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coming kingdom of God. They
were already turning to a different
gospel.
Counterfeit Called "Christianity"
Already the curtain was rung down
on the history of the true Church.
Y
ou read of it in the book of Acts,
but it doesn't go much beyond
that. But the curtain seems to lift,
and we begin to get a little bit of
the history in about
A.D.
150. There
we see a church calling itself
Christian, but it's a totally differ–
ent church, as different as night is
from day, clown from up, or black
from white. But it called itself
Christian.
Now we quote from a book of
history,
The Decline and Fall of
the Roman Empire,
volume
1
and
chapter 15: "The scanty and suspi–
cious materials on ecclesiastical
hjstory seldom enab1e us to dispel
the dark cloud that hangs over the
first age of the Church."
I
have
often called it "the lost century,"
because the history of that Church
was lost at that time.
Scholars and church historians
recognize that events in the Chris–
tian Church between
A.D.
50 and
150 can only be seen in vague out–
line-as if obscured by a thick
mis
t.
The noted English scholar Sam–
uel G. Oreen in
A Handbook of
Church History
wrote: "The thirty
years which followed the close of
the New Testament Canon and the
destruction of J erusalem are in
truth the most obscure in the his–
tory of the Church. When we
emerge in the second century we
are, to a great extent, in a changed
world."
In
Lectures on Ecclesiastical
History
William Fitzgera1d wrote:
"Over this period of transition,
which immediately succeeds upon
the era properly called apostolic,
great obscurity hangs...."
In
The Course of Christian His–
tory
William J. McGlothlin wrote:
"But Christianity itself had been in
[the] process of transformation as
it progressed and at the close of the
period was in many respects quite
different from the apostolic Chris–
tianity."
In
History of the Christian
Church
'Philip Schaff wrote: "The
remaining thirty years of the first
July/August 1986
century are involved
in
mysterious
darkness, illuminated only by the
writings of John. This is a period of
church history about which we
know least and would like to know
most."
But if we look closely through
this mist, we can begin to see what
was happening.
The world in wbich Christ
founded his Church was the world
of the Roman Empire- the great–
est and most powerful empire that
had ever existed.
It
stretched from
Britain to the far reaches of mod–
ern-day Turkey, encompassing peo–
ples from many different back–
grounds and cultures under one
system of government.
Rome's ruling hand was firm but
the subject peoples enjoyed consid–
erable freedom, within the compass
of Roman law. Providing all citi–
zens and conquered peoples paid
due bomage to the Roman em–
peror, they were also allowed to
practice their religious beliefs and
worship the gods of their ancestors.
After the day of Pentecost, the
apostles began to follow Christ's
instruction to go to all the world
preaching the gospel of the king–
dom. Once Christianity spread
from Judea to the gentile lands to
the north it began to encounter
those who practiced the pagan reli–
gions of Babylon, Persia and
Greece.
The apostles carne in contact
with Simon Magus, a self-pro–
claimed leader in a cult that was
deeply rooted in the mystery reli–
gion of ancient Babylon.
Simon Magus' plot to huy him–
self a position of influence in the
early Church was foiled by Peter
(Acts
8).
But other false teachers
soon followed.
In his early epistles, Paul warned
the fledgling churches of Greece
and Galatia that they were in dan–
ger of turning aside after another
gospel- a false concept of Cbrist
and his message. The gospel of
Christ was being diluted as false
ministers with their teaching, heav–
ily influenced by the beliefs of
Babylon and Persia, steadily infil–
trated the congregations.
As the first century wore on, the
original apostles encouraged the
members to stay faithful.
Jude, the brother of Jesus, urges
the membership to strive for the
faith that was once delivered (Jude
3). The apostle John warns the
brethren to have nothing todo with
those who are bringing in false doc–
trines (11 John 10).
Many who called themselves
Christian had not been truly con–
verted. But throughout this period,
all who called themselves Christian
suffered greatly from the Roman
authorities, because they refused to
worsbip the emperor.
The mad Nero in
A.D.
64 blamed
the burning of Rome on the Chris–
tians and persecuted them sav–
agely. Thousands suffered martyr–
dom.
Shortly afterward, the Jews of
Palestine rose in rebellion against
the Roman authorities. The rebel–
lion was suppressed and Jerusalem
destroyed in
A.D.
70.
A small number of true Chris–
tians in Jerusalem fled over tbe
mountains to the safety of Pella.
Seven Church Eras
The book of Revelation records
seven messages to seven churches
that existed in Asia Minor toward
the end of the first century
A.D.
These churches - Ephesus,
Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira,
Sardis, Philadelphia and
Laodicea-were along one of the
mail routes of the old Roman Ero–
pire. Riders would follow the
route-carrying messages from
town to town.
The messages to the seven
churches have words of botb en–
couragement and correction and
they clearly show the dominant
characteristics of each of the con–
gregations at that time.
But these messages were in–
tended for a wider audience than
the Christians in these small towns.
They are a series of remarkable
prophecies, by which the future of
the true Church was foretold in
outline form, from the day it began
on Pentecost,
A.D.
31, until the
Second Coming of Christ.
The history of the Church would
fall into seven distinct eras- each
with its own strengths and weak–
nesses and its own special trials and
problems.
Just as a message could pass
along the mail route from Ephesus
to Laodicea, so would the truth of
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