Pagan Origin of Partialist Doctrines

by John Claudius Pitrat

The Valesians rejected the doctrine that Jesus Christ was God himself.

Bergier writes: "The Hieracites, heretics of the third century, were established by Hierax, or Hieracas, a physician by profession, born at Leontium, or Leontople, in Egypt. St. Epiphane, who relates and refutes the errors of this Sectarian, confesses that the austerity of his morals was exemplary; that he was familiar with the Greek and Egyptian sciences; that he had thoroughly studied the Scriptures, and that he was gifted with a persuasive eloquence. He denied the resurrection of the body, and admitted but a spiritual resurrection of the souls. He confessed that Jesus Christ had been generated by the Father; that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father as well as the Son; but he had dreamed that the Holy Ghost had taken a human body under the form of Melchisedek. He denied that Jesus Christ had a true human body."

Therefore the Hieracites denied the supreme divinity of Jesus Christ.

Bergier thus writes about the Samosatians: "They were disciples and followers of Paul of Samosate, bishop of Antioch, at or about the year 262. This heretic taught that there is in God one sole person, namely, the Father; that the Son and the Holy Spirit are only two attributes of God, under which he manifested himself to men: that Jesus Christ is not God, but a man to whom God has communicated his wisdom in an extraordinary manner."

Therefore the Samosatians did not believe the doctrine of the supreme divinity of Jesus Christ.

The Manicheans denied the divinity of Jesus Christ, and believed that Jesus Christ had not a real body while on earth. His soul, they said, was of a nature similar to the nature of the souls of other men, though more perfect. He was the Son of God.

Therefore the Manicheans denied the doctrine of the supreme divinity of Jesus Christ.

All the above sects composed nearly the whole Christian body, during the first three centuries; and, as shown to the reader, every one either ignored or denied the doctrine of the supreme divinity of Jesus Christ.