True History - Polycarp

    There is a reason I want to bring the subject of church History up. Today there are people who are rewriting History. Some have seen the movie, 'The DaVinci Code' and, while saying that it was only a movie, there are those who truly believe there was a hidden conspiracy behind it. The movie subtly promotes Gnosticism, which is a distortion of the true Gospel. It believes that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament were not the same God. They actually believe that Cain was in the right, in the issue where he murdered his brother. Of course, they do not see Jesus as the sacrificial lamb who died to pay for the sins of mankind. You can do your own research on the teachings of Gnosticism on the Internet.
   In order to combat the idea (which comes from Gnosticism) that the Gospels were written in the 4th Century, all one has to do is to study church History. You can see the life of the people who were acquainted with Jesus, or even with the apostles, lived lives that were experiencing the reality of the God of the Bible. People who are going after trends, tend to be ignorant of church History. If they knew what took place in the early days of the church, they would not believe the things they are holding onto right now (such as 'the gospels were written in the 4th Century'). The Gospels were written as the first apostles and early Christian writers wrote letters to different churches and people in the church. We can learn a lot from studying the letters that these people wrote, whether they are the Scriptures, or whether they were just letters written to people that got written down and preserved. So with that in mind, I am writing just a little bit about Polycarp, a disciple of the Apostle John.
   Polycarp was a disciple of the Apostle John who lived from about 70 A.D to 155 A.D. He contended for the faith and his chief opponent was Marcion. Polycarp was fighting Gnosticism that was beginning to infiltrate the Christian church. Polycarp died a martyrs death because he would not renounce Christ. "Eighty-six years I have served Christ, and He never did me any wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?" said Polycarp who was then burned at the stake. 
   There are some web sites that have info on Polycarp. Here are a couple of them:
http://www.polycarp.net/
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/polycarp.html