"I recognize you as the firstborn of Satan."

That may not sound like much of an insult considering some of the things that are said on social media today. But coming from a religious man in the second century, it carries weight. Directed at an early anti-Semite, it's something we should pay attention to today.

"Marcion of Pontus was one of the most dangerous men in Christian history," writes Catholic historian Mike Aquilina in a recent issue of Angelus magazine. Aquilina tells how Polycarp of Smyrna, at the time an aging bishop, ran into Marcion on a Roman street. "Do you recognize me?" Marcion asked Polycarp. The response was recorded by the Church father, Irenaeus of Lyon. The "famous story captures the depth of the Church's revulsion," at Marcion and his nefarious agenda: Marcion wanted to ditch the Old Testament and write Israel and the Jewish people out of Christianity.

Marcion "lived in the aftermath of the........

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