Leadership Training Center
5410 Rogers Road
San Antonio, Texas 78251
C01-2 Church History I
Lesson 2
INSTRUCTOR
Name: David Blanchard
Email: dblanchard238@gmail.com
Phone: 337.247.7077
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course traces doctrinal developments in church history, evaluating them from an Apostolic Pentecostal perspective. It introduces the leading historical figures and movements in Christendom and conveys a basic understanding of their beliefs.
The Greek Apologist (Chapter 4 - Taken from The History of Christian Doctrine by David K Bernard)
The next generation of writers after the Post-Apostolic Age was the Greek Apologists. They are so called because they wrote apologies, or defenses of the faith, in the Greek language. They used Greek because it was the international language of commerce and culture in the eastern Roman Empire, where Christianity began and where it had the greatest strength in this age. The Greek Apologists were active from about 130 to 180; their oldest existing writings date from about 150.
· Persecution of Christianity.
The first persecution of the Church was by the Jews (Acts 5:17-18; 7:57-59; 8:1-3; 9:1-2).
Next they were persecuted by the pagans, with the first severe Roman persecution occurring under Emperor Nero in the A.D. 60s. Tradition says both Peter and Paul were martyred during the Neronic persecution.
As the center of the empire, the Church at Rome (originally established by Apostle Paul) the later “bishops” of Rome claimed domination of the movement, which was under great persecution from the Neronic period until 313 (the Edict of Milan) where Constantine (Emperor) declared Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.
The harshest persecutions were under the emperors Decius, Valerian, and Diocletian.
· Response of the Apologists.
There was a need to respond publicly to correct the scandalous rumors. More substantially, there was a need to explain the doctrines of Christianity in order to defend it against pagan philosophical attacks. The Greek Apologists sought to do just that. They wrote to dispel false accusations, to show that Christianity
promoted a superior morality, and to demonstrate intellectually that it was the truth.
In trying to present Christianity to pagans, the Apologists drew extensively from Greek philosophy, which was the common intellectual ground upon which practically everyone in their society could meet. They did not appeal primarily to Scripture, because their adversaries did not accept Scripture.
The basic approach of the Apologists was to demonstrate that Christianity is a good philosophy—in fact, the best philosophy, the truest philosophy.
· Major writers.
The major writers whose works survive from the Age of the Greek Apologists are as follows:
1. Marcianus Aristides, a philosopher in Athens who became a Christian. His Apology, addressed to Emperor Antoninus Pius, is probably the oldest surviving work in this category, dating to 150 and perhaps as early as 125 or 130.
2. The anonymous author of the Epistle to Diognetus which is generally dated about 150 although it may be as early as 130. While not an apologetic writing, it was once attributed to Justin, and it expresses some thoughts characteristic of this time.
3. Flavius Justinus, or Justin, by far the most influential and prolific Greek Apologist. Justin was born in a Roman colony in Samaria and became a Greek philosopher.
After his conversion to Christianity he traveled as a lay preacher, but he was never ordained as a minister. He continued to call himself a philosopher and to wear the philosopher’s cloak. He resided in Rome on two different occasions and was ultimately beheaded there for his faith.
Later writers often surnamed him Philosopher and Martyr.
Important works of Justin include his First Apology (c. 150), Second Apology, Dialogue with Trypho theJew, and On the Resurrection.
4. Tatian of Syria, a disciple of Justin who eventually became a Gnostic and founded an ascetic sect known as the Encratites (“abstainers”). He wrote Address to the Greeks (c. 150), and he compiled the Diatessaron, the earliest harmony of the Gospels, of which only fragments remain.
5. Melito, bishop of Sardis, of whose writings only fragments remain. He authored Apology, or To Marcus
Aurelius (c. 170), On God Incarnate, The Key, Discourse on the Cross, On the Nature of Christ, Discourseon Soul and Body, and On Faith.
6. Theophilus, bishop of Antioch from 168 to 181and author of To Autolycus, a pagan friend.
7. Athenagoras, a philosopher reportedly of Athens.
He addressed his Plea for the Christians (c. 177) to the Roman emperors Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, and also wrote a treatise, On the Resurrection.
In addition, we have a few insignificant fragments from and references to other authors, including Quadratus, Claudius Apollinarius of Hierapolis, Miltiades, and Ariston of Pella. Many works mentioned as being from this time are lost.
It is significant that most of the writings that remain are apologies addressed to pagans. We have only a few doctrinal treatises and no sermons or letters to churches such as have survived from the Post-Apostolic Age.
· Subject of God and the Logos.
Teachers of a Pre-existent Son - The vague possible indications of a preexistent Son by Pseudo-Barnabas and Hermas become explicit in this age.
Aristides, whose doctrine of God was for the most part biblical Oneness, and the Epistle to Diognetus, which still retained a predominantly biblical view but began to separate God and the Word.
At the apex of the age, Justin and his disciple Tatian clearly differentiated the Father and the Word as two distinct beings.
By the end of the era, Theophilus and Athenagoras had begun to express a vague, undefined form of triadism (threefold nature of God), although the former still used some Oneness expressions
Melito for the most part maintained a predominantly Oneness view of God, but even some of his terms had become distorted, at least as they have come down to us.
Psalms 107:20
(20) He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.
Isaiah 55:11
(11) So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
Isaiah 44:24
(24) Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;
Isaiah 45:5-6
(5) I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
(6) That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
The Greek Apologists, particularly Justin, Tatian, Theophilus, and Athenagoras, seized upon the Logos as a means of making Christianity palatable to the pagans of their day. They said, in effect, “The Logos you have been speculating about for hundreds of years is the basis of our faith. The Logos that controls the universe is actually Jesus Christ.” But to do that, instead of using the context of the Old Testament and the Gospel of John, the Apologists went to Greek philosophy to develop, define, and explain their doctrine of the Logos. To a great extent, the philosophy of the time was based upon the ideas of the Greek philosopher Plato. Plato taught that there are two worlds: the good, real world of ideas or forms and the imperfect, physical world of phenomena that reflects the world of ideas. The summit of the world of ideas is the one supreme, perfect God, who is uninvolved with the evil world of matter and who is impassible—incapable of emotional feeling and suffering.
The Apologists equated the Logos with the Son. In other words, the Son is a second person in the Godhead, although they preferred to use the term Logos.
The Apologists’ belief in two persons is not the same as the modern doctrine of the trinity. In modern trinitarianism, the divine persons are coequal, but the Apologists taught that the second person is subordinate to the first person (subordinationism).
Theophilus was the first known writer to use the Greek word triados in relation to God. It is the genitive form of trias, which means “triad” and was later used to describe the trinity.
Summary. In summary, the leading Greek Apologists made a personal distinction between the Father and the Son, or Logos. They taught a form of binitarianism (two persons in the Godhead), the second person being subordinate to the first. There is some indication of a threefold nature in God, or a third person, especially among two later Apologists, but they did not develop this idea to the point that historians consider it to be trinitarianism as we know it today.
Conclusion
The most important point about the Apologists is that they presented Christianity as a philosophy. This approach proved to be dangerous because it introduced pagan terms and ways of thought to the discussion of Christian doctrine, leading people to formulate and evaluate theology more by rationalism and Greek philosophy than by Scripture itself. Moreover, this approach tended to reduce Christianity to a moralism rather than a revelation from God and a relationship with Him. Instead of presenting Christianity as the revealed Word and will of God, the Apologists tried to show that it was a good philosophy and a good moral way of life—in fact, the best way. Even though this appeal was true as far as it went, and perhaps was helpful in gaining a hearing from some pagans, it fell short of presenting the essence of Christianity, and it sowed troublesome seeds for the future.
Pagans who were intellectually persuaded by this argument did not receive an adequate experience and understanding of Christian realities, and Christians who adopted this way of thought limited their own experience and understanding. By accommodating to the language and thought of their opponents, the Greek Apologists actually began to inject pagan concepts into the discussion of Christianity. This method was dangerous, and as we shall see, it had disastrous consequences for Christian doctrine.