Against Heresies: Book III

Chapters

2. Chapter 1:—The apostles did not begin to preach the Gospel, or to put anything in writing until they were blessed with the gifts and power of the Holy Spirit. They preached only one God, the Creator of heaven and earth.

3. Chapter 2: The Heretics Do Not Follow Either Scripture or Tradition.

4. Chapter 3: Disproving Heretics through the Continuous Line of Bishops in Various Churches

5. Chapter 4: The Only True Doctrine is Found in the Catholic Church, the Sole Holder of Apostolic Doctrine. Heresies Are Recent Developments and Do Not Originate from the Apostles.

6. Chapter 5: Christ and His Apostles Authentically Preached About One God, The Father, As The Creator Of All Things, Unaffected By The Bias Of Their Audience.

7. Chapter 6 - The Holy Spirit, throughout the Old Testament, referred to no other God or Lord, except the true God.

8. Chapter 7:—Response to a Criticism Based on St. Paul's Words (2 Cor. 4:4). St. Paul Sometimes Uses Words Out of Their Grammatical Order.

9. Chapter 8:—Response to a Challenge, Based on Christ's Words (Matt. 6:24). Only God Should Truly Be Referred to as God and Lord, for He is Eternal, Without Beginning or End.

10. Chapter 9: The One True God, Creator of Heaven and Earth, as Prophesied by the Prophets and Stated in the Gospel, Supported by Evidence from the Gospel of St. Matthew.

11. Chapter 10: Evidence for the Previous Discussion, Taken from the Gospels of Mark and Luke.

12. Chapter 11—Continued Evidence, Taken from the Gospel of St. John. There are Exactly Four Gospels, No More, No Less. Mystical Reasons for This.

13. Chapter 12: Doctrine of the Remaining Apostles.

14. Chapter 13—Refuting the belief that Paul was the only apostle who knew the truth.

15. Chapter 14: If Paul knew any secrets unknown to the other apostles, Luke, his constant companion and fellow-traveler, would certainly have known about them; nor could the truth have been hidden from him, as he is the sole source of our knowledge about mankind.

16. Chapter 15: Debunking the Ebionites, who undermined the authority of St. Paul, based on writings from St. Luke, which must be accepted in its entirety. Revealing the hypocrisy, deceit, and arrogance of the Gnostics. The knowledge and practice of the apostles and their disciples.

17. Chapter 16: Evidence from the Apostolic Texts That Jesus Christ Was One and the Same, The Solely Born Son of God, Fully God and Fully Human.

18. Chapter 17: The Apostles Teach that it was not Christ or the Savior, but the Holy Spirit, who Descended Upon Jesus. The Reason for this Descent.

19. Chapter 18: Continuing the Previous Argument. Evidence from St. Paul's Writings and Our Lord's Words, Asserting that Jesus and Christ are not Separate Entities; Nor Can It Be Claimed That the Son of God Simply Became a Man Without Purpose

20. Chapter 19: Jesus Christ was not simply a man, naturally conceived through Joseph, but was truly God, birthed by the supreme Father, and truly a man, born of the Virgin.

21. Chapter 20: —God displayed His patience, kindness, mercy, and power to save through man's downfall. Therefore, man is extremely ungrateful if he does not recognize God's grace, forgetting his own fate and the blessings offered to him.

22. Chapter 21: Defending the prophecy in Isa. 7:14 against the misinterpretations of Theodotion, Aquila, the Ebionites, and the Jews. The authority of the Septuagint version. Arguments showing that Christ was born to a virgin.

23. Chapter 22: Christ took on real flesh, conceived and born from the Virgin.

24. Chapter 23: Arguments Against Tatian, Showing that it was in Line with Divine Justice and Mercy for the First Adam to be the First to Partake in the Salvation Offered to All by Christ.

25. Chapter 24: Summarize of the various arguments presented against Gnostic disrespect under all its forms. The heretics, swayed by every new teaching, are challenged by the consistent and unchanging teachings of the Church.

26. Chapter 25: This world is governed by the providence of a single God, who possesses unlimited justice to punish the wicked, and infinite kindness to bless the devout, and confer upon them salvation.

🎧 Against Heresies: Book III

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Chapter 1:—The apostles did not begin to preach the Gospel, or to put anything in writing until they were blessed with the gifts and power of the Holy Spirit. They preached only one God, the Creator of heaven and earth.

WE HAVE LEARNED ABOUT THE PLAN OF OUR SALVATION FROM NO OTHERS THAN THOSE THROUGH WHOM THE GOSPEL HAS COME DOWN TO US: They proclaimed it publicly at one time and later, by the will of God, handed it down to us in the Scriptures, which serve as the foundation and support of our faith. It is wrong to claim that they preached before they had “perfect knowledge,” as some boldly suggest, considering themselves as enhancers of the apostles. After our Lord rose from the dead, the apostles were given power from above when the Holy Spirit came upon them, filling them with all His gifts and perfect knowledge. They traveled to the ends of the earth, spreading the glad tidings of the good things sent from God to us, and proclaiming the peace of heaven to people, all of whom have the Gospel of God equally and individually. Matthew also wrote a Gospel in the Hebrew language while Peter and Paul were preaching in Rome and laying the foundations of the Church. After their departure, Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, wrote down what Peter had preached. Luke, the companion of Paul, recorded in a book the Gospel preached by him. Later on, John, the disciple of the Lord, who had leaned upon His chest, published a Gospel during his time in Ephesus in Asia.

THESE HAVE ALL DECLARED TO US THAT THERE IS ONE GOD: Creator of heaven and earth, revealed by the law and the prophets; and one Christ, the Son of God. If anyone does not agree with these truths, they despise the companions of the Lord; indeed, they despise Christ Himself the Lord; yes, they despise the Father also, and stand self-condemned, resisting and opposing their own salvation, as is the case with all heretics.