True Christianity: The Portable New Century Edition, Volume 1

than we would have from eating a piece of burnt toast and drinking filthy
water from a pond.

9

There Is Faith That Is True,

Faith That Is Illegitimate,

and Faith That Is Hypocritical

From its cradle, the Christian church was attacked and torn apart by 378
schisms and heresies. As time went on, it was lacerated and butchered
by them, much like the person we read about who went down from
Jerusalem to Jericho and was surrounded by robbers; after they stripped
him and beat him up, the robbers left him half-dead (Luke 10 : 30 ).
The end result was what we read in Daniel about that church: “In the
end desolation [will fly in] on a bird of abominations; even to the close and
the cutting down, it will drip steadily upon the devastation” (Daniel 9 : 27 );
and the Lord’s statement: “The end will come when you see the abomina-
tion of desolation that Daniel the prophet foretold” (Matthew 24 : 14 , 15 ).
What happened to the church could be compared to a ship loaded
down with merchandise of the highest quality. It was battered by storm
winds immediately upon leaving port and a little later was wrecked at sea
and sank. Some of its cargo was spoiled by water and some was carried
off by fish.
[ 2 ] Church history makes it clear that from its infancy the Christian
church was assaulted and torn apart. For example, even in the time of the
apostles it was assaulted by Simon, who was a Samaritan by birth and a
sorcerer by trade (see Acts 8 : 9 and following). It was also assaulted by
Hymenaeus and Philetus, whom Paul mentions in his Epistle to Timothy
[ 2 Timothy 2 : 17 – 18 ]; and by Nicolas, whose followers were the so-called
Nicolaitans mentioned in Revelation 2 : 6 and Acts 6 : 5 ; not to mention
Corinth.
Just after the time of the apostles, many others went into revolt. For
example, the Marcionites, the Noetians, the Valentinians, the Encratites,
the Cataphrygians, the Quartodecimans, the Alogians, the Catharans,
the Origenists or Adamantines, the Sabellians, the Samosatenians, the
Manicheans, the Meletians, and finally the Arians.

§378 faith 453