That the early Christian Church in the Near East struggled with schisms in the Church is evidenced by the writings of the Apostles of Jesus Christ. Even before the apostles died, the Church was on that slippery road to apostasy. Here are just a few apostolic warnings:
Peter
But
there were false
prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in
damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift
destruction.
And many shall follow their pernicious ways;
by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of (2 Peter 2: 1-2.)
John
Little
children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall
come, even now are there many antichrists . . . They went out from us, but they were
not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no
doubt have continued with us: but they went
out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us (1 John 2: 18-19.)
For
many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.
This is a deceiver and an antichrist .
. .
Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth
not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of
Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring
not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither
bid him God speed . . . (2 John 7: 9-10.)
Paul
For
I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the
flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to
draw away disciples after them (Acts 29-30.)
But
if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches
of God
. . . For first of all, when ye come
together in the church, I hear that there be division among you; and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may
be made manifest among you (1 Corinthians 11: 17-19.)
Let
no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not
come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition (2 Thessalonians 2: 3.)
Jude
For
there are certain men crept in
unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation,
ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness [1], and denying the only
Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ . . . But these speak evil of those things
which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those
things they corrupt themselves. Woe unto them! .
. . To execute judgment upon all,
and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds
which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against
him . . . These are murmurers,
complainers, walking after their own lusts; and
their mouth speaketh great swelling words,
having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage [2] . . .
These be they who separate
themselves [3],
sensual, having not the Spirit (
Jude 4, 10-11,15-16, 19.)
[1]
Some people were teaching that since grace saves, all
one had to do was to become a Christian and then he could do whatever he
wanted. There was a lot of sexual
immorality in particular among the early Church with the idea that it was okay
because Jesus paid for their sins. Paul
addressed this issue in his letters to the Romans and Corinthians. One example
from Romans 6: “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid!” (Verses 1-2)
[2]
People listened to men of prominence and wealth,
even though those men were not righteous men or duly ordained Church leaders –
much in the same way that we often admire movie stars and sports heroes, even
when those people often live immoral lives and more often don’t know where of
they speak.
By the Third Century A. D., the Church in the Mediterranean world was quite different from the original, New Testament Church. The people still worshipped Jesus Christ and considered themselves to be Christians, but the teachings and ordinances were so changed as to be almost unrecognizable. After the apostles died (with the exception of John the Beloved, who was translated) the Church moved into the dark night of general apostasy. John, who had been imprisoned on Patmos for a time, was returned to Ephesus. Eventually, he was taken from their midst as apostasy deepened. People assumed he must have died, but no one knew where his grave could be. The ancient historian, Hippolytus wrote that “he fell asleep
at Ephesus, where his remains were sought for but could not be found.”[1]
Tomorrow, we will see how a similar thing happened in the Americas.
[1] Scott R. Peterson, Where
Have All the Prophets Gone? Cedar Fort 2005, pp 115-117. Many historical references regarding the
apostasy and reformation come from this book.
It is a well researched, carefully documented, and scholarly work and I highly
recommend it to any faithful and concerned Christian.
Text copyright January 2014, Gebara Education
Pictures of the apostles as envisioned by some of the great masters can be found at multiple sources on the web by querying the apostles' names.
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