History of the Church
1 - The Early Years
Introduction
The Christian message is one of God in history.
Gospels speak of God in the flesh; Acts speaks of God in the Spirit.
Church history is story of Spirit working through sinners who witness their faith.
To understand how the past colors our vision, we must know the past.
We need to know history to better make history.
The Fullness of Time
God had prepared the way for the church in numerous ways.
Greek Hellenism intended to establish unity throughout Mediterranean basin.
Mixing gods of nations was in direct conflict with Jewish faithfulness to Yahweh; this ultimately led
to Maccabean revolt.
Although somewhat more tolerant of religion, Rome wanted to establish their gods in Palestine as
well; this led to continuous conflict. Uprising against Herod Archelaus led to crucifixion of 2,000
Jews when Jesus was a boy.
The party of the Pharisees sought to keep the Jewish law and resisted Rome. The Sadducees were the
aristocracy, politically conservative and focused on Temple worship. When temple destroyed in AD
70, Sadducees faded, Pharisees evolved to modern Judaism.
In addition to monotheism, all Jews held the tenet of Messianic hope.
By Jesus’ time, Jews were scattered throughout the Roman Empire – the Diaspora.
Diaspora led to development of Scripture in Greek translation, the Septuagint (LXX).
Philo of Alexandria wrote that ancient Scripture influenced Greek philosophers. To communicate
their faith, Christians also related to Greek philosophy, especially Platonism and Stoicism. In
addition to immortality of soul, Plato taught that there was a higher world of truth, with a supreme
and perfect being. Stoicism dealt with the natural world with high morals.
Unity within Roman Empire brought general peace, good roads, means of travel.
Rome promoted syncretism (mixing multiple religions) and ultimately, emperor worship – both
sources of future trouble.
Church in Jerusalem
Church headquartered in Jerusalem after Pentecost; Christians empowered to witness and unite.
Friction between “Hebrews” (traditional Judeans) and “Hellenists” (Jews immersed in the Greek
culture) led to first deacons.
Stephen, a Hellenist Christian, was executed by Jewish council; Peter and John beaten and scolded,
illustrative of bias against Hellenists by the Judeans.
Hellenist Christians were the bridge to Gentile world.
Christians kept to Temple Sabbath and added worship on Sunday, “resurrection day.”
James, brother of Jesus, became head of Jerusalem church.
James, brother of John, was executed; Peter was arrested and escaped.
When Jewish nationalism arose in early 60’s, James, brother of Jesus, was also executed.
Scorned by both Jews and Romans, Jerusalem church moved to Pella and declined in importance.
Mission to Gentiles
Persecution in Jerusalem caused Hellenist Jewish Christians to scatter, spreading “Good News,”
mainly to Jews. When Peter went throughout Judea; his preaching led to the conversion of the
Roman centurion Cornelius, a Gentile. Later after Paul’s conversion experience and first missionary
journey in Asia Minor, he also reported success in attracting Gentiles to the faith.
The Jerusalem Council met around AD 50 and, under the leadership of Jesus’ brother James,
determined that Gentiles could join the church without becoming Jews.
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Paul typically would visit the synagogue in a town first, although often he would not be well
received. Paul’s approach was not that the Christian faith was a new religion to the Jews; it was the
fulfillment of the Messianic hope.
Although the ministries of Peter and Paul are remarkable, the Good News was frequently spread
through the witnessing by ordinary people.
Tradition says that both Peter and Paul were executed during the Neronic persecution of the 60’s.
First Conflicts with the State
The early Christians were Jews who believed that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah; He was the
fulfillment of their religion, not a new one.
The non-believing Jews viewed the Christians as a heretical sect. If God punished His people for
unfaithfulness, the “unfaithful” Christians should be removed to ease God’s wrath.
As long as the dispute did not get out of hand, the Romans stayed out of it.
Riots by Jews against Christians in Rome in AD 51 caused Emperor Claudius to expel them.
As Jewish nationalism increased and the percentage of Gentile Christians increased, Christians
distinguished themselves more, becoming a separate religion.
After Nero had been emperor for ten years, the famous fire of Rome occurred in AD 64. He blamed
the Christians, although it was widely felt that he was to blame.
Nero subjected the Christians to cruel tortures without pretense of justice, just for a whim. The
persecution was in Rome itself, not the rest of the Empire.
Nero was deposed in AD 68 and killed himself.
After years of relative peace, Domitian became emperor in AD 81. Since the Jewish temple had
been destroyed in AD 70, Domitian told the Jews to pay him the money they would have contributed
to the temple. He enacted harsh laws against the Jews to gain these tithes. There was no clear
distinction between Christians and Jews, so the Christians suffered as well. This persecution was in
Rome and parts of Asia Minor.
It was during the terror of Domitian that the book of Revelation was written in the early 90’s; the
hatred against the persecution by Domitian is scarcely veiled.
Domitian was murdered in AD 96, and few years of peace for the Christians ensued.
Persecution in Second Century
When the second century began, the Roman Emperor was Trajan, who ruled from AD 98 – 117. He
was an effective military leader and administrator who set policies for dealing with Christians. His
instructions by letter to Pliny II, governor of Bithynia, were not to seek Christians out. If they were
brought to him, however, and refused to recant their “illegal” faith, they were to be executed. This
was not a matter of justice; it was order and respect for the Roman system. Trajan was the first
emperor known to persecute Christians as fully distinct from the Jews.
One of those condemned to die during the reign of Trajan was Ignatius, the elderly bishop of
Antioch, one of the largest of the Christian church centers. Hearing that some Christians were
working to try to save him, he wrote letters to several leaders asking them to pray not that he be freed
but that he would have the strength to be a proper witness for Christ. The year was 107.
One of the letters from Ignatius went to the young bishop of Smyrna, Polycarp. In 155, the same
policies of Trajan were in effect, and the now elderly Polycarp was brought to trial as a Christian.
When asked to recant his faith, Polycarp said, “For eighty-six years I have served Him, and He has
done me no evil. How could I curse my King, Who saved me?” When the judge threatened him with
burning at the stake, Polycarp’s answer was that his fire would only last a moment, but the eternal
fire would burn forever. As the flames rose, Polycarp thanked God for deeming him worthy of
sharing the cup of Christ.
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Defense of Faith
Some of the problems facing Christians during the second century were due to rumors and
misunderstandings of Christian teaching and practice. They had weekly, private “love feasts,”
everyone (even a spouse) was called “brother” or “sister,” and they even talked about eating body
and blood. Detractors would say that they claim their God is omnipotent, yet Het cares about what
people are eating. Jesus was illegitimate and executed as a convicted criminal. If Jesus is powerful,
why did He die? Some of the complaints were that the Christians were anti-social; they refrained
from common activities where the pagan gods were included. They were generally poorer, so class
resentment was also a factor.
One of the more prominent “apologists” (defenders) of the Christian faith was Justin, a philosopher
who founded a school in Rome to teach Christianity in the middle of the 2nd century. The basic
misunderstandings about Christianity could be explained to anyone willing to listen; Justin also
defended the faith on philosophical levels.
Justin pointed to classical philosophers who shared some of the same ideas as the Christian faith.
Both Socrates and Plato spoke of a supreme being and of life after death. They believed in the
immortality of the soul; the Christians also believed in the life to come, but through the resurrection
of the body.
The Greeks had the concept of the Logos, meaning word and reason, the source of truth. Justin
pointed to the Fourth Gospel, that “the Word became flesh and lived among us.” (John 1:14) The
Word, which Socrates and Plato had seen dimly, had been fully revealed in Jesus Christ.
Justin and the other apologists of the day could also point to the relatively high moral standards of
the Christians; they should be followed, not persecuted. When Justin was called on to take a firm
stand for Christianity during the early reign of Marcus Aurelius (161- 180), he did so and was
executed. He is known to this day as Justin Martyr.
Challenges within the Faith
The early Christians came from varying backgrounds and had varying exposures to the faith. Not
surprisingly, they held varying ideas, some of which were troublesome.
In the Greek culture there was a movement called Gnosticism, and some Christians came from this
background. Gnosticism, from gnosis which means knowledge, implies that all matter is evil. All
humans are a spirit confined to a human body. A divine messenger brings to us the divine
knowledge necessary to unlock our confined spirits. For Christian Gnostics, Christ is the messenger,
but He could not be human, and therefore evil. In that sense, Gnostics agree with those called
“docetists” (from a word meaning “to seem”) in saying that Christ was not fully human.
A man called Marcion advanced another heretical understanding of Christianity. Since the world
was evil, the God who created it must not be perfect. The Father of the Christians, Who was not
responsible for the “evil” creation, sent His Son to save us from the evil world. Consequently,
Marcion rejected the Hebrew Bible, our Old Testament. Like the Gnostics, Marcionists radically
undercut the doctrines of creation, incarnation, and resurrection, so the church resisted them strongly.
One approach to combat the heretical teachings was to assemble the Scripture, the sacred writings, to
be added to the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible (Septuagint). By the end of the second century,
the “new testament” included the Gospels, Acts, and the Pauline epistles. The varied books brought
a consensus view to Christianity superior to a single writing.
Another development was what came to be known as the Apostles’ Creed. This Trinitarian
statement was used in church baptisms as a statement of belief. By stating faith in the “Almighty”
(over everything) Father, and detailing the birth, death, and resurrection of the Son of God, the
distinction between a good spiritual world and an evil physical world is rejected.
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The Teachers of the Church
In addressing the heretical movements, the church needed a broader statement of faith. Several men
in the second century published such views. Clement of Alexandria showed similarities between
Christianity and the classical philosophers. Tertullian of Carthage, who wrote in Latin, strongly
defended church orthodoxy against “heretics.” Origen of Alexandria affirmed the basics but
speculated on both a spiritual and physical creation.
Irenaeus of Lyons, a pastor who became a bishop, was interested not in philosophical speculation but
rather in leading his flock in Christian living. Iranaeus taught that God was like a loving Shepherd
Who created the world and humankind to love and lead. The human is a free and responsible being,
capable of being increasingly conformed to divine will and nature. Humankind is to be instructed by
the “two hands” of God: the Word and the Holy Spirit. Jesus the Son did not come in response to the
sin in the world; His coming was part of God’s redemptive plan from the beginning. Led by Christ
through the church, mankind will continue to grow into a greater communion with this loving God.
Persecution in the Third Century
Because of external threats to the empire, there was less interest in persecuting Christians at the end
of the second century until Septimus Severus ascended the throne in 193. He decided to unify the
various dissident groups within the empire by promoting syncretism, the acceptance of multiple
gods, into a pantheon of gods headed by Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun. Both Jews and
Christians resisted, and many were executed. One of the martyrs was the teacher Irenaeus.
Persecution waned after Severus until Decius took the throne in 249. Decius was convinced that the
difficulties facing the empire were compounded because the Romans had not been faithful to their
gods. All were required to worship the Roman gods or be deemed outlaws. Decius was not
interested in creating martyrs, so the “guilty” would be persuaded through torture until they obeyed
the law. The teacher Origen was tortured this way to the point of death.
When Decius left the throne after two years and the torture ceased, the church was faced with a new
problem: how to accept those who had been unfaithful back into the church, particularly those in
leadership. With church leadership positions at dispute, factions within the church used the situation
to promote their candidate for the post. There were schisms which sometimes took a long period to
resolve through the use of councils. At one point, there were two popes!
The Great Persecution and Final Victory
The broadest and most intense persecution faced by the Christians occurred when Diocletian became
emperor in 284. The empire was divided into sections led by officers with varying levels of contempt
for Christians. One, Galerius, had Christians removed from the army lest they be disloyal to their
leaders. As you might expect, some army leaders tried to “convince” their men to renounce their
Christian faith.
Diocletian ultimately decided that the Christians were conspiring against him, so widespread
persecution ensued. When Diocletian became ill, he abdicated in favor of Galerius, who continued
the persecutions until he became seriously ill in 311 and changed his policies. The situation became
chaotic with multiple contenders to take the throne, each of whom had varying levels of interest in
continuing the persecution. Civil war broke out. The final battle for the western part of the empire
was between Constantine and Maxentius.
On the eve of the battle, Constantine had a vision of his men with a Christian symbol on their shields
and the words “In this sign you will conquer.” Constantine complied with the vision, and his army
defeated Maxentius and his forces. After an alliance with one of his rivals to the east, Constantine
issued the Edict of Milan in 313, and persecution of Christians came to a halt.
The Christian movement had grown from a few Jews in Jerusalem to a force within the Roman
Empire. It had gone from a scourge which emperors had tried to eradicate to a religion which the
emperor was now supporting.
And the changes were just beginning. The thing that does not change is for Christians then and now,
no matter what the tribulation, “In this sign you will conquer!”
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