Category Archives: M

Marcion

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Marcion

In the middle of the second century AD, Marcion left the church and started the Gnostic Marcionites. Marcion was a
native of Sinope on the Black Sea. He first studied with the Stoics, then became a Christian. According to Epiphanius,
as he began to apostatize, he seduced a young girl, and was excommunicated. Marcion then traveled to Rome in
hopes of being readmitted to the church. Later he joined Cerdon and another Gnostic, preaching in Rome, hoping to
create a schism in the church. Marcion’s most famous disciples were Apelles, Lucanus, Basilus, Potitus, and Blastus.
This same Blastus later caused a schism in Rome. Marcionites continued until the sixth century, principally in Egypt,
Israel, and Syria.

Marcion rejected the Old Testament and used cut up versions of Luke and some of Paul’s epistles, for Scripture. He
used the Gospel of Luke but eliminated the first four chapters and removed all references to Jesus’ divinity or any
connection with the God of the Old Testament. His canon of Scripture also contained Romans, 1st & 2nd
Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1st & 2nd Thessalonians, Philemon, and Laodiceans. All of
these were tailored to fit Marcion’s teachings. In Paul’s Epistles, he removed all references to God creating the
world, and to Jesus being God’s Son, and any predictions of Jesus’ birth. He taught the God of the Old Testament
and His prophets were evil and would be destroyed because that god was the author of sin. He also taught there are
two equal and opposite gods, one good and one evil. He taught the Law and the Gospel were so strongly different, it
proves there were two different gods. Marcion insisted there is no resurrection and removed all references in his
gospel showing Christ was the creator and the God of the Old Testament was Jesus’ father. He also removed the
genealogy of Jesus. He said Jesus was a phantom having no physical body. Marcion forbade marriage and said it was
evil. Married people could not be baptized unless they got a divorce and practiced celibacy. The Marcionites were
strongly addicted to astrology.

Other Doctrines of the Marcionites were that Jesus came to overthrow the dominion of the evil creator. Followers
needed to be baptized in order to remove sins recently committed, and women were allowed to baptize other
women. Followers must be single, widowed, or divorced before they could be baptized. They denied Christ came in
the flesh and claimed there was no salvation or resurrection of the flesh, only of the spirit. Some Marcionites
believed in the transmigration of souls. We know this teaching as reincarnation. Some Marcionites sought
martyrdom in order to escape this evil world. It was well known that Marcion tried to publish a Gospel he wrote
himself in the name of Paul.

Church teachings contrasted:

Tertullian, AD 200
Against Marcion 4.8 – Jesus was not a phantom, but had a real body.
Against Marcion 4.37 – Christ saves both body and soul. Only heretics say the body is not saved
[resurrected].
Against Marcion 5.11 – Heretics try to say the epistle to the Ephesians is the epistle to the Laodeceans.

References:

1. Irenaeus Against Heresies 1.27 6. Against Marcion 1.24
2. Against Heresies 4.29 7. Against Marcion 2.17
3. Tertullian Against Marcion 1.2 8. Against Marcion 3.8, 4.8
4. Against Marcion 1.18 9. Against Marcion 1.29
5. Against Marcion 1.19-20
Nicolaitans

taken from Biblefacts.org

Moth

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Moth. Moths are mentioned several times in the Bible as a symbol of destructiveness and the perishable nature of all earthly goods. In (Hosea 5:12), God says, “I will be to Ephraim like a moth.” Just as the damage caused by moths takes place slowly and undetected, so God would quietly, but inevitably, bring judgment upon His backsliding people.

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Mouse

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Mouse.

About 40 kinds of mice are found in the Holy Land. These include house and field mice, moles, small rats, jerboas, and even hamsters. Arabs ate hamsters, but the Hebrew people considered all rodents unclean (Lev. 11:29; Is. 66:17).

In spite of its small size, the mouse is one of the most destructive animals in the world. Swarms of mice threatened grain crops in ancient times. When the Philistines stole the ARK OF THE COVENANT, God punished them by sending a swarm of mice which infected them with a disease (1 Sam. 6:4-5, 11,18); (rats, NKJV).

Source: [Anon-Animals]

The Jerboa or Mouse.

See Jerboa

You will not find the name of the Jerboa in the Bible; but it is supposed to be the same animal that is called a mouse in the 17th verse of the 66th chapter of Isaiah, “They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens, eating swine’s flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the Lord;” and also in Leviticus, where God is telling the children of Israel what animals they may be allowed to eat, and also what they must not taste. He says, “These also shall be unclean to you among the creeping things that creep upon the earth; the weasel, and the mouse, and the tortoise after his kind.” Whether the Jerboa is the same animal or not, the Israelites must have been well acquainted with it, for it is found in great numbers in Syria and Egypt, and other countries mentioned in the Bible. They like to live where the soil is sandy, and make their burrows, or holes to live in, in the sides of sand-hills. These burrows are often several yards long, and the part where they sleep is made soft with grass.

The Jerboa is about as large as a rat, and its color is a tawny yellow, something like that of dried lemon-peel. Its fur is very smooth and soft; its eyes are full and round, and its head is much like that of a young rabbit. When it eats, it sits and hold its food in its fore-paws, very much as a squirrel does.

There is a very great and curious difference in the length of its legs; those in front being so short that you would hardly notice them, and those behind very long. It bounds along over the ground very rapidly; so that the greyhound, which is one of the swiftest of dogs, is often unable to overtake it. It seems, when you first look at it, to use only its hind legs in jumping, but his is not so. When it is about to take a leap, it raises its body upon the toes of its hind feet, keeping the balance by the help of its long tail. It springs and comes down on its short fore legs, but does it so very quickly that you can hardly see how it is done, and the animal seems to be upright all the time.

They appear to be very fond of each other’s company, and great numbers are usually found together. They sleep during the day, but like the hare and rabbit, go out of their burrows to eat and to play as soon as it begins to be dark.

[Cook, Scripture Alphabet of Animals]

A mouse or mice are known for their ability to enter a house no matter how well it is guarded. Yet they enter undetected and eat the food of the house.

Moses Part 2

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Moses. [Mo’ses]

Son of Amram and Jochebed, of the tribe of Levi, brother of Aaron and Miriam. He was born after the mandate by the king that all male children of the Hebrews were to be killed, but his parents by faith hid him three months, and when he could no longer be hidden he was put in an ark of bulrushes and placed among the reeds in the river. Being found there by Pharaoh’s daughter he was named by her MOSES, signifying ‘drawn out,’ and adopted as her son, being nursed for her by his own mother. He became learned in all the wisdom of Egypt, and was mighty in words and deeds. Continue reading →