1. Discuss how the people viewed baptism by 325AD. The key idea in the church at this time centered around baptism. Gnosticism and Manicheanism were gone. The persecutions were gone, and the church had become very orthodox. It was a universal catholic church, and by 325AD, the people had begun to believe in the institution rather than just in Jesus. Their belief was in the orthodox catholic church, and one could only find personal faith in Christ through the church. This change in belief caused increased focus on baptism and the Lord's Supper. The church started teaching that one had to be baptized and also be a participant in the Lord's Supper to be saved. The people believed that their salvation was tied to the church, and if you were out of the church, then you might not even be saved. In the 4th century, the church leaders decided that faith should be in the church rather than in the Lord. As a result, baptism started becoming a sacrament rather than an ordnance. The early church had baptized by immersion, but once baptism was seen as a sacrament to complete one's salvation experience, parents wanted to have their children baptized.

2. Discuss how baptism by sprinkling came to be accepted and even preferred. Once baptism had become a sacrament intended to impart special Grace, parents wanted their very young children baptized. Because they feared baptism by immersion for their infants, though, they leaned toward using less water. They could have immersed their babies without doing any harm, but they did not know that back then. Sprinkling was initially called clinical baptism because it had earlier been used for the sick and elderly. Later, the process was just called sprinkling. The transition from immersion to sprinkling occurred over about 14 centuries, and by the end of that time, everyone was being sprinkled shortly after birth instead of immersed because of the convenience. There was no worry about having to change clothes, and it was quick and easy with little or no fuss.

What caused all of this to happen? Parents started seeing a mystical sanctifying act in baptism. They even saw the water as sanctifying and mystical. Parents equated baptism to spiritual cleansing. However, the Bible says that faith in Christ at Calvary is the only true way to be spiritually cleaned. Because baptism was seen as spiritual cleansing, some people thought that those about to die should also be baptized, and this led to the idea of giving last rites, a type of another sprinkling. Constantine did not get baptized until he was on his deathbed. The medieval church adopted this last rites process, and so did the Catholic church. They believed that infant baptism washed away original sin and that last rites washed away the sins of this life. In the 5th century, Augustine pushed the idea of washing away original sin by sprinkling children. He said that one would be able to live a better life without the burden of their original sin.

In the Council of Carthage in 418AD, they said that one should be anathema if they did not believe that children should be baptized. In the 13th century, Aquinas said that sprinkling was preferred for everyone rather than immersion. Thus, even long after sprinking had first started, it was still a very, very long time before it actually became the official mode for baptizing everyone. The most important thing about baptism is the candidate not the mode. The mode is secondary, but of course, immersion was the mode of the early church probably because it pictures the death to sin, burial, and resurrection to a newness of life.

3. Discuss the Donatists and the church's feelings about being re-baptized. After losing their court battle with Constantine, the Donatists split from the church and told their followers that they would have to be re-baptized into their faith. The Donatists said that the re-baptizing would really be a "first" baptism into the "right" faith, and this angered the orthodox church. As a result, people were actually executed for being re-baptized. Constantine even sent troops against the Donatists because of their determined split from the orthodox church. By the 5th century, infant baptism had become the cornerstone of the church, and between 527-565AD, Justinian wrote his law code making it among other things illegal to be baptized a second time. The penalty for being re-baptized was death. Such laws meant that the church was guaranteeing each person that their baptism as a child would be valid throughout their life no matter what. Finally, in the 16th century, the Anabaptists arose, and by then, everyone had been baptized as a child. The Anabaptists said that baptism had to follow conversion rather than birth, so they were very unpopular, too. Many of them were also put to death for their beliefs.

4. Discuss the changes in the nature of the church by 325AD. Sacramentalism and sacerdotalism had become big in the church. Not only that, but whereas the early church had once had leaders like Paul who held secular jobs to earn their living, the church in 325AD was more interested in having full-time servants to administer their sacraments. This led to a further development of the offices of bishops, presbyters, and deacons, and such an expanded church hierarchy, where bishops were over presbyters instead of equal to them, caused the church to change even more. With all the seers and overseers, the church would have and make some very major decisions through councils. Most of the time, the common worshipper was probably left out on important matters. Occasionly, metropolitan bishops would be placed over a group of other bishops, and by 400AD, Rome had over 40 different congregations. Antioch and Alexandria had metropolitan bishops, and the Council of Chalcedon in 451AD also gave Constantinople and Jerusalem metropolitan bishops. All the church growth during this time would eventually lead to the office of Pope. By 325AD, all churches were not considered equal, and all church leaders were not treated with the same spiritual equality. The bishops, however, were not bad men. They were the first to be persecuted, they did the writings and led in the worship, and they brought in the converts. Nevertheless, they were still allowing some bad things to creep into the church.

5. Discuss the change in the nature of worship by 325AD. The Lord's Supper was becoming the focal point of every service, which was also starting to be called the Mass. Only true orthodox believers could remain in the Mass and receive communion. This practice also led to a split within the ranks.

				Tom of Bethany

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Lesson 15. The Rise Of The Papacy

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