PONTIC MOUSE

What On Earth?!?

The age in which we live is replete with what Tertullian called a “Pontic mouse”.

What on earth? Let’s figure this out and see if it fits what we see happening in our contemporary culture.

Who is Tertullian? Born 155 AD in Carthage (Roman Empire). He was an early Christian apologist and a polemicist against heresy including contemporary Christian gnosticism. He’s noted for advancing the development of early Church doctrine and perhaps the most famous for being the first writer in Latin known to use the term “trinity”.

So, now that we’ve met this early Christian apologist and founder of Western theology, we have the next question: What or who is Pontus?

Pontus is an ancient region of northern Asia Minor on the Black Sea coast north of Cappadocia. It was incorporated into the Roman Empire around the end of the 1st century. At the time of the Apostles, it was a Roman province. Interestingly, strangers from Pontus were at Jerusalem at Pentecost (Acts 2:9); Peter addressed his first letter to “strangers scatted throughout Pontus” (1 Peter 1:1). According to Tertullian, Pontus is the birthplace of an early heretic named Marcion who is said to be “fouler than any Scythian, more savage than even the beasts of that barbarous region.”

Ok, we get that! Who is Marcion, the heretic according to Tertullian? Marcion was a Christian heretic! [Oh, lovely!] In summary, Marcion made a “radical distinction between the God of the Old Testament (the Creator) and the Father of Jesus Christ (the God of Love). He believed that the OT Scritpures were not authoritative for a Christian. He denied that the God of the OT was the same God presented in the NT. Marcion believed Jesus was the Son of the God of the NT but not the Son of the deity described in the Hebrew Scriptures. He classified the God of the OT as a secondary deity, one that was inferior to the supreme God revealed in Jesus. He did not believe that the Messianic prophecies in the OT were fulfilled in Jesus. He was expelled from the church in AD 144 for his unorthodox teachings and formed several of his own churches; he rejected the authenticity of many New Testament documents, eliminating any apostolic writing that didn’t agree with his unorthodox belief.

Let’s put this together and consider what Tertullian meant by the phrase “Pontic mouse” in his quote: “What Pontic mouse ever had such gnawing powers as he who has gnawed the Gospels to pieces?“

If we look closely at “Christianity” today, we see the evidence of powers gnawing the Gospels to pieces! Rather than maintaining loyalty to the Word of God, we find teaching by church leaders and laity alike twisting the Scriptures to prove their own aberrant beliefs … being the “Pontic mouse” Terullian referred to as he considered Marcion’s shredding of the Gospels, separating YHWH into a lesser and greater God, denying that Jesus met the criteria of messianic prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures, etc.

This may seem hard to believe but we live in a culture overrun by Pontic mice tearing apart the truth to fit their own form of God. God cannot be separated from Truth … Jesus IS the Way, the Truth and the Life! The Jesus who is the express image of the Father. The Jesus who is the fulfillment of Messianic prophecy. The Jesus who died and shed His innocent blood so we might have access to the Father through Him!

There is no other way, even if it seems good to us. And, the only way we’ll know is by knowing His Word, studying His Word, trusting Him for our salvation and remaining loyal to Him through belief, service and life choices!

Jesus is the only Control Agent able to kill and eradicate Pontus mice from individual lives, belief systems and cultures. Jesus is the only Way!!!