How did the established Church fail?

One looks at the condition of the Church in the Middle Ages and naturally asks, “How could the people be so blinded to the truth? How could they believe that what they were practicing was true Christianity?” We must remember that in the time between the death of the Apostles and the Dark Ages the changes that took place were subtle and gradual. Possibly the chief cause of decline in the Church was its mixture with the things and practices of pagan religions and the world which became progressively manifest. Because of the total commitment and persecution witnessed in the Early Church, believers were forced to cling to the Lord and the communion of the saints. There was no place for the believer in the world. People who became Christians adopted an entirely different lifestyle from their past life. They were indeed the Called Out Ones.

As the Church began to become somewhat popular, its stress on a total commitment began to ebb. It began to de–emphasize the life of total separation from the things of the world, and it began to harbor a mixture and impurity within its own ranks. This mixture with the world and this compromise with worldly persuasions became the leaven that eventually leaved the whole lump.

The following is a summary of the decline of the Church:

A. 30 - 100 (AD) from the day of Pentecost to the death of John the Apostle, the Church was a powerful instrument for the extension of the Kingdom of God. From the death of the last of the ORIGINAL 12 Apostles we have no evidence that this type of Apostolic Ministry continued.

B. 130 (AD) because the Apostolic ministry was no longer functioning in the early Church, the parallel ministry of the prophet soon vanished also. With the loss of this ministry, the doctrine of the laying on of hands became nothing more than ritual. By 140 prophetic utterance of any kind in the local congregation was very scarce.

C. 150 (AD) - with such lack of dependence on the Spirit of God and an actual persecution of the biblical manifestations of the Spirit by the established churches, it is not surprising that the biblical experience of the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit were no longer in evidence by 150 AD. Much of the external form of these things was maintained, but the people had no living encounter with the Spirit.

D. 160 (AD) - as men no longer demonstrated a Spirit controlled life, it became impractical to have a plurality of Eldership. Without a strong unity of the Spirit, multiple leadership tends to pull against one another. As a result, monarchial bishops became the norm by 160 AD; and men began to appraise clergy on natural abilities.

E. 180 (AD) - if a man is not able to look to the Spirit for direction and guidance, he must look to other men. So it was with the smaller and more recently established local Churches by 180 AD. Many of these smaller churches became so dependent on larger churches that they lost their local church autonomy. By this time many such churches were looking to Rome for direction, and thus, early seeds of Roman primacy were developing by this early date.

F. 200 (AD) by this time the Spirit had very little control over the lives of individuals. Very little of the body of Church doctrine and truth became actual experience of believers. A gap began to form between doctrine and experience. The external form remained the same in many cases, but the spiritual awareness of what was contained in the form was beginning to vanish. It was about this time that Baptism began to be abused in many ways. In 185 we have the first record of infant baptism, and by 200 most of the churches no longer used the Name of The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit or the Lord Jesus Christ in connection with water baptism as the early church had done. Now they only repeated Christ’s command. In fact, it was to be later in this century that Pope Stephen declared baptism into the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ to be invalid.

G. 210 (AD) since the distinction between the clergy and the laity was so acute by this time, the concept of the priesthood of all believers was not understood or acknowledged. Therefore, the ministry of the body of Christ (body ministry) was not at all understood. Because of these trends, the truth was soon altered to line up with experience, and the ministers or clergy were the only ones designated “priests.”

H. 225 (AD) - most churches by this time were not receiving direct guidance or teaching from the Spirit of God. They could, therefore, no longer trust the Spirit to bring and maintain unity of the statements of beliefs to be written as criterion for Church membership.

I. 240 (AD) By the middle of the 3^rd century much worldliness had come into the Church. Without the power of the Spirit to lead a separate life, the standard of holiness and the sanctified life held up by the early Church became an unrealistic life for many. Some recognized this problem and began the first monasteries at this time. This made provision for a double standard in Christian living. There was “the average Christian” and the ascetic who tried to lead the “deeper life.”

J. 300 (AD) Because of the rigors of these ascetic groups, there developed an over-emphasis on works as a sort of merit for eternal life. This merely laid the ground work for what was to come later under Constantine.

K. 313 (AD) Constantine became ruler of the great Roman Empire and chose Christianity as the best possible of religions. At this time the state began to exercise control over the affairs of the established Church and men of little or no religious experience became instrumental in shaping Church doctrine. Even the outcome of the Council of Nicaea was the result of the efforts of Constantine.

L. 350 (AD) Christianity being the religion of the state, all those who were not in the Church were persecuted. As can be well expected, many “heathens” preferred being called “Christians” rather than face the sword. At this time the experience of salvation with the doctrine of justification by faith and the new birth into the Kingdom of God was no longer emphasized.

M. 380 (AD) This movement culminated with Theodosius who made Rome, which had already been the capital of the Empire, the final authority in Church matters as well.

N. 392 (AD) Theodosius went even further when he outlawed heathen worship. It now came under penalty of death for any one to have any religious connection other than that of the established Roman Church. Those considered heathen as well as those considered heretical in their doctrine were openly persecuted. What a turn of events! The Church that had begun by being persecuted by the world (as Jesus predicted) now had become the persecutor of the heathen.

O. 400 (AD) Now, even the rite of baptism (for by this time that is all baptism was) was considered unnecessary and unimportant. Many put it off until their death bed, while others never experienced it at all. To a Church that was itself comprised of mostly heathen, baptism had very little significance.

P. 484 (AD) The cap stone to the whole Babylonish system came in 484. Because the Emperor had given tax exemption to the clergy, and yet not willing to lose great sums of State revenue, the priesthood or clergy were recruited from the poorest and least educated classes of the people. With this development the Jeroboam system was complete.

I Kings 12:31 “And he made a house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi.”

The Church in the middle or “Dark” ages was built on this foundation. It is not hard to see why it fell to the place that it did; nor why the Crusades or the Inquisition could fill the pages of Church History. Because this was no longer the Church of our Lord, the Body of Christ. It was a false religious system taking the Name of Christ. From this point on the road away from God grew steeper and compromise with the world grew greater. Due to so many unregenerated members in the Church, forms were substituted for the freedom that was once enjoyed in the Spirit of the Living God. Because of pagan infiltration into the Church, more and more compromises were made to make their stay in the Church more comfortable. The following are just a few of the areas touched by this tremendous spirit of compromise:

A. Liturgies and forms of prayers were produced (unsaved people who did not know God, naturally did not know how to pray to Him. Therefore, they needed form to follow.)

B. Church buildings became larger and more decorative. Church walls were covered with tapestries and paintings. Impressive spires adopted from heathen temples to the sun became characteristic ornamentation. Dignity and impressiveness were brought into the services. All this was to impress the natural man instead of to please God.

C. Heathen, who were accustomed to worship gods or sacred places, quickly switched over to the worship of the “saints” or first apostles, and particularly worship of Mary.

D. It was natural that the unconverted pagans now in the Church would still seek material objects to worship, especially connected with places or property of the early saints. Images of the saints, pictures and the crucifix all served as objects of their worship.

E. The pagans could not trust in a God they did not know, therefore they grew to trust in the bishops; those whom they could see, touch, and hear with their natural ears. Their word gradually became law, until there was little truth left in the Church.

F. Because the people had been accustomed to authority coming out of Rome, the capital of the Empire, it was a natural thing for Rome to be viewed by some as the seat of all authority. Gradually, the Roman Church began to claim primacy in religious matters as the Roman State has primacy in political affairs. As time progressed, Rome looked for things that would substantiate their claim to primacy. They claimed Peter to be their first Pope, even though some evidence suggests that Peter was never in Rome. This claim to authority was then passed down from Pope to Pope till our present day.

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