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Melchizedek to Jesus: The Divine Thread of Bread and Wine

...abad.org Docetism | Theopedia Ignatius of Antioch: Letter to the Smyrnaeans | Patristics.info Ignatius of Antioch: Letter to the Ephesians | Patristics.info Justin Martyr: First Apology | Patristics.info Early Church Fathers Upholding Transubstantiation in Their Own Words — Ascension Press Media Early Church Fathers on the Real Presence in the Eucharist | Bread. (breadtobody.com) The Real Presence — Church Fathers Fathers of the Church on the Eucharist (therealpresence.org) The Eucharist and John 6: A Former Protestant's Perspective - Clarifying Catholicism Two-Edged Sword: The Eucharist, John 6, and the early church (twoedgedsword.blogspot...

Lent: Day 7 - Ignatius to the Trallians

...e against Docetism. This heresy, or that of Judaizers, comes up in every letter, which goes to show that even this early on, Christians were really up against it all having to defend the truth of the Gospel from every direction. Because of the nature of the Docetic beliefs — that Jesus wasn’t really manifest in the flesh but was rather an illusion, Ignatius gives us a nice run down of the life and passion of Jesus, which really focusses on his physical nature. Like John wrote so clearly in his Gospel: “the Word became flesh”, Ignatius writes a similar summary of the Gospel message in order to combat any notions that Christ was anything but human in ma...

Lent: Day 10 - Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans

...Day Ten: St. Ignatius of Antioch: Letter to the Smyrnaeans (full text) Who: Ignatius converted at a young age and later became Bishop of Antioch. A friend of Polycarp and fellow disciple of John, there is a long standing tradition that Ignatius was the child that Jesus held in his arms and blessed in Mark 10:13-16 What: A defence against the heresy of Docetism and an intriguing insight into the possible origins of evil spirits! Why: Ignatius wrote a series of letters to the churches in Asia Minor whilst en route to Rome to face martyrdom by wild beasts in the Colosseum around 108 AD. When: Around 107-108 AD The opening chapters of this letter pulls no punc...

Lent Day 37: Leo the Great: Letter XXVIII (called the "Tome")

...lot like Docetism, the heresy which was around much more a couple of centuries earlier. Instead, and in contrast to this, the commonly accepted doctrine on the nature of Jesus is explained by Leo as being, “without detriment therefore to the properties of either nature and substance which then came together in one person, majesty took on humility, strength weakness, eternity mortality...”. In theological terms, this concept of Jesus having two natures in one body has come to be known as the hypostatic union. Leo maintains that Jesus Christ is one person of the Trinity who has two distinct natures which are permanently united together. This letter (or “To...

Lent: Day 11 - Ignatius to Polycarp

...e against Docetism again, as in all of Ignatius's previous letters, which leads him to write this short creed about Christ just to reiterate the Church’s stance on the matter, and although it’s only short, I do like it, especially the parallelism: Look for Him who is above all time, eternal and invisible, yet who became visible for our sakes; impalpable and impassible, yet who became passible on our account; and who in every kind of way suffered for our sakes. What follows this are a few instructions, or maybe advice, to Polycarp, which isn’t too unusual since Ignatius is the elder of the two bishops – probably well into his 70s by this point, Poly...

The Battle for the Trinity: Historical Heresies and Church Defences

...ioch). Docetism What It Taught: Docetists believed that Jesus’ physical body was an illusion and that He only seemed to suffer and die on the cross. Church’s Response: The Church affirmed that Jesus’ incarnation and suffering were real, as this is essential for our salvation. Jesus’ true humanity allows Him to truly represent us and atone for our sins. Patristic Quote: Ignatius of Antioch stressed the reality of Jesus’ incarnation and suffering: “He was truly of the seed of David according to the flesh, and the Son of God according to the will and power of God; truly born of a virgin… He was truly nailed up in the flesh for our sakes” (Le...