Pagan Origin of Partialist DoctrinesPitrat, John Claudius
Religion
Pagan Origin of Partialist Doctrines
Pitrat, John Claudius
Catholic Church -- Controversial literature; Future punishment; Universalism
We request the readers to bear in mind, in reading this chapter, that
we have extracted all the proofs and statements brought forth therein,
from the works of the Roman Catholic priest Bergier, which we have
studied in our Catholic theological school; from the works of
the Rev. Father Jesuit Feller; from the History of the Church,
by Berrault-Ber-Castel, a Roman Catholic priest; and from the
Ecclesiastical History, by the Roman Catholic clergyman Fleury. Those
proofs and statements can be verified, in the first two writers, at the
articles of the sects, and of their authors, arranged in alphabetical
order; and in the other authors at the dates of the centuries and years.
Bergier says: "The Cerinthians pretended that Jesus Christ was born from
Joseph and Mary like other men; but that he was endowed with a superior
wisdom and holiness; that when he was baptized, Christ, or the Son of
God, had descended on him under the form of a dove, and had revealed to
him God the Father, till then unknown, in order that he might make him
known to men." The Cerinthians sprung up, according to St. Epiphane, in
the middle of the first century, but according to St. Ireneus, at about
the year 88.
Therefore the Cerinthians did not believe the doctrine of the supreme
divinity of Jesus Christ.
Bergier says: "The Carpocratians supposed the pre-existence of the
souls; pretended that they had sinned in an anterior life; that as a
punishment of their crimes they had been condemned to be shut up in
bodies.... In their belief, the soul of Jesus Christ, before her
incarnation, had been more faithful to God than the others. It is for
this reason that God had endowed her with more knowledge than the souls
of other men; also with more strength both to defeat the geniuses
opposed to humanity, and to return to heaven against their will. God,
they said, grants the same favor to those who love Jesus Christ; and
who, like him, know the dignity of their souls. Thus the Carpocratians
considered Jesus Christ as being simply a man, though more perfect than
the others; they believed that he was the son of Joseph and Mary, and
confessed his miracles and sufferings. They are not accused of denying
the resurrection, but of denying the general resurrection; and of
holding that the soul only (not the body) of Jesus Christ, had ascended
to the heavens." The sect of the Carpocratians commenced towards the end
of the first century.
Therefore the Carpocratians did not believe the doctrine of the supreme
divinity of Jesus Christ.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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