History on Christendom Chapter 6 notes

During the time of 100-461, we didn’t cover everything that there was to cover. We have so far mentioned the good and pleasant side of the Church, but now we will be looking at the more unpleasant side of it.

From the writings of the Apostolic Fathers around 100 AD, we can see that the Church was deteriorating. By the end of the fifth century, we see that many unscriptural practices had come in, such as: prayers for the dead; a belief in purgatory; the forty-day Lenten season; the view that the Lord’s Supper is a sacrifice, and that it’s administrators are priests; a sharp division of the members of the church into clergy and laity; the adorations of martyrs and saints, and above all the adoration of Mary; the burning of tapers or candles in their honor; veneration of the relics of martyrs and saints; the ascription of magical powers to these relics; pictures, images, and alters in the churches; gorgeous vestments for the clergy; more and more elaborate and splendid ritual; less and less preaching; pilgrimages to holy places; monasticism: worldliness; and persecution of heathen and heretics.

How could the church stray so far from the truth? Well, firstly, we know that every Christian is a sinner. Everybody makes mistakes and we all are prone to sin and evilness. Also, the Old Church had troubles interpreting the Bible. We understand it now clearly because of the many struggles that it went through. It took many years to sort out the real meaning of Christ and the rest of the Bible. Also, heathenism still continued. When Constantine gave the Christians great freedoms and flocks of people flooded the Church, a great deal of their worldliness and heathen ideas came in with them. The heathens had their gods, which were soon replaced by the martyrs and the saints. Heathendom also believed in superstition. This was soon applied to pieces of the cross and to relics of the saints and martyrs. Before long, Christians became monks and nuns.

In about 270 in Egypt, Anthony of Thebes took up the life of a monk. After 15 years, he went to live alone and was known as a hermit. Many others took up his example. Soon, this spread to all over the East. Athanasius introduced monasticism into the West. Also, Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine did much to promote it. The main reason people became monastic was to escape the world full of evils and lead a holy and blameless life.

Almost as soon as the heathens stopped persecuting the Christians, they began to persecute the heathens right back along with heretics. They did not torture or kill them, but rather banished them from the church. Augustine promoted all the persecution. Persecution would eventually turn bitter in the Middle Ages and during the time of the Reformation.

1) prayers for the dead; a belief in purgatory; the forty-day Lenten season; the view that the Lord’s Supper is a sacrifice, and that it’s administrators are priests; a sharp division of the members of the church into clergy and laity; the adorations of martyrs and saints, and above all the adoration of Mary; the burning of tapers or candles in their honor; veneration of the relics of martyrs and saints; the ascription of magical powers to these relics; pictures, images, and alters in the churches; gorgeous vestments for the clergy; more and more elaborate and splendid ritual; less and less preaching; pilgrimages to holy places; monasticism: worldliness; and persecution of heathen and heretics.

We are commanded to pray to God; purgatory is unbiblical; the Lord’s Supper is for a remembrance of the sacrifice; priests are just like any other person in the church; there is to be no division within the church; we are not to adore any mortal…that is saved for God who deserves all adoration; why worship the relics? Of mortals? Sinners? We are not to worship any pictures or images; clergy is no more important than the church people; preaching is the main reason for the worship service, not ritual; monasticism is not important for a holy life; we are commanded to love, not persecute.

2) It was not necessarily wrong, but it was not at all essential to a godly life.

3) Because those who they persecuted were spreading lies within the church.

4) They would say that there were no signs of deterioration because during that time the Roman Catholic was born.