Iraneaus and a beautiful picture of the early church: Missional and Miraculous!

The prominence of the miraculous in the mission of the church of the first few centuries was not a source of embarrassment to earlier historians. And it shouldn’t be for us either. We believe that God is God, and that He does not change.

In other words, the fact that God should act today in a manner consistent with how we see Him acting in the Bible should be a cause of celebration not surprise, and certainly not embarrassment!

In fact, for those who hold an evangelical view of Scripture, we should actually desire and even expect God to act consistently with the revelation He has given us.

Edward Gibbon was judiciously reflecting the statements of earlier historians. Eusebius (3rd-4th Century) sought to do likewise and quotes theologian and apologist Irenaeus, writing at the end of the 2nd Century:

‘So it is that in His name those who truly are His disciples, having received grace from Him, put it to effectual use for the benefit of their fellow-men, in proportion to the gift each one has received from Him.

Some drive out demons really and truly, so that often those cleansed from evil spirits believe and become members of the church; some have foreknowledge of the future, visions, and prophetic utterances;

others, by the laying on of hands, heal the sick and restore them to health; and before now, as I said, dead men have actually been raised and have remained with us for many years.

In fact, it is impossible to enumerate the gifts which throughout the world the church has received from God and in the name of Jesus Christ crucified under Pontius Pilate, and every day puts to effectual use for the benefit of the heathen, deceiving no one and making profit out of no-one: freely she received from God, and freely she ministers…

Similarly, we hear of many members of the church who have prophetic gifts and by the Spirit speak with all kinds of tongues, and bring men’s secret thoughts to light for their own good, and expound the mysteries of God,’   (Quoted in Eusebius, History of the Church, Penguin Classics [UK Edition] p209-210)

This is a stunning picture of the church serving the community in the power of prayer, in the power of the Holy Spirit. While the church in many countries may not always feel she has abundant material resources, she must never ever forget the power and authority given her to bring someone into the presence of God.

‘Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”’ (Acts 3:6)

Such moments not only bring grace to an individual, but can be the doorway to whole communities.

Next time, we’ll look at Gibbon’s further reflections on the church’s impact and see that it wasn’t only miracles, but also a different kind of morality that helped commend the Christian faith to the waiting world.

© 2008 Lex Loizides

Supernatural Signs – Gibbon’s astonishing third reason for the spread of Christianity in the first 3 centuries.

It’s fair to say that all lovers of the Bible would adhere to the notion that God does indeed answer prayer. He hears our cry (Ps 40:1). However, while desiring to honour God with genuine faith, many believers wrestle with two difficulties.

On the one hand there’s the challenge of apparently unanswered prayer in our own experience, and on the other, there is the religious TV world of health and wealth and extravagant sounding claims, promises and requests. Perhaps good history can help us at this point.

Edward Gibbon, author of ‘The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’, lists as a third key reason for the impressive spread of the Christian faith throughout the Roman empire the fact that the church successfully exercised miraculous powers.

This was such a prominent factor in the early centuries of the church that he brings it in before discussing the high moral quality of the believers lives. He specifically lists tongues, prophecy, deliverance, healings and even people being raised from the dead! This supernatural phenomena, accompanying the gospel message, continued on into the beginning of the 3rd century without any apparent evidence of ceasing.

Reading his description of the ‘post-apostolic’ church is like being plunged back into the gospels. He writes:

‘The Christian church, from the time of the apostles and their first disciples, has claimed an uninterrupted succession of miraculous powers, the gift of tongues, of vision, and of prophecy, the power of expelling demons, of healing the sick, and of raising the dead…The design of the visions was for the most part either to disclose the future history or to guide the present administration of the church…

The expulsion of the demons from the bodies of those unhappy persons whom they had been permitted to torment was considered as a signal though ordinary triumph of religion, and is repeatedly alleged by the ancient apologists as the most convincing evidence of the truth of Christianity…

But the miraculous cure of diseases of the most inveterate [long-standing] or even preternatural [beyond the normal] kind can no longer occasion any surprise when we recollect that in the days of Irenaeus, about the end of the second century, the resurrection of the dead was very far from being esteemed an uncommon event;

that the miracle [of raising a dead person to life] was frequently performed on necessary occasions by great fasting and the joint supplication of the church of the place; and that the persons thus restored to their prayers had lived afterwards among them many years.’ (Gibbon p279-281, Penguin abridged edition 1982)

It is deeply challenging to our faith that the churches frequently organised to pray and fast and successfully saw those they considered to have died prematurely actually raised to life again!

But that is perhaps to focus on the most challenging aspect of Gibbon’s account. Perhaps we should begin by merely embracing the reality of the supernatural dynamic of the Christian faith once more as a central apologetic in our mission to present the grace of God to a needy world around us.

See next post here

© 2008 Lex Loizides

Finishing Strong – Polycarp, the aged martyr

Many Christians suffered for their faith in the first few centuries after Christ. One of the best known is Polycarp who was Bishop of Smyrna (on the site of modern day Izmir, Turkey) during the 2nd Century.  F.F. Bruce writes of him:

‘Polycarp was a venerable figure, forming a last link with those who had seen Christ in the flesh, for he had sat at the feet of John, the beloved disciple.’  (The Spreading Flame, p.174 Paternoster)

He had a powerful evangelistic ministry and people from all walks of life had been converted through him.  His pagan opponents called him ‘the destroyer of our gods’.  In A.D. 156 a persecution broke out against the believers in the province of Asia.  Civil authorities hunted down many Christians and Polycarp, by now an old man, was sent into hiding.  After torturing a servant they learned his whereabouts and captured him.

The intention was not to kill him but Polycarp’s enemies thought more damage would be done by forcing him to deny Christ and swear allegiance to Caesar.  Bruce describes the arresting officer as seeking to save Polycarp from inevitable shame and torture by saying, ‘What harm is there in saying ‘Caesar is Lord’ and offering incense?’ But Polycarp couldn’t compromise.
He was taken to the stadium to either recant publicly or face a humiliating and painful death.  Eusebius writes:
‘Polycarp, with his face set, looked at all the crowd in the stadium and waved his hand toward them, sighed, looked up to heaven, and cried, “Away with the godless!”  The Governor pressed him , “Swear, and I will set you free; execrate [curse or, revile] Christ.”

“For eighty-six years,” replied Polycarp, “I have been His servant, and He has never done me wrong.  How can I blaspheme my king who saved me?”

“I have wild beasts,” said the proconsul, “and if you make light of the wild beasts, I’ll have you destroyed by fire.”

Polycarp answered, “The fire you threaten burns for a time and is soon extinguished; there is a fire you know nothing about – the fire of the judgement to come and of eternal punishment, the fire reserved for the ungodly.  But why do you hesitate?  Do what you want.”

The proconsul was amazed and sent the crier to stand in the middle of the arena and announce three times: “Polycarp has confessed that he is a Christian”.

Then a shout went up from every throat that Polycarp must be burnt alive.  The rest followed in less time than it takes to describe:  the crowds rushed to collect logs and faggots from workshops and public baths…when the pyre was ready…Polycarp prayed…and when he had offered up the Amen and completed his prayer, the men in charge lit the fire and a great flame shot up.’  (Eusebius p.81 Penguin)

To merely say the words, ‘Caesar is Lord!’ may have seemed a small thing to the man who arrested Polycarp, but any Christian would immediately recognise the difficulty of carrying out such a request.

Even today, in various parts of the world, Christians are under pressure, sometimes being falsely accused, attacked, seeing their homes destroyed and even being killed. We must continue to pray for those who are suffering, seek to establish freedom of religion with those who are in influence, all the while trusting God for extraordinary provisions of grace.

We trust God for grace to help in need. We also trust God for grace to change nations.  The short-term result of Polycarp’s bravery in the face of the savagery of the authorities was actually a decline in persecution. F.F. Bruce tells us that ordinary non-Christians were repulsed by the cruelty shown to this dignified man in his senior years, and that the Emperor also issued an instruction to his eastern cities forbidding them to attack the Christians.

Polycarp could have compromised. He could have muffled his voice. He could have saved himself, or sought a different way. But he didn’t. He finished strong. That’s a real challenge to all of us.

© 2008 Lex Loizides

The Missional Impact of Knowing your Sins are Forgiven

We are examining reasons that 18th century historian Edward Gibbon gives for the impressive and somewhat surprising spread of the Christian faith through the Roman Empire in the first 3 centuries.

His first suggestion is quite simply the passion of the early generations of followers of Christ. They were zealous. They were unapologetically on a mission to bring the message of the forgiveness of sins and reconciliation to God through Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth.

A Secure Salvation
His second suggestion lies in the fact that these Christians believed that their salvation was absolutely secure. They did not fear that they would lose their forgiveness, or that they could somehow be ‘unsaved’ after coming to Christ. They believed they were eternally saved by the work that Jesus did for them on the cross. This belief in their eternal security in Christ enabled them to persevere in the face of difficulties, displacement, hostility and even the threat of death.

Their eternal security made them courageous. Just as the persecution in connection with Stephen (Acts 7) had the opposite effect of silencing the church, so later persecutions caused the church to multiply and grow! This seemingly unshakable faith enabled them not only to endure but even to triumph in the face of severe persecution.

The updated version of A.M. Renwick’s ‘Story of the Church’

Historian A.M. Renwick writes:

‘The Christians refused to conform to many accepted customs.  They would have nothing to do with idolatry, and condemned the public games where gladiators fought in mortal combat to make sport for the spectators…

They refused public office and certain public duties such as the burning of incense to the gods, or the pouring of libations…The result was that they were regarded as a morose and intolerable people.  Matters came to a crisis when, in 64 A.D., the emperor Nero accused the Christians of setting fire to the city of Rome.

The public feeling against them was such that they were universally reviled.  Even a writer of the eminence of Tacitus, who disliked Nero intensely, writes of Christianity as a ‘most mischievous superstition’.  He accuses them of ‘abominations’, and declares that ‘they were put to death as enemies of mankind’.

The cruelties perpetrated at Rome in the Neronic persecution were unspeakable, and a vast number of Christians perished.  Some were wrapped in the skins of wild beasts so that they would be more savagely attacked by dogs.  Some were crucified; others were placed in barrels of pitch, or smeared with pitch and set on fire, and these living torches were used by Nero to illuminate his gardens as he drove about, enjoying the dreadful spectacle.’  Renwick, The Story of the Church (Leicester: IVP) p.17

Nevertheless the good news continued to spread. What was intended to silence the followers of Jesus, seemed to have the opposite effect, and multitudes were won by their gracious and godly example, by the miracles that accompanied them and by the message itself.

Next time we’ll look at the example of the zeal and assurance one of the great Christian leaders of the 2nd century, Polycarp.

© 2008 Lex Loizides

Radical 2nd Generation zeal – the gospel spreads

Historian Edward Gibbon in his famous work ‘The decline and fall of the Roman Empire’, gives several reasons for the amazing triumph of Christianity in the first centuries. In this post we’ll look briefly at the first of these: The zeal of the early generations of Christians.

The early church were definitely zealous – all were committed to preaching the gospel far and wide. Christ’s command to ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.’ (Mark 16:15) was never considered to be an optional task for particularly keen church members, but was the commission over the whole church. The Book of Acts is a testimony to the zeal of the first generation of believers. And the next generation of believers were the same!

Eusebius writes:
‘These earnest disciples of great men built on the foundations of the churches everywhere laid by the apostles, spreading the message still further…far and wide through the entire world.
Very many of the disciples…first fulfilled the Saviour’s command by distributing their possessions among the needy; then, leaving their homes behind, they carried out the work of evangelists, ambitious to preach to those who had never yet heard the message of the faith and to give them the inspired gospels in writing.

Staying only to lay the foundations of the faith in one foreign place or another, appoint others as pastors, and entrust to them the tending of those newly brought in, they set off again for other lands and peoples…[and] many miraculous powers of the divine Spirit worked through them, so that at the first hearing whole crowds in a body embraced with whole hearted eagerness the worship of the universal Creator.’  (Eusebius, Penguin Classics Edition p.148)

E. Glenn Hinson, writing in Christian History Magazine, says,
‘Churches were founded in almost every way possible. Sometimes a bishop, presbyters, or deacons were sent to evangelize and organize a new church. For example, in the mid-third century, Cornelius of Rome was reputed to have sent seven bishops to Gaul (modern France) to plant churches. Other times, churches that had spontaneously formed through lay evangelism asked for a bishop to instruct them. Most churches had the same goal: evangelism…

Some converts learned about the faith through friendship with church members. Others saw or heard about exorcisms or healings. Some witnessed the arrest of a Christian or even a martyrdom. Others lived in Christian households as slaves or indentured servants. By the end of the third century, Christians had built formal churches near pagan temples across the empire.’
(From Christian History Magazine)

Next time we’ll see how the early believers’ assurance of their eternal security made them unstoppable in service and in risk taking in a dangerously hostile environment.

Read more here

© 2008 Lex Loizides