THEOLOGY 300
LECTURE | ROBERTO ARCE CAGAS | PRELIMS
BIBLICAL FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH
FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH
• For Christians the foundation of the Church can be
traced as early as the Old Testament time, and
vindicated by the person of Jesus Christ in the New
Testament.
COVENANT
• Between Yahweh and Abraham
• Etymologically, is derived from the Hebrew word
berit, which refers to agreement, or legal contract
between kins.
• When applied between God and Abraham
o Basic Relationship
o Sacred
o Irrevocable
• Understood as more than a legal contract or
agreement.
COVENANT CONDITIONS
• Yahweh shall give Abraham the Land of Canaan
• Promise of Countless Descendants
• Assurance of Yahweh’s Protection
• They shall worship and keep Yahweh as their only
God
COVENANT RENEWED & LAWS GIVEN
• But the Promises were Put to Test
• In the book of Exodus, the new Pharaoh turned the
Israelites into slaves and treated them with cruelty
and oppression.
• Yet Yahweh heard the cry of his people, and
remained true to his word. He raised up a liberator in
the person of Moses. To free his people and lead
them to a land he promised Abraham and his
descendants.
• Yahweh’s unanimous victory over Pharaoh and his
pantheon of God’s led pharaoh to concede his
defeat and helplessness before the mighty powerful
God of Moses.
• The defeated Pharaoh eventually issued a decree for
the freedom of the Hebrews and their return to
Canaan.
• Chapter 20 of Exodus narrates the renewal of the
Covenant. Such covenant was unique because the
God of Abraham directly enters into an agreement
with Israel as his chosen people.
• In return, Israel pledged its worship and loyalty to
Yahweh alone. Yahweh then gave them the 10
commandments that would govern and guide their
way of life.
• Israel has grown more defined int its identity and
more organized and systematic in living out its
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duties towards God as indicated by its laws and
precepts.
• Israel as God’s chosen people evolved into an
organized worshipping assembly of Yahweh guided
by its fundamental laws, beliefs, and rituals. – Qahal
Yahweh
DID JESUS INTEND TO ESTABLISH A CHURCH
ADELBERT DENAUX
• Jesus making an explicit intention of founding a
Church is hardly supported by any direct and explicit
scriptural evidences.
• But to understand the post-resurrection Church in
relation to the Pre-Easter Jesus and his message is
an essential way of fostering fidelity to the Church’s
theological, social and historical foundation.
Albert Denaux On the Institution of the Church
FROM PRE-EASTER JESUS TO POST-EASTER
INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH
• The Pre—Easter Jesus was very clear in his intention
of gathering the whole people of Israel where
religious dissension and political chaos was an
inseparable context.
• He preached God’s universal, imminent Lordship and
urgently called everyone to prepare, to repent as the
new chosen people of God, Jews and Gentiles.
• Jesus chose the Twelve as his immediate circle.
When his disciples group together as an assembly,
an ekklesia, it can be said to be the prefiguration of
the institutional Church.
• BUT there were oppositions against Jesus.
o The authorities of his time threatened him, even
conspired for his death on the cross. Aware of the
threat, the opposition against him, Jesus
integrates his approaching death into his
conception of Gods Lordship.
• TENSION around the early Christian Movement
o The early Christian movement with their
traditions, beliefs and celebrations centered on
Jesus Christ gradually came into being side by
side with the existing religious groups and
institutions of the First Century Palestine.
• The Element of CONTINUITY
o Therefore, the foundation of the Church should
not essentially be viewed, and even judged in
knowing Jesus’ explicit intention but in finding the
essential element of continuity from the pre-
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LECTURE | ROBERTO ARCE CAGAS | PRELIMS
BIBLICAL FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH
Easter Jesus to the Post Easter institutional
Church, and the ongoing life of the Church as
pilgrims awaiting for his Second Coming.
JOSEPH RATZINGER
• No less than the pope emeritus of the Catholic Church
Pope Benedict XVI made the following points in
supporting Jesus’ intention of building a community of
faith, a church.
o For Ratzinger, “the entire mission of the
Sonmade-flesh has a communitarian finality. He
truly came to unite a dispersed humanity. He truly
came to unite the People of God.
o Jesus called and gathered a community of men
to be his disciples. He deliberately chose and
appointed the 12 Apostles. An action which
reveals the propheticsymbolic action of the new
initiative to re-establish the holy people.
As the system of the 12 tribes had long since
faded out, it became a sign of the hope of Israel’s
restoration.
o The Apostles, before Jesus ascended into
heaven, was entrusted with great mission of
bringing the world into a community of faith and
worship. Jesus clearly indicated that he will be
with the apostles, who became our historical link
as a Church to the risen Christ, until the end of
time.
o PRIMACY AND ROLE OF PETER among the
Apostles as the Head of the Church.
▪ And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon
this rock I will build my church, and the gates
of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of
heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be
bound on heaven; and whatever you loose on
earth shall be loosed in heaven. - Matthew
16:18-20
o The use of the word CHURCH
▪ It is only in Matthew 16:18-20 that Jesus
explicitly mentioned the word CHURCH
which is referred to in Greek as Ekklesia and
links this Ekklesia headed by Peter with the
Kingdom preached by Jesus.
o Pope Benedict XVI wrote :
▪ We cannot have Jesus without the reality he
created and in which he communicates
himself. Between the Son of God-made-flesh
and his Church, there is a profound,
unbreakable and mysterious continuity by
which Christ is present today in his people.
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He is always contemporary with us, he is
always contemporary with the Church.
CONCLUSION
• No, if we mean the church as building
• Yes, if we mean people who were gathered because
of their belief in Jesus Christ
QUIZZES
• Between the Son of God-made-flesh and his Church,
there is a profound, unbreakable and mysterious
continuity by which Christ is present today in his
people. He is always contemporary with us, he is
always contemporary with the Church.
o True
• In what particular Biblical text that Jesus explicitly
mentioned the word Church?
o Matthew 16:18-20
• What is the most correct understanding of the term
EKKLESIA?
o Church
• The Apostles, before Jesus ascended into heaven,
was entrusted with great mission of
o Bringing the world into a community of faith
and world
• For ADELBERT DENAUX, “the entire mission of the
Son-made-flesh has a communitarian finality.
o False
• Pope Benedict XVI supports the idea of Jesus’
intention of building a community of faith, a church.
o True
• According to Cardinal Ratzinger, the foundation of the
Church should not essentially be viewed, and even
judged in knowing Jesus’ explicit intention but in
finding the essential element of continuity from the
pre-Easter Jesus to the Post Easter institutional
Church, and the ongoing life of the Church as pilgrims
awaiting for his Second Coming.
o False
• Which of the following is the proper understanding
of Qahal Yahweh?
o Israel as God’s chosen people evolved into an
organized worshipping assembly of Yahweh
guided by its fundamental laws, beliefs, and
rituals
• COVENANT When Applied between God and
Abraham is understood as more than a legal contract
or agreement.
o True
• The Hebrew word Berit is properly understood as,?
o Legal contract between kins
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BIBLICAL FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH

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THEOLOGY
LECTURE | PROF. ROBERTO CAGAS | PRELIMS
APOSTLES AND MARTYRS
WITNESSING OF JESUS
• Christian history is made by men and women through
their life and example of faith and love in Jesus, even
against the test of pain and death.
APOSTLES
EXEMPLARS OF COURAGE
• After the death of Jesus, the twelve apostles were
never the same again.
• They who were hiding in fear and uncertainty at the
time of Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion, and were
struggling to understand his person and mission,
became exemplars of courage and conviction to their
faith in the risen Christ.
COMMISSIONING OF THE APOSTLES
Mark 15:15-18
Go into the world and preach the Gospel to the whole
creation. He who believes and is baptized will be saved;
but he who does not believe will be condemned.
All these signs will accompany those who believe:
In my name they will cast out demons,
they will speak in new tongues,
they will pick up serpents,
they will not be poisoned,
they will lay their hand on the sick and they will
recover.
THE ZEAL OF THE APOSTLES
BURNING ZEAL REKINDLED
• And so the FIRE of the missionary spirit was lit up and
the heart of every apostle was consumed by this
irresistible calling to be sent, to preach, to heal, to
exorcise, and to baptize in the name of Jesus, their
Lord and Messiah.
ON THE DAY OF PENTECOST: DESCENT OF THE
HOLY SPIRIT
IMMEASURABLE CONVICTION
• Peter’s speech in the Acts of the Apostles on the day
of Pentecost echoes with transforming Christian
conviction:
o Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of
Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with
mighty works and wonders and signs…who was
delivered up according to the plan of
God…crucified and killed by the hands of lawless
men…But God raised him up…God has made
him both Lord and Christ…
CONVERSION OF HEARTS
• Further in that account, the people who heard Peter
were moved, convinced, and converted.
• Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart,
and said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles,
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“Brethren what shall we do?” And Peter said to them:
“Repent, and be baptized.”
• And there were added on that day about three
thousand souls, who devoted themselves to
Apostles teachings.
THE BEGINNING OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS
IN MEMORY OF CHRIST AND HIS COMMANDMENTS
• Guided therefore by the Apostles, the early Christians
followed baptism and the breaking of the bread as
essential events of being a Christian.
BURNING ZEAL OF THE CHURCH
• The restlessness to preach so captivated the hearts
of the disciples that they started on a missionary
journey even beyond the borders of Palestine, to the
far ends of the Mediterranean world.
• As the fruit of their toil, converts were not even won
but groups and communities were even built.
• Christian communities sprang from the Jewish capital
of Jerusalem to the capital of the pagan Roman
Empire.
FACTORS OF THE EARLY EXPANSION OF
CHRISTIANITY
THE ROMAN EMPIRE
• The Roman Empire, which dominated Palestine at
that time, made possible the efficient preaching and
spread of Christianity due to the means of
communication (Roman Outposts), transportation
(messengers), infrastructure (roads), and rule of law
(order and security for missions)
DIASPORA JEWS
• Thus, the Apostles, who were primarily Jews, and the
early Christians on mission way initially received
hospitality and accommodation from their fellow
Jews in various foreign places and cities.
DECAY OF PAGANISM
• Christianity was born when paganism had grown tired
and cynical of the pantheon of gods and goddesses.
Immorality and vice had become part of the many
religious rites themselves.
• Vice has twisted the human hearts, but this very
disgust and exhaustion created a desire for
goodness and virtue which help prepare for
Christianity.
THE MARTYRS
PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS
• There was a time that the lifegiving conviction of the
early Christians that Jesus is the Godsent Messiah
faced its adversary – the test of persecution and
death.
• The Jewish authorities initiated a religious
persecution of Christians who were accused of
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APOSTLES AND MARTYRS
deifying a condemned and crucified criminal Jesus of
Nazareth.
• For these authorities, the act of worshipping a
crucified person was an act of abhorrence before
God, equal to idolatry and blasphemy. Thus, Stephen
the first Christian martyr, was put to trial and later,
stoned to death due to his refusal to denounce his
faith in Jesus.
ACTS 7:58-8:1
• They cast him out of the city and stoned him. And as
they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus
receive my spirit.” And he knelt down and cried with a
loud voice, “Lord do not hold this sin against
them,” and when he said this, he fell to the ground.
And Saul was consenting to his death.
FROM SAUL TO PAUL
• Being overly committed to his own conviction that the
Christians and their faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior
are abominations before the “God of Abraham, Jacob
and Isaac,” Saul consented and even carried out
persecutions
ACTS 9:1-2
• But Saul still breathing threats and murder against
the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and
ask him for letters to the synagogue at Damascus, so
that if he found any belonging to the WAY
(Christians), men or women, he might bring them
bound to Jerusalem.
THE PERSECUTOR
• He then rushed to Damascus with the intention of
bringing the Christians to trial for they deserve to be
punished, based on his personal prejudice. He was
chasing after the Christians, but he had no slightest
idea that the risen Christ had prepared for the
greatest transformation of his life.
DAMASCUS ENCOUNTER
• Now as he journeyed he approached Damascus, and
suddenly a light from the heaven flashed out about
him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying
to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” -Acts
9:3-9
• Saul must have been very shocked about the person
who just called him by his name. We may wonder if
we are placed on that same situation – should we
panic or run in fear and disbelief or listen to the that
voice who is calling.
ACTS 9:5
• As to Saul, he replied: “Who are you sir?” And the
voice said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting;
but rise and enter the city, and you will be told
what you are to do.
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SAUL CARRIED TO DAMASCUS
• Further on that account, Saul became blind, and he
was helped by a Christian named ANANIAS, who
was also restored his sight.
• The Apostles heard about Saul through the
recommendation and testimony of BARNABAS to the
Apostles Peter and James on the account of his
conversion in Damascus.
• The Apostles accepted Saul (and renamed him
Paul) as a member of the Jerusalem Church.
• Later in his life as a convert, he earned the title of
being the “Apostle to the Gentiles” because it was
he who brought many Gentile converts to the
Christian faith.
ROMAN EMPERORS AND PERSECUTION OF
CHRISTIANS
NERO
• The persecution of Christians continued and
increased. This time the Roman Empire, through
Nero in 64 C.E. who initiated the widespread and
brutal persecution of Christians.
• After Rome burned in 64 CE, based on the report of
Tacitus. To quell the persistent rumor that that Nero
himself was responsible for the conflagration (intense
fire) which consumed much of the city on 16 July 64,
the emperor diverted the blame onto the Christian
community. That is why Christians were hated by the
Roman people. - Cited in the words of the historian
HUBERT JEDIN (1993).
• Large numbers (ingens multitudo) of Christians
were arrested and executed in the ways reserved for
arsonists: some were sewn into the skins of the
animals and thrown to the wild dogs, others were
clothed in inflammable materials and used as living
torches by NERO to light his garden, which he
opened to the public for the spectacle.
• The Christians at Rome in the 7th decade of the 1st
Century were many in numbers (ingens multitudo).
• The Christians were unjustly accused of arson. Nero
persecuted the Christians not because he felt them as
a threat to the state, but was aimed rather at individual
Christians. He wanted the annihilation of the religion.
• But Nero’s act did not win the sympathy of all his
fellowmen for the victims were pitied, for it was felt
that they (Christians) were being sacrificed to one
man’s brutality rather to the national interest.
• HORORS AND BRUTALITY
TRAJAN
• THE ROYAL DECREE Trajan wrote a letter to Pliny
the Younger his governor in Asia Minor, setting his
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APOSTLES AND MARTYRS
royal decree on how to deal with the Christians in a
proper inquiry based on the following procedures.
• DENY OR DIE They are not to be hunted out. If they
are convicted, they are to be punished. But, he who
denies that he is a Christian and proves it by
supplicating our gods, although suspected in the past,
may gain pardon from penitence. Anonymous
accusations shall not be entertained with respect or
any crime.
SEPTIMUS SEVERUS
• The situation became worst for the Christians. In 202
Septimus Severus intensified the campaign for the
persecution with greater severity.
• He forbade conversion to Christianity, and baptism
was considered a criminal act. The Christians were
still pardoned however, if they denied the faith.
• The policy stepped up the governments active
persecution of Christians because the police sought
out the newly baptized Christians.
• The famous martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity took
place at Carthage during the time of Septimus
Severus (193-211)
DECIUS
• In 250 C.E. The Roman emperor Decius directed that
all citizens of the Empire must worship the gods of the
Romans and secure a certification from the
government.
• According to the historian Richard Cronin, “many
Christians, it seems, actually bought such certificates,
others performed the act of worship required, and
others who refused were martyred. The magnitude of
inhumanity to the Christians heightened.
VALERIAN
• Valerian continued the persecution in 257 by ordering
the close and confiscation of Christian Churches, and
by exiling and killing the bishops.
• He commanded Christian clergy to perform sacrifices
to the Roman gods or face banishment and death.
GALIENUS
• But the son of Valerian by the name Galienus,
stopped his father’s order of persecution and
returned confiscated Church property.
• After the death of his father, Galienus granted liberty
of worship to the Christians.
DIOCLETIAN
• The era of Roman persecution resumed its
implementation at the time of Diocletian. He renewed
the former edicts of persecution by Decius and
Valerian, but added the confiscation of Christian
writings as well as Church buildings.
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• The persecution under his reign according to the
historian William Hugh Clifford Frend, was a product
of well-thought and well-planned attack on the
Christians.
• William Hugh Clifford Frend, in his book the Rise of
Christianity mentioned:
o Diocletian recognized the danger of making
Christians martyr. No blood, he insisted must be
shed. The aim was to recall the Christians to their
duty of recognizing the majesty of the Roman
gods.
o The edict he promulgated on February 24
ordered that throughout the empire Churches
were to be destroyed, and sacred books to be
burned.
• Christians from public offices were to be removed.
Christians in the upper classes were to lose their
privileges. Christian slaves may not be freed. The
attacked was concentrated on the organization of
Churches.
• Some Christians fled to remote places to freely
practice their faith. Others submitted to the
authorities. But there were those who complained,
fought for their rights and persisted to uphold their
freedom. Thus, they ended up tortured, executed and
burned in public.
GALERIUS
• Persecution finally met its end at the time of Galerius
in 311. He maintained the persecution of the
Christians.
• In the winter of 310–311, however, he became
incapacitated with a painful disease. Fearing,
perhaps, that his illness was the vengeance of the
Christian God, he issued on April 30, 311, an edict
unwillingly granting toleration and lifting some of his
persecution.
In 313, Emperor Constantine together with Licinus
issued the Edict of Milan which declared religious freedom
to all citizens of the Empire, after so many decades of
prolonged agony and torture.
QUIZZES
1. What is the best description we can give to St.
Stephen?
• A MARTYR
2. What best Christian character exemplified by St.
Stephen?
• PRAYING TO THE LORD THAT, “DO NOT
HOLD THIS SIN AGAINST THEM.”
3. What event made the Apostles exemplars of courage
to preach?
• THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS
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THEOLOGY FIRST SEMESTER
LECTURE | PROF. ROBERTO CAGAS | PRELIMS A.Y. 2021 - 2022
APOSTLES AND MARTYRS
4. Which of the following is not part of the "signs that will
accompany to those who believe" as mentioned in
Mark 16:15-18?
• THEY WILL MOVE MOUNTAINS
5. What are the essential events of becoming a Christian
during the time of the Apostles?
• BAPTISM AND BREAKING OF THE
BREAD
6. The Roman Empire, which dominated Palestine at
that time, made possible the efficient preaching and
spread of Christianity.
• TRUE
7. What particular accusation made by the Jewish
authorities for the early Christians?
• DEIFYING A CONDEMNED AND
CRUCIFIED CRIMINAL JESUS OF
NAZARETH
8. Which Roman Emperor constitute the most brutal
persecution of Christians?
• NERO
9. Which Roman Emperor made a well-planned attack
on Christian?
• DIOCLETIAN
10. Which of the following best describe Saul?
• A CHRISTIAN PERSECUTOR

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THEOLOGY
LECTURE | PROF. ROBERTO CAGAS | PRELIMS
EARLY APOLOGISTS AND THEIR FIGHT AGAINST HERESIES
THE EARLY APOLOGISTS
• A group of well – educated Christians who defended
the faith from heresies through their writings.
HERESIES
HERESIES AGAINST THE EARLY CHURCH
• Aside from persecution, the proliferation of heresies
(false teachings) against the early church threatened
the unity and stability of the Christians.
2 CORINTHIANS 11:13-15
• “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers,
disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No
wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel
of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants
also disguise themselves as servants of
righteousness, whose end will be according to their
deeds.”
COUNTERFEIT FAITHS! (1 PETER 2:9-10)
• False Christs – Matt. 24:24
• False prophets & apostles – 2 Cor. 11:13-15; Jno. 4:1
• False brethren – Gal. 2:4
• False teachers – 2 Pet. 2:1
• False churches – Rev. 2:5
• False gospels – Gal. 1:6-7
HERESIES AGAINST THE EARLY CHURCH
GNOSTICISM
• Special Salvific knowledge
MARCIONISM
• Old Testament God & New Testament God
MONTANISM
• Prophet of the Holy Spirit
MANICHAENISM
• Battle between good and evil.
GNOSTICISM
• Is derived from the Greek term gnosis which means
knowledge. The Gnostics, adherents of Gnosticism,
claimed to have a special, salvific type of knowledge.
• Philip Hughes elaborates: Gnosticism proclaimed its
teaching, its rites and practices to be divinely revealed
and have been transmitted and preserved through
some mysterious tradition.
• Gnostics. They viewed the world of matter as evil
and the spirit alone is good. Thus, human body,
since its is a matter, is defiled and evil. Even marriage
for them is evil due to the mortal bodily desires that
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accompany with it, like person’s sexual desires and
pleasures.
• RESSURECTION OF JESUS. As a result the bodily
resurrection of Jesus was denied by the Gnostics.
They claimed that their dualism explained the origin
of evil far better than the Christian view.
• CONFLICT WITH CHRISTIANITY. In terms of
practice and doctrine, the Gnostics truly differed and
came to a point of conflict with Christianity. Their
numbers increased due to determinism which claimed
that small elect minority (Gnostics) are assured of
salvation.
MARCIONISM
• Named after its founder Marcion. Its belief was first a
reaction of the contradicting God of the “Old
Testament” and the “New Testament”. Adalbert
Hamman described Marcionism as “the error of
Marcion” who rejected the vengeful God of the Old
Testament in favor of the Good God revealed in Jesus
Christ.
• Philip Hughes mentions: For Marcion there were
two Gods, the lesser of whom was the creator of the
visible world. It is this god, Demiurge, who jealous of
his own created man, expelled him from Paradise and
so began the history of human sin and misery.
• Philip Hughes mentions: Salvation is from the good
God, who sent Jesus Christ to save men from the
bond of the Demiurge, and was himself really God but
man in appearance only, for matter was essentially
evil, and so He cannot take on a real body.
• MARCION. He was an advocate of a loving God but
he cannot simply reconcile the “vindictive God” of
the Old Testament, based on his own interpretation.
Eventually, he found himself deviating from the true
teaching of the Church. He equated the God of the
Old Testament as undeserving to be God because of
the wars and conflicts that were recorded in his name.
He also formulated his own canon of scriptures that
excluded the whole Old Testament.
MONTANISM
• Made an important mark in the history of the Church
when its leader, Montanus (135 A.D.), claimed a
special inspiration from the Holy Spirit.
• Hubert Jedin describes: It began in 170 A.D., when
the recently baptized Montanus, in Phrygia,
proclaimed to his fellow Christians, with ecstatic
behavior and strange, obscure language, that he was
the mouthpiece and prophet of the Holy Spirit.
Montanus claimed that through him, to lead the
Church to all truth. At first it was received with some
doubts but later two women Priscilla and Maximillia
joined him in uttering prophecies. After these series
of prophesies, Montanus promised his adherents a
higher place in the approaching heavenly Jerusalem,
then a wave of enthusiasm swept all hesitations.
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THEOLOGY FIRST SEMESTER
LECTURE | PROF. ROBERTO CAGAS | PRELIMS A.Y. 2021 - 2022
EARLY APOLOGISTS AND THEIR FIGHT AGAINST HERESIES
• In the year 200, Montanism was condemned by Pope
Zephyrinus, putting a gradual end of the movement.
MANICHAENISM

• Was founded by Mani (216-276), a Persian priest

who had the deliberate plan to unite in a new religion
the best elements of the old. He retained the ascetical
practice of Gnosticism and its attitude on matters of
evil.
• He preached that there is a fundamental battle
between good and evil, with opposing forces
struggling for the souls of humans.
• He claimed that all great religious teachers, Jesus
included, had come to teach people about the world
of light, and how they might struggle toward it, by
ascetical practices such as celibacy and
vegetarianism.
• Manicheanism rose to greater prominence when it
won Saint Augustin of Hippo as one of their members.
• But Augustine’s conversion to Christian faith turned
him into an ultimate adversary of Manicheanism and
the great defender of Christian practice and doctrine.

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THEOLOGY
LECTURE | ROBERTO CAGAS | PRELIMS
EARLY APOLOGISTS AND THEIR FIGHT AGAINST HERESIES
CHRISTIAN RESPONSE: THE APOLOGISTS
APOLOGISTS
• After the Apostles, a new breed of dedicated Christian
men devoted their lives for the propagation and
defense of the faith through their writings.
• Now, we might ask the question: How did the
Christian apologists respond to these distortions of
doctrines and the division created by heresies?
CLEMENT OF ROME (30-100 AD)
• In Philippians 4:3, we read:
o And I ask you also, true yokefellow, help these
women for they have labored side by side with me
in the gospel together with Clement and the rest
of my fellow workers, whose names are in the
book of life.
• Scholars and expert believes that the Clement
referred to in Paul’s letter to the Philippians is the
Clement who became the 4th pope of the Church
(after the papacy of St. Peter, Linus and Anacletus).
• Clement's only genuine extant writing is his letter to
the church at Corinth (1 Clement) in response to a
dispute in which certain presbyters of the Corinthian
church had been deposed. He asserted the authority
of the presbyters as rulers of the church on the
ground that the Apostles had appointed such.
POLYCARP OF SMYRNA (65-155 AD)
• Polycarp was in direct contact with the Apostles, and
therefore our direct link to the Lord’s disciples.
• In fact, we can discern the rich influence of John and
Paul in his Epistle.
• “Let us then persevere unceasingly in our hope, and
in the pledge of our righteousness, that is in Christ
Jesus.”
• Polycarp the bishop of Smyrna, wrote to the Church
at Philippi on the exhortation of virtue, the practice of DOCETISTS
love, hope and patience, the reminders for deacons,
youths and virgins, and the duties of presbyters, and
all Christians.
• He was betrayed by a servant, asked to denounce his
faith in Jesus by his persecutors, refused to revile
Christ, stood unthreatened by torture and death, and
embraced martyrdom by being burned alive inside a
stadium before multitude of people.
• The martyrdom of Polycarp was well recorded by
ancient writers and was considered as one of the
most inspiring stories of the early Christians that
defied human persecution and withstood the trial of
faith, even the fearful test of death.
• Heresy for Polycarp is the greatest evil. He describes
heresy as following: “For every one who shall not
confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is
FIRST SEMESTER
A.Y. 2021 - 2022
antichrist: and whosoever shall not confess the
testimony of the Cross, is of the devil; and whosoever
shall pervert the oracles of the Lord to his own lusts
and say that there is neither resurrection nor
judgment, that man is the first-born of Satan.
IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH (30-107 AD)
• Adalbert Hamman briefly describes his life:
o Coming from humble origins, Ignatius succeeded
Evodius as bishop of Antioch, the largest city of
Syria, at the beginning of the 2nd century, when
the Church was fifty years old.
• Originally a pagan and influenced by philosophy. He
was arrested around 110 and taken under military
escort to Rome. There he was not beheaded but
thrown to the wild beasts for food.
• Ignatius fought the Judaizers and the Docetists.
Judaizers were Christians who felt that all Christians,
Gentile converts included, must follow the Jewish law.
• Docetists was the name given to the belief that Jesus
did not really have a body but only seemed to have
one (in Greek dokeo).
• They deny the bodily resurrection of Jesus and his
human appearance.
• The divine Christ would never touch dlesh, which is
evil. Jesus only seemed human. Jesus only appeared
to die. “Christ” left “Jesus” before the Crucifixion.
• It’s adherents probably wanted to protect the divine
Son of God from the corruptibility of the flesh, but a
Christ with a phantom body could not suffer, die or
rise.
IRENAEUS of LYONS (120-202 AD)
• St. Irenaeus was best remembered as the apologist
who notably defended the Christian practice and
doctrine in his great work, Adversus Haeresus
(Against Heresies) which condemned and refuted the
theological and moral errors of Gnosticism.
• He was able to point out that what the Gnostics
preached as salvific revelation of God was not rooted
in the teachings of the apostles but a fruit of their
intellectual distortions tailored to cater their own
agenda as exclusive recipients of God’s salvation.
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THEOLOGY FIRST SEMESTER
LECTURE | ROBERTO CAGAS | PRELIMS A.Y. 2021 - 2022
EARLY APOLOGISTS AND THEIR FIGHT AGAINST HERESIES
• The Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, through His
Transcendent love, became man, so that men could
become divine.
TERTULLIAN (145-220 AD)
• Quintos Septimus Florens Tertullianus is most
remembered by his strong character, and pure
brilliance for the Church’s defense against heresies.
• Historians find it difficult to categorically determine his
roots. But it is certain that he was well educated in the
law, rhetoric and Greek.
• The historian Joseph Kelly describes him:
o Tertullian was the first great Latin writer who
wrote extensively. He created much Latin
terminology, which in turn found it way into
English.
• Tri (three); unitas (unity); Trinitas (Trinity)
o He also used the words substantia and persona
• Tertullian was the Father of the African Church. He
was truly a fighter against faulty reasoning and
divisive false teaching.
• He produced a number of apologetical writings
against Marcion, against paganism and heresy..
• But Tertullian deviated from the Church whom he
greatly loved and defended because around 206 he
abandoned the Church for Montanism. Tertullian the
hero of the Christians in Carthage became the villain
of the Christian Church.

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