Bible Problems Solved by Early Christians

David W. T. Brattston

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781725276574
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: History of Christianity

This book deals with questions or problems encountered in the Bible where answers can be found in the ante-Nicene fathers. The fathers were uniquely qualified by being close in time and culture to Christ himself, when his unwritten teachings and Scripture interpretations, and those of the apostles, were still fresh in Christian memory. It is designed for sincere readers of the Bible who may from time to time be puzzled by the occasional passage which seems out-of-step with the rest of the Scriptures or our usual impression of Christian teaching.This work is written for individual and group Bible students without advanced theological qualifications, rather than the intellectual market. It is written for use in Bible studies in local congregations, or church history classes, especially in sessions when the pastor or teacher is unable to attend.Bible Problems Solved by Early Christians is different from almost all other works and ministries, which give solutions to problems or questions, because the answers in the book come not from a modern-day comparison of different verses within the Bible itself or from the interpretations of any particular religious denomination, but from Christian writers who lived in the first centuries after Jesus.

1

Adam’s Sin and the Severity of its Consequences

According to Genesis 2:16–17, “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

In Chapter 3, Adam and his wife disobeyed this commandment, and their eyes were opened to the knowledge of good and evil. As punishment, God evicted them from paradise, increased the pains of childbirth, cursed the ground so that they could obtain food only by demanding labor, and eventually die. Was God meanspirited in begrudging them the knowledge of good and evil? Why would God create such a tree in the first place, knowing it could lead to their downfall?

The answers are found in Theophilus, who converted to Christianity in adult life after a long study of scripture. He became bishop of Antioch, in the same line of succession as Simon Peter. He wrote the following shortly after AD 180:

Adam, being yet an infant in age, was on this account as yet unable to receive knowledge worthily. For now, also, when a child is born it is not at once able to eat bread, but is nourished first with milk, and then, with the increment of years, it advances to solid food. Thus, too, would it have been with Adam; for not as one who grudged him, as some suppose, did God command him not to eat of knowledge. But He wished also to make proof of him, whether he was submissive to His commandment. And at the same time, He wished man, infant as he was, to remain for some time longer simple and sincere. For this is holy, not only with God, but also with men, that in simplicity and guilelessness subjection be yielded to parents. But if it is right that children be subject to parents, how much more to the God and Father of all things? Besides, it is unseemly that children in infancy be wise beyond their years; for as in stature one increases in an orderly progress, so also in wisdom.1

In other words, Adam violated the natural order, created by God, that types of food and knowledge be gained gradually. Adam grasped at it before he was developed and mature enough to absorb it wisely. Adam snatched at the knowledge of good and evil against the universal rules of orderly progress.

1. Theophilus, To Autolycus 2.25 (ANF 2:104).

2

Keeping Busy in Heaven

Why do the usual and traditional Christian descriptions of heaven portray its inhabitants as strumming on harps, singing hymns, and otherwise always praising God? Does God need the praise of human beings and angels, or is the Lord vain and craves praise? Singing and praising God eventually becomes boring and tiresome for a few hours at a time on earth, yet the Revelation of John 4:8–10, 5:8–14, 11:16–18, 15:2–4, and 19:1–8 relate hymns of praise which the elders and the angels and other inhabitants of heaven will sing forever and ever. Does not God himself become bored in listening?

Many Christians have expressed a preference for the Muslim heaven, where a man can have all the food, wine, and women he wants while he spends eternity in idleness and sensual pleasures. Are not idleness and freedom from activity more in accord with popular ideas of eternal bliss?

Why does the God of the Bible provide that even in Paradise people must be constantly occupied?

The answer to these questions was provided long ago by Irenaeus of Lyons, a native of Smyrna near Ephesus in western Turkey who became a bishop/pastor in southern France in AD 178. Born a Christian sometime between AD 120 and 130, Irenaeus spent much of his childhood in the presence of men who had known the apostles and remembered much of what they said.

Irenaeus wrote many books on the Scriptures and on Christianity in general, especially in order to correct members of sects which had incorrect ideas about the Faith. Among his books was The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching. At Chapter 9 he says that God does not need anything from angels, but arranges that they spend their time giving him homage and praise in order to prevent them from being idle and useless and, looking around for ways to spend their time, fall into sin. The Almighty keeps humans and angels in heaven busy at praising him to keep them from getting into trouble, which they would undoubtedly do if they had nothing else for all eternity.

In 1715, Isaac Watts also expressed the potential evils of being without something to keep oneself occupied in a harmless activity: “For Satan finds some mischief still/For idle hands to do.”2

2. Watts, Divine and Moral Songs. Song 20. Against Idleness and Mischief, 65–66.

3

“Tell No One”

Jesus instructed his disciples and people for whom he had worked miracles to “tell no one”:

•Matthew 16:20, Mark 8:30 and Luke 9:21, after Simon Peter identified Jesus as the Christ;

•Matthew 17:9 and Mark 9:9, after the Transfiguration;

•Mark 7:36, after Jesus miraculously cured a deafmute;

•Luke 5:14, after Jesus miraculously healed a leper; and

•Luke 8:56, after Jesus restored Jairus’s daughter to life.

How can this be reconciled with the Christian mission to make Christ known to the nations? Or Jesus’ instructions: “What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops” (Matthew 10:27), and “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15...