< Pre-Nicea: Evidence of What Early Christians Taught'
Part 1 - Introducing the Cast

Steve Morrison and Larry Wessels

 

A Different Kind of Show

Most of our shows are about what is all true or else what counterfeit spiritual groups teach that we believe is wrong. This series of shows is a little different.' It is documenting what a group, the consensus of early Christian writers, believed, regardless of whether we agree or disagree.

 

Approach

Did you ever wonder what the early Christian church taught?

They lived in a different time, a different culture, and struggled against different issues than many Christians do today, but they had the same truth of the gospel.

 

We can know what they believed by the over 4,100 pages they wrote that we have preserved. Most of the references are on-line at www.ccel.org

We highly also recommend purchasing Ante-Nicene Fathers. volumes 1-10 edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. Hendrickson Publishers, 1994. For most writers the page numbers are from this series.

 

How to Tell?

There are 100's of pages of some writers, and less than a page of others

How would you define "generally agreed" early Christian teaching?

Of course Gnostics, Ebionites, Sabellians, and others were separate groups with different doctrines.

But we are focusing on what the Christian Churches agreed upon, but what is agreement?

 

The Problem with Subjectivity

How can we show objectively what the early church taught, and not, consciously of unconsciously, just be projecting back on them our own beliefs and biases?

Specifically, should we include the eccentric views of a single guy, especially if we agree with him?

On the other hand, if ten or more early Christian writers taught something, and none denied it, we would be right to ignore it?

 

Methodology

Of the 82 or so Christian writers prior to the 325 A.D. Council of Nicea, I called it generally agreed if four or more writers taught it and none denied.

Prior to 325 A.D., they had a generally agreed consensus on more than 325 topics that Christians today we agree.

They also had a consensus on at least 28 topics many Christians today would disagree with.

 

What We Can Learn

While they were not perfect, we can look at what they taught, test it against the Bible, and perhaps discover truths in God's word that we may have neglected.

We can also discover things people took for granted were taught by a consensus of early church writers, but in fact were not.

Sometimes it is difficult to count, and I am sure some of the numbers are slightly off. However, I believe are total for each category is accurate within 4%.

 

Who's Who

There were many admirable people during the time of the early pre-Nicene church, but there were some real characters too. Before we get into what they taught, we are going to introduce briefly a "who's who" of some of the people. We will hear some alternate viewpoints too.

 

One of the earliest writers was Clement of Rome, who wrote 96/98 A.D. ....

 

 

Early Christian Theology Roadmap

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We interrupt this message to tell you about Marcion and the Gnostics. The truth consists of knowing the secret knowledge about the pleroma and this dark, evil material world. The Creator of this world was evil, or else foolish. We call him the demiurge, and he is the God of the Old Testament. Jesus, who is divine, came from His Father, a higher and good God, to show us how to be free from the material world. Jesus was not really a man, just appeared like a man. We accept some of the gospels and what Paul wrote, but we also have our own scriptures.

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We interrupt that message to tell you that the Gnostics are all wrong, and Simon Magus is evil. How could Jesus be against the God of the Old Testament when so many Old Testament prophecies referred to Him. Why would an allegedly evil or foolish demiurge give prophecies about one who would undo his work? Jesus came from the Father, but the Father is the One God, the Creator, who gave us His truth in the Old Testament. Jesus is the Messiah, and we cal Jesus Good too, but as a title of honor. Paul was wrong to say that we do not still need to keep the Old Testament Law. Jesus was not born of a virgin. We have our own scriptures too, a shortened form of Matthew, the Recognitions of Clement, and the Clementine Homilies. We are the Ebionites.

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We interrupt that message to tell you the Ebionites are slightly wrong. Jesus was born on the earth many times already. Sometimes he was born of a virgin and sometimes not. We are the Elkasaite Ebionites.

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We interrupt that message to say that the highest God is not the God of the Old Testament. The material world is so bad, that we should abstain from all meat, and all marital or extra-marital relations. Our most distinguished member, Tatian, was a pupil of the respected church father, Justin Martyr. Tatian even wrote a harmony of the gospels, called the Diatessaron, which contain word for word 70% of what is in the gospels of the early church, - and nothing more. It is so good, that even some Syriac Christian churches used it. We are the Encratite Gnostics.

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We interrupt that message to tell you that those ascetic Gnostics had the right observations but the wrong conclusions. Yes, the Creator is the God of the Old Testament, who was evil or foolish. And yes, the material world is lower, full of ignorance. And yes, lesser people, operating in the soul and physical realms are supposed to obey God's moral commands. But we are spiritual people, who have transcendent knowledge. So those laws do not apply to us. We can eat, get drunk, and be immoral as we please, because we have superseded the material world. We are the Valentinian Gnostics.

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We interrupt that message to tell you that Elohim went upward and left his consert, Edem of the earth. Elohim was later overpowered by the good one and changed to good. The evil serpent Naas had intimate relations with Eve and then Naas had intimate relations with Adam. Elohim sent the Old Testament prophets, then he sent Hercules, and then he sent Jesus. We are the Gnostics who follow Justinus.

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We interrupt that message to tell you that the one to worship is Naas, the serpent in the Garden of Even. Three most important people are Adam, Mariam and Iothor. One of our prophets is Homer.' One of our books is the Gospel of Thomas. We are the Naasani Gnostics.

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We interrupt that message to tell you that the other Gnostics are missing the astrological dimension. You can se our gospel in the zodiac. We are the Peretae Gnostics.

 

We are the Sethite Gnostics

We are the Ophite Gnostics

We are the followers of Carpocrates

We are the followers of Menander

We are the Gnostics who follow Marcus.

We are the followers of Cerinthus

We are the Gnostics who follow Apelles