Such is the general origin of heresies. Now, for the resolution of questions, one must turn to the Church. The Apostles placed the whole truth in her, and she has become, in their stead, the bearer of truth. Whoever turns to her for knowledge of the truth will not err. But whoever decides by his own mind to hit upon the truth is in great danger of hitting falsehood instead of truth.
In what did the error of these heterodox teachers consist? In saying that the resurrection of the dead had already taken place. According to the truth of God, spoken by the Lord and Savior and preached by the holy Apostles, Christians await the resurrection of the dead. Then their bodies, now separated from their souls by the action of death, will again be united with them by the action of God's boundless omnipotence. They will rise in a brightness like the brightness of the risen Lord's body.
The present period of the existence of the human race and of the world is transitional. In its own time it will end, and another period of existence will begin. There will be a new heaven and a new earth, and a new manner of existence for the human race. Then men will neither marry nor be given in marriage, but will live as the angels of God live, in an immortal and eternally glorious life.
In the Gospels and in the apostolic writings this restoration of all things is constantly mentioned. Nourished by this teaching, Christians keep the gaze of their mind and the expectation of their heart fixed upon it. By this hope they are inspired amid the hardships inseparable from true Christianity.
To take away this hope is to take away the most essential support of Christianity. This is what the designated vain reasoners were destroying when they said that the resurrection had already occurred. To say this was to say: do not expect anything better. What you now see is the best.
From this how many conclusions destructive of the truth of God followed. Therefore there will be no second coming of Christ. There will be no judgment and recompense. You, virtue, suffer, and this is your reward. You, vice, enjoy yourself, and this is your punishment. What could be imagined more destructive of faith and virtue?
Moreover, if there will be no resurrection, then Christ has not risen. And if Christ has not risen, our faith is vain (cf. 1 Cor 15:13-14). Thus everything is destroyed by this small proposition: the resurrection has already occurred. For this reason the Apostle above rightly compared the empty talk or novelty of speech of the heterodox teachers with a cancer. Having arisen in one part of the body, it then corrupts and devours the whole.
Chrysostom says: "The Apostle rightly said above, they will advance still further. At first sight this evil seems to stand only by itself. But see what consequences come from it. If the resurrection has already occurred, then the harm for us is not only that we have been deprived of great glory." Oecumenius adds: "We are deprived of the second coming of Christ. What could be more grievous? Christ, who proclaimed this, is made false. He will not sit upon the throne as Judge of the living and the dead." Chrysostom continues: "But judgment and recompense are also destroyed. The good have not received a reward for afflictions and sufferings, and the evil have not been punished."
The blessed Theophylact says: "The good have enjoyed sorrows and afflictions, while the evil have been punished by drowning in pleasures. What need, then, is there to hold fast to virtue, if such are the recompenses?"
When they say that the resurrection has already occurred, they thereby say that the resurrection awaited by Christians, radiant and accompanied by the restoration of all things, will not occur and has no place. But if the dead do not rise, then Christ has not risen. And if Christ has not risen, our faith is vain (cf. 1 Cor 15:16-17).
Nor is this all. Chrysostom again says: "If Christ has not risen, then He was not born and did not ascend into heaven. Do you see how opposition to what seems to be only one teaching, that concerning the resurrection, draws many evil consequences after it?"
But how did these teachers understand their resurrection, when the absurdity of the assertion that we have already risen is so obvious, and when the Lord so clearly proclaimed the resurrection that is to come? The Apostle does not say this. But in the second century heretics appeared who understood by resurrection the spiritual resurrection, that is, the enlightenment of the soul by truth and its acquisition of a holy life.
They taught that the soul, coming out of the darkness of ignorance and falsehood and entering the light of truth, leaving vice and beginning to live holily, rises to a new life. Saint Irenaeus writes about them in Against Heresies 2.31, as do Tertullian in On the Resurrection 19 and Against Marcion 5.10, and Saint Epiphanius in Panarion 42.3.
It is quite likely that the founders of these heretics were the Ephesian empty talkers and innovators of speech. Therefore one may suppose that the latter understood by resurrection the spiritual resurrection. They thought that Christ the Savior was speaking precisely about this resurrection, which is accomplished in the spirit by grace.
Yet even if they understood the resurrection in this way, the falsity of their teaching is not improved. Both the Lord and the holy Apostles speak of spiritual resurrection. But at the same time they also proclaim the future resurrection of bodies at the end of the ages. After it will follow judgment and the common recompense for all according to deeds: paradise for some, Hades for others.
Consequently, they have two resurrections, and it is unjust and erroneous to reduce them to one. The blessed Theodoret asserts that these heretics called the succession of generations, or the begetting of children, the resurrection. They claimed that in children the parents appear again in the world.
He writes: "These wretched men called the succession of generations through childbearing resurrection, and deceived some into departing from the apostolic teaching." Ambrosiaster, likewise saying that these heretics saw the resurrection in children, adds that he learned this from certain books.
It is quite likely that this also was the case. For to what other teaching would the name empty talk and old wives' tales more fittingly apply? The Gnostics, who treated of spiritual resurrection, were idealists and did not favor matter. These others were sensualists and materialists.
One may surmise that, according to them, there is no immortality either. Modern materialists likewise understand immortality as memory among descendants for deeds considered beneficial. Yet, despite its absurdity, this teaching did not remain inactive, but disturbed the faith of some.
"And they overthrow the faith of some," he says. Not of all, but "of some," Chrysostom says, "the simpler and weaker," according to Oecumenius and the blessed Theophylact. "They overthrow," ανατρεπουσιν, means they overturn and cast down. They do not merely instill doubt and wavering, but completely disorder and destroy faith.
Ambrosiaster says: "It cannot be said that there were none who expressed agreement with their perverse teaching, in opposition to the faith which they had first followed." It is incomprehensible how the most absurd teachings cling to the mind and are held by it firmly.
THEOSIS