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Persectuon by the reign of despotic Dominitian. (year 95)





The Jews refused to pay a poll tax levied for the support of Capitolinus Jupiter. At that time Christians were still associated with Jews and they also suffered the effects of that persecution. It was at that time Apostle John was exiled to the Isle of Patmos where he wrote the Book of Revelation.

Persecution by Marcus Aurelius (161 - 180)

This was a systematic attempt to wipe out Christianity from the Empire, the most prolonged persecution to this time. By command of the Emperor, informers were to receive the property of the condemned Christians. The results were:

1) Prisons were overcrowded.

2) Torture and bloodshed were throughout the Empire continually

3) Polycarp and Justin Martyr were Martyred

4) The Church made increasing gains.

Persecution by Decius (249 - 251)

Another systematic attempt to crush Christianity which came after a period of 12 years of almost no persecution. A court was established in every town and city of the Empire. A day was appointed for all suspected of being Christian to appear before a magistrate and five citizens to renounce their faith.

The results were:

1) Great numbers who gladly confessed their faith in Christ went gladly to their death.

2) There were those who abandoned their property and fled to the deserts - thus giving rise to the MONASTIC MOVEMENT.

3) Persecution purged the Church - those who withdrew in times of persecution were called the “lapsed.”

4) The heads of all the main churches were tortured and killed - Origen was among them.

5) Christianity took a stronger hold.

Persecution by Diocletion (303 - 305)

After such a long “peace”, without much persecution (approximately 30 years) the Church was now strong. Gallenius (260 - 268) had recognized the Church as having legal standing. He restored position and property to those who had lost so much under his father, Valerian, a persecuting Emperor (Cyprian died under this persecution). Now the Church was to withstand it’s last persecution which proved its worst in its history so far.

Diocletian’s orders included:

1) All places of Christian worship were to be destroyed. (Some of these sound like the

2) All books and Christian literature were to be burned. former USSR)

3) All honors and dignities were taken from professing Christians.

4) Pastors and officers of the Church were to be imprisoned.

5) All persons should make offerings and libations to the gods of Roman pantheism.

 

The Results were:

1) Churches were destroyed.

2) Scriptures and books were burned.

3) Men women and children were thrown to wild beasts, burned and hideously tortured.

4) Virgins and matrons were subjected to horrors worse than death.

5) The Church stood steadfast under this expiring effort of paganism.

Results of persecution

· Even during the periods of heaviest persecution Christianity was spreading. The “blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church.”

· In apostolic era in first century Christians predominantly spread in the Easter part of the empire. By the end of the second century one could find them throughout the empire.

· There was a great growth of Christian community in the northern Africa.

· They estimate that size of the church by 250 was around 5-12% of the general population of the empire.

· Creation of the New Testament canon was forced upon the church by Diocletian persecution. Christians wanted to be sure the books they had to die for and protect the most were really canonical books.

· Persecution cast the lings on the issue of the relations of the church and state. The Christian was to be obedient to the state so long as it did not ask him to violate his moral and spiritual allegiance to God. Other than that they were probably the best citizens of the state.

 

 

Fables or Sound Doctrine: The Church vs. Heresy

 

Doctrinal Controversies

Some of these controversies were mostly over systems that partly were Christian, but others were purely infidel and pagan. It would seem that every argument voiced against Christianity is anticipated in these early centuries. Every heresy today has some roots in one of the heresies of the early church. Apostle Paul foresaw rise of the heresies after his death: "I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them." (Acts 20:29 - 30 NASB)

Legalistic heresies

· Judaism - Paul contended vigorously here in his epistles to the Romans and Galatians.

· Ebionism - a mixture of Judaism and Christianity. They believed that Jesus was a man who became Messiah by fulfilling the Law, therefore denying the Divinity of Christ.

They upheld Matthew’s gospel and rejected Paul’s writings. After Bar Cocheba rebellion of

Jews between 132-135 when Jerusalem was completely destroyed they ceased to have much influence.

 

Philosophical heresies

Far greater threat to Christianity came from Greek philosophy. Many people attempted to make

Christianity a system of philosophy. If they would had been successful Christianity would became one

of the mystery Greek religions of the day. There were numerous Gnostic sects with special doctrines of their own.

 


Gnosticism

It was one of the greatest threats with peak of its power in 150. It was not a unified system by any means. There were many versions and forms of that heresy. We don’t know exact origins of that heresy, while Christian tradition relates the origin of Gnosticism to the Simon Magus in the book of Acts (Acts 8:9).

· They believed in dualism of good and evil in the universe (spirit and matter).

· Everything related to matter was evil.

· Therefore Jesus could not have had a material body, He was a phantom with seeming appearance of human body or Christ came upon human body for a short time. Also God could not had created men and the universe (matter).

· They would not accept resurrection for the same reasons.

· Christ had conveyed special gnosis or knowledge that would help man to save himself by an intellectual process.

· Salvation was only for the soul. Body was evil and therefore had to kept under strict ascetic practices.

 

Marcionism (p. 107)

This heresy had some development in Egypt. But the most influential group was in Rome founded by Marcion who came to Rome in about 138. He felt that Judaism was evil and he hated Jewish scriptures and Jehovah of the Old Testament.

§ He denied the Old Testament and the God it depicted.

§ Denied the incarnation of Christ.

§ Took the Pauline epistles and part of the book of Luke as their “Bible”. He created his own “cannon.”

He was expelled from the Roman church and founded his own church. He laid seeds of anti-Semitism in early church. However, unwillingly he contributed to the church, because the church, in self-defense was forced to create canon of authoritative books.

Manichaeism (p. 108)

He developed a unique philosophical system in the middle of the third century in Mesopotamia. It was a mixture of Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and Zoroastrianism. Mani proclaimed himself the successor of Buddha, Zoroaster, and Jesus.

Neoplatonism (p. 108)

It was mystical philosophy. Plotinus was its founder with his school in Rome. The world is an overflow of God and its ultimate goal is re-absorption in God. The Emperor Julian (361-363), who was known as “the Apostate” embraced Neoplatonism and wanted to make it a religion of the empire.

 

Theological errors

Montanism emerged in Phrygia in 155. It was mostly Christian and it was a reaction to formalism in the church. Around year 170 he proclaimed that he was a prophet and claimed that he would lead people into “all the truth.” Soon he was joined by two women Priscilla and Maximilla. In the state of ecstasy they were uttering oracles or prophecies. They proclaimed the message of the speedy return of Christ. Montanists believed that in him the dispensation of the Holy Ghost started, and the world would shortly come to an end. Montanism was condemned at the Council of Constantinople in 381, and they were declared to be pagans. But Tertullian, one of the greatest church fathers, liked them and became Montanist.

It reminds us today that church should not just pursue purity of doctrine, also care about emotional needs of people.

Monarchianism was and attempt to preserve unity of God. During third century it was preached by Paul of Samosata in Antioch. In essence they rejected unique personality of Christ. They believed trinity was manifestation of forms rather than of essence. It was an Early Church equivalent of modern Unitarianism.

 

Ecclesiastical Schisms

Easter controversy developed in about the middle of the second century about proper date to celebrate Easter. The church in the East held that Easter should be celebrated on the fourteenth of day of Nisan, the date of the Passover according to the Jewish calendar, not matter what day of the week it fell upon. Polycarp of Asia was opposed in this view Roman Bishop Anicetus, who believed the Easter should be celebrated on the Sunday following the fourteenth of Nisan. Western view point was adopted at the Council of Nicaea in 325.

 

Donatist controversy developed after 300 as result of the persecution of the Church by Diocletian. Most of it centered in North Africa. In 311 a churchman named Donatus wanted to exclude Caecilian, who was accused of being a traitor, from his office as bishop of Carthage, because Caecilian nad been consecrated by Felix, who had been a traitor during the Diocletian persecution. Donatus argued that the failure to remain true during the persecution invalidated the power of Felix to ordain because he thus committed an unpardonable sin. A synod help at Rome decided that the validity of sacrament does not depend on the character of the one administering the sacrament.

 

 

Conclusion (P. 133)

The results of these controversies were not always destructive.

· The church was forced to develop an authoritative canon of the Scripture.

· Creeds were developed to summarize essential teachings of the Bible.

· The necessity to answer to false theologies stimulated development of Christian theology.

· The position of the bishop was strengthened by the emphasis on his office as a rallying point against heresy and error.

 

False teachings arose (1) through the attempts of ambitious men to assert their authority, or (2) through the overemphasis and consequent misinterpretation of certain Scriptures, or (3) through loveless treatment of the erring minority by the Church. These did not finally weaken the church, but forced it to think out its beliefs and to develop organization.

3. Contending for the Faith: Apologist & Polemicists (p. 114, Russ. 81)

During second and third century new Christian this literary style was developed. Greatest of the apologists was Justin Martyr and Irenaeus was an outstanding polemists.

Apologists tried to convince the leaders of the state that Christians had done nothing to deserve the persecution being inflicted upon them. Polemists were dealing with the heresies of the day.

 

 

The Triumph of the Church

The edict of Milan (313 AD.)

Constantine for the west and Licinus for the East issued this edict of emancipation from Milan, in March 313 AD. This decree gave full toleration to the Christian faith, ordering that all places of worship taken from the Christians should be restored without delay or charge. Any loss that they had suffered should be made good.


In 323 Constantine became the sole Emperor of the East and West and forwarded the work of the Church with new vigor, and without hindrance, for the Emperor of the East had not been wholly in sympathy with Constantine in making Christianity the religion of the Empire. Constantine granted the Church the right to receive gifts and legacies, and he, himself, gave much land and money to the Church. Church leaders were allowed to hold public office which added to the prestige of the Church. This marks the beginning of the great possessions of the Church which infused a worldly spirit therein.

Julian (361 - 363)

This Emperor made an attempt to restore paganism. He did not resort to the sword, but to the pen, for he was a writer. He labored in vain. Polytheism in the Empire was dead. Dying on a battlefield, he recognized his failure and said “you have conquered, Galilean!”

It was not until the reign of Theodosius the Great (379 - 395) that pagan worship was abolished and it became a crime to enter a pagan temple. The penalty was death. Now, the persecuted had become the persecutors.

 







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