Pocket History of the Church

D. Jeffrey Bingham

• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9780830898435
• Topic: Teologia e religione
• Subtopic: Storia del cristianesimo

The story of Christianity is a fascinating tale. Here we find drama, vision and expansion along with failure, setbacks and tragedy. Yet during the past two thousand years the power of Jesus is felt throughout the interplay of human actors and the forces of world events.How can you grasp the story played out on such a gigantic stage? This book is an ideal place to start. D. Jeffrey Bingham has skillfully selected the key people and episodes to tell a grand and humbling story. From Roman persecution to the early creeds, from the monastic movement to the Reformation, from the rise of liberalism to missionary expansion, he chronicles the ups and downs of a people and a faith.This pocket history has been crafted for students, pastors and other busy people who want an informed, clear and concise presentation that feeds the mind and moves the heart. It is an account that nurtures the Christian virtues of faith, hope and love. For Bingham aims not only to uncover the treasures of the church's past but also to show how history aids your own spiritual journey today.Designed for students and pastors alike, the short and accessible volumes in the IVP Pocket Reference Series will help you tackle the study of biblical languages, church history, apologetics, world religions, Christian spirituality, ethics, theology, and more.

Part 1

Diamonds

The Early Church

There I was in the catacombs outside Rome. I was thrilled, curious and fully attentive to what the guide was saying. Never mind that in my haste to get inside I had accidentally joined a German group with a German-speaking guide. These sites of ancient Christian burial held my eye captive. I’m sure my mouth hung open. I stared. I got chilled although I was wearing a coat.

This was the second burial site I had visited in as many days. The day before, I had taken a train south to Anzio, Italy, to the American cemetery where the fallen brave of World War II were buried. I had visited the museum of the great amphibious landing of January 1944, and I had walked what I thought was the invasion beach. Gazing out to sea and then back to the city, I tried to envision the ships, the landing craft and the troops. Now here I was walking below ground at the very place where some of my earliest brothers and sisters in Christ rested, awaiting the resurrection of their bodies. After all, as our guide reminded us, their bodies, even in death, are the temples of the Holy Spirit. Their loved ones had left artwork and inscriptions symbolic of their faith. Here slept Christians who even in death had a living hope. Sharing with their Lord the scorn of death, for them too the tomb was merely temporary.

My favorite figure in this early Christian art is that of the Good Shepherd.1 Jesus is shown as a young man wearing a short tunic that hangs over his left shoulder and down to his knees. On his back he carries a lamb with his hand or arms wrapped firmly around the front and back legs. The symbolism is obvious: the Savior mercifully and securely saves the soul that was lost (Lk 15:3-7; Jn 10:1-16).

In a fourth-century fresco the Shepherd stands in a garden, surrounded by sheep that are refreshed by luscious, green grasses and by two men who soothe their parched throats in clear, blue waterfalls. Here are souls, rescued by the Savior, in paradise. The lovely scene evokes in the viewer’s mind the words of Isaiah 49:9-10:

They will feed beside the roads

and find pasture on every barren hill.

They will neither hunger nor thirst. . . .

He who has compassion on them will guide them

and lead them beside springs of water.

Of all the early inscriptions, I find my heart drawn most to the one that marked the grave of Damasus, bishop of Rome (366–384):

He who trod the tumultuous waves,

He who restores life to the seeds

which die in the earth,

He who could unloosen the lethal bonds of death

after darkness,

and restore life after three days

to Martha’s brother,

will, I believe, make Damasus rise from his ashes.2

Here was the faith of the early church. I left the catacombs humbled, taught and inspired. But in this underground cemetery next to the Appian Way I had only just scratched the surface of the riches of the early church. There was—and is—so much more.

In part one of this book we see what some elements of leadership and Christian life looked like in the church from the close of the New Testament through the fifth century. One of the themes that continually shows itself is that Christians of the early church had to be doctrinally minded; they had to be astute theologically. Some other themes, equally important, are

☐ the emphasis on the corporate unity of the church rather than on individualism;

☐ the seriousness of Jesus’ call to self-denial;

☐ the need to engage the outside world in understanding the Christian faith; and

☐ the definition of the church, the body of Christ, and its distinguishing features.

1

On the Heels
of the Apostles

WITH THE DEATH OF THE APOSTLES, the early church faced with enhanced concern the questions of unity, authority, persecution and the measure of truth. The New Testament books had not yet been collected. Various interpretations of the apostles’ teaching and the Old Testament were rampant and in some cases were seductive and dangerous. False teachers continued to threaten the faith of believers as they had done in the days of Paul, Peter and John (1 Tim 1:3-7; 2 Pet 2:1-3; 1 Jn 2:18-19, 26). Factious envy and pride within communities of Christians continued to divide the churches (compare 1 Cor 3:1-4). And the persecution of Christians so common in the earliest days of Christianity bled into the second century (Acts 8:1; 1 Cor 4:9-13; Gal 1:13; 2 Thess 1:4 and 2 Tim 3:12).

The Apostolic Fathers

Worship and discipleship as Christ’s community in humble unity, doctrinal truth and self-denial—this theme held captive the pens of the earliest Christian writers outside the Bible. These Christians are known as the “apostolic fathers” to indicate their close connection to the times of the apostles. Though some of their documents evidence a lengthy process of composition, involving perhaps different authors and editors, the versions we may read today seem to be dated to between A.D. 90 and 174. They are small yet precious gems that glitter with the features of Christianity immediately after the New Testament, from the close of the first century to the latter part of the second. Of these writings, especially noteworthy are the following: (1) the letter of 1 Clement (A.D. 96–98), written by the bishop of Rome to the Christians of Corinth; (2) the letters of Ignatius, bishop of Antioch (ca. A.D. 110), written to several churches, including the Ephesians, Romans, Magnesians and Philadelphians; and (3) the Martyrdom of Polycarp, an account of the death of Polycarp (A.D. 155), bishop of Smyrna, sent in the form of a letter from the church of Smyrna to the church of Philomelium of Phrygia in what is today southern Turkey.

One particular occurrence of the disruption of Christian peace and unity was the division of the Corinthian church at the end of the first century, some forty years after Paul had written 1 Corinthians. Apparently younger, insolent members of the church had challenged and deposed honored bishops (presbyters) within the community for illegitimate reasons. So it is no surprise that Clement, in his letter to the Christians in Corinth, exhorted them to embrace humility: “Let us therefore be humble, brothers, laying aside all arrogance and conceit and foolishness and anger, and let us do what is written. For the Holy Spirit says: ‘Let not the wise man boast about his wisdom, nor the strong about his strength, nor the rich about his wealth; but let him who boast, boast in the Lord, that he may seek him out, and do justice and righteousness.’ ”1

Furthermore, Clement reminded his readers about the nature of the presbyter’s or bishop’s office (there was as yet no distinction between a presbyter and a bishop) and about its relationship to Christ and the apostles. For Clement, bishops were holders of a permanent office instituted by the apostles. The apostles had appointed the first bishops and they had intended the office to continue after their deaths. After the apostles, bishops were to be appointed by other reputable leaders with the church’s consent. Such men were not to be removed unjustly. In Clement’s letter the word bishops always occurs in the plural, so we assume that a plurality of bishops existed in both Rome and Corinth. Since the first ones had connections to the apostles, and since the apostles had connections to Christ, the bishop’s office was viewed seriously. Humility was required of those in this office. In this light, addressing the arrogant ones, Clement commanded, “You, therefore, who laid the foundation of the revolt, must submit to the presbyters and accept discipline leading to repentance, bending the knees of your heart.”2

Clement’s particular interest was the Corinthian church’s humility before their church leaders. But this was just one aspect of his larger concern for the great Christian virtue of submissiveness. It was this virtue, he said, that would lead to unity within the church.

Clement’s epistle reminds us that one of the essential components of Christianity is humility. He provides an Old Testament theology of the virtue. In 1 Clement 13 he cites Jeremiah 9:23-24:

“Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom

or the strong man boast of his strength

or the rich man boast of his riches,

but let him who boasts boast about this:

that he understands and knows me,

that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness,

justice and righteousness on the earth,

for in these I delight,” declares the LORD.

At the end of the same chapter Clement quotes Isaiah 66:2:

This is the one I esteem:

he who is humble and contrite in spirit,

and trembles at my word.

And 1 Clement 18 includes a quotation of Psalm 51:17:

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

a broken and contrite heart,

O God, you will not despise.

Clement’s emphases run parallel with those of Peter and Paul: “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Eph 5:21). “Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble’ ” (1 Pet 5:5). “The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those who whose work is preaching and teaching” (1 Tim 5:17).

According to the letters of Ignatius, leadership played a critical role in establishing church unity and correct doctrine. However, his letters reflect a situation in which, instead of there being several bishops in a location, there was a single bishop. Ignatius wrote his letters while he was being taken to Rome to be martyred. Arrested in Antioch because of his leadership in an “illegal” religion (Christianity), Ignatius composed epistles that continued to influence the Christian communities of Asia Minor and Rome. He had these special concerns:

☐ the false doctrines that were entering these communities

☐ the temptation, because of persecution, for believers to blend Jewish traditions with their Christian faith or to depart to Judaism

☐ the need for unity among the believers in light of these two dangers

The one doctrinal aberration that seemed especially to capture Ignatius’s attention pertained to the person of Christ. Some false teachers were promoting Docetism, the belief that Christ only seemed or appeared to be human and to possess actual flesh. The apostle John had already encountered a similar denial of Christ’s flesh in the communities to which he had written his first epistle. He had dealt with it seriously: “This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God,” he told his readers as he warned them about false prophets. “Every Spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus [as having come in the flesh] is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist” (1 Jn 4:2-3). Earlier, at the very beginning of the same letter, John had emphasized the importance of Christ’s real flesh. The apostles had “heard . . . seen . . . looked at . . . [and] touched . . . the Word of life” (Jesus), whom they preached (1:1). Christians emphasize the reality and fullness of Jesus Christ’s physical human flesh as well as his full deity.

Taking the threat of Docetism just as seriously as John did, Ignatius emphasized both Christ’s deity and Christ’s humanity. “There is only one physician, who is both flesh and spirit, born and unborn, God in man, true life in death, both from Mary and from God, first subject to suffering and then beyond it, Jesus Christ our Lord” (Ephesians 7.2).3

Ignatius also spoke directly of Christ’s humanity, as seen in his death and resurrection. Writing to the Smyrnaeans (1.2—3.1), Ignatius said that Jesus was “truly nailed in the flesh for us under Pontius Pilate and Herod the Tetrarch . . . and he truly suffered just as he truly raised himself—not as certain unbelievers say, that he suffered in appearance only. . . . For I know and believe that he was in the flesh even after the resurrection.”4

In addition to being influenced by false teachers who were spreading heresies about Christ’s person, the churches of Asia Minor were also being influenced by Judaizers. The apostle Paul had been concerned that some Christians were interested in returning to the traditions of Judaism (Gal 4:8-11). Ignatius, too, was concerned that Judaizers would lead believers to depart from grace and Christ. Like Paul, Ignatius believed that a return to the Jewish communal legislation would be a return to practices now superseded by Christ’s incarnation, death and resurrection. Ignatius wrote, “Do not be deceived by strange doctrines or antiquated myths, since they are worthless. For if we continue to live in accordance with Judaism, we admit that we have not received grace. . . . How can we possibly live without him [Jesus], whom even the prophets, who were his disciples in the Spirit, were expecting as their teacher? . . . Therefore, having become his disciples, let us learn to live in accordance with Christianity. . . . It is utterly absurd to profess Jesus Christ and to practice Judaism” (Magnesians 8.1—10.3).5

Against these threats to the Christian community fostered by the Docetists and Judaizers, Ignatius emphasized the need for unity. For him, divisio...