The early church grew in spite of controversies and heresies
Early church growth in spite of controversies and heresies
Since the majority of the early church teachers shared the story of Jesus orally and since Jesus himself did not write down his teachings, it was inevitable that different interpretations of his message would arise.
In fact, the New Testament itself contains some of earliest records of misunderstandings and/or disagreements with theology.
The Book of Acts details a disagreement between the Apostle Paul and those leaders in Jerusalem over the issue of a person needing to convert to Judaism prior to accepting Jesus as Savior.
In 1st Corinthians Paul deals with a church splintered by the teachings of Apollos who provided a distinct contrast between himself and Paul. Paul wanted to purify the church, while several of the members preferred to retain the immorality of the population that surrounded them.
In 2nd Corinthians, Paul again deals with those in the church who would discredit his teachings. Paul recounts the characteristics and authority of his ministry.
In his Epistle to the Galatians, Paul offers a defense of justification by faith and warns against reverting to Judaism.
The Epistle of James deals with ‘practical’ religion, declaring that it manifests itself in good works, rather than a simple profession of faith.
The First Epistle of John and the Second Epistle of Peter both serve to remind believers to be alert to false teachings.
These are just a few of the many examples of early church leaders having to deal with either dissension of false teachings. Since there was no centralized governing structure in place, various theologies and dissensions would continue to appear over the next 300 years.
Unfortunately after that, the church became “official” and “sanctioned”. That lead to it becoming divided by people who wanted power and prestige.
In AD 312, the Emperor Constantine stopped the persecutions and Christianity became a recognized and official religion of the Roman Empire. The church began to grow and spread like a wildfire, moving from the farthest eastern outpost to the islands of the far western part of the Empire. It still had its share of controversies and scandals, but the believers were finally free of facing death for their faith.
(A discussion of all the organizational changes, theological unification creeds, eventual schisms that occurred during the next centuries is beyond the scope of this book. A thorough and complete look and analysis of the growth of Christianity after this time period and until today, is found in Diarmaid MacCulloch’s ‘Christianity – The First Three Thousand Years’ .)
Christianity stayed as the dominant faith of the East until the armies of Islam poured out of Arabia around 642 AD and conquered state after state and kingdom after kingdom and established Islam as the official religion. Because of this conquest, Christian communities virtually disappeared from large sections of the continent.
In the West, Christianity continued to be not only the dominant religion; it also shaped the culture and society as a whole. Then in 1565, the Spanish crossed the Atlantic Ocean, established the first settlement in North America at what is now Saint Augustine in Florida, and brought the first Catholic missionaries to the land. In 1607, the English settled in Virginia and with them brought the first Protestant clergy to America. For the next 400 years, America would be demonstrably a country where the vast majority of citizens professed a belief in the Christian faith.
Now however, things have changed dramatically. Next time I’ll discuss the current loss of believers.
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