And it's back into our
Tardis for the fourth, and final, instalment of this brief look at the way in which the early church moved from its Hebraic roots, and mind-set, and adopted a Hellenistic mind-set instead. We’ve already looked in on the first Church Council, in Jerusalem –
that historic Council that paved the way for Gentiles (most of my readers, and me) to become a
party of the Body of the Christ. This time we are visiting a place named
Nicaea, in Turkey, in 325 AD. We are in the Imperial Palace – which is probably the
nearest we could find to a modern Conference Centre (but without the free wi-fi
connection!).
Some 300 bishops
(about 16% of those invited) are present – but only five of them are from the western church. There is no-one at all of
Jewish descent – quite a change from that first Council in Jerusalem! Delegates seated in a
semi-circle facing a raised dais. One man stands in the centre, behind a wooden
lectern. To his left, is seated the Patriarch Alexander of Alexandria – chairman of the
conference. Seated to his right is the Emperor Constantine, who had called the
conference. Constantine – of whom it has
been well said that “The ‘conversion’ of Constantine was the beginning of the
end for the church.”
So, who was Constantine? He was a military emperor
who worshipped the sun god, and relied on this deity for military success. The
relevant moment in his life, as far as the church is concerned, was the Battle
of Milvian Bridge, over the river Tiber, in October, AD 312, against the army
of Maxentius. The story is that he had a vision of a cross – already
established as the symbol of Christianity – in front of the sun, with the
words: “In hoc signo vinces” – “In this sign, conquer”. The record is, it must be acknowledged, rather vague,
but Constantine was, indeed, victorious in spite of having a smaller army than
his rival and opponent. This battle left Constantine the undisputed Emperor of
Rome – and Christianity, after years of persecution under Diocletian, the
official religion of the Empire.
I am not going to bore
you with the minutiae of the doctrinal decisions of the Council. However, there
was one issue in which Constantine was not content to be a passive observer.
This concerned the timing of the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus.
There was, already, a growing animosity towards Jews, and moves to strip away
all connection between the Crucifixion/Resurrection and the Jewish Passover
which was the time when of those events had taken place. Constantine now read out a
letter which he, as Emperor, was going to circulate throughout Christendom. The
letter, were it to be sent today, would be considered, rightly, to be highly
anti-Semitic. Here are just a couple of phrases to provide a flavour: “And truly, in the first place, it seemed … a
most unworthy thing that we should follow the custom of the Jews in the
celebration of this most holy solemnity who, polluted wretches, having stained
their hands with a nefarious crime, are justly blinded in their minds … … … Let
us then have nothing in common with the most hostile rabble of the Jews.” That sounds like something straight from the annual conference of the contemporary British Labour Party!!
So the Council – the first great Council of the Christian Church – validates a policy that is going
to result in the persecution, and even attempted genocide, of the Jewish people
for many centuries. It’s the start of a long slide away from the Jewish roots
of the faith; and later Councils simply “put the boot in” again and again. Some
20 years later the Council of Antioch threatened excommunication for any
Christian who celebrated Passover with the Jews. Twenty years after that, the Council of Laodicea extended that threat to all Jewish festivals, and to the
weekly Shabbat. The Jewish roots of the Christian faith had been well and truly
sliced away, and left rotting in the ground. Christianity had morphed into a
Greek philosophical discipline – and it has been so ever since.
And what has been
the practical outcome of all of this? It is that Greek philosophical ideas
became the key to understanding the fundamental doctrines/teachings of the
Church – the Body of the Lord Jesus, the Christ (Yeshua, HaMashiach). No
criticism or regret – just unthinking (and blind!) acceptance; as if the pagan
pollution of faith in Yeshua was somehow unavoidable; as if the Bible alone was
insufficient for our understanding of Almighty God, and His dealings with
mankind! So soon after the 500th anniversary year of the beginning of the
Reformation, we do well to be reminded that the first of the five great “Solas”
is “Sola Scriptura” – Scripture alone! (the others are Sola Fide - faith alone; Sola Gratis - grace alone; Solus Christus - Christ alone;
Soli Deo Gloria - to the glory of God alone).
Plato’s dichotomy of
body and soul – Soul = good; Body = bad – has effected how we see ourselves in
God’s eyes. So, if the body is bad, then
anything connected with the body is also bad – particularly sex! So, those who
followed “spiritual” careers are expected to be celibate – regardless of the fact
that this is nowhere demanded in Scripture (although Paul does appear to have
commended it!). This practice continues in Church of Rome – and, it could be
argued, is the basic reason why that denomination has had to pay out a great
deal of cash in compensation claims! Of course, sex outside marriage is, for
the disciple of Jesus, a definite no-no! As, indeed, is the remarriage of
divorcees whose spouse is still alive!
I'm not going to go into
the whole business of the religious hierarchy that arose in spite of I Peter 2:4,9;
etc. This was, in effect, a copy of Greek civil order. And then of course,
there were the buildings – the first of which wasn’t even built until the 4th century at the instigation of (would you believe it?!) Constantine. Previously,
the church – i.e. the people of God – had met in homes, as many once again do! But
now, Christians were enticed out of their homes and, instead of being the church, they went to church! I have always loved the sign outside a particular church building in the city of Edinburgh. It reads, (if memory serves me well): "The home of Bellevue Baptist Church". Not the church, but the building in which the church - men and women and young people and children - meet!
What I now hope to do is to share, from time to time, some well-known passages of the Tanakh - but look at them, as well as I can, through Jewish eyes; from a Hebraic mind-set. Do join with me as I do so. Your company will be most welcome.