Refutation Of Heresy Through The Nicene Creed

We recite the Nicene Creed, which was formulated at the Council of Nicaea (325) and the Council of Constantinople (381), every Sunday at Mass. But do we really take into account all that we are saying? Many people do not know that not only are we professing what we believe, but in the Creed, we are also condemning heretical notions of Christianity. The reason for this is that the Nicene Creed arose out of ancient baptismal interrogations. Before being immersed into water three times, the catechumen was asked if they believed in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. When the fathers of Nicaea wished to condemn Arius, they couldn’t merely have him recite the old formulations, because they were just vague enough to allow for Arianism. So the fathers inserted phrases which would be odious to Arius. They also inserted phrases that would be problematic for other forms of heresy. See below: 

I believe in one God, (Against Gnostics)
the Father almighty, (Against Gnostics)
maker of heaven and earth, (Against Gnostics)
of all things visible and invisible. (Against Gnostics)

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God, (Against Gnostics)
born of the Father before all ages. (Against Arians and Adoptionism)
God from God, Light from Light, (Against Arians)
true God from true God, (Against Arians)
begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; (Against Arians)
through him all things were made. (Against Gnostics and Arians)
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and became man. (Against Docetism and Ebionism)
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
he suffered death and was buried, (Against Docetism)
and rose again on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures.
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father. (Against Modalism)
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead
and his kingdom will have no end. (Against Modalism)

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, (Against the Pneumatomachians [The Spirit Fighters])
who proceeds from the Father (Against the Pneumatomachians [The Spirit Fighters])

and the Son, (Against the Greeks. Originally against the Arians)
who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, (Against the Pneumatomachians [The Spirit Fighters])
who has spoken through the prophets. (Against the Pneumatomachians [The Spirit Fighters])

I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins
and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

The Difference Between Formal And Material Heresy

“The Church expressly distinguishes between ‘formal’ and ‘material’ heretics. A ‘formal’ heretic rejects the Church and its teaching absolutely and with full deliberation; a ‘material’ heretic rejects the Church from lack of knowledge, being influenced by false prejudice or by an anti-Catholic upbringing. St. Augustine forbids us to blame a man for being a heretic because he was born of heretical parents, provided that he does not with obstinate self-assurance shut out all better knowledge, but seeks the truth simply and loyally. Whenever the Church has such honest enquirers before her, she remembers that our Lord condemned Pharisaism but not the individual Pharisee, that He held deep and loving intercourse with Nicodemus, and allowed Himself to be invited by Simon. The spirit of the Church in her dealings with souls may be stated in St. Augustine’s words:  ‘Love men, slay error!’”

-Karl Adam, The Spirit of Catholicism.

A Brief History Of The Liberal Corruption Of The Bible

“The roots of the Liberal Protestant attitude towards the Gospels may be traced back to the Renaissance and the Reformation. The student who is interested may study this historical background in the first volume of Carelton J. Hayes’ splendid work, Political and Cultural History of Modern Europe. Without doubt, the Renaissance brought about a change in man’s point of view. In the Middle Ages, men were conscious of this all-important truth that material creation is subordinate to man and man is subordinate to God. The Renaissance dimmed this consciousness by centering man’s attention upon himself through the art forms of pagan culture. The beauty of the art and the fine literary forms made men unaware of the errors which they clothed. Without directly opposing the faith, the Renaissance promoted a growing spirit of pride and individualism. In the sixteenth century, the Protestant revolt from the Church fostered this spirit. After Luther rejected the authority of the Church, subsequent reformers denied the authority of Luther and ultimately all authority.

In the eighteenth century, the Deists presumed as true the hypothesis that any supernatural intervention of God is impossible. They spoke as if they knew exactly what God can and cannot do; as if God were unable to change in any way the world he had created. Eventually, innumerable attempts were made to bring the traditional faith in Christ into harmony with this false hypothesis. In other words, the first attacks on the Gospels, after seventeen hundred years of universal acceptance, did not spring from a scientific and historical examination of them but from philosophical prejudices. These futile attacks agreed only in so far as they denied the supernatural character of Christ. Often they were contradictory and cancelled out one another. This is evident if you glance at a few of them.

Hermann Reimarus and Gotthold Lessius, for example, proposed a ‘deception theory.’ According to them, Christ was merely a man. The Gospels were deliberate fabrications written by Christians in the second century. Some years later David Strauss changed this theory. According to him, the authors of the Gospels actually believed what they wrote for the followers of Christ had unconsciously accepted more and more myths about him. Because it would take a long time for these myths to grow and be accepted as true, Strauss concluded the Gospels were written in the second or third century. He admitted, however, that his hypothesis would collapse if any Gospel was proved to belong to the first century. Today all scholars agree that at least the first three Gospels were written in the first century.

Some moderns who follow in the footsteps of Strauss make Christ the product of Oriental, Babylonian, Egyptian, Syrian, or Greek myths. Needless to say, no two of them agree. Another group of ‘critics’ attempted to find a natural explanation for everything supernatural in the life of Christ. The miracle at Cana, for example, was described as a wedding prank. When Jesus seemed to be walking on the water, he was really walking on a rock just beneath the surface. Countless cures were due to fortunate coincidences following mistaken medical analysis. When Christ fed five thousand men, he merely hypnotized them into believing they ate and were filled. Even when men permitted them to alter the Gospel text, it required unlimited faith to accept their far-fetched suppositions.

Even in recent years, many Liberal Protestants have tried to explain away everything supernatural about Christ by distinguishing between the Christ of faith and the Christ of history. The latter was merely a man who did not rise from the dead. In the beginning, he did not even claim to be divine. The Christ of faith is the product of the imaginations of the early Christians who clothed the human Christ with supernatural qualities. Though the Christ of faith never existed, he is the dynamic source of the Christian life.

The so-called Critical School aimed to prove by means of literary and historical criticism that all miracles and mysteries recorded in the Gospels were not genuine or were interpolations. Most of its members judged the origin, integrity, and trustworthiness of the Gospels from internal evidence alone. But like their predecessors, they endeavored to make the Gospel picture of Christ fit into their preconceived notions. In the beginning their show of scholarship confused and almost routed the conservative Protestants.

All the critics believed the hypothesis that nothing exists outside of the natural order. This dogma of their ‘faith’ compelled them to deny the possibility of miracles and the divinity of Christ. Since the New Testament contains miracles, many critics decided it was genuine. Others declared the miracles and mysteries were interpolations. No two critics agreed on the authors and dates of the Gospels.”

-Joseph H. Cavanaugh, Evidence For Our Faith

The Nicene Creed And The Refutation Of Heresies

We recite the Nicene Creed, which was formulated at the Council of Nicaea (325) and the Council of Constantinople (381), every Sunday at Mass. But do we really take into account all that we are saying? Many people do not know that not only are we professing what we believe, but in the Creed, we are also condemning heretical notions of Christianity. The reason for this is that the Nicene Creed arose out of ancient baptismal interrogations. Before being immersed into water three times, the catechumen was asked if they believed in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. When the fathers of Nicaea wished to condemn Arius, they couldn’t merely have him recite the old formulations, because they were just vague enough to allow for Arianism. So the fathers inserted phrases which would be odious to Arius. They also inserted phrases that would be problematic for other forms of heresy. See below:

We believe in one God, (Against Gnostics)
the Father, the Almighty, (Against Gnostics)
maker of heaven and earth, (Against Gnostics)
and of all that is, seen and unseen. (Against Gnostics)

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,  (Against Gnostics)
eternally begotten of the Father, (Against Arians and Adoptionism)
God from God, Light from Light, (Against Arians)
true God from true God, (Against Arians)
begotten, not made, (Against Arians)
one in Being with the Father. (Against Arians)
Through him all things were made.  (Against Gnostics and Arians)
For us men and for our salvation,
he came down from heaven:  by the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man. (Against Docetism and Ebionism)

For our sake he was crucified
under Pontius Pilate; he suffered died and was buried. (Against Docetism)
On the third day he rose again
in fulfillment of the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father. (Against Modalism)
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end. (Against Modalism)

We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life, (Against the Pneumatomachians [The Spirit Fighters])
who proceeds from the Father  (Against the Pneumatomachians [The Spirit Fighters])

and the Son. (Against the Greeks. Originally against the Arians)
With the Father and the Son (Against the Pneumatomachians [The Spirit Fighters])
he is worshipped and glorified. (Against the Pneumatomachians [The Spirit Fighters])
He has spoken through the Prophets. (Against the Pneumatomachians [The Spirit Fighters])
We believe in one holy
catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one
baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come.
Amen.

Elton John And The Historical Jesus

The Jesus Seminar isn't the only one who's conception of Christ amazingly resembles themselves. Elton John (who no doubt will request membership in the Seminar) has joined the Quest for the Historical Jesus and his surprising conclusion is that Jesus was....

.....wait for it....

....GAY!

Shocker, I know. And what does this newest member of the Quest base his extraordinary insight upon (I mean, other than Elton being gay himself)? Well, He was compassionate.

How did we not see this before?! We should have known that only a gay man can be compassionate. Why, Jesus was so compassionate, any talk of his being a heterosexual must be ruled out from the very start. Theologians who argue that Christ was straight are obviously biased and projecting their own straightness upon the Historical Jesus.

I wouldn't be surprised if Elton is contacted by the retired Episcopal bishop of Newark, New Jersey, John Shelby Spong, in the near future looking to co-author a book on the subject.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry...........

What Was The First Heresy Amongst The Disciples Of Christ?

According to St. Augustine, the first heresy amongst the disciples of Christ was the failure to believe that Christ truly gives us His precious Body and Blood in the Eucharist:

“For certain things in the scriptures were seeming hard, while they were obscure; when explained, they have been softened. For even the first heresy in the disciples of Christ, as it were from the hardness of His discourse. For when He said, ‘Except a man shall have eaten My flesh and shall have drunk My blood, he shall not have life in himself:’ they, not understanding, said to one another, ‘Hard is this discourse, who can hear it?’ Saying that, ‘Hard is this discourse,’ they separated from Him: He remained with the others, the twelve. When they had intimated to Him, that by His discourse they had been scandalized, ‘Will ye also,’ He saith, ‘choose to go?’ Then Peter: ‘Thou hast the Word of life eternal: to whom shall we go?’ Attend, we beseech you, and ye little ones learn godliness. Did Peter by any means at that time understand the secret of that discourse of the Lord? Not yet he understood: but that good were the words which he understood not, godly he believed. Therefore if hard is a discourse, and not yet is understood, be it hard to an ungodly man, but to thee be it by godliness softened: for whenever it is solved, it both will become for thee oil, and even unto the bones will penetrate.”

-Saint Augustine, On the Psalms 50.22

We must follow the example of Peter and believe the words of Christ, hard though they be. If Christ says that it is His Body and Blood in the Eucharist, then it is so. As God's speech has the power to bring things about in creation, so does He have the power to change the very bread and wine He holds in His hands at the Last Supper into His Body and Blood. When this truth is realized, it will, according to Augustine, penetrate even to your bones. Your entire life will be changed. Believe Christ and see the depth and beauty and wonder of the Eucharist!