"Many stories come in versions so distorted that it is hard
to decide whether the principal characters were worthy successors
to the apostles, or the devil's own agents. Perhaps their contemporaries
were as uncertain as we were."1
There is one character, however, which was undoubtedly one of
the devil's own agents: The heretic Marcion, who lived in the
second half of the Second Century. Marcion taught that the entire
Old Testament should be rejected because it belonged to an evil,
inferior God, and not to the God revealed by Jesus of Nazareth.
Marcion was very anti-Jewish; therefore he also rejected any
New Testament writings which appeared to speak favorably of "Jewish
practices" (i.e., keeping the laws and commandments of the Old
Testament). As one writer notes, "Marcion started the trend which
has had many followers right up to the present –– if it doesn't
suit the theory, excise it as spurious or an interpolation."2
By the time Marcion finished editing the Scriptures, his "Bible"
consisted of nothing more than Luke's Gospel (minus the "Jewish"
elements) and ten of Paul's epistles. Paul, Marcion taught, was
the only apostle who could be trusted. Marcion's anti-Jewish;
pro-Paul churches spread throughout the Roman Empire and soon
became a major threat to the Messianic faith. According to historians,
Marcion's heresy continued to spread until it finally died out
sometime around the "Fifth Century."
We who claim to believe the Bible must ask ourselves an important
question: Did Marcion's anti-Jewish, anti-Old Testament, pro-Paul
heresy really die out? Or did the Church simply succumb to it
and accommodate it and incorporate it, in a subdued form, into
Mainstream Christianity?
Of course our Bible, unlike Marcion's, includes the Law and the
Prophets, but how much do we heed their instruction? When we examine
the average Christian‘s attitude to the Law and the Prophets,
it is obvious that the ghost of Marcion is very much alive in
the church today.
Although the Church pays lip service to the inspiration and authority
of all the Scriptures, its de-emphasis of the Law, the Prophets,
and anything "Jewish," and its heavy emphasis on Paul, reveals
that the Church today is basically Marcionite in practice. For
those who doubt this assertion, let us examine some thing that
Marcion taught, and we well see that the spirit of Marcion still
has a very strong influence of the Church today.
Marcion's most influential writing was a work entitled Antithesis,
described as "a highly competent work" which consisted of "contrasted
statements arranged to prove the incompatibility of the law and
the gospel".3
Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) there are no known copies
of Antithesis in existence. What we know about Marcion's teachings
comes mainly from the writing of those who opposed his heresy.
1
Smith, M.A. From Christ to Constantine (London: Intervarsity Press,
1971), p. 14.
2 Ibid., p.53.
3 Tertullian, Against Marcion, trans. And ed. Ernest Evans (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1972), p. xv.
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