The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

IV. Menace of Manichaeism Imperils Post-Nicene Church

Another grave peril that arose to menace the Christian Church, likewise based on a fundamentally distorted concept of body and soul, here and hereafter, was the Manichaean Dualistic movement, reaching its height in the fourth and fifth centuries. This further statement is therefore necessary for additional background understanding. The Manichaean movement followed after Gnosticism had passed its peak. It was actually a development of Gnosticism, with the Christian element reduced to a minimum and dualistic Zoroastrianism, old Babylonian nature worship, and other Oriental elements raised to the maximum—and all elevated to a gnosis. CFF1 867.4

1. ORIGIN, CHARACTERISTICS, AND AMAZING SPREAD

The early phenomenal spread of true Christianity awakened the opposition of all pagan religions from the Indus to the Euphrates. But when Gnostic Christianity was introduced into Persia, Zoroastrianism was on the decline. MANES, or Mani (c. A.D. 216-276), was born in Persia. Perceiving points of agreement between Mithraism, Parsiism, Buddhism, and Gnostic Christianity, he conceived the idea of blending Oriental pagan Dualism, the chief teachings of Parsiism, or Magism as reformed by Zoroaster, with these new Gnostic-Christian elements. Christianity must first be freed from alleged Jewish corruptions, for he believed the Jews were worshiping darkness instead of light. Then this syncretism would be clothed in Biblical phraseology, thus to produce the perfect universal religion. ¹⁵ It was a grandiose scheme. CFF1 867.5

Manes began the public teaching of his views in the Persian court about A.D. 240, but Zoroastrianism soon forced him into exile. Reaching Western China, he went from there down into India, where he became better acquainted with Buddhism and decided to incorporate its best points in his expanding syncretism. The “Christian” element was by now reduced to a hollow shell, stripped of all reality and divested of all true intent, simply retaining certain Christian terms. It was a crude, unholy alliance, but Manes propagated it far and wide. And Manes, it should be stated, was finally put to death by being flayed alive. CFF1 868.1

Manichaeism was persecuted by the Roman emperors, first as a Persian sect and then as a Gnostic cult. Laws were issued against it, as by Diocletian in A.D. 296. But still it flourished. It was vehemently opposed by some in the church, such as Ambrose and Athanasius and Gregory I. Yet it definitely influenced certain leaders in the church. ¹⁶ Manichaeism first gained a foothold in Persia and Mesopotamia, penetrated the Roman Empire about A.D. 280, and established itself in Egypt by the close of the third century. CFF1 868.2

In the fourth century it began to spread rapidly, and achieved popularity in Italy. However, the bulk of its adherents were in Northern Africa. It survived in Chinese Turkestan for centuries, and by A.D. 1000 was still in Southern France and Spain, and even in Germany, affecting some of the monks and clergy. In fact, traces of it continued in various lands until the thirteenth century. Some even maintain that it continued to make proselytes up until the Reformation. And various medieval sects were believed to be Neo-Manichaeans at heart. For a time it appeared to be a real rival of Christianity. CFF1 868.3

2. ESSENCE OF THE MANICHAEAN MOVEMENT

Manichaeism had a hierarchical organization. At the head stood Manes, regarded as an apostle of Christ and considering himself the Paraclete, completing the work left unfinished by Christ, with successors like Peter and the popes. The seat of the Manichaean popes was for centuries at Babylon, then at Samarkand. Manes surrounded himself with twelve apostles and seventy bishops. There were five gradations in the cult: (1) Teachers—Manes and his successors, (2) bishops, or overseers, (3) elders or presbyters, (4) electi, or perfect, a priestly sacerdotal class, practicing Buddhist asceticism, and (5) audatores, or hearers—secular laymen with more freedom. It had a rigorous system of fasts with Sunday as the chief day, consecrated to the sun, the visible representation of light worship. CFF1 869.1

The prime object of it all was to free the “light” from the intermingled “darkness.” Christ was sent to accomplish this. But according to the Manichaeans, His apostles misrepresented His doctrine, so Manes was sent to succeed where Christ had failed, and to restore what was lost. The soul partakes of the kingdom of light; the body of the kingdom of darkness. And Manichaeism’s great moral aim was to teach men how to deliver the good soul from the corrupt body, and to overcome the power of evil matter, for evil was considered a real essence. CFF1 869.2

Manichaeism called for physical refinement rather than moral regeneration. And redemption was to be found in and through light, as worshiped in the East as a symbol of deity. But the World-Soul was still chained to matter. And instead of freeing the soul from darkness, light had turned into darkness. Such were some of the grave issues raised by Manichaeism. CFF1 869.3

3. CHRISTIAN ASPECT EMASCULATED AND NULLIFIED

The “Christian” aspect of Manichaeism was reduced to a farce. It held that Christ did not really die, that He did not have a real body, and no dual (divine-human) nature—only a fantastic semblance of corporeality in which His essence as the Son of Everlasting Light was presented to the eyes of men. That, of course, was simply Docetism. ¹⁷ Accordingly, they held that Christ had no human birth, and that His suffering and death were really fictitious. Thus the life of Christ was, to the Manichaeans, only a series of illusory appearances. All historcal reality was removed, leaving only a few Christian terms and metaphores. And some identified Christ with Mithras. Thus the system was stripped of a saving Christ. That was its most sinister aspect. CFF1 870.1

4. FANTASTIC CONCEPTS OF BODY, SOUL, REDEMPTION, RESURRECTION

The intrinsic evil of matter and the human body was taken as axiomatic. Man, they taught, consists of two opposing principles, with a soul like the kingdom of light, and a body like the kingdom of darkness. Struggling souls on earth are to be delivered from their sinful bodies, and after being purified by the sun are to ascend to the region of light. But those souls that neglect the struggle against their corrupt nature are, after death, to pass, through transmigration, into the bodies of animals or other beings until they have expiated their guilt. CFF1 870.2

And this belief in the intrinsic evil of matter led them, perforce, to the denial of the resurrection. Matter was somehow always evil, the flesh being ever and necessarily at war with the spirit. Salvation therefore lay in the exterminating of bodily desires. Thus a rigid and gloomy abstinence was fostered. CFF1 870.3

5. BASED ON AN ABSOLUTE DUALISM

Manichaeism is based on an absolute, pagan Dualism ¹⁸—two eternal principles from which all things proceed; two everlasting kingdoms bordering on each other—the kingdom of light under the dominion of God, and the kingdom of darkness under the control of Daemon, eternally opposed to each other. In the visible world they are commingled and in conflict. But the question of the eternity of evil was really the main issue—its essence and its outcome. CFF1 871.1

But within its framework of the absolute Dualism, explained in mystic terms, was a sort of pantheism, each element of the Dualism evolving into multiformity. From the “kingdom of light” emanated the “mother of life,” which in turn generated the “primitive man,” who was overcome by the kingdom of darkness. Thus created, man consists of two opposite principles, with a soul that must be freed from the body of darkness, the higher nature being tempted by the lower. CFF1 871.2

6. CHURCH RITES, POLITY, AND CEREMONIES

In Manichaeism’s religious rites, baptism and communion were celebrated with great pomp and ceremony, as by Catholics a little later. The elect were a sacerdotal group, the connecting link between the auditors and the “kingdom of light.” They practiced Buddhist asceticism, possessed no property, were celibate, abstained from wine, took no animal life, and subjected human life to stringent regulations. CFF1 871.3

Another sinister aspect was that they rejected the Old Testament as the work of the god of darkness, and they accepted the New Testament only conditionally, where not in conflict with their teachings. Nevertheless, absurd and un-Christian as it was, it claimed to be the “only true Christianity.” It exalted asceticism, introduced pompous ceremonialism, held that its ministers are the intermediaries between God and man, possessing extraordinary powers with God, and introduced a sort of Purgatory. Prayers were addressed to the God of Light, the kingdom of light, the angels, and to Manes—the self-styled Paraclete or Comforter, who was to declare the way of salvation. CFF1 871.4

This was another of the vicious systems confronting the church, against which loyal churchmen were impelled to fight in post-Nicene times. That is why the Conditionalists dwelt so constantly upon the true origin, nature, and destiny of man, and the true provisions of salvation and immortality in Christ, together with the revealed fate of the wicked. CFF1 872.1

That is why we have been compelled to turn aside long enough for a candid examination—in order to understand the sinister character of these movements and the spread of their activities that induced such widespread discussion of the nature and destiny of man. Nevertheless, these were some of the multiple factors in the growing acceptance of the Innate-Immortality thesis, and the dualistic notion of the eternity of evil, which is tied in with the concept of the Eternal Torment of the wicked. CFF1 872.2