(ok so far, Jesus took upon the sins of all man-see Isiah 53)

But...then there is this...

Now, yes Jesus was sinless. But, not his blood...?? Perhaps, this is from Chick's hateful and demented vision, often relying on others of his ilk for "proof", of Mary. Let's look at Acts 20:28, first DR, then KJV (Chick is a KJV onlyist)

Take heed to yourselves, and to the whole flock, wherein the Holy Ghost hath placed you bishops, to rule the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood (Acts 20/:28 DRV)

Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. (KJV online, site http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=KjvActs.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=20&division=div1)

So, no huge difference, but this passage-using both Catholic AND Protestant texts does NOT say that Jesus' blood is not human, only divine or the other way around.

New people, old heresies?

Arianism:

Because most contemporary written material on Arianism was written by its opponents, the nature of Arius' teachings is difficult to define precisely today. The letter of Auxentius , a 4th century Arian bishop of Milan, regarding the missionary Ulfilas, gives the clearest picture of Arian beliefs on the nature of the Trinity: God the Father ("unbegotten"), always existing, was separate from the lesser Jesus Christ ("only-begotten"), born before time began and creator of the world. The Father, working through the Son, created the Holy Spirit, who was subservient to the Son as the Son was to the Father. The Father was seen as "the only true God." 1Corinthians 8:5-6 was cited as proof text:

"Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth — as in fact there are many gods and many lords — yet for us there is one God (Gk. theos - θεος), the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord (kyrios), Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist." (NRSV)

A letter from Arius to Eusebius of Nicomedia succinctly states the core beliefs of the Arians:

"Some of them say that the Son is an eructation, others that he is a production, others that he is also unbegotten. These are impieties to which we cannot listen, even though the heretics threaten us with a thousand deaths. But we say and believe and have taught, and do teach, that the Son is not unbegotten, nor in any way part of the unbegotten; and that he does not derive his subsistence from any matter; but that by his own will and counsel he has subsisted before time and before ages as perfect God, only begotten and unchangeable, and that before he was begotten, or created, or purposed, or established, he was not. For he was not unbegotten. We are persecuted, because we say that the Son has a beginning, but that God is without beginning." (Peters, Heresy and Authority in Medieval Europe, p. 41)

 

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arianism#Beliefs

ALso,

Arianism

A heresy which arose in the fourth century, and denied the Divinity of Jesus Christ.

Source:

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01707c.htm

Ok, Chick stands for Christ's divinity, right? Maybe, but consider this as well:

Cerinthius:

Cerinthus's school followed the Jewish law, denied that the Supreme God had made the physical world, and denied the divinity of Jesus. In Cerinthus' interpretation, the Christ came to Jesus at baptism, guided him in his ministry, but left him at the crucifixion.

Like many early Christians, he taught that Jesus would establish a thousand-year reign after the Second Coming but before the General Resurrection

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerinthus

So, we see Gnosticism in Cerinthus, as in physical world=bad, evil.

So to, then, I guess is Mary and Mary's blood. As Scripture states that Mary was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit (Chicana glory cloud?), they the HS is the Father and Mary the clear mother, as it would have to be her egg and as normal people are-inclduing the God-Man Christ-are composed of both parents.

I have DNA and hence 1/2 of me is my father, the other half my mother.Also, note that he beleived in the Millenium, a common belief in Rapture fantasy land, one that Lahaye and Chick buy into.

One more comment for the Wikipedia site:

According to Irenaeus, Polycarp told the story that John the Evangelist, in particular, is said to have so feared Cerinthus that he once fled a bathhouse when he found out Cerinthus was inside, yelling "Let us flee, lest the building fall down; for Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is inside!"(Irenaeus mentions the anecdote about Polycarp in Adv. Haer., III.3.4.) One tradition maintains that John wrote his gospel to counter Cerinthus's heresy.

Irenaeus opposed Gnosticism, including the teachings of Cerinthus, in Against Heresies. Epiphanius of Salamis documented many heresies and heretics, Cerinthus among them, in his Panarion.

On Valentius:

Valentinus' Christology may have posited the existence of three redeeming beings, but Christ the Son of Mary did not have a real body and did not suffer (source= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentinus_%28Gnostic%29#Theological_system)

and

The Christology of Valentinus is confusing in the extreme. He seems to have maintained the existence of three redeeming beings, but Christ the Son of Mary did not have a real body and did not suffer. The system of Valentinus was extremely comprehensive, and was worked out to cover all phases of thought and action. (source http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15256a.htm)

So, Chick resurrects yet another old heresy.Protestantism is really an almagamation of old heresies when you really study it.

Counter:

Gnostics trying to deny the reality of the Savior's body had to explain the manifest records of Christ's walking, eating, and sleeping in the gospels. For that they resorted to the theory that his body was somehow only an apparent one, assumed by Christ only to make himself known to man: the Gospel of Philip reports, "Jesus took them all by stealth, for he did not reveal himself in the manner in which he was, but it was in the manner in which they would be able to see him that he revealed himself." [The Gospel of Philip, 57.] Another Gnostic work, the Acts of John, goes further: "I will tell you another glory, brethren: sometimes when I meant to touch him I encountered a material, solid body; but at other times again when I felt him, his substance was immaterial and incorporeal . . . as if it did not exist at all." [Acts of John 93, in Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels New York: Vintage, 1981, 88.]
(source http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/1996/9601fea1.asp)

"By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God" (1 John 4:2).

To the Church in Tralles, a town in Asia Minor, he wrote: "Stop your ears, therefore, when anyone speaks to you at variance with Jesus Christ, who was descended from David, and was also of Mary; who was truly born, and did eat and drink. He was truly persecuted under Pontius Pilate; he was truly crucified, and truly died, in the sight of beings in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth. He was also truly raised from the dead . . . But if, as some that are without God, that is, the unbelieving, say, that he only seemed to suffer (they themselves only seeming to exist), then why am I in bonds? Why do I long to be exposed to the wild beasts?"[ Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Trallians, 8-9 in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol 1.]

Marcion’s theology, though essentially Gnostic, was simple and clear. God the Creator was evil; hence the world and matter were evil. Jesus was the Savior sent from the good god of the spiritual realm. No multiplications of aeons, pleromas, or emanations for Marcion. He was more interested in cutting than in multiplying. The Old Testament had to go, because of Genesis and the unavoidable fact that the God who speaks and acts there is the Creator. Matthew’s Gospel was out because of its constant quoting of the Old Testament, and Mark’s with it for good measure. John’s was a goner for its identification of Jesus as the One through whom "all things were made" (1:3).
(from Robert Spencer-see below link)

From Isiah 53:

Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity: and his look was as it were hidden and despised, whereupon we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows: and we have thought him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our iniquities, he was bruised for our sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray, every one hath turned aside into his own way: and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was offered because it was his own will, and he opened not his mouth: he shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer, and he shall not open his mouth. 8 He was taken away from distress, and from judgment: who shall declare his generation? because he is cut off out of the land of the living: for the wickedness of my people have I struck him. 9 And he shall give the ungodly for his burial, and the rich for his death: because he hath done no iniquity, neither was there deceit in his mouth. 10 And the Lord was pleased to bruise him in infirmity: if he shall lay down his life for sin, he shall see a long-lived seed, and the will of the Lord shall be prosperous in his hand.

11 Because his soul hath laboured, he shall see and be filled: by his knowledge shall this my just servant justify many, and he shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore will I distribute to him very many, and he shall divide the spoils of the strong, because he hath delivered his soul unto death, and was reputed with the wicked: and he hath borne the sins of many, and hath prayed for the transgressors.

--Sounds pretty human to me. 

Chick cartoons source:

http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0080/0080_01.asp

Good refutes:

10 results found for: Valentinus

KNOWING THE GNOSTICS (This Rock: January 1996)
   Description: Challenges to the apostolic teaching of the early Church.
   Rank: 77
   Last Modified: 4/18/2006 11:07:12 PM
   Size: 29445 bytes
   Path: http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/1996/9601fea1.asp

THE POLITICALLY CORRECT BIBLE (This Rock: May 1993)
   Description: Don't fool with the wording of the Word.
   Rank: 60
   Last Modified: 4/18/2006 11:07:08 PM
   Size: 16571 bytes
   Path: http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/1993/9305frs.asp

What Catholic Means (This Rock: October 2004)
   Description: What Catholic means.
   Rank: 28
   Last Modified: 8/9/2007 10:34:42 PM
   Size: 16764 bytes
   Path: http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2004/0410frs.asp

Mary: Ever Virgin (This Rock: February 2002)
   Description: The Protoevangelium of James and writings of the Church fathers support the perpetual virginity of Mary.
   Rank: 28
   Last Modified: 4/18/2006 11:07:24 PM
   Size: 16077 bytes
   Path: http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2002/0202frs.asp

Fathers Know Best (This Rock: February 2000)
   Description: What Catholic Means
   Rank: 28
   Last Modified: 4/18/2006 11:07:20 PM
   Size: 17220 bytes
   Path: http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2000/0002frs.asp

What "Catholic" Means
   Description: What "Catholic" Means The Greek roots of the term "Catholic" mean "according to (kata- the whole (holos) or more colloquially, "universal. At the beginning of the second century, we find in the letters of Ignatius the first surviving use of the term
   Rank: 28
   Last Modified: 10/18/2004 4:23:00 PM
   Size: 15439 bytes
   Path: http://www.catholic.com/library/what_catholic_means.asp

Mary: Ever Virgin
   Description: Mary: Ever Virgin Most Protestants claim that Mary bore children other than Jesus. To support their claim, these Protestants refer to the biblical passages which mention the "brethren of the Lord. As explained in the Catholic Answers tract
   Rank: 24
   Last Modified: 10/18/2004 4:23:00 PM
   Size: 15525 bytes
   Path: http://www.catholic.com/library/mary_ever_virgin.asp

Combating Biblical Skepticism (This Rock: May/June 2004)
   Description: Many contemporary Catholic scholars have subjected the Bible to a drumfire of criticism. Contradictions are alleged; errors are charged, even from the pulpit. But rest assured: There is an answer to every criticism, and here is your guide to a few of them.
   Rank: 20
   Last Modified: 4/18/2006 11:07:28 PM
   Size: 20135 bytes
   Path: http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2004/0405fea1.asp

The term "Catholic" (This Rock: March 1995)
   Description: Defining what catholic means.
   Rank: 20
   Last Modified: 4/18/2006 11:00:50 PM
   Size: 20664 bytes
   Path: http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/1995/9503frs.asp

MY FAVORITE MARCION (This Rock: December 1997)
   Description: Sometimes, if you want to defeat a present-day heresy, you need to see how an ancient heresy was defeated-by someone like Tertullian, who ended up being a heretic himself!
   Rank: 16
   Last Modified: 4/18/2006 11:07:14 PM
   Size: 24280 bytes
   Path: http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/1997/9712fea1.asp

++ADDENDUM+++

"Therefore let those who deny that the Son is from the Father by nature and proper to His Essence, deny also that He took true human flesh of Mary Ever-Virgin; for in neither case had it been of profit to us men, whether the Word were not true and naturally Son of God, or the flesh not true which He assumed." Athanasius, Orations against the Arians, II:70 (A.D. 362).

+++ADDENDUM++++

Docetism