1
Timothy 4:1-2, “1 The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon
the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. 2 Such
teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared
as with a hot iron.”
A Brief Overview of the Roman Catholic Church's Struggle for Total Power
The
first major change in the Church came in the late 300’s when the Roman Empire
formed into the less powerful Byzantine Empire and the new leaders of the
church began to trade their spiritual authority for worldly power. For the next 300 years the Roman Catholic
Church would continue to trade its hold on the truth for the traditions of men
so it could maintain its place in the Empire.
Many rulers of the Byzantine Empire supported this partnership because
the religion of the Catholics helped hold their kingdom together. Therefore, many of the godly Christians of
those times began to leave the larger church establishments and cities and
began to start monasteries in the countryside and mission movements around the
world to spread and keep the apostolic faith alive.
Then in the early
700’s Islam began to spread rapidly and they soon split the region into two
groups. The East, ruled by Islam, and
the West, ruled by the Byzantine Empire with help of the Roman Catholic
Church. Then in 1054 the Roman Catholic
Church suffered a major split in its power when the Eastern Churches, who were
less doctrinally corrupt as the Catholics and wanting to follow a different
government, left the Roman Catholic Church and became their own religious
system, known today as the Eastern Orthodox Church. This weakening of political power to the
Muslims left the Byzantine Empire bleeding and the division of religious power
between the East and West churches left the Roman Catholic Church limping.
Out of these two major
setbacks the Church of Rome felt “inspired” by God to start Holy Wars, also
known as the Crusades. These wars were
an attempt by the church and the Empire to gain political power in the East
from the Muslims and regain the religious unity of the Eastern Orthodox Churches. However, the Church of Rome and the Byzantine
Empire failed miserably at both of these attempts and continued to grow
weaker.
Soon
in the late 1200’s the Byzantine Empire crumble into what would become modern
day Europe. Countries like France,
Italy, Germany, and Spain began to form with their own monarchal
governments. However, the Roman Catholic
Church maintained their governmental powers and actually grew in strength by
working with the kings and nobility to oppress the poor and keep their hold on
the culture of the day. Thus, the church
and the monarchies worked together as one to keep people in the “dark” and away
from the light of political and spiritual truth. This is why this time period is called the
“Dark Ages,” because the truths of religious and political freedom were hidden
by the oppression of the wicked ruling powers.
This
continued until the early 1300’s until the real Christians, who became known as
“Protestants”, protested and fought against the Roman Catholic Church and the
corrupt monarchies that ruled over them.
Thus, with God’s leading and power they brought light and freedom to the
people. Therefore, the Protestants began
to grow and weaken the power of the church and state and within 200 years the
gates of oppression would be broken by the power of God because the true
Christians could not be silenced! And as
a result of these first Protestors fighting for freedom from the Roman Catholic
Church they started a time of enlightenment that brought freedom and revolution
to the minds of the people that resulted in new governments and free
countries. Such countries like America,
Sweden, and Germany would be established because people fervently desired to be
free both spiritually and politically.
Timeline of Major Events From 575-1517AD
575 Gregory the Great becomes a monk and
starts a revival of monasticism all over Europe
590
Gregory the Great becomes the
first real “pope” of the Roman Catholic Church. He was instrumental in
establishing the medieval Roman Catholic sacramental system along with the
doctrine of purgatory
596
Gregory begins to make the
Christian world “Roman Catholic” by imposing the Roman Catholic liturgy on the
old British Christians
622 The
beginning of Islam & Mohammed’s conquests
690
Roman Catholic missionaries
make efforts to convert all of Europe to Catholicism. Boniface, who brought Anglo-Saxon
Christianity to the pagans in Germany, cut down the pagan's sacred tree and
built a church out of it
720
Islam spreads from India to
North Africa and such Europeans Christian nations like Spain fall to Islam
787
The iconoclastic controversy -
Emperor Leo III of the Byzantine Empire (developed from the old Roman Empire)
attacked the use of images in churches and worship. John of Damascus defended
the use of icons in worship by differentiating between veneration (honoring)
and worship. The Second Council of Nicea
supports the decision of John of Damascus concerning icons. Therefore, statues
and pictures become a part of the Roman Catholic Church.
875 The Dark Ages begin with the falling
apart of the Byzantine Empire (The Old Roman Empire), the rise of Islam, the
weakening power of the pope, and war/conflicts from the non-Christian/pagan
people of Europe
1054 The Great East-West Schism, the
Eastern part of the Roman Catholic Church divides from Rome because of
doctrinal reasons and becomes the Eastern Orthodox Church and the west remains
under the Roman Catholic Church
1093 Bernard of Clairvaux helped reform the
monasteries and bring new life to the monks
1096 Start of the Crusades, Holy Wars,
which lasted for over 200 years. The
pope wanted to save the Byzantine Empire and thus heal the breech between the
Eastern (Eastern Orthodox) and Western Church (Roman Catholic). They were only
able to temporarily regain the Holy Land from the Muslims, but eventually lost
it and most of the East fell to the Muslims.
1140
Peter Waldo in Lyons, France
became known as the first Protestant to the Roman Catholic Church. He was the
founder of the Waldensian Church, which stressed the authority of scripture,
lay preaching, and rejected salvation by sacraments as taught by the Roman
Catholic Church.
1212
The Children's Crusade. The Pope
felt the children take the Holy Land supernaturally because they were pure in
heart. Most of them were drowned, murdered, or sold into slavery by the Muslims
1215
Fourth Lateran Council condemns
the Waldensians, thus they are persecuted for the next 600 years. They sought
refuge in the Alps, and therefore, were not directly involved in the
Reformation of Luther until later
1216
The Dominican Order is formed by
the pope to defend the Catholic Church. Their purpose was to oppose heresy with
piety, learning, and violence; they would persecute and even torture those who
opposed the Church of Rome
1225 Thomas Aquinus, the chief teacher of
the Catholic Church wrote an apologetic handbook for Dominican missionaries to
use against Jews, Muslims, and heretics in Spain and around the world
1330 John Wycliffe was an important
Protestant theologian in Oxford that taught man must rely altogether on the
sufferings of Christ to be saved. "Beware of seeking to be justified in
any other way than by His righteousness" was his motto
1371
John Huss, a Bohemian
pre-reformer was greatly influenced by Wycliffe and thus he rejected
indulgences and said Christ is the head of the Church, not the pope
1381
The Peasant's Revolt, 30,000
angry peasants descend on London to fight against political and religious
oppression from the government and the Roman Catholic Church
1381 Wycliffe and his followers translate
the Bible from the Latin Vulgate into English
1415
Council of Constance condemns
John Huss to death and he is burned alive
1470
Girolamo Savonarola was a
Dominican priest who left the Roman Catholic Church and began to preach against
it and brought many people to the Lord
1517
Luther nails his 95 Theses to the
door of the church in Wittenburg and it is the first public act of the Great
Reformation thus many great men join with him such as Huldrych Zwingli,
Desiderius Erasmus, John Knox, John Calvin, Heinrich Bullinger, William Tyndale
and they start what is known as the Protestant Reformation
Timeline of the Roman
Catholic Church's False Doctrines
320 Wax
Candles introduced in church
375 Veneration
of angels and dead saints
394 The
Mass, as a daily celebration, adopted
431 The worship of Mary, the mother of
Jesus, and the use of the term, "Mother of God", as applied to her,
originated in the Council of Ephesus
500 Priests
began to dress differently from the laity
593 The
doctrine of Purgatory was first established by Gregory the Great
600 The Latin language, as the language
of prayer and worship in churches, was also imposed by Pope Gregory I
600 The
Papacy begins to form and give ultimate power to the bishop of Rome
610 The
kissing of the Pope's feet
750 Worship
of the cross, images and relics was authorized
788 Holy
Water, mixed with a pinch of salt and blessed by the priest, was authorized
965 Canonization
of dead saints, first by Pope John XV
995 Fasting
on Fridays and during Lent were imposed
998 The
Mass was developed gradually as a sacrifice; attendance made obligatory
1079 The
Rosary, or prayer beads was introduced by Peter the Hermit
1184 The
sale of Indulgences, a purchase for forgiveness, was
instituted
1190 The dogma of Transubstantiation was
decreed by Pope Innocent III, the communion becomes the real body and blood of
Jesus
1215 Confession
of sin to the priest at least once a year was instituted by Pope Innocent III
1287 The
Roman Church forbade the communion cup to the laity
1414 The
doctrine of Purgatory was proclaimed as a dogma of faith by Council of Florence
1439 The
doctrine of Seven Sacraments affirmed
1545 The
Council of Trent declared that Tradition is of equal authority with the Bible
1545 The
apocryphal books were added to the Bible
1854 The
Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary was proclaimed by Pope Pius IX
1870 Pope
Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of Papal Infallibility
1950 The
Assumption of the Virgin Mary
A Time Lost in Church
History
Most followers of
Jesus have very little knowledge of the church from 500-1500AD, known as the
Dark Ages. Even though the first 500
years of the Church is scarcely taught in churches today, practically all
mention of this thousand year period is totally forgotten. Putting this into perspective, the church is
only about 1,976 years old; therefore the average Christian is missing over ½
of their history. But is it an accident
that these years have been forgotten or is it because most preachers and lay
people alike do not know how to “fit” these dark troublesome years into their
sermon stories and everyday life?
Seriously,
how would a person be able to read their “Best Life Now,” by Joel Osteen and at
the same time understand a peasant living in Germany during the times when
Roman Catholic priests would hide the Bible in Latin, torture the “dissenter”,
and force the poor to remain poor for the sake of the Bishop’s power and the
nobilities’ land? It would be laughable
if it weren’t so sad.
And further more, how
could a liberal emergent pastor fit into his “God’s not Angry Anymore Sermon”
the story about a priest who would preach the truth of God to his own church
leadership until he lost his position in the Roman Church, was excommunicated,
and eventually was tortured to death by the Catholic Church because his
messages were blisteringly truthful? How
would that emergent preacher tell of those days without making himself looking
silly in his day?
I
believe these years of the church have been forgotten because they do not fit
into the contemporary postmodern churches that love to talk about “deep” ideas
instead of the basic Bible truths. These
liberal believers lust to promote ecumenicalism and universalism, believing
that all good people in every religion can go to heaven, rather than teaching
without being born again all people will go to hell (Romans 3, John 3:3,16). And as a result they only like to mention
church history when it goes along with their relevant techniques, instead of
searching, finding, and preaching the truths that the Protestors preached in
the face of death.
Nor does Protestant
Christianity fit into the recent experimental church systems of today’s latest
church growth books because lead pastors and vogue stylish followers of Christ
fear to preach boldly from their pulpit on Sunday about doctrinal truths and
God’s holy nature. They will never
preach on hell, the sin of homosexuality, the curse on a nation, and the
lawlessness of so called “Christians” because they fear it will upset the
flock, cost them their precious money, and send them down the path of
persecution and public shame. Therefore,
these pulpiters consider the radical Protestors of the past only necessary and
good in their own day to further the church to them now in their mega churches,
but now in the present they believe motivational Sunday speakers need to be
much more sensitive and understanding in their approach.
Please read what Paul
said about preachers like these, 2 Timothy 4:3, “For the time will come when
men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires,
they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their
itching ears want to hear.” Notice the
irony in all of this, the Roman Catholics did this very thing when they
compromised their message to gain more political power in the Roman/Byzantine
world and now these pulpiters do it today to gain material wealth and
fame. Shame on both groups of false
prophets! May God bring strong
conviction to these people of today so that they will repent and turn back to
God.
Listen to what
Jeremiah said to Israel after they had rejected the ways of God, Jeremiah
8:1-4,
4 "Say to them, 'This is what the LORD says: 'When men fall down, do they not get up? When a man turns away, does he not return? 5 Why then have these people turned away? Why does Jerusalem always turn away? They cling to deceit; they refuse to return 6 I have listened attentively, but they do not say what is right. No one repents of his wickedness, saying, "What have I done?" Each pursues his own course like a horse charging into battle. 7 Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration. But my people do not know the requirements of the LORD.
8 "How can you say, "We are wise, for we have the law of the LORD," when actually the lying pen of the scribes has handled it falsely? 9 The wise will be put to shame; they will be dismayed and trapped. Since they have rejected the word of the LORD, what kind of wisdom do they have?
One can clearly see
that though a church has the “law of the LORD” it does not benefit the people
unless the “scribes” handle it correctly.
And as Israel rejected God and would submit to His ways, many of the
churches today will not come back to the truth of God which the Reformers
fought so hard to give us.
But despite these
powerless preachers promotion of pathetic putrid, which is called
“cutting-edge”, I believe the Dark Ages are very useful to our modern church
age because they show the genuineness of truth faith. Why?
Because those who loved the truth back then followed it to their own
hurt. Following Jesus wasn’t about being
rich and having nice things, as a matter of fact, following Jesus cost them
their nice things. But though they did
not have nice shiny books on sale at Wal-Mart, what they did have was a passion
for God and His glory and they were able to be apart of the greatest
organization on the earth, the true Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, when the
Roman Catholic Church began to reject the truth of the Bible men rose up in the
face of persecution and fought with their words and the power of the Holy
Spirit until God revived His Church in their midst. May men of God do the same
in our day!
2
Timothy 4:12, “1 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the
living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you
this charge: 2 Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season;
correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.”
Reflection
1. What
were the Dark Ages? And why were they
called that?
2. List
four major events between 500-1300AD that made the time “dark” for the Christian church.
3. List
three false doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church and explain with Scripture
why they are wrong.
4. Why
has most of the present day church forgot about the Protestors?
Resources
1. “A
History of Christianity: Volume 1, Beginnings to 1500AD,” by Kenneth Scott
Latourette.
