What Happened?

Originally written May, 2001

Over the past 2000 years, the institutional church has been birthed, persecuted, legalized, split, reformed, revived, challenged, and criticized. During this same period, the church has loved, hated, saved, killed, healed, & judged for the sake of its founder, Jesus Christ, who miraculously proclaimed the Kingdom of God through His life and who preached a message of humility and grace for the sake of a sinfully fallen world. For the first three centuries following His resurrection, the early church believers modeled their lives after His. In fact, most turned the other cheek and died for Him as Jesus had died for them. So how has the church found it right to point, judge, discriminate, hate and kill for Jesus’ sake? What happened?

‘Church’
The word ‘church’ is not a religious term that is common to other religions. It is a Christian term with roots found solely in Christianity. Its Greek definition implies those who are belonging to the Lord, those who are “called out”.¹ And we find the term first used in the New Testament when Jesus designated Peter, one of the apostles of Jesus, as the rock on which He would build His church. Furthermore, Jesus said that the gates of hell would not prevail against it.² Miraculously, this has proven true. Despite the great inadequacies of the church over history, it survives as a powerful light in a dark world. The church stands.

The Official Beginning
The church had its official beginning at an event we call Pentecost. Pentecost was likely late spring, around 30 AD and took place in Jerusalem, Israel, just days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The 120 followers of Jesus, who according to the Bible were commanded to wait in Jerusalem until they were empowered from on high, were gathered for prayer and fellowship when God showed up. The Bible says God’s Spirit descended on them with a noise like the rush of a mighty wind and with the appearance of tongues of fire. The people began to speak in the native language of pilgrims from 14 different countries and three thousand people instantly became committed followers of Jesus Christ.³ That was the official beginning of the church and it happened right in the heart of the Jewish religion, Judaism. In fact, Christianity is a movement from within Judaism.

Judaism
Judaism goes back a couple thousand years before the life of Jesus to a man called Abram or Abraham.⁴ According to the Bible, Abraham was a righteous man who believed in one true God as the creator and sustainer of all things. God personally called upon Abraham and told him he must leave his country and go to the land that God would show him.⁵ God said He would make him a great nation and that every man on earth would be blessed by him. That nation ultimately became the nation of Israel. And his people, through which all men on earth are blessed, are the Jewish people, God’s chosen. Jesus was a descendant of Abraham and a Jew. The Bible says that Jesus was the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham. It is through Jesus Christ that the Bible says all men on earth are blessed.⁶

The Early Church
The original church in Jerusalem was not a structure or building as many consider the church to be today. In fact, there were no church buildings until the 3rd and 4th centuries. Rather, the church was primarily made up of Jews who believed Jesus was the chosen Messiah and who lived in daily community with one another, eating together in their homes, teaching what Jesus taught, praying together, sharing possessions as needed, and doing miracles just like Jesus had done.⁷ They healed the sick, raised people from the dead, drove out demons and miraculously escaped trouble.⁸ Until the mid 40’s AD, this group was led by Peter and the other Galilean Jews who had been appointed by Jesus to be apostles.⁹

Persecution
And those believers faced brutal persecution by the religious and political leaders in authority. In fact, all of the apostles, with the exception of the Apostle John, are said to have been killed because of their faith. That is because in those days it was an offense to call Jesus Christ Lord. Nonetheless, the apostles boldly proclaimed faith in Christ while performing miracles in His name and ‘turning the other cheek’ when confronted with aggression. This did not change until the time when Constantine the Great became the Caesar of Rome in the 4th century and was converted to Christianity.¹⁰ Constantine’s Edict of Milan in 313 AD decreed freedom of religious belief and ended the severe persecution that had followed the church from its inception.¹¹

Early Growth
Despite the persecution, Christianity or ‘The Way’ as it was originally known, spread rapidly.¹² By the end of the 4th century, the name of Christ was spread to every province and every city of the Roman Empire and beyond. And Rome, at that time in history, was the center of the worlds political power and a so-called headquarters for the church. However, as Christianity became the official religion of the empire, something changed. Although Christians now had the time and freedom to worship, study the scriptures, and to build churches, they became complacent. The miraculousness that characterized the original believers was being replaced by the mundane. It became more popular to claim faith in Christ than to actually follow Him. Sadly, the church became persecutors of those who did not claim faith in Jesus.

Knights In Shining Armor
The period from 500-1500 AD is called the middle ages or medieval age.¹³ This was the time of the knights in shining armor, although some simply refer to it as the dark ages. Its rise corresponded with the decline of Roman civilization. No longer was power centralized in Rome, as it had been for hundreds of years. Power was now decentralized to new “independent” states. Interestingly this allowed the church to play an even more prominent role in society. In fact, because there was no more ‘empire’, in some areas church membership became more important than national citizenship. Furthermore, the church developed two important authoritative traditions. One emphasized the role of the Bible as the foundation for faith and study. People trusted the Bible as the authoritative word of God. However, by the conclusion of this period a second authority had been birthed. It was man-made tradition. In fact, by the time of the Renaissance, tradition had more authority than the Bible. The church was being transformed from a spiritual body with Jesus Christ at the head, to a religious structure with man at the helm.

Church Structure
In the early church there was no special priesthood or high authority, other than Jesus. The followers of Jesus ministered to the entire body of believers and were not necessarily identified clergy or church leadership. They were the common folk, the laity, as they are called. However, during the first three centuries structure was introduced to the church. Three offices emerged that became the major offices of the church. They were the bishops, the deacons and the elders or priests.¹⁴ And in this new heirarchy, the bishop was put at its head. Furthermore, the role of bishop was defined as an ‘overseer’, someone who was humble, gentle, self-controlled, respectable, having a good reputation, and generally speaking, living an honorable life.¹⁵ The early church “tradition” established Peter as the first Bishop of Rome. Later church tradition established Peter as the first Pope as well.

The Pope
The office of the pope developed over several centuries. Its name, however can be traced back to the third century to designate the office of the overseer or bishop.¹⁶ In other words ‘pope’ was synonomous with ‘bishop’. Furthermore, prior to Constantine, from the death of Peter until his reign in 313 AD many of the popes acted like the aformentioned overseers. In fact, the first 18 bishops or pope’s all died violent deaths while following Christ and proclaiming His Lordship. Following Constantine’s reign however, the office of the Pope seemed to become more authoritative than in previous years. It was Pope Leo the Great, Bishop of Rome from 440 – 461 AD who first taught his successors on the Roman papacy while declaring himself to be ‘the primate of all the bishops, the Apostle’s embodiment.’¹⁷ This may have been the time when the Pope became a primary figure, religiously and politically.¹⁸ And although there have been great Popes such as Gregory the Great, the power of the Pope gradually was misused.¹⁹

The Inquisition
As a result of the abuses of power that had developed, the Eastern Orthodox church split from the Roman Catholic or “universal” church in 1054 AD.²⁰ Furthermore, these abuses brought out the likes of John Wyclif, a biblical scholar and professor at Oxford University. Through his study of the Bible he came to believe that people ought to imitate Christ and be servants. Moreover, he believed the Bible should be in the hands of all the people, not just the church leaders. Thus he began to translate it from Latin into English.²¹ Because of his views, Wyclif came under attack by the church in 1377 and was eventually arrested, as were hundreds of others who offended the church. In fact, many were burned at the stake because of accusations against the church in what was called the ‘Inquisition’.²² The Inquisition was a church court formed to judge the intentions and actions of supposed critics of the church. It represented the return of persecution to the church. This time however, it was directed at their own followers.

The Crusades
The Crusades were the eight major and many more minor Christian military & religious expeditions carried out by Christians beginning in 1096 AD and ending in 1270 AD.²³ All occasioned by Islam’s breathtaking political and military success.²⁴ The Arab army swept seemingly everything in its path by military force.²⁵ The Crusades were the Christian response to this aggression and were justified as holy wars to recapture holy land from these foreign hands.²⁶ The first crusade took back Jerusalem by force in 1099 AD. This was the only militarily successful Crusade. All the others were military failures. However, in all cases their strategy was a total contradiction to the practice of the early church. From the time of Jesus until the time of Constantine, no writer of whom this author is aware, approved of or endorsed war. Christians turned the other cheek, going to their death, refusing to participate actively in killing of others, while boldly proclaiming faith in Christ.

Renaissance
Paralleling the unrest with the Pope was a world-wide renaissance of culture and learning. This was the time when Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), a Polish astronomer, and Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), an Italian physicist declared that the earth was not the center of the universe and that planets revolved around the sun, contradicting the early traditional Christian view that the earth was the center of the universe.²⁷ It was also during this time that French philosopher and mathematician Rene Descartes (1596-1650) formulated a new theory called “Rationalism”. These discoveries and theories, as well as others like it, challenged the previously held ‘accept all’ attitude regarding the Bible.²⁸ Therefore, on the one hand, there were those who were skeptical of the church’s abuse of power and, on the other hand, were those who were skeptical of the fundamentalist attitude of the Bible, as a history, geography, and science book.²⁹ The time was ripe for change and those who trusted in the Bible as the inspired word of God began to surface.

The Reformation
As a result the church split again. On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther, an obscure priest and professor at a German university nailed a paper to the door of the local church. It was made up of 95 propositions about which he wished to debate the church leaders. Although Luther was somewhat innocent in his intentions, he had identified and exposed severe abuses in the church. The church reacted harshly to his accusations and ultimately started what we call the ‘Reformation”. Its name reflects those who protested the Catholic Church in order to refocus or ‘reform’ the church back to its foundational roots.

Protestant Church
The movement that resulted from the reformation became titled ‘Protestant’, giving rise to a new branch of the church called the Protestant church.³⁰ At the core of the new faith were three major tenets which separated them from the Catholic Church. First, Protestants believed that the Bible was the inspired and authoritative word of God, standing over tradition. No man-made traditions were justified if they were not consistent with the Bible. Second, these reformers believed that they were justified by faith in Christ alone. In other words, there is nothing people can do to ‘earn’ salvation, one must simply accept it as an act of faith. Good works are a result of a right relationship with God, not a way of achieving one. Finally, Reformers believed that God calls all of us to serve Him as ministers in the family of faith. We must all study, read and obey the Bible and live our lives in honor to God and service of one another. This is not something left to the clergy or ‘professionals’ of the church.³¹ These tenets continue to differentiate the Protestant faith from the Catholic Church even today.

Conclusion
From the resurrection of Jesus until the Reformation, the church was metamorphasized. In the beginning those who made up the church met in their own homes and followed Jesus’ teachings.³² They proclaimed the good news of the Kingdom of God, healed the sick, raised people from the dead, cast out demons and loved one another as the greatest manifestation of God’s nature. They didn’t have any fancy buildings to claim as representations of their faith, they merely had faith in Jesus as their Messiah. And they gave up everything to follow Him, including their lives. However, as time passed, the church and state merged and Christianity became legalized. It became popular to be a Christian and the church became institutionalized. Although the church continued to help the poor and needy, the church often disregarded the words Jesus spoke to His disciples about the cost of following Him. The church began to rely on force as a compliment to faith and the miraculous was replaced by ‘enlightenment’. Those that believed Christianity was miraculous and more than a result of man’s power and control were persecuted just as Jesus had been hundreds of years earlier. In fact, some estimates say that 25 million people were killed because of there faith.³³ But no matter who tried to make Christianity a cultural idea, debasing its true meaning, there was a remnant of those who believed enough to give up their lives for the sake of its founder.³⁴ Because of them the church was refocused back to its original form, God’s gospel of grace expressed through His Son, Jesus Christ. As this period of history came to a close, the church was still made up of fallible human beings that continued to make mistakes. But the church remained a bright light in a very dark world, by those who truly believed. And that church still has nothing to do with church buildings.

End Notes

1. Presbyterian History and Government, EPC, by Dr. Andrew A. Jumper, pg. 2-3. The word church is derived form the Greek word kuriakos meaning “of or belonging to the Lord.” However, the word primarily used in the New Testament to describe the church is the Greek work ekklesia. Ekklesia is derived from a combination of ek, meaning “out”, and kaleia, meaning “to call.” So the primary Bible word for church is ekklesia, meaning “the ones who are called out.”
2. Matthew 16:18-19; “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”
3. Acts 2:1-13.
4. God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, meaning father of many nations, and he changed Sarai’s name to Sarah in Genesis 17:5ff.
5. Genesis 3.
6. See Genesis 12 for God’s promises to Abraham.
7. Acts 2:42-47.
8. Acts 8, 9, 12, 18 & 27.
9. There were 12 apostles, all chosen by Jesus. They were Peter, James, John, Andrew, Thomas, Philip, Thaddaeus, Matthew, Simon the Zealot, James son of Alphaeus, Bartholomew, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him (Mark 3:16). Most of Christ’s ministry was in Galilee. Galilee’s central city was Tiberias with about 400,000 people living there. It was a place of agriculture, fishing, & farming. There was a contrast between the Galilean Jews and the Jews from Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Jews were known to be cultured, cool, & calculating. The Galilean Jews were free spirits and very simple. The Jerusalem Jews considered them as fools. Jesus selected Galilean Jews as apostles. This caused problems with the original church since it was made up of both Jerusalem and Galilean Jews but overseen by Galileans.
10. Tim Dowley, The History of Christianity (Fortress, Minneapolis), pg. 139. According to history Constantine had a vision prior to a battle where he saw the message, “conquer by this” and the sign of the cross. As the story goes, he put his faith in Christ and the cross and was victorious.
11. Since 1st century there were 10 great persecutions: 1. The first was under Nero in 54-68AD, 2. The second was under Damissim in 81-96 AD, 3. The third was under Emperor Trajan in 98-117 AD, 4. The fourth was under Marcus Aurelius in 161-180 AD, 5. The fifth was under Septimius Severus in 193-211, 6. The sixth was under Maximinus Thrax in 235-237 AD, 7. The seventh was under Decius in 249-251 AD, 8. The eighth was under Valerian in 253-260, 9. The ninth under Arellium in 270-275, 10. The tenth was under Diocletion in 284-305. Garth Rosell, History of the church to the Reformation, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary Lecture 7 material.
12. Christianity spread from Jerusalem to Palestine and Samaria, Antioch, Asia Minor, Europe and to Rome itself. Acts 1:1 – 6:7, Acts 6:8 – Acts 9:31, Acts 9:32-12:24, Acts 12:25-16:5, Acts 16:6-19:20, Acts 19:20-28:31.
13. Kenneth Scott Latourette, A History Of Christianity – Volume II (Harper & Row, New York, 195371975), pgs. 269-277.
14. 1 Timothy chapter 3. Richardson, Early Christian Fathers [Touchstone, NY, 1996], pg. 36. Also mentioned on pg. 33. Clement of Alexandria’s letter testifies to this structure and is thought to have been written 96 AD. The terms Bishop and Presbyter are used interchangeably, suggesting no clear distinction between them at that time. Clement himself is thought to have been the third Bishop of the church in Rome. He was writing to the people in Corinth, the same church Paul wrote in his letter to the Corinthians. Another document, the Didache, also called the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, references the roles of bishops and deacons. It is thought to have been written in the second century. See Encyclopedia of World Religions, [Merriam-Webster, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1999], pg. 294. The letters of Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, also confirm the three basic officers of the church including the bishop at the top, presbyters or priests, apostles and deacons. This was written in 117 AD. In his letter he stresses obedience to the Church authorities. “In Ignatius…., the single bishop is the leading figure in the church.” “He seems to represent the localizing of the teaching, ruling, and prophetic functions of the original missionary ministry of apostles, prophets, and catechists.” See Richardson, pg. 95. Dowley, Tim, The History of Christianity [Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 1995, 1990, 1995], pg. 119. Should be noted that “By Ignatius’s time churches in Asia Minor were ruled by the ‘three-fold ministry’. This consisted of a single-bishop (Ignatius links his authority to that of the single God), a body of presbyters (patterned on the band of apostles) and several deacons (who ‘served’ as Christ did). This pattern became universal before the third century, though the churches of Rome and Greece had no single bishop in Ignatius’s day, nor did Alexandria until about AD 180.”
15. 1 Timothy 3:1-7.
16. New Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 11, [McGraw-Hill, New York, 1967], pg. 572. The word pope is derived from the Latin word papa, derived from the Greek word for father, pappas.
17. Don Nardo, The Rise of Christianity [Greenhaven Press, Inc., San Diego, CA, 1999], pg.118-119. Kelly, pg. 43.
18. Latourette, pg. 487. The Unam Sanctum declared by Pope Boniface VIII in 1299 that “it is altogether necessary to salvation for every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff.” Gregory VII (1073-1085) defined the Papal position to have “universal” authority. This was found in the twenty-seven affirmations in the Dictatus Papae. Encyclopedia of World Religions, [Merriam-Webster, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1999], pg. 506. 1231-1235 AD.
19. Brown, Peter, The Rise Of Western Christendom, [Blackwell Publishers, Cambridge, MA, 1988], pg. 133ff. Pope Gregory the Great increased the power of the Roman Church as the Germanic tribes had broken up the Empire and the tribes needed the Church for stability. Thus peace was found between the Lombards and Gregory which ultimately won him favor and distinction. See also Latourette, pg. 272-3.
20. Catholic means ‘universal’. Therefore the church was always the Catholic church until the church split. Protestant roots follow the Roman Catholic church, so we leave the Eastern Orthodox church here.
21. By 1382 half of the Bible was translated into english. When Wyclif died Nicholas Herferd took over translation and it was completed by John Purvey. The printing press was invented in 1450. This allowed the Bible to be printed in bulk. This put enormous pressure on the church to allow it into the masses, which they had outlawed.
22. Encyclopedia of World Religions, [Merriam-Webster, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1999], pg. 506. The Inquisition was established by Pope Gregory IX, who, from 1231-1235 AD sought out and even tortured supposed heretics of the church. The papal inquisition or trial gave those suspected of heresy a chance to confess and repent. The use of torture in order to obtain a confession was authorized by Innocent IV in 1252. See also The History Of Christianity, edited by Tim Dowley, pg. 321 & 345.
23. Latourette pgs. 408-415. The second crusade was occasioned by the capture of Odessa in 1144. This led to the 3rd Crusade to recapture Jerusalem. The fourth Crusade, in 1204, was at Constantinople. There was also a Childrens crusade of 1212 in between the 4th and 5th crusades. The church sent thousands of children (along with the army) to liberate Jerusalem. They didn’t think they would be attacked. They didn’t get farther than Italy before they were stopped. Many of the children were placed in slavery. In the 5th crusade they were defeated in Egypt. The 6th crusade brought defeat again in Jerusalem. The 7th and 8th crusades were directed by Louy IX in France. They both failed. The Crusades did not overthrow Islamic forces, they reinforced the power of Islamic force in those very areas. However, they spurred missionary activity through peace and love, rather than the sword. That was the only positive outcome, it refocused the church away from the use of force.
24. During these same centuries, in Mecca, a city in Arabia, there was a caravan trader named Mohammed who claimed to have special revelations by God. He taught that God, who was called Allah, had manifested himself in great religious figures in past, including Jesus, but God’s greatest manifestation was to Mohammed. In 622 AD Mohammed was expelled from Mecca and he died in 632 AD. His death was seen by many as an event called Hegira, which is normally thought to be the starting point of Islamic faith. Islam used force to spread its doctrine.
25. Damascus fell in 635, Jerusalem in 638, and Alexandria in 643. Islam swept through Europe and the Mediterranean world as well.
26. Latourette 408-415. Many people believe in the policy of “Just War”. Many of these criterion were taken from the Old Testament (book of Joshua) Holy War definition which was as follows; 1. No standing army, 2. no pay for soldiers, 3. no spoil/plunder, 4. only for conquest/defense of Promised Land, 5. only at Yahweh’s call, 6. only through a prophet, 7. Yahweh does the fighting, 8. Religious undertaking (fasting/self-denial), 9. total annihilation of the enemy, 10. violator becomes enemy, 11. exceptions/mutations possible (DT 20:10-15).This was a policy that was encouraged by Augustine, a fluent writer on theology and a bishop, in the 5th century. Here are the major tenets of Augustine’s Just War policy; 1. To vindicate justice. Those wars are just that avenge injuries. 2. It must be just in its very disposition. 3. It must be waged only under the authority of a ruler. When Jesus took the sword from Peter, that was condemning private warfare. The ruler causes for war, then soldiers, including Christians can participate, according to this policy. 4. The conduct of the war itself must be just. The war must be conducted properly. Furthermore, clergy were not to engage in warfare at all. 5. Particpants must enter war in mournful mood, rather than with joy and thanksgiving. It must be recognized that war is always a tragedy and it must be avoided if at all possible.
27. Tim Dowley, pgs. 485.
28. Professor Edward Hull, Wall chart of world history, (London: Barnes & Noble, 1989). Also Newsweek, July 20, 1998, Science Finds God, pg. 46ff.
29. The fundamentalists believed the Bible was something it was not (a history, science, and geography book), and the modernists believed that the Bible was supposed to be thought of as a history, science, and geography book. As a result of the fundamentalist misunderstanding, the modernists tossed out the entire Bible. The truth is the Bible is a book about salvation. Although it is full of history & geography, it is not a history or geography book. And it certainly is not a science book! The Bible must be taken into context just like any written language. Many people still have this misunderstanding of what the Bible really is all about and they base their faith on it. Although the fundamentalist / modernist movement is noted historically as a late 19th and early 20th century event, I believe its roots can be traced all the way back to the early church.
30. Dowley, pgs. 367. Luther criticized, among other things, what the church called “indulgences”. Indulgences were sold by the church for money to reduce someone’s time in a place called ‘purgatory’. Purgatory is an interim place that the Catholic Church believes all Catholics ascend before entering Heaven. Its idea appears as part of the Roman Catholic Scriptures found in Second Maccabbees 12:39-45. The church was teaching that the believer had to be cleansed of their sins before reaching heaven. It became generally believed that an indulgence would shorten time in purgatory. So the church sold indulgences. Luther felt this holy trade of indulgences was fundamentally unwarranted in scripture, particularly since many of the church leaders were getting wealthy at the expense of innocent believers. The name reformation was used because the protesters believed the innovations of the Catholic Church needed to be reformed back to the early church practices. The name protestant came about because the reformers protested the Catholic Church.
31. Dowley, pgs. 366ff.
32. Matthew 28:19.
33. House Church: A Bible Study by Dr. Victor Choudhrie.
34. In the Bible God has always worked the same way. He choses a remnant of His people and works miracles through them. He did this in the OT (Isa 6:11-13) and still does it today.

“Hardcopy’s available upon request at tawheeler@truevine.net“

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