Irenaeus Against Heresies of Marcus - Speaking in Tongues Anti-Christ

Irenaeus Against Heresies of Marcus describes modern speaking in tongues. Musical worship was always mixed up with charismatic women gladly following men who claimed to be inspired. The songs were speaking in tongues or magical incantations often repeating magical words or numbers over and over. The goal was always to lead weak men and women to look for God only through his agents.

The "Big Lie" was simple --tell the biggest, most outrageous lie; tell it often enough; tell it loudly enough --and eventually people will believe it. Joseph Paul Goebbels

However, Hitler writes in Mein Kampf (James Murphy translation, page 134):

"All this was inspired by the principle - which is quite true in itself - that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying. These people know only too well how to use falsehood for the basest purposes

Charismatic gibberish does not appear in the Bible except in two instances: First, the "lord, lord" sayers were musical prophesiers. They might be singing Hallelujah, Hallalujah over and over as a meaningles song. Jesus said "I don't even know your name."

Secondly, the uncovered women in 1 Cor 11:5 were usually "just out of paganism." They believed that imitating the gibberish of the Oracles of, say Delphi under Apollo, Abbadon or Apollyon, was speaking the truth. Paul said that he taught the same things in all of the churches. Furthermore, 1 Cor 13 identifes music with the lifeless instruments or carnal weapons of the soothsayers and warriors.

Thirdly, the word "charismatic" in the Greek and Latin resources are always identified with sexual perversion: all priesthoods had their "children piping in the marketplace.

Fourthly, there is no evidence in the Clasics of "speaking in tongues" as gibberish: Paul would call it madness which points to the "prophesiers" who raised you up in order to take your money.

See the Speaking in tongues index.

Irenaeus Against Heresies of Marcus and the rest of the article

CHAP. XIII.--THE DECEITFUL ARTS AND NEFARIOUS PRACTICES OF MARCUS.

I. But (2) there is another among these heretics, Marcus by name, who boasts himself as having improved upon his master.

He is a perfect adept in magical impostures,
and by this means drawing away a great number of men,
and not a few women, he has induced them to join themselves to him, as to one who is possessed of the greatest knowledge and perfection, and who has received the highest power from the invisible and ineffable regions above.
Thus it appears as if he really were the precursor of Antichrist. For, joining the buffooneries of Anaxilaus (3) to the craftiness of the magi, as they are called, he is regarded by his senseless and cracked-brain followers as working miracles by these means.

2. Pretending (4) to consecrate cups mixed with wine, and protracting to great length the word of invocation, he contrives to give them a purple and reddish colour,

The grace-centered concept of the modern Christianism speaks directly of the worship of CHARIS. God was PLEASED when people obeyed Him. However, the worship of GRACE was just the opposite of God's use of TRUE Grace or approval.

so that Charis, (5) who is one of those that are superior to all things,
should be thought to drop her own blood into that cup through means of his invocation,

and that thus those who are present should be led to rejoice to taste of that cup, in order that, by so doing, the Charis, who is set forth by this magician, may also flow into them. Again, handing mixed cups to the women, he bids them consecrate these in his presence. When this has been done,

he himself produces another cup of much larger size than that which the deluded woman has consecrated,)

and pouring from the smaller one consecrated by the woman into that which has been brought forward by himself, he at the same time pronounces these words:

"May that Chaffs who is before all things, and who transcends all knowledge and speech, fill thine inner man, and multiply in thee her own knowledge, by sowing the grain of mustard seed in thee as in good soil."

Repeating certain other like words, and thus goading on the wretched woman [to madness],

he then appears a worker of wonders when the large cup is seen to have been filled out of the small one, so as even to overflow by what has been obtained from it.

By accomplishing several other similar things, he has completely deceived many, and drawn them away after him.

3. It appears probable enough that this man possesses a demon as his familiar spirit, by means of whom he seems able to prophesy, (6) and also enables

as many as he counts worthy to be partakers of his Charis themselves to prophesy (speaking in tongues or singing). He devotes himself especially to women, and those such as are well-bred, and elegantly attired, and of great wealth, whom he frequently seeks to draw after him, by addressing them in such seductive words as these:

"I am eager to make thee a partaker of my Charis, since the Father of all doth continually behold thy angel before His face.

Now the place of thy angel is among us: (7) it behoves us to become one.
Receive first from me and by me [the gift of] Chaffs. Adorn thyself as a bride who is expecting her bridegroom, that thou mayest be what I am, and I what thou art.
Establish the germ of light in thy nuptial chamber. Receive from me a spouse, and become receptive of him, while thou art received by him.

Behold Charis has descended upon thee;
open thy mouth and prophesy." On the woman replying," I have never at any time prophesied, nor do I know how to prophesy;"

Note: those who seduce people into speaking in tongues first break them down with hypnotic methods or music. Speaking in tongues then happens as those under excitement are told to open their mouth or just repeat nonesense. Irenaeus shows that this was the ancient pagan practice:

then engaging, for the second time, in certain invocations, so as to astound his deluded victim, he says to her,"

Open thy mouth, speak whatsoever occurs to thee, and thou shalt prophesy."
She then, vainly puffed up and elated by these words,
and greatly excited in soul by the expectation that it is herself who is to prophesy,
her heart beating violently [from emotion], reaches the requisite pitch of audacity,

and idly as well as impudently utters some nonsense as it happens to occur to her, such as might be expected from one heated by an empty spirit. (Referring to this, one superior to me has observed,

that the soul is both audacious and impudent when heated with empty air.)
Henceforth she reckons herself a prophetess, and expresses her thanks to Marcus for having imparted to her of his own Chaffs.
She then makes the effort to reward him, not only by the gift of her possessions (in which way he has collected a very large fortune), but also by yielding up to him her person, desiring in every way to be united to him, that she may become altogether one with him.

4. But already some of the most faithful women, possessed of the fear of God, and not being deceived (whom, nevertheless,

he did his best to seduce like the rest
by bidding them prophesy), abhorring and execrating him, have withdrawn from such a vile company of revellers.
This they have done, as being well aware that the gift of prophecy is not conferred on men by Marcus, the magician, but that only those to whom God sends His grace from above possess the divinely-bestowed power of prophesying; and then they speak where and when God pleases, and not when Marcus orders them to do so. For that which commands is greater and of higher authority than that which is commanded, inasmuch as the former rules, while the latter is in a state of subjection.

If, then, Marcus, or any one else, does command,--as these are accustomed continually at their feasts to play at drawing lots, and [in accordance with the lot]

to command one another to prophesy, giving forth as oracles what is in harmony with their own desires,--
it will follow that he who commands is greater and of higher authority than the prophetic spirit, though he is but a man, which is impossible. But such spirits as are commanded by these men, and speak when they desire it, are earthly and weak, audacious and impudent,sent forth by Satan for the seduction and perdition of those who do not hold fast that well-compacted faith which they received at first through the Church.

Irenaeus Against Heresies of Marcus shows that forcing people to fall into madness is to get people to fall in love with the "false prophet" in order to "steal the church houses of widows."

5. Moreover, that this Marcus compounds philters and love-potions, in order to insult the persons of some of these women, if not of all, those of them who have returned to the Church of God--a thing which frequently occurs--have acknowledged, confessing, too,
..........that they have been defiled by him, and that they were filled with a burning passion towards him.

A sad example of this occurred in the case of a certain Asiatic, one of our deacons, who had received him (Marcus) into his house.

His wife, a woman of remarkable beauty, fell a victim both in mind and body to this magician, and, for a long time, travelled about with him. At last, when, with no small difficulty, the brethren had converted her, she spent her whole time in the exercise of public confession, (1) weeping over and lamenting the defilement which she had received from this magician.

Irenaeus Against Heresies of Marcus and tongues claim superiority:

6. Some of his disciples, too, addicting themselves (2) to the same practices, have deceived many silly women, and defiled them.

They proclaim themselves as being "perfect," so that no one can be compared to them with respect to the immensity of their knowledge,
nor even were you to mention Paul or Peter, or any other of the apostles.

They assert that they themselves know more than all others, and that they alone have imbibed the greatness of the knowledge of that power which is unspeakable.

They also maintain that they have attained to a height above all power, and that therefore
they are free in every respect to act as they please, having no one to fear in anything.
For they affirm, that because of the "Redemption" (3) it has come to pass that they can neither be apprehended, nor even seen by the judge.

But even if he should happen to lay hold upon them, then they might simply repeat these words, while standing in his presence along with the "Redemption:"

"O thou, who sittest beside God, (4) and the mystical, eternal Sige, thou through whom the angels (mightiness), who continually behold the face of the Father, having thee as their guide and introducer, do derive their forms (5) from above, which she in the greatness of her daring inspiring with mind on account of the goodness of the Propator, produced us as their images, having her mind then intent upon the things above, as in a dream,--behold, the judge is at hand, and the crier orders me to make my defence.

But do thou, as being acquainted with the affairs of both, present the cause of both of us to the judge, inasmuch as it is in reality but one cause." (6) Now, as soon as the Mother hears these words, she puts the Homeric (7) helmet of Pluto upon them, so that they may invisibly escape the judge. And then she immediately catches them up, conducts them into the bridal chamber, and hands them over to their consorts.

"Earl Paulk, in his book Ultimate Kingdom, defends the notion that

the church is the Second Incarnation to replace the first incarnation: (Note: Many are looking for that new wineskin to bring bubbly, exhilaration to their assembly. This is to replace the old "decadent and deleterious" theology but it may overleap and replace the peaceful Jesus Who never exhilarated as far as I can determine)

"I believe that just as Jesus was the incarnation of God, the Church of the Living God today

is God's incarnation of light in this world. . .
We must now pursue and finish the crusade he began. 22 (Re Shelly - Harris, the wine is still fermenting)

"A similar point is made by him in The Wounded Body of Christ.

". . I believe that God is calling us to a new level. Jesus was God in the flesh,

and even as he was in the world,
so we must be in the world and even greater. 23

7. Such are the words and deeds by which, in our own district of the Rhone,

they have deluded many women, who have their consciences seared as with a hot iron. (1) Some of them, indeed, make a public confession of their sins; but others of them are ashamed to do this, and in a tacit kind of way, despairing of [attaining to] the life of God, have, some of them, apostatized altogether; while others hesitate between the two courses, and incur that which is implied in the proverb, "neither without nor within;" possessing this as the fruit from the seed of the children of knowledge.

Irenaeus Against Heresies

CHAP. XVI.--ABSURD INTERPRETATIONS OF THE MARCOSIANS.

3. I well know, my dear friend, that when thou hast read through all this, thou wilt indulge in a hearty laugh over this their inflated wise folly! But those men are really worthy of being mourned over, who promulgate such a kind of religion, and who so frigidly and perversely pull to pieces the greatness of the truly unspeakable power, and the dispensations of God in themselves so striking,

by means of Alpha and Beta, and through the aid of numbers (Magical songs).

But as many as separate from the Church, and give heed to such old wives' fables as these, are truly self-condemned; and these men Paul commands us, "after a first and second admonition, to avoid." (8) And John, the disciple of the Lord, has intensified their condemnation, when he desires us not even to address to them the salutation of "good-speed;" for,

says he, "He that bids them be of good-speed is a partaker with their evil deeds;"(1) and that with reason, "for there is no good-speed to the ungodly,"(2) saith the Lord. Impious indeed, beyond all impiety, are these men, who assert that the Maker of heaven and earth, the only God Almighty,

besides whom there is no God, was produced by means of a defect, which itself sprang from another defect, so that, according to them, He was the product of the third defect. (3)

Such an opinion we should detest and execrate, while we ought everywhere to flee far apart from those that hold it; and in proportion as they vehemently maintain and rejoice in their fictitious doctrines, so much the more should we be convinced that they are under the influence of the wicked spirits of the Ogdoad,--

just as those persons who fall into a fit of frenzy, the more they laugh, and imagine themselves to be well, and do all things as if they were in good health [both of body and mind], yea, some things better than those who really are so, are only thus shown to be the more seriously diseased.

(Note: In Gnosticism Ogdoad: The term that describes the eight deities (four male-female pairs) that is associated with Hermopolis, who symbolize the state of the world before creation.

The Archon of the Ogdoad imagines himself the supreme god.

In like manner do these men, the more they seem to excel others in wisdom, and waste their strength by drawing the bow too tightly, (4) the greater fools do they show themselves.

For when the unclean spirit of folly has gone forth, and when afterwards he finds them not waiting upon God, but occupied with mere worldly questions, then, "taking seven other spirits more wicked than himself," (5)

and inflating the minds of these men with the notion of their being able to
conceive of something beyond God, and having fitly prepared them for the reception of deceit,
he implants within them the Ogdoad of the foolish spirits of wickedness.

The Book: Against the Heresies (Ancient Christian Writers, No 55) by of Lyons, Saint Irenaeus, Dominic J. Unger (Translator)

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