Christendom

Development:

A Period of Darkness—The Rise of Christendom

In time, the Christian congregation faced a period of dramatic changes. As foretold in the Bible, false Christians infiltrated God’s organization and became a lawless influence, bringing in teachings and practices that were unscriptural.—Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43; Acts 20:29, 30; 2 Thessalonians 2:6-8; 1 Timothy 4:1-3; 2 Timothy 2:16-18; 2 Peter 2:1-3.

In the first-century Christian congregation, there were no class distinctions. By the second century, a hierarchy of bishops and presbyters had come into existence, resulting in a separation of clergy and laity. Next, such pagan doctrines as the Trinity, the immortality of the soul, and hellfire came to be accepted by those who claimed to be Christians. Then, in 313 C.E., Roman Emperor Constantine ordered that this apostate form of Christianity be recognized as a lawful religion. By the end of the fourth century, the “Christian” Church, which was actively meddling in politics, was promoted to be the official religion of the Roman Empire, and it became known as the Roman Catholic Church.

In the 16th century, the Reformation brought new developments to the religious scene in Europe. Reformers, such as Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, and John Calvin, attacked the Catholic Church on various issues. As a result, religious groups sprang up, breaking free from the papal authority of Rome. Later these groups became known as Protestants (protesters against the Roman Catholic Church).

Even though the various Protestant churches are organized differently, they have basically retained the separation of clergy and laity. They also continue to teach such unscriptural doctrines as the Trinity, the immortality of the soul, eternal torment in a fiery hell, and others. On the matter of Christian neutrality, Protestants do not differ from Catholics. They remain a part of the world. While the Protestant Reformation did bring about some changes, it did not mark a return to true Christianity. However, in a parable, Jesus Christ foretold that the time would come when true Christianity would be restored and wheatlike true Christians would “shine as brightly as the sun.”—Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43.

1st and 2nd centuries (Apostolic Fathers):

BY THE start of the second century C.E., false teachings had begun to muddy the clear waters of Christian truth. Just as inspired prophecy had foretold, after the death of the apostles, certain ones abandoned the truth and turned instead to “myths.” (2 Timothy 4:3, 4, footnote) About 98 C.E., John, the last surviving apostle, warned of such erroneous teachings and of people “who [were] trying to mislead” faithful Christians.—1 John 2:26; 4:1, 6.

2nd century onward (apostasy):

In the middle of the second century C.E., professed Christians were defending their faith against Roman persecutors and heretics alike. However, this was an era of too many theological voices. Religious debates regarding the “divinity” of Jesus and the nature and workings of the holy spirit caused more than just intellectual rifts. Bitter disagreements and irreparable divisions over “Christian” doctrine spilled over into the political and cultural spheres, at times causing riots, rebellion, civil strife, even war. Writes historian Paul Johnson: “[Apostate] Christianity began in confusion, controversy and schism and so it continued. . . . The central and eastern Mediterranean in the first and second centuries AD swarmed with an infinite multitude of religious ideas, struggling to propagate themselves. . . . From the start, then, there were numerous varieties of Christianity which had little in common.”

2nd century onward (Greek philosophy absorbed):

The Church Fathers—Advocates of Bible Truth?

2nd through 5th centuries (Church Fathers):

During that era, writers and thinkers who felt that it was imperative to interpret “Christian” teachings using philosophical terms began to flourish. To satisfy educated pagans who were new converts to “Christianity,” such religious writers relied heavily on earlier Greek and Jewish literature. Beginning with Justin Martyr (c. 100-165 C.E.), who wrote in Greek, professed Christians became increasingly sophisticated in their assimilation of the philosophical heritage of the Greek culture.

This trend came to fruition in the writings of Origen (c. 185-254 C.E.), a Greek author from Alexandria. Origen’s treatise On First Principles was the first systematic effort to explain the main doctrines of “Christian” theology in terms of Greek philosophy.

Recently, Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Methodius of Pisidia wrote the book The Hellenic Pedestal of Christianity in order to show that Greek culture and philosophy provided the infrastructure of modern “Christian” thought. In that book, he unhesitantly admits: “Almost all the prominent Church Fathers considered the Greek elements most useful, and they borrowed them from the Greek classical antiquity, using them as a means to understand and correctly express the Christian truths.”

4th century onward (part of world):

IN TIME the Roman Empire, in which early Christianity began, collapsed. Many historians claim that that collapse was also the time of the final victory of Christianity over paganism. Expressing a different viewpoint, Anglican bishop E. W. Barnes wrote: “As classical civilization collapsed, Christianity ceased to be the noble faith of Jesus the Christ: it became a religion useful as the social cement of a world in dissolution.”—The Rise of Christianity.

Before that collapse, during the second, third, and fourth centuries C.E., history records that in many ways those who claimed to follow Jesus kept themselves separate from the Roman world. But it also reveals the development of apostasy in doctrine, conduct, and organization, just as Jesus and his apostles had foretold. (Matthew 13:36-43; Acts 20:29, 30; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12; 2 Timothy 2:16-18; 2 Peter 2:1-3, 10-22) Eventually compromises came to be made with the Greco-Roman world, and some who claimed to be Christian adopted the world’s paganism (such as its festivals and its worship of a mother-goddess and a triune god), its philosophy (such as belief in an immortal soul), and its administrative organization (seen in the appearance of a clergy class). It was this corrupted version of Christianity that attracted the pagan masses and became a force that the Roman emperors first tried to stamp out but later came to terms with and endeavored to use to their own ends.

5th century onward (Eastern and Western church):

Apostasy—The Way to God Blocked ***

Divisive debates about aspects of the still-developing Trinity teaching continued to cause turmoil in Christendom. Another council was held in 451 C.E. at Chalcedon to define the character of Christ’s “natures.” While the West accepted the creed issued by this council, Eastern churches disagreed, leading to the formation of the Coptic Church in Egypt and Abyssinia and the “Jacobite” churches of Syria and Armenia. The unity of the Catholic Church was constantly threatened by divisions on abstruse theological matters, especially regarding the definition of the Trinity doctrine.

Another cause for division was the veneration of images. During the eighth century, the Eastern bishops rebelled against this idolatry and entered into what is called their iconoclastic, or image-destroying, period. In time they returned to the use of icons.—Exodus 20:4-6; Isaiah 44:14-18.

A further big test came about when the Western church added the Latin word filioque (“and from the Son”) to the Nicene Creed to indicate that the Holy Spirit proceeded from both the Father and the Son. The end result of this sixth-century emendation was a rift when “in 876 a synod [of bishops] at Constantinople condemned the pope both for his political activities and because he did not correct the heresy of the filioque clause. This action was part of the East’s entire rejection of the pope’s claim of universal jurisdiction over the Church.” (Man’s Religions) In the year 1054, the pope’s representative excommunicated the patriarch of Constantinople, who in return put a curse on the pope. That split eventually led to the formation of the Eastern Orthodox Churches—Greek, Russian, Romanian, Polish, Bulgarian, Serbian, and other self-governing churches.

11th century onward (Crusades and Inquisition):

Persecution of the Albigenses

Yet another movement got started in the 12th century in the south of France—the Albigenses (also known as Cathari), named after the town of Albi, where they had many followers. They had their own celibate clergy class, who expected to be greeted with reverence. They believed that Jesus spoke figuratively in his last supper when he said of the bread, “This is my body.” (Matthew 26:26, NAB) They rejected the doctrines of the Trinity, the Virgin Birth, hellfire, and purgatory. Thus they actively put in doubt the teachings of Rome. Pope Innocent III gave instructions that the Albigenses be persecuted. “If necessary,” he said, “suppress them with the sword.”

A crusade was mounted against the “heretics,” and the Catholic crusaders massacred 20,000 men, women, and children in Béziers, France. After much bloodshed, peace came in 1229, with the Albigenses defeated. The Council of Narbonne “forbade the possession of any part of the Bible by laymen.” The root of the problem for the Catholic Church was evidently the existence of the Bible in the language of the people.

The next step that the church took was to establish the Inquisition, a tribunal set up to suppress heresy. Already a spirit of intolerance possessed the people, who were superstitious and all too willing to lynch and murder “heretics.” The conditions in the 13th century lent themselves to the abuse of power by the church. However, “heretics condemned by the Church were to be delivered to the ‘secular arm’—the local authorities—and burned to death.” (The Age of Faith) By leaving the actual executions to the secular authorities, the church would ostensibly be free of bloodguilt. The Inquisition started an era of religious persecution that resulted in abuses, false and anonymous denunciations, murder, robbery, torture, and the slow death of thousands who dared to believe differently from the church. Freedom of religious expression was stifled.

15th century onward (missionary activity):

When “Christians” and “Heathens” Met

“Religion’s in the heart, not in the knees”—D. W. Jerrold, 19th-century English playwright

MISSIONARY activity, a distinguishing mark of early Christianity, was in keeping with Jesus’ command to “make disciples of people of all the nations” and to be witnesses of him “to the most distant part of the earth.”—Matthew 28:19, 20; Acts 1:8.

In the 15th century, Christendom embarked on a global program to convert the “heathen.” What kind of religion had these “heathen” peoples been practicing up until that time? And did any subsequent conversion to “Christianity” touch their heart or only cause them to drop to their knees in formal submission?

In Africa there are an estimated 700 ethnic groups south of the Sahara. Originally, each had its own tribal religion, although their similarities betray a common origin. In Australia, the Americas, and the isles of the Pacific, dozens of other indigenous religions are to be found.

Most believe in one supreme god and yet, polytheistically, still make room for any number of lesser deities—family, clan, or communal gods. One study made of the Aztec religion lists more than 60 distinct and interrelated names of deities.

In Africa and the Americas, people with the most “primitive” religions believe in a supernatural figure known as the Trickster. At times described as the cosmic creator, at other times as a rearranger of creation, he is always viewed as slyly deceptive and lustful, although not necessarily malicious. The North American Navaho Indians say that he ordained death; the Oglala Lakota tribe teaches that he is a fallen angel who caused the first humans to be banished from paradise by promising them a better life elsewhere. The Encyclopedia of Religion says that the Trickster often appears in “stories of creation,” playing “opposite a spiritual creator-deity.”

Reminiscent of Babylon and Egypt, some native religions teach a trinity. The book The Eskimos says that the Spirit of the Air, the Spirit of the Sea, and the Spirit of the Moon form a trinity that “ultimately controlled practically everything in the Eskimo environment.”

16th century onward (Reformation and Protestantism):

17th century onward (world change):

Christendom Grapples With World Change

“Philosophy and religion are irreconcilable.”—Georg Herwegh, 19th-century German poet

“PHILOSOPHY,” a word derived from Greek roots meaning “love of wisdom,” is difficult to define. While doubting that “a universal and all-inclusive definition” can be made, The New Encyclopædia Britannica ventures that “a first attempt in this direction might be to define philosophy either as ‘a reflection upon the varieties of human experience’ or as ‘the rational, methodical, and systematic consideration of those topics that are of greatest concern to man.’”

These definitions clearly show why true religion and philosophy are irreconcilable. True religion is based upon divine revelation, not upon “the varieties of human experience.” First and foremost, it revolves around the interests of the Creator, not around the “topics that are of greatest concern to man.” False religion, on the other hand, like philosophy, is based on human experience and puts human interests uppermost. This fact became particularly evident from the 17th century onward as Christendom grappled with world change.

19th century onward (philosophical and scientific challenges):

An Age of “Enlightenment” and Industrialization

In 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto. Instead of advocating religion, which Marx called “the opium of the people,” they advocated atheism. While ostensibly against all religion, they actually fostered the religion, or worship, of the State and its leaders.

About a decade later, in 1859, Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species was published; it deeply influenced the scientific and religious thinking of the time. The theories of evolution led to a challenging of the truthfulness of the Bible’s account of creation and of the introduction of sin through the disobedience of the first human pair. (Gen., chaps. 1-3) As a result, faith of many in the Bible was undermined.

19th century onward (restoration of true worship imminent):

Stirrings of Watchfulness

In the 19th century, though, the religious climate led to stirrings of Christian watchfulness. As a result of Bible research on the part of some clergymen and Bible scholars, such teachings as the immortal soul, eternal torment after death, predestination, and the Trinity were restudied. In addition, some students of the Bible were closely examining Bible prophecies pertaining to the last days. Consequently, various groups of persons began thinking seriously about the Lord’s promised return.—Matt. 24:3.

In the United States, William Miller predicted the return of Christ in visible form in 1843 or 1844. The German theologian J. A. Bengel set the date for 1836; the Irvingites in England looked first to 1835, then 1838, 1864, and 1866. There was a Mennonite group in Russia that looked first to 1889, then to 1891.

Belief in fatalism:

“Christian” Debates About Fate

The early Christians lived in a culture strongly influenced by Greek and Roman ideas of destiny and fate. The so-called Church Fathers, for example, drew heavily upon the works of such Greek philosophers as Aristotle and Plato. One problem they tried to resolve was, How could an all-knowing, all-powerful God, “the One telling from the beginning the finale,” be reconciled with a God of love? (Isaiah 46:10; 1 John 4:8) If God knew the end from the beginning, they reasoned, then surely he foreknew man’s fall into sin and the disastrous consequences this would bring.

Origen, one of the most prolific of the early Christian writers, argued that one of the important elements to keep in mind was the notion of free will. “There are, indeed, innumerable passages in the Scriptures which establish with exceeding clearness the existence of freedom of will,” he wrote.

Origen said that ascribing to some exterior force the responsibility for our acts “is neither true nor in conformity with reason, but is the statement of him who wishes to destroy the conception of free will.” Origen argued that while God can foreknow events chronologically, this does not mean that he causes an event or that any necessity is placed upon it to happen. However, not all agreed.

An influential Church Father, Augustine (354-430 C.E.), complicated the argument by reducing the part that free will plays in events. Augustine gave predestination its theological basis in Christendom. His works, primarily De libero arbitrio, were central to discussions in the Middle Ages. The debate eventually reached a climax in the Reformation, with Christendom deeply divided over the issue of predestination.