The Decline Of The Church:
Part 8:
Among those who walked in the shadow of our Lord Jesus, there was no doubt the true Christian religion could be found. There must have been a great deal of support for those who had suffered through the Dioclesian persecution. Many of them with their children were found to be loyal followers of Christ.
Also some of the ministers were worthy of a better age. But most of those who were exalted to places of power and trust, were engaged in pompous rites and ceremonies, and knew little of the humiliating and sanctifying doctrines of Christianity. In truth, their elevation to wealth and power was followed by an amazing increase of luxury and vice. Bishops contended with bishops about the extent of their jurisdictions; they worked hard to achieve the style of living as that of a prince, clearly demonstrating they had placed their heaven on earth.
Having now been exposed to such spiritual guides, the mass of the people soon became exceedingly corrupt. Multitudes of those who had been abandoned during the persecutions now assembled, they being allured by profit or advantage, or driven by fear, pressed into the Church. Soon discipline ceased, and superstition reigned without control. The Gentile converts to nominal Christianity, brought with them into the Church a taste for the public processions and prayers, by which they had been accustomed to appease their gods.
And now they hastily transferred the virtues which had been supposed to belong to their temples and their ablutions (washings of the body) to Christian temples and Christian ordinances; and were at once disposed to deify the apostles and early Christians, as they had been accustomed to do the heroes of antiquity. The old Christians found themselves associated with a new world of admires, who new nothing about Christianity, and who were easily subjected to the most abominable burdens, duty, oppression, and deceptions.
Prodigies and miracles, therefore, beyond numbers were multiplied. The bones and relics of dead saints were thought to perform wonders. Dust and earth, brought from Israel was viewed as a certain and powerful remedy against the violence of wicked spirits. And, before the close of the century, the business of the lower order of priests was to impose, in ten thousand ways, in the vilest manner, upon the willingness of the ignorant to believe these things, though they had no historical or real evidence to support them.
The erection of magnificent temples, and the introduction of a splendid worship, gave rise also to a vast variety of additional rites and ceremonies. These, in general, were copied from a general form of heathen worship, and such was the amalgamation (blending) of the two religions, as now they differed little in their external appearance. Gorgeous robes, miter’s, tiaras, wax tapers, crosiers, processions, lustrations, images, gold and silver vases are mentioned, as common to both Christian and heathen churches. What deplorable degeneracy from the simple worship of the apostles!
The great festivals were five in number, they commemorating the birth, death, resurrection and ascension of Christ, and the day of Pentecost. But were now found to be days of public licentious rather than of a holy exercise. Also fasts were greatly multiplied, sold to the people, under the idea that they repelled evil spirits.
From being the outpourings of a broken heart and a contrite spirit, the public prayers degenerated into vain bombast and pompous speeches, and in consequence of these men having an intimate connection with the Grecian schools, the sermons of the divines partook of the nature of an oration. Those Christians assembled clapped and applauded, as unbelievers would any orator in a public forum.
Two principles were introduced into the Church which helped her on in her downward course, and led brother to imbrue his hands in brother’s blood; and this too, thinking that he did God a service. The first was, that it is an act of virtue to deceive and lie, when by the means, the interests of the Church may be promoted; — and the other, that errors in religion, when maintained and adhered to, after proper admonition, are punishable with civil penalties and corporeal tortures.
Strange that men, who professed to serve an holy master, and to be looking toward an holy heaven, should so soon set at defiance the solemn denunciations of Christ, against the fearful, the unbelieving, and abominable, and all liars; and that, with scorched flesh and broken limbs they should kindle the fires of persecution against their own brothers and sisters in Christ.
In such a degenerate period, it could not be expected that the fundamental doctrines of the Gospel should remain uncorrupted. They had already lost much of their influence over the minds of men; but until this time, they had remained entire in most of the churches. A number of violent dissentions had arisen on account of discipline; and extremely erroneous sentiments had been formed and advocated by a few powerful minds; but to this point, no large churches had been seen to deny the fundamental doctrines and to build their hopes of salvation on a different faith from that which had been generally received as the faith of the primitive Christians.
Two parties, the Donatists and the Meletians, were formed in Africa about the commencement of the fourth century, by contentions about power and place, which for a long time were persecuted and oppressed as dangerous schismatics; but it does not appear that they adopted any corrupt sentiments.
But as early as the days of John, there were those who denied the divinity of Christ; and in every succeeding period, there were ingenious minds, found giving some new explanation of the doctrine of the Trinity, which should free it from its inherent mystery; but none had made much of an impression on the churches.
But in the church of Alexandria, was a presbyter named Arius; a man, venerable in his appearance, severe in his habits, monastic in his dress; a subtle logician and a commanding orator. This man openly maintained, that the Son, Jesus Christ, was essentially and totally distinct from the Father; there was a time when he was not; and the he was the first and noblest of all created beings; was a mutable creature, and capable, as men are, both of sin and holiness. He preached continually to a crowded audience, and presented his doctrine to every one with whom he associated in private.
A little side note; the Jehovah Witnesses have been advancing this Arian doctrine since 1882. Their problem, like Arius is spiritual, not intellectual. Scripture reveals to us in 1 Cor.2:14, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
Arius soon gained many proselytes, both among the common people, and men of rank and influence. Alexander, his bishop, assembled two councils, the last contained a hundred ministers, which condemned his opinions and excluded him from the fellowship of the Church.
Spiritual war was now proclaimed, which would soon rage throughout the Christian world. Arius retired into Israel, and opened a correspondence with many eminent men, whom he endeavored to bring over to his faith. Among his warmest admirers and greatest supporters, was Eusebius of Nicomedia, the metropolis where the Emperor usually resided.
Constantine beheld the breach with grief, longing only to have one great, harmonious, splendid, religious empire. He wrote to the two parties and exhorted them to peace. But it was in vain. He then called an immense council of 313 bishops from all parts of Christendom, to meet at Nice in Bithynia.
They were convened in the year 325 A.D. and supported solely at his expense. Such a council had never before been witnessed. It was the first general council. The Emperor himself came to it, threw their mutual accusations into the fire and exhorted them to peace. This being in vain, the doctrine of Arius was examined, than discussed, but was soon condemned. He was deposed, excommunicated, and forbidden to enter Alexandria.
Such is the fact which the records of ecclesiastical history present us. That, in the year 325 A.D., a denial of the real divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, was considered by almost all the Christian Church, a deadly heresy. If Unitarianism (the denial of the divinity of Jesus Christ) was the faith of the Apostles and early Christians, when was their faith supplanted?
Why have we no record of the change? Why was not the change, which must have been well known at this period, appealed to by Arius in his defense? Pliny says, in his day, the Christians worshipped Christ as God. Those who did this were slain for the testimony of Jesus, Those who denied his divinity were not persecuted by the Pagans.
In this council, a creed was adopted called the Nicene Creed. The dispute concerning Easter was finally adjusted. The ordination of new converts was forbidden; also, the moving of bishops, priests, and deacons, from one city to another. The Meletian controversy, for a time was settled, and the Novatians were invited to return to the bosom of the Church, for they held nothing at variance with the fundamental doctrines. Attempts were made to put upon the clergy the yoke of perpetual celibacy, but this did not succeed.
Something of the fear of God, and a spirit of discipline now existed. And how could it be otherwise? The council of Nice was a council of Martyrs. Many of them had passed through the fires of persecution, and bore on their bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus. One appeared debilitated by the application of hot irons to both his hands. Others, appeared, deprived of their right eyes, and others of a leg.
I will cover the Arius crisis in my next post.
Phillip LaSpino WWW.seekfirstwisdom.com