Arnobius of Sicca (Full Script)

Too lazy to read?  Watch the video!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=az40poCyDrw

Arnobius of Sicca

Post-Apostolic Church

INTRO

Arnobius lived in Sicca, or modern day El Kef, Tunisia around AD 303.

Lactantius was a student of Arnobius.

WORKS

Arnobius used a lot of sarcasm to show the absurdities of various heretical teachings.  For example, Arnobius had this to say about the food and drink given to idols.

If you have confidence in what is done, disclose [it], point out why that liquor is offered; that is, why wine is poured on the altars.  For do the bodies of the deities feel parching thirst, and is it necessary that their dryness be tempered by some moisture?  Are they accustomed, as men are, to combine eating and drinking?  In like manner, also, after the [giving of the] solid food of cakes and pottages, and victims slain in honour of them, do they drench themselves, and make themselves merry with very frequent cups of wine, that their food may be more easily softened, and thoroughly digested?  I beg [you], give to the immortal gods drink; bring forth goblets, bowls, ladles, and cups.  And as they stuff themselves with bulls, and luxurious feasts, and rich food, [give them drink]—lest some piece of flesh hastily gulped down should stick in passing through the stomach.  Run up, hasten, give pure wine to Jupiter, the most excellent, the supreme, lest he chokes.  He desires to break wind, and is unable.  And unless that hindrance passes away and is dissolved, there is very great danger that his breathing will be stopped and interrupted, and heaven [would] be left desolate without its rulers.  (Arnobius.  AD 303.  ANF, vol 6, page 529.)

Methodius of Olympus (Full Script)

Too lazy to read?  Watch the video!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4lfH9i16jg

Methodius of Olympus

Post-Apostolic Church

INTRO

Methodius wrote around AD 290.  He was an overseer in Olympus in Asia Minor, modern-day Cirali, Turkey.  Later he was overseer in Tyre.  Methodius died a martyr under the persecutions of Emperor Maximinus Daia around AD 311.

WORKS

Methodius is known for having strongly disagreed with some of the teachings of Origen.

Victorinus of Pettau (Full Script)

Too lazy to read?  Watch the video!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlswFHNL5J8

Victorinus of Pettau

Post-Apostolic Church

INTRO

Victorinus lived in Pettau, modern-day Ptuj, Slovenia around AD 280.

LIFE

He was martyred during the persecutions under Emperor Diocletian.

WORKS

Victorinus wrote commentaries on at least nine books of the Bible, but the only work that has survived in its entirety is his work on Revelation.  He was the first to see a repetitious pattern in Revelation.  He believed that each pattern, or cycle, runs parallel to the other.  That is, Revelation tells the same story seven times with increasing degrees of intensity.

Archelaus of Cashar (Full Script)

Too lazy to read?  Watch the video!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWinJxQktjE

Archelaus of Caschar

Post-Apostolic Church

INTRO

Archelaus was an overseer in Caschar in Roman Mesopotamia around AD 277.  The location of this ancient city has been lost.

WORK

His work, The Disputation of Archelaus with the Heretic Manes, is a record of the debate between Mani and himself.  Mani was a Persian philosopher and founder of Manichaeism.  Manichaeism was a religion that was a mixture of Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Gnosticism.

Anatolius of Laodicea (Full Script)

Too lazy to read?  Watch the video!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQdyljWOoDg

Anatolius of Laodicea

Post-Apostolic Church

INTRO

Anatolius of Laodicea wrote around AD 270 and was an overseer in Syrian Laodicea, modern-day Latakia, Syria.

LIFE

Anatolius was born and raised in Alexandria.  He was extremely knowledgeable about many things such as the teachings of Aristotle, geometry, astrology, and math.

When Zenobia, queen of the Palmyrene Empire besieged a section of Alexandria and when many people in the city were dying from the famine, Anatolius persuaded the Romans to allow many people to defect and join them in the Roman section of Alexandria as refugees.  Through this, Anatolius gained great honor among the people because he helped many Christians and non-Christians escape starvation.

WORKS

Among his writings that have survived is a work about when to celebrate Pascha, that is, Christ's resurrection.  We also have a portion of his book about mathematics.

Dionysius of Alexandria (Full Script)

Too lazy to read?  Watch the video!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1dkRjz_b20

Dionysius of Alexandria

Post-Apostolic Church

INTRO

Dionysius of Alexandria was an overseer in Alexandria, Egypt around AD 260.

LIFE

Dionysus was born into a wealthy pagan family.  He was converted at an older age and was a student of Origen.  Origen's student Heraclas took over the catechetical school after him.  Dionysius took over the school after Heraclas and taught in that role for 15 years.

When the severe persecutions under Emperor Decius broke out, Dionysus was arrested.  But before he was to be killed, a group of Christians freed him and he fled from Alexandria.

WORKS

Most of his works were letters he wrote to other Christians throughout the Roman Empire.

About the nature of God, Dionysius wrote,

There certainly was not a time when God was not the Father.  Indeed, neither... did God afterwards beget the Son because the Son has existence not from Himself but from the Father....  God is the eternal Light, which has neither had a beginning, nor will ever fail.  Therefore the eternal Brightness [Son] shines forth before Him [Father] and co-exists with Him [Father], in that, existing without a beginning and always begotten, He [Son] always shines before Him [Father]....  Therefore, since the Father is eternal, the Son also is eternal, Light of Light....  Then, since God is the Light, Christ is the Brightness.  (Dionysius of Alexandria.  AD 260.  ANF, vol 6, page 92.)

Treatise on Re-Baptism (Full Script)

Too lazy to read?  Watch the video!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_jCcxha-z0

Treatise on Re-Baptism

Post-Apostolic Church

INTRO

The Treatise on Re-Baptism was written around AD 257.  The author is unknown.

WORK

This work discusses a debate in the middle third century about what to do about those who were baptized by heretics but were still baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.  In other words, there appears to be many cases where heretics, perhaps including the Gnostics, who baptized their converts in the name of Jesus Christ.  Once these people realized their error in joining a heretical group, they wanted to come to the Universal Church in repentance.  The question the Church had was whether or not to accept their baptism in the name of Jesus Christ or to baptize them according to the Universal Church.

Very analytically, the author goes through some key Scriptures as well as some realistic situations to make his argument.  Unlike his contemporaries, Cyprian and Dionysius of Alexandria, the author takes a more accepting stance on the baptism of heretics, as long as the baptism was in good faith.  His work goes into much detail.

He wrote,

When he should be baptized--he on whom invocation should be made in the name of Jesus--although he might obtain baptism under some error, [he] still would not be hindered from knowing the truth at some time or another.  [When] correcting his error, coming to the Church and to the bishop, and sincerely confessing our Jesus before men, so that... when hands were laid upon him by the bishop, he might also receive the Holy Spirit, and he would not lose that former invocation of the name of Jesus.  (Treatise on Re-Baptism.  AD 257.  ANF, vol 5, page 670.)

In his work, he addresses questions such as: what if a person dies (specifically martyred) after they believe but before they are baptized or receive the Holy Spirit?  What kind of importance should the Church place in the laying on of the bishops' hands in order to receive the Holy Spirit?

To make his arguments, he isn't afraid to refer to various examples from Scripture such as the baptisms of the Apostles on Pentecost, of Cornelius' family, and of the Ethiopian eunuch.

QUOTATIONS

The writer also wrote,

The Spirit, indeed, continues to this day invisible to men, as the Lord says, "The Spirit breathes where He will; and you do not know from where He comes or to where He goes."*  (Treatise on Re-Baptism.  AD 257.  ANF, vol 5, page 677.)

* John 3:8.

...That hearts are purified by faith, but that souls are washed by the Spirit; further, also, that bodies are washed by the water, and moreover that by blood [in martyrdom] we may more readily attain at once the rewards of salvation.  (Treatise on Re-Baptism.  AD 257.  ANF, vol 5, page 677.)