Read God's Story: A Student Guide to Church History Online

Authors: Brian Cosby

Tags: #Religion: Christianity

God's Story: A Student Guide to Church History (5 page)

One reality of caving is that, if you turn off your flashlight, it is pitch black. You can’t even see your hand in front of your face! In that cold, dark, and damp hole beneath seventy feet of solid rock, I suddenly wanted to get out; the darkness was too much. And so, after several wrong turns, we eventually made it out. The church, too, once entered a period of darkness; what we refer to as the “Dark Ages.”

In 330, Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire from the western city of Rome to the eastern city of Byzantium, which he then renamed “Constantinople.” With this move, the city of Rome began to lose political influence to the new capital. Constantinople would remain the bastion of Christianity until 1453 when the Muslims conquered it and (later) renamed it “Istanbul.” But other factors would also weaken and destroy the power and influence of the Roman Empire.

While the Middle Ages span from roughly 500 to 1500, the period between 500-1000 is often referred to as the Dark Ages because of the economic, intellectual, and spiritual deterioration across Europe and around the Mediterranean Sea. It would also witness the rise of a militaristic religion, Islam.

In addition to the destruction of Rome in the 5
th
century and its “light” eclipsed by war, disease, and a lack of intellectual pursuit, the church began to steer away from the Bible in its worship, ministry, and theology. Church hierarchy (from pope down to priest), an overemphasis on the sacraments to exclusion of the Bible, and internal conflicts rendered the institutional church “dark.” However, the church
invisible
—the true body and bride of Christ—would continue on as the elect and remnant of God as he had planned from the beginning. Years later, during the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s, a Latin phrase would capture the essence of the Reformation spirit:
Post Tenebras Lux
, “After darkness, light!”

The Sack of Rome

Various Germanic tribes throughout Europe —collectively known as the “Goths”—began to rise in political and military power during the 4
th
and early 5
th
centuries. One of these tribes, called the
Visigoths
, attacked and sacked Rome in 410 and then headed to Spain, where they ruled until the Muslims conquered them in the early 8
th
century. In 455, another tribe, the
Vandals
, leveraged a devastating attack on Rome. Each of these attacks on Rome weakened it until finally, on the 4
th
of September 476, the Roman Empire fell to Odoacer, a Germanic chieftain.

Most of these various Germanic tribes subscribed to the Christian heretical sect of Arianism (see discussion in the last chapter), which taught that Jesus Christ was not fully God, but was God’s first created being. While the Roman Empire and these Germanic tribes thought of themselves as “Christian,” such a designation caused serious problems in identifying who the
true
Christians were.

Unfortunately, as is often the case, confor-ming to a Christian
culture
is often confused with becoming a Christian. How do you tell the difference between someone who simply conforms externally to a Christian “culture”—doing all the right things—and someone who truly believes?

The Pope and the Papacy

Today, the pope (derived from the Greek word for
father
) is the “Bishop of Rome” and leader of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) worldwide. But this position was not always clear and the title was added after the first centuries of the church for the purposes of control, power, and “Christian” influence. In fact, it wasn’t until the 11
th
century, that the title “pope” came to apply solely to the Bishop of Rome! The office itself grew in particular influence after the decline of the Roman Empire, as a kind of stability for the people. Tracing its roots back to the first “pope” in Rome, who the RCC believes to be the apostle Peter, the RCC takes pride in its long, uninterrupted history. But is that the real story?

Peter, of course, never used or bore the title “pope.” Moreover, there is no evidence that Jesus appointed Peter to be the “Bishop of Rome” nor did Jesus establish the papacy. When Jesus told Peter, “On this rock I will build my church” (Matt. 16:18), the RCC takes “rock” to mean
Peter
(the Greek word for Peter is petra, “rock”), though, this interpretation is probably untrue. Notwithstanding, even if the RCC argues in favor of this interpretation, the issue of
papal succession
is something entirely different and not found in the pages of Scripture.

Just because Jesus designated Peter to be an early leader of the church does not give a succession of non-apostles the same kind of apostolic authority—especially to the degree that we see it today (i.e. the doctrine of papal infallibility). Moreover, at various times throughout church history (for example, during the 14
th
century in Avignon, France), multiple “popes” all claimed the title, while simultaneously excommunicating the other “popes” and all their followers!

But we shouldn’t get the idea that all the popes were bad or evil. One of the most famous popes of the early Middle Ages was Pope Gregory I (540-604), also known as Gregory the Great. Gregory’s leadership and humility became a shining light of biblical Christianity in a sea of darkness. He introduced Christian devotion, a concern for evangelism, and affirmed the importance of moral behavior. Before he became pope, Gregory lived as a monk—dedicated to imitating the life of Jesus through contemplation, service, and a disdain for worldliness. He is well known for his written work,
Book of Pastoral Rule
, in which he outlined the characteristics and marks of a minister.

A defining moment came on Christmas Day, in the year 800, when Pope Leo III crowned the king of France, Charles the Great (or Charlemagne), as the first Roman Emperor in more than three centuries and ruler over what would later be called the “Holy Roman Empire.” Like that of the Roman Empire in 380, the church and state became one—but with the
church
crowning the emperor this time!

Charlemagne believed that the church (especially the clergy) was necessary for a well-ordered and quality-controlled society. If he wanted functional control over Europe, he must also have direct control over the church. Charlemagne also spurred church reforms and learning, even serving as the patron for a number of scholars in a wide variety of disciplines and for a number of monasteries to preserve ancient texts. One of the great legacies of Charlemagne, though, had to do with his military campaigns against the growing militant religion, Islam.

The Rise of Islam

Muhammad (c.570-632) was born in Mecca, near the western coast of modern-day Saudi Arabia, and lived there for the first fifty-two years of his life. Growing up, he was part of a local pagan religion, but had heard bits and pieces of the Old and New Testaments and, thus, wasn’t all too unfamiliar with their content. In 610, while praying in a cave outside of Mecca, Muhammad supposedly received a revelation from the angel Gabriel (the same angel who appeared to the Virgin Mary). Over a period of time, he would continue to receive these revelations, which would later be compiled into the
Qur’an
, the sacred book of Islam.

After ten years of preaching, several hundred families had become convinced that Muhammad was a prophet of the one God, Allah. Still a minority religion, he and his followers faced persecution and they eventually fled Mecca for the city of Medina in 622. Muhammad and his small (but growing) clan brutally took control of Medina through a series of bloody battles. Then, in 630—with an army of 10,000 men at his command—he returned to Mecca, conquered it, and dedicated it to Allah.

Suddenly, in 632, Muhammad died from illness in the arms of Aisha, who was one of his twelve wives. He had married Aisha when she was only six years of age and consummated the marriage when she was only nine. Apparently, the Qur’an’s limit to four wives didn’t apply to him (cf. Qur’an, Sura 4:3)!

As soon as Muhammad died, his followers split into two groups over who should succeed him as their leader, the Sunnis and the Shi’ites. The Sunnis believed that his successor should be elected democratically while the Shi’ites believed that his successor should be related to Muhammad. Disagreements and even warfare between these two groups continue even to this day (by the way, there are currently about 150 sects of Islam).

It is hard to underestimate the significance of the rise of Islam when we consider the history of the church. Within only the first century after Muhammad’s death—by the early 700s—Muslims had conquered the holy land (modern-day Israel), North Africa, southern France and Spain, and parts of central Asia. If it were not for several crucial victories in Europe—notably, the victory by Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours in 732—all of Europe might have fallen to the Muslims as well.

The Dark Ages was a period of warfare, intellectual and spiritual decline, and power struggles within the church. By the year 1000, two major issues came to a head. First, the threat of Islam continued to put pressure on maintaining a Christian Europe. Second, the Eastern and Western parts of the Church were drifting further and further apart. Both of these, as we shall see, would have lasting implications.

  1. What is meant by the phrase “the Dark Ages”?
  2. How do you tell if a professing Christian is
    merely conforming to a Christian “culture”
    or if he or she truly believes?
  3. Where did the idea of the Catholic “Pope”
    come from? Do you see any solid basis for
    this position from the Bible?
  4. At what point in Muhammad’s life did he
    really become violent? Why do you think so
    many today do not consider Islam a religion
    of peace?

I
f you’ve talked with many atheists, agnostics, or maybe even friends who oppose the Christian faith, you’ve probably heard them refer to the “Crusades” as an example of how Christianity can be violent at times. It’s a valid point. You’ve maybe heard, too, how divisive churches can be, which is why we see so many denominations and a splintering of “Christian” groups around the world. Again, another valid point. How would you answer these criticisms? Let’s take a look at what happened.

As mentioned in the last chapter, two major issues came to a head by the year 1000: (1) the church was growing further and further apart between the East and West (and not by distance!) and (2) the militant spread of Islam was continuing to conquer peoples and lands. Both of these would have deep and lasting consequences. Additionally, the church’s theology and worship continued to develop along with its method of learning new things. Whether we realize it or not, we see traces of what happened between a.d. 1000 and 1300 all around us today.

The Split Between East and West

If you recall (from Chapter 3), part of the Nicene Creed states, “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father
and the Son
.” This last phrase, “and the Son,” sparked considerable controversy between the Bishop of Rome and the Bishop of Constantinople (the Western and Eastern capitals, respectively). Why?

Some say that a single word doesn’t mean too much, but during the 8
th
century, a church in Spain added one little Latin word to the Nicene Creed,
Filioque
(“and the Son”). That one little word sparked a huge division!
Filioque
emphasized the fact that Jesus Christ is fully God in his own right—his deity is not derived from God the Father. This view, endorsed by the Western theologians (based in Rome), understood the divine being to dwell
equally
in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Eastern theologians (based in Constantinople), on the other hand, believed that the Father shares his divine being with the Son and Spirit. Thus, the Eastern Church would not confess that the Spirit proceeds from the Father
and the Son.
It seems like a small issue, but it characterized how the two sides viewed who God is, which is not a small issue. Was God the Father more “God” than God the Son or God the Spirit?

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