The Acts of the Apostles covers a very brief period of time — perhaps 35 years — from the ascension of Christ to the imprisonment of Paul at Rome. The entire New Testament was completed before the end of the first century, and there is no inspired record of ecclesial life after the death of the apostles. Nevertheless, what happened after the Acts of the Apostles must be of interest to us. We know that apostasy developed very quickly when the apostles were no longer on the scene. It should be helpful to us today to understand how and why such a “falling away” from the Truth occurred after the first century.
The writers of the New Testament laid down a sound and lasting foundation. Its merit is especially obvious when the apostolic writings are compared with those that came after them. Almost immediately after they appeared, the gospels and epistles were accepted as Scripture, and so they have been preserved intact. A distinction was made very early between the books of the New Testament and the writings of those who came just after the apostles, even though these later works had considerable effect upon the apostate church and its doctrines.
After the Acts
In the second century, there were ecclesias in all parts of the Roman Empire, and the Christian religion in both its pure and contaminated forms spread into all segments of society. By the end of the third century, Christianity composed a sizable minority of the Empire’s population. The new faith was tested by periodic persecutions, some of them severe, and by association with the world of paganism; and internal ecclesial developments threatened the purity of the gospel.
Christendom Astray
“But some most worthless persons are in the habit of carrying about the name of Jesus Christ in wicked guile, while yet they practice things unworthy of God, and hold opinions contrary to the doctrine of Christ” Ignatius (AD 100).
With the passing of the apostles, and their authority, problems were multiplied, and very soon there were many divisions and factions within the ecclesial world. While the Christian movement continued to sustain remarkable growth in numbers, it was struggling with misunderstandings and heresies.
Much has been written about the Gnostic sects which arose very soon after the apostles’ day. These
schools of thought were based in the old pagan philosophies and were highly detrimental to the Truth. Although the leading Gnostic sects were cut off from the mainstream community, they persisted for a hundred years or more.
For sometime, there continued to be a Jewish element in the ecclesia striving to hold onto the Law of Moses. One group, known as the Ebionites, were adamant in their effort to retain the Hebrew character of their idea of Christianity and soon isolated themselves as a separate faction.
As more and more Gentiles were becoming Christians, they would have a tendency to reject the Jewish aspect altogether. The Marcionites (and others) wanted to discard the Old Testament and denied any connection between it and the writings of the apostles. It was their intention to merge Christian concepts with existing theosophical learning, to form a hybrid religion of all “truth” and knowledge.
The church itself tried to steer a middle course, rejecting both the Jewish and pagan extremes. It was not entirely successful. With some rapidity, mainstream Christendom became saturated with Greek philosophical thought and reasoning. This is very clearly seen in the writings of the “fathers of the church.”
We often make the point that pagan philosophy played a part in producing wrong doctrines as the apostate church developed. But we may not realize to what a really great extent this was the case until we research the writings of the post-apostolic period.
Those who wrote during the latter half of the second century were especially influenced by the pagan logicians. Some prominent “Christian” teachers had been philosophers of the various Greek schools, and they went to great lengths to reconcile Christian teaching with these philosophies.
It has rightly been observed that the church was first hellenized (influenced by pagan Greek philosophy), then romanized (influenced by pagan Roman thought and custom) in the early centuries of its history.
The Apostolic Fathers
A considerable amount of writing was done soon after the New Testament was completed. Those who produced writings in the church during the first half of the second century are commonly referred to as the apostolic fathers. They were so called because they had been living at the end of the apostolic age, and some of them may have known the apostles themselves. For the most part their works consist of epistles written to various ecclesias. They are generally exhortational and do not include very much in the way of doctrinal statements. Both from a spiritual and literary standpoint they do not compare favorably with the New Testament epistles, but they provide the only view we have of the second century ecclesias.
Apologists and Theologians
The writers whose works are the source of our research are known as the Ante-Nicene Fathers. They include the “Apostolic Fathers” and their successors up to the Council of Nicaea (which made “the Trinity” official church doctrine). So we are dealing with the development of the teachings of the apostate Christian church in the second and third centuries, AD 100 to AD 325.
As we progress through these two hundred years we discover that the earlier simplicity of the faith is disappearing; influences of the philosophers and mystery cults are being felt.
Christian writers after the middle of the second century are well-versed, not only in Scripture, but also in the secular views of their day; most have been educated in Greek and Roman culture and philosophy. We will see in their works the development of some of the doctrines and practices that came to characterize the church from the middle ages to the present.
“The Rule of Faith”
“I believe in God the Father almighty. And in Jesus Christ the only begotten Son our Lord, who was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary; crucified under Pontius Pilate, and buried; the third day He rose from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father, from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. And in the Holy Spirit; the holy Church; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and life everlasting.” This is “The Rule of Faith” as cited by Marcellus of Ancira in A.D. 341 (see The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol. I, page 204.) The “Rule of Faith,” an early attempt to summarize apostolic teaching, was originally used as a baptismal confession of faith. It is cited several times in second and third century writings, and survives in Roman Catholic and Protestant liturgy today as “The Apostles’ Creed.”
Tertullian (AD 145-220) comments upon it rather extensively. It is clear that in his day it had an “official” status. It was employed as a check on the Gnostic’s and others who sought to allegorize away the apostolic faith . He writes that “inquiry” into the Word must be undertaken “without impairing the rule of faith” (Prescription Against Heretics, ch. xii). He paraphrases the “rule” in chapter xiii:
“Now, with regard to this rule of faith…that which prescribes the belief that there is only one God, and that He is none other than the Creator of the world, who produced all things out of nothing through His own Word, first of all sent forth; that this Word is called His Son…at last brought down by the Spirit and Power of the Father into the Virgin Mary, was made flesh in her womb, and, being born of her, went forth as Jesus Christ; thenceforth He preached the new law and the new promise of the kingdom of heaven, worked miracles; having been crucified, He rose again the third day; (then) having ascended into the heavens, He sat at the right hand of the Father; sent instead of Himself the Power of the Holy Spirit to lead such as believe; will come with glory to take the saints to the enjoyment of everlasting life and of the heavenly promises, and to condemn the wicked to everlasting fire, after the resurrection of both classes shall have happened, together with the restoration of their flesh.”
It will be noticed from the testimony of Tertullian that the Rule of Faith did not sufficiently guard against the false teachings that came to be standard in the Christian community.
Tertullian is reading into his paraphrase errors that had come to be accepted in the church: the pre-existence of Christ and “everlasting fire” for the wicked. He also accepts that the Holy Spirit was continuing, after apostolic times, to guide believers into all truth, while in fact, they were rapidly drifting away from the pristine truth of the gospel.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One