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The Great Apostasy is a term of opprobrium used by
some religious groups to allege a general fallen state of traditional Christianity, or especially of Catholicism and (often merely by implication) Eastern Orthodoxy: that it is not representative of the faith founded by Jesus Christ through his twelve Apostles. This view is not
of course shared by the churches so accused.
Non-Catholic view of history
All significant branches of non-Catholic and non-Orthodox Christian denominations have formally taught that at some point in
history, the original teachings and practices of the primitive or original Christian church were greatly altered. All of these
denominations have considered their own teachings to be significant corrections of the errors of the Catholic and Orthodox
tradition, and for this reason believe that their separated continuation, especially outside of the Catholic/Orthodox communion,
is not only justifiable, but a necessary expression of Christian faith. These views are not necessarily taught in the modern
descendant denominations; but historically this type of doctrinal stance accounts for the continuing separation of the
denominations from the Catholic and Orthodox communions.
All of these groups differ among themselves concerning their perception of the types and the extent of errors evident in
Catholic traditions, and therefore their proposed corrections also differ, but all agree that the Catholic tradition is to some
important degree corrupted and apostate in the sense that it will not or cannot be reformed; and, to the extent that these
rejected traditions are present in other separated denominations, they also are sometimes considered corrupt. This alleged
corruption and resistance to reform, by the traditional, or especially, Catholic churches, may sometimes be called The Great
Apostasy by non-Catholics. See also: Protestant Reformation, Heresy.
Some groups see themselves as uniquely the restoration of original Christianity. In their case, the term Great
Apostasy is used more technically than above, directed in a sweeping way over all of so-called Christianity beyond their
group, indicating that true Christianity has not been preserved, but is restored in themselves. These various groups differ as to
exactly when the Great Apostasy took place and what the exact errors or changes were, however all of them make a similar claim
that true Christianity was generally lost until it was disclosed again in themselves. The term Great Apostasy appears to
have been coined in this narrower, technical sense, by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The term may sometimes be used in
this sense by other groups claiming their unique authority as representing Christianity in its original purity over against the
devastation of the truth in so-called Christianity, or in the Catholic churches in particular. See also: Restorationism, Whore
of Babylon.
The kinds and extent of corruption believed by various groups to have taken place in the Christian Church, which may be called
The Great Apostasy, is described below.
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
According to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), popularly known to outsiders
as "Mormons", the Great Apostasy started not long after Jesus' ascension and
continued until Joseph Smith's First Vision in 1820. To Latter-day Saints, the Great Apostasy is
marked by:
Beginning in the 1st century and continuing up to the 4th century A.D. the various emperors of the Roman Empire carried out
occasional violent persecutions against Christians whose beliefs conflicted with Roman customs. Apostles, bishops, disciples and other leaders and followers of Jesus Christ
who would not compromise their Christian faith were persecuted and martyred. The succession of persecutions after a couple hundred years was so
successful that near the end of the 3rd century under the reign of the Roman
Emperor Diocletian, monuments were erected memorializing the extinction of
Christianity.
According to the Latter-day Saints, all Priesthood leaders holding authority to conduct and perpetuate the affairs of the Christian church
were either martyred or taken from the earth. Latter-day Saints conclude that what survived the persecutions was not the Church
of Jesus Christ but merely a fragment of what Jesus had established; that is, Christianity continued but not in its original
form. Survivors of the persecutions were overly-influenced by various pagan philosophies either because they were not as well
doctrinated in Jesus' teachings or they corrupted their Christian beliefs (willingly or by compulsion) by accepting non-Christian
doctrines into their faith.
Latter-day Saints interpret various writings in the New Testament as
an indication that even soon after Jesus' ascension the apostles struggled to
keep early Christians from distorting Jesus' teachings and to prevent the followers from dividing into different ideological
groups. However, some of those who survived the persecutions took it upon themselves to speak for God, interpret, amend or add to
his doctrines and ordinances, and carry out his work without being called by him or his agents and without authority to do so.
During this time without the aid of Priesthood leaders and continuing revelation, precious doctrines and ordinances were lost and
corrupted. Latter-day Saints point to the doctrine of the Trinity adopted at the
Council of Nicaea as an example of how pagan
philosophy corrupted the teachings of Jesus. (Mormonism teaches that God and His
son, Jesus, are not one substance, but distinct personages.) The Latter-day Saints reject the early ecumenical councils for what they see as misguided human attempts
without divine assistance to decide matters of doctrine, substituting democratic debate or politics for prophetic revelation. The
proceedings of such councils were evidence to them that the church was no longer led by revelation and divine authority.
Thus, Latter-day Saints refer to the restitution of all things mentioned in Acts 3:20-21 and claim that a restoration of all the original and primary doctrines and
ordinances of Christianity was needed and happened through Joseph Smith.
Latter-day Saints recognize that through the decades, other religions (Christian or otherwise) have a portion of the truth, but
their doctines mingle false teachings with correct ones. They claim through the restoration of the original church The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has the authentic Priesthood authority and all of the doctrines and ordinances of the
Gospel.
The leading LDS work on the Great Apostasy is James E. Talmage's The Great Apostasy. See also Apostasy from The
Divine Church by James L. Barker.
Anabaptists
The Anabaptists of the Protestant Reformation believe that the Church became corrupt when Constantine ended the persecution
of Christians with the Edict of Milan, and was not recovered until the
Anabaptists came along. Other Reformers set other dates or time periods when the Church became less than the true Church, making
it necessary for them to leave the Roman Catholic Church in order to re-establish the true Church and begin again. Several
groups, including some Baptists and Mennonites, believe that besides the Great Apostasy there has also always been a "little flock", a "narrow way"
which struggled through persecution and remained faithful to the truth. For example, the Mennonites published a book called the
Martyrs Mirror in 1660 that attempts to show that exclusive
Believers Baptism was practiced in every century, and how those
who held that belief were persecuted for it.
Some Anabaptist and Baptist groups have held that the Apostasy of the Roman Catholic Church was so complete as to nullify its
claim to be a Christian church. Consequently, in these groups, repudiation of the ecumenical councils has followed, in a few minority cases engendering seventh day sabbatarianism and unitarianism, along
with believers baptism and pacifism, and other anti-traditional views. Some of these views, more radical than other Protestants, were
influential in the founding of the Restoration Movement,
and the Adventist churches, in the United States, in the nineteenth century, and continue to be influential in the house church movement,
today.
Christians in Military Service and Political Office
The confusion of church and state is a central theme of the Anabaptist view of the Great Apostasy, and of their consequent
assertion during the Protestant Reformation that the
churches of Catholic Europe were in need not of reform, but of radical re-establishment based on the Bible alone. In sympathy
with this assessment, the modern philosopher Jacques Ellul, in his book "Anarchy and Christianity", mentions a dramatic shift in AD 313, at the Council of Elvira. Christians who held public office were no longer cast out of the church entirely as
apostates, but were only cast out for as long as they were holding office. At the Synod of Arles in 314, Christian pacifism was totally reversed; the third canon excommunicated soldiers who refused military
service, or who mutinied. The seventh canon of that same council allowed Christians to be state officials, as long as they didn't
take part in pagan acts. With this, Ellul sees the end of the original anti-statist, anti-militarist, anarchist Christianity.
However, accounts of martyred Christian soldiers from the 100s, 200s and early 300s indicate that Christians were allowed to
continue serving in the Roman army provided they did not sacrifice to the Roman gods, and that therefore the original church may
not have been as anti-militarist as Ellul supposes. Ignatius of
Antioch's letters from the 100s, the use of deacons in the Acts of the Apostles and Paul's pastoral epistles describing deacons, elders and overseers
suggest that the early church was not anarchist in the way it governed itself internally.
Adventists
Jehovah's Witnesses consider the Great Apostasy to have
properly begun after the death of the last apostle, although there were warning
signs, precursors, starting shortly after Christ's ascension. They consider the key indicator of the apostasy to be the adoption
of the Trinity, based on a specious application of Greek Platonic and sophistical philosophy to the simple message of the
scriptures. Paul in one of his Epistles warned the Greek congregations about being too clever by half with the contents of the
Bible. The apostasy is considered to have become complete and total with the Council of Nicaea, when the Nicene Creed was adopted, enshrining the Trinity doctrine as orthodoxy.
Most other Adventist groups in the Millerite tradition hold similar beliefs
about the Great Apostasy. Some of these, most notably the Seventh-day Adventist Church, retain a belief in the Trinity and therefore don't see the
Council of Nicaea as an apostate council as judged on this issue of doctrine. However, they along with many other Millerites have traditionally held that the apostate church which gathers for worship
on Sunday, instead of the Sabbath, bears the Mark of the Beast.
Lutherans and Calvinists
Lutherans and Calvinists have
taught that a gradual process of corruption was predicted and evident, even in the New Testament, which finally reached a
culminating stage and brought about the Protestant Reformation. The Orthodox and Catholic church had developed from early on, an
idea that the Church may speak entirely without error in particular councils or edicts; or that, in a less definable way, the
Church is infallibly directed so that it always stands in the truth; and indeed, that the Church has the promise of Christ that
it shall do so. In contrast, the Protestants claimed that the Church since the Apostles only speaks infallibly in the Scriptures,
and should not expect to be completely free of error at any time until the end of the world, but rather must remain continually
vigilant to maintain a biblical (and therefore, authoritative) doctrine and faith, or else fall away from the Christian faith and
become an enemy of the truth.
In the Reformation view of church history, the true church cannot declare itself infallible, but rather calls itself
ecclesia semper reformanda ("the church always reforming"), the church that is always repenting of error. This
Protestant view is that people are naturally inclined to elevate tradition to
equality with the written testimony of the Bible, which is the word of God. The reforming
churches believe that human weakness is naturally drawn to a form of false religion that is worldly, pompous, ritualistic, anthropomorphic,
polytheistic, infected with magical thinking, and that values human accomplishment more highly or more practically than the work of
God (grace ) is valued. Given the chance, people will substitute the sort of religion
they naturally prefer, over the Gospel. The Hebrew Bible contains multiple episodes of backsliding by the very people who first received God's revelation;
to the Protestant mind, this shows that teaching the Gospel is a straight and narrow path, one that requires that natural
religion be held in check and that God's grace, holiness, and otherness be rigorously proclaimed.
Temptations of power
According to these Reformers, even as early as the Apostles a natural process of corruption began, and reached a crucial point
of development when the Christian church was made the official religion of the Roman Empire by the Emperor Constantine. From this point on,
compromise of the truth deepened over time until the church became thoroughly worldly and corrupt, so that the true faith was
first no longer openly taught, and instead suppressed, and at times persecuted, and cast out. The persecuted church was
attractive to rejected people; but worldly men were attracted to the same church when it began to wield power and possessions.
Protestants also believe that the Roman Emperors were not about to
support a church that they did not control. The development of formal hierarchy
within the Catholic Church, as opposed to local autonomy among Christian
congregations, with levels of rank among the bishops, and a handful of patriarchs
to supervise the bishops, is seen by Protestants as conducive to imperial manipulation of the Church, susceptible to general
control by capture of only a few seats of power.
Similarly, the defenses of the right belief and worship of the church resided in the bishops, and Protestants theorize that the process of unifying the doctrine of the Church also concentrated power
into their own hands, and made their office an instrument of power coveted by ambitious men. They charge that, through ambition
and jealousy, the church has been at times, and not very subtly, subverted from carrying out its sacred aim. For the Reformers,
the culmination of this gradual corruption was typified, in a concentrated way, in the office of the Pope, which they
characterized in its final form as being a usurpatious throne of Satanic authority set up in pretense of ruling over the kingdom
of God.
The dangers of theology
Theological controversy also had a polluting effect, according to this view of Apostasy as a gradual process, rather
than a cataclysmic event. That is, in the process of defending the received truth, the Church became sullied by the engagements
with its opponents both outside and within the Church. To reject errors, specific arguments were designed which were effective
against the opposition; but which contained imbalances and exaggerations, or disguised accommodations to error.
For example, the Church defeated paganism, but it could be argued that in the
process it became subtly sympathetic with the opponent, and susceptible to incorporating attitudes and traditions which are
foreign to the biblical faith. Or, for another case, in the process of overcoming Arianism's religious hero-worship of Jesus, perhaps the church absorbed hero-worshipping ideas, so that, while the
doctrine of Christ was rescued from the heresy, the same idea continued in the adoration of the Saints. This corruption was not necessarily intentional; although in some cases, it's suggested, teachers of error
brought in these pollutions deceitfully in order to escape detection.
Compromise with natural religion
Especially in the worship of the Church, the Reformers viewed the Roman Catholic Mass as an amalgam of superstitious
inventions more reminiscent of a pagan mystery rite, than of the simple discipline taught by the apostles and practiced by the
early church. Protestants tend to think of many of the Catholic Holy days, and most of the rituals, as accommodations to the
popular tastes of unconverted people through the centuries, incompatible with biblical faith. Natural tastes for pomp and
ceremony, and the sort of natural belief in mana and fetishism that seem universal in unrevealed religions, and the natural man's wish to have sacred places to pray
in, and sacred objects that enable mortals to touch the divine, tempted people away from the truth of the absolute sovereignty,
holiness, and otherness of God. The Church was failing at its teaching mission and made too easy accommodations to practices that
folk religion could accept in this erroneous fashion.
Descent into true apostasy
Although Lutherans and Calvinists hold that the Ecumenical
Councils of the early and medieval church are true expressions of the Christian
faith, they assert that the councils are inconsistent with one another, and err on particular points. The true Church, they
argue, will be mixed with alien influences and false beliefs, which is necessary in order for these impurities ultimately to be
overcome and the truth to be vindicated. But in Rome's case, in the arbitrary authority presumed by the bishops, and the Catholic
doctrines of infallibility, the final result was a dark epitome of falsehood, an ideal model of rebellion against God.
The Westminster Confession of Faith (Calvinist), states:
- The purest churches under heaven are subject both to mixture and error; and some have so degenerated, as to become no
churches of Christ, but synagogues of Satan. Nevertheless, there shall be always a church on earth, to worship God according to
his will. (25:5)
Therefore, although these groups believe that errors can and have come into the church, they deny that there has ever been a
time when the truth was entirely lost. They affirm that there shall be times when errors shall predominate, as they believe is
foretold in the Bible. First Timothy 4:1-3
states:
- Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing
spirits, and doctrines of devils;
- Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
- Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them
which believe and know the truth. (KJV)
According to this view, these verses foretold the rise of errors, among which they count the veneration of relics, saints and the Blessed Virgin Mary, importing polytheism, idolatry, and fetishism into Christianity; these are the "seducing spirits and doctrines of devils."
"Speaking lies in hypocrisy" and "having their conscience seared with a hot iron" were held to refer to the general corruption
of the Church as it became heir to the Roman Emperors and claimed to rule an earthly
kingdom, and its prelates became
authoritarian lords of civil
government, achieving a social rank never sought by Jesus himself. (Gospel of John 18:36) The "searing of the conscience" was interpreted as
referring to the Roman Catholic development of casuistry that sought to justify these various acts, and to excuse the sins of the
powerful in exchange for gifts of land and money.
The "forbidding to marry" and the "commanding to abstain from meats" (foods) refer to the elaborate code, or canon of the Roman Catholic Church, involving priestly celibacy, Lent, and similar rules promulgated by the
medieval church. The Reformers thought these rules were legalism and inappropriate impositions on the believers.
2 Thessalonians 2:3-12 was held also to refer to a coming great
apostasy. This text announces that the Second Coming of Christ and the gathering of the church to him, cannot come:
- unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself
above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is
God.
These were held to be prophecies of the Pope's claim to infallibility and to be the Vicar of Christ, sitting in Christ's seat and in Christ's stead. This interpretation is the
source of the traditional identification of the Pope as Antichrist, which
occurs throughout Protestant literature of the Reformation period and afterwards.
The end result
In this view, it would be difficult to set a clear dividing line as to when the widespread Apostasy began. It was a gradual
process of corruption, as venal and materialistic leaders came into the Church, in love with their own high office and authority.
The Great Apostasy surely was complete, for purposes of the Reformers, when the Council of Trent emphatically rejected even a modified form of Protestant reformation for the Roman
Catholic Church. The ultramontane tendencies of Rome continued to
increase until at least the First Vatican Council, with
its proclamation of both papal infallibility and papal absolutism, down to early twentieth century changes in canon law that make it
more clear today than it was in the past that the Pope is the absolute monarch of the Roman Catholic Church, answerable to no
council, no other bishop, and indeed to no other man. The Second Vatican Council, however, may mark a partial retreat from these positions.
It is also important to note that this view of the general Apostasy does not mean that the Gospel had lost its power to save, or that all Christians during this time were denied Heaven; rather, the Reformers characterized the papacy and the hierarchy of priests, as a usurpatious government
pretending to rule over the kingdom of God. God's grace preserved the true teachings and the Bible intact despite the corruption of those who were supposed to be official spokesmen for Christendom.
"Roman Apostasy" less commonly, or differently, taught today
Most mainstream Protestant churches have backed away from, or at least no longer emphasise this teaching, which is now felt to
be divisive, and to belong to the more vehement quarrels of another day. Conservative and fundamentalist churches insisted on these teachings the longest, and some still do, especially among the
stricter Calvinists and Lutherans. The rise of dispensationalism
as a widely held doctrine among Protestant fundamentalists has resulted in a re-interpretation of the end times; and while they may continue to believe that the Roman Church errs, they are less likely to
believe that the Pope is Antichrist. Dispensationalists generally view passages such as 2 Thessalonians (referenced above) as
referring to a reconstructed Temple in Jerusalem, in the last
days. The great "Falling Away", they tend to view as a present or future affair, in which not only Rome but all of the world's
religions join against the truth, for the sake of a false peace and prosperity.
For an extensive, 18th century, Protestant perspective on the Great Apostasy, see the treatment on that subject by the German historian J. L. Mosheim, a Lutheran, whose six volume
work in Latin on Ecclesiastical History is referred to by some Protestants who emphasize a great apostasy.
Anglicans and Episcopalians
The reception of the Reformation views of a general falling away from the Christian faith, by the Church of England and other churches of the Anglican and Episcopalian denomination is a
historically complex subject. As a state church, the Church of England
attempted to unite all the people of England in a single church. However, the English
disagreed amongst themselves about the retention of various ceremonies of Roman Catholicism, and about Arminian versus Calvinist
theologies.
Political issues shaped English attitudes towards Roman Catholicism. As a result of attacks by the Popes on the legitimacy of
the English monarchy, which bore fruit in attacks such as the Spanish
Armada, and the martyrdoms of the English Inquisition under "Bloody" Mary many English people were disposed to see Roman Catholicism
as a hostile authoritarian force, associated with the divine right of kings and arbitrary rule by the monarchy. On the other hand, the Stuart monarchs wished to play the royal game of marriages to cement political alliances with Continental
powers, including Roman Catholic monarchs.
To oversimplify greatly, there arose a "high church" party within the
Church of England and a "low church" party allied with Puritanism. The high church party had Anglo-Catholic and Arminian tendencies, and wished to continue at least some of the pageantry of Roman
Catholic ritual. The low church party was Calvinist and wished to move the Church of
England in the direction of the Reformed churches. The low church
party, occasionally called the Evangelical wing, was much more open to the
vehement language of the Continental reformers about the Great Apostasy than was the more liturgical, high church party.
Officially, churches of the Anglican persuasion teach that Rome has fallen into error. The Thirty-Nine Articles provide that:
-
- . . .
- As the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch, have erred; so also the Church of Rome hath erred, not only in their
living and manner of Ceremonies, but also in matters of Faith.
-
- 21. Of the Authority of General Councils
- General Councils may not be gathered together without the commandment and will of Princes. And when they be gathered
together, (forasmuch as they be an assembly of men, whereof all be not governed with the Spirit and Word of God,) they may err,
and sometimes have erred, even in things pertaining unto God. Wherefore things ordained by them as necessary to salvation have
neither strength nor authority, unless it may be declared that they be taken out of holy Scripture.
- (This Article was abrogated in 1801.)
-
- The Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory, Pardons, Worshipping and Adoration, as well of Images as of Relics, and also
Invocation of Saints, is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the
Word of God.
The churches of England therefore officially teach that the Roman Catholic Church has fallen into error and incorporated
sinful practices into its worship. The stress any given Anglican will put on these teachings will depend on where that person
fits into the continuum of Anglo-Catholicism versus Anglo-Protestantism. Modern efforts of reconciliation have gone a long way
toward reversal of former hostilities between Anglican churches, and the Catholic and Orthodox communions.
Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy
Both the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church believe that they are still in
harmony with the teachings and practices given by Jesus Christ to the Apostles, and that Christ's promise has in fact been
fulfilled: "On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it." And elsewhere, "I will be
with you until the end of the age." They point to their apostolic succession as evidence that they are maintaining the church's traditional teachings and
practices. They see claims of a complete and general apostasy as a denial that Christ has been with the Church through the
centuries, and as a denial that the Church has stood firm as Christ promised it would. They also affirm that their ecclesiastic
structure and liturgical practices have their essential roots in the teachings of the first apostles, rather than being the
result of radical changes introduced by the imperial government or new converts in the fourth century. In fact, most of the
teachings of the Eastern Orthodox Church can be traced back to the first and second centuries in the writings of Church Fathers.
In the writings of Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tatian, Athenagoras, the Didache, etc. there is found information about the
sacraments, Church structure, etc. The Great Apostasy must then have come
extremely early in the Church's history if it were to have happened.
Instead, both Catholicism and Orthodoxy see much of Protestantism as having jettisoned a lot of Christian teaching and
practice wholesale in an exaggerated attempt to avoid any possibility of "pollution", thereby at best spiritually impoverishing
themselves.
Catholic view of history
Protestants often assume that practices that seem especially strange to them, such as regular corporate fasting, veneration of
relics and icons, honoring the Virgin Mary, and observing special holy days, must have been introduced after the time of
Constantine. Documents from the pre-Constantine church often show otherwise. Fasting was taken for granted by Jesus in the Sermon
on the Mount ("When you fast..."), and the Didache or "Teaching of the Twelve"
instructs Christians to fast from meat on every Wednesday and Friday, a practice the Orthodox Church continues to this day. The
catacomb church was surrounded by relics of necessity, but accounts of early martyrdoms show that Christians regularly sought the
remains of the martyrs for proper burial and veneration. Many of these early accounts associate miracles with the relics; this is
also mentioned in Acts when Peter's handkerchiefs were taken to the sick and healed when they touched them. The Infancy Gospel of James is attributed to James the Just but was certainly written no later than the second century; it
lays out additional details of Mary's life and provides much of the basis for the church's teaching regarding her. The practice
of observing special holy days was borrowed from the Jews, who were commanded to observe such days by God; the same is true of
other practices as well.
Thus, it appears to Catholic and Orthodox Christians that their critics either assume that some or most of these practices
were introduced in the fourth century or later; or have confidence in the superiority of their modern interpretation of Biblical
revelation as against the traditions of any age.
Worldly ambitions
There have certainly been times when the Church has seemingly benefited from its affiliation with the ruling government at the
time, and vice versa. There are also times in its history when the Church has taken a doctrinal stance directly contrary to the
interests of the State. The Council of Chalcedon introduced a religious schism that undermined the Byzantine Empire's unity. The
Emperor called the following Ecumenical Council in an attempt to reach a compromise position that all parties could accept,
urging those involved to do so. A compromise was not reached, and the schism persisted. Later emperors introduced policies of
iconoclasm; yet many Christians and Church leaders resisted for decades,
eventually triumphing when a later Empress (Irene) came to power who was sympathetic to their cause. In Russia, Basil "Fool for
Christ" repeatedly stood up to Ivan the Terrible, denouncing his
policies and calling him to repentance; for this and other reasons this poor beggar was buried in the cathedral that now
popularly bears his name in Moscow. The Greek Orthodox Church survived roughly 400 years under the Muslim Ottoman Empire,
preserving its faith when it would have been socially advantageous to convert to Islam. More recently, in the twentieth century
the Russian Orthodox Church survived 70+ years of brutal persecution under the Communist atheists. It would be more correct to
say that there have been times when the State has seen that it was to its advantage to cooperate with the Church and adjusted
accordingly, than the reverse. More importantly, there can be clearly seen a consistency in teaching beginning from the
persecuted church of the first few centuries, to the more established church of the Roman Empire, to the again persecuted church
under various Muslim, Mongol and later atheist rulers.
Theological dangers
In response to the claim that the church's response to one heresy led to an overcorrection in the opposite direction, it can
only be admitted that this is always a real danger, and history provides abundant examples. One famous example is Nestorius, the
Patriarch of Constantinople who so vigorously defended the truth of Christ's humanity that he undermined the truth of Christ's
divinity; see Nestorianism. Over the course of centuries, Orthodoxy and
Catholicism believe that the Church's leaders have on the whole navigated between opposing errors, on occasion providing subtle
corrections or restatements of earlier doctrines. Some Church fathers have suggested that the abundance and variety of early
controversies were a blessing, in that they enabled the Church to deal with most or all of the major questions surrounding the
Christian faith in a relatively brief period of human history. Protestants who ignore or attack the historic church's conclusions
are at best bound to fight the same fights all over again, running the same risk of overcorrecting in response to current
doctrinal disputes.
Compounding this risk of overcorrection is the growing propensity among Protestants to split into different denominations when
serious disagreements arise. This risks having two groups where there was only one, one or both of whom err in different
directions, rather than a single group that adheres to the truth without deviating to either (or any) extreme on the issue. Some
protestant denominations avoid this more successfully than others. Of those that avoid further schism, many of these ignore
doctrinal differences within their ranks and just play down the importance of the issue, which eventually leads to a greater
variety of beliefs within the denomination. This variety, and toleration of greater and greater differences in belief, has
resulted in further deviations from historic Christianity.
Natural or Popular Religion
Many liturgical practices and beliefs are presumed to be adapted from pagan customs or human preferences, when in fact they
are in many cases carried over from Temple Judaism, which practices most Christians
believe were first given to Moses and the high priests by God. The idea of setting aside specific places as holy, treating
certain items used in the worship of God with reverence, all go back to the Hebrew Temple worship, and to the visions the Bible
records of what worship in Heaven looks like, not just to pagan ideas about "mana". The Roman Catholic Mass or Orthodox Divine
Liturgy in many respects more closely resembles the Temple sacrifice than anything modern Jews practice. In other cases,
local customs have been deliberately adapted and embued with Christian meaning in an effort to keep the Church incarnate and
accessible to local Christians. When worship involves the use of the entire body, and all the senses, the Orthodox believe this
becomes very helpful in learning to actively love God with all their "mind, soul, heart and strength" as God commands.
Restricting worship to a mental exercise removes the "strength" element of loving God. Prohibiting the use of material, created
objects in giving worship to the Creator, is to condemn all the sacrifices offered by the holy men and women recorded in the Old
Testament and elsewhere. It also appears to reflect the subset of Gnostic beliefs that all material things of this world are
inherently evil, or at best temporary, and that only invisible, spiritual thoughts and
actions can draw us closer to God. The Church has always fought against this idea, beginning with its first and second century
controversies with the Gnostics of that day. Instead it affirms that all Creation was made good, and while it has since become
corrupt, it is being redeemed by continually offering it back to God. The epitome of this action occurs in the Eucharistic
sacrifice, which represents the offering of ourselves, all that we have, and the entire world back to God.
Again, while it is always difficult to discern which elements of culture are
compatible with Christianity or can be redeemed and which must be abandoned, Protestants continue to grapple with the same issues
today, especially in missions work when they attempt to bring the Gospel to
cultures that haven't heard it before. And they do it largely without the benefit of two millennia of experience that the
historic Christian faith has to offer.
Compare Whore of Babylon.
References
- Johann Lorenz Von Mosheim; De rebus
Christianorum ante Constantinum Magnum Commentarii (6 vols.); (1753)
- Johann Lorenz Von Mosheim; Ecclesiastical History from the Birth of Christ to the Beginning of the Eighteenth
Century (4 vols.), translated by Archibald Maclaine; (1758)
- Johann Lorenz Von Mosheim; Ecclesiastical History, translated by James Murdock; (1851)
- James E. Talmage; The Great Apostasy; Deseret Books; ISBN 0875798438 (1909; Softcover, February
1994)
- Hugh Nibley; Todd M. Compton and Stephen D. Ricks, editors; Mormonism
and Early Christianity; Deseret Books; ISBN 0875791271 (Hardcover, 1987)
- James L. Barker; Apostasy from the Divine Church; Bookcraft; ISBN 0884945448 (1952; Hardcover 1984)
- Barry R. Bickmore; Restoring the Ancient Church; Cornerstone Publishing, FAIR; ISBN 1893036006 (Paperback, 1999); Available
directly from the publisher
- Kent P. Jackson; From Apostasy to Restoration; Deseret Book; ISBN 1573452181 (Hardcover 1996)
- The Geneva Bible (1599),
annotations of "Fr. Junius" to the Book of Revelation, repr. L.
L. Brown Publishing, ISBN 0962988804
(1990)
- The Thirty-Nine Articles of the Episcopalian Church in
America.
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