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Apologetics
12. Questions about the Early Church
and
ITS COMPETITORS
(The
Challengers)
A
series that helps consider the foundations for faith
Contents:
Introductory
Comments
-
It is important to know about
the early Church.
PART
A: THE CONTEXT
1.
What were the Main Problems facing the Early Church?
-
Setting
the scene for what follows.
2.
What were the main Competitors Vying with the Christian Faith?
-
Identifying
the beliefs to be considered
PART
B: THE COMPETITORS
3.
What was Polytheism and why was it Important to Understand it?
-
the worship of many gods versus the One True God
4.
What was Philosophy and why was it Important to Understand it?
-
man's thinking versus
God's revelation
5.
What was Judaism and why was it Important to Understand it?
-
the refusal to move
on in God's revelation
6.
What were the Mystery Religions and why was it Important to Understand
them?
7.
What was the Occult and why was it Important to Understand it?
-
counterfeit power versus
God's power
8.
What was Gnosticism and why was it Important to Understand it?
-
the first of the major
heresies to be considered next.
Summary
On
this page we'll be looking at some more of the difficulties
of the early centuries of the Christian Church, particularly
the Competitors that were challenging
and competing for the Faith in the centuries after Jesus'
ascension and the passing of the Twelve.
On
the previous page we saw the Persecutions
that rose against the Christians, showing that this was a
genuine historical movement to be considered.
On
the following pages we'll see the Heresies
that sought to undermine the faith, and the people
of the early centuries of church history who God
used to overcome these problems.
For
the time being we focus on the Competitors for the
Faith .
For
fuller detail of much of the material on this page, we recommend
Volumes 1-4 of The Person of Christ by H.
Brash Bonsall, an excellent series of detailed teaching
paperback books about Christ in the context of both the New
Testament and early church history.
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PART
A : THE CONTEXT
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1.
What were the Main Problems facing the Early Church?
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Answer:
As
we noted previously, the centuries following Jesus were characterised
by persecutions, competition and heresies
Enemy
action |
Intention
|
Effect
|
Persecutions
|
To
frighten Christians and those who might be turning to
the faith. |
The
grace of God in the martyrs showed the reality of the
faith and many were converted.
|
| Competing
Beliefs |
To
steal away converts or prevent people becoming Christian
believers |
In
fact were revealed as inadequate in the face of Christianity
|
Heresies
|
To
distort, confuse and water down the faith. |
The
struggles against untruth meant the New Testament was
written and creeds formulated to establish accepted doctrine.
|
In
what follows we will consider the second of these.
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| 2.
Who were the Main Competitors Vying with the Christian Faith?
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In
the years of the first century AD, there were a number of
opposing beliefs that opposed Christianity. (For the people
mentioned below, see the page on the People of the early centuries.)
The
student should distinguish between these and the heresies
that arose. These were belief systems in their own right,
whereas the heresies were distortions of the Christian faith.
The
main competing belief systems we will note below are: Polytheism,
Philosophy, Judaism, the Mystery Religions, the Occult and
Gnosticism
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PART
B: THE COMPETITORS
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3.
What was Polytheism and why is it important to understand
it?
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Answer:
a)
What it is
Polytheism
= the worship of many gods.
Homer
was a classical Greek writer who portrayed the lives of the
gods believed at the time by the Greeks.
The
Romans also had their gods and when the Roman emperors demanded
that everyone worship these gods, this became a point of contention
with the Christians, leading some of them to be put to death
for their resistance.
Belief
in ‘the gods', whether Greek or Roman, tended to be a very superstitious
affair and fear kept people believing in them. It wasn't until
certain writers started deriding the very human actions and
failings of these ‘gods' that the hold of superstitious belief
began to weaken.
b)
How it affected the Church
Strangely
from our perspective the early church were accused of being
atheists - not believing in the gods
In
the Martyrdom of Polycarp (for Polycarp see the page
on People) in the third ‘chapter', reference is made to one
Germanicus who resisted the attempts of the proconsul to recant
his beliefs, when he refused to do so, the crowd cried, “Away
with the atheists! Find Polycarp!”
When
Polycarp was taken, seeking to persuade him
similarly, they asked, “What harm is there in saying, Lord Caesar,
and in sacrificing, with the other ceremonies observed on such
occasions, and so make sure of safety?”
The
Romans saw Caesar as a god to be worshipped and sacrifices required
to be made to the gods in general. When the proconsul interrogated
Polycarp, he was required to “Swear by the fortune of Caesar;
repent, and say, Away with the Atheists."
Justin
Martyr's First Apology was written partly
to refute the claim that Christians were ‘atheists'.
The
battle that ensued here was between beliefs in the traditional
gods or the One True God.
c)
How the Church countered it
In
Athens, Paul (Acts 17:16-) had been challenged
by the all the idols representing the gods.
When
he preached, taking as his base, “an
altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD”
(Acts 17:23),
he began to explain to them the One True God, the Creator of
all things.
In
Ephesus,
Paul received opposition because of the perceived threat against
the goddess Artemis (see Acts 19:23
-38).
In
Ephesus
was the Artemision, the temple of the mother-goddess at Ephesus,
reckoned to be one of the Seven
Wonders of the World. It
was in fact a place of worship, a bank, a museum of shrines
and statutes, as well as being a place of refuge where (criminal)
fugitives could flee to and obtain security.
It
was, in other words, a very powerful institution, and it still
existed in its power when John was the leader of the church
in Ephesus
forty years after Paul.
It
was about that time that John wrote his Gospel,
his letters and the Revelation. Perhaps it is no matter of chance
that John portrays Jesus more clearly than any of the other
three earlier Gospels, as THE Son of God
The
One True God of the New Testament is very different from the
gods of polytheism, e.g.
God:
|
The
gods: |
All
knowing |
Limited
knowledge and were often fooled by clever people or other
gods |
All-powerful
|
Powerful
but not all-powerful |
Infinite
|
Finite
|
Ever-present
|
Limited
in space |
Holy
|
Unholy,
ruled by passions |
Loving
|
Most
unloving |
All-wise
|
Often
believably stupid, sometimes shrewd |
Sovereign
Lord |
Very
limited, suffered at the schemes of fellow gods |
The
Righteous Judge |
Capricious
and often ineffective |
It
is of little surprise therefore that Christianity was more appealing
and won many converts.
We
may suggest the following reasons:
- The
gods squabbled among themselves with petty emotions – God
is secure and stable, loving and righteous.
- The
gods did little for humanity – God came to save mankind through
His Son.
- The
gods did little to empower mankind except for personal benefit
– God imparts His own power to His children for their good
and benefit.
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4.
What was Philosophy and why is it important to understand
it?
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Answer:
a)
What it is
Philosophy
is all about thinking - thinking about who we are, why we exist,
the purpose of life etc.
As
a competitor to Christianity, philosophy is ‘reliance
upon the human mind and human reasoning'
The
Greeks had been very strong on philosophy and the rationalism
that went with it.
Philosophy
starts with questions about existence and existence starts with
matter. The Greek philosopher,
Plato (c 427-347 BC), maintained that ideas rather than matter
existed.
Plato
was a rationalist who started from ideas and worked towards
substance, saying that the real world is a system of ideas,
thoughts existing in the mind of the great Absolute, the Infinite
Thinker, the Unknown God, the great Spirit behind the Universe.
What we see as substance are merely reflections and shadows
of the real.
Thus
what we call the real world, Plato and platonic thinking saw
as unreal, real being for them the ideas from the Infinite Thinker.
Salvation
is being able to escape from the ‘unreal' world of material
things to the ‘real' world of unseen, spiritual and ideal things.
‘Material'
thus came to be seen as bad, and spiritual as good – a false
division. Sin was
the equivalent of ignorance and salvation comes by knowledge.
Eventually
some ascetic cults developed this into rejecting the material
world.
b)
How it affected the church
Christianity
seemed to many of the Greek philosophers to deny rationality,
hence Paul's comment to the church at Corinth,
“Greeks look for wisdom” (1 Cor 1:22).
Moreover
a number of early church leaders were converted from philosophy,
and often really struggled with harmonising philosophical ideas
and Biblical ideas – see below.
The
battle that ensued here was about ideas.
c)
How the Church countered it
The
early church teaching conformed to Jesus' teaching
– that there is a spiritual world (heaven from which he came
– Jn 6:32 -)
and a material world that is to be received with gratefulness.
Jesus
was clearly concerned with the material world: he healed people
all the time, he provided wine at a wedding (Jn 2) and fed the
crowds (Jn 6).
Although
John shows Jesus being the spiritual answer
to the needs of life (e.g. bread of life – Jn 6:27) and the
reason behind all things (the ‘Word' – Logos – The Reason -
Jn 1:1,2,14), he also portrays him as the one who came in the
flesh (Jn 1:14), who they had physically touched (1 Jn 1:1),
and was a very real man who got tired (Jn 4:6)
A
number of the Church Fathers sought to put Christian doctrine
in philosophical terms to show its rationality
Justin's
Hortatory Address to the Greeks
appealed to the Greek Philosophers.
Clement
of Alexandria similarly wrote to appeal to the Greek
philosophers.
Origen
also wrestled with philosophy versus faith.
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5.
What was Judaism and why is it important to understand
it?
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Answer:
a)
What it is
The
term Judaism that we use here is the
religious belief system of the Jews brought from the
Old Testament into New Testament times and which rejects
Jesus as the Messiah-Son and objects to Christianity
as a cult that leads good Jews into abandoning their history.
b)
How it affected the church
Throughout
his ministry Jesus struggled with the opposition
of various facets of Judaism – the priesthood, Pharisees, Sadducees
etc.
John's
Gospel in particular refers to the ‘Jews' over 60 times, meaning
not just any Jewish person but those of an unbelieving nature
who opposed Jesus and later came to oppose Christianity, denying
Jesus as both Messiah and Son of God.
In
the years following, the Jewish opposition to Paul's
ministry continued as he took the Gospel across Asia Minor,
and is recorded extensively in the Acts of the Apostles.
Judaism
sought to uphold the Old Testament and sought to make Jewish
converts hold on to this these things.
It
may be useful to plot the growth of the Christian church in
the light of this:
PENTECOST
AND GROWTH
-
on
the day of Pentecost the church was entirely comprised of
Jews (about 3000 – Acts 2:41)
-
initially they had “the favour of all the people” (Acts
2:47)
-
they continued to use the temple as a place for prayer (Acts
3:1)
-
when Peter preached following a healing, the temple leaders
arrested them (Acts 4:1-3)
-
nevertheless more Jews believed (now about 5000 – Acts 4:4)
-
after the apostles
healed many, even more were saved (Acts 5:14)
-
this upset the religious
leaders who had them arrested and imprisoned (Acts 5:17,18)
-
they still carried
on teaching and preaching in the temple courts (Acts 5:42)
-
the church comprised Greek-speaking Jews who lived in a
Greek culture and Aramaic-speaking Jews who lived in a Hebrew
culture (Acts 6:1) i.e. different cultures within Christian
Jews.
-
when one particular
synagogue (Acts 6:9) opposed one of the new administrators,
Stephen, they stirred up the people, elders and teachers
of the law against him and took him before the council (Sanhedrin),
and eventually stoned him (Acts 7:57 -60)
PEPERSECUTION,
DISPERSAL AND MORE GROWTH
-
on
that day Saul started a persecution against the church,
many of whom fled (Acts 8:1)
-
Philip and others went
to Samaria and preached and many were saved (Acts 8:5-8)
-
shortly afterwards an Ethiopian was saved and took the Gospel
back to Africa (Acts 8:27 -)
-
Saul was soon saved
and preached in Damascus (Acts 9:20) yet still to Jews.
GENTILE
GROWTH
-
in Caesarea Cornelius was saved (Acts 10), the first Gentile
convert recorded, and this upset the Jewish Christians in
Jerusalem who still saw the faith as Jewish (Acts 11:2,3)
-
meanwhile those scattered in the persecution had gone north
as far as Antioch preaching to Jew and Greek (Acts 11:19
-21)
-
Barnabas was sent from
Jerusalem to build them up (Acts 11:22) and he fetched Saul
to help (Acts 11:25,26)
-
it was in Antioch they
were first called Christians (Acts 11:26)
-
meanwhile persecution
broke out again in Jerusalem, the apostle James was killed
and Peter had to leave (Acts 12:1,2,17)
-
from Antioch Barnabas and Saul set off on their first missionary
journey (Acts 13:2,3), starting with synagogues (Acts 13:5,14)
but the Jews rose against Paul & Barnabas (v.45) so
they turned to preach to the Gentiles (v.46-48)
JEWISH
CONFLICT
-
some Jewish Christians were teaching that it was still necessary
for converts to be circumcised (Acts 15:1,5)
-
at the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15) it was agreed this
was no longer necessary.
-
it is clear however, that the Jewish Christians back in
Jerusalem still made a point of following the Law (Acts
21:20) and used the temple (see v.24-27)
-
however, the Jews generally still saw Paul as a man who
“teaches all men everywhere against our people and our law
and against this place” (v.28)
-
in the following years the Jews persecuted the Christians,
during which James the brother of Jesus was thrown from
the temple walls and killed.
-
in AD 66 the Romans temporarily came against Jewish rebellion
in Jerusalem, but had to withdraw against other rebels.
-
during their withdrawal,
the church there escaped to Pella and ceased to exist at
Jerusalem, responding to Jesus' prophecy of Lk 21:20-
-
in AD 70 the city and temple was razed to the ground by
the Romans – the temple has never been rebuilt
-
about AD 90 the Jews excommunicated Jewish Christians
-
from then on the divide between Judaism and Christianity
became even more fixed.
This
was a battle of old versus new religion
c)
How the Church countered it
We
find the apostle Paul in the New Testament
correcting the wrong view being taught to Christian converts
by those Jews who had not understood the Gospel: about the Law
(Gal 3:1-25), circumcision (Gal 5:1-12), and the keeping of
the rules of eating and feasts and fasts (Col 2:16-23).
The
teaching of Paul, and in a measure by Peter,
emphasised that salvation no longer relied upon the requirements
of the Law of Moses.
The
freedom that this brought attracted more and more Gentiles and
the church lost almost all of its Jewish distinctiveness.
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6.
What were the Mystery Religions and why is it important
to understand them?
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Answer:
a)
What they are
These
were oriental, mystical, occult beliefs which
swept over the Roman Empire from the 2nd century BC. They
focused on secret wisdom that was only imparted to the initiates.
One
writer describes them as “spiritistic in origin, bizarre in
method, immoral in manner of life, fanatical in demands, grotesque
in ritual and degrading in effect.”
As
a counterfeit to the coming true Faith they had secret fellowship,
a cultic meal, fellowship secrets, water baptism, rites and
miracles.
Each
of these centred on a deity called Lord or Lady, who was personally
interested in each member, the three most important of which
were:
•
Cybele (the Great Mother) from
Phrygia
•
Isis
from Egypt
•
Mithras from Persia
These
false religions declared that there had been mystic truths hidden
in earlier ages but now revealed to the initiates of the Mystery
religions.
With
an occult aspect, the difference between the Mysteries and the
Occult is that the former were organised and the later were
individual and non-organised.
The
Mysteries are nature myths with legendary symbolic characters
(see above) pointing to fertility, life death, rebirth etc.
They
had priests and priestesses, prophets & prophetesses, habiting
groves or temples seeking inspiration from the gods, making
pronouncements called oracles, often taking over from defunct
polytheism, seeking a spiritual world that was not just a copy
of the human world, and a promise of the afterlife.
Some
distinctions between the Mysteries and Christianity are as follows:
| The
Mysteries: |
Christianity:
|
| Had
their origins in the Canaanite Baal religion that Joshua
encountered in the Promised Land. |
Had
its foundation in the Old Testament revelation of God
who rejected idols as counterfeit lies. |
| Had
as its writings secret accounts not known to any except
the initiates. |
Initially
the church only had the Old Testament and then the growing
New Testament, both of which were available for any to
view. |
| Was
based in myth, legend and fable. |
Was
based wholly in history. |
| Their
‘knowledge' was intuitive and emotional depending on experience.
|
The
knowledge of Christianity is based in historical fact
and can be known by reason and intellect, which experience
and emotions follow. |
| Ritual
was all important and morality was absent. |
Righteousness
was all important and holiness of life followed. |
| Everything
about the Mysteries was secret and beyond question. |
Everything
about Christianity was open, seen and heard and questionable.
|
| Entry
into the Mysteries was by initiation – a series of ritual
acts, opening the way for participation in further outward
ritual. |
Entry
into the Christian faith is by conversion – an act of
surrender with an act of God bringing about a new heart
and a new life. |
| Ritual
was a major aspect of the Mysteries |
Any
N.T. reference to ritual is purely O.T. which is used
symbolically to reveal the truth in the N.T. |
| The
Mysteries had their priesthood – special leaders. |
Every
Christian is a priest (1 Pet 2:5,9) |
| The
Mysteries had elaborate organisation of cultic leaders
with special knowledge. |
The
church has God-raised ministries (Eph 4:11
,12) to enable the
whole church to serve. |
| The
Mysteries were known for their syncretism as they happily
absorbed all other beliefs. |
Christianity
was clearly distinct and would not take on anything else,
which would dilute or distort the historic truths. |
| The
Mysteries could only offer a superstitious fear, freedom
from ‘fate', the influences of the planets, and the demons
of the earth, illness, disaster, poverty, and a guarantee
of a place in the next world. |
Christianity's
salvation deals with sin and guilt and reconciles guilty
man with holy God, and opens up a life in relationship
with God who is love and who is good. |
b)
How they affected the church
The
Mysteries existed before the coming of Christ and so had a hold
on the minds of many people in the Mediterranean lands already.
With
the coming of Christ and the spread of the Gospel, the Mysteries
were one of the alternatives that lost most to Christianity.
This
was a battle of Myth and institutional, counterfeit occult versus
the power of Christ through the truth of the Gospel and demonstrated
by the apostles.
c)
How the Church countered them
Paul
spoke about the mystery of the Gospel as being something that
had been clearly declared by the Old Testament prophets, but
only now understood in the light of the revelation of Christ.
e.g.
Rom 16:25,26 “Now to
him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation
of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery
hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through
the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so
that all nations might believe and obey him ”
Note:
Paul saw that the references to the Messiah had appeared a mystery
in the past, but now Jesus has come it is all quite clear and
is so clear that he wants all nations to know about it – stark
contrast to the Mysteries who kept things secret (like modern
day Freemasonry).
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7.
What is the Occult and why is it important to understand
it?
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Answer:
a)
What it was
Occult
simply means “hidden powers”
The
occult was alive and well in the early days of the Old Testament
e.g.
Ex 7:10,11 “Aaron
threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials,
and it became a snake. Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers,
and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their
secret arts
”
i.e.
Aaron was obedient and God moved. The Egyptian magicians used
‘hidden powers' (powers of Satan). Also Ex 7:22
& 8:7 – but couldn't
by the 3rd plague – 8:18
The
Occult is simply Satan's power counterfeiting God's power.
b)
How it affected the church
The
early church came across it in the following instances:
Acts
8:9- “Now
for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the
city and amazed all the people of Samaria
”
Acts
19:13 -14 “ Some
Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke
the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed.
They would say, "In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches,
I command you to come out." Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish
chief priest, were doing this.”
Acts
16:16 -18 “Once
when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a
slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future.
She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling.”
What
we have here is a battle of counterfeit power versus God's power.
c)
How the Church countered it
An
examination of the context of the three situations above reveal
a simple answer: the power of God through His servant overcame
the power of the enemy:
Acts
8:12,13 “when
they believed Philip as he preached the good news of the kingdom
of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both
men and women. Simon himself believed and was baptized
”
i.e.
Simon himself recognized that what he had was counterfeit and
came to Christ.
Acts
19:15-17 “One
day the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and I
know about Paul, but who are you?" Then the man who had
the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He
gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked
and bleeding. When this became known to the Jews and Greeks
living in Ephesus
, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus
was held in high honor. Many of those who believed now came
and openly confessed their evil deeds
”
i.e.
whereas the apostles had no problem dealing with demons, these
Jews clearly didn't have God's power and therefore their activities
before had been counterfeit.
Acts
16:18 “Finally
Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the
spirit, "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come
out of her!" At that moment the spirit left her.”
i.e.
the power of God through Paul brought to end the demonic activity.
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8.
What is Gnosticism and why is it important to understand
it?
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Answer:
Because
the subject of Gnosticism is so important we will make it a
major part of the next page on heresies.
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On
this Page we have considered:
PART
A : THE CONTEXT
1.
The main problems facing the early church – providing context
2.
The main Competitors vying with Christianity – the competitors
noted
PART
B : THE COMPETITORS
3.
Polytheism – the worship of many gods versus the One True God
4.
Philosophy – man's thinking versus God's revelation
5.
Judaism – the refusal to move on in God's revelation
6.
The Mystery Religions – myth versus Truth
7.
The Occult – counterfeit power versus God's power
8.
Gnosticism – the first of the major heresies to be considered
next.
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