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Once again,
these persecutions under Valerian were cut short because of the war
against the Persians. And then, relative peace followed for
nearly a generation. But this peace was shattered in 303 when
Emperor Diocletian unleashed the most violent, and
systematic attack the church had yet
experienced. Churches were destroyed. Copies of the
Scriptures were burned. Christian leaders were tortured and
executed, and on occasion, Christians were slaughtered in great
numbers. This all-out campaign brought on by Emperor
Diocletian lasted for about 10 years.
During the
reign of Diocletian, there was a bitter struggle underway that was
ongoing between rivals to the imperial throne in Rome.
Constantine finally emerged victorious and, in the process,
attributed much of his success to Christianity. No, he was
not a Christian, but it is reported that he had
seen a vision, a vision of a flaming cross with
this inscription, “In this sign, conquer.” Well,
inspired by this so-called vision, he went forth
and he was victorious in battle. The following year, 313, the
Imperial Edict of Milan was issued, and it granted complete
toleration to Christians throughout the
Empire. No, Constantine, as it’s often reported and
believed, did not make Christianity the sole official religion of
the Empire, but he did, in this Edict that he
made, cause the citizens and officials to cease their persecution,
to become friendly, if you will, to
Christianity. And the church and Christians were granted many
other privileges as a result of that.
In
Spite of Persecution, the Church Continued to Grow and
Prosper
Let me just
mention the results of persecution. The church was born in
the midst of persecution, going all the way back to Acts,
chapter 6. We have mentioned that before. And
for the next 300 years, the church would not be able to escape this
shadow of persecution. Yet, it spite of
persecution, the church continued to grow, continued to
prosper. Persecution resulted, in one sense, in the
purging of the church, even though there will be
those who will attack the church from within—and we’ll
see an apostasy that will take place and will come into view.
For example, as we saw in that exchange between Pliny the Younger
and Emperor Trajan, there were those who, when persecution was
brought upon them, when pressure was brought upon them, would
denounce their Christianity, would even
curse Christ! Now, some would repent of
that, but many never would. And so, in a sense, the ranks of
the church were purged by this persecution.
There were also
some other things which took place. For example, while that
was a positive thing from the standpoint of
purging the church, it also would develop into a very serious
controversy, a controversy as to how to deal with,
whether or not to accept back, those who had recanted their
faith. I have a brief piece here, that I would like to read
to you about that particular point. This is back to Cyprian
of Carthage. This piece reads:
After the persecution had died down,
it remained to consider how to deal with the lapsed, meaning those
Christians who had denied the faith under duress. Cyprian
held that they ought to be received back into full communion after
suitable intervals of probation and penance, adjusted to the
gravity of the denial. In this he took a middle course
between Novatus, who received apostates with no probation at all,
and Novatian, who would not receive them back at all, and who broke
communion with the rest of the church over this issue, forming a
dissident group particularly strong in Rome and Antioch.
And so, that’s just a bit of an example of
other problems, internal problems, which were brought about because
of this persecution. That completes the persecution portion
of what we wanted to look at here.
PLEASE
NOTE: What we
have studied so far is a look at what is generally accepted as the
“History of the Church,” and part of that history
includes the apostasy of the church. Simultaneous to these
persecutions, the church faced attacks from within by those who
would be Legalists, those who followed Gnosticism, those who would
change the organizational structure of the church, even such things
as the rise of sprinkling and pouring for baptism—all of
these things take place during this same time. These
are actually simultaneous events—the attacks on the church
and Christians from without (Rome) and the attacks on the church
from within (“isms,” the development of church
organizations and other doctrines, the rise of
“baptism” by pouring and sprinkling—also infant
“baptism,” changes in the Lord’s Supper,
observance of various religious “holy-days,” and so
on). In the next section of this lesson, we will be
discussing these attacks from within the church, but keep in mind
that these attacks from without and within are simultaneous
events. Note that the apostasy of the church actually began
at the end of the 1st Century. Some of that is
actually seen and forecast in Revelation, chapter 2 and
chapter 3.
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