CHHI 520 - History of the Christian Church I

1. Discuss the three stages that ended the church's persecution? Emperor Diocletian developed a system for replacing himself as emperor. He identified a co-emperor and two augustii. The co-emperor was Maximus, and the two augustii were Constantine in the west and Lisinius in the east. But Diocletian's plan did not work very well. Constantine took his territory and became a co-emperor in the west. Lisinius overcame his territory and became co-emperor of the east. Constantine's mother was a Christian, so he was sensitive towards them. Lisinius was not sensitive to the Christians, but he was afraid of Constantine's superior might. So, in 313AD, at the Edict of Milan, they agreed to tolerate Christians. Earlier, in 312AD, Constantine thought that he saw a cross in the sky during the Battle of Milne Bridge. He believed that becoming a Christian would help him win battles, and he seemed to be somewhat correct. In 323AD, Constantine finally became Emperor of Rome, and then, Christianity became the religion of preference. The other religions were still around, but they became lesser to Christianity. In 380AD, under Theodotius, Christianity became the official religion of Rome.

2. What were the results of the persecution? There were ten results of the Roman persecution. Some were positive, and some were negative. The results were: (1) about 3 millions Christians were killed for their faith, mostly men, (2) many had fled their homes and possessions, which was a legitimate thing to do, (3) thousands denied their faith ("lapsers" said they had never meant their profession, and "traditores" forfeited their copies of Scripture. Being a traditore was not legitimate because Scriptures were very rare), (4) many, many remained true to the Lord, (5) a division was caused within the church when the lapsers and traditores tried to return to the church after the persecution was over (negative result), (6) the church was purified because those not serious got out, (7) the New Testament Canon was established so Christians would not die for unrecognized Scriptures, (8) the church grew (many left, but many came in. Tertullian called the martyr's blood seed.), (9) some people of the church sought abnormal death (Origen did this when his father was killed. He was kept from going forward by his mother.), and (10) a concern developed for the improper relationship between the church and state.

3. Discuss the five types of persistent heresy within the church. A heresy occurs within the church, not from without. It is an aberation of the true faith, and over time, five particular heresies have occurred over and over. They are: (1) Christological which suggested that Jesus was something less than both human and divine, (2) dualistic which debates the existence of evil and questions the existence of a superpower that God cannot control, (3) apocalyptic (visions) which suggested that Jesus is coming back NOW, (4) reformation of society in which these social reformers said that the church was created to fix the world (this is not the chief purpose of the church), and (5) way of salvation (Jesus is the way to be saved plus or minus anything else is a heresy).

4. Discuss the historical, chronological development of heresy. Over time, the historical development of heresy (anti-biblical beliefs) has occurred with the following eleven heresies: (1) gnosticism (a dualistic explanation of evil which thought that evil was in material things. Heavier people were more evil.), (2) montanism (Jesus is coming back today, so stop everything and wait.), (3) manicheanism (dualistic belief from the east that denounced all physical things, even marriage. Iraenus called these people heretics.), (4) arianism which said that Jesus was something less than God (settled as heresy in 325AD at Council of Nicea), (5) nestorianism which could not combine human and divine natures of Christ, (6) monophysites and monothelites which professed that Christ had one nature or one will while the church said He had two, (7) pelagianism (Augustine said salvation only through Christ, but Pelagius said that one could pull themselves to God by their own bootstraps.), (8) iconoclasm which was opposed to all idols and even called Jesus an idol (they rejected the Incarnation), (9) medieval dualism which was evangelical and against the Catholic church (they tried to blame all evil on devil and said that God could not control it), (10) materialism versus poverty which said cannot own possessions and be a Christian, and (11) economics and nationalism (you could tell a Christian by how they spent their money and voted.).