A Brief History of Christianity
By Michael Faber
Genealogy is a hot topic these days. People are excited to find out
who their ancestors are and how they came to be where and who they
are. And this is an important pursuit. Knowing one’s family story
gives one a sense of belonging and continuity within a family. But the
family story is not the only story. Christians have a story, as
well. And understanding Christianity’s story is important in
understanding how Christianity came to be what it is today and how
present day Christians participate in that story. This article
presents a very brief overview of that story: The story of Christianity,
incarnation to eternity.
The story begins as God comes to men as a man. He took to Himself a
human nature and walked among us. His name was Jesus. He was born in
Bethlehem to a virgin, and grew up in a small town in Israel named
Nazareth. When He grew up, He performed many miraculous signs, and
preached with the authority of God. Many came and followed Him. But
not everyone. Jesus’ enemies, the leaders of Israel, were so
threatened by Him that they plotted to arrest Him, charge Him falsely,
and put Him to death for blasphemy.
But this was all part of God’s plan. Jesus was put to death by
crucifixion. But death could not hold Him. Three days later, Jesus
was resurrected, and appeared to His disciples. He ate some fish to
demonstrate that it was, in fact, Him, resurrected in His body, wounds
and all. After several days, Jesus commanded them to wait for the Holy
Spirit to come in power, and then He returned to heaven.
On the day we now call Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came, and Jesus
disciples spoke in languages they could not understand, and preached
the good news of salvation to the crowds in Israel. Three thousand
came to believe in Christ that day. And thus the church was born.
Of course, this isn’t the end of the story, but the beginning. The Church does
not
exactly live happily ever after. Not yet, anyway. The church is born
into a time when those around them did not want them. The Church was
persecuted from the beginning; first by the Jewish leaders of Israel
who rejected Christ as messiah; then by Jewish synagogues around the
world; and finally by the Roman government, who determined Christianity
to be an illegal religion, and often imprisoned or killed those who
claimed to be Christians.
Then the world literally changed overnight. Constantine, the
Emperor of Rome became a Christian in 323 AD, and declared Christianity
to be the religion of the Empire. Suddenly it was no longer a crime
to be a Christian, but a crime NOT to be one. Everything was turned on
its head. Up until this time, one of the major Christian issues was
what to do with those who believed, but either gave up being Christians
because of persecution or publicly declared that they were not
Christians in order to avoid persecution. Up until this time, baptisms
were made immediately upon profession of faith because there was no
question that the individual believed because of the threat of
persecution. Church was held in households and was lead by house
leaders. Communion was served as a meal.
Now people were claiming to be Christians simply because Rome
demanded it. People wanted to be baptized to obey the law. The
problem wasn’t those who rejected their faith, but those who claimed it
out of duty to Rome or to fit in, and had no interest in being
faithful to Christ. Communion wasn’t a mail shared by a household, but
a massive event endured by the entire empire. In a sense,
Christianity had gone from persecuted to persecutor, albeit the Roman
government was persecuting, but it was not long before the Roman
government and the Church became indistinguishable.
In spite of these massive changes, this period of time is one we
might call the Time of the Creeds. Over the next 450 years or so, the
Church would enact seven major creeds, which define fundamentally what
the Church believes: Nicea (325), Constantinople (381), Ephesus (431),
Chalcedon (451), Constantinople II (553), Constantinople III (680),
Nicea II (787). These creeds deal with the nature of God, the natures
of Christ, and the acceptability of icons in worship. If you want to
understand some of the underlying theology of the Church, these creeds
are a great place to start.
The Church, in spite of its theological struggles, remained one
Church for a thousand years. But in 1054, the Western Church, which we
now know as the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) made a minor modification
to one of the creeds, and the Eastern Church, which were comprised of
the other major Churches, which we now call the Eastern Orthodox
Church, did not agree with it. So bitter was the dispute over the
Filoique that each side excommunicated the bishops of the other church, and the church was split in two: East and West.
The two churches remained two churches until the 1500s until an
Augustinian Monk by the name of Martin Luther began to have some
significant differences with the RCC. He began to write and engage
other church leaders on these matters, and created quite a stir.
Luther wanted to have a debate with the RCC about these matters, and
created 95 theses, or statements to be debated. When the RCC refused,
Martin Luther grabbed a hammer and nailed these 95 theses to the door
of the local church. Needless to say that the RCC was not happy about
Luther’s actions, and eventually excommunicated him.
Luther had developed quite a following in Germany, and the people
there rallied to him, and they formed their own church, to protest the
problems within the RCC. This began what we now call the Protestant
movement, of which the first church was the Lutheran Church, named
after Martin Luther. Other leaders and churches would follow suit. In
Switzerland, John Calvin began the theological tradition that is known
as Calvinism, and is followed by many Protestant churches. In the
Netherlands, Arminius began his theological tradition. The Protestant
Church has grown to become a third wing of the church, comprising many
denominations and independent churches that have their roots directly
or indirectly in the RCC, but remain apart in protest of theological
and practical problems.
That brings us to today. The church remains divided, coping with
myriad disputes between its groups. Yet, there remains a fundamental
element of unity in the church surrounding Christ and the essential
beliefs that make us all Christians. It is now our turn to write a
chapter in Christianity’s story. Perhaps is it time to put aside our
differences and make it our shared priority to represent the body of
Christ as one body united in the purpose of reaching the world with the
gospel, so that salvation might come to all men, and we might all spend
eternity in the glory and majesty that is Christ our savior.
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