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.

God's Wrath on Unrighteousness, Part I

 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

 --Romans 1:18-23

The God of Scripture is a God of grace, love, and mercy. We know this because He grants salvation and righteousness to those who believe in His Son alone (1:16-17). But He is also a God of justice, vindication, and wrath. Therefore, when human beings fail to honor the Son, God demonstrates His wrath in an eternally and spiritually devastating way. God’s wrath is not sudden or random. Nor is it aimed at a certain people group. God pours His wrath on all those who deny, oppose, and resist the truth of the gospel of Christ.

The evidence for God is irrefutable. This can clearly be seen from conscience, creation, God’s Word, and His attributes. Foolish is the man who claims there is no God. This man is striving to fool Himself, for even his logic and reasoning reveal the Creator (Psalm 14:1). The earth, seas, and skies reflect the glory and majesty of their creator (Psalm 19:1). God’s very essence is truth. That is not just a part of His character, but His definition (John 14:6). God’s attributes, including His eternal power and His divine nature also prove His existence. One can travel to the most remote of villages and find a people who worship a god. The fact that we, as humans, have a knowledge of a supreme higher being, is rational proof that a supreme deity exists. Despite these overwhelming proofs, human beings still refuse to acknowledge Christ as Lord. God has placed us in front of His creation every day. We live in it, talk to it, eat it, and breathe it. It literally slaps us in the face on a cold, blistery day. But yet mankind refuses to acknowledge the Almighty God. Therefore man has no excuse on the Day of Judgment.

Even though man claims that either God does not exist, or that the God of Scripture is not the One true God, all men are conscious of God’s existence through general revelation. Everyone has a knowledge of God in their hearts. But many people choose not to give Him honor, worship, and praise. They roam around, vainly searching for their purpose in life, refusing to acknowledge that the chief end of man is to glorify God and to serve Him forever. Therefore, their thinking is flawed and the Lord has darkened their hearts, just as He darkened the heart of Pharaoh, who witnessed firsthand the reality of God’s power (Exodus 7-12). These people teach in schools and universities; they invent great technological advancements; they write important pieces of legislature; they theorize and postulate scientific and mathematical formulas; and they are some of the most brilliant minds on the face of the earth. But they are fools who revel in their own personal greatness and not the One who created them with these skills. Instead of giving the glory to God, they worship other things: philosophies, science, political leaders, money, fame, family, sports, the list goes on and on.

Thank the Lord that He is a God of mercy, grace, love, and forgiveness, for everyone would be blinded by our own depravity if not for God’s sovereign election, justification, and sanctification. Thank the Lord for the salvation that only comes through Him. Pray for those who have been blinded by the enticements of this world. Ask the Lord to quell His wrath and to open the hearts and ears of those who refuse to acknowledge Him as Lord.

I Am Not Ashamed

 "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”-Romans 1:16-17

As an American, I live in relative freedom every day. I have the freedom to live and believe as I so choose. So it is easy for me to say that I am unashamed of the Gospel of Christ. But in almost every other nation in the world, Christians are living in fear for their lives from their governments, which are continually persecuting them for their faith. One would think that these believers would try to conceal their faith. But on the contrary, we hear stories almost daily of how believers are standing firm in their faith, even in the face of imprisonment and even worse, death.

            What is it that keeps our brothers and sisters in foreign lands to continue to stand for their faith in the face of death? They understand that the gospel is the most important message in the history of the world. This gospel is the message of Christ, who gives all people, regardless of race, gender, or socioeconomic status, salvation through their faith in Him. It is as powerful as dynamite, which is what the Greek word for “power” means. It brings life and deliverance from sin to those who believe, but death and banishment to those who do not.

            Paul, as a Jew, was not ashamed to be preaching a doctrine that went against popular Jewish belief. John MacArthur notes, “He had been imprisoned in Philippi, chased out of Thessalonica, smuggled out of Berea, laughed at in Athens, regarded as a fool in Corinth, and stoned in Galatia, but Paul remained eager to preach the gospel in Rome…Neither ridicule, criticism, nor physical persecution could curb his boldness.”

            It is only through the gospel that the righteousness of God is granted to mankind through faith in Christ. Righteousness is perfectly conforming to God’s law. Since it is impossible for totally depraved humanity to achieve righteousness, therefore the perfect righteousness of God is granted through faith in Christ. This is why Paul quotes Habakkuk 2:4, noting that salvation has always been given to God’s people through faith alone.

            Even though Western Christians live in relative ease, we believe a doctrine that goes against the "touchy-feely" experience-driven religion of popular culture. Our faith lies in Christ, not ourselves, nor science. We must be willing to take a stand for the gospel and to preach salvation through faith alone in Christ alone to all.