Early Church History

 

[Cutting Edge Ministries][Home Page][The Cradle of Christianity][Worship of the Primitive Roman Gods ]
[The Mystery Religions ][The Occult ]
[Philosophy of Plato][Gnosticism][Neo-Platonism][The Epicureans][Stoicism]
[Cynicism]
[Skepticism][Roman Imperial Cult]
[Establishment of the Early Church][A New Sect of Judaism]
[Christianity Embraces The Gentiles][Christianity Welcomes The Samaritans]
[Christianity Welcomes The World ][Two Churches, Jewish and Gentile][Bibliography


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The Cradle of Christianity

    Worship of the Primitive Roman Gods 

   During the infancy days of  the Church, there were at least five primary religious beliefs competing for the souls and minds of mankind.   The primitive religion of Rome focused upon the gods associated with the forces of nature.  The Greek influence had penetrated the Roman civilization so much so that these Greek gods became assimilated to their Roman counterparts, although they kept their Roman names.  Chief among these gods was Jupiter (Zeus), Juno (Hera), Neptune (Poseidon), and Pluto (Hades).     There was a short increase in the worship of these gods during the infancy days of Christ, and especially in the days immediately preceding his birth as a result of the efforts of Augustus in building  new temples and establishing through encouragement the various priesthoods throughout the Roman empire.  By the time Christ began his ministry, the emphasis upon these gods had already begun to decline.  This may be largely to the attitude of the more educated as they tended to look upon a belief in the ancient gods as a major corrupting force among the youths.  Anyone who has studied the Greek and Roman myths to any extent can readily see the evil morals which would necessarily be passed down upon the youth as a result of the immoral examples of these gods. 

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The Mystery Religions 

    People then as even now were often disillusioned or dissatisfied with such an impersonal religion as that of the worship of the state or local gods.  If there was a divine being, then why couldn't a person establish a greater and more personal relationship with that god?  The mystery religions had promised such a contact with deity.  Whether the mystery religion was that of ancient Greece,  Asia, Persia, or Egypt; even despite their individual differences, they also shared common elements of a god who had died and had later been resuscitated.  Within these mystery religions it mattered little whether a man was rich or poor, slave or free.  Each man was placed upon the same equal footing, and each became a member of a common brotherhood.  Through the practice of certain secret rituals, each candidate possessed a certain promise of immortality. 

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The Occult 

    The worship of the occult was somewhat similar to that of the mystery religions, except the goal was not only for immortality and a personal relationship with deity, but a desire for supernatural power.  It was taught that the entire world was inhabited by good spirits and evil spirits, both of which could be called upon to perform certain acts of power.  The secrets lie in the knowledge of the correct rituals, formulas, and incantations.  The secrets of magic, sorcery, and witchcraft were sought and practiced by both Jew and Gentile.  Such use of magic had enabled powers such as: augury, divination, necromancy, exorcism, etc. 

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Philosophy of Plato

    Besides the established religions having their various gods and priesthoods, the more educated throughout the empire of Rome were being continually confronted by the major philosophical teachings of that era.  According to the teaching of Plato, the physical world was merely an imperfect copy of a spiritual world which consisted of divine thoughts and ideas, thus giving us a dual concept of the world around us.  The material world that we know is only a shadow of these spiritual things.  The physical world is temporal and imperfect.  As man acquires a greater knowledge and a more accurate concept of the images within the spirit realm,  he will gradually and continually improve his world by striving to make it more and more like the perfect world of the spirit.  The powers to accomplish such changes in this world do not come forth from imaginary angels, demons, or gods.  Heaven is not a place, but merely an idea.  The true heaven is the manifestation of the perfect, by bringing it to the material world through continual reflection and meditation of ideas.  As for a man's salvation, it can only come through the seeking of the highest good, that is to bring the perfect kingdom of God down to man.  There is no other salvation for man, for he himself belongs to the material world.

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Gnosticism

     Then there was the philosophy of the Gnostics.  For the Gnostic, evil is the material or physical world.  Salvation comes through the knowledge of the spirit world and denial of the material.  The spirit world was an invisible world.  Asceticism is essential for salvation, as one must renounce the physical body along with its lustful cravings, if one would ever hope to obtain the greater spiritual illumination.  The spirit man or essence is the real, while the physical man is unreal and temporal.  Sin becomes really no issue, as sin is merely a normal act of the physical.  Full gratification of the desires of the flesh merely meant that the progression of the spirit man would suffer more delay.  Ultimately, the spirit essence of that man will be saved regardless. 

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    Neo-Platonism carries the duality of Plato, while combining it with the Persian concept of the struggle between the two powers of light and darkness, with an overall conclusion that feelings must be joined to knowledge if a man is ever to truly establish a communication link with the divine essence of God.   The spirit of man is essentially good and the physical of man is essentially evil.  Although knowledge and reasoning are extremely important, man can never truly know God with his intellect alone.  God must be felt and experienced as well as having knowledge of him.  The spirit and material world are as different as night and day, or darkness and light.  The two cannot become joined to each other as the two are considered to be incompatible.  The concept of the incarnation of God into man becomes inconceivable, as well as the bodily resurrection of that man.  Since the enemy is the physical world, death itself becomes man's ultimate salvation as it alone can free his spirit from a tie to this physical world. [Go To Top]

    The Epicureans taught that the world had somehow begun in a shower of atoms which by pure chance must have collided with others, eventually bringing about the formation of the material universe.  There was no divine purpose nor design.  There was no absolute truth or good.   The highest good man might hope to obtain was pleasure, which was defined as merely the absence of pain.  In essence, there was no God who created, therefore, there was no need for religion or outward expressions and forms of worship.  While they did not deny the existence of the gods, these beings if they did indeed exist, would be completely uninterested with man.  The gods were totally inaccessible to man.  If it were possible for man to somehow make contact with the god, that god would not benefit man in any way, being occupied with his own life and concerns.  There was no need for any preoccupation then with sin or guilt, for a man's life truly must have had no purpose.  It began and ended out of pure chance.  There was no life after death as such, only the here and now really mattered.  What was important was that the man lived his life according to and for the purpose of  his own pleasure.

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Stoicism

   Stoicism taught that the universe did indeed have a divine purpose and was controlled by Absolute Reason.  The highest good for mankind to reach then was in his conformity to divine reason.  The universe was as it was meant to be.  There is no need to think about altering nature in any way, nature would take its own course.  As for man, his personal ambitions should give way, to submit to what is best for all of mankind.  The good of all mankind rather than self indulgence should be dictated by reason alone.  As for God, he cannot be touched by man personally for God must surely be impersonal.  As impersonal as nature was, so therefore was God himself.  The idea of God sending his own son to redeem man to himself seemed absurd.

   Cynicism taught that the highest virtue which man could obtain would be the ability to abandon all fleshly wants and desires.  The only way to be set free of the slavery of desire was to abandon desire completely.  The cynic sought to be an individual which meant becoming an unconformist.  They sought to abandon all standards and conventions.  Life was not to have anything to do with rules or norms originating from the outside of that man.  The cynic needed nobody or nothing, especially a savior.  He had to give account to no man, and he would owe no man nothing.

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Skepticism

   Skepticism taught that personal knowledge was the result of personal experience in one form or another.  As such, there was no absolute truth or standard by which one man should be judged against another.  What was commonly acceptable or customary in one place of the world was otherwise unacceptable in others.  Life was therefore not a matter of conformity to a set of rules made up by a given culture.  Life was experience itself.  Experience was neither positive nor negative, it simply was there to experience.  The skeptic didn't need to be saved for there was nothing to be saved from.

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The Roman Imperial Cult 

 In addition to the many religions, gods, and philosophies, there was a new religion being  introduced throughout the entire empire.  That new worship was the worship of Rome itself, known more commonly as the imperial cult.  Some of her patriots even worshipped the emperor as Dominus et Deus (Lord and God).  To his credit, Augustus never demanded such worship, but this religion did begin to set the stage for other wicked emperors who would eventually begin to demand such worship in the years to follow. 

 The imperial cult was indeed a religion with the worship of a foreign god.  Their god was Rome itself, and their priesthood consisted of members of the provincial council.  These men were regarded as loyal leaders of the local province because it was thought that they were continually looking out for the best interests of the Roman government.  As might be expected, the many provinces that made up the Roman empire had to pay a certain amount of tribute tax to Rome.  The tax continued to increase because the local governors would continually levy greater and greater demands upon the provinces to satisfy their own excessive lifestyles.  Those who were not citizens of Rome continued to be exploited to an even greater extent, which ultimately resulted in an increased poverty and a general disgust for Roman rule. 
 

 The imperial cult had arisen gradually as men began to suppose that the emperor had some kind of divine or superhuman power.  Such teachings were echoed throughout the empire in hopes of establishing an even greater allegiance to the Roman emperor.  The imperial cult actually originates sometime around the time of Julius Caesar.  It continued  gaining momentum in the days of Augustus,.   as among Augustus' prime directives was the reviving of the state religion and the rebuilding of temples.  It is therefore primarily under his reign that this imperial cult was introduced throughout every province.  Eventually, the future emperors would be worshipped as Dominus et Deus (Lord and God).   It was not until the reign of Domitian, (86-96 A.D.) that an emperor had actually demanded his subjects to worship him as a god.  The Christian Church had naturally refused to comply with this demand by the emperor, and as such, this lead to the violent persecution of Christians everywhere. 

 History testifies that the emperor Tiberius did not want to be worshipped as a god.  In a famous speech addressed to the Senate he is quoted as saying, "I am a mortal and divine honors belong only to Augustus, the real savior of mankind".  This being said, there are other evidences which prove that he was indeed called or referred to by the title, "Son of God".  Claudius I,  like his predecessor Tiberius, did not demand or desire that he be worshipped as divine although statues of himself and his family were erected throughout the city.  When Nero had become emperor, he deified Claudius so that he would also be worshipped.  Nero had himself often depicted as the god Apollo.  He also had a statue of himself erected in the temple of Mars by the Senate so that he might be properly worshipped.  This one hundred foot bronze statue represented Nero as the sun god having a star shaped crown.   It is Nero who then instigates the first state persecution of Christians.  It is during these persecutions of Nero that both Peter and Paul are killed. 

  Although Vespasian had been regularly called both "lord" and "savior", he never sought or demanded divine honors to be paid to him.   Titus was declared to be the "savior of the world" and consecrated by his brother Domitian after he himself had become emperor.  Septimus Severus accepted his proclaimed divinity and married the daughter of the Sun priest at Emesa that he might bring the empress into the imperial cult.  Christians were burned and their bodies thrown to wild beasts.  The persecution included the slaughtering of children and the Christian women were often shamed.  Decius had initiated a terrible persecution of Christians which demanded that all subjects in the kingdom must obtain a certificate from their local commissioner acknowledging that they had offered up sacrifices to the Roman gods. 

 Domitian brought another period of persecution against the Christian Church beginning around A.D. 81.   He began to rebuild the temples of ancient Rome and became increasingly intolerant of foreign religions, especially the Christian Church.   It was Domitian who demanded that he be worshipped as a God, and many Christians were executed for refusing to offer up sacrifice to his image, including his own nephew, Flavius Clemens.    He had a huge marble statue of himself erected in Ephesus which would eventually become the focal point of imperial cult worship throughout Asia Minor.   This of course led to increased persecution throughout the empire. 

 When Trajan assumed the office of emperor, he did not initially demand that divine honors be paid to him.  Eventually this would begin to change as his name began to be linked together with Jupiter.  Trajan launched great persecution against the Christians to punish their refusal to honor the Roman gods.   Hadrian was often identified as the Olympian Zeus.  Antonius Pius demanded that Christians offer up sacrifice to the emperor's statue.  Anyone who might openly refuse to offer up sacrifice would be put to death.  Marcus Aurelius is famous for the execution of Christians in the arena as gladiators.  Commodus is known to have beheaded Christians who refused to swear their loyalty to him and bestow divine honors upon him. 

 Valerian and his son Gallienus demanded that the Christians also worship and offer sacrifice to the Roman gods.  Their persecution of the Christians was a revival of the same which Decius had initiated which demanded that all subjects in the kingdom must obtain a certificate from their local commissioner thereby acknowledging that they had offered up sacrifices to the Roman gods.    During the reign of Diocletian, the imperial cult was revived and all Christians refusing to sacrifice to the Roman gods were sentenced to death or hard labor in the mines. 

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Establishment of the Early Church

A New Sect of Judaism

    In the beginning, the church might be described as simply a new sect of Judaism.    The apostles taught from the Old Testament how that the scriptures spoke of Christ and confirmed that he had been the long awaited messiah of Judaism.  There was no organized corporation owning large amounts of real estate, and no such establishment of a priesthood or an organized ecclesiastical system.  The leadership was undoubtedly that of the apostles, but the local church was somewhat democratic.  Christians met at the temple, the synagogue, and private homes.  Of all the early church leaders, Peter was without doubt the most prominent. 

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Christianity Embraces The Gentiles

    Peter was the chief among all the apostles and although Paul was especially called to be the apostle to the Gentile Church, Peter's preaching to Cornelius was the gateway that invited the Gentiles into the church.  It is noteworthy that Peter was at first against having any such contact with the gentile world.  After the conversion of the house of Cornelius, Peter fully accepted them as brothers into the fellowship.  Peter's sermon preached to Cornelius is an example of the evangelistic message to the world.  It consists of a simple summary of Christ's  life, death, and coming judgment.

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Christianity Welcomes The Samaritans 

    After the violent stoning of Stephen, the various members of the early church were scattered throughout Judaism and Samaria.  Although some remained as the church in Jerusalem,  the dispersion of these many others caused the message of Christianity to spread which further resulted in numerous missionary projects. 

 Philip began his ministry as an evangelist in Samaria.  The Samaritans consisted of a racial mixture of half Jew and half Gentile.  This was a somewhat forced mixture as a result of the Assyrian dominion when the king deported many Jews out of Samaria and imported many Gentiles into the land (721 B.C.).  The Samaritans had their own temple in Mt. Gerizim and practiced a religion founded upon the writings of Moses but interwoven with other heathen practices or ideas.  After the evangelistic preaching of Philip had prepared the way, both Peter and John came into Samaria to insure that they might also receive and be empowered by the Holy Spirit. 

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Christianity Welcomes The World 

   Philip's contact with the Ethiopian Eunuch shows how the gospel message was bound to travel or be carried into all lands.  The eunuch was probably a proselyte of Judaism who had been returning from Jerusalem to his home land.  Although we have no record of what happened after the man returned home, we can be sure that he had shared with others back home what had happened to him.  The ministry that began with the apostle, being delivered to the evangelist, and finally to the individual to carry back to his homeland shows how the gospel is to be spread throughout the entire earth.

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Two Churches, Jewish and Gentile 

   Paul, who was originally named Saul, was a native of Tarsus.  The land was noted for its courses in philosophy and medicine.  Paul himself was sent to Jerusalem at the age of twelve to study under Gamaliel, who himself was a very prominent teacher in Jerusalem.  Being an adult in the days of Stephen, he had been a zealous Pharisee and was known to be a great persecutor of the early church.  It was Paul who lead the zealous mob to stone Stephen.  Paul's conversion to Christianity followed shortly thereafter, being characterized by a miraculous event that had left his eyes blinded until he was finally healed.  Paul  was especially the apostle sent to the Gentiles. 
 

 Antioch was a great prosperous city in the Roman empire in Paul's day because it served as a commercial gateway to the Orient.  As to its size, it ranks comparably to both Rome and Alexandria.   It is in Antioch that the first recognized mission goes forth to evangelize the rest of the world.  It became a great place of meeting for the leaders of the church.  Peter, Barnabas, Titus, John Mark, Judas Barsabbas, and Silas were all connected with this church in Antioch, and the church was especially distinguished for its great teachers, among which are listed both Paul and Barnabas.  It was at Antioch that these followers of Christ were first called "Christians" (Acts 11:26 KJV).   It was also at the Church of Antioch, during a regular worship service, that the Holy Spirit spoke to separate both Saul (Paul's Jewish name) and Barnabas to the special mission that he had prepared them for (Acts 13:2 KJV).    This mission carried Paul and Barnabas into Cyprus, Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe.  After Cyprus, John Mark departed from Paul and Barnabas to return to Jerusalem.

 While in Antioch of Pisidia, Paul first preached a message of justification by faith apart from the law of Moses.  This would become a crucial dividing issue between Judaism and the new Christian faith.  In Iconium, the Jewish church leaders had expelled the preachers of this new "faith" message from the synagogue.   What begins to form is a definite breaking between Judaism and Christianity. 

 At Lystra a new enemy confronted Paul.  The enemy was not Judaism but Paganism.  Paul and Barnabas taught that the true God was the same who brought forth the rain and the harvest.  Many were perhaps open to this message until the Jewish leaders from both Iconium and Pisidian Antioch had incited the ignorant against Paul as a bringer of evil propaganda.  This resulted in the stoning of Paul, but he did not die and continued with Barnabas into Derbe. 

  Although the church had been made up of both Jew and Gentile, there was always a marked difference between the two churches.  Jewish Christians continued to observe the law although they trusted ultimately in Christ for their salvation.  With the increase of the Gentiles being added to the church, many began to raise questions as to the responsibility of the Gentiles to keep the laws of Moses, especially that of the sign of circumcision which was a token of the covenant.  The arguments became so strong that the Church of  Antioch though it necessary to send a few delegates to the Church of Jerusalem so that these issues of major importance might be decided upon conclusively.  Peter was present to witness how that God desired the Gentiles to be welcomed in the Church.  Paul and Barnabas could testify to the mighty works which God had been doing among the Gentiles.  James, a strict observer of the law himself, suggested that only what was absolutely necessary be lain upon the Gentile Church.  The decision was that idolatry, fornication, eating the meat of strangled animals, and eating blood be prohibited among the Gentiles.  No other law should be imposed upon them.  This decision by the council was readily received and found acceptable to the Church of Antioch. 

 Even after this great first council, the Jews continued to think of themselves as an exclusive race and the very idea of their losing this identity by a continual merging with the Gentile believers seemed somewhat repugnant to them.  Many Jewish believers continued to meet at the local synagogue.  It was not until the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 that Judaism began to crumble.  The temple and priesthood were now gone, and only a legalistic study of the law remained.  Jewish Christianity must either follow the rabbi's interpretation of the scriptures or follow Gentile Christianity by reinterpreting the Old Testament in light of the revelation of Christ.  As a result of their knowledge of the Old Testament scriptures, the Jewish Christian was in a better position to possess a well established and solidly grounded faith.  The tendency for the Jewish church to lapse back into Judaism was apparent while the reckless life of the Gentile seemed something worth avoiding.  This dilemma seems to have brought forth the need for the book of Hebrews, in which book the author attempts to show how the temple and the priesthood, as well as the lives of the fathers, had consisted of obvious allegories, each one somehow pertaining to Christ. 

  All throughout the early missionary journeys of Paul, the church is continually confronted with false doctrine.  Things would eventually get worse instead of better.  Paul warned that wolves would come to devour the flock (Acts 20:29-30 KJV) and that other would fall away after listening to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils (1 Tim 4:1 KJV).  The false teachers were slowly beginning to manifest themselves within the church.  The enemy was not only external to the church, but had somehow entered within.  Despite the efforts of the church to govern themselves against such deviants, false teachers  were somehow gaining audience within.  Such presented an even greater danger than that which was external to the church. 

 Perhaps the greatest peril confronting the church of that time was that of doubt and fear.  Many leaders of the church had become false teachers, teaching doctrine differing from the doctrine of the apostles and thereby causing the truth to be concealed.  Many were doubting the sound doctrine upon which they had originally been established upon while others questioned whether Christ would ever return.  Peter attempts within his epistles to reassure the Christians that they have become partakers of the divine nature of Christ.  Peter further urges that such false teachers will commonly deny the lordship and redemptive work of Christ.  Their loose sinful behavior will surely give them away.  Peter warns that such mockers of God's grace will continue to do their dirty work even until the end.   Jude takes up the sceptre of Peter as he admonishes the Church to continually contend for the faith against those false apostles and false teachings of his day.   In John's first epistle we find the apostle apparently refuting the false doctrines of early Gnosticism.  This cult sought to bind men together through common rites and thinking rather than through officers and societies.  According to the Gnostic approach to God, true knowledge meant salvation as it was a means whereby men might escape the chains of this world that held most of mankind bound in their minds. 

  In A.D. 54  Nero had appeared on the scene.  He caused much persecution against the Christian Church by blaming them for starting a great fire in Rome which he himself had probably started to make room for his golden palace.  This persecution was the first of its kind directed against Christianity by the Roman state.  It was during this persecution that both Peter and Paul were martyred. 

 
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Tenney, Merrill C.  New Testament Survey Revised.  Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
 Company Inter-Varsity Press, 1985.

Freedman, David Noel.  The Anchor Bible Dictionary. New York, New York : 
Doubleday, 1992.