Reading: A Look at the Early Church

FOUNDATIONS OF OUR FAITH: A LOOK AT THE EARLY CHURCH

HAVE YOU EVER noticed that the Bible gives us no clue as to what Jesus looked like? All our paintings of Jesus are merely the artist’s idea of how he might have looked. The first representation of Christ on record is actually a derisive graffiti on the wall of a house on the Palatine Hill in Rome. It pictured the body of a man being crucified but with the head of an ass. The inscription reads: “Alexamenos worships his god.”

From the time of Nero (64 A.D.) until the conversion of Emperor Constantine and the Edict of Milan (313 A.D.), whereby Christianity was made legal, the Christian faith was officially regarded as a religio prava, an evil or depraved religion.

Jewish Roots

Christianity began as a movement within Judaism. Much of the earliest proclamation of the Gospel took place in the synagogues. The Christians did not side with the Jews in their revolt against Rome beginning in 66 A.D., and by the end of the first century the church had largely separated from the synagogue.

When a “church” wasn’t a building
These early believers did not have church buildings to meet in. They met mostly in homes. The first church buildings did not start to appear until the early 200s.

Debate but not denominations
The early church did not have denominations as we think of them today. But that does not mean they had no serious dis-agreements within the ranks. They did. And they did not find this surprising. They felt they were dealing with matters of ultimate truth and error— matters to be taken with the utmost seriousness even when it meant dissension.

Persecution
The early Christians were the targets of repeated persecutions— some of unspeakable cruelty. For example, the emperor Nero blamed the Christians for the great fire that destroyed 10 of the 14 city wards at Rome in 64 A.D., a fire that Nero apparently had ordered himself. The historian Tacitus, not a Christian, said that Nero had the believers “torn by dogs, nailed to crosses, . . . even used as human torches to illumine his gar-dens at night.”

But Christians were not under persecution everywhere and all the time. The persecutions were sporadic, with peaceful inter-vals in between. They varied in their intensity and were mostly localized.

Just Get the Certificate!

There were two all-out empire-wide persecutions intended to utterly destroy the church. The first, under the emperor Decius, began in December, 249. Everyone in the empire had to get a certificate from a government officer verifying that he or she had offered a sacrifice to the gods—an act that most Christians in good conscience could not do.

The second, called “The Great Persecution,” began on February 23, 303, under Emperor Diocletian. Galerius, the empire’s second¬in-command, was behind this persecution policy and continued it after Diocletian’s death. For eight long years, official decrees ordered Christians out of public office, scriptures confiscated, church buildings destroyed, leaders arrested, and pagan sacrifices required. All the reliable methods of torture were mercilessly employed—wild beasts, burning, stabbing, crucifixion, the rack. But they were all to no avail. The penetration of the faith across the empire was so pervasive that the church could not be intimidated nor destroyed. In 311, the same Galerius, shortly before his death, weak and diseased, issued an “edict of toleration.” This included the statement that it was the duty of Christians “to pray to their god for our good estate.”

Baptism
The Christian writer Hippolytus, writing about 200 A.D., describes baptism at Rome. Candidates took off their clothing, were baptized three times after renouncing Satan and affirming the basic teachings of the Baptism was not entered into lightly. First one went through an extensive period of preparation as a “catachumen.” This lasted as long as three years, involving close scrutiny of the catachumen’s behavior. The church would only admit those who proved to be sincere in seeking a totally new life within the Christian community.

Stats
Researcher David Barrett reports that by the year 300, or nine generations after Christ, the world was 10.4% Christian with 66.4% of believers Non-whites. The scriptures had been translated into ten languages. More than 410,000, representing one in every 200 believers from the time of Christ, had given their lives as martyrs for the faith.

Slave Makes Good!
Christians drew members into their fellowship from every rank and race, an affront to proper, class-conscious Romans. A former slave who had worked the mines actually became the bishop of Rome—Callistus in 217.

“Send me your letters and gifts”
Misusing the Gospel for financial gain is by no means the invention of 20th-century religious hucksters. One of the earliest Christian documents after the New Testament, “The Didache,” a kind of manual on church practice, warns about traveling preachers who come and ask for money. The satirist Lucian in the second century ridiculed Christians for being so easily taken in by charlatans, often giving them money. Lucian recorded the notorious case of the philosopher Peregrinus, who attracted a devoted following among Christians (and a lot of money) before he was found out. The showman instincts of Peregrinus reached their climax when he died by publicly cremating himself at the close of the Olympic games in 165.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE TWELVE APOSTLES??

THEY WERE NOT the kind of group you might have expected Jesus to send forth on his mission to reach the world. There was nothing special or spectacular about them. They were just ordinary working men. But Jesus formed them into the backbone of the church and gave them the most extraordinary task imaginable: calling the entire world, including the mightiest empire ever known, to repentance and faith in the risen Christ. You can be sure that any educated, first-century Roman citizen would have laughed at any prediction that within three centuries the Christian faith would be the official faith of the empire.

The New Testament tells of the fate of only two of the apostles: Judas, who betrayed Jesus and then went out and hanged himself, and James the son of Zebedee, who was executed by Herod about 44 A.D. (Acts 12:2).

Into All The World
Reports and legends abound and they are not always reliable, but it is safe to say that the apostles went far and wide as heralds of the message of the risen Christ. An early legend says they cast lots and divided up the world to determine who would go where, so all could hear about Jesus. They suffered greatly for their faith and in most cases met violent deaths on account of their bold witness.

PETER and PAUL were both martyred in Rome about 66 A.D., during the persecution under Emperor Nero. Paul was beheaded. Peter was crucified, upside down at his request, since he did not feel he was worthy to die in the same manner as his Lord.

ANDREW went to the “land of the man-eaters,” in what is now the Soviet Union. Christians there claim him as the first to bring the gospel to their land. He also preached in Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey, and in Greece, where he is said to have been crucified.

“Doubting” THOMAS was probably most active in the area east of Syria. Tradition has him preaching as far east as India, where the ancient Marthoma Christians revere him as their founder. They claim that he died there when pierced through with the spears of four soldiers.

PHILIP possibly had a powerful ministry in Carthage in North Africa and then in Asia Minor, where he converted the wife of a Roman proconsul. In retaliation the pro-consul had Philip arrested and cruelly put to death.

MATTHEW, the tax collector and writer of a Gospel, ministered in Persia and Ethiopia. Some of the oldest reports say he was not martyred, while others say he was stabbed to death in Ethiopia.

BARTHOLOMEW had widespread missionary travels attributed to him by tradition: to India with Thomas, back to Armenia, and also to Ethiopia and Southern Arabia. There are various accounts of how he met his death as a martyr for the gospel.

JAMES, the son of Alpheus, is one of at least three Jameses referred to in the New Testament. There is some confusion as to which is which, but this James is reckoned to have ministered in Syria. The Jewish historian Josephus reported that he was stoned and then clubbed to death.

SIMON THE ZEALOT, so the story goes, ministered in Persia and was killed after refusing to sacrifice to the sun god.

MATTHIAS was the apostle chosen to replace Judas. Tradition sends him to Syria with Andrew and to death by burning.

JOHN is the only one of the company generally thought to have died a natural death from old age. He was the leader of the church in the Ephesus area and is said to have taken care of Mary the mother of Jesus in his home. During Domitian’s persecution in the middle 90’s, he was exiled to the island of Patmos. There he is credited with writing the last book of the New Testa-ment—the Revelation. An early Latin tradition has him escaping unhurt after being cast into boiling oil at Rome.

For Pete’s sake

The names of Jesus’ apostles have become the most common names for males in the Western world. How many do you know named John, Pete, Tom, Andy, Jim, Bart or Phil?

None of the apostles were called from the priesthood or the “professional clergy” of Jesus day.

At least four of the apostles were fishermen. Can this be part of the reason that one of the earliest and most prominent Christian symbols was the fish? The Greek word for fish, ichthus, formed an acrostic: Iesous Christos Theou Uios Soter, which means “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.”

After the death of the apostles, we do not find great missionary figures of the stature of Paul. Yet the faith continued to spread like wildfire—even though Christianity was declared an illegal religion.

THEY WENT IN EVERY DIRECTION AS HUMBLE MESSENGERS
The Apostles took The Gospel throughout the Roman Empire and even beyond its borders. Most met violent deaths because of their message of "Good News."

AGAINST ALL ODDS: THE SPREAD OF THE EARLY CHURCH

HOW did the early Christian church survive?  Humanly speaking, the odds were all stacked against it. It was unthinkable that a small, despised movement from a corner of Palestine could move out to become the dominant faith of the mighty Roman Empire, an empire steeped in fiercely defended traditional pagan religions.

The spread of the Christian church in its earliest centuries is one of the most amazing phenomena in all of human history.  The church was considered a religio prava, an illegal and depraved religion. Wave after wave of persecution was unleashed to squash it.  At least two of the persecutions were empire-wide and intended to destroy the church.  So how did this young fledgling movement make it?

More than a building

The earliest Christians did not have church buildings.  They typically met in homes. (The first actual church building to be found is at Dura Europos on the Euphrates, dating about  231.)  They did not have public ceremonies that would introduce them to the public.  They had no access to the mass media of their day.  So how can we account for their steady and diverse expansion over the first three centuries?

After the Apostle Paul, we do not run across many “big names” as missionaries in the first few hundred years of Christian history. Instead the faith spread through a multitude of humble, ordinary believers whose names have been long forgotten.

To the cities!

Early Christianity was primarily an urban faith, establishing itself in the city centers of the Roman Empire. Most of the people lived close together in crowded tenements.  There were few secrets in such a setting.   The faith spread as neighbors saw the lives of the believers close-up, on a daily basis.

And what kind of lives did they lead?  Justin Martyr, a noted early Christian theologian, wrote to Emperor Antoninus Pius and described the believers:  “We formerly rejoiced in uncleanness of life, but now love only chastity; before we used the magic arts, but now dedicate ourselves to the true and unbegotten God; before we loved money and possessions more than anything, but now we share what we have and to everyone who is in need; before we hated one another and killed one another and would not eat with those of another race, but now since the manifestation of Christ, we have come to a common life and pray for our enemies and try to win over those who hate us without just cause.”

In another place Justin points out how those opposed to Christianity were sometimes won over as they saw the consistency in the lives of believers, noting their extraordinary forbearance when cheated, and their honesty in business dealings.

Care and Prayer

Christians became known as those who cared for the sick. Many were known for the healings that resulted from their prayers. Christians perhaps also started the first “Meals on Wheels.” By the year 250, they were feeding more than 1500 of the hungry and destitute in Rome every day.

When Emperor Julian (“the Apostate”) wanted to revive pagan religion in the mid¬300s, he gave a most helpful insight into how the church spread. This opponent of the faith said that Christianity “has been specially advanced through the loving service rendered to strangers and through their care of the burial of the dead. It is a scandal that there is not a single Jew who is a beggar and that the [Christians] care not only for their own poor but for ours as well; while those who belong to us look in vain for the help we should render them.”

On the surface, the early Christians appeared powerless and weak, they were an they became separated from their first century association with the Jewish synagogues, they lacked that institutional setting and ancient tradition to appeal to.

But what finally mattered is what they did have. They had a faith. They had a fellowship. They had a new way of life. They had a confidence that their Lord was alive in heaven and guiding their daily lives. These were the important things. And it made all the difference in laying a Christian foundation for all of Western civilization.

In many ways the spread of Christianity in our present generation is as amazing as in the first three centuries. For example, over the past 40 years the church under the communist regime in China has multiplied many times over. Despite official opposition, they have developed a rapidly spreading network of house churches that is reminiscent of the early church. This success is mirrored in many other places around the globe.

“Our Father”

Perhaps we can better understand the remarkable spread of the faith by remembering what a jolt it must have been to the Roman world for the early Christians to come teaching about God as "Our Father." In that world, people felt, like so many do today, they were at the mercy of fate, victims of chance, dependent on luck, their destiny determined by blind astrological forces. By contrast, Christian believers witnessed to a personal God who could be approached as “our Father.” This radical idea liberated those who were captive to fatalistic resignation.

ACCUSATIONS

 “BEHOLD how they love one another.” This was a hallmark of the early Christians. Yet these same believers were the object of repeated persecutions and oppression for almost the first 300 years. Why were the believers so hated in the Roman Empire? What were they guilty of? What were the charges against them?

1. Cannibalism. The Roman world could not understand the communion or Eucha-rist. They heard references to “partaking of the Lord’s body” and assumed there was cannibalism going on behind closed doors. This accusation didn’t last long, as the Christians were able to show that it was bread and wine—not human flesh—they were using.

2. Disruption of business. Guilty as charged. In some places the growth of the church hurt the income of the pagan religions by curtailing their sale of animals and sacrificial meat. (See also the disruption caused in Acts 19:21ff.)

3. Gross immorality including incest. The believers called each other “brother” and “sister” and professed love for one another. The pagans assumed this had to involve lust and immorality. The exemplary lives of Christians eventually put this accusation to rest.

4. Anti-Family. There was an element of truth in this charge. When one became a believer, he or she was welcomed into the family of Christ. This new family became the Christian’s deepest commitment. The new faith also typically made believers better family members than they had been before. But when a conflict came up between their natural family and the family of Christ, first loyalty was to Christ.

5. Poverty. Christians were ridiculed by the pagans because so many of their number were poor. Their god was not all that good, the pagans figured, if he didn’t care that they were poor. And he wasn’t all that great if he didn’t do anything about it. The Christians countered that there were advantages to “traveling light.” Wealth could become a snare, and, besides, they were rich in what counted most in life. They somehow not only managed to find enough to get by, but were even able to share with others in need out of their meager resources.

6. Atheism. The Roman world had a multitude of gods, and statues all around to represent them. Christians insisted there was only one true God, invisible in the heavens, and they refused to honor the Roman gods. Thus the Romans considered them atheists.

7. Novelty. The Roman world honored tradition and the ancient religions were revered because they were old. Christianity was accused of being a new upstart. Traditional Romans feared that converts were merely seduced by the novelty of this new faith. Christians countered that they were heirs of Judaism, an ancient faith the Romans recognized. Besides that, the Christians claimed they were the most ancient faith of all—they worshiped the God who existed before creation.

8. Lack of Patriotism. There was no distinction between church and state in the Roman Empire. All civic festivals were religious.

9. Anti-social behavior. This was related to the charge above, since the Christians would not participate in the civic festivals nor involve themselves in what they considered immoral behavior. Many Ro-mans resented their independence and their conviction that they were “in the world but not of the world.” So Christians were often scorned and charged with anti-social behavior.

10. Cause of Disasters. Because the Christians would not honor the Roman religions and gods, when flood, famine, or disaster came, it was assumed that the Christians were the cause. The gods were sending punishment, many Romans figured, because of the Christians’ atheism. This charge played a large role in the notable persecution at Lyons in 177 under Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Satirizing the prevailing view, the church father Tertullian put it this way: “If the Tiber reaches the walls, if the Nile does not rise to the fields, if the sky doesn’t move or the earth does, if there is famine, if there is plague, the cry is at once: The Christians to the lion.”

Yes, A Real Threat

As you see, the Romans perceived the Christians as a threat. That is why they had so many accusations. While many of the charges were frivolous and false, the Romans were right in perceiving the threat. Christianity did pose a mortal danger to many of the most deeply held assumptions of the Roman world. In what ways does our present society see the church as a threat? What are their charges against us? Which are valid and which are not?