Video Transcript: Transition

The Trial and Testimony of the Early Church

PROGRAM 6: TRANSITION

STEVE: It was one of those events that would help shape the future for centuries to come. The month: October. The year: 312. Constantine is preparing for battle. The stakes are high. Who will control the Roman Empire? Constantine pauses to pray. Suddenly, he has a vision. He sees the sign of the cross and the words, “In this sign you will win.” He accepted the vision. He adopted the sign. He had the cross inscribed on his soldiers armor. He went into battle and he conquered. The momentous battle took place at the Milvian Bridge at Rome. After this battle, the church would never be the same. It is safe to say, the world would never be the same either.

Hello, I’m Steve Bell at the Sea of Galilee in the Holy Land, and this is the final chapter in our six part series. In previous programs, we have looked at Christianity through its stormy and unpredictable early centuries. We have seen: the foundation— Christ, his apostles, and the great last apostle, Paul; the spread of the faith throughout the far reaches of the Roman Empire over its first 300 years; the accusations brought against the Christians by the pagans; the outbursts of persecu-tion that threatened to wipe the young and fragile movement; and the testimonies of those who stood fast, willing to pay with their lives, who gave such strength and courage to the community of believers.

The last persecution, called the Great Persecution, was carried out by the Emperor Diocletian and his co-rulers. It was the worst and most savage of all. It was a desperate effort by paganism to reassert itself and to drive back the steadily expanding presence and power of Christianity.

Paganism did not prevail. Christianity had established deep roots in the heart, mind, and life of the empire. A transition began that is foundational to our modern world. To describe what happened let’s go to my colleagues Russell, Nigel and Jane above Neumagen, near Trier in West Germany.

NIGEL: Constantine and his troops were marching on Rome from the west to do battle with his opponent, another would be emperor, Maxentius. It was before they engaged in battle that Constantine had his vision.

JANE: It has been traditionally thought that Constantine had his vision just before the battle outside Rome. We have two accounts of his vision. One is by Lactantius. The other is by Eusebius. Lactantius said that the vision took place the night before the battle. If that is the case, it would have to have had to take place near Rome. But the Eusebius account is based on a first-hand conversation with Constantine, who swore to him that he truly had had the vision. Eusebius places the vision after they left Trier.

RUSSELL: This would have been the first natural stopping point for his troops, about one day’s march from Trier.

NIGEL: And this is the only place with a tradition. There are no other places with claims as the site of the vision.

JANE: Psychologically, it would make sense that the vision occurred here. Con-stantine loved Trier. He even built a palace here.

 

RUSSELL: Constantine preferred Trier to Rome. He spent his summer vacations here. So it’s very possible that the vision occurred here on that autumn day in this lonely spot near Trier.

NIGEL: After the vision, he moved confidently to Rome and the decisive battle under the sign of the cross.

RUSSELL: This is a commemorative cross, placed here by the local people, and the inscription: “In this sign you will conquer. Good Christian, do not pass the spot without recognizing Jesus Christ our redeemer. Praise be to Jesus Christ forever and ever. Amen.”

STEVE: Thus, Constantine effectively consolidated his hold on imperial power and determined to make Christianity his own religion and, eventually, the religion of the empire.

CARSTEN THIEDE: There are people who think that Constantine was about the worst thing that could have happened to Christianity. It took the church on its way towards a state church, an institution, with all that went with it.

STEVE: It didn’t happen all at once, of course. But with Constantine the church moved in a dramatic new direction. Christianity had prevailed. And the more the political power of the empire waned, the more the church became the stabilizing and unifying source for Roman society. It outlasted the empire, and in a sense it replaced it.

But it remains for us in this program to ask: "Why did the church succeed? What did it have to offer?” No thinking person at the beginning of this era would have given it the slightest chance of prevailing. Recall how Jesus himself had only three years of public ministry, and his message was confined to a small remote area of the empire. In the process Jesus made no discoverable impact outside of Judaism, and within Judaism he managed to alienate the two most important groups in power. So Christian believers have always credited the providence of God and the presence             of the Holy Spirit as the explanation for their survival and growth.           

Of course, famous historians have set forth other reasons.  Gibbon gave these: intolerant zeal; threat of Hell; miracles and exorcisms; sober lives; church government. Each viewer will, of course, have to draw his or her own conclusions, but there are some other characteristics of early Christianity that would be essential to take into account. This is far from a complete list but it covers some of the prominent aspects       that the latest research would support:  promise of eternal life; simple message;              universal appeal; close knit community; concern for others; and the person of Christ…           

1. The promise of eternal life     

JANE:  No series on early Christianity would be complete without a visit to the catacombs.          

RUSSELL: So often we’re told that the catacombs are a symbol of the early church. And it is still a popular idea that Christians met here to worship, pray, and to hide for their lives. That is really a misconception. The believers dug out these catacombs to bury their dead. They are cemeteries. But what’s important is that, as a place for the dead, they so strongly symbolize life.           

NIGEL: They are an artistic expression of tunnels with biblical symbols depicting the gatherings of early Christians.               

JANE: The Christians made a lot out of death. The early churches were formed as burial societies, and the Romans permitted this. Whereas it was not uncommon for the Romans to burn their dead, the Christians were careful to provide a dignified burial and respect for the dead. For to the believer, death was not the end but the  doorway to life.

NIGEL: The martyrs were especially honored. Their deaths were commemorated. These memorials were held in subterranean tunnels.  

RUSSELL:  The dead were treated with such respect and their bodily remains lovingly cared for because of the Christian belief in the resurrection of the body. Just as Christ had been raised from the dead, so, they taught, his followers would also be raised and given new bodies and the gift of eternal life.              

RUSSELL: The idea of the bodily resurrection was generally quite distasteful to the surrounding society, but it offered hope and solace to many.  It was one of the definite promises given to new converts. NIGEL: This also illustrates how the Christians valued not only the spiritual but the material world as well. Creation was from God.          

JANE: Yes, creation was from God, and re-creation and resurrection of the body were also from God.

2. A simple message.

STEVE: The message that the Christians spread was on the one hand very complex and profound. The best minds of the church in the early centuries worked hard to show how the Gospel caught up the deepest and best from respected philosophers of previous ages, but they also argued that the Gospel went far beyond these philosophers to show the God who had revealed himself.

The job of clarifying and developing the ramifications of the faith has continued to occupy scholars ever since. One could not even begin to master in one lifetime all of the books that have been written just about Jesus.

But the communication of the faith to early church inquirers was done in simple terms that could be grasped by anyone, no matter how uneducated. The substance of that message was capsulized so well by the renowned Harvard historian Arthur Darby Nock more than 50 years ago:

STEVE: Christianity said, “You are in your sins, a state inevitable for you and aggravated by your willfulness. No action of yours will enable you to make a new start. No effort of yours will enable you to put aside your guilt in God’s eyes, and you are doomed to endless suffering hereafter. So turn to us. Stake everything on Jesus the Christ being your Savior, and God will give to you the privilege of making a new start as a new being, and will bestow upon you grace which will enable you so to live here as to obtain a share in the life of the world to come. By using our sacraments, you will here and now triumph over death and will have a foretaste of the joys that await you in heaven. Christ became man so that you may become as God.”

In language understandable to any age level, these basic teachings put Christianity within reach of all those prepared to listen and believe.

3. Universal appeal

STEVE: In the tenth chapter of the New Testament book of Acts, the apostle Peter had an amazing vision. It occurred on the rooftop of one Simon the tanner, here in the city of Joppa, on the west coast of modern day Israel, overlooking the Mediterranean. In fact, where I am standing right now is believed by many to be the actual location.

Incidentally, it is quite interesting that Peter would choose to stay with someone who tanned animal hides. It was a process that gave off a notoriously bad odor. Peter’s vision represents an important landmark in Christian outreach because it shattered beliefs about religious separation that he held as a first-century Jew. After the vision, Peter exclaimed: “God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean . . . but anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”

NIGEL: So now, related to the simplicity of the Christian message, there was added the appeal of universality.

STEVE: Consider that the Roman world had room for all kinds of gods. Everyone could find a god to their liking and appropriate to their fears. But Christianity now turned this inside-out, proclaiming that there was only one God who had chosen everyone——everyone, that is, who would believe and obey him. There was no spiritual elite. Rich and poor would sit together, the educated and the ignorant, different racial groups, and social classes, slaves sitting right beside masters. In fact, a former slave who had worked the mines actually became bishop of Rome— Callistus in 217.

NIGEL: So, the invitation was without discrimination and without qualification. If you were ready to repent of your sins and accept Christ as Lord and Savior, you were as important as anyone else and you were welcomed, no matter where you came from.

STEVE: The Roman Empire gave political unity to an amazing diversity of cultures, nationalities and class groups and now the universal invitation of the Gospel message would go forth from here, offering spiritual unity to the same diversity of peoples.      

4. Acceptance in a close-knit community              

STEVE:  And this spiritual unity of diverse peoples drew one into an intimate fellowship or community. The Christians typically met in homes. Evidence of actual church buildings being erected is not found until the mid 200s. Becoming a Christian in the early church was not a private act, even though it was a personal decision. To become a Christian meant becoming part of a community that would regularly meet in places not unlike this. What was it like to be part of a Christian community? Well, for one thing, you were accepted regardless of your past life. Even the apostle Paul, once a fierce persecutor of the church, was accepted and became one of the most prominent leaders.

KEN CURTIS: The early church was a community where you were loved. “Behold              how they love one another,” it was said of them. And it was a community where you were touched.  When the pagans heard of the “kiss of peace” that was practiced in the Christians services, they naturally assumed something lustful had to be going on. But it was really nothing more than the kind of affection you would expect to be expressed within a family. And that’s exactly what the early church was. It was a new family. Your fellow believers were your new brothers and sisters in Christ.

Now if this sounds soft and sentimental, bear in mind that then it was revolutionary. Because this new family became your first loyalty. That could upset the age old patriarchal family system, and it did other things. It raised the status of women and even caused children to be looked on in a new light. Up to that time, children were seen as property and as labor. But now Jesus set them forth as the very model by which one had to approach the kingdom of heaven.         

STEVE: And it was a community and family that knew no bounds. You could go almost anywhere in the empire and find a welcome from other Christians. In fact it was a rather amazing kind of “bed and breakfast” network. The Christian community set forth expectations that by today’s standards might be considered excessive. Anyone could become a Christian and be welcome-anyone, that is, willing to follow the very narrow path that led to the door.

For example you didn’t just join the church. You went through an extensive period of training as a catachumen. That could last up to three years, during which you were closely monitored in your behavior to see if you indeed were sincere in seeking a totally new life within the Christian community. Those that were part of the church would fast two days a week, share their goods with those in need, and be expected to live by a strict moral code. Thus, the church became a well-defined, close-knit community where a person could be intimately known and strongly affirmed.

5. Care for others

RUSSELL as EMPEROR JULIAN: “Atheism is being specially advanced through the loving care devoted to strangers and through their care of the burial of the dead. It is a scandal that there is not a single Jewish beggar; while these godless Galileans (whom some call Christians) care not only for their own poor, but for ours as well; while those who belong to us look in vain for the service we should render them.”

NIGEL: A great pestilence afflicted Carthage in North Africa in the year 252. Sickness afflicted many, many people. Corpses lay about in the streets. It was a time of great persecution for the Christians. The bishop Cyprian sent Christians out to minister to those who were sick and dying, and this meant caring for some who had so recently been persecuting them.

JANE (as early Christian ministering in the street): It was important for us as Christians not just to talk about our faith, but to do something about it. And we found that by taking care of those who were in need, that we really were able to make contact. Now, I want you to understand that it was not just a contrived publicity stunt to attract attention. No, it was simply an accepted expectation that Christians would take care of the needs of others.

NIGEL: One of the church fathers said it well: “We hold everything in common except our spouses. . . . “ And he added, “Christians voluntarily contributed to support the destitute and to pay for their burial expenses, to supply the needs of girls and boys lacking money and power, and to support old people confined to the home. . . .”

STEVE: Community, caring, acceptance-all are essential elements of early Christian faith. But there is one more that transcends all the others, the person of Christ.

6. The person of Christ

STEVE: Here at the sea of Galilee, they catch what the Israelis call “St. Peter’s fish.” And I can assure you it is delicious. But I wonder how many of us have ever considered the important place of fish in early Christianity. At least five of Jesus’ original apostles were fishermen by trade, and when he called them, he promised to make them “fishers of men”. Also, several of his miracles involve fish, and the Gospels say that, when he met with some of his disciples after his resurrection, he served them fish. So it is not surprising that the fish became one of the important early symbols for Christianity.

Some have said the fish was a simple sign that Christians used to secretly identify themselves to each other in times of persecution. You could draw a sign in the sand like this, or put it over your door to designate a place of meeting. But the fish also stood for the central confession of the Christian faith, centered in Christ. It was kind of an abbreviated summary.

KEN CURTIS: Of course, many of the teachings of early Christianity had parallels in the other religions of the day, but there was something different. What was absolutely unique to Christianity was the person of Christ. To the early Christians, Jesus Christ was more than a doctrine. He was alive, He was in heaven, present, available, ready to hear their prayers, ready to give them strength in their hour of need.

DAVID WRIGHT: Jesus was the promised one. That’s what the first Christians believed. His life, his death, his resurrection, they were right at the heart of things. Hence it is no accident that eventually the followers of Jesus came to be called Christians.

BARGIL PIXNER: The eleven apostles must have seen something, and were convinced that Jesus was alive, because their attitudes were changed so completely. Before, they were frightened and hopeless. They didn’t know what to do. They closed themselves up and locked themselves in behind doors. But then suddenly they went out without fear and preached the Gospel. Because of their conviction that Jesus was really the Son of God, the Messiah, they went everywhere preaching and talking about him. Nobody could stop them anymore. What a change! I just can’t figure out how these people could have done that without a tremendous conviction that they knew Jesus was alive, Jesus lived.

STEVE: Christians now make up about a third of the human race. Today major organizations of Christians have committed themselves to reach the remaining two-thirds of the world with the Gospel of Christ by the year 2000.

No, they don’t expect everyone to become a Christian. They know that many, perhaps most, will choose not to. But the goal is at least to present the invitation to every cultural group on earth before the beginning of the third millennium.

As this takes place, could we not see yet another major transition in the history of the church? In this series, we have covered two major transitions. First, when Christianity expanded its mission beyond it Jewish roots and became a faith for all the other peoples as well. Second, when under Constantine the church went from being a persecuted minority to become the official faith of the Roman empire.

NIGEL: The major transition taking place right now will see the historic Western concentration of the church give way to a new configuration of races and peoples who follow Christ.

STEVE: By 1900 there were some 558 million Christians on earth and 64 % of this Christian population was to be found in North America and Europe, but today the Christian church is in another period of rapid expansion, with more people becoming believers than at any time in history.

And the way this is happening could mean that by the year 2000 Europe and North

 America no longer will represent the majority of Christians, but barely a third. South America and Africa, which in 1900 represented only 12 % of the church, by the year 2000 will boom to be about 48 %. And as the era of American and European concentration recedes, we’re likely to see new kinds of church expressions, new emphases in theology, and new styles of worship. There are scholars who project there will be two billion Christians on earth to greet the year 2000. Much of the leadership the church will need in the unpredictable days ahead will emerge from these new areas of the world where vital expressions of Christianity are now manifest. Many of the problems they face will be the same ones we have seen encountered by the early church. But they also will face challenges unknown to the previous generations. Yet it will be the expectation of these leaders to find their strength in the same words that provided such sustenance to the early believers we have seen in the series. The words of Christ to his followers: “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

I’m Steve Bell. For my co-hosts Jane, Nigel and Russell and for the many other people whose participation made these programs possible, I thank you for joining us.