EXCERPTS FROM THE PAST
The following compiled excerpts are to remind us that truth has always had its battles.
WORLDLY ENTERTAINMENT
ROMAN R-RATED ENTERTAINMENT 260-330 AD
Lactantius "I am inclined to think that the corrupting influence of the stage is even worse [than that of the arena]. The subjects of comedies are the deflowering of virgins or the loves of prostitutes....
Similarly, the tragedies parade before the eyes [of the audience]the murder of parents and acts of incest committed by wicked kings.... Is the art of the mimes any better? They teach adultery by acting it out. How do we expect our young people to respond when they see that these things are practiced without shame and that everyone eagerly watches." (Lactantius Institutes bk. 6, chap. 20, paraphrased)
140-230 AD
Tertullian "The father who carefully protects and guards his virgin daughter’s ears from every polluting word takes her to the theater himself, exposing her to all its vile language and attitudes." He asked rhetorically, "How can it be right to look at the things that are wrong to do? How can those things which defile a man when they go out of his mouth not defile him when going in through his eyes and ears?" (Matt. 15: 17-20).
(Tertullian The Shows chaps. 21, 17)
260-330 AD
Lactantius "He who finds it pleasurable to watch a man being killed, even though the man has been legally condemned, pollutes his conscience just as much as though he were an accomplice or willing spectator of a murder committed in secret. Yet they call these ’sports’ where human blood is shed!
... When they see men placed under the stroke of death. Begging for mercy, can they be righteous when they not only permit the men to be killed, but demand it? They cast their cruel and inhuman votes for death, not being satisfied by the mere flowing of blood or the presence of gashing wounds. In fact, they order the [gladiators] although wounded and lying on the ground to be attacked again and their corpses to be pummeled with blows, to make certain they are not merely feigning death.
The crowds are even angry with the gladiators if one of the two isn’t slain quickly. As though they thirsted for human blood, they hate delays.... By steeping themselves in this practice, they have lost their humanity.... Therefore, it is not fitting that we who strive to stay on the path of righteousness should share in this public homicide. When God forbids us to kill, he not only prohibits the violence that is condemned by public laws, but he also forbids the violence that is deemed lawful by men.
(Lactantius Institutes bk. 6, chap. 20, paraphrased)
ABORTION NOT A 20TH CENTURY PHENOMENON
170-215 AD
Mark Felix "There are some women among you who by drinking special potions extinguish the life of the future human in their very bowels, thus committing murder before they even give birth."
(Mark Felix, Christian Lawyer, Octavius chap. 30)
150-190 AD
Athenagoras, a Christian apologist who wrote around 170 A.D., answered those charges with these words: "When we say that those women who use drugs to bring on abortion actually commit murder and will have to render an account to God for this, how could we possibly murder [infants]? It would not make sense for us to regard the very fetus in the womb as a created being, and therefore an object of God’s care, and then when it is born to kill it."
(Athenagoras Embassy chap. 5)
140-230 AD
Tertullian explained to the Romans, "In our case, since murder is absolutely forbidden in any form, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb.... To hinder a birth is merely a speedier form of killing. It matters not whether you take away a life that is born or destroy one that has not yet come to birth."
(Tertullian Apology chap. 9)
EVOLUTION
EVOLUTION BEFORE DARWIN!!! 170-215 AD
Mark Felix "Some men deny the existence of any Divine power. Others inquire daily as to whether or not one exists. Still others would construct the whole fabric of the universe by chance accidents and by random collision, fashioning it by the movement of atoms of different shapes."
(M. Felix Octavius chap. 30 [Notice the term "atom" isn’t a twentieth century invention, but a term coined by Greek philosophers.])
260-330 AD
Lactantius "Some people teach that the first men lived nomadic lives among the woods and plains. They were not united by any bond of speech or laws. Instead, they lived in caves and grottos, using leaves and grass for their beds. They were prey to the beasts and stronger animals. Eventually, those who had escaped, having been torn [by wild beasts] ... sought out the company of other men for protection. At first they communicated to each other by nods; then they tried elementary forms of speech. By attaching names to various objects, they
little by little developed a system of speech."
(Lactantius Institutes bk. 6, chap. 10)
DISCIPLESHIP
CARRYING YOUR CROSS 260-330 AD
Lactantius "He who chooses to live well for eternity, will live in discomfort for the present. He will be subjected to all types of troubles and burdens as long as he is on earth, so that in the end he will have divine and heavenly consolation. On the other hand, he who chooses to live well for the present will fare badly in eternity." (Lactantius Institutes bk. 7, chap. 5)
50-100 AD
Ignatius "It is necessary, therefore, to not only be called by the name ’Christian’ but to actually be a Christian.... If we are not ready to die in the same manner of His suffering, His life is not in us" (John 12:25).
(Ignatius, Letter to the Magnesians chap. 5)
ETERNAL SECURITY
120-205 AD
Irenaeus "Christ will not die again on behalf of those who now commit sin because death shall no more have dominion over Him.... Therefore we should not be puffed up.... But we should beware lest somehow, after [we have come to] the knowledge of Christ, if we do things displeasing to God, we obtain no further forgiveness of sins but rather be shut out from His kingdom" (Heb. 6:4-6).
(Irenaeus, pupil of Polycarp, Against Heresies bk. 4, chap. 27, sec. 2)
140-230 AD
Tertullian "Some people act as though God were under an obligation to bestow even on the unworthy His intended gift. They turn His liberality into slavery.... For do not many afterwards fall out of grace? Is not this gift taken away from many?"
(Tertullian On Repentance chap. 6.)
200-258 AD
Cyprian "It is written, ’He who endures to the end, the same shall be saved’ [Matt. 10:22]. So whatever precedes the end is only a step by which we ascend to the summit of salvation. It is not the final point wherein we have already gained the full result of the ascent."
(Cyprian Unity of the Church sec. 21)
FAITH ONLY & WORKS
69-156 AD
Polycarp "He who raised Him up from the dead will also raise us up if we do His will and walk in His commandments and love what He loved, keeping ourselves from all unrighteousness."
(Polycarp, personal companion of the apostle John, Letter to the Philippians chap. 2)
125 AD
Barnabas "He who keeps these [commandments], will be glorified in the kingdom of God; but he who chooses other things will be destroyed with his works."
(Barnabas Letter of Barnabas chap. 21)
125 AD
Hermas, "Only those who fear the Lord and keep His commandments have life with God. But as to those who do not keep His commandments, there is no life in them.... All, therefore, who despise Him and do not follow His commands deliver themselves to death, and each will be guilty of his own blood. But I implore you to obey His commands, and you will have a cure for your former sins. "
(Hermas Shepherd bk. 2, comm. 7; bk. 3, sim. 10, chap 2)
200-258 AD
Cyprian "To prophesy, to cast out demons, and to do great acts upon the earth are certainly a sublime and admirable thing. However, a person does not attain the Kingdom of Heaven even though he is found in all these things unless he walks in the observance of the right and just way. The Lord says, ’Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed other powerful works in your name? And then I will confess to them, I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of evil.’ [Matt. 7:22,23] There is need of righteousness so one may deserve well of God the Judge. We must obey His precepts and warnings that our merits may receive their reward."
(Cyprian Unity of the Church sec.16)
You may be saying to yourself, "I’m confused. Out of one side of their mouths they say we are saved because of our works, and out of the other side they say we are saved by faith or grace. They don’t seem to know what they believed!" Oh, but they did. Our problem is that Augustine, Luther, and other Western theologians have convinced us that there’s an irreconcilable conflict between salvation based on grace and salvation conditioned on works or obedience. They have used a fallacious form of argumentation known as the "false dilemma," by asserting that there are only two possibilities regarding salvation: it’s either (1) a gift from God or (2) it’s something we earn by our works. The early Christians would have replied that a gift is no less a gift simply because it’s conditioned on obedience. Suppose a king asked his son to go to the royal orchard and bring back a basket full of the king’s favorite apples. After the son had complied, suppose the king gave his son half of his kingdom. Was the reward a gift, or was it something the son had earned? The answer is that it was a gift. The son obviously didn’t earn half of his father’s kingdom by performing such a small task. The fact that the gift was conditioned on the son’s obedience doesn’t change the fact that it was still a gift. The early Christians believed that salvation is a gift from God but that God gives His gift to whomever He chooses. And He chooses to give it to those who love and obey him. Bercot, WILL THE REAL HERETIC PLEASE STAND UP, page 61
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