The Cathari and Modern Sinless
Perfectionism
Posted, December 31, 2009
“Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be
tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when
he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived,
it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”
James 1:13-15
Because it is necessary that our faith be tested, as James says previously in
the first chapter, people might think that God was the cause of the sin that
might come from the testing.
James dispels that fiction. The source of sin is in ourselves, and comes from a
corrupt nature. This corrupt nature we carry with us until the resurrection,
when this corruption puts on incorruption. At that day we will be completely
conformed to Jesus Christ, for we shall see Him as He is. Until then, we
struggle and labor to live godly lives, purifying ourselves because of the hope
that we have received from His promises.
There have always been those in this great movement we call Christianity who
drift off into small puddles of theology, corrupting themselves and those who
follow them. One example of these are those who profess sinless perfection.
They have been known by many names in the history of the Church: Cathari,
Paulicians, Bogomils, and perhaps some among Montanism and other things. There
were many variations of this heresy, but one thing they had in common was a
claim to live without sin.
There is an element of the Cathari in Arminianism and it will surface if you
probe for it. The main tenet of Arminianism is that man must add something to
faith in order to be saved.
The spirit of condemning other and professing sinlessness must have arisen very
early for John deals with the heresy in his first epistle. We would not even be
aware of the corruption of our nature [our "flesh"] if it were not
revealed by the word and Spirit of Christ.
John writes in 1John 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk
in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one
with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in
us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not
in us.
Note: We cannot be Christians if we walk in darkness.
If we walking the light, we confess our sins and
they are forgiven us and we are cleansed from "unrighteousness" not
the corruption of our nature, but defilements of the law of God. We are washed
from our guilt by the blood of Christ.
It is true that the Holy Spirit is also given to us to implant a new nature
that seeks obedience, but Adam's nature is not rooted out until the
resurrection of the dead. All of our lives the "flesh" of Adam's
nature will war against the "spirit" and will be the source of all
kinds of sins, if we do not walk in the spirit. [Gal. 5.] If any man think that
he stands, he should take heed lest he fall.
The claim of sinlessness is a proof of self-deception and of not walking in the
light. [1John 1:10.] John Wesley revived some of the foolishness of the Cathari
and is the root of the heresy of "Second Work of Grace Holiness" a
fiction and destructive to the souls that labored after it, for it took their
focus away from the Spirit and blood of Christ to their own works of holiness.
The followers of the Cathari laugh at faithful Christians and mock them with
such phrases as "cheap grace" and "easy believism." They
never seem to ask themselves of the horror implied in these labels: that the
grace of God does not contain sufficient value in the blood of Christ unless we
add something of ourselves into the formula; or that the labor and work of
Christ was not difficult enough to earn our salvation unless we contribute our
own works to it.
See my article on "easy believism" at:
http://basketoffigs.org/misc/believism.htm [Use your Back Arrow to return to this
page]
If you are a real Calvinist you will be accused of antinomianism by those who
are experts on sin, or you will be accused of legalism by those who refuse to
be bound by any law. If you get shot at from both sides, you probably have it
right.
It is often not profitable to argue with these people, for they are blinded by
self-deceit and have closed their minds to the corruption that runs amok in
their associations
