Some thoughts on Ante-Nicene Christianity
I've recently been reading Phillip Schaff's "History of the Christian Church" on Ante-Nicene Christianity. I must say, that I was amazed and in awe with what the earliest members of the the Church had to endure just to keep profess and protect the faith and their faith.
Let me put this in another way. As Christians today, we don't fight very hard for anything that we have except maybe to keep the world moral. We are able to function in the world for the most part as members of society. We can send our kids to schools. We can go to the grocery stores, etc... Essentially, we can live our own lives.
Ante-Nicene Christianity is an era of Christian heroes who fought their personal faith and for the faith that is handed on to us. In regards to their own personal faith, it was illegal for Christians to exist within the Roman empire. They underwent severe persecution for simply professing to be Christian. We might get a snicker or a wierd look from people today, but for them it was the sword and martyrdom. This really puts so much into perspective. Today, it is so easy to profess to be a Christian. Back then, to do so surely meant death, especially under emperors like Nero, Domitian, Trajan and others. What also amazes me about the Church of this era is their lack of tolerance for worldliness. Granted that some sects of the Church went to the ascetic extreme, for the most part, there was a healthy dose of non-affiliation with the world. Today, because it is so easy to be a Christian, we can see worldliness creep into the Church in so many ways. It could be through homosexuality, through pragmatic techniques for preaching and evangelism, certain type of "worship music", etc... Back then, being a Christian really meant something more than it does today.
Also, this Church really fought for the faith. The particular doctrines that they fought to preserve for us were the doctrines of Christ, particularly the full Deity and Humanity of Christ. Gnosticism was trying to destroy the church from within while Rome was trying to destroy it from without. But God raised up men and women to preserve the true apostolic teachings of Christ. If the Church had succumbed to the Gnostic doctrine of Christ, there would have been no bodily resurrection that we celebrate every Easter. There would be no hope of looking forward to a physical deliverance from sin. According to I Corinthians 15, we would not have a Savior!
My concerns for us, are 1) how many of us are aware of what our brothers and sisters in Christ went through for the faith that we have today? 2) Do we not value the teachings of the Apostles handed down to us in the Scriptures enough that we are not willing to fight (perhaps not physically, but at the very least, intellectually) for the faith? 3) What can we do to avoid succumbing to worldliness in the church? These things are certainly not answered in a mere moment but require reflection and meditation and the work of the Holy Spirit to work on our hearts.
I thank God for those brothers and sisters who contended for the faith. Because of them we can state the true doctrine of God and Christ as being one in Substance yet distinct in personality. We can state in doctrinal formulation that Christ is truly God and truly man at the same time in one person. And because of those doctrines, we know that Christ is the perfect savior. May we never forget that those doctrines came to us at a cost. They were handed to us in blood.
Moses
Let me put this in another way. As Christians today, we don't fight very hard for anything that we have except maybe to keep the world moral. We are able to function in the world for the most part as members of society. We can send our kids to schools. We can go to the grocery stores, etc... Essentially, we can live our own lives.
Ante-Nicene Christianity is an era of Christian heroes who fought their personal faith and for the faith that is handed on to us. In regards to their own personal faith, it was illegal for Christians to exist within the Roman empire. They underwent severe persecution for simply professing to be Christian. We might get a snicker or a wierd look from people today, but for them it was the sword and martyrdom. This really puts so much into perspective. Today, it is so easy to profess to be a Christian. Back then, to do so surely meant death, especially under emperors like Nero, Domitian, Trajan and others. What also amazes me about the Church of this era is their lack of tolerance for worldliness. Granted that some sects of the Church went to the ascetic extreme, for the most part, there was a healthy dose of non-affiliation with the world. Today, because it is so easy to be a Christian, we can see worldliness creep into the Church in so many ways. It could be through homosexuality, through pragmatic techniques for preaching and evangelism, certain type of "worship music", etc... Back then, being a Christian really meant something more than it does today.
Also, this Church really fought for the faith. The particular doctrines that they fought to preserve for us were the doctrines of Christ, particularly the full Deity and Humanity of Christ. Gnosticism was trying to destroy the church from within while Rome was trying to destroy it from without. But God raised up men and women to preserve the true apostolic teachings of Christ. If the Church had succumbed to the Gnostic doctrine of Christ, there would have been no bodily resurrection that we celebrate every Easter. There would be no hope of looking forward to a physical deliverance from sin. According to I Corinthians 15, we would not have a Savior!
My concerns for us, are 1) how many of us are aware of what our brothers and sisters in Christ went through for the faith that we have today? 2) Do we not value the teachings of the Apostles handed down to us in the Scriptures enough that we are not willing to fight (perhaps not physically, but at the very least, intellectually) for the faith? 3) What can we do to avoid succumbing to worldliness in the church? These things are certainly not answered in a mere moment but require reflection and meditation and the work of the Holy Spirit to work on our hearts.
I thank God for those brothers and sisters who contended for the faith. Because of them we can state the true doctrine of God and Christ as being one in Substance yet distinct in personality. We can state in doctrinal formulation that Christ is truly God and truly man at the same time in one person. And because of those doctrines, we know that Christ is the perfect savior. May we never forget that those doctrines came to us at a cost. They were handed to us in blood.
Moses
posted by prchdaword at 5:59 PM
1 Comments:
Let me just say that I am not trying to make a "martyr count" comparision between the Ante-Nicene Christian era and our modern era. I realize and have read about recent Martyrs and persections in countries today. I also realize that most, indeed, the rest of the world outside the U.S. is not "easy believism". I am merely writing from the cultural context in which I find myself. I understand that there are believers in China who have to have "underground churches" because of their communistic government, etc...Indeed, my very pastor has preached about recent persecution and shown us pictures of recent unheard of martyrs.
As far as what "Reformed" Churches are arguing about, I think its good that they do. I don't think that solidly Reformed Churches "argue" about homosexuality. I think they believe the matter to be settled in Scripture and not an arguable point. Presently, the biggest thing that I hear about is the "auburn avenue" theology concerning justification. I'm not sure of the intentions of placing "Reformed" in the quotations....
How do my studies of the past apply to the present? I believe it was George Santayana who said, "those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it." Thus, my first application of the past to the present is to cover the ground that they made for us and to give foundation to the present so that we can continue to grow. I think that where knowledge of the past is lost, an intellectual regress is bound to take place and that would mean that the past would have to be rediscovered in order to truly progress. (This is similar to the Reformation and the rediscovery of the Gospel.) Rather than having to go back to cover elementary things, I believe it is important to "catch up" in history to the present and be able to build upon what God has already given us in the past.
I believe it is folly, also, to reject or be negligent of the outworking of God's sovereign plan in history. God has raised up Godly men not only in our generation but in the past and we should be willing to learn from them. Their examples should lead us to godliness. Their courage to boldness for Christ today.
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