Chapter 2 - Balancing the Past with the Present

AD 90-250

Book Outline (pg 17):

1. Balancing the past with the Present
1. “how can we meet our present needs while remaining faithful to God’s past works?” (17)
2. As Christians attempted to meet the Church’s present needs, the church’s structure shifted
2. Changes in the Empire, Changes in the Church
1. 1st century: elder, presbyter, overseer, bishop all referred to the same role.
1. Group of elders guided each church.
2. Churches met in homes.
3. People baptized when they trusted Jesus
2. 3rd century: Christians organizing above the local level
1. one elder (overseer) directed others
2. 3 years of training before baptism
3. disagreements over infant baptism
3. Changes due to twisted versions of Christianity in 2nd century
1. Gnosticism—the secret knowledge movement
4. Church combated Gnosticism by:
1. powerful overseers
2. central meeting-places
3. careful training
3. The Secret Knowledge Movement (Gnosticism)
1. What Did Gnostics Believe?
1. Physical world was corrupt. Only spiritual things (ideas) were pure.
2. certain persons could achieve secret knowledge about God transporting them to a higher realm beyond ordinary human beings
3. Rejection of Christ’s incarnation (John 1:14)
1. Christ was a spirit that temporarily possessed an ordinary human being named Jesus.
4. Goes against repeated emphasis by Apostles of Christ’s humanity.
5. Cannot honor God with your body if you despise it (1 Cor. 6:19-20)
6. Christian salvation is not an escape from the physical but a restoration of the physical

http://www.biblica.com/niv/studybible/1john.php 

“Gnosticism

One of the most dangerous heresies of the first two centuries of the church was Gnosticism. Its central teaching was that spirit is entirely good and matter is entirely evil. From this unbiblical dualism flowed five important errors:

1. The human body, which is matter, is therefore evil. It is to be contrasted with God, who is wholly spirit and therefore good.
2. Salvation is the escape from the body, achieved not by faith in Christ but by special knowledge (the Greek word for “knowledge” is gnosis, hence Gnosticism).
3. Christ’s true humanity was denied in two ways: (1) Some said that Christ only seemed to have a body, a view called Docetism, from the Greek dokeo (“to seem”), and (2) others said that the divine Christ joined the man Jesus at baptism and left him before he died, a view called Cerinthianism, after its most prominent spokesman, Cerinthus. This view is the background of much of 1 John (see 1:1; 2:22; 4:2–3 and notes).
4. Since the body was considered evil, it was to be treated harshly. This ascetic form of Gnosticism is the background of part of the letter to the Colossians (see Col 2:21,23 and notes).
5. Paradoxically, this dualism also led to licentiousness. The reasoning was that, since matter—and not the breaking of God’s law (1Jn 3:4)—was considered evil, breaking his law was of no moral consequence.

The Gnosticism addressed in the NT was an early form of the heresy, not the intricately developed system of the second and third centuries. In addition to that seen in Colossians and in John’s letters, acquaintance with early Gnosticism is reflected in 1,2 Timothy, Titus, and 2 Peter and perhaps 1 Corinthians.”

1. A Troublesome Preacher’s Kid
1. Marcion
1. Father was an overseer
2. became merchant
3. developed distaste for physical world during travels
2. Left Home church due to unrepentance
1. sex outside of marriage
2. exclusion from fellowship
3. Went to Rome where no one knew about his sin
1. accepted by Roman church (may have bribed acceptance)
2. developed his ideas into a system
4. Marcion Heresy
1. Old Testament God different from New Testament God
1. OT wrathful God nothing like NT loving Father
2. Since the physical world is evil, the creator must have been evil
2. Christ only seemed human (Docetism)
3. Denial of earthly desires (asceticism)
1. physical pleasures are bad
2. drank water instead of wine at Lord’s supper
3. banned sexual relations (even for married couples)
4. Only allowed 11 books to be used
1. Luke and 10 of Paul’s letters
2. removed birth story from Luke
3. removed all OT references from Paul
5. Roman church removed him and returned his money.
6. Founded his own congregations in Italy and Asia minor
2. How Did Gnosticism Affect Christianity?
1. Origen of Alexandria
1. Father died a martyr AD 202
1. 16 yr old Origen wanted to die as well but mother hid his clothes
2. Excellent teacher at 18.
3. Preached against Gnosticism but was influenced by the movement
1. God’s original creation was spiritual. The physical world came after the Fall.
2. God would restore all creation (including Satan) to sinless spiritual state.
3. Renounced all physical comforts.
1. castrated himself in literal obedience to Matt 19:12
2. drank only water
3. wore no shoes
4. Searched Scripture for mystic messages
2. Christians refused to believe that only a select few possessed secret knowledge of salvation.
3. Physical pleasure rejected by 3rd century
1. 1st century Christians saw sex as a gift from God
2. 3rd century Christians saw marriage as less holy than lifelong celibacy
3. How Did Christians Respond to the Gnostics?
1. forced the question: “What does it mean to be “Christian?” 
2. Three responses
1. Canon of writing
2. Rule of Faith
3. Priesthood of overseers
1. Which writings do we obey? Three vital questions
1. Most churches agreed to use the Jewish Scriptures as the basis for their beliefs
2. Which Christian writings to use?
1. without reliable records Christians couldn’t counter the twisting of truth
2. Three questions:
1. Is the book connected to an apostle? (Matt 10:40)
2. Do churches throughout the world use the book? (the authority of Scripture had already been felt by churches)
3. Does the book agree with what we already know about God? (OT connection)
3. Basic canon recognized by AD 200
1. ‘canon’ means ‘measuring stick’
2. continuing debates until late 300s over: Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude
2. What must Christians believe?
1. Enlarged number of questions emerged to make sure new Believers understood their faith was not Gnosticism
2. Rule of Faith is basically the Apostles’ Creed. (pg 21 side panel)
1. The key truths stated were usually where Christianity differed from Heresy
2. God the Father is the Ruler of All
3. affirms Christ’s birth, death, and resurrection
4. affirms the resurrection of the body 
3. Who should protect our teachings?
1. priesthood of all believers to priesthood of overseers
2. by AD 200: teachings traced back to apostles
3. authority traced back to apostles
4. overseer became the trustee of apostles’ teachings
5. overseers nurtured God’s children thoughout entire regions.
6. refer to each other as ‘pope’ meaning ‘father’
7. Rise of Roman overseer
1. Easter disagreement
1. Eastern churches (Polycarp) celebrate during Jewish Passover
2. Western churches (Rome) celebrate on Sunday after Passover
3. Polycarp and Anicetus discuss the issue but do not come to a resolution. Still peace between the two.
4. division of East from West is Illyricum.
2. Roman church becomes powerful
1. Rome was center of civilization. The church in Rome rose to prominence because the city was powerful
2. traced church’s lineage to Peter and Paul
3. New Roman overseer (Victor) enforces Roman church traditions
1. those who do not follow are excluded from fellowship with the Roman church
1. church discipline (1 Cor 5:3-13, 2 Th 3:14-15)
2. Eastern church protests
3. after Victor’s death, most Christians go back to life as it was before
4. New Prophecy Movement
1. How Do We Balance the Word with the Spirit?
1. What binds the church together?
1. common traditions? common Scriptures? common Rule of Faith? God’s Spirit?
2. or is it the Spirit alone?
2. The Word shapes our beliefs and the Spirit gives them life. (Except the Holy Spirit gave us the Word)
3. Western church focuses on Word, Rule of Faith, and Roman Overseer
2. The New Prophets Call for Renewal
1. mid 100s renewed emphasis on Holy Spirit
1. what about the book of Acts?
2. what about Joel 2:28-29 and Acts 2:17-18?
2. AD 160 three Phrygian believers began prophesying
1. Prisca, Maximilla, Montanus (2 women and 1 man)
1. Montanism
2. call to embrace radical self-denial
3. Church leaders in Rome and Asia minor denounce the New Prophets
1. some concern for pushing out both true and false prophets
3. Expelled because:
1. some claimed they relied on their prophecies instead of Scripture
1. we don’t know whether this is true or not
2. False predictions
1. Montanus and Prisca prophesied the New Jerusalem would come down at a certain date and place. It didn’t.
3. Stricter moral standards than Scripture
1. marriage was banned
2. frequent fasts were required
3. focus on a higher and holier realm

Catholic Encyclopedia

http://ivww.newadvent.org/cathen/10521a.htm 

“The great point was the manner of prophesying. It was denounced as contrary to custom and to tradition. A Catholic writer, Miltiades, wrote a book to which the anonymous author refers, "How a prophet ought not to speak in ecstasy". It was urged that the phenomena were those of possession, not those of the Old Testament prophets, or of New Testament prophets like Silas, Agabus, and the daughters of Philip the Deacon; or of prophets recently known in Asia, Quadratus (Bishop of Athens) and Ammia, prophetess of Philadelphia, of whom the Montanist prophets boasted of being successors. To speak in the first person as the Father or the Paraclete appeared blasphemous. The older prophets had spoken "in the Spirit", as mouthpieces of the Spirit, but to have no free will, to be helpless in a state of madness, was not consonant with the text: "The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets." Montanus declared: "The Lord hath sent me as the chooser, the revealer, the interpreter of this labor, this promise, and this covenant, being forced, willingly or unwillingly, to learn the gnosis of God." The Montanists appealed to Genesis 2:21: "The Lord sent an ecstasy [ektasin] upon Adam"; Psalm 115:2: "I said in my ecstasy"; Acts 10:10: "There came upon him [Peter] an ecstasy"; but these texts proved neither that an ecstasy of excitement was proper to sanctity, nor that it was a right state in which to prophesy.

A better argument was the declaration that the new prophecy was of a higher order than the old, and therefore unlike it. It came to be thought higher than the Apostles, and even beyond the teaching of Christ.”


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montanism 

“The beliefs of Montanism are presented by an orthodox historian as follows:

• The belief that the prophecies of the Montanists superseded and fulfilled the doctrines proclaimed by the Apostles.

• The encouragement of ecstatic prophesying[6], contrasting with the more sober and disciplined approach to theology dominant in orthodox Christianity at the time and since.

• The view that Christians who fell from grace could not be redeemed, also in contrast to the orthodox Christian view that contrition could lead to a sinner's restoration to the church.

• A stronger emphasis on the avoidance of sin and church discipline than in orthodox Christianity. They emphasized chastity, including forbidding remarriage, and even the dissolution of some marriages, in particular, their prophetesses abandoned their husbands.[7]

• Montanus provided salaries for those who preached his doctrine, which orthodox Christianity forbids.[8]”

1. What Makes the Church Holy?
1. to guard essential teachings, church leaders created chain of command directed by overseers
2. some went beyond guarding the church’s essential beliefs
1. e.g. Victor trying to force unity in nonessential doctrines
2. unified customs became crucial
3. church’s emphasis on personal holiness and the Spirit’s dynamic guidance faltered.
3. Roman overseer as the channel of the Spirit’s work
1. holiness of church resides in the overseer
2. personal holiness not necessarily an issue
3. unity with the overseer meant unity with the Spirit
4. New Prophets thought every believer is a channel of the Holy Spirit.
1. holiness of church resides in individuals
1. if unholy people allowed in church, the church could not be the holy Bride of Christ.
5. Truth: the church’s holiness resides in the work of the Holy Spirit (1 Peter 1:2)
1. It is the Spirit speaking through our spirits and through the Scriptures who must guide us as we apply God’s timeless truth within our limited circumstances.
2. God’s people must learn to apply past truths in ways that do not suppress God’s present activities