33-313AD | Early Councils
During the first 250 years of the church
the early church fathers not only had to stand against the Roman government,
but she also had to fight against the heretics and false teachers within the
church. Because of these conflicts from
within, the church had to define its most essential and important
doctrines. Because they did not have
cell phones, the Internet, copy machines, and other modern equipment, they had
to gather together, mostly in secret and write out their various truths and
then hand deliver these edicts to the rest of the churches scattered around the
Roman Empire.
The first of these meetings is seen in
the book of Acts and it is called the “Jerusalem Council.” At this council Peter, Paul, and James, along
with the other disciples, had to decide if it was necessary for the Gentile
converts to keep the Law of Moses in order to be saved. The decision that they came up was written
down by James, the leader of the Jerusalem church, and is recorded as one of
the first edicts of the church.
Acts
15:23b-29, “The apostles and elders, your brothers, To
the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia: Greetings. 24 We have
heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you,
troubling your minds by what they said. 25 So we all agreed to choose some men
and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul— 26 men who have
risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 Therefore we are
sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. 28 It
seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond
the following requirements: 29 You are to abstain from food sacrificed to
idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual
immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.”
It is clear to see from this letter that
the church was not going to allow the people to follow the false teachers of
Judaism. Therefore, much of the councils
that followed in the latter years were just the same as this one. They were done in secret, without the aid or
notice of the government, and they did not “decide” what doctrine was going to
be doctrine, but rather they searched the Scriptures with aid of the Holy
Spirit to discover what was already the true doctrine of Jesus and Apostles and
thus taught it to the rest of the church.
The structure for these first century
councils was usually very basic. If a
problem would arise in a local church the Elders over that church would come to
the Bishop who presided over the local churches in that particular city to get
a ruling. And if the Bishop had an issue
he could not resolve or if he felt he needed to involve other Bishops, than the
Bishops from the different cities would get together and make their edicts
together for their local churches to follow.
During this time there were no hierarchy
of Bishops which we now see in the Roman Catholic Church, nor was there any
Pope- head Bishop of Rome, but rather all the Bishops would have equal say, and
they would be able to present their thoughts and ideas as they saw them from
the Scriptures and the writings of the earlier church fathers. Plus, all the Bishops would equally have a
chance to decide on the best judgment for the church.
It wasn’t until much later that the
Bishop of Rome became the head over all the Bishops and thus resulted in a
partnership with the Roman Government and the church. For these first 250 years of the church all
the Bishops were mostly held in the same regard and decisions were not made
based on rank and politics, but rather based on the truth as seen most clearly
from the Scripture confirmed by the Holy Spirit and prayer.
Here are two quotes from Tertullian and
Cyprian referring to the councils of their day.
Tertullian
(213AD), On Fasting, Chapter 13,
“Besides, throughout the provinces
of Greece there are held in definite localities those councils gathered out of
the universal Churches, by whose means not only all the deeper questions are
handled for the common benefit, but the actual representation of the whole
Christian name is celebrated with great veneration. (And how worthy a thing is
this, that, under the auspices of faith, men should congregate from all
quarters to Christ! “See, how good and how enjoyable for brethren to dwell in
unity!”
Here is example
of each Bishop being able to discern what is right in his own district. (Note: Catholic means, “universal,” it does
not relate to the Roman Catholic Church).
Cyprian (250AD), Epistle 51 - To Antonianus
About Cornelius and Novatian, Verse 21, “And, indeed, among our predecessors, some of the bishops here
in our province thought that peace was not to be granted to adulterers, and
wholly closed the gate of repentance against adultery. Still they did not
withdraw from the assembly of their co-bishops, nor break the unity of the
Catholic Church by the persistency of their severity or
censure; so that, because by some peace was granted to adulterers, he who did
not grant it should be separated from the Church. While the bond of concord
remains, and the undivided sacrament of the Catholic Church endures, every
bishop disposes and directs his own acts, and will have to give an account of
his purposes to the Lord”.
33-313AD | Early Creeds
Creeds were simply just doctrinal
statements that summed up the major beliefs of Christian. Creeds were usually written in such a way
that they could be easy remembered. So
of the earliest creeds were hymns in the New Testament church. Here are just some of the creeds found in the
Bible.
Paul (62AD), Philippians
2:5-11, Carmen Christi (Latin for Hymn to Christ):
5 Your attitude should
be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very
nature God,
did not consider
equality with God something to be grasped,
7 but made himself
nothing,
taking the very nature
of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in
appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to
death—
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God
exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
10 that at the name of
Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth
and under the earth,
11 and every tongue
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God
the Father.
Paul (62AD), 1 Timothy
3:16, Mystery of Godliness
Beyond all question,
the mystery of godliness is great:
He appeared in a body,
was vindicated by the
Spirit,
was seen by angels,
was preached among the
nations,
was believed on in the
world,
was taken up in glory.
The creeds
of the early Christians were very much the same as those found in the New
Testament, their creeds mostly dealt with the orthodox view of doctrine and
were written in a poetic way so that reader could easily recite them and
proclaim his or her faith. Here are some
examples of the early church father’s creeds.
Author Unknown (1-2
Century), Apostles Creed
I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and
earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the
Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was
buried.
He descended into hell. On the third day he rose again.
He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the
Father.
He will come again 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.
Irenaeus (180AD), Against
Heresies, Book 1, Chapter 10, Verse 1
“The
Church, though dispersed through our the whole world, even to the ends of the
earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith:
[She
believes] in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven, and earth, and the
sea, and all things that are in them; and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God,
who became incarnate for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit, who proclaimed
through the prophets the dispensations of
God,
and
the advents, and the birth from a virgin, and the passion, and the resurrection
from the dead, and the ascension into heaven in the flesh of the beloved Christ
Jesus, our Lord, and His [future] manifestation from heaven in the glory of the
Father “to gather all things in one,” and to
raise up anew all flesh of the whole human race, in order that to Christ Jesus,
our Lord, and God, and Saviour, and King, according to the will of the
invisible Father, “every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in
earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess” to Him,
and
that He should execute just judgment towards all; that He may send “spiritual
wickednesses,” and the angels who transgressed and became
apostates, together with the ungodly, and unrighteous, and wicked, and profane
among men, into everlasting fire; but may, in the exercise of His grace, confer
immortality on the righteous, and holy, and those who have kept His
commandments, and have persevered in His love, some from the beginning [of
their Christian course], and others from [the date of] their repentance, and
may surround them with everlasting glory”.
313-500AD | The Beginning of the Ecumenical Councils &
Major Creeds
The major event that changed everything in Christianity was the conversion of Constantine, the Roman Emperor of the early 300’s. Constantine claimed that before a great battle he had a vision of a cross and then claimed God gave him the victory. He then ordered the persecution of Christians to stop and he proclaimed the “Edict of Milan” in 313AD, which stated that Christianity would be accepted in the Roman Empire.
Whether or not Constantine was truly
converted is debated by many Christian scholars, but what he did for
Christianity can be seen as both positive and negative. Constantine was positive for the church
because the horrible persecution of Christians was stopped and Christians could
begin to practice their faith openly and be a productive part of society
without suffering discrimination.
However, Constantine’s role in Christianity was negative because many
people began to join the Christian church because it was a way of gaining
popularity and power within the Roman Emperor, this merger of the secular with
the holy would eventually lead to the darkest time of the church within just a
few hundred years from the Edict of Milan, also known as the “Dark Ages.”
However, the first councils that resulted
from the Edict did bring about great unity to the church. Before the Edict the Bishops were primarily
meeting just with the other Bishops from the cities that were closest to them. After this Edict all the Bishops were able to
get together and meet and discuss all the different things they had been doing
for the last 250 years of the church and begin to freely share their lives with
the church throughout the whole Roman Empire.
The first great ecumenical council was
called the Nicene Council. It was called
the first of the ecumenical councils because the word “ecumenical” means
“universal,” which means all the bishops could get together at one time and
place. And it was named the “Nicene”
Council because it was held in the city of Nicea.
Many cults and anti-Christian groups
today try to claim that because this council was brought about by the Roman
Emperor that nothing that was discussed in the council could have been good or
right and thus this council was the start of the Roman Catholic Church. However, this naive and simplistic idea of
church history is not correct. Though it
is true that this council was able to happen and even encouraged by the Emperor
Constantine, it was not controlled or manipulated by him or any other political
powers. The Bishops that attended this
conference were true soldiers of the cross who just months prier to the council
were being hunted down and tortured.
They were not going to compromise and give in to heresy when just before
the council they were suffering the great persecution of Rome.
At the same time, it is true that over
the period of the next two hundred years the true church would begin to become
swallowed up by the political church now known as the Roman Catholic, but this
was not the case for sometime, and even when this falling away did happen,
there were many true followers of Christ that continued in the path of the
disciples and the early church despite the wrong doings of the majority.
Therefore, the greatest outcome of the
first council of Nicea was that the heresy of Arianism, the denial of the
equality of Jesus with the Father, was openly rebuked and disproven for all of
the church in the known world to see.
From this great council came the Nicene Creed, which forever sealed the
orthodox view of Jesus and thus brought about the death of the Arian
heresy.
After the Council of the Nicea that next
greatest council was the Council of Chalcedon held in 451 in the city of
Chalcedon. This council reaffirmed the
deity and nature of Jesus against heretics that were teachings that Jesus was
not both fully human and divine.
Therefore, this council taught that Jesus was divine before his
incarnation, but afterwards took on humanity, and after the resurrection
received a glorified body, and thus was now and for all eternity both God and
man. Also during this council more
structure and ground rules, known as “canons”, were developed for the health of
the church.
Here are results of these two major
councils:
The Nicene Creed, (325AD)
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker
of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten
Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of
Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with
the Father, by whom all things were made.
Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down
from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was
made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and
was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and
ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall
come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall
have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and
Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father
and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets.
And I believe one holy catholic and apostolic
Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the
resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
The Definition of the Council
of Chalcedon (415AD)
Therefore, following the holy fathers, we all
with one accord teach men to acknowledge one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus
Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and
truly man, consisting also of a reasonable soul and body; of one substance with
the Father as regards his Godhead, and at the same time of one substance with
us as regards his manhood; like us in all respects, apart from sin; as regards
his Godhead, begotten of the Father before the ages, but yet as regards his
manhood begotten, for us men and for our salvation, of Mary the Virgin, the
God-bearer; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, recognized in
two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without
separation; the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union,
but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved and coming
together to form one person and subsistence, not as parted or separated into
two persons, but one and the same Son and Only-begotten God the Word, Lord
Jesus Christ; even as the prophets from earliest times spoke of him, and our
Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us, and the creed of the fathers has handed
down to us.
Canons (Laws) of the Council
of Chalcedon (415AD)
1.
States all canons of previous councils
shall remain in force,
2.
states that those who buy their office
are anathema,
3.
prohibits bishops from engaging in
business,
4.
bishops were given authority over the
monks in their dioceses, with the right to permit or forbid the foundation of
new monasteries,
5.
travelling bishops are subject to canon
law,
6.
the clergy were forbidden to change
dioceses or
7.
to serve in the military
8.
the poorhouses are under the jurisdiction
of the bishop,
9.
limits the ability to accuse a bishop of
wrong doing,
10.
prevents clergy belonging to multiple
churches,
11.
regards letters of travel for the poor,
12.
no province shall be divided for the
purposes of creating another church,
13.
no clergy shall be received by others
without a letter of recommendation,
14.
regards wives and children of cantors and
lectors,
15.
a deaconess must be at least 40,
16.
monks and nuns are forbidden to marry on
pain of excommunication,
17.
rural parishes cannot change bishops,
18.
conspiring forbidden,
19.
twice a year the bishops shall conduct a
synod,
20.
lists exemptions for those who have been
driven to another city,
21.
says an accuser of a bishop shall be
suspect before the bishop,
22.
makes it illegal to seize the goods of a
dead bishop,
23.
allows the expulsion of outsiders who
cause trouble in Constantinople,
24.
monasteries are permanent,
25.
a new bishop shall be ordained within 3
months of election,
26.
churches shall have a steward from among
the congregation to monitor church business,
27.
forbidden to carry off women under
pretense of marriage (eloping).
Reflection
1. What
was the first council in the New Testament church?
2. Did
the Pope exist in the early church?
3. What
event changed the way Bishops meet together in the early church?
4. Pray
that God will use you in your local church to build the Kingdom of God.
Resources
1. "Church History in Plain Language," by Bruce
Shelley.
2. Creeds
of the early church found here online.
