PJ HanleyIn the parable of the tares (Mt 13:37), Jesus identifies satan as the one who sows bad seed among the wheat. Although Jesus was referring to the world as the field in the parable, we know that the archenemy of God and his people also sowed tares in the soil of the early church. From Scripture and history, we know that there were two main heresies that the early believers confronted.
First, there was the heresy of the Judaizers, which dogged the heels of Paul, accusing him of being a false apostle and commanding that the Gentiles be circumcised and obey all of the laws of Moses, including the dietary laws, if they were to be saved. Of course, since this was a false teaching perpetrated by Jewish believers, it is not surprising that it was strong in Jerusalem. However, it was a problem throughout the church at that time because the church was primarily made up of Jews.
This issue first came up in Antioch and was quickly brought to Jerusalem for resolution. The Apostles and elders met in Jerusalem and discussed the matter. Their conclusion was that circumcision was not necessary for Gentiles to be saved and that they should not “Judaize” them. They only asked that they abstain from three things: fornication, meat sacrificed to idols and blood. No one doubted then, no more than they do now, that Gentiles were required to obey the moral law (10 Commandments) and that fornication was a moral issue. However, the church has used the other two restrictions as evidence that the Jerusalem church was “legalistic”, and most especially James. But this is unfair and biased. First of all, the conclusion of The Apostles and James was agreed to by all, including Paul, and considered a godly answer. Secondly, we Gentiles who read this passage (and secular Jews for that matter) cannot appreciate the difficulty this issue caused for Jews who were now being asked to extend fellowship to Gentiles and treat them as fellow citizens. In each and every Gentile city at that time, there were pagan temples filled with idols and prostitutes, and the meat sacrificed to them was sold openly in the marketplace. The Apostles and elders wisely recognised the difficulty this would have caused among the churches and the stumbling block it would have presented to the Jews. It was a very sound pastoral request to ask the Gentiles to abstain from these things. However, there were a number of Jews who did not abide by the decision of the Apostles and elders and went on spreading this false teaching, causing much trouble for the Gentiles who were turning to God. As a result, much of Paul’s writings are preoccupied with confronting this heresy. So much so that he was often accused of teaching the Jews to disregard Moses, something which he vehemently denied (Acts 21:21–26, 25:8). The church would later on begin to distort his teaching in Romans and Galatians to suggest that he was against the Law and even anti-Jewish.
The issue of legalism is often understood as originating from the Law. But the Law is not the source of “legalism.” This is a distortion of Paul’s teaching. Those who are legalistic are prideful and trust in their own ability to keep the law. It is a trust and dependence on self and self-righteousness rather than an attitude of faith. The patriarchs walked by faith, and so did Moses, David and the prophets. The Law given on Sinai was never intended to be approached in a manner of pure ritualistic observance. Indeed, the prophet in the “Old Testament” declared:
“Behold, as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him; but the righteous will live by his faith” (Hab 2:4).
After the destruction of Jerusalem and the scattering of the Jews throughout the world, the church became more and more Gentile and the problem of the Judaizers went away. However, the problem of “legalism” did not. It came to its full fruition during the Dark Ages when the church began to sell and buy entrance to heaven and right standing with God.
The second heresy to emerge in the early church was known as Gnosticism. It emerged as an issue in Paul’s writings, but seems to have really taken off after the destruction of Jerusalem. It is a primary subject of John’s epistles, which were written during this time. Though there were variations of Gnosticism, they each had a similar worldview. Put simply, the Gnostics considered the physical and material world as bad or evil and the spiritual world as good. They believed that God was to be approached through a host of intermediaries, of whom Jesus was but one. Gaining knowledge of the spiritual world was the goal, hence the term Gnostic from the Greek word “Gnosis.” They believed the physical world was made by this lower god known as the “Demiurge”, whom they believed to be the God of the “Old Testament,” the God of the Jews. Consequently, they often denied the incarnation of Christ and the bodily resurrection, which is why the Apostle John makes the following statement:
“This is how you can recognise the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.” (1 John 4:2–3)
The church fought hard against Gnosticism towards the end of the 1st Century and all throughout the 2nd. However, as it lost its Jewish worldview and became exclusively Greek, the fight became harder. By the middle of the 3rd Century Gnosticism was beginning to be repackaged and accepted as official church doctrine and remaining with us to this day. The Jewish worldview is considered strange and foreign. The idea of a literal kingdom governing the earth and a Jewish Messiah reigning from Jerusalem is viewed as unenlightened. The world to come is thought of as spiritual only and not physical. The material world will be done away with, which makes it silly to talk about the nation of Israel or the literal city of Jerusalem. The Bible is interpreted allegorically and not literally, which was the practice of the Gnostics. The God of the “Old Testament” is regularly presented as being different than the God of the “New Testament”, and holding it all together is the glue of Anti-Semitism masquerading as legitimate theology. Indeed, the church today carries with it the baggage of the exiled church. We have adopted the likeness and understanding of the church in decline rather than the one founded by the Apostles of The Lord. The weeds planted in the early centuries are still choking out our power and witness. AntiSemitism and its religious fruit of Replacement Theology have deprived us of our life and vigor. And though the Father has faithfully watched over and preserved us these many centuries, just as He has the Jewish people in their exile, we have paid a high price for losing our way. The time has come to uproot from our understanding and practice all the weeds that were planted in the early years. We must return to the rock from which we were cut and the quarry from which we were hewn (Is 51:1). We must embrace once again the faith of our fathers and the understanding of The Apostles and Prophets. The church fathers were not called Ignatius, Irenaeus, Augustine, Luther, Calvin or Wesley, even though these were great and godly men. Our charter was written by the Hebrews, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Matthew, Mark, Peter, John and the beloved Paul. The founder and head of the church continues to identify Himself (even after the resurrection) as the Root and Offspring of David (Rev 22:16). His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and He will be established as the king over Israel forever (Dan 7:14, 1Chron 22:10).
Excerpt from “Israel Awakening: Why the Church Must Wake Up to The Centrality of Israel in the Plan of God” by PJ Hanley. You can purchase using the button below: