Christianity
and the
early heresies
Christianity
came into existence as a sect within Ancient Judaism and its split
with Judaism took place in the time of the Rejection of Jesus by Jews
(circa 33 AD) or in the time of the Council of Jerusalem (circa 50 AD),
when the Apostles rejected the most of Jewish religious laws such as
male circumcision. The first divisions within Christianity arose probably in these
times. The
first controversions included:
rejecting
or maintaining
the Jewish law, accepting
the
divinity of Jesus or treating
him as a prophet and
accepting
or
rejecting
the
conception of the
Holy Trinity.
Numerous sects seceded from that?
some scholars call „Pauline Christianity,”
based
on recognizing
Paul the Apostle as
the greatest missionary in the history, or „Proto-Orthodox Christianity”. Some of these sects are
quite
important for understanding the history of the
Abrahamic religions, which is why
I have mentioned them before, but the majority of
them
was short-lived.
What is more,
we do not know much/
a lot
about them since Christianity was illegal and persecuted by the Roman Empire up
to 313
AD,
when it
was eventually legalised.
Demographically,
the biggest sect
was Arianism, and it was probably the only one that survived in the Roman Empire up to the legalisation.
It is also of considerable
importance for some doctrines that emerged later during the
Reformation. Beside
Gnosticism,
Arianism was the most important Non-Trinitarian doctrine. Its father,
bishop Arius of Alexandria denied the true divinity of Jesus and
stated that he
was only the son of God and
was
created by Him. Do
you know who was his mortal enemy? Lucifer.
Saint Lucifer, bishop of Cagliary, known for his passionate
opposition to Arianism. How was it possible that he bore such
a name? In these times the word „Lucifer” meant
simply „light-bringing” and it would be connected
with the chief of the fallen angels much later. Returning to the subject at
hand,
Arianism had a great impact on the mentioned Proto-Orthodox
Christianity. In order to regain the unity of all Christedom, the
First Council of Nicea was convened by the Roman Emperor Constantine
the Great,
who (had)
converted shortly before. The Council codified the most important
doctrines of the
Christian faith in the Nicene Creed,
which
is believed to be the simplest
definition of Christianity. Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodoxes, Oriental
Orthodoxes, Lutherans, Anglicans, Calvinists, Methodists and many
others fight the Arianism every time when they recite
„We
believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of all things visible
and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the
only-begotten of his Father, of the substance of the Father,
God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten,
not
made, being of one substance
with the Father.”
I
have emphasised the
most important fragments of the text that are meant
directly against Arianism. The followers of Arianism and other Non-Trinitarian
doctrines were
among
the most hated during the whole history of Christianity. Their
denying of the
divinity of Jesus was considered as a blasphemy against
God. This was also
one of the reasons of the exile of the
Polish Brethen, the only banned denomination in the history of independent Poland. Even today,
the acceptance of the dogma of the
Holy Trinity is the first condition to join the World Council of
Churches,
which simply means that Non-Trinitarians are basically regarded as
non-Christians by the mainstream Christianity.
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