As one who studies the gnostics tenet, your words are not true. Neither were Irenaeus, in his description of sexual perversions by the gnostics. The books have been found (Nag Hammadi) and proved the church fathers lied to promote their own tenets.
The Nag Hammadi is a collection of Gnostic books long rejected by the Church as heretical, and has nothing to do with the ECF.
Irenaeus wrote extensively AGAINST the gnostics 200 years before the Nag Hammadi was written.
“Those, therefore, who desert the preaching of the Church, call in question the knowledge of the holy presbyters…It behooves us, therefore, to avoid their doctrines, and to take careful heed lest we suffer any injury from them; but to flee to the Church, and be brought up in her bosom, and be nourished with the Lord’s Scriptures. For the Church has been planted as a garden (paradisus) in this world; therefore says the Spirit of God, ‘Thou mayest freely eat from every tree of the garden,’ that is, Eat ye from every Scripture of the Lord; but ye shall not eat with an uplifted mind, nor touch any heretical discord.”
Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 5:20 (A.D. 180).
“But [it has, on the other hand, been shown], that the preaching of the Church is everywhere consistent, and continues in an even course, and receives testimony from the prophets, the apostles, and all the disciples…For in the Church,” it is said, “God hath set apostles, prophets, teachers,’ and all the other means through which the Spirit works; of which all those are not partakers who do not join themselves to the Church, but defraud themselves of life through their perverse opinions and infamous behaviour. For where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church, and every kind of grace; but the Spirit is truth.” Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3:24 (A.D. 180).
The real reason you slander Irenaeus is because he wasn't a Protestant.
Funny how no one noticed the ECF
lied until all these prot cults popped up out of thin air.
I read Hippolytus of Rome a few weeks ago. I found his knowledge as well as his arrogant attitude most unappealing in structure, as the same of Tertullian and Irenaeus before him. In all the books of these men, everything is heresy but them, out of their mouths. Yet their demeanor and words are nothing like the grace the savior displayed in his teaching against spiritual ignorance.
Quotes from these nasty ECF would be helpful. I found these:
Hippolytus
“By this Spirit Peter spake that blessed word, ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ By this Spirit the rock of the Church was established.”
Hippolytus, Discourse on the Holy Theophany, 9 (ante A.D. 235).
“But we who hope for the Son of God are persecuted and trodden down by those unbelievers. For the wings of the vessels are the churches; and the sea is the world, in which the Church is set, like a ship tossed in the deep, but not destroyed; for she has with her the skilled Pilot, Christ. And she bears in her midst also the trophy (which is erected) over death; for she carries with her the cross of the Lord…As the wind the Spirit from heaven is present, by whom those who believe are sealed: she has also anchors of iron accompanying her, viz., the holy commandments of Christ Himself, which are strong as iron. She has also mariners on the right and on the left, assessors like the holy angels, by whom the Church is always governed and defended.”
Hippolytus, Christ and Anti-Christ, 59 (A.D. 200)
It is not by drawing on the Holy Scriptures nor by guarding the tradition of some holy person that the heretics have formulated these doctrines.’
Hippolytus of Rome, Refutation of All Heresies 1, Preface (c. A.D. 230).
Hippolytus was a schismatic bishop but made peace with the Church before his martyrdom.
Tertullian is valued as a historian but later in life became a heretic. That's why dates of his quotes are important.
These men have developed a system that elevated them to high status. They repaired the veil and placed themselves in the Holy of the Holies. And like the Pharisee's, adopted physical force against any view they didn't understand.
This is psychotic anti-Catholic gibberish.
From what I gather from Calvinism, is that once the Bible, that was held hostage in Latin and read only by the elite priests for 800 years, became available in English and German, they saw a difference in what was taught against what was written. Both early translators of the Bible from Latin to English were slaughtered by the RCC at bequest of the reigning Pope. (Read of William Tyndale and John Wycliffe).
A whopper of a lie!!!
So what was the real reason William Tyndale was condemned? Was translating the Bible into English actually illegal?
The answer is no. The law that was passed in 1408 was in reaction to another infamous translator, John Wycliff. Wycliff had produced a translation of the Bible that was corrupt and full of heresy. It was not an accurate rendering of sacred Scripture.
Both the Church and the secular authorities condemned it and did their best to prevent it from being used to teach false doctrine and morals. Because of the scandal it caused, the Synod of Oxford passed a law in 1408 that prevented any
unauthorized translation of the Bible into English and also forbade the reading of such unauthorized translations.
It is a fact usually ignored by Protestant historians that many English versions of the Scriptures existed before Wycliff, and these were authorized and perfectly legal (see
Where We Got the Bible by Henry Graham, chapter 11, "Vernacular Scriptures Before Wycliff"). Also legal would be any future authorized translations. And certainly reading these translations was
not only legal but also encouraged. All this law did was to prevent any private individual from publishing his own translation of Scripture without the approval of the Church...
... But it was their own founder, King Henry VIII, who in 1531 declared that "the translation of the Scripture corrupted by William Tyndale should be utterly expelled, rejected, and put away out of the hands of the people." ...
...Ultimately, it was
the secular authorities that proved to be the end for Tyndale. He was arrested and tried (and sentenced to die) in the court of the Holy Roman Emperor in 1536. NOT BY THE POPE!!!
The Tyndale Fallacy
So many religions became evident once the Bible was given back to man.
It was always available. This present case of a gender-inclusive edition of the Bible is a wonderful opportunity for Fundamentalists to reflect and realize that the reason they don’t approve of this new translation is the same reason that the Catholic Church did not approve of Tyndale’s or Wycliff’s. These are corrupt translations, made with an agenda, and not accurate renderings of sacred Scripture.
Tyndale's Heresy | Catholic Answers
IMO, John Calvin saw the same arguments made by Arius and many other early church leaders. And tried to depart from a worldly church into a more spiritual understanding.
Calvin Supports Death Penalty for Heresy After Servetus
John Calvin: Capital Punishment for “Heretics” (Anabaptists, Etc.)
John Calvin: Torment of an Inept Execution “Special Will of God”
a more spiritual understanding???
In the preface to the
Institutes he [John Calvin] admitted the right of the government to put heretics to death . . . He thought that Christians should hate the enemies of God . . . Those who defended heretics . . . should be equally punished. (Smith, 178)
a more spiritual understanding???
During Calvin’s reign in Geneva, between 1542 and 1546] “58 persons were put to death for heresy.” (Durant, 473)
a more spiritual understanding???
Dialogue on Jihadist & 16th Century Calvinist Iconoclasm
(all links quote Protestant and secular historians)
