''But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and the prophets,<ref>Norton, D., ed. (2011). The New Cambridge Paragraph Bible with the Apocrypha: King James Version (Revised edition, Ac 24:13–14). Cambridge University Press.</ref> | |||
The Greek term hairesis originally denoted an action or belief selected from multiple options. In classical Greek, the word could be employed positively or negatively—initially meaning simply “choice,” then “a chosen course of procedure,” and later referring to various schools and intellectual movements, including those devoted to studying Greek literature. | |||
As a result, modern interpretations translate ''hairesis'' as "sect": | |||
:''“But this I admit to you, that according to the Way which they call a '''sect''' I do serve the God of our fathers...<ref>New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Ac 24:14.</ref> | :''“But this I admit to you, that according to the Way which they call a '''sect''' I do serve the God of our fathers...<ref>New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Ac 24:14.</ref> | ||
Heresy is a kind of unbelief.<ref>Thomas Aquinas. (n.d.). Summa theologica (Fathers of the English Dominican Province, Trans.; Vol. 9, p. 156). Burns Oates & Washbourne.</ref> | The Sadducees and Pharisees were designated as sects, as were early Jewish believers in Jesus known as “the sect of the Nazarenes”—neutral descriptors at that stage. However, as the church developed, the term came to identify factious groups holding opinions contrary to apostolic truth. By the time of the New Testament, hairesis denoted organized parties when divisions had crystallized into distinct factions, and in 2 Peter the concept moved toward its later ecclesiastical sense, describing those guilty of doctrinal and moral errors who separated from church fellowship. | ||
Heresy is now described as a kind of unbelief.<ref>Thomas Aquinas. (n.d.). Summa theologica (Fathers of the English Dominican Province, Trans.; Vol. 9, p. 156). Burns Oates & Washbourne.</ref> | |||
=Major heresies in the early church= | =Major heresies in the early church= | ||
Revision as of 18:36, 16 March 2026
What is heresy?
Message followers often quote Acts 24:14 in support of their following William Branham:
- But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and the prophets,[1]
The Greek term hairesis originally denoted an action or belief selected from multiple options. In classical Greek, the word could be employed positively or negatively—initially meaning simply “choice,” then “a chosen course of procedure,” and later referring to various schools and intellectual movements, including those devoted to studying Greek literature.
As a result, modern interpretations translate hairesis as "sect":
- “But this I admit to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect I do serve the God of our fathers...[2]
The Sadducees and Pharisees were designated as sects, as were early Jewish believers in Jesus known as “the sect of the Nazarenes”—neutral descriptors at that stage. However, as the church developed, the term came to identify factious groups holding opinions contrary to apostolic truth. By the time of the New Testament, hairesis denoted organized parties when divisions had crystallized into distinct factions, and in 2 Peter the concept moved toward its later ecclesiastical sense, describing those guilty of doctrinal and moral errors who separated from church fellowship.
Heresy is now described as a kind of unbelief.[3]
Major heresies in the early church
Gnosticism
Quartodecimanism
This wasn't a true "heresy" but the amount of division that it caused in the early church was significant.
The dispute among churches relating to the fixing of the day of Easter was referred to as Quartodecimanism (Easter should be observed on the fourteenth Nisan, irrespective of the day of the week that may happen to be). This was the belief that was primarily held by eastern churches.
Anti-Quartodecimanism held that the crucifixion should be commemorated on the Friday of the week, whether or not it fell on the fourteenth, and the resurrection on the following Lord’s day. This was the view primarily held by the western church (and was officially adopted at the Council of Nicea (A.D. 325)).[4]
We have devoted a separate article to the discussion of the Controversy over the Date of Easter.
Montanism
Sometime around the year 157 A.D., in the Roman province of Asia Minor known as Phrygia, a professing Christian named Montanus began to prophesy ecstatically. Claiming the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he was soon joined by two prophetesses, Maximilla and Priscilla (Prisca). They paid special attention to the biblical teachings about the Paraclete, and they claimed to be the last in a succession of prophets that included the daughters of Philip (Acts 21:8–9). They said they were called to summon all believers to righteous preparation for the heavenly descent of the New Jerusalem.
By the 170s, this “New Prophecy” movement, as it was known, spread. The heart of Montanist activity was always in Asia Minor, although converts were eventually won in missionary outposts such as Rome, Byzantium, and Carthage. What attracted scores of early Christians to Montanism? Perhaps the answer lies in three words: authority, vitality, and discipline.
Montanist prophets claimed direct revelations from God, and their utterances (“oracles”) were treasured and preserved as authoritative teaching by the faithful. Here was fresh truth, Spirit-given, for the last days.
Not everyone was so enamored with the movement. In 192, Serapion, bishop of Antioch, declared that “the working of the lying organization called the New Prophesy is held in abomination by the whole brotherhood in the world.”
Many of the leaders of the early church objected to Montanism on five main grounds:
- “Abnormal ecstasy.” Montanus prophesied in a frenzy, without engaging the rational mind, “contrary to the manner which belongs to the tradition and succession of the church from the beginning.”
- No controls. When respected bishops and church leaders sought to practice discernment with Montanist prophets, the prophets refused to submit.
- Worldliness. Some questioned the Montanist financial dealings. Others worried about their lifestyle: “Does a prophet dye his hair, paint his eyelids, love adornment, play at gaming tables and dice, lend money at interest?”
- Extra-scriptural revelation. Many were concerned that people would hold the oracles of the New Prophecy in higher esteem than the Scriptures.
- False prophecies. Maximilla declared that there would be wars and tumults and, after her death, no more prophets but “The End.” Yet, some thirteen years after her death, there was peace.
On the other hand, a few respected teachers, though they didn’t join the movement, refused to condemn it. Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon, for example, was concerned that those attacking the Montanists would drive the authentic gift of prophecy from the church. Those who did so, he wrote, “do not admit that aspect presented by John’s Gospel, in which the Lord promised that he would send the Paraclete, but they set aside at once both the Gospel and the prophetic Spirit.”[5]
Montanism which started in the 2nd century was largely over by the 4th century.
Monarchianism
Dynamic Monarchianism (aka Adoptionism)
Modalistic Monarchianism (aka Sabellianism, Modalism, Patripassianism, Oneness, Jesus Only)
Donatism
Arianism
Monophysitism
Pelagianism
Adoptionism
Nestorianism
Footnotes
- ↑ Norton, D., ed. (2011). The New Cambridge Paragraph Bible with the Apocrypha: King James Version (Revised edition, Ac 24:13–14). Cambridge University Press.
- ↑ New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Ac 24:14.
- ↑ Thomas Aquinas. (n.d.). Summa theologica (Fathers of the English Dominican Province, Trans.; Vol. 9, p. 156). Burns Oates & Washbourne.
- ↑ Alan Cairns, Dictionary of Theological Terms (Belfast; Greenville, SC: Ambassador Emerald International, 2002), 358.
- ↑ Christian History Magazine-Issue 51: Heresy in the Early Church (Carol Stream, IL: Christianity Today, 1996).