V. THE THREE LEADING ERRORS
Subject: The Lord’s churches.
Theme: The first church split.
Objective: To teach the true history of the Lord’s church.
Text:
I. INTRODUCTION
A.
1. The Christian Religion began with Jesus Christ of Nazareth somewhere around A.D. 30.
2. The Lord’s first church was His Apostles.
(a). Shortly after His death the church was headquartered at Jerusalem.
(b). We generally refer to the Jerusalem church as the "Mother Church."
3. The Lord was crucified on Calvary’s cross around A.D. 33.
4. Following His death, In rapid succession many other saints were martyred:
(a). Stephen was stoned, Matthew was slain in Ethiopia, (b). Mark dragged to his death through the streets,
(c). Luke was hanged, Peter and Simeon were crucified, (d). Andrew tied to a cross, James was beheaded,
(e). Philip crucified and stoned, Bartholomew flayed alive, (f). Thomas pierced with lances, James the less, thrown from the temple and beaten to death,
(g). Jude shot to death with arrows, Matthias stoned to death and Paul beheaded.
5. Little more than one hundred years had gone by before all this had happened.
B. Errors Of This Time.
1. Hard persecution by Judaism and Paganism continued for two more centuries.
2. And yet the Christian religion continued to grow tremendously. 3. It went into all the Roman Empire, Europe, Asia, Africa, England, Wales, and about everywhere else, where there was civilization.
4. The churches greatly multiplied and the disciples increased steadily.
5. But some of the churches continued to go into error.
6. Some of the leading errors which originated during this time were:
(a). The Hierarchy.
(b). Baptismal Regeneration.
(c). Infant Baptism.
II. THE LEADING ERRORS ORIGINATING DURING THIS PERIOD
A. The Hierarchy.
1. In the first two centuries the number of individual churches increased rapidly.
2. Some of the earlier ones, such as Jerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, etc., grew to be very large.
3. Based on the information given us in (Acts 2:41, 4:4, 5:14), some estimate that the church at Jerusalem possibly had 25,000 - 50,000 members or more.
4. From our study so far, we have already seen that Paul had his hands full trying to keep some of those churches straight.
5. Simon Peter tried to warn the early churches as well--- 1Peter 5:1 The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: 2 Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; 3 Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.
6. Some of these huge churches had many preachers or elders---
Acts 20:17 And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church.7. Some of the bishops or pastors began to assume authority not given them in the New Testament.
(a). The larger churches began to claim authority over some of the other smaller churches.
(b). Those large churches, with their many elders, began to lord over God's heritage.
(c).
8. This error continued to grow after the death of the Apostles.
9. It grew and multiplied into many other seriously hurtful errors.
10. It was the beginning of different orders in the ministry leading up finally to what is practiced now by others as well as the Catholic Church.
11. It began what resulted in an entire change from the original democratic policy and government of the early churches.
12. It began in a small way, even before the close of the second century.
13. And it was possibly the first serious departure from the New Testament church order.
14. I quote now from Mosheim the most renown of all Lutheran church historians approx. 1723). Vol. 1, pages 71 and 72: "But whoever supposes that the bishops of this golden age of the church correspond with the bishops of the following centuries must blend and confound characters that are very different, for in this century and the next, a bishop had charge of a single church which might ordinarily be contained in a private house; nor was he its Lord, but was in reality its minister or servant. All the churches in those primitive times were independent bodies, or none of them subject to the jurisdiction of any other. For though the churches which were founded by the Apostles themselves frequently had the honor shown them to be consulted in doubtful cases, yet they had no judicial authority, no control, no power of giving laws. On the contrary, it is as clear as the noonday that all Christian churches had equal rights, and were in all respects on a footing of equality."
B. Baptismal Regeneration.
1. The second leading error indicated by history to have had its beginnings before the close of the second century was on the doctrine of salvation itself.
2. The Jews as well as the Pagans, had for many generations, been trained to lay great stress on Ceremonials.
3. They had come to look upon types as anti-types, shadows as real substances, and ceremonials as real saving agencies. 4. It was almost natural for them to come to look upon baptism in just such a way.
5. They reasoned that--- the Bible had much to say concerning baptism, much stress is laid upon that particular ordinance and our duty concerning it; surely it must have something to do with our salvation.
6. So that it was in this period that the idea of "Baptismal Regeneration" began to get a fixed hold in some of the churches. (Shackelford, p. 57, Camp, p. 47; Benedict, p. 286; Mosheim, vol. 1, p. 134; Christian, p. 28.)
7. What saith the Scriptures? Eph. 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
8. May I remind us that...
(a). That none of the O.T. saints were ever baptized.
(b). The "thief on the cross" was not baptized.
(c). John the Baptist himself, was not baptized.
(d). John refused to baptize the Pharisees and Sadducees, would he refuse to save anyone? See
C.
Infant Baptism.1. The next serious error to begin creeping in, was infant baptism.
2. Some historians (not all), believe this to have begun in this same century.
3. This was an inevitable consequence of the "baptismal regeneration" idea.
4. Since baptism has been declared to be an agency or means to salvation by some erring churches, then the sooner baptism takes place the better.
5. Prior to this "believers" and "believers" only were regarded as proper subjects for baptism.
6. We are not talking about "Sprinkling" and "pouring," these came in much later.
7. For several centuries, infants, like all others, were immersed. 8. The Greek Catholics (a very large branch of the Catholic church) up to this day, have never changed the original form of baptism.
9. They practice infant baptism but they have never done it any way other than immerse the children.
10. Note: Some of the church historians put the beginning of infant baptism within the second century, but I shall quote a short paragraph from "Robinson's Ecclesiastical Researches." "During the first three centuries, congregations all over the East subsisted in separate independent bodies, unsupported by government and consequently without any secular power over one another. All this time they were baptized churches, and though all the fathers of the first four ages, down to Jerome (A.D. 370), were of Greece, Syria and Africa, and though they give great numbers of histories of the baptism of adults, yet there is not one of the baptism of a child till the year 370." (Shackelford's Compendium of Baptist History, p. 43; Vedder, p. 50; Christian, p. 31; Orchard, p. 50, etc.)
11. Keep in mind that changes like these here mentioned were not made in a day, nor even within a year; they came about slowly and not within all the churches.
(a). Some of the churches vigorously repudiated them.
(b). So much so that in A.D. 251, the loyal churches declared non-fellowship for those churches which accepted and practiced these and other errors.
(c). And so came about the first real official separation among the churches.
III. CONCLUSION
A. Summary.
1. About the middle of the third century the lines were clearly drawn.
2. Those churches that remained loyal to the Scriptures were now clearly separate from those that had gone into error and apostasy.
3. Constantine ruled as Emperor of the Roman Empire from 306 to 337 A.D. and his reign was to mark one of the great turning points in church history.
4. During a battle in 312 A.D. Emperor Constantine believed he had a vision of a flaming cross and above it the words, "By this sign thou shalt conquer."
5. He decided to fight under the banner of Christ and Christianity came into favor in the Roman Government.
6. In 313 A.D. Constantine gave a call for all the churches to come together and pronounced himself as the head of the churches.
7. Many, but not all, of the churches came.
8. The true churches would have no part in this error.
9. This hierarchy or body of church rulers, that Constantine formed was the definite beginning of the Roman Catholic Church.
10. Many of the errors of Catholicism had already had their beginning but now they were organized into a definite system.
11. Constantine made "Christianity" the "State Religion."
(a). Up until this point the persecution of the Christians had been done either by Judaism or Paganism.
(b). Now came a change; Christians (in name) began using the law to compel all Christians to join the organization.
(c). The true churches that refused were persecuted.
(d). The division was now complete; the true churches refused to line up with the errors of the "state church." 12. The church of Constantine became what we know as the Roman Catholic Church.
(a). Baptists were never part of Roman Catholicism.
(b). They remained true to the Scriptures and rejected the error.
13. After the organization of the churches into a hierarchy and their acceptance as a "State Religion" the true, loyal churches that rejected this error were identified by various names.
14. It is not to be understood that each of these groups was entirely free from error or entirely embraced the truth.
15. Through these groups can be traced the people called Baptists.
16. In these groups is to be found the true church -- not in Catholicism.
(a). Montanist
(b). Paulician
(c). Novationist
(d). Paterines
(e). Donatist
(f). Albigenses
(g). Anabaptists
(h). These were some of the names used to identify those who refused to identify with Rome.
B. The Dark Ages
1. The period from 426 A.D. to 1628 A.D. is called the "Dark Ages."
2. With the establishment of the new Catholic secular power a bloody persecution began.
3. Loyal, New Testament churches, by whatever name they were called, were hunted and hounded to the utmost limit by this new Catholic power.
4. The now established Catholic Church began a war of extermination upon all who opposed her.
5. It is reliably reported that 50,000,000 died of persecution during the Dark Ages.
6. During the bloody times of persecution, as Catholicism tried to exterminate the true churches, many of the false doctrines of the Catholic church of today began to take place.
C. The Inquisition 1198-1700.
1. A period of time between 1198 A.D. to 1700 A.D.
2. The Inquisition was instituted by Pope Innocent III and perfected under Pope Gregory IX.
3. It was a "Church Court" established by the popes for the trying and punishing of "heretics" ... a heretic being anyone who did not agree with Roman Catholicism.
4. The Inquisition lasted for 500 years and was a time of indescribable horror.
5. During all this persecution Baptist churches continued to exist.
D. The Reformation.
1. The conditions within the Catholic Church had become so corrupt that many voices were raised within the church in protest (thus, the term "Protestants").
2. Among these voices were those of...
(a). John Wycliffe (1320- 1384),
(b). John Huss (1373-1415),
(c). Savonarola (1452-1498),
(d). Zwingli (1484-1531),
(e). John Knox (1505-1572),
(f). John Calvin (1509-1564),
(g). And Martin Luther.
3. The combined effort of these men, along with many others, brought about the "Reformation".
4. All these Reformers started new churches.
(a). This was the beginning of Protestantism.
(b). All Protestant churches had their beginning in the period of the Reformation or since that time.
5. Baptists continued to exist through the Reformation as they had since the time of Christ.