We've looked at two church history chums in the past few days, two martyrs, Blandina and Polycarp. When we look at guys and girls who really influenced the church, it'd be nice if every person had made a positive influence and were willing and ready to obey and seek full direction from God. Sadly that wasn't the case. So, today our chum person of study is the bad apple on our tree of church history chums. And his name is as mean as his actions. Meet the anti-chum ... Marcion.
Marcion (MARR-see-un) grew up on the southern coast of the Black Sea. His father was an overseer (a preacher). Surprised? I'm not. Many a preacher's kid is troubled, but Marcion seemed to go beyond just "a troubled kid." When he got older, he refused to follow in his dad's footsteps. Instead of becoming an overseer, he ran off and became a ship-owner. During his trips, Marcion grew to dislike the physical world. Odd, I know. About AD 140, Marcion slept with an unmarried girl in his father's congregation. Marcion wasn't even sorry, so his dad kicked him out of the church. Marcion made himself scarce around the area; he ran to Rome. There, nobody knew about his mistake. He was accepted quickly into the Roman church. While he was in Rome, Marcion made his strange ideas (remember, he didn't like the physical world) into a full system. Marcion's weird beliefs were much like a new religion that had recently come out called Gnosticism.
Marcion, like Gnostics, believed that Jesus was simply spirit. He had no body; he had simply seemed human. As well, he believed the nasty God of the Old Testament wasn't at all connected with Jesus Christ. Because Marcion disliked the physical world, he focused on and wanted everything to be spiritual. He believed that a completely loving God (the Father) would never punish anyone by resurrecting them from the spiritual world back into the physical world (so in other words, he didn't believe in Jesus' resurrection).
Because Marcion and his followers believed that the physical world was evil, they didn't take part in any physical desires. As Marcion and his followers continued to teach and preach their false religion, Marcion realized a problem. The apostles' writings challenged his teachings. So, he decided to create a book of what he thought as authoritative writings for Christians to follow. Only eleven books made it. The Gospel of Luke and ten of Paul's letters. From Luke, Marcion took away the story of Jesus' birth. He wouldn't want any evidence that Jesus was a physical man in his book. From Paul's letters, he removed all reference to Hebrew Scriptures. He believed that the God of the Old Testament and Jesus were completely separate. After Marcion claimed his works as holy Scripture, the Roman church kicked him out. To counter Marcion's "bible," the church began to compose the real Bible, inspired by God, all 66 books.
So, you see, because of Marcion's wicked actions of starting his own spiritual religion and making his own bible, the church was forced to stand up and say, "Wait a minute here!" Because of Marcion, Christians came together and the true "Holy Scriptures of God" were bound together in what is our Bible today. We'll leave the full details of how they decided what books made it in for a later post.
So although Marcion really influenced the church in a negative way, it ended up being positive as it spurned the church to collect the true, holy, and inspired Word of God.
Kind of reminds me of a verse:
Marcion (MARR-see-un) grew up on the southern coast of the Black Sea. His father was an overseer (a preacher). Surprised? I'm not. Many a preacher's kid is troubled, but Marcion seemed to go beyond just "a troubled kid." When he got older, he refused to follow in his dad's footsteps. Instead of becoming an overseer, he ran off and became a ship-owner. During his trips, Marcion grew to dislike the physical world. Odd, I know. About AD 140, Marcion slept with an unmarried girl in his father's congregation. Marcion wasn't even sorry, so his dad kicked him out of the church. Marcion made himself scarce around the area; he ran to Rome. There, nobody knew about his mistake. He was accepted quickly into the Roman church. While he was in Rome, Marcion made his strange ideas (remember, he didn't like the physical world) into a full system. Marcion's weird beliefs were much like a new religion that had recently come out called Gnosticism.
Marcion, like Gnostics, believed that Jesus was simply spirit. He had no body; he had simply seemed human. As well, he believed the nasty God of the Old Testament wasn't at all connected with Jesus Christ. Because Marcion disliked the physical world, he focused on and wanted everything to be spiritual. He believed that a completely loving God (the Father) would never punish anyone by resurrecting them from the spiritual world back into the physical world (so in other words, he didn't believe in Jesus' resurrection).
Because Marcion and his followers believed that the physical world was evil, they didn't take part in any physical desires. As Marcion and his followers continued to teach and preach their false religion, Marcion realized a problem. The apostles' writings challenged his teachings. So, he decided to create a book of what he thought as authoritative writings for Christians to follow. Only eleven books made it. The Gospel of Luke and ten of Paul's letters. From Luke, Marcion took away the story of Jesus' birth. He wouldn't want any evidence that Jesus was a physical man in his book. From Paul's letters, he removed all reference to Hebrew Scriptures. He believed that the God of the Old Testament and Jesus were completely separate. After Marcion claimed his works as holy Scripture, the Roman church kicked him out. To counter Marcion's "bible," the church began to compose the real Bible, inspired by God, all 66 books.
So, you see, because of Marcion's wicked actions of starting his own spiritual religion and making his own bible, the church was forced to stand up and say, "Wait a minute here!" Because of Marcion, Christians came together and the true "Holy Scriptures of God" were bound together in what is our Bible today. We'll leave the full details of how they decided what books made it in for a later post.
So although Marcion really influenced the church in a negative way, it ended up being positive as it spurned the church to collect the true, holy, and inspired Word of God.
Kind of reminds me of a verse:
Romans 8:28 ~ "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."