Transcript History of Christian Doctrine

The History of
Christian Doctrine
“History is written by the victors.”
The Ecumenical Catholic Age
AD 325-787
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1. Theology. Important controversies raged over the doctrines of God, Christ, human nature, and
salvation, resulting in official formulations that define “orthodoxy.” To this day, the three main
branches of traditional Christendom— Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and
Protestantism—appeal to these creeds, especially those concerning God and Christ. The
sacramental system of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy also began to take shape
during this time. The canon of Scripture, while already recognized and used from the earliest
times, was officially endorsed near the beginning of the age.
2. Ecclesiology. The church offices and hierarchical structure of Roman Catholicism and Eastern
Orthodoxy developed in this age. In the West, the bishop of Rome successfully asserted
supremacy as the pope.
3. Monasticism. The first Christian hermits had appeared in the Old Catholic Age, but in this age
monasteries, the monastic way of life, and orders of monks and nuns became an integral part of
Christendom.
4. Blending of pagan and Christian elements. With the wholesale “conversion” of pagans to
Christianity under social, political, and legal pressure, as well as outright force, it was inevitable
that pagan practices would infiltrate the church. Indeed, many superstitious, non-biblical
elements became standard during this time, establishing the pattern for medieval Catholicism.
5. Distinction between East and West. The eastern and western wings of Christendom had different
languages (Greek and Latin, respectively), liturgies, and theological approaches. To some extent
these differences were significant even in the Old Catholic Age, but with the fall of the Western
Roman Empire and the establishment of the papacy, which the East never accepted, they became
more pronounced. While the official split between Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy
did not occur until 1054, their separate courses were set during this age.
The Glory Left
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In the third century, Sabellius, Asterius Urbanus, and
Novatian also described the supernatural gifts of
utterance as normal and expected. Novatian said of the
Holy Spirit:
“This is He who places prophets in the church, instructs
teachers, directs tongues, gives power and healings, does
wonderful works, offers discrimination of spirits, affords
powers of government, suggests counsels, and orders and
arranges whatever other gifts there are of charismata; and thus
makes the Lord’s church everywhere, and in all, perfected and
completed.”
The Glory Left cont’d
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John Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople, commented on I
Corinthians 12:
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“This whole place is very obscure: but the obscurity is
produced by our ignorance of the facts referred to and by their
cessation, being such as then used to occur but now no
longer take place. . . . Well: what did happen then? Whoever
was baptized he straightway spoke with tongues. . . . They at
once on their baptism received the Spirit. . . . [They] began to
speak, one in the tongue of the Persians, another in that of the
Romans, another in that of the Indians, or in some other
language. And this disclosed to outsiders that it was the Spirit
in the speaker.”
The Glory Left cont’d
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Augustine, Ambrose’s disciple, gave similar
testimony. He maintained that the church in his
day no longer expected to speak in tongues
when receiving the Holy Spirit but admitted that
formerly they did:
“For the Holy Spirit is not only given by the laying
on of hands amid the testimony of temporal sensible
miracles, as He was given in former days. . . . For
who expects in these days that those on whom hands
are laid that they may receive the Holy Spirit should
forthwith begin to speak with tongues?”
Diocletian and Galerius
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“In the city named above [Nicomedia] the rulers in question
brought a certain man into a public place and commanded him to
sacrifice. When he reused, he was ordered to be stripped, hoisted up
naked, and his whole body torn with loaded whips till he gave in
and carried out the command, however unwillingly. When in spite
of these torments he remained as obstinate as ever, they next mixed
vinegar with salt and poured it over the lacerated parts of his body,
where the bones were already exposed. When he treated these
agonies too with scorn, a lighted brazier was then brought forward,
and as if it were edible meat for the table, what was left of his body
was consumed by the fire, not all at once, for fear his release should
some too soon, but a little at a time; and those who placed him on
the pyre were not permitted to stop till after such treatment he
should signiry his readiness to obey. But he stuck immovably to his
determination, and victorious in the midst of his tortures, breathed
his last. Such was the martyrdom of one of the imperial servants, a
martyrdom worthy of the name he bore – it was Peter. Rubenstein
When Jesus Became God p.37
The Last Great Persecution
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Bishop of Dionysius of Alexandria, who barely
escaped martyrdom himself, describes how a
local mob, worked up to a bloodthirsty pitch by
the authorities,
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seized the wonderful old lady Apollonia, battered her
till they knocked out all her teeth, built a pyre in front
of the city, and threatened to burn her alive unless
she repeated after them their heathen incantations.
She asked for a breathing-space, and when they
released her, jumped without hesitation into the fire
and was burnt to ashes.
Persecution
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“In the city named above [Nicomedia] the rulers in question
brought a certain man into a public place and commanded him to
sacrifice. When he reused, he was ordered to be stripped, hoisted up
naked, and his whole body torn with loaded whips till he gave in
and carried out the command, however unwillingly. When in spite
of these torments he remained as obstinate as ever, they next mixed
vinegar with salt and poured it over the lacerated parts of his body,
where the bones were already exposed. When he treated these
agonies too with scorn, a lighted brazier was then brought forward,
and as if it were edible meat for the table, what was left of his body
was consumed by the fire, not all at once, for fear his release should
some too soon, but a little at a time; and those who placed him on
the pyre were not permitted to stop till after such treatment he
should signiry his readiness to obey. But he stuck immovably to his
determination, and victorious in the midst of his tortures, breathed
his last. Such was the martyrdom of one of the imperial servants, a
martyrdom worthy of the name he bore – it was Peter. Rubenstein
When Jesus Became God p.37
Persecution
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A number of bishops and deacons therefore handed over
Bibles and chalices to the authorities as ordered. Later,
many of them would be called “traitors” after the Latin
word for handers-over, traditores, and the Church would
split bitterly over the question of their authority to
perform their priestly functions. Other clergymen
convinced ignorant or unconcerned officials to accept
heretical works or even medical textbooks in place of
holy books. In the same way, when Christian cleargy
and then laypeople were required to sacritce to the gods,
a few refused point-blank and were brutally punished,
but many more went through the motions, persuaded
someone else to sacrifice for them, or absented
themselves altogether with the connivance of
sympathetic officials. P. 35
Constantius
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Constantius was a good administrator and
an excellent military commander, but if
the emperor’s soothsayers had been able
to foretell the future, he would never have
been appointed Caesar, since his son was
destined to become Rome’s first Christian
emperor.
Constantius cont’d
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Constantius did not take part in the
Persecution.
Descension Among the Emperors
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With an aging Constantius on the Western throne,
Galerius must have believed that he would soon be
master of the entire Roman world. Constantius fulfilled
one part of his plan by dying at York on July 25, 306.
Galerius hoped to fill the vacant position with a loyal
anti-Christian ally. But, to his dismay, Constantius’s
army (led, it was later said, by a barbarian chieftain)
immediately acclaimed his son Constantine Augustus of
the West. Galerius, whose fiscal policies had made him
massively unpopular, was forced to accept the thirtytwo-year-old man as an emperor, although he insisted
upon demoting him to Caesar.
The Demise of Galerius
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Galerius, the arch-persecutor, fell deathly ill with what
was probably intestinal cancer.
In April 311, as he felt his life ending, he issued a
remarkable letter calling off the Great Persecution the
East. The letter explained that Galerius’s only motive
had been to persuade the Christians to return to the
religion of their ancestors, but that the effort had failed.
Thousands had been executed, gravely injured, or
harassed to no avail; the majority of Christians were now
entirely godless, having deserted both the traditional
Roman faith and their own. Finally – and perhaps most
remarkably - the dying man asked the Christians to
pray for his won health and that of the state.
Constantine
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We do not know if Christians prayed for
Galerius, who, in any case, expired soon
after writing his letters. The following
year, however, Christian prayers were
answered in a startling way. In October
312, Constantine marched on Rome with
his troops to confront Maxentius, his
principal rival for power in the western
half of the empire.
Constantine
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Constantine was one of those “advanced”
pagans who believed in a Supreme God:
Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun. But he
was also interested in Christianity and
had acquired a Christian counselor,
Bishop Hosius of Cordova, who seems
also to have been a close friend.
Constantine
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One day, it is told, while on the march toward
Rome, Constantine and his soldiers saw a
flaming cross in the sky, accompanied by the
words Toto nika: By this, conquer. The following
night he had a dream in which Jesus Christ
appeared, showed him the sign of the Cross, and
told him to inscribe it on his soldiers’ standards.
After Hosius of Cordova advised him that the
dream was valid, Constantine commanded his
army to replace their old pagan standards with
the labarum: the Christian sign. Then he arrived
at Rome and encamped outside the city.
Constantine
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First, as in the case of Constantine, many people
deferred baptism until shortly before death so
that they could live a worldly life but have
assurance of forgiveness in the end. The debates
over whether Christians could be forgiven for
certain sins committed after baptism contributed
to this delaying tactic. It was difficult to immerse
people who were dying, so sprinkling became
common in those cases.
Arius (AD 280?-336)
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He said there is one God, not a trinity, and
that Jesus is not truly God but, in effect, a
demigod. He is a created being of greater
rank than humans but not equal to the
Father. The Arian position is equivalent to
that of Jehovah’s Witnesses today.
Arius
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When Jesus told the disciples that “the
Father is greater than I,” he meant exactly
what he said.
Arius
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In his youth, Arius had studied Christian theology with the famous
teacher and martyr, Lucian of Antioch. Before the Great Persecution,
he had come to Alexandria to pursue a religious vocation, and he
had reportedly behave bravely during the terror, offereing priestly
services to parishioners and to Christians held in prison at
considerable risk to himself. When Bishop Peter fled the city, he
remained behind but he did not, despite rumors to the contrary, join
the group of priests loyal to the rigorist “usurper,” Melitius. After
his return, Peter ordained him deacon, which he would hardly have
done if Arius had been a Melitian…. There were unconfirmed
reports that Arius had been a candidate for metropolitan bishop
when Achillas died, but in any case, the Egyptian bishops elected
Alexander to succeed Achillas. Shortly after his election, Alexander
put Arius in charge of the Baucalis Church.
Arius (AD 280?-336)
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After Nicea, Arius made conciliatory overtures
to Constantine, who held another council in
Nicea in 327 that supported Arius. In 335
Constantine convened a council in Tyre that
deposed and exiled Athanasius and reinstated
Arius. The night before Arius was to be formally
restored to fellowship at the church in
Constantinople, he died. Athanasius considered
this to be the judgment of God and circulated a
gruesome story about the manner of his death,
comparing it to that of Judas. The Arians (and
some historians) claimed Arius was actually
poisoned by the Athanasians.
Arius (AD 280?-336)
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Arius had been a successful minister. He was
greatly admired for his personal purity as well
as for his preaching and was a particular favorite
of the sailors, dockworkers, and young women
who flocked to his church. The church’s sodality
of virgins, in fact, had scandalized the
neighborhood by protesting in public when he
was ordered to leave the city by Bishop
Alexander. And since his departure, the priest’s
partisans among the young men had clashed
incessantly with Alexander’s supporters. P.53
Arius cont’d
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He was a prolific poet and songwriter. His
songs could be heard by Christian sailors
from seaports on different continents.
Arius
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Arius did preach that, “Before Christ, God was not yet a
Father,” and, “There was when he [Jesus] was not,”
meaning that he was not eternal, like God. Rather than
asserting that Jesus was divine by nature, Arius
emphasized that he had earned his”adoption” as a Son
and his “promotion” to divine status through moral
growth and obedience to God. The priest did accept the
idea, current throughout the East, that Christ was
“preexistent” – that God had conceived him before time
began and sed him to create the universe. But it was not
clear whether Arius believed this literally, or whether he
meant that God mearly had foreseen Jesus’ coming
before his birth to Mary.
The Banquet
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The Unbegun made the Son a beginning of things made
and advanced him as His Son by adoption.
Understand that the Monad was, but the Dyad was not,
before it came to exist.
Thus there is the Triad, but not in equal glories. Not
intermingling with each other are their substances.
One equal to the Son, the Superior is able to beget, but
one more excellent or superior or greater, He is not able.
At God’s will the Son is what and whatsoever he is.
God is incomprehensible to His Son. He is what He is to
Himself: Unspeakable.
He Father knows the Son, but the Son does not know
himself.
Council of Antioch
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This statement, overwhelmingly approved by the sixty or so bishops
assemble, might have been written by Alexander and Athanasius.
The bishops were required to affirm, among other things, that they
believed “in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son, begotten
not from non-existence, but from the Father”; that the Son has
always existed; that he is “immutable and unalterable”; and that he
is “the image not of the will nor of anything else except the actual
existence (hypostasis) of the Father.” As if this anti-Arian
pronouncement were not clear enough, the council added
anathemas to it – the first anathemas (literally, curses carrying a
threat of excommunication) issued by any church council against
errors doctrine. The views condemned were that Jesus is a creature
rather than the Creator that he is not eternal, and that he is not
unchangeable by nature, as God is. P. 66
Council of Nicea cont’d
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It is easy to see how Athanasius’s position
could appeal to a Oneness believer. Faced
with a choice between Arius and
Athanasius on the deity of Jesus Christ,
Oneness believers would choose the latter.
In fact, the Arians objected that the
doctrine of Athanasius sounded too much
like that of Sabellius.
Council of Nicea cont’d
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Some of the participants were basically
modalistic or Oneness in their thinking. In fact,
one prominent member of the victorious party,
Marcellus, bishop of Ancyra, vigorously
promoted a form of modalism after the council,
and another, Eustathius, bishop of Antioch, was
later condemned for modalism. Moreover, many
of the average participants, who may not have
really understood the theological dispute, could
have had predominantly Oneness concepts.
Homoousios
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Homoousios could mean “of the same essence,”
but it could also mean of the same “substance,”
“reality,” “being,” or even “type.” The great
Platonic philosopher, Porphyry, had written that
the souls of humans and animals were
homoousios (of the same general type). If this
was the meaning of the word as used at Nicaea,
any Arian could accept it, since the Arians
agreed that both God and Jesus were divine,
although in different ways. An extreme Arian
might even argue … that human beings made in
God’s image are homoousios with Him.
Alexander
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Bishop of Alexandria
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Excommunicated Arius
Trinitarian
Biggest Opponent to Arius
Athanasius (AD 295?-373)
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Bishop of Alexandria
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Seceded Alexander
Trinitarian
Biggest Opponent to Arius
The Original Nicene Creed (AD
325)
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The Council of Nicea adopted this statement. The last paragraph, the
condemnatory clause, is not actually part of the creed itself.
“We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of all things visible and
invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, the
only begotten; that is, of the essence of the Father, God of God, light of light, very
God of very God, begotten not made, being of one substance with the Father; by
whom all things were made both in heaven and on earth; who for us men and for
our salvation came down and was incarnate and was made man; he suffered, and
the third day he rose again, ascended into heaven; from thence he shall come to
judge the quick and the dead.
And in the Holy Ghost.”
But those who say, “There was a time when he was not,” and “He was not before he
was made,” and “He was made out of nothing,” or “He is of another substance” or
“essence,” or “The Son of God is created” or “changeable” or “alterable”—they are
condemned by the holy catholic and apostolic church.
The West
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West
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Roman Catholic Church
The East
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The Coptic Church
The Greek Orthodox Church
Decline of the East
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For the most part the East was the last
remaining stronghold of Arianism.
It was severely brought to naught by the
savage Goths and what remained was
gobbled up by the Islamic Arabs.
Early Sacraments
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Baptism
Confirmation
Penance
The Eucharist