MONSTROUS MANICHEAN MADNESS
The Church was fully free of faulty thinking in this area until about the fourth and fifth century after Christ, when a funny but phony philosophy of “dualism” infiltrated the Church from a man called “the father of Christian philosophy and theology”. He introduced a warped way of thinking into the Church that was not corrected by the theologians or philosophers that were to follow. Here is the man, the doctrine and the correction to his approach.
St. Augustine, 354-430 A.D., was a Greek Manicheist philosopher prior to his coming into the Church. Here, we quote from the World Book Dictionary: “Manchiean (man’ e ke’ en) -n, a member of a Gnostic sect, arising in Persia in the 200’s AD., compounded of Christian, Buddhistic, Zoroastrian, and other beliefs, and maintaining a theological dualism in which the body and matter were identified with darkness and evil, and the soul, striving to liberate Itself, was identified with light and goodness. - In other words, while God’s Hebrews believed matter and the body to be bad or good, depending upon the use to which it was put, - the Manichiests believed, and taught, that the body was evil, and that everything that the body did, or was, or said was only always exceedingly sinful. Sound familiar? Nearly every church and catechism and liturgy we know of, has something of this within it. Some have even given the illustration: that inside every
person there is a white dog nature and a black dog nature and that the one that wins is the one you say “sic’em” to (or feed) the most. That’s what we mean by “dualism”.
Instead, God’s Hebrews properly said that matter, a pen, a human body was not bad in itself, but that its inherent goodness or evil was determined by what one did with that matter or pen or human body. This is why, in Romans, Paul says that ‘the instruments of our body are slaves of righteousness if we yield them to do righteous things, and that they are instruments of unrighteousness if we yield them to do unrighteous things.”
But the Manicheans said that the members of our body are bad because they were made of substance, of material, of matter. So, In Augustine’s writings, he says that it is a sin to watch a dog chase a rabbit. Why? Because the body gets excited and involved, and says, “Let’s see now, is the dog gonna catch the rabbit, or is the rabbit gonna catch the dog?” Augustine said, “I have learned to take my food as medicine.” In other words, he disciplined himself to the place where a big juicy piece of beefsteak tasted like cod liver oil, just so his body would not get all involved, excited, and sinful. My well-rounded mother told me one time that every act of sex was sinful. (She had four grown children!) She quoted David’s verse, “I was born and conceived in sin.” She didn’t know the Jewish tradition about David’s personal family situation. I said, “Mother, what a terrible thing to say about us kids.”
The real question is NOT “Can I keep from sinning?” but ‘Is God great enough to keep me from sinning?!.” Is He? If someone asks me. ‘Do you ever get a wrong spirit or attitude toward your wife or children or anyone?” or if they say, ‘Don’t you ever sin?” I respond, “I don’t recommend It!” or ‘We’re not in favor of it.” If they argue, ‘Do you actually think a person can get through the day without sinning?!” I respond, “we’d advise it.”
If you admit that you do not sin, they will call you a liar. But if you say you do sin, they will say. “See there! It’s not possible to keep from sinning.”
Mark Twain allegedly wrote in his memoirs. “Went to church today. Preacher preached on sin. Only problem was, I couldn’t rahtly tell whether he was for It. ‘r again’ It!” You know? Sometimes a body can’t tell by looking at some Christians’ lives and doctrines whether or not they’re in favor of sin or against it, either!!!