Sep 6, 2024

Irenaeus of Lyons

People in the church often tell me they prefer the New Testament to the Old Testament. They find themselves more in sync with the New Testament God of love than the Old Testament God of wrath. Did God have a change of heart over time, or are we talking about two different deities? This selective delineation between the Old and New Testaments is nothing new. Marcion of Sinope was advocating it back in the second century. This early church leader concluded that the Old Testament and New Testament represented two distinct gods. The Old Testament god was a lesser being, a tribal deity of the Jews who was legalistic, punitive, and capricious. He contrasted it with a higher transcendent New Testament god who was forgiving, merciful, and kind. Marcion took a scalpel to Scripture to support his two-deity approach. He excised the entire Old Testament and retained only a truncated version of Luke’s gospel with handpicked portions of Paul’s epistles.

Irenaeus of Lyons (ca.130-202), an early church bishop, challenged Marcion in his treatise Against Heresies. Irenaeus insisted that the same God who sent Jesus Christ to earth led God’s people by way of the Jewish law and prophets. Both testaments testify to the same God who exercises mercy as well as judgment. Just as there are severe warnings spoken by Jesus in the New Testament, so there are gracious words spoken by God in the Old Testament.

Could a form of Marcionism be creeping into the church today? Consider our allergic reaction to anything having to do with God’s judgment, our selective use of Scripture, and our fixation on a benevolent deity who offers the world nothing but love without a hint of judgment. I’m reminded of something Tim Keller said, “If your god never disagrees with you, you just might be worshiping an idealized version of yourself.” Irenaeus’ prayer comes to us by way of his book Against Heresies:

I call upon you, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, you who are the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God, who, through the abundance of your mercy, is well pleased with us that we might know you, who have made heaven and earth, who rules over all things, who are the sole and true God, besides whom there is no other God, also grant, through our Lord Jesus Christ, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and give to every reader of this book to know you, that you are God alone, and to be strengthened in you, and to shun every heretical, godless, and impious opinion.

Michael Haykin, “Praying for Heretics: Irenaeus of Lyons’ First Prayer for the Gnostics.”
Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, 3,6,4.

Rev. Dr. Peter James served 42 years as the senior of Vienna Presbyterian Church in Vienna, VA — 21 years in the 20th century and 21 years in the 21st century. He retired in 2021 and now serves as Pastor-in-Residence at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

Even as a pastor, prayer came slowly to Pete. Read Pete’s story.