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GOSPEL GOES FORWARD AS THE CHURCH IS SPLINTERING
ROMANS 3:10-18
ROMANS 3:10–18 (ESV) 10 AS IT IS WRITTEN: “NONE IS
RIGHTEOUS, NO, NOT ONE; 11 NO ONE UNDERSTANDS; NO ONE SEEKS
FOR GOD. 12 ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE; TOGETHER THEY HAVE
BECOME WORTHLESS; NO ONE DOES GOOD, NOT EVEN ONE.” 13
“THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE; THEY USE THEIR TONGUES TO
DECEIVE.” “THE VENOM OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS.” 14 “THEIR
MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSES AND BITTERNESS.” 15 “THEIR FEET ARE
SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD; 16 IN THEIR PATHS ARE RUIN AND MISERY, 17
AND THE WAY OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN.” 18 “THERE IS NO
FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.”
S ESSION 4 O UTLINE
P ELAGIAN C ONTROVERSY
1. Pelagius taught that the human will, as created with its
abilities by God, was sufficient to live a sinless life
2. Semipelagianism was deemed a heresy by the Second
Council of Orange. (529)
The Impact of Islam
1. Islam denies both the Son and the Spirit of God.
2. Early Christian response to Islam stated that Islam was a
Christian Heresy, Judgment of God on the church and a
demonic imitation of true religion.
3. Islam was able to gain traction because of the harsh rule
of Eastern Orthodox Church.
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St. Patrick | Baptistic Spirit
Why is it important to know cultural customs when sharing the
gospel?
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I F I BE WORTHY , I LIVE FOR MY G OD TO TEACH THE
HEATHEN , EVEN THOUGH THEY MAY DESPISE ME .
A UGUSTINE , P ELAGIUS , AND S EMIPELAGIANISM
Pelagianism is the belief that original sin did not taint human
nature and that mortal will is still capable of
choosing good or evil without special Divine aid. This
theological theory is named after the British
monk Pelagius (354–420 or 440), although he denied, at least at
some point in his life, many of the doctrines associated with his
name. Pelagius taught that the human will, as created with its
abilities by God, was sufficient to live a sinless life, although he
believed that God's grace assisted every good work.
Pelagianism has come to be identified with the view, (whether
Pelagius agreed or not), that human beings can earn salvation by
their own efforts.
Pelagius raised questions of free will, original sin, grace, and
predestination. Pelagianism has been regarded as the great
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“heresy” in the West comparable in significance to Arianism in
the East. Pelagianism was akin to the Arian controversy in that
both had a soteriological interest—Arianism from the divine
side and Pelagianism from the human viewpoint.
Almost amounting to one of the “laws of church history” is the
repossession of heresy in the name of orthodoxy. Account was
taken of Arius’s insistence on the difference between the Father
and the Son in the final Trinitarian formulation, and although no
comparable creedal document resulted from Pelagianism, the
dominant viewpoint that emerged maintained his emphasis on
the necessity of good works, while affirming Augustine’s
doctrine of the priority of divine grace.
Augustine began to oppose Pelagius and his associates about
412, and he wrote on the subject up to his death in 430. He went
through three stages in his thinking in regard to human free will.
1.
2.
Related to overcoming Manichaeism, Augustine could
affirm, “I will choose this day whom I will serve” (cf.
Joshua 24:15). Manichees held a fatalistic view: They
were the predetermined elect to see the truth.
Augustine opposed them with the older Christian
position that affirmed free will in respect to faith. The
individual makes his or her own decision as to salvation.
From Neoplatonism, Augustine borrowed the image of
the attractiveness of the highest good moving the
human will as a way of overcoming fatalism.
Next, Augustine could say, “It is the same God who
works all things in all” (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:6), but
nowhere is it said that it is God who believes all in all.
“That we believe well is our affair; that we do well is his
affair.” Faith is a human response, but sanctification
belongs to the Holy Spirit.
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Around 396 Augustine moved to a predestination
position: Faith too is given by God. God “is at work in
you, enabling you to will and to work” (cf. Philippians
2:13). This found expression in a statement in the
Confessions to which Pelagius took great exception,
“Give what you command, and command what you will”
(reported by Augustine, Predestination of the Saints
2.53). Thus Augustine internalized and individualized the
Hebrew doctrine of the chosen people. Before one
comes to God, there must be a predisposition to do so,
and God gives this.
Not until the later stages of the Pelagian controversy did
Augustine meet first-class opponents; they pushed him to such
extreme positions that the church at large at the time did not
follow him.
More than fourth-century commentators on Paul, Augustine
explored the conflict between law and grace, and plumbed the
depth of sin as not just wrong acts but as something in human
nature.
Augustine insisted on infant baptism because each
person is a part of a mass of perdition. Baptism removes the
guilt of original sin, but not the weakness that it imparts, hence
the need for sustaining grace to impart perseverance in faith to
the elect.
Pelagius felt no necessity for infant baptism, but was willing to
conform to the custom of the church. Augustine used the
practice of infant baptism to argue for original sin. Baptism was
“for the forgiveness of sins”; since the infant had not committed
any sin, though, the forgiveness must be for the sin associated
with the fallen human nature. Thus Augustine found his
doctrine implicit in the practice of the church, even if he could
find few predecessors who taught his view of original sin and
lack of free will in regard to salvation.
The relationship of infant baptism and original sin illustrates a
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frequent occurrence in religious history, namely that a practice
precedes the doctrinal justification for it. Most people are first
doers, then thinkers.
For all of his genius and positive achievements, Augustine has
had a problematic influence on Western Christianity in several
areas.
1. Augustine’s identification of sexuality with the fall and
the transmission of original sin has given an unhealthy,
negative view of sexuality.
2. His objectification of grace, closely tied to the
sacraments, provided the background for the
Reformation protest that the biblical understanding of
grace was different.
3. His emphasis in later life on individual election gave an
anxiety about predestination to Western religious
thought.
II. SEMIPELAGIANISM
Is the Christian theological and soteriological school of thought
on salvation; that is, the means by which humanity and God are
restored to a right relationship. Semipelagian thought stands in
contrast to the earlier Pelagian teaching about salvation (in
which man is seen as effecting his own salvation), which had
been dismissed as heresy. Semipelagianism in its original form
was developed as a compromise between Pelagianism and the
teaching of Church Fathers such as Saint Augustine, who taught
that man cannot come to God without the grace of God. In
Semipelagian thought, therefore, a distinction is made between
the beginning of faith and the increase of faith. Semipelagian
thought teaches that the latter half - growing in faith - is the
work of God, while the beginning of faith is an act of free will,
with grace supervening only later.[1] It too was
labeled heresy by the Western Church in the Second Council of
Orange in 529.
V IDEO – I SLAM & I CONOCLAST C ONTROVERSY
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Genesis 16:12
HE SHALL BE A WILD DONKEY OF A MAN, HIS HAND AGAINST
EVERYONE AND EVERYONE’S HAND AGAINST HIM, AND HE SHALL
DWELL OVER AGAINST ALL HIS KINSMEN.”
A. Muhammad and His Christian Background
Many Arabs had been converted to one form of Christianity or
another. In south Arabia, for instance, the Himyarites were
Christians, against whom there was a native uprising at Najran
in 523 that produced at least 200 martyrs.
The Henophysite (Syria) and “Nestorian” (Persia) forms of
Christianity were alienated from the Byzantine Orthodox and
often swung the balance in favor of the Islamic conquest in
Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia.
Many of the Arab peoples had remained pagan, and Muhammad
set about to convert them.
Muhammad (570–632) married a wealthy widow who died in
595, leaving only daughters. He worked on camel caravans and
thus came into contact with Jews and Christians. In 622 he
moved from Mecca to Medina. This move, the Hegira, marks
year 1 in the Muslim calendar.
The Koran shows some knowledge of Christian customs and
beliefs. Some are disapproved, such as religious pictures and
monasticism (the Koran knows mainly monasteries and not
churches). Some are misunderstood, such as the Trinity
consisting of the Father, the Virgin Mary, and the Son.
The “creed” of Islam stated: “Oh, you who have believed in
Allah and his messenger (Muhammad) and the book (Koran)
which he sent down through his messenger and his book (Bible)
which he sent down before; whoever disbelieves in Allah and
his angels and his books and his messengers and the last day has
strayed far into error.”
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“Believed” meant “submission,” which is the meaning of
“Islam,” and “Muslim” is “one who submits.”
According to Muhammad, strict monotheism allowed for no
“Son” or “Spirit.” The angel Gabriel supposedly gave the Koran
to Muhammad, who is “the apostle” or “prophet” of Allah. The
Koran in time was supplemented by tradition (Hadith), custom
(Sunna), and consensus (Ijma). The Old and New Testaments
had their place, and so Jews and Christians as “people of the
book” were more highly regarded than pagans. Jesus was
considered an earlier prophet, but the understanding of him was
quite Docetic.
Islam’s radical monotheism, strict morality, simplified list of
duties (daily prayer, fasting during the month of Ramadan, and
pilgrimage to Mecca), and fanatical zeal appealed to many.
B. Muslim Expansion
After the battle of Yarmuk, 636, the Muslims marched into
Jerusalem. The city’s patriarch showed Mount Moriah (as the
scene of Abraham’s intended sacrifice of Isaac) to the
conquerors, who were considered by many as liberators from
Byzantine rule. Antioch fell in 638. Alexandria was somewhat
harder to take, falling in 641, after the Arabs had taken Babylon
in the East. Armenia was conquered in 654, and the region of
Georgia voluntarily submitted to Arab rule.
Carthage, the last vestige of Byzantine resistance in Africa, fell
in 697 and by 709 all of North Africa was in Muslim hands.
Unlike the situation in the countries of the Middle East,
Christianity completely disappeared in North Africa. Several
factors may have been at work: similarities of culture between
the Muslims and the Punic and Berber populations of North
Africa, the social and economic differences between the
Romano-Byzantine peoples and the native population, the major
split between the Donatists and the Catholics, and especially the
Vandal view of Christ as a deified chieftain that offered no
strong alternative to the Muslim view of Muhammad.
From North Africa the Muslims spread into Spain, controlling
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most of the peninsula by 711 and taking Toledo in 712.
Expansion north of the Pyrenees was checked by Charles
Martel’s defeat of the invaders between Tours and Poitiers in
733 (traditionally dated 732). The century of greatest Muslim
expansion is neatly bracketed by the death of Muhammad in
632 and the defeat at Tours in 733.
As was suggested above, Islam was often received as a
liberating force against the Byzantine emperor. The rapid
expansion of Islam in the lands where Christianity had first
taken root (Palestine, Syria, Egypt) demonstrates how
superficial the Christianization had become. The people had
been harassed by doctrinal controversies and sectarianism.
Many persons’ Christianity was bound up with former pagan
beliefs and practices, prayers to the saints, reverence for Mary,
and use of amulets and other features of magic.
When the Muslims came saying Muhammad was the last of the
prophets, many people accepted the new religion. The purified
ethical monotheism, and opposition to superstitious practices
and pictorial representations, seemed to represent a higher
religious ideal.
Islam initially made no effort to convert non-Arab Christians,
and there is no evidence of destruction of church buildings until
the ninth century. The conquerors did destroy images in the
churches. As the bureaucracy of the Arab rulers developed,
taxes and indemnities were imposed on Christians. In addition
to the financial burdens, Christians could not hold certain
offices in the government.
The education and experience of many Christians, however,
made them indispensable to the new rulers. This was especially
so in Egypt, but also in Baghdad, where “Nestorian” scholars
who had mastered Greek, Syriac, and Arabic translated Greek
philosophical and scientific works into Arabic.
Nonetheless, the popular support for Christianity began to
disappear. Only one-half of the churches in some areas of the
East were in use. By the early eighth century there was great
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pressure on the churches in the Near East. Some pockets of
Christianity left in the East, however, have endured until today.
C. The Christian Response to Islam
When Christian apologists began to respond to Islam, they
offered three not mutually exclusive explanations for the
phenomenal expansion of this new religion.
1.
2.
3.
Islam was a Christian heresy. There were enough points
in common with its belief structure—monotheism,
prophetic revelation, judgment, and afterlife—to make
this plausible.
Islam was God’s judgment on the shortcomings of the
church. There are always enough deficiencies in the
Christian life of believers to make this a possible
explanation for misfortunes.
Islam was a demonic imitation of the true religion. The
early Christian apologists had used this argument to
account for similarities between Christianity and pagan
mystery religions.
THE ICONOCLASTIC CONTROVERSY
The Iconoclastic (“image breaking,” that is, picture destroying)
controversy was sparked, in part, by response to Islam’s
opposition to images.
The debate concerned the pictoriability of Jesus Christ (among
other persons), especially the divine in Christ, so the
Christological arguments that were employed made the whole
question an epilogue to the Christological controversies.
The first phase of iconoclasm lasted from 726 to 787; the effort
was revived from 815 to 843. The controversy touched the
nerve of popular piety, for the most significant form of Eastern
devotion had become the cult of holy images or icons depicting
Jesus Christ, Mary, saints, and angels.
Christian art had arisen by the beginning of the third century.
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This was nearly simultaneous with the first evidence of Jewish
pictorial art, so the theory that Christianity inherited a tradition
of religious iconography from the Hellenized synagogues lacks
evidence.
The earliest distinctive Christian art represented scenes from the
Bible. It was decorative, but some have claimed that it helped to
teach. The funerary art may further have served to enhance the
sacred character of the monuments.
Marks of devotion to pictures seemingly evolved from the
marks of respect paid to official portraits of reigning emperors
during the late empire. These portraits were considered a
substitute for the emperor’s presence, so the same signs of
respect due the emperor were shown to his pictures: draperies to
set them off, prostration before them, burning of incense and
lighting of candles beside them, carrying them in solemn
processions.
The first Christian images known to have been surrounded with
these marks of cult were portraits of persons venerated as holy
while they were still alive. A cult of images is first attested
during the fifth century and became suddenly popular during the
last half of the sixth and the seventh century. The reserve that
church leaders such as Epiphanius and Augustine had shown
toward the first images at the end of the fourth century had now
disappeared.
The pictures provided a more concrete and direct representation
of the presence of spiritual powers. Prayer, faith, and hope were
addressed beyond the symbol to the person or mystery
represented, but the image itself became an object of veneration
possessing its own power of intercession or even miraculous
properties.
The ascribing of miracles to objects related to holy pilgrimage
sites and the increased devotion to Mary provided precedent for
ascribing miraculous powers of healing and intercession to
images.
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