The Quick Development of Apostasy by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 9, 1908

The Quick Development of Apostasy

By W. A. S.

When men remove their feet from the true platform, it requires but a little time for all manner of error to develop. We have seen this in watching the course of those who have gone out from us. One principle after another has been repudiated, and a confused variety of teaching has quickly sprung up, the one bond of union being opposition to the unity and organized work of the body.

So it was in the apostolic days. The apostasy was already at work with deceptive power in Paul's day. “I know this,” he wrote, “that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.” It came to pass, and all the warnings and tears of the apostle and his associates could not restrain the unstable from following after the perverse teachers who had separated themselves from the body.

The gifts of the Spirit had been placed in the church to bring all into “the unity of the faith.” But the gospel order established by the gifts of apostleship, of prophets, pastors, and teachers being repudiated, every wind of doctrine was soon blowing.

In a foot-note, in his life of Mahomet, Irving gives the following partial list of the sects that developed in Syria and Arabia after apostolic days:—

To exhibit the perplexed maze of controversial doctrines from which Mahomet had to acquire his notions of the Christian faith, we subjoin the leading points of the jarring sects of Oriental Christians alluded to in the foregoing article; all of which have been pronounced heretical or schismatic.

The Sabellians, so called from Sabellius, a Libyan priest of the third century, believed in the unity of God, and that the Trinity expressed but three different states of relations, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, all forming but one substance, as a man consists of body and soul.

The Arians, from Arius, an ecclesiastic of Alexandria in the fourth century, affirmed Christ to be the Son of God, but distinct from him and inferior to him, and denied the Holy Ghost to be God.

The Nestorians, from Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople in the fifth century, maintained that Christ had two distinct natures, divine and human; that Mary was only his mother, and Jesus a man, and that it was an abomination to style her, as was the custom of the church, the Mother of God.

The Monophysites maintained the single nature of Christ, as their name betokens. They affirmed that he was combined of God and man, so mingled and united as to form but one nature.

The Eutychians, from Eutyches, abbot of a convent in Constantinople in the fifth century, were a branch of the Monophysites, expressly opposed to the Nestorians. They denied the double nature of Christ, declaring that he was entirely God previous to the incarnation, and entirely man during the incarnation.

The Jacobites, from Jacobus, bishop of Edessa, in Syria, in the sixth century, were a very numerous branch of the Eutychians. Most of the Christian tribes of Arabs were Jacobites.

The Mariamites, or worshipers of Mary, regarded the Trinity as consisting of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Virgin Mary.

The Collyridians were a sect of Arabian Christians, composed chiefly of females. They worshiped the Virgin Mary as possessed of divinity, and made offerings to her of a twisted cake, called collyris, whence they derived their name.

The Nazaraeans, or Nazarenes, were a sect of Jewish Christians, who considered Christ as the Messiah, as born of a virgin by the Holy Ghost, and as possessing something of a divine nature; but they conformed in all other respects to the rites and ceremonies of the Mosaic law.

The Ebionites, from Ebion, a converted Jew, who lived in the first century, were also a sect of judaizing Christians, little different from the Nazaraeans. They believed Christ to be a pure man, the greatest of the prophets, but denied that he had any existence previous to being born of the Virgin Mary. This sect, as well as that of the Nazaraeans, had many adherents in Arabia.

Many other sects might be enumerated, such as the Corinthians, Maronites, and Marcionites, who took their names from learned and zealous leaders, and the Docetes and Gnostics, who were subdivided into various sects of subtle enthusiasts.

This enumeration shows the mysterious capacity of the human mind to go wrong, and follow freakish ways, when once the true platform is repudiated, and half-views of truth, or fragments of truth mixed with error, are used to build up a movement or teaching centering round some individual agitator. We live again in a time when every wind of doctrine is blowing. Well may we thank God for the sure platform of the third angel's message.

W. A. S.