I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and
earth;
And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord: who was
conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius
Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell; the third day
he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right
hand of God the Father Almighty; from there, he will come to judge the living
and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the
communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and
the life everlasting. Amen.
Expanding and governing as a single Christian Church
The Church grew explosively during the first hundred years
after Christ’s ascension into heaven. One factor that proved extremely helpful
for the budding Christian Church was the political and economic stability of
the Roman Empire. Although persecutions were pretty common, this environment
nonetheless enabled Christian missionaries, such as the Apostle Paul and his
mates, to easily move throughout the region and spread the gospel (except for
those inconvenient times when they were in jail). They spoke the Good News of
Jesus Christ to a Gentile population that was sick of the dead-end pagan gods
of the Roman Empire and was eager to follow a religion of hope, joy, and
salvation. The Church’s rapid growth was also due in part to the fact that the early
Christians practiced what they preached. They didn’t wear WWJD bracelets or put
Got Jesus? Bumper stickers on their donkeys, but they lived out their faith by
caring for the poor and helpless, sharing material resources with each other,
and reaching out to their neighbours. The early second-century Church scholar
Tertullian wrote that the pagan neighbours remarked in amazement, “See how they
love one another.”
However, Christianity’s rapid growth proved unsettling to
Roman authorities, who saw Christianity as a much different religion compared
to Judaism. On one hand, Judaism was a self-contained body of believers. The Jews
didn’t reach out to others much, so Rome was content to let them be so long as
they didn’t rebel against Roman authority. Christians, on the other hand, were
a bothersome bunch of folks. They were always seeking to evangelize others
throughout Rome, refusing to honour Caesar as Lord and to worship the Roman
gods. Seen as a thorn in the mighty empire’s side, Christians during the first
three centuries after Christ’s ascension periodically fell under intense
persecution by the Roman emperors.
All of this changed in the early fourth century, when the
Emperor Constantine came to power. Constantine saw Christianity as a
potentially unifying force that could bring together and stabilize his empire,
which was rapidly decaying and becoming increasingly fragmented. Because of
Constantine, the Christian Church, for better or worse, moved from being
persecuted to being prestigious. The Church gradually became more involved in
the state and with politics, an idea that was a fundamental part of the Church
for more than a millennium until the idea of the separation of Church and state
started taking shape. This dominance of Christianity throughout Europe and the
marriage between Church and state is commonly known as Christendom.
Throughout the first thousand years of the Christian Church,
the Body of Christ was one entity, often referred to as the catholic (meaning “universal”)
Church.
Martyrs: Dying for their faith
Throughout history, Christians have been persecuted,
tortured, and executed for their faith. A Christian who goes through this
persecution on behalf of Jesus Christ is known as a martyr (derived from the
Greek word meaning “witness”). The Book of Acts (Chapter 7) records a man named
Stephen as the first Christian martyr – he was stoned to death by religious
leaders because of his testimony about Jesus as the Messiah. Although most
martyrs aren’t mentioned in the Bible, Church tradition says that all the
original apostles (except John) died martyr’s deaths:
Andrew was crucified in Archaia in A.D. 80.
Bartholomew was whipped, crucified, and beheaded in Armenia.
James the Son of Alphaeus was either beaten to death or was
crucified.
As recorded in Acts 12:2, James the Son of Zebedee was
beheaded by King Herod Agrippa in A.D. 43.
Judas (not Iscariot, who was the one who betrayed Jesus) was
either clubbed to death or crucified.
Matthew was speared to death in Nadabah, Ethiopia in A.D.
60.
Philip was stoned and crucified in Phrygia.
According to early Church fathers Tertullian and Origen,
Simon Peter was crucified upside down at his request, feeling unworthy of being
crucified in the same way as Jesus was.
Simon Zelotes was crucified in Britain in A.D. 74.
Thomas was speared to death in Calamina, India.
Matthias was stoned to death and beheaded by the Jews in
Jerusalem.
Martyrdom continued in the early Church during the first
three centuries of its existence as Christians were persecuted intensely by the
Roman Empire (see the “Expanding and governing as a single Christian Church”
section). Christian persecution has occurred off-and-on throughout history and
occurs even in this day and age. The best-known book available on Christian martyrs
is the classic Foxe’s Christian Martyrs of the World (Barbour and Company,
1989), written by a 16th-century man named John Foxe. The book is a compilation
of the stories of Christian martyrs, from the apostles through Foxe’s lifetime.
While Christians in the West enjoy religious liberty, an
estimated 200 million Christians living in non-Western countries – such as
China, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Iran – face the threat of persecution (prison,
torture, or even death) because of their faith. Groups within the Church have
set aside a specific day of prayer, called the International Day of Prayer for
the Persecuted Church, to pray for persecuted Christians. For more information,
check out idop.org.
The Great Separation: Western and Eastern Churches go their
own ways
Although the Church was united during the first centuries of
its existence, geography defined two distinct parts. The Western Church was
centered in Rome and in the surrounding Mediterranean region. The Eastern
Church gravitated across Greece and Asia Minor. Although they worked under the
umbrella of a universal Church, strains between Western and Eastern Christianity
came to a boil in the 11th century.
In 1054, a representative of the bishop of Rome travelled to
Constantinople to deliver an official document from the leader of the Western
Church (Pope Leo IX) to the leadership of the Eastern Church. The message was
plain and simple – the Eastern Church was excommunicated (excluded from the
Church because of conduct judged as offensive to God) from the Western Church. He
placed the paper on the altar of the main church in Constantinople and walked out.
Seeing what was occurring, a deacon ran out to catch the pope’s representative
and pleaded for him to take back the document. He refused, the decree dropped,
and the document was left as litter in the street. This event was the starting
point of what has become known as the Great Schism of 1054 in which the Western
and Eastern parts of the unified Church split up (see Figure 10-1). The Western
Church assumed the name “Roman Catholic” (conveying their belief that they were
the “universal” Church), while the Eastern Church named themselves the “Orthodox”
Church (depicting their belief that they’re the Christian Church providing the “right
teaching”).
The huffy events that took place in 1054 were really only
the final straw that broke the camel’s back. In fact, the Christian Church
throughout the centuries struggled with differences between the Western and
Eastern divisions. I explain these differences in this section.
Western Christians are from Mars; Eastern Christians are
from Venus
Western Christians (Catholics, Protestants) and Eastern Christians
(Orthodox) don’t just disagree on certain issues – they have a different way of
thinking. For example, Catholics and Protestants may go head-to-head on issues,
but the two groups think the same way; they just disagree on the answers. In contrast,
Orthodox Christians often sound like they’re on a totally different page from
Catholics and Protestants.
To illustrate, suppose you have two roommates in college –
Pi Guy, a computer science geek, and Aris Totle, a philosophy major. Pi always
looks at issues logically, while Aris always takes discussions to an abstract
level. So, when you talk about whether or not to order a pizza at 12 a.m., Pi
calculates the exact cost and exact minute that the delivery guy will knock on
the door. In contrast, Aris speculates on whether the desire for a midnight
pizza is really a metaphor for the call for help that the three of you sense in
the darkness of the world. Pi and Aris think differently from each other, which
can lead to problems unless they’re very careful.
As a result, Orthodox believers sometimes look upon
Catholicism or Protestantism as being too simplistic, while Catholics and
Protestants look at the beliefs of the Orthodox Church with glazed-over eyes.
Cultural and philosophical differences
When North American companies first started going to Japan after
World War II to sell their products, they faced many cultural barriers that
they hadn’t expected. A business practice or custom that was acceptable in
America or Europe was simply unheard of in Japan, and vice versa. Businesspeople
learned many painful lessons, and companies finally began to experience success
when people on both American and Japanese sides understood each other’s
cultural nuances and worked together in spite of the differences.
No comments:
Post a Comment