When Israel became the depository of the truth that Jehovah alone was God, in contrast to the many false deities of the heathen, Satan came in to corrupt the people and to pull them down. Before long they were forsaking Jehovah their God for "that which doth not profit" (Read Jer. 2:9-139Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the Lord, and with your children's children will I plead. 10For pass over the isles of Chittim, and see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing. 11Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. 12Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord. 13For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. (Jeremiah 2:9‑13)). In like manner, this archenemy set to work early in the Church's history to corrupt the divine revelation of the Trinity—the three Persons of the Godhead, all equal in deity.
Gnosticism, that metaphysical, heterogeneous mixture of errors that flourished in the Near and Middle-East before the Christian era, added a little Christianity as soon as it came in contact with it, and under the enemy's direction, sought to corrupt the early Church.
Much that the Apostle Paul gave in the epistle to the Colossians was to counteract this baneful influence which was then being felt. It was Satan's attack on the truth, and it was directed against the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, in Colossians we find such words as these:
"His dear son... who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature; for by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by Him, and for Him; and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist [subsist]." Col. 1:13-1713Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: 14In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: 15Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 16For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. (Colossians 1:13‑17).
While this pernicious doctrine especially attacked the Person of the Son, it also corrupted Christianity by teaching that material things were evil and that it was necessary to add to their faith some special separation from nature. To this the Apostle rejoins that "ye are complete in Him," and asks why they were subjecting themselves to human regulations, after the doctrines of men; such restrictions as, "touch not, taste not, handle not." What could be added to that which was complete? complete in Him?
All this goes to prove that if ever so little of that which is derogatory to the blessed Son of God is allowed, the Christian's position and blessing consequently falls.
Timothy was exhorted to avoid "profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: which some professing have erred concerning the faith." 1 Tim. 6:20, 2120O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: 21Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen. <<The first to Timothy was written from Laodicea, which is the chiefest city of Phrygia Pacatiana.>> (1 Timothy 6:20‑21). This was a warning against the encroachments of the Gnostic pretensions to knowledge—falsely called knowledge. In reality it was only the vain speculations of the mind which is at enmity toward God, which dishonored the Father and the Son, rejected divine revelation, refused what God had given and ordained, under the pretense of special sanctity, but which soon manifested its true character in moral depravity. A word from the pen of Wm. Kelly would be in order here:
"The manner in which God is now and then presented in this epistle [1 Timothy] appears to be directly suited to meet and expose such airy and daring speculations which developed later into all the many vagaries of Gnosticism, sometimes subtle, and bewildering, at others low and licentious, but always destructive delusions."
In 1 Timothy such presentations of God as "incorruptible, invisible, only God" (N. Trans.), who is the creator and preserver of all things, strike at the very root of this Gnostic lie, for in it the finite mind of man sets itself up to judge of "Him with whom we have to do." And the presentation of the Lord Jesus as the one mediator between God and men, who is coming back to show who is the "only Potentate, King of kings, and Lord of lords" undermines all the imaginary structures built on the sand of human competence to judge of that which can only be known by revelation. And if it is known by revelation, then that revelation is to judge men and to be the absolute authority on that of which it speaks, instead of being a subject for human speculation. Thus Gnosticism is displayed as a travesty on real knowledge—it is knowledge, or science, "falsely so called."
Then in the third century the old evil—Zoroastrian dualism—which flourished among the Persians, and had sought to counter the light of Jehovah God, came forward with Christianity added to seduce souls and destroy the faith. This was known as the Manichaean heresy.
We who live at the end of this era can thank God for having preserved the truth to us in its purity after an almost countless number of attacks upon it. Satan hates Christ and was the behind the-scenes director of the slaughter of the children in and around Bethlehem in an attempt to destroy Him—The Seed of the woman, who was to bruise the serpent's head. (See Rev. 12:4, 54And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. 5And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. (Revelation 12:4‑5) to confirm this.)
From the beginning of the Church's history the devil has attacked the truth and those who held it. Witness the persecutions and martyrdoms of the early believers. But like a persecuted Israel in Egypt, "the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew." Exod. 1:1212But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel. (Exodus 1:12).
And when the sword and the stake did not suppress the testimony to Christ, the devil has had his emissaries within the pale of Christendom to attack. There they have propounded every form of evil doctrine, and never more so than at the present time. Their name is legion. Many of the earliest of these heresies are being propagated today, some in new dress and name; but the Person and the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, "who is over all, God blessed forever," is the mark, however it is concealed, at which Satan directs his attacks. And the imbiber of the error is doomed—lost, lost, lost.
May we hold fast the truth as to His deity, the eternity of His being, His creatorial work, His perfect and spotless humanity, and His completed work of redemption; and that we who believe are "complete in Him."