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Nothing New Under the Sun: Debunking Modern Marcionism | By Rev. NeilBoyet Fajardo

Marcionism was a heresy in the early Church and Marcion was actually the first heretic in church history. The basic premise of Marcion is that the God of the Old Testament is different from the New Testament. The God of the OT is a vengeful God and the God the NT is a loving God. All of the Church fathers rejected Marcion and argued that the God of the OT and NT is one and the same. Furthermore, Marcion argued that God of the OT is actually Satan—the Devil, something that everyone should be warned of. Origen, Justin Martyr, Ireneaus among others had altogether debunked this claim of Marcion.

Because of his premise, Marcion came up with a different canon, making this attempt the very first in canonical history. Since Marcion thought of himself as disciple of Paul whom he believed the only true apostle since he was called as apostle to the Gentiles, he included 10 of Paul’s letters and shortened version of Luke’s gospel. Therefore, in a glance, this would dictate a Marcionite hermeneutic that furthers his theology. Also, he has anti-Semetic leaning, making his position and theology dangerous.

This video has all the signs of Marcionism. The God of the OT (YAHWEH) is the Devil; the God of the Pharisees and Jews is a vengeful God; Jesus is against the God of the OT. I think the preacher knew that he is furthering Marcionism.

The preacher also cast aspersions towards the “YAHWEH Religion” of today. This means all Evangelical Christians who believed the OT and the OT canon and that the God of the OT and NT is one the same. Basically, he has an ‘axe to grind’ against all Bible believing Christians nowadays (ironic because he is interpreting John’s gospel). So, how should we debunk Marcionism and its modern advocates? Here are my suggestions:

Jesus Use of the OT

Jesus quoted from 12 OT books. He quoted Jeremiah, Daniel, Zechariah, Hosea, Malachi, Psalm, and Isaiah et.al. He said he came to fulfill the entire Jewish Old Testament (Matt. 5:17), which he referred to as “the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 5:17; Luke 24:26–27), making OT and NT complementary. It has been estimated that over one-tenth of Jesus' recorded New Testament words were taken from the Old Testament. In the four Gospels, 180 of the 1,800 verses that report His discourses are either Old Testament quotes or Old Testament allusions. If Jesus heavily used the OT in his teaching and discourses, it is for us as well.

Next is, Jesus fulfilled more than 351 Old Testament prophecies. This heightens the mathematical probability that Jesus indeed is the Messiah that the Old Testament has predicted. Meaning, we cannot understand Jesus fully without the OT.

Paul, Peter, and other Apostles Quoted and Alluded from the OT

Paul alone quoted or paraphrased from the OT 183 times. Peter quoted nearly 40 allusions and quotations from the OT, while John the Beloved has nearly 60 allusions and quotations from the Old Testament. These quotations, allusions and paraphrase from the OT signify the authority of the Old Testament. Furthermore, Peter told the religious leaders that, “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus” showing the connection of the God of the Jews is the One that sent Jesus (Acts 3:13). Augustine argued the interconnection of OT and NT: “The new is in the old concealed; the old is in the new revealed.”

Marcion of Sinope was an insider in fact he was a teacher and had some followings that furthered his teachings. As I explained earlier, fundamental to his theology was his view of the OT God as wrathful and Evil which heavily differed from orthodoxy and while biblical revelation. And since he was considered to be the first heretic and tried to come up with a canon, the need for Christian apologies and true canon were sought. At this point, let me delve on his hermeneutics that suggests his theology.

A Great Example of Proof-Texting

For Marcion to promote his theology it has to be backed up by certain authority outside of him, hence the Scripture or portions of it. His anti-Jewish sentiment obviously dictated his teachings and from this flow his unbriddled deductions. Cutting and pasting were employed to fit the Christianity Marcion wanted (the reason why there's many cults today). Basically he had to deduct the whole OT and redact Paul's epistles and Luke to favor his whole premise, all to portray the God of the Jews as Evil while the God of Jesus the true and loving Christian God (dualism). Marcion had to use the OT in his teaching but only for the purpose maligning the God of Israelites(this is the tenor of the preacher in the video and his other videos). Marcion had to pick all passages and allusions that seemingly portray God as a bad deity. This is proof-texting since great portion of the OT see God as a loving, kind, patient, and sincere in his relationship with his chosen people ( Neh. 9:17; Exo. 34:6; Ps. 136; Jon. 3:8-10; Isa. 54:10 et.al). His inference that God is vengeful(Demiurge- a lesser god) boils from God's judgment to the nations towards their sins; that God projected wrath rather than love which the NT God according to him is characterized. J.I. Packer summarizes: “God’s wrath in the Bible is never the capricious, self-indulgent, irritable, morally ignoble thing that human anger so often is. It is, instead, a right and necessary reaction to objective moral evil” (Knowing God, 151). God's judgment was never directed to the Gentiles alone in fact the Israelites received many punishments even included deaths for their transgressions. God therefore is just in his ways even in judgment. Marcion's proof-texting went overboard that's why he was excommunicated and labeled as a heretic. In spite of this, he found untutored people about the Bible and orthodoxy and were swayed by his teachings without questioning him (A salient warning for today). This makes Paul's prediction so true, 2 Timothy 4:3-4"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."

Marcion's Historical Revisionism

By slaughtering the Bible to fit his teachings, he went on revising the biblical history. The Marcionite Gospel is a revised history of Jesus, taking out passages that linked Jesus to the Jews like genealogies, birth narratives of John the Baptist and Jesus in Luke 1-2. Since Marcion was the first to ever come up with a canon , his method of choosing was unhinged hence void of external accountability. Some modern scholars would even suggest that the Gospel of Marcion influenced the 4 gospels making his version at par or even authoritative, in spite of the fact the Synoptic Gospels were written within the three decades post-ascension of Jesus.

Marcion's Better God Theology--A Suspect

Marcion's inclination to Antinomianism is at play here, that the God of the OT used slave-like coercion in stipulating laws for people to obey while Jesus freed people from it hence the God of Jesus is better. To further this idea, he inferred that God of the OT in all his dealings was indeed Evil so that the gap between OT God and NT God deepens and widens making Marcion's God a better choice. So everytime Marcionite hermeneutics is in play when OT passage in on the table, God will not be the hero of the story but the villain. Hence OT passages and as whole were used to portray God as malevolent.

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Rev. NeilBoyet Fajardo is the Satellite Pastor at Word of Hope Christian Family Church, and an Ordained Minister at Philippines General Council of the Assemblies of God (PGCAG). He studied Bachelor's Degree of Arts (BA) in Theology at Baptist Theological College-Cebu Graduate School of Theology, Pastoral Leadership and Mission at Bethel Bible College of the Assemblies of God, MDiv in Biblical Studies at Asian Theological Seminary, M.A. Theology (Pastoral Studies) at Baptist Theological College-Cebu Graduate School of Theology, PhD in Theology major in Scriptures at Baptist Theological College-Cebu Graduate School of Theology.

Know Your Heresies: How Not to Be a Heretic | By Kyle Hughes

What is heresy? While this term is often casually thrown around in the many wars of words on social media, it does have a historic technical usage in the context of Christian theology. Simply put, we can define heresy as the deliberate affirmation of a belief that subverts a central doctrine of the faith.

While the technical use of the word “heresy” may not be common in the New Testament, the concept of false and destructive teaching is a frequent concern for many New Testament writers. Paul, for example, frequently warns against such false teachers (e.g., 1 Tim 1:3–6) and criticizes false teaching (1 Cor 15:12–58). In response, Paul exhorts Christians to “guard the good deposit entrusted to you” (2 Tim 1:14) and expel the false teachers among them (Titus 3:10). Biblical scholars debate the extent to which various proto-heresies are being targeted in the New Testament writings. Still, it is clear that, at minimum, serious doctrinal divisions threatened to obscure the core message of the gospel even from the dawn of Christianity.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE here:

Know Your Heresies: How Not to Be a Heretic What is heresy? Or, what makes a heresy heretical? Read more about the 9 heresies that shaped early church doctrine and where they appear today.

How can we know God exists? How can we be confident the Bible true? How can a loving God allow evil and suffering, and torture people in hell? How can we prove that Jesus is the only way to God?

We need a gathering place where people are welcome to wrestle with difficult questions like these, and allow people to explore truth together.

Starting August 28, 2024 we will begin the Aletheia Life Group — a safe space where people can doubt, disagree, dialogue, debate, and discover answers in a friendly environment without being condemned for their inquiries and questions.

👉 The Case For Faith: Investigating the Toughest Objections to Christianity

👉 Aletheia Life Group | Wednesdays | 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM

👉 Makers Café #60 Eugenio Lopez Drive, Corner Samar Avenue, South Triangle, Quezon City PH

👉 Requirements: Come with an open mind, humble heart, friendly attitude, and gracious spirit.

👉 Open for all. Free admission. Limited seats. SIGN UP NOW to reserve your seat here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSciRrLSJHEqV99ziwx0aaTvoQL53ar_LX_v76p5sibLxa9HTw/viewform



*What does "aletheia" mean? | "Truth" in John 17:17 is the Greek word "aletheia", which means "reality, the manifested, unconcealed essence of a matter." Truth is the reality lying at the foundation of a righteous example. It is pure unadulterated reality.

"One Faith: The Evangelical Consensus" | By J. I. Packer (Author) & Thomas C. Oden (Author)

Jesus Christ promised a unity for his church. Are there now clear evidences of that within evangelicalism? Or are evangelicals fragmenting into ever smaller divisions? Renowned theologians J. I. Packer (Reformed-Calvinist) and Thomas C. Oden (Wesleyan-Arminian) make the case that there is a significant theological consensus holding the evangelical church together. With copious citations from statements produced since 1950 that are widely representative of international evangelical faith, Packer and Oden let these witnesses speak for themselves. Packer and Oden survey several key documents of evangelicalism, particularly the Lausanne Covenant (1974), the Manila Manifesto (1989), The Gospel of Jesus An Evangelical Celebration (1999) and The Amsterdam Declaration (2000). Charting sixteen different theological themes, they also include references to numerous documents produced by evangelical theological seminaries and societies, mission agencies, parachurch organizations and assorted special convocations. More than informational, One Faith arises out of the hope that it may not only edify the evangelical church but also provide a potential foundation for a new ecumenism that gives glory to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the good news of his gospel.

"Faith is simply the bringing of our minds into accord with the truth. It is adjusting our expectations to the promises of God in complete assurance that the God of the whole earth cannot lie. Man looks at a mountain and affirms, 'That is a mountain.' There is no particular virtue in the affirmation. It is simply accepting the fact that stands before him and bringing his belief into accord with the fact. The man does not create the mountain by believing, nor could he annihilate it by denying. And so with the truth of God. The believing man accepts a promise of God as a fact as solid as a mountain and vastly more enduring." ― A.W. Tozer, 'What Is Faith'

Conflict is a normal part of any relationship. After all, two people cannot be expected to agree on everything, all the time. We should not fear or avoid conflict but to learn how to resolve it in a healthy way.

Whether you’re experiencing conflict at home, work, school, or church, learning these skills can help you resolve differences in a healthy way and build stronger, more rewarding relationships.

Invite your employees, workmates, schoolmates, and friends.

👉 Title: "How To Manage Conflict?"

👉 Date: July 12, 2024 • FRIDAY • 7:00 – 9:00 PM

👉 Venue: Sky Lounge (5TH Floor) | Christian Bible Church of the Philippines | #60 Eugenio Lopez Drive, Corner Samar Avenue,
South Triangle, Quezon City PH

👉 Open for all. Free admission.

👉 Limited seats. SIGN UP here to reserve your seat: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSduqFfT6v2CY-12F_m_jOJxzl6fm8YlQ85P0pIv-u8PAjWOzw/viewform

👉 Map and directions going to CBCP, click here: https://cbcp.org/locations/discipleship-center/

"We have believed and are saved by voluntary choice... Each one of us who sins with his own free will, chooses punishment. So the blame lies with him who chooses. God is without blame... Their estrangement is the result of free choice. Believing and obeying are in our own power... Nor will he who is saved be saved against his will, for he is not inanimate. But above all, he will speed to salvation voluntarily and of free choice... Choice depends on the man as being free. But the gift depended on God as the Lord. And He gives to those who are willing, are exceedingly earnest, and who ask... For God does not compel (coerce)." — Clement of Alexandria (Titus Flavius Clemens) 150–215 AD

"This expression [of our Lord], How often would I have gathered your children together, and you would not, set forth the ancient law of human liberty, because God made man a free [agent] from the beginning, possessing his own power, even as he does his own soul, to obey the behests of God voluntarily, and not by compulsion of God. For there is no coercion with God... therefore does He give good counsel to all. And in man... He has placed the power of choice... so that those who had yielded obedience might justly possess what is good, given indeed by God, but preserved by themselves. On the other hand, they who have not obeyed... Rejecting therefore the good, and as it were spuing it out, they shall all deservedly incur the just judgment of God..." — Irenaeus, 'Manifesto on Free Will'

“This Is Our God” | Phil Wickham

Remember those walls that we called sin and shame
They were like prisons that we couldn’t escape
But He came and He died and He rose
Those walls are rubble now

Remember those giants we called death and grave
They were like mountains that stood in our way
But He came and He died and He rose
Those giants are dead now

This is our God
This is who He is
He loves us
This is our God
This is what He does
He saves us
He bore the cross
Beat the grave
Let heaven and earth proclaim
This is our God
King Jesus

Remember that fear that took our breath away
Faith so weak that we could barely pray
But He heard every word, every whisper

Now those altars in the wilderness
Tell the story of His faithfulness
Never once did He fail and He never will

This is our God
This is who He is
He loves us
This is our God
This is what He does
He saves us
He bore the cross
Beat the grave
Let heaven and earth proclaim
This is our God
King Jesus

Who pulled me out of that pit
He did
He did
Who paid for all of our sin
Nobody but Jesus

Who pulled me out of that pit
He did
He did
Who paid for all of our sin
Nobody but Jesus

Who rescued me from that grave
Yahweh Yahweh
Who gets the glory and praise
Nobody but Jesus

Who rescued me from that grave
Yahweh Yahweh
Who gets the glory and praise
Nobody but Him

This is our God
This is who He is
He loves us
This is our God
This is what He does
He saves us
He bore the cross
Beat the grave
Let heaven and earth proclaim
This is our God
King Jesus

He bore the cross
Beat the grave
Let heaven and earth proclaim
This is our God
King Jesus

"But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name." (John 20:31, ESV)

We are a theological voice against teachings that limit the saving grace of God only to a chosen few, against theologies that teach that Christ did not die for all of humanity, and against doctrines that say that the Gospel is actually good news only to preselected individuals, not for every person.

The GRACE for ALL Coalition is a virtual aggrupation of all Non-Calvinist Evangelical Christians from all theological stripes including Provisionists, Molinists, Free Grace, Arminians, Freewill Baptists, General Baptists, Wesleyans, Lutherans, Pentecostals, Methodists, Mennonite, Brethren, Nazarene, Evangelical Free, Anabaptists, and all believers who embrace “Whosoever Will” theologies.

We are a collective pushback and intellectual resistance against theological systems that portray God as unloving, arbitrary, author of evil, capricious, controlling, manipulative, wrathful, unfair, and unkind. We contest any teaching that assumes that the central teaching of Scripture should be a God portrayed as one who enjoys divine deterministic meticulous control. We dispute theologies that highly emphasize this brand of God’s sovereignty which disregards or diminishes God’s love, mercy, compassion, kindness, generosity, and God’s gracious open invitation for all sinful humanity to either receive or reject His free gift of salvation in Jesus Christ.

We believe that the Gospel (εὐαγγέλιον) asserts that God actually loves the entire world and that God sincerely desires every person to gain eternal life through Jesus Christ. God offers the free gift of salvation to all sinners and invites all humanity to freely respond in believing faith. The saving grace of God is sincerely offered to every person, not decreed to a preselected few.

We subscribe to the theological affirmations of the Apostles’ Creed, the Lausanne Covenant, and the World Evangelical Alliance.

— GRACE for ALL Coalition

"And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:14-16, NLT)

"The issue is not whether or not the Bible teaches the sovereignty of God ― it does, and I believe in its teaching wholeheartedly. God’s kingdom was, is now, and ever shall be. God is the initiator and source of a salvation that no human can merit... However, God’s guidance is never purely and simply the kind of micro-management that leaves the individual no choice... The issue is what it means by that teaching. For there are different ways of understanding the concept of sovereignty: (1) One view of 'sovereignty' is in terms of divine determinism, that is human beings do not have the capacities to make choices and that their behavior is completely determined by God... (2) Another view of 'sovereignty' is that God is a loving Creator who has made human beings in his image with a significant capacity to choose, with all its marvelous potential of love, trust, and moral responsibility. God is not the irresistible cause of human behavior, whether good or bad ― otherwise our actions and characters would be deprived of moral significance and it would make no sense to talk of us doing or being 'good' or 'bad'. It is one of God’s greatest glories that he invests us humans with moral significance. That fact is most clearly shown in God’s offer of salvation. That salvation is all of God, we cannot merit it; but in the preaching of the gospel we are challenged to use our God-given capacity to trust Christ to receive it. That trust is called 'faith'..."

― John C. Lennox, 'Determined to Believe?: The Sovereignty of God, Freedom, Faith, and Human Responsibility'

“God will take nine steps toward us, but He will not take the tenth. He will incline us to repent, but He cannot do our repenting for us. It is of the essence of repentance that it can only be done by the one who committed the act to be repented of. God can wait on the sinning man… but He cannot force a man to repent. To do this would be to violate the man's freedom and void the gift God originally bestowed upon him. Where there is no freedom of choice there can be neither sin nor righteousness, because it is of the nature of both that they be voluntary.” ― A.W. Tozer, 'Sermon: The Responsibility of Choice'

“God has made us in His likeness, and one mark of that likeness is our free will. We hear God say, ‘Whosoever will, let him come’... The master choice is His, the secondary choice is ours... Salvation is from our side a choice, from the divine side it is a seizing upon, an apprehending, a conquest by the Most High God. Our ‘accepting’ and ‘willing’ are reactions rather than actions. The right of determination must always remain with God.” ― A. W. Tozer, 'The Divine Conquest'

"By predestination we mean the predetermined redemptive plan of God to justify, sanctify and glorify whosoever freely believes. All people are created with equal value as image bearers of God. Because God desires mercy over justice and self-sacrificially loves everyone, He has graciously provided the means of salvation to every man, woman, boy and girl. No person is created for damnation, or predetermined by God to that end. Those who perish only do so because they refused to accept the truth so as to be saved.” ― Leighton Flowers, 'What is Provisionism?' in Soteriology101

"God could have easily created a world in which nothing evil could ever happen. But this world would not have been capable of love. God could have preprogrammed agents to say loving things and to act in loving ways. He could even have preprogrammed these automatons to believe they were choosing to love. But these preprogrammed agents would not genuinely be loving. Love can only be genuine if it’s freely chosen. Which means, unless a personal agent has the capacity to choose against love, they don’t really have the capacity to choose for it... So too, the reason God can’t create a “preprogrammed lover” is because the very idea of an agent who is capable of love but not capable of choosing against love is meaningless. If God’s primary purpose in creation is raising up a people who are capable of receiving and reflecting his love and carrying out his will “on earth as it is in heaven,” these people will have to have the potential to choose against love. The price of the possibility of love is freedom, and with freedom comes the possibility of evil." — Greg Boyd, 'Love and Free Will' in REKNEW.org

“No man will stand before the Father and be able to give the excuse, “I was born unloved by my Creator (John 3:16). I was born un-chosen and without the hope of salvation (Titus 2:11). I was born unable to see, hear or understand God’s revelation of Himself (Acts 28:27-28).” No! They will stand wholly and completely “without excuse” (Rom. 1:20), because God loved them (John 3:16), called them to salvation (2 Cor. 5:20), revealed Himself to them (Titus 2:11), and provided the means by which their sins would be atoned (1 John 2:2). No man has any excuse for unbelief (Rom. 1:20).” ― Leighton Flowers, 'The Potter's Promise: A Biblical Defense of Traditional Soteriology'

Come let us worship God together. Magkita po tayong muli this Sunday at 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM. Map directions to CBCP https://cbcp.org/locations/discipleship-center/

Most of the time when we talk about social media being bad for us we mean for our mental health. These platforms make us anxious, depressed, and insecure, and for many reasons: the constant social comparison; the superficiality and inauthenticity of it all; being ranked and rated by strangers. All this seems to make us miserable.

But I don’t just think it makes us miserable. I’ve written before about how it makes us bitchy. And self-absorbed. And over time I’m becoming convinced that our most pressing concern isn’t that social media makes us feel worse about ourselves. It’s that social media makes us worse people.

Social comparison, for example. This is one of the main problems people mention when talking about the harms of social media. Constantly comparing our beauty, our success, our lifestyle, our popularity, to infinite streams of other people makes us feel anxious and inadequate, yes. But I also think it makes us resentful. Bitter. Competitive. Quietly wishing for others to fail. We talk constantly about what like, follow and comment metrics do to our self-esteem—but don’t they also make us so shallow? We hate when people judge us by numbers on a screen, but aren’t we doing it all the time, to everyone else, even subconsciously? We talk endlessly about how editing apps and filters give girls and young women anxiety and body dysmorphia, which is important, but never about how they make us competitive, envious, vain. Sometimes it’s not my self-esteem I’m worried about. It’s who I become when I obsess over my profile and image and what everyone else is doing. Sometimes I lock my screen and don’t like who is looking back at me in its black reflection.

— JON HAIDT AND FREYA INDIA, "On The Degrading Effects of Life Online"

On The Degrading Effects of Life Online How social media makes us worse people

"Salvation can be accomplished, even by the infinite God, only through Jesus Christ. Hence it is that a simple trust in the Savior opens the way into the infinite power and grace of God... This one word 'believe' represents all a sinner can do and all a sinner must do to be saved... This Gospel is said to be written for a definite purpose: 'But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.'” — Lewis Sperry Chafer, 'Salvation' (1917)

Sharpening Your Interpersonal Skills | A Ten-Part Series | May 10 • May 24 • June 7 • June 14 • June 21 • June 28 • July 5 • July 12 • July 19 • July 26 | FRIDAYS • 7:00 – 9:00 PM • Sky Lounge (5TH Floor) | Christian Bible Church of the Philippines | #60 Eugenio Lopez Drive, Corner Samar Avenue, South Triangle, Quezon City PH | Open for all. Free admission. SIGN UP NOW TO RESERVE YOUR SEAT. | Please go to this link to SIGN UP: bit.ly/3UyDuzw

“The call to faith and the act of salvation comes entirely from God; faith commitment is both active and passive. Our part is the surrender of the will, the open acceptance of what God has done. Faith is not a 'work' (Eph 2:9), for it is the power of God alone that makes it possible. I cannot attain righteousness by my own merit or good works. It is a grace-based free gift from God, and it comes only through faith in Christ’s blood sacrifice on the cross... We produce nothing but our act of faith... There are two sides of the salvific act, God’s part in drawing, man’s part in coming. God is offering salvation to all who will, by His grace, trust in Jesus Christ His Son.” — Grant R. Osborne, 'Romans Verse by Verse'