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The
Church Faced Down Several
“isms.”
During this
period of time that we’ve been talking about, during the time
that this persecution was going on, as I mentioned earlier, there
had been simultaneous attacks that were mounted from
within the church, and there was a
constant struggle to keep the doctrine pure.
I’m going to mention just a few of these attacks that are
more well-known, that are more quantifiable.
Legalism
Actually, this
problem with Legalism is one that plagued the church practically
from the very beginning. Shortly after the establishment of
the church, we begin to see how that ones who are called
“Judaizing teachers” went about trying to fasten the
yoke of the Law upon those who had become Christians, both Jew and
Gentile. And even though the Jerusalem council that we can
read about in Acts, chapter 15, had basically
ruled against the Judaizers, the church still had to
struggle throughout those early years until the
end of the 1st Century with this problem of those who
were with the Jewish background who attempted to integrate various
aspects, various facets, of Judaism with Christianity. By the
beginning of the 2nd Century this particular
form of Legalism was no longer a serious threat,
but Legalism kept appearing in various forms
throughout this early history of the church.
Gnosticism
Then, there was
something else—another –ism that is known as
Gnosticism. This is one of the most serious
threats, sort of an internal threat to
the church during this period. It also begins to show its
head during this period of the New Testament, but it really
doesn’t reach a peak until about AD150.
Now, Gnosticism
took many different forms, but basically it was an
attempt to fasten a pagan philosophy onto Christianity.
Gnostics, you see, believed that matter was
evil. And since the Jehovah
of the Old Testament had created matter, it was
obvious that the Jehovah of the Old Testament was
inferior to the God of the New
Testament.
Now,
Jesus’ incarnation, the fact that Jesus came in the
flesh, posed a particular problem to them, you
see, because Christ could not be associated with a physical
body because it, after all, was matter,
and matter was evil. So, Gnostics,
therefore, argued that Christ’s body was either a
phantom or was occupied by Christ for only a brief
period of time during His earthly ministry.
Gnosticism had
an elite following because it catered to human
pride. The word “Gnosticism” comes from the Greek
word, which means “to know.” Gnostics took pride
in the fact that according to them they had
knowledge that was denied other
Christians. I believe that they were the first
“know-it-alls” in the church. That’s just
my opinion.
There was one
who was named Marcion. He was a native of Pontus, and he is
considered by many to have been a very key member
of this Gnostic group. He was very prominent, and he was a
very capable defender of these beliefs. Now,
Marcion hated Judaism, and he
rejected the Old Testament. He even rejected
New Testament books that, to him, seemed to be
too Jewish. For example, he rejected
Matthew’s Gospel because it was written to
the Jews. The book of Hebrews is written to
Hebrew Christians, and so on. He was eventually expelled from
the church, but he was not expelled before he had done a
significant amount of damage by spreading this Gnosticism and also,
he was not expelled before he had gathered a number of followers
about him.
Montanism
Arising in a
place called Phrygia, there is another –ism that plagued the
early church, and this was Montanism. It began about AD 140,
and it was promulgated by a teacher who was named Montanus.
His “claim to fame,” or what brought him to the
forefront, we might say, was to protest the rising formalism in the
church and the increasing power that was being seen in the church
among bishops [elders]. Well, these were both valid
points. They were worthy of being protested,
but unfortunately, as is often the case, this one, Montanus, went
to extremes. In addition to extravagant claims that he made
for himself, he insisted that his followers practice an aesthetic
type of lifestyle—to deprive themselves of various types of
foods and various types of material goods and so on, and that by
living sort of an aesthetic lifestyle, this was equal to a level of
righteousness.
Now, this
movement had great strength in North Africa and also in eastern
regions. Among its most capable advocates was one called
Tertullian. If you know anything about the ones who are
referred to as “the church fathers,” you know that
Tertullian is one of the early “church fathers.”
Montanism, like many reforms in the church, allowed itself to
become fanatical about a few issues, but they then
neglected many other aspects that were just as
important.
So, here are
three identifiable –isms,
so to speak, Legalism, Gnosticism and Montanism, which really
created a lot of problems in the early church. These were
attacks, not from without, but these were from
within. Now, what were the
results of these attacks? What were the
results of these internal struggles? Well, they came about,
of course, during this same period of time when the church was
involved in a life-and-death struggle with the Roman Empire.
There is no doubt that the church was
weakened because of these controversies.
It’s very difficult to try to fight battles
on two fronts—to fight an external battle; to fight an
internal battle.
Yet, not
everything that they brought about was entirely evil. For one
thing, the church responded to Marcion’s “canon of the
Scripture”—you remember, he is the one who we
identified who hated Judaism and who rejected the Old Testament and
even New Testament books if they were too Jewish. Well, he
had put together his own “canon,” his own collection of
the Scriptures, which excluded books like
Matthew and Hebrews and
others. However, the church responded to that, and so they
began an effort (probably earlier than they would have, otherwise)
to actually come up with a correct canon of the
Scriptures.
Also, as a
result of these attacks upon their faith, early Christians were
forced to give considerable thought to theology,
to actually work harder at knowing
what they believed and why they
believed it, and getting a firmer foundation upon
which to stand so that individually and
collectively they could withstand these assaults.
Also, the office of the bishop (now we are
speaking of the office of the elder, the bishop)
was greatly strengthened during this time, both
from the external attacks, the persecutions, as well as from these
internal problems, because the elders were looked to (and
rightfully so) to stand for the Truth, to guard the flock, and so
on.
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