Posted on 09/12/2013 4:22:27 AM PDT by imardmd1
In 1962, philosopher-scientist Thomas Kuhn coined the term “paradigm shift” to signal a massive change in the way a community thinks about a particular topic. Examples of paradigm shifts include Copernicus’s discovery that the earth revolves around the sun, Einstein’s theory of relativity, and Darwin’s theory of evolution. Each changed the world of thought (some for better, some for worse) in a fundamental way.
From a political perspective, Constantine’s Edict of Milan, issued in AD 313, constituted the formal beginning of a major paradigm shift that signaled the end of the ancient world and the beginning of the medieval period. That edict legitimated Christianity and impressed upon it the Empire’s stamp of approval.
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It is a fair question to ask: “Why do we care about the eschatological views of the early church fathers?” We as evangelicals emphatically agree with Hodge that “the true method of theology… assumes that the Bible contains all the facts or truths which form the contents of theology.” As Ryrie cogently put it:
The fact that something was taught in the first century does not make it right (unless taught in the canonical Scriptures), and the fact that something was not taught until the nineteenth century does not make it wrong unless, of course, it is unscriptural.
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From a theological perspective—specifically an eschatological one—the Edict of Milan also signaled a monumental paradigm shift—from the well-grounded premillennialism of the ancient church fathers to the amillennialism or postmillennialism that would dominate eschatological thinking from the fourth century AD to at least the middle part of the nineteenth century. Yet, as explored below, the groundwork for this shift was laid long before Constantine issued the Edict of Milan in AD 313. In the two centuries that led up to the edict, two crucial interpretive errors found their way into the church that made conditions ripe for the paradigm shift incident to the Edict of Milan. The second century fathers failed to keep clear the biblical distinction between Israel and the church. Then, the third century fathers abandoned a more-or-less literal method of interpreting the Bible in favor of Origen’s allegorical-spiritualized hermeneutic. Once the distinction between Israel and the church became blurred, once a literal hermeneutic was lost, with these foundations removed, the societal changes occasioned by the Edict of Milan caused fourth century fathers to reject premillennialism in favor of Augustinian amillennialism.
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The crushing blow for premillennialism came with the Edict of Milan in AD 313, by which Constantine reversed the Roman Empire’s policy of hostility toward Christianity and accorded it full legal recognition and even favor. Historian Paul Johnson calls the issuance of this edict “one of the decisive events in world history. With it, no longer was the blood of the martyrs the seed of the church. Rather, Christianity would be, in many ways, a mirror-image of the empire itself. “It was catholic, universal, ecumenical, orderly, international, multi-racial and increasingly legalistic.” It was a huge force for stability. Hence, Christianity after 313 would become worldly, rather than other-worldly.
The church’s new-found favor from Rome caused dramatic upheavals. Jerome complained that “one who was yesterday a catechumen is today a bishop; another moves overnight from the ampitheatre to the church; a man who spent the evening in the circus stands next morning at the altar, and another who was recently a patron of the stage is now the dedicator of virgins.” He wrote that “our walls glitter with gold, and gold gleams upon our ceilings and the capitals of our pillars; yet Christ is dying at our doors in the person of his poor, naked and hungry.”
Thus, the focus of the church changed from looking for ultimate comfort in the world beyond the grave to seeking comfort in this world, in the here and now. Christianity was viewed as “a religion with a glorious past as well as an unlimited future. As a result, it suffered what Johnson called “a receding, indeed, disappearing, eschatology.”
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The lesson for us is that we must continually guard against interpreting the Bible according to current events—a point often lost on some of dispensational millennialism’s more popular proponents.
The bottom line, of course, is that we must continually go back to the Scriptures as our only source for “doing theology.” As much as we may respect and admire the early church fathers, or, for that matter, the reformers, the puritans, or a particular modern spiritual leader, we must always remember to be Bereans, checking their conclusions and reasoning against the plumb line of God’s Word. No one could put it more clearly or forcefully than Martin Luther as he boldly and defiantly proclaimed before the Diet of Worms: “Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason—I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other—my conscience is captive to the Word of God… Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise.”
So now you propose to tell me what I accept? Hmm! I can tell you this much for certain. The apostles didn’t teach of the assumption or veneration of Mary and that along with many other of the RCC teachings makes the teaching of the RCC “another gospel”. I treat it as such and the teachers I consider “accursed” as Galatians 1 states.
Why would they teach the veneration of Mary? The veneration of Mary comes from our rejection of the teachings of those Christians who denied that Jesus was literally the son of God? The first Marian dogma, the Virgin birth,of course, found its way into Matthew and Luke in the form of the nativity stories and the attendant doctrine of the Incarnation in John’s Prologue. It was finally made totally explicit in the proclamations of the first great councils who insisted that Mary was theotokos —mother of God. The immaculate conception and the Assumption are essentially corollary to the divinity of Jesus, both proclaimed in an age that denies it.
Mary was hardly in the background in the first two Chapters of Luke. As for our veneration of Mary, it is of an entirely different sort that the Apostles would have paid to the person of the mother of Jesus. She does not seem to have traveled with him in Galilee. They could hardly have know about the circumstances of his birth from him. Until after the Resurrection, they would have thought such a story to be as preposterous as moderns today do. We don’t know how Luke and Matthew came to include the stories in their Gospels. Marcion, who made Luke his only Gospel, left off the first two chapters because the doctrine of the incarnation did not fit his theology.
“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” Galatians 1:8-9
Nuff said.
Now you show me your proof that the apostles taught sola scriptura.
We venerate Mary because we worship Jesus as the son of God. This is no contradiction of the Gospel. If Jesus is our savior, it is not the same way that Moses was the savior of his people. How could the death of a mere man, even a great and holy man, save mankind? he has to have been the Son of God and he had to be a man, and Mary is the Mother of God.
No, it is simply other than what you claim to be the Gospel.
Noticed that Paul says "any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached [not written] unto you." Again he says: "any other gospel unto you than that ye have received" [not have read]. This gospel is that which has been handed down over the centuries by the Church in Sacred Tradition and the liturgy as well as in Scripture. Search as you may but you will find no proof that the apostles or anyone in the early Church ever taught sola scriptura.
It may be what you consider proof but there is not one shred of evidence to show that the apostles taught that. Not one. The Bereans were commended for searching the scriptures daily to see if even what Paul taught was true. I’ll not believe your hearsay or trust the story tellers over centuries let alone millennia. You’re preaching another gospel. Suit yourself but remember the “let him be accursed” ending to that verse.
Hearsay!
It seems clear that, operating in the flesh, his allegiance was toward a Master whose goal, as Peter thought, was to bring an earthly dominion that would reform religion, eject Roman dominance, and provide His special disciple/apostles a high position in the government that this New Master would impose. Peter's initiative, verve, desire for eminence, and intermittant commitment demonstrated his continual errors and misjudgments that Jesus certainly knew He had to manage, in taking Simon bar Jonah on as a subject needing transformation (not reformation) to be of service under the New Covenant.
I believe that the continual vignettes of Simon/Peter's dilemmas and responses while operating in the flesh are given not as a confirmation of his value to the ministry, but as proof of the damage an unregenerated "believer" can do to a ministry, and should be an example to us all as a call to spiritual maturity.
Note that Peter's tendencies to err continued to influence his actions even through the post-Calvary presence of The Christ, and especially in the ten days following His Ascension, right up until the momentuous Arrival of Another Comforter and Guide (of the Same Kind), at which Simon Peter exhibited the startling transformation that led to his soul-winning Pentecostal homily--one of being led by the Indwelling Holy Ghost.
I am not a Catholic, but I do find your references to one of the founding Saints of Christianity to be offensive and in need of being tempered.
Perhaps you might take into account that subsequent to the Pentecostal metamorphic transformation, Peter's actions began to reflect a spiritual maturity worthy of imitation by Christian generations to follow. Though this pattern was interrupted by a couple of minor incidents of recidivism to old behaviors ("Not so, Lord" at Joppa; Paul's rebuke of Peter at Antioch), Peter began to model submission to his pastor and co-equal Apostles in the Polity of the Jerusalem church, and finally, from Babylon, penned the grand letters to the dispersed Jews of his bounded ministry (to the Circumcision, 1 Peter); and to the broader scope of all faithful (2 Peter, confirmation of Paul's writings and condemning the negligence of teaching by discipling); as well as coaching John Mark in the formation of a 3rd biographical sketch of Jesus' ministry. These were done about 65-67 A.D., about thirty-some-odd years after his own training by Jesus, and continually growing submission to the Holy Ghost.
The story of Peter's transformation is stunning, and worthy of careful thought by those who wish to place him into the wrong role as Primary Prelate of an erring religion. I do not believe Peter, in the end, would have wished for that position he would have sought for at the first.
But certainly, at the Bema of Christ, it must be that of Peter He will say. "Well done, thou good and faithful servant ... enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."
Eh?
Excellent article imardmd1! Thanks for posting!
First of all you failed to show where the apostles taught the assumption or veneration of saints. Nonetheless, I’ll issue another challenge.
“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” Galatians 1:8-9
Do you know of any other source of what the apostles taught? Paul also commended the Bereans for because they “searched the scriptures daily” to see if what he taught was correct. And please don’t waste your time trying to tell me that the RCC somehow has been handed down some unwritten “tradition” that the apostles didn’t record. That can only be considered hearsay.
I am still waiting for your proof that the apostles taught sola scriptura.
Well, that makes us even. I’m still waiting for you to prove that the apostles taught the assumption and veneration of Mary and I asked the question first.
There is massive evidence of persecution, that has been openly discussed for the last 300 years, and was the reason that catholicism was considered criminal at the founding of this country.
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Utter gibberish!
The entire new testament is riddled with clumsy translation errors caused by the total lack of understanding of the Hebrew and aramaic languages, and the Hebrew culture, by the the greek translators. there is not one book that doesn't contain these Hebrew related errors.
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>> “While Matthew was most likely originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic, the rest of the New Testament was clearly written in Greek.” <<
Ugly strawman! - That is not what I said.
All of the NT was ORIGINALLY written in Hebrew, or the the mistranslations of Hebrew would not be present in them.
There are passages in every book that are complete nonsequiturs, making no sense at all, because of these misunderstandings of Hebrew colloquialisms, and culturally centered figures of speech.
Judea was a bilingual country, conquered by Alexander more than three hundred years before Christ. Even in Jerusalem, there were Jews who spoke only Greek, which is why Stephen was made a deacon.
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