Radio Transcript

Denominational Doctrines (02)

A Survey of Church History

The history of God’s people in the Old Testament is a history of faithfulness, apostasy, and restoration. This is also true of the history of Christ’s church. The New Testament church was built by Christ (Matthew 16:18). But Jesus warned that many would depart from the faith. He warned of false prophets. "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves" (Matthew 7:15). Paul warned of false teachers. Consider his words to the elders at Ephesus. "Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves (Acts 20:28-30).

When Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica, he warned them of the apostasy that would come. "Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Do you remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. The coming of the lawless one is according to the work of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved" (II Thessalonians 2:1-10).

The Holy Spirit spoke of a time when many would depart from the faith. "Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from certain foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth" (I Timothy 4:1-3).

This departure began with the development of the papacy. In the second century it was common for one of the elders of a congregation to be elevated above the other elders. This "presiding elder" came to be known as the bishop. This was a distinction of course, not found in the New Testament. Eventually, the "bishop" of a large, influential congregation began to rule over other congregations in the area.

This was followed by the development of the clergy, or priesthood. There is evidence that by the year 150 there was a distinction between those persons who served as ministers and the rest of the congregation. As this distinction grew, the clergy patterned itself after the Jewish priesthood. The bishop took the position of High Priest, the presbytery took the position of priests, and the deacons Levites. This priesthood developed out of a prior separation of Christians into two levels, the spirituals and the carnals. Along with the development of an official priesthood came a changed attitude toward worship services. Worship could be conducted only by authorized priests. This resulted in the ceremonialism of later years. Later, members of the priesthood were forced to remain celibate.

The development of the priesthood was followed by a continued departure from the truth. Infant baptism was occasionally practiced prior to the year 325. As a result of Augustine’s incorrect teaching of inherited sin, infant baptism became a common practice in about the year 450.

Sprinkling in place of baptism was initially accepted only on an emergency basis. It developed through baptism of the sick. Baptism throughout this period was recognized as necessary for salvation. Since many unbaptized people would become seriously ill and immersion seemed unwise, the priests poured small amounts of water on a person’s head and called it baptism. The first known case of this was Novatian in the year 251. What was introduced as an exception later became the rule.

Later, mechanical instruments of music were introduced into the worship of the church. Throughout the early literature of the church there are abundant references to singing in the worship assemblies, but no references to the use of mechanical instruments. Justin, Tertullian and Origen all speak of singing in the early church. Eusebius quotes Irenaeus concerning songs that were sung in praise to God, but not one of them mentions the use of mechanical instruments of music in worship. Among later writers both Ambrose and Basil admonish Christians to praise God in song. Only Basil mentions instrumental music and he condemns it as ministering to the depraved nature of man. It is generally admitted among Bible scholars that the early church used no mechanical instruments of music in their worship.

A further departure form the truth was the perversion of the Lord’s Supper. Justin and Irenaeus both speak of the Lord’s Supper as an offering, somewhat akin to the Jews offering incense to God. Members of the church began to bring bread and wine and give it to the bishop who in turn presented it to God and a portion was used in the communion service. This took the form of an offering. It was only a small step from this idea to the idea that that the gift was a sacrifice as well as an offering. At first it was considered a sacrifice of man to God, but since it represented the sacrifice of Christ, the service became an offering of Christ unto God. Cyprian added the idea that the service reenacts the offering of Christ, as a high priest, made when he presented his blood to God. Tertullian believed that the bread and wine were only symbols, but that the Lord’s Supper could also be applied to the dead. Cyril of Jerusalem was the first to clearly advocate that the Eucharist had power to help the dead. The bishop of Constantinople later separated the idea of sacrifice from communion and believed that the priest offered the sacrifice to God, and the people took communion. Augustine supported the idea that the supper is a sacrifice, and by the time of Gregory the Great the sacrifice of the mass was fully established.

Cyril of Jerusalem spoke of the elements being transformed into the body and blood of Christ, but to him this was a spiritual change and not literal. John of Damascus was apparently the first to clearly defend a literal change form elements into actual flesh and blood. This idea was at first accepted by the church in the west and then was gradually accepted by the church in the east. It is interesting that Gelasius, bishop of Rome, who later was claimed to be in the line of popes, definitely stood against the idea of transubstantiation.

This early departure form the truth continued with the veneration of Mary. In order to emphasize that Jesus was truly divine at the time of birth theologians began to call Mary the mother of God. This was not done to exalt Mary, but to emphasize the deity of her child. Nestorius denied that the divine nature was truly united with the body of Jesus. He taught that Mary gave birth to the human body only, and therefore she should not be called the mother of God. This caused so much confusion that that a council was called in the year 431 in Ephesus. The council decreed that Christ had perfect unity in his being and personality and that he was not of two different parts joined together in some mechanical way as Nestorius had taught. From this time on the statement "Mary, the mother of God" was commonly used and is still used by many today. Although the designation, "Mary, the mother of God" was originally used in order to emphasize the deity of Christ, it later began to be used as a way to exalt Mary as though she were the source of Christ’s divine nature.

The departure from the truth later continued with the worship of images, or icons. An icon was a representation of a true, historical person. One of the most common icons was that of the crucified Christ. Constantia, Constantine’s sister, wrote Eusebius and asked that he send her an "image of Christ." Eusebius was shocked at this and wrote back that images were forbidden, that they were unknown in the churches, and that to have such would be to follow pagan idolatry. He went on to say that Christians have the living Christ and do not need artificial images of him. But from the time of the fourth century, images came to be used as teaching aids. As the study of the Bible declined, icons came top be relied upon to a greater extent. Pictures or images of Christ were often arranged to portray his life from the time of his birth to the time of his ascension. The crucifix eventually came into use as an aid to worship. People began to kiss them and bow down to them in the same way that pagans were bowing down before their idols.

The bishops of the west, especially the pope, supported the use of these icons. These icons eventually became an important part of the Roman Catholic religion.

The Muslims later referred to those persons who used icons as idolaters. In response, Leo, in the year 730, issued a decree that all images and pictures were to be removed form the churches. This decree was opposed by the Patriarch of Constantinople so the emperor had him removed form office.

John, bishop of Damascus, defended the use if images and said that God was in the images in the same way that Christ was in the Lord’s Supper. He taught that the image is an actual representation of the Invisible. He believed that the common man could not visualize Christ apart from a material representation. When the emperor ordered that all churches in the east be cleared of their images, Pope Gregory III excommunicated the emperor and all church officials who would not restore the images. This controversy over the use of images continued until the year 860, when a Council of Constantinople decreed that the images should be worshipped with the "same honor as the books of the holy gospels."

The departure from the truth continued with the "sale of indulgences." It was believed that when a person sinned satisfaction had to be made both in heaven and on earth. Penance was sufficient for the former, but temporal guilt had to be alleviated by temporal satisfaction. So the purchasing of an indulgence for a specified sum of money by one who had sinned enabled the pope to draw on the "treasury of merits" in heaven and apply the goodness of departed saints stored in this treasury to the sins of the penitent individual. It was taught that one could even shorten the time a friend would spend in purgatory by the purchasing of an indulgence in his name. This eventually became a large source of revenue for the church.

The Protestant Reformation had its beginnings with Martin Luther. Luther, a monk, challenged the sale of indulgences. Lutherans adopted the Augsburg Confession in 1530 and became the first Protestant denomination. In 1534, King Henry parted ways with the pope and formed the church of England. Zwingli was a Swiss reformer who was close to the New Testament pattern. John Calvin led the reformation movement from Geneva. He published the "Institutes of Christian Religion" in 1536. John Knox led the Reformation in Scotland which resulted in the Presbyterian Church. John Smythe founded the Baptist church in 1611. In 1739, John Wesley tried to reform the church of England and formed the Methodist Church.

In the early 1800’s men began to plead for a return to the Bible. Their desire was to restore the New Testament church rather than reform those denominations that were already in existence. Some of the more prominent leaders of this movement were Thomas and Alexander Campbell, Barton Stone, and Walter Scott.

What can we learn from all of this? In matters of religion, the Bible is to be the standard for all men, for all ages, and for every doctrine.