cution; they rushed toward it. Some believed that this was the most positive way of obtaining eternal life. Others believed that martyrdom guaranteed the forgiveness of sins committed after baptism. So serious did the craze become that many offered themselves voluntarily to the magistrates for mar tyrdom. Finally, cooler and more responsible heads prevailed and Christian leaders began to preach and write against such a martyr complex. The scene introduced by the fourth century was altogether different from its predecessors. It was characterized by two significant events. Christian ity was recognized as the legal religion of the em pire, thus beginning a relationship between church and state which has lasted to the present day. Also in the first quarter of the century systematic theol ogy was born. The third century concluded with the greatest persecution in the history o f the church. Diocletian had declared that he would eradicate the name “ Christian” from the earth. However, Constan tine’s point of view was entirely different when he came to power in the first quarter of the fourth century. Believing that he was divinely called to be the church’s protector, he declared Christianity to be the legal religion of the empire. However, he wanted a church which would be obedient to him, which would help to consolidate his empire, and which would be the hand-maiden of the state. Hence, he interfered in its affairs though he did not understand its spiritual principles, mission, or theology. In presiding over the first great church council since apostolic times, he established a prin ciple which has long endured in church-state rela tions, namely, that the church is a department of the state. This pattern made it difficult for succeed ing centuries to comprehend a church which was free from state control, support, and politics. Thus was eclipsed the church’s spiritual ministry and mission. Equally significant to succeeding generations was the Trinitarian controversy which initiated a systematization of theology. In the city of Alexan dria, a presbyter or pastor, Arius, had difficulty understanding how Jesus Christ could be God. De siring to protect the deity o f Christ and the mono theism of the church, he reduced Christ to the posi- 29
writers, known as Apologists, replied. They pointed out that Christians were loyal, moral, and respon sible citizens of the empire, that they did not desire the overthrow but rather the conversion of the rulers, and that the Gospel was the only way of salvation. Though the threat to the church from outside was great, that from within was greater, because it posed as a friend and claimed kinship with Christianity. Dating from the time of Paul’s epistle to the Colossians, Gnosticism gained momentum shortly after the dawn of the second century and became the most serious threat to the church in the first two centuries. The opposite o f agnosticism, so familiar to this generation, Gnosticism claimed an esoteric insight not possessed by the average Chris tian. Anxious to know as much as possible about spiritual things, many Christians entered the Gnos tic movement. In addition to claiming a greater knowledge of spiritual things, Gnosticism differentiated between the God of the Old Testament and that of the New and in the process established a conflicting dualism between good and evil. The God of the Old Testa ment was evil, they claimed, because He had cre ated matter which in and o f itself is evil. The God of the New Testament, on the other hand, they held to be good, but they insisted He did not have a real incarnation because matter is evil, and the heavenly Christ could not become incarnate in the man Jesus. Moreover, to the Gnostic, salvation was obtained through knowledge which was achieved by initiation into the cult. No further word need be added for the reader to see that many modern cults may trace their doctrinal ancestry to ancient Gnos ticism, the first great threat to the Christian church. While the third century did not see the begin ning of the martyr complex, certainly this phe nomenon reached a crescendo during those years. As early as the middle of the second century, mar tyrs became venerated individuals. Their graves became the sites where Christians met for special services. Relics began to be collected by the devout. But in the third century, under the empire’s planned persecution of the church, martyrdom be came popular. No longer did Christians flee perse- JANUARY, 1967
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