PART II: ROME, PAGAN to PAPAL
A.D. 100 to A.D. 1300
"We wrestle not against flesh and blood." (Ephesians 6:12)
It is not men to whom we look as we seek the origin of the conspiracy against Christ and His church. We worry not whether mere mortals were aware of the part they played in the unfolding drama. We look behind the scenes to view the master conspirator, and to expose him. It is Lucifer who is behind the priesthoods of men. He is the one whose earthly throne always contains a chief priest, or pontifex maximus, offerer of the sacrifice. Wherever this supreme pontiff sits can be labeled Babylon. We ask not whether the man is good, or better than others, or possessor of certain acceptable doctrines. We ask if he sits in Satan's seat. Judge for yourself the progression of the following events.
SIXTEEN: THE EARLY CHURCH
c. A.D. 30
During and following the days of the foundational writers, the church is new, strong, and freshly filled with the Holy Ghost. False teachings abound, but what a church is forming! Here is a brief sketch of that church, as a backdrop against which the other church can be set, for your later comparison. Whatever your present affiliation, it will be difficult to compare it favorably to those first days of the church.
The first Christians have all things in common. Not forced, all voluntary. They meet daily, in various homes or existing buildings or special hiding places, to keep themselves safe from the present "Babylon," Pagan Rome. No church buildings. No air conditioning. No loudspeaker systems. No mikes. There is a simplicity about their meetings which varies from town to town, but has the same basic elements, inspired by the same Spirit, and recorded by Luke in the book of Acts and Paul in his epistles:
1) the teachings of the apostles, Acts 2:42
2) prayers, Acts 2:42
3) worship, I Corinthians 12, 14
4) manifestations of the Spirit of God, I Corinthians 14
5) the breaking of the bread, or the "Lord's supper," Acts 2:42, I Corinthians 11
6) often, fellowship dinners - love feasts - are a part of the meeting, but they soon become a problem (I Corinthians 11)
And, the Lord keeps adding to the church those who are being set free from sin, that is, saved. Great grace is upon them.
To see an involved pagan ritual in old Pagan Rome, and then to see a simple meeting of God's people is to see two totally different events, not even close to comparison. At least in the beginning, no one could compare Christianity to paganism. But things change.
In their personal lives, and in their communal life, the early Christians are a separated people. They use the world as needed, but keep their eyes on the heavens, whence they look for Christ to return at any moment.
People such as the above described have their descendants among us today: simple men and women, children too, who want nothing but the Word of God, the Spirit of God, the People of God, and a God-given job to do while waiting for Jesus' return.
But slowly another people evolve. Things are added. Things are subtracted. An evolution takes place, a mixing of good and evil, which always produces evil.
Now, Edward Gibbon, author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, is not known to be a defender of the faith. In fact, one might label him a cynic, as he closely views the growing church of antiquity and grows sick watching. But his candid comments are worth hearing as he traces this development. From pages 376-383 of Volume I:
"The primitive Christians were dead to the business and pleasures of the world; but their love of action...soon revived and found a new occupation in the government of the church...The ambition of raising themselves or their friends to the honours and offices of the church was disguised by the laudable intention of devoting to the public benefit the power and consideration which, for that purpose only, it became their duty to solicit...and while they concealed from others, and perhaps, from themselves, the secret motives of their conduct, they too frequently relapsed into all the turbulent passions of active life...The government of the church has often been the subject, as well as the prize, of religious contention. The hostile disputatnts of Rome...struggled to reduce the primitive and apostolic model to the respective standards of their own policy."
Gibbon continues with a summary of the evolution of church government:
"The public functions of religion were solely intrusted to the established ministers of the church, the bishops and presbyters; two appellations which, in their first origin, appear to have distinguished the same office and the same order of persons...the order of public deliberations soon introduces the office of a president...the lofty title of Bishop began to raise itself above the humble appellation of presbyter...this episcopal form of government appears to have been introduced before the end of the first century...(it is ) still revered...as a primitive and even as a divine establishment...It is needless to observe that the pious and humble presbyters who were first dignified with the episcopal title could not possess, and would probably have rejected, the power and pomp which now encircles the tiara of the Roman pontiff..."
As to their general situation in the Roman world:
"...the Christian world was not yet connected by any supreme authority or legislative assembly...they discovered the advantages that might result from a closer union...Towards the end of the second century, the churches of Greece and Asia adopted...provincial synods...borrowed (from) the model of a representative council...of their own country...bishops of the independent churches should meet in the capital of the province...their decrees were styled canons...the Catholic Church soon assumed the form, and acquired the strength, of a great federative republic."
Things keep changing:
"The prelates of the third century imperceptibly changed the language of exhortation into that of command...(it was said that) the episcopal(bishop) authority alone was derived from the Deity, and extended itself over this and over another world. The bishops were the viceregents of Christ, the successors of the apostles, and the mystic substitutes of the high priest of the Mosaic law...as if the shepherd had been of a more exalted nature than that of his sheep...the inferior clergy (when in opposition) received the ignominious epithets of faction and schism. Prelates...soon acquired the lofty titles of Metropolitans and Primates (and) secretly prepared themselves to usurp over their episcopal brethren the same authority which the bishops had so lately assumed above the college of presbyters."
Soon they were playing "king of the mountain."
"...each of them affecting to display, in the most pompous terms, the temporal honours and advantages of the city over which he presided; the numbers and opulence of the Christians who were subject to their pastoral care; the saints and martyrs who had arisen among them, and the purity with which they preserved the tradition of the faith...It was easy to foresee that Rome must enjoy the respect, and would soon claim the obedience, of the provinces...the Roman church was the greatest, the most numerous..."
And so on, ad nauseam. Note these digressions, finally:
"The progress of the ecclesiastical authority gave birth to the memorable distinction of the laity and of the clergy, which had been unknown to the Greeks and Romans. The former of these appellations comprehended the body of the Christian people; the latter, according to the signification of the word, was appropriated to the chosen portion that had been set apart for the service of religion; a celebrated order of men which has furnished the most important, though not always the most edifying, subjects for modern history. Their mutual hostilities sometimes disturbed the peace of the infant church, but their zeal and activity were united in the common cause, and the love of power, which (under the most artful disguises) could insinuate itself into the breasts of bishops and martyrs, animated them to increase the number of their subjects, and to enlarge the limits of the Christian empire...The community of goods...was adopted for a short time in the primitive church...The progress of the Christian religion relaxed, and gradually abolished, this generous institution, which in hands less pure than those of the apostles, would too soon have been corrupted and abused..."
And when paganism is finally admitted to the church by law of the Caesars, most do not seem to care. This new breed gives to us the line of descent we can only call Babylonian.
The people of Babylon, whether old or new Babylon, can never feel at home with the people of Jerusalem, whether old or new Jerusalem. The harlot church can never accept the people who know their God through Jesus Christ. And the true Jew of the Old Covenant or the true Christian of the New is bound always to expose this harlotry.
c. 70 A.D.
Before we get too far, let's stop a minute to look at the writings of the men of the first century church. In Part I, we looked carefully at apostolic writings. But after the apostles, men still wrote letters to one another and to churches. Some of these letters were at first thought to be a part of the New Testament canon. Though they are not, their words are important to us. For one thing, most of them had a direct link to a living apostle. These men are called the "apostolic fathers", and include Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp, and Papias.
What Gibbon views from the outside of the church is verified from the inside: things are changing! Not just the necessary adaptations to changing culture, but basic changes in doctrine and principal:
Whereas Paul, Peter, and in the same time span, Clement, all condone a simple organization of the church, comprised of elder/bishops and deacons, by the time of Ignatius (shortly after 100 A.D.) one of that plurality has become "the" bishop.
Though there is not, as yet, Mary-veneration, Rome domination, or priest-sacrifice, there is a growing stress on works, less talk of grace. Though some see the Lord's Supper as a simple meal, others are raising it to the level of the very means for eternal life (as in Ignatius to Ephesians) and demanding that the bread is literally the flesh of Christ. In the Didache, actual prayers for the bread and wine are formulated.
Though women are still enjoined to keep silent (as in Clement to the Corinthians), and churches are admonished to submit to authority, that authority becomes centered in one person, as though he were the Lord himself (Ignatius to Ephesians). Ignatius goes so far as to say that without a bishop and a group of elders, there is no church. He would have had a problem with Philip the evangelist (Acts 8).
Baptism, the Greek idea meaning submerging, is transformed into a convenience that can be substituted with pouring on the head (Didache).
Legalism enters, as in this instruction of the Didache :
"...do not let your fasts coincide with those of the hypocrites. They fast on Monday and Thursday, so you must fast on Wednesday and Friday."
And in the Epistle of Diognetus, a somewhat anti-Semitic author puts down Jewish ways which in fact becom the ways of Romanism shortly thereafter:
"(they)...observe months and days, ...and make distinctions between the changing seasons ordained by God, making some into feasts and others into times of mourning according to their own inclinations..."
To trace further the writings of the "fathers" is a study in disappointment. Many of them speak good and noble words. But in almost all, there is that deadly mixture which catches the unsuspecting and undiscerning off guard. Let us stay grounded on the very words of God, through Christ to the apostles, if we are to be His special people in this most confused world.
