Marcionism: The First Major Attack to Biblical Christianity

Marcion was a wealthy second-century Roman who studied Jewish scripture and compared it to the teachings of Christ. He maintained that the teachings of Christ were incompatible with that of the Old Testament. He believed that Jesus is the Messiah and that Paul is Jesus’ chief apostle. However, Marcion denied the humanity of Christ and held that He is not the God of the Old Testament. Marcion claimed that the God of the Old Testament is a demiurge, an evil being, who is separate and lower than the God of the New Testament. Marcion saw God in the New Testament portrayed as loving and forgiving, very unlike the God of the Old Testament, who Marcion viewed as jealous, wrathful, and genocidal. He taught that the demiurge created a world filled with suffering and imperfection. This, Marcion maintained, is not the true God. Furthermore, since the Old Testament God is the God of the Hebrews, Marcion maintained that any association with the Hebrew religion is evil.

            Regarding Christ’s work in salvation, Marcion claimed that Christ was not sent to save the Jews, but to bring salvation from the demiurge and to make known the truth of the good God, who may not have even been known by the demiurge. He claimed that those who were loyal to the demiurge crucified Christ.

            Marcion developed a canon, which included an edited version of Luke, called “Gospel of Christ”. His canon did not include any of the Old Testament, nor did it include certain parts of the New Testament such as the prophecies of Christ, His birth, His baptism, and His death. Marcion wanted to show that Christ was revealed as a man, but was not really a man. Thus, he eliminated parts of Scripture that attest to Christ’s humanity.

            Marcion’s teachings brought division in the early church. For the first time in the post-apostolic period, the church was led to formulate creeds in order to defend itself from these and other heresies. This also led to the adoption of the current canon of the New Testament.

            Marcion was also a legalist who imposed strict laws upon his followers. He believed in a strict moral structure and prohibited sex of any sort, even between married couples.

            Marcion was a heretic who did not believe in the inerrant, authoritative Word of God. He, just like many other heretics before and after him, chose which parts of Scripture to believe and which ones to deny. He claimed that Christ’s teachings contradict the Old Testament, but any knowledgeable reader of Scripture would know what Christ really said about the Old Testament. Jesus quoted Old Testament Scripture numerous times and accused the Jewish religious leaders of abusing the law. He even said that He did not come to destroy, contradict, or even revise the law, but that He came to fulfill the law (Matthew 5:17-18). Jesus spoke of the Old Testament often. He lived His life according to the law.

            The humanity of Christ is also clearly presented in Scripture. Two of the most notable references are John 1, in which Christ is presented as the eternal Word which took on flesh, and Hebrews 4:14-16, which presents Christ as the Great High Priest Who is able to sympathize with His people.

            The claim that the Old Testament God is a demiurge is nothing new. Marcion takes this belief from the Gnostics. Marcion cannot truly comprehend the justice and righteousness of God (Who can?) so he asserts that God is evil because he judges humans for their sins.

The majority of Marcionist teaching is based on human reasoning. Marcion struggled with the answers to difficult and confusing questions, such as how a just God can sentence people to death, or how a good God would allow evil to occur. His questions were unlike questions that are currently being asked in post-modern evangelicalism. They are legitimate questions. But Marcion was not satisfied by the answers he found in Scripture, so he sought to form his own conclusions apart from Scripture and based on conjecture and reasoning. This is the problem that occurs when we stray from Biblical teaching. Scripture teaches that man is totally depraved and unable to find the answers to life’s difficult questions on his own (Jeremiah 17:9). Therefore we cannot find truth outside of Christ and His inspired, infallible, and authoritative Word.

Hate This Evil Life, Love Righteous Eternity

"Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life."

-John 12:25

We live in a day in age in which quack psychology reigns. So-called experts in the field of psychology tell us to think positively and that all negativity should be erased from the mind. Positive thinking, they say, leads to positive outcomes, and positive outcomes leads to happiness. This is also a central tenant of Zen Buddhism, which has undoubtedly impacted modern thinking.

The day in age in which Jesus lived was no different than our own, for there is nothing new under the sun. The Greek and Roman pantheists promoted the same type of worldview that is being promoted today. However, Jesus told His disciples that the person who loves his life will lose it, whereas the person who hates his life will keep it for eternity. What does Jesus mean by this statement?

Those that will receive eternal life are not people who spend their Sundays on the ball fields or doing other trite and vain things. Those that will receive eternal life are not those who seek to accumulate wealth and material possessions. Those who will receive eternal life are not even those who devote their whole lives to charity. What Jesus means by this statement is that those who will receive eternal life are those that do not love this world or the things in it. His people must live in this world, but they are called to be set apart from it. They mus recognize that this world is fading and is only temporary. His people must also recognize that they are aliens in this world, citizens of a much greater kingdom. There is more to life than the things that the world calls good. Human life exists for the specific purpose of worshiping and glorifying God and serving Him forever.

Therefore, the one who loves his life in this present world is the one who will lose his life for eternity. However, the person that hates this evil and fallible world, recognizing his heavenly citizenship, is the one who will have his place in eternity with Christ.

A Christian Perspective of "Life of Pi"

It is not uncommon for a Hollywood produced movie to question spirituality, the existence of God, and supremacy of religion, but rarely are these doubts projected in such a powerful way as they are in Ang Lee's Life of Pi. The Oscar winning film is based on Yann Martel's 2001 novel of the same name. The movie centers around a 17-year old Indian boy named Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, the son of a zookeeper, who survives a shipwreck aboard a lifeboat with a Bengal Tiger named Richard Parker.

Prior to the shipwreck, Pi, who was raised Hindu by his mother, had experimented with both Christianity and Islam. Pi discovers Christianity and Islam and incorporates the philosophies of these faiths into his Hindu lifestyle, culture, and spiritual pursuit. For example, in his prayers, Pi thanks Krishna for the salvation and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Pi's father, who has thoroughly rejected any religion, thinks that Pi is ridiculous and actually says something that seems to make the most sense of anything in the movie. Pi's father tells him, "Believing in everything at the same time is the same as believing in nothing at all." However, throughout the film, Pi's father is cast in a negative light. Pi's father decides to move his family, and his animals, by ship from India to Canada to start a new life. But a savage storm ensues and the ship sinks, killing all its passengers, save for a few animals and Pi.

After the shipwreck, Pi shares a lifeboat with a zebra, who suffered a broken leg, a female orangutan, who lost all her children in the wreck, and a cackling hyena. Before long, the hyena gets scared and hungry and begins to attack the defenseless zebra. The hyena kills the zebra and then begins to attack and kill the orangutan. While the hyena is in the process of killing the orangutan, Richard Parker jumps out from underneath a tarp and kills the hyena, while also trying to kill Pi as well. Pi then builds an inflatable life raft and attaches it by rope to the side of the lifeboat in order to distance himself from the tiger. But he knows that tigers are very good swimmers, so he catches fish in order to keep Richard Parker fed and to prevent the tiger from eating him.

Amazingly, Pi and Richard Parker are able to both stay alive as their lifeboat washes up to shore in Mexico. While recovering in a hospital bed, Pi must tell his story to two of the ship's insurance adjusters who have come to question him about the incident in which no one survived but himself. Pi tells them his fantastic tale of how he survived 227 days in the Pacific Ocean with a hungry Bengal tiger. The insurance adjusters don't believe Pi. They ask him to give them "the truth". Pi then gives them a similar story, but changes the animal characters to humans, casting the tiger as himself. The insurance company chooses the more fantastic story with the animals, to which Pi responds, "And so it goes with God".

This movie is the embodiment of post-modern philosophy and thought. The prevailing sentiment of post-modernity is that there is no ultimate truth. Everyone must choose their own truth and must not infringe their truth on others. All religions lead to the same truth. Pi seems to emphasize that we are to choose the story that we like the best and believe that one, although it will ultimately lead you on the same path as the other stories and religions. Everyone's spiritual path leads to the same outcome. Everyone worships the same God.

This same type of thought is expressed by Pilate in John 18:38. Christ had just said, "For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world--to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice." Pilate then condescendingly retorts, "What is truth?" Pilate responds in a very post-modern relativistic manner. Pilate proves that he is not a believer because Christ had just said that those who hear His voice will recognize the truth. Such is the case today. Only the elect of Christ will be able distinguish truth from falsity. The reality is that there is only one truth. Christ says in John 14:6, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." There is no other way to experience truth and salvation except through Jesus Christ. All other religions offer false hope.

Life of Pi, while visually stunning and entertaining, is an allegory of a young man trying to find spiritual truth in this world. Truth is very real and literal. It is not an allegory or a metaphor, but is presented in very clear and precise statements in the Word of God.