God's Church Through the Ages

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Gods ChurchThrough the Ages

byJohn H. Ogwyn

Gods Church has endured through the ages.

It is a little ock (Luke 12:32), but God has

always remained true to His promise that the gates

o Hades shall not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18).

In this revealing booklet, you will fnd a brie accounto the ascinating history o the true Church o God.


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GCA Edition 2.0, November 2010

2010 LIVING CHURCH OF GOD

All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.

This booklet is not to be sold!It has been provided as a ree public educational

service by the Living Church o God

Scriptures in this booklet are quoted rom the New King James Version

(Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers) unless otherwise noted.

Contents

Page

3 Chapter 1: What happenedtothe ChurCh?

14 Chapter 2: a dramatiC transition

25 Chapter 3: the ChurChinthe Wilderness

34 Chapter 4: taking rootina neW World

42 Chapter 5: sChisms, splitsanda neW start


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Jesus Christ said, I will build My church, and the gates o Hades[the grave] shall not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18). Whichchurch did Jesus build, and what happened to it?When the Bible speaks o the Church, it is never speaking o a

buildingnor o a human organization incorporated under secularauthority. The word in the Greek language that is translated church

in English isekklesia.It is derived rom two root words in Greek andliterally means called out or called rom. In secular usage, it reerredto an assembly o citizens who were called out rom the inhabitants othe city to consider some matter o importance. It was oten used in theGreek translation o the Old Testament to reer to the congregation oIsrael or to the assembly o Gods people. Congregation or assemblyexpresses the meaning in New Testament usage as well.

However, the called out aspect o ekklesia is undamental to

understanding the Church. In Genesis 12, we read that Abraham wascalled out by God rom Ur o the Chaldees. In Exodus 12, we reado Abrahams descendants, the children o Israel, being called out byGod rom Egypt. They then became the congregation o Israel or thechurch in the wilderness (Acts 7:38,KJV).

One o Gods nal warnings to His people is a call to come outo Babylon (Revelation 18:4). The saints o God are not to participate

in that corrupt, end-time cultures sins, so they will not partake o thedivine punishments that Babylon will receive.Jesus made it plain that one cannot come to Him, and be part o

His Church, without being called by the Father (John 6:44). Only thosewho respond to the Fathers call, through repentance and baptism, willreceive the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38), and it is only through the Holy Spirito God that we become part o the Church that Jesus built (Romans8:9; 1 Corinthians 12:13).

Chapter 1What Happened to the Church?


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Gods Church Through the Ages

What happened to the Church that Jesus Christ said He wouldbuild? Did it adapt and change with the times through progressive

revelation? Did it veer o the track and need to undergo a reormationat the hands o such men as Martin Luther and John Calvin? Or, hasthere been a body o believers, down through the centuries, continuingto believe and practice the same doctrines Jesus Christ and the rst-century Apostles taught?

When we look at the story o the mainstream, proessing Christianchurch throughout the centuries, it appears to be a vastly dierent churchrom the one described in the pages o your New Testament. In the book

o Acts we nd that Gods Church celebrated Jewish holy days (Acts 2:1;13:14, 42, 44; 18:21), talked about the return o Jesus Christ to judge theworld (Acts 3:2021; 17:31) and believed in the literal establishment o theKingdom o God on earth (Acts 1:3, 6; 28:23).

Yet, less than 300 years later, we nd a churchclaimingApostolicorigin, but observing the venerable day o the Sun instead o theseventh-day Sabbath. When that church assembled its bishops to

discuss doctrinal matters at the Council o Nicea, the meeting waspresided over by a Roman EmperorConstantine! How could such anamazing transormation have taken place? What happened?

Protestant author Jesse Lyman Hurlbut acknowledged the dramaticchange that took place. In his book The Story of the Christian Church, hewrote, For ty years ater St. Pauls lie a curtain hangs over the church,through which we strive vainly to look; and when at last it rises, about120ad with the writings o the earliest church-athers, we nd a church

in many aspects very dierent rom that in the days o St. Peter andSt. Paul (p. 41).

The history o the Christian Church between Pentecost o 31ad andthe Council o Nicea in 325ad, almost 300 years later, is truly amazing.It is the story o how yesterdays orthodoxy became todays heresy, andhow old heresies came to be considered orthodox Christian doctrine. Itis the story o how church tradition and the teaching o bishops came to

supersede the Word o God as a source o doctrine. It is a story that isstranger than ction, yet is historically veriable.

Simonand another GoSpel

In Acts 8, we are introduced to a man who was used by Satan to inltrateand subvert Gods Church. This man was Simon, the sorcerer rom Samaria,better known in secular history as Simon Magus. Simon was considered by


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What Happened to the Church?

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the Samaritans to be Gods divinely chosen representative (Acts 8:910).Eduard Lohse, writing inThe New Testament Environment, states that the

expression, the great power o God, represents Simons claim to be thebearer o divine revelation (p. 269). Simon was baptized and becamea nominal Christian, along with the rest o the Samaritans. However, theApostle Peter recognized Simons real motives. In Acts 8:2223, Peterrebuked him in the strongest terms as being in the gall o bitterness, and inthe bond o iniquity(KJV).

Who were the Samaritans? The book o 2 Kings tells us that whenthe northern ten tribes o Israel were deported by the king o Assyria,

Babylonians were settled in their place. These Babylonian Samaritanscontinued to practice their old Babylonian paganism, but with the addedinusion o biblical terminology to obscure what they were doing (2 Kings17:33, 41). Though they proessed adherence to the God o Israel, they didnot really obey Gods law (v. 34). In act, as is made plain in the books o Ezraand Nehemiah, they became enemies o the true Work o God.

The Samaritans, just as the Jews, had become dispersed throughout

the known world in the atermath o Alexander the Greats conquests.There were Samaritan colonies in several major centers o the RomanEmpire, including Alexandria, Egypt and Rome. Simon had admirersand adherents among these people.

Samaritanism, with its blending o Babylonian paganism and lip-service to the God o Israel, was also heavily infuenced by Greekphilosophy. Simon Magus added to this an acknowledgment o JesusChrist as the Redeemer o mankind. However, as Jesus explained, Not

everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom oheaven, but he who does the will o My Father in heaven (Matthew7:21). Simon used the name o Jesus, but substituted a dierentmessagea message that did away with the need to really obey Godand keep His commandments!

Eerdmans Handbook to the History of Christianity notes, EarlyChristian writers regarded Simon as the ount o all heresies (p. 100).

The Encyclopaedia Britannica(11th ed.) in its article on Simon Magusidenties him as the ounder o a school o Gnostics and as a athero heresy. Noted historian Edward Gibbon says the Gnostics blendedwith the aith o Christ many sublime but obscure tenets which theyderived rom oriental philosophy (The Triumph of Christendom in theRoman Empire, p. 15).

Gnosticism (the term is derived rom the Greek word or knowledge)was a highly intellectual way o lie. It represented a blending o


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Babylonian mystery religion, Greek philosophical speculation and anoverlay o biblical terminology. Among the Gnostics, biblical accounts

were not taken literally but were treated as allegories used to teachdeeper truths. The Mosaic account o the creation was treatedwith proound derision by the Gnostics (Gibbon, p. 13). Gnosticismstressed pagan dualism with its emphasis on the immortality o thesoul and the inherent evil o matter. It also introduced much vainspeculation on the nature o God and the spirit realm. Several NewTestament booksincluding the Gospel o John, Colossians and 1Johnwere written to reute the Gnostic heresies that Simon Magus

and many others began to spread.Hellenistic culture, which pervaded the Middle East and

Mediterranean regions, was an alternative worldviewa competitorto the perspective and values o the Bible. It stressed the supremacyo reason and logic rather than divine revelation. The later Greeks,embarrassed by the ribald antics o their ancient gods and heroes inthe writings o Homer and Hesiod, sought to explain them away as

proound allegories. This approach to their inspired writings waspicked up by Hellenistic Jews, such as Philo o Alexandria, and appliedto the Bible. This treatment o the Old Testament as an allegory was ahandy tool or Gnostics and others who wanted to evade obedience toplain commands.

About 15 years ater the baptism o Simon Magus, the Apostle Paulound it necessary to warn the Church in Thessalonica that the mystery olawlessness is already at work (2 Thessalonians 2:7). About ve years later,

Paul warned the Corinthians that they were in danger o being corruptedby alse apostles teaching another Jesus and a dierent gospel. Simonand his ollowers were, in reality, ministers o Satan masquerading asministers o Christ (2 Corinthians 11:34, 1315).

By the 60s ad, the Apostle Jude, brother o James and o JesusChrist, exhorted Christians o the necessity to contend earnestly orthe aith which was once or all delivered to the saints (Jude 3). He

went on to warn that there were certain men who had stealthily creptinto the church organization, trying to turn grace into lawlessness byteaching that Gods law was no longer necessary (v. 4). By Judes time,the true aith had already been once and or all delivered. Modernscholars who claim that it remained or second and third centurytheologians to begin to ormulate an accurate understanding o Godsnature would do well to reread Jude 3. It is clear that Jude does notallow or progressive revelation!


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Writing at the close o the rst century, almost 30 years ater therest o the New Testament was completed, the aged Apostle John had

to contend with heresies that were ar more widespread than those othe days o Paul and Jude. John repeatedly emphasized the necessityo keeping Gods commandments (1 John 2:3; 3:4, 22; 5:3). In 2 John7, he warned, Many deceivers have gone out into the world. In 3John 910, a leader by the name o Diotrephes had gained control osome congregations in Asia Minor and was actually putting out o theChurch those true Christians who remained loyal to the aged ApostleJohn and his teachings.

the ChurChin tranSition

An event o ar-reaching implications or the New TestamentChurch had occurred about 25 years prior to Johns writing. This eventwas the destruction o Jerusalem by the Roman legions under Titus in70ad. The Jerusalem Church o God, under the leadership o James

successor, Simeon (rst cousin o James and Christ), fed Jerusalemshortly beore 70ad and went to Pella, a remote desert community.Following Simeons death, the Jerusalem Church o God experiencedgreat instability, having 13 leaders in the next 28 years.

Many previously promulgated heresies now emerged in ull bloom.In addition, many in the Church were discouraged and conused.Events had not gone as had been generally expected. The Church wasincreasingly becoming a mix o new Gentile converts and second or

even third generation members.During the last part o the rst century and the beginning o the

second, the Roman world became increasingly hostile to the Jews.Extremely oppressive laws and heavy taxes were directed against themby the Roman Empire as punishment. Between the rst (6673ad) andsecond (132135ad) Jewish revolts, there were many violent anti-Jewishpogroms in places such as Alexandria and Antioch. Reacting to this, the

Jews rioted in Mesopotamia, Palestine and Egypt.Frequently, Christians suered as victims o these outburstsbecause they were regarded by the authorities as a Jewish sect. However,they were considered by Jewish revolutionaries to be traitors to Judaismand to Jewish political aspirations because they would not ght theRomans. During these times, hundreds o thousands o synagogueandChurch membersthose who worshipped on Sabbath days and studiedthe Scripturesperished at Roman hands or by mobs.


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During this dangerous era, the Roman church under its BishopSixtus (ca. 116126ad) began holding Sunday worship services and

ceased observing the annual Passover, substituting Easter Sunday andEucharist in its place. This is the clear record preserved by Eusebiuso Caesarea, a late third- and early ourth-century scholar, who becameknown as the ather o church history. Eusebius quoted his inormationrom a letter o Irenaeus, bishop o Lyons (ca. 130202ad) to BishopVictor o Rome. Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi, in his bookFrom Sabbath toSunday,acknowledges: There is a wide consensus o opinion amongscholars that Rome is indeed the birthplace o Easter-Sunday. Some, in

act, rightly label it as Roman-Easter (p. 201). O course, what is notgenerally realized by the speakers o non-Latin languages is that theRomans did not use the name Easter or their new celebration; theycontinued to call it by the Latin word or Passover,paschalis.

This ocial break rom the law o God was the natural outgrowtho the mystery o iniquity, which conusedgracewith lawlessness andtaught that obedience to the law was unnecessary. When a practice is

not deemed necessary, it is only a matter o time until convenience willdictate either its modication or its abolition. As the confict betweenJudaism and the Empire heightened, many Christians in Rome, underthe leadership o Bishop Sixtus, took steps to avoid any possibility obeing considered Jews and thereby suer persecution with them.

In 135ad, at the end o the Second Jewish Revolt, the RomanEmperor Hadrian (Publius Aelius Hadrianus) took drastic steps againstthe Jews. He renamed Jerusalem ater himsel and the god Jupiter

CapitolinusAelia Capitolinaand imposed the death penalty onanyone called a Jew who would dare enter the city.

At this point Marcus, an Italian, became bishop o Jerusalem, asGibbon records in chapter 15 o his amous Decline and Fall of theRoman Empire: At his [Marcus] persuasion, the most considerablepart o the congregation renounced the Mosaic law, in the practice owhich they had persevered above a century. By this sacrice o their

habits and prejudices they purchased ree admission into the colonyo Hadrian, and more rmly cemented their union with the Catholicchurch (vol. 1, p. 390).

What o those who continued to regard the law o God as bindingor Christians? Gibbon writes: The crimes o heresy and schism wereimputed to the obscure remnant o the Nazarenes which reused toaccompany their Latin bishop. In a ew years ater the return othe church o Jerusalem, it became a matter o doubt and controversy


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whether a man who sincerely acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah, butwho still continued to observe the law o Moses, could possibly hope

or salvation (p. 390).It was only a matter o time until proessing Christians who hadceased observing the Sabbath excluded their Judaizing brethren romthe hope o salvation [and] declined any intercourse with them inthe common oces o riendship, hospitality, and social lie.

Incredible! This happened even though, just a ew years earlier,they had all observed Gods Festivals together. Yet ater Bishop Marcusbrought in new truth, most proessing Christians joined him in

condemning those aithul Christians who held ast to the historic aiththey had all been taught. Those who remained loyal to the truth weresoon shunned as a source o division by a majority seeking to replacehistoric Christianity with something dierent.

a theoloGyof newtruth?

Many o the supposedly Christian writings that have beenpreserved rom the second century onward put orward a totally dierenttheology rom that o the Apostle John, who wrote just 10 or 20 yearsearlier. As Bacchiocchi asserts, Ignatius, Barnabus, and Justin, whosewritings constitute our major source o inormation or the rst halo the second century, witnessed and participated in the process oseparation rom Judaism which led the majority o the Christians toabandon the Sabbath and adopt Sunday as the new day o worship (p.

213). Ignatius o Antioch, in about 110ad, wrote, It is monstrous to talko Jesus Christ and to practice Judaism(Magnesians, 10). He also talkedo no longer observing sabbaths. Yet John, writing his gospel scarcely20 years earlier, emphasized that Jesus kept the same Festivals the Jewishcommunity kept (John 7:2; 11:55).

Barnabus o Alexandria, not to be conused with the ApostleBarnabus, in his epistle written about 130ad, alleges that the Old

Testament is an allegory and not intended to be understood literally.He regards the prohibitions o the law against eating unclean meats asan allegory o the type o people that Christians should avoid (Epistle ofBarnabus,10). He also seeks to allegorize the Sabbath and states, Wekeep the eighth day or rejoicing in the which also Jesus rose rom thedead(Epistle of Barnabus,15).

Two prominent second century theologians, who played an importanttransitional role in the change rom biblical theology to Roman Catholic


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theology, were both baptized in churches under aithul Polycarps leadership.Polycarp (ca. 69155ad) had been a personal disciple o the Apostle John

and was one o the ew church leaders o his day to hold ast to the Truth.These two men, Justin Martyr (ca. 95167ad) and Irenaeus (ca. 130202ad),while maintaining some truths they had learned under Polycarp, also soughtto accommodate themselves to the new direction o Roman theology inthe name o church unity. Irenaeus, though he departed rom much oPolycarps teaching, maintained a lielong admiration or Polycarp as a greatman o God.

Justin was a Greek rom Samaria who became a Platonist

philosopher and then, under the infuence o Polycarp and his disciples,was baptized as a Christian at Ephesus in about 130ad. He came toRome in 151ad, ounded a school and was subsequently martyred in167ad. Ater arriving in Rome, Justin sought to steer a middle courseon the subject o the law. Henry Chadwick writes:

Justin believed that a Jewish Christian was quite ree to

keep the Mosaic law without in any way compromising hisChristian aith, and even that a Gentile Christian might keepJewish customs i a Jewish Christian had infuenced him to doso; only it must be held that such observances were matterso indierence and o individual conscience. But Justin hadto admit that other Gentile Christians did not take so liberala view and believed that those who observed the Mosaic lawwould not be saved (The Early Church, pp. 2223).

Irenaeus grew up in Asia Minor and, when a teenager, heardPolycarp preach. He came to Rome as a young man and later becamebishop o Lyons in France in 179ad. Irenaeus is considered the rstgreat Catholic theologian and seems to have gone to great lengths topromote peace and a conciliatory spirit. His desire or peace was sogreat, however, that he was willing to compromise with the Truth to

maintain church unity. The churches in Asia Minor under Polycarpsleadership observed the Sabbath and the Holy Days. Yet, when Irenaeuscame to Rome, he readily adapted to the Roman practices o observingSunday and Easter. In Lyons there were some who kept Passover onAbib 14 and some who kept Easter. Irenaeus kept Easter but sought tobe tolerant o those who still observed Passover.

A theological revolution was indeed taking place in the Church othe second century. Notice: Justin Martyr occupies a central position


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in the history o Christian thought o the second century. Justinalso molded the thinking o Irenaeus, bishop o Lyons (Chadwick, p.

79). Though Justin became a proessing Christian in Ephesus, he didnot understand this to mean the abandonment o his philosophicalinquiries, nor even the renunciation o all that he had learnt romPlatonism (p. 75). He believed that the God o Plato was also theGod o the Bible. Justin does not make rigid and exclusive claimsor divine revelation to the Hebrews so as to invalidate the value oother sources o wisdom. Abraham and Socrates are alike Christiansbeore Christ (p. 76). This approach set the stage or a reshaping o

Christian theology to embrace much o Greek philosophical thoughtconcerning the nature o God.

In spite o all this, Justin acknowledged the authority o the booko Revelation and believed Christ would return to a rebuilt Jerusalemto reign with his saints or a thousand years (p. 78).

Irenaeus, heavily infuenced by Justin, also preserved bits andpieces o the Truth in spite o conorming to Roman practices. He rightly

taught: The purpose o our existence is the making o character bythe mastery o diculties and temptations (p. 81). He also adheredto the literal hope o an earthly millennium, during which Christ wouldreign on earth, and taught against interpreting the millennial hope assymbolic o heaven, though he toned down his insistence on this pointin his later works.

truth abandonedin favorof unityand tradition

There were two undamental errors that separated professingChristians rom those who truly represented the continuation o theChurch that Jesus built. These errors involved whether or not Godslaw was still obligatory or Christians, and who and what Godis. Errors on these two points led to an ever-widening divergencebetween the proessing Christian church and the true Church o God.

The importance o the law was the major area o controversy romabout 50ad until 200ad. It was not nally resolved until the Councilso Nicea (325ad) and Laodicea (363ad) when the Roman state becameinvolved. The substanceo the confict is preserved in the conrontationbetween Polycrates o Asia Minor and Victor, bishop o Rome, about190ad. Polycrates was the successor o Polycarp who was himsela disciple o the Apostle John. Irenaeus records that Polycarp hadtraveled to Rome in the mid-second century to try and persuade


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Anicetus, bishop o Rome, o the true time o the Passover. Anicetusclaimed to have been bound by the tradition o his predecessors since

Bishop Sixtus, while Polycarp declared, He had always observedit [Passover] with John the disciple o our Lord, and the rest o theapostles, with whom he associated (Eusebius, xxiv).

About 50 years ater Polycarps journey, Victor o Rome sought tointimidate the churches o Asia Minor into conorming to the RomanEaster practice. Polycrates wrote Victor:

We thereore observe the genuine day [Passover]; neither

adding thereto nor taking thererom. For in Asia great lightshave allen asleep, which shall rise again in the day o the Lordsappearing, in which he will come with glory rom heaven, andwill raise up all the saints; Philip, one o the twelve apostles,who sleeps in Hierapolis John, who rested upon the bosomo our Lord Polycarp o Smyrna. All these observed theourteenth day o the Passover according to the gospeldeviating

in no respect, but ollowing the rule o aith and my relativesalways observed the day when the people threw away theleaven [Abib 14]. I, thereore, brethren, am now 65 years in theLord, who having conerred with the brethren throughout theworld, and having studied the whole o the sacred Scriptures, amnot at all alarmed at those things with which I am threatened, tointimidate me. For they who are greater than I, have said, Weought to obey God rather than men (Eusebius, xxiv).

As various controversies raged during the second century, anew approach to church government was to have consequences omonumental proportions. This approach was an emphasis on what wastermed Apostolic Succession.

In the rst century, Paul had praised the Bereans or their approachin checking up on him by searching the Scriptures daily to see i

he was teaching truth (Acts 17:11). He exhorted the Thessalonians toprove all things; hold ast that which is good (1 Thessalonians 5:21,KJV). Constantly, throughout the rst century, we see an appeal beingmade to the Scriptures.

But, beginning with the writings o Clement, bishop o Rome, wend a new emphasis. Clement wrote a letter to the church in Corinthabout 100ad, probably very shortly ater Johns death. The editors oMasterpieces of Christian Literature summarize Clements principal ideas


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as: The way to peace and concord is through obedience to establishedauthorities, the elders. Christ rules the churches through the apostles,

the bishops appointed by them, and the approved successors o thebishops.About ten years later Ignatius stressed the same point, Unity and

peace in the church and the validity o the church are acquired throughaithul adherence to the bishop (Masterpieces).

By the middle o the next century, the claims had grown so orceullythat Cyprian o North Arica stated: The ocus o unity is the bishop.To orsake him is to orsake the Church, and he cannot have God or

his Father who has not the Church or his mother (Chadwick, p. 119).These claims were being made to hold brethren in an organization

that was rapidly developing into what we know today as the RomanCatholic Church. How dierent these appeals are to those o Paul andthe other New Testament leaders who pointed to the Scriptures andto the ruits o their ministries or authentication (c. 1 Corinthians11:1; Acts 17:2). No longer able to rely on a clear appeal to Scripture,

second- and third-century church leaders increasingly based theirclaim to the loyalty o the brethren upon their assertion o being dulyordained successors o the Apostles and the bishops who succeededthem. While they increasingly abandoned what the Apostles taught,these deceivers sought to hold brethren together by appeals to unityand to the memory o the Apostles.


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How did so many move so ar so quickly? This is the questionthat simply leaps out at us as we examine the history o theearly Church.

At the time o the Apostle Johns death near the dawn o the secondcenturyad, the Christian movement, though obviously beset by manyproblems and alse teachers, bore at least a recognizable resemblance tothe Church o God o the book o Acts. But, by the beginning o the

third centuryad, most o those same congregations, though still callingthemselves Church o God, bore ar more resemblance in doctrine tothe medieval Catholic Church than to the Church o God during thedays o the Apostles Peter, James, Paul and John.

During the second century, a number o gradual shits occurred in boththe doctrine and practice o the vast majority o church congregations.The stage was set or those shits by some o the very ideas that began tobe promulgated only a ew years ater Christs resurrection and ascension

into heaven. Ideas always produce consequences!

another GoSpel

Christ spent His ministry preaching the Good News o acoming divine government that would replace the oppressive humangovernments Jesus listeners knew all too well. The disciples asked

Him or signs showing when that time would be near (Matthew24:3). The last question they asked, as He was preparing to ascendinto heaven, concerned whether it was yet time or the Kingdom to beestablished (Acts 1:6). In the last stage o Pauls ministry o which wehave any record, we nd that Paul was still preaching the kingdomo God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christwith all condence, no one orbidding him (Acts 28:31)! Even in thelast inspired book o the New Testament canon, Jesus Christ inspired

Chapter 2A Dramatic Transition


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A Dramatic Transition

the Apostle John with visions about the literal establishment o theKingdom o God on this earth (Revelation 19:1121; 20:46; 21).

In spite o this clear record o Jesus Christs plain teaching, we readin 2 Corinthians 11:315 that alse ministers had crept into the Church,and within 25 years ater its ounding were preaching what Paul calledanother gospel. By the second century, the true Gospel that Jesus hadtaught was being called a doubtul opinion by the leaders o the buddingorthodox Christian church. By the third century, Christs own exampleand teaching was being regarded as rank heresy.During the second and thirdcenturies, the gospel that was being preached ocused almost exclusively

on the person o Jesus. Also, at that same time, pagan concepts about theimmortality o the soul, as well as heaven and hell, gained acceptance.

The correct understanding about the Kingdom o God was maintainedwell into the second century, even by men such as Justin Martyr andIrenaeus. O course, they were seriously o-track in other areas, such astheir teaching concerning Gods law. Edward Gibbon writes o this period:

The assurance o such a Millennium was careully inculcatedby [those] who conversed with the immediate disciples othe apostles. But when the edice o the church was almostcompleted, the temporary support was laid aside. The doctrine oChrists reign upon earth was at rst treated as a proound allegory,was considered by degrees as a doubtul and useless opinion,and was at length rejected as the absurd invention o heresy andanaticism (Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 1, ch. 15).

Much o this progression was the result o Origens infuence. Origenwas, as we shall shortly see, one o the least sound-minded individualsever to be accepted as a Christian theologian. He played a major rolein ormulating Catholic teaching on the Trinity, the immortality o thesoul and the Kingdom o God.

As the oundational understanding o the true nature o the Gospel

and the Kingdom o God was abandoned, there were many disastrousconsequences. One was the participation o church members in politicsand in the military. Historians are virtually unanimous in acknowledgingthat early Christians avoided such involvement, But, while theyinculcated the maxims o passive obedience, they reused to take anyactive part in the civil administration or the military deense o theempire (Gibbon, The Triumph of Christendom in the Roman Empire, p.41). By the end o the third century, however, there were Christian


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legions in the Roman army. Proessing Christians were told that politicalinvolvement was acceptable.

the immortalSoul

The doctrine o the immortality o the soul, virtually universal inpaganism, is not taught in either the Old or the New Testaments. Noticethe admission o the Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible in this regard:

In the KJV o the OT [the clue is partly obliterated in

modern translations] soul represents almost exclusively theHebrew nephesh. The word soul in English requently carrieswith it overtones, ultimately coming rom philosophical Greek(Platonism) and rom Orphism and Gnosticism, which areabsent in nephesh. In the OT it never means the immortal soul,but is essentially the lie principle, or the living being. Psuchein the NT corresponds to nephesh in the OT (vol. 4, p. 428).

How did the concept o an immortal soul enter into Christianity? Asearly as 200bc, some Jewish sects were beginning to absorb this idea, due toGreek infuence, and were attempting to meld it with the biblical teachingo the resurrection. This is illustrated by such intertestamental apocryphalwritings as the Book o Jubilees and Fourth Maccabees, as well as by bothPhilo and Josephus. The Gnostics, with their emphasis on pagan dualism,stressed the immortality o the soul in contrast to the resurrection o the body.

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia states, There is a distinctionbetween a Platonic belie in the immortality o the soul alone and biblicalteaching regarding the resurrection o the dead (vol. 2, p. 810).

Late second- and early third-century writers such as Tertullianand Origen played a major part in shaping uture Catholic doctrineregarding heaven, hell and the immortality o the soul. The ISBEncyclopedia goes on to reveal: Early Christians were oten infuenced

by Greek as well as Jewish thought. For example, many were infuencedby Pythagoras teachings about the souls division into several partsand its transmigration: Platonic and Neoplatonic [especially Plotinus]understandings lay behind Origens view o the soul. Tertullianollowed Stoic thought (vol. 4, p. 588). The Encyclopedia of Religionbrings out that many later infuential Catholic theologians allinterpreted the biblical concepts o the soul along Platonic lines and inthe general tradition o Origen and his school.


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the trinity

There was not simply one heresy regarding the nature o God, butmany dierent contradictory ones. There seem to have been almost as manydierent ideas as there were philosophical schools and teachers. MainstreamCatholic thought, rom which orthodox Protestant teaching on the subjectsprang, merely represents the particular brand o heresy that won outover its competitors. Since it is this teaching that has survived, with somemodication, until our time, it is the one that we will examine most closely.

The background o third-century orthodoxy on the subject o the

Trinity is to be ound not in the biblical text, but in Greek philosophicalwritings. The Roman Catholic New Theological Dictionary makes anumber o rank admissions in this regard. Concerning the Scripturalteaching on the nature o the Holy Spirit, in its article, Trinity, itacknowledges, As such, the Spirit is never the explicit object o NTworship, nor is the Spirit ever represented in NT discourse as interactingin an interpersonal way with the Father and the Son.

Later in the same article, modern Catholic scholars, discussingthe background o orthodox teaching on the Trinity, coness paganinfuences upon their theology:

Christians conversant with the then dominant

philosophy o middle-Platonism seized the opportunity toproclaim and elucidate the Christian message in a thought ormwhich was meaningul to the educated classes o the widespread

Hellenistic society. This movement, which Catholic theologyhas generally evaluated positively, will have an enormous impacton the development o Christian theology. Condent that theGod they [pagan Greek philosophers] preached was the Fathero Jesus Christ and the salvation they proclaimed was that oJesus, the apologists adapted much o the Hellenic worldview[Tertullian made] the rst known use o the term trinity.

Origen appropriated the philosophy o middle-Platonismmore systematically than the apologists and Tertullian had. Inact, his concept o eternal generation was an adaptation o themiddle-Platonic doctrine that the whole world o spiritual beingswas eternal. The Son is eternally derived (or generated) romthe very being o God and hence is o the Fathers essence, butsecond to the Father. Origen, like Tertullian coined a genericterm or the three o the divine triad. The Father, the Son, and


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Holy Spirit are three hypostases. Origens major contributionto the ormulation o the trinitarian doctrine is the notion o

eternal generation. His generic term or the three (hypostases)will be adopted and rened in the ourth century (p. 1054).

As we look at the development o Christian theology in the latesecond and early third centuries, the names o Tertullian and Origenkeep coming up. Tertullian (ca. 150225ad), called the ather o Latintheology, was one o the most powerul writers o the time and almostas infuential as Augustine in the development o theology in the West

(Eerdman, Handbook to the History of Christianity, p. 77).Tertullian lived in Carthage and was one o the rst to teach that a ery

hell began at death. In his later years he broke with Rome and became aMontanist. This meant that he accepted the claims o two demon-possessedwomen who called themselves prophetesses. They went into ecstatic renziesand spoke in tongues, claimed to be the Paraclete (a term or the HolySpirit in Johns Gospel), and taught a message termed the New Prophecy.

Origen (ca. 185254ad) was the greatest scholar and most prolicauthor o the early church (Eerdman, p. 104). About 203ad, Origensucceeded Clement o Alexandria as leader o a amous school thatpurported to prepare Christians or baptism and oered courses inphilosophy and natural science or the general populace. For all hisreputation as a great scholar and teacher o theology, how much did Origenreally understand? According to the ourth-century church historianEusebius, not too long ater he took over the school at Alexandria,

Origen castrated himsel! This act was based upon his understanding (orrather, misunderstanding!) o Christs words in Matthew 5:2930.

This same utter lack o sound-minded understanding o the realmeaning and intent o Scripture is poignantly displayed in much o histheological writing. Origen introduced the possibility o a remedial hell[purgatory] (International Bible Encyclopedia, Hell). He also played animportant part in what later developed into Catholic Mary-worship by rst

proposing the idea that Mary remained a virgin ater the birth o Jesus.

reliGiouS artin worShip

One o the most drastic changes to aect the church ater therst century was the introduction o religious art into worship. Thisinnovation so obviously smacked o the idolatry prohibited by thesecond commandment that it was slow to catch on. Notice:


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Both Tertullian and Clement o Alexandria regarded thisprohibition as absolute and binding on Christians. Images and

cultic statues belonged to the demonic world o paganism. In act,the only second-century Christians known to have had images oChrist were radical Gnostics. Yet beore the end o the secondcentury Christians were reely expressing their aith in artisticterms (Henry Chadwick, The Pelican History of the Church, p.277).

The earliest example o a church building that had pictures on

the wall was a third-century building in Dura on the Euphrates. Eventhen, it was primarily Old Testament scenes. As late as the EmperorConstantine, many leaders o the proessing Christian church were stillshocked at the idea o having pictures or images o Christ. We read:

About 327 [ad] the learned historian Eusebius o Caesareareceived a letter rom the emperors sister Constantia asking him

or a picture o Christ. Eusebius wrote her a very stern reply. Hewas well aware that one could nd pictures o Christ and o theapostles. They were or sale in the bazaars o Palestine, and he hadhimsel seen them. But Eusebius did not think the painters andshopkeepers selling these mementos to pilgrims were Christiansat all [he] takes it or granted that only pagan artists woulddream o making such representations (ibid., pp. 280281).

Epiphanius o Salamis, a ourth-century church leader, was horriedto nd in a church-porch in Palestine a curtain with a purported pictureo Christ. He not only lodged a vehement protest with the bishop oJerusalem, but personally tore down the curtain and destroyed it. By thetime o his death in 403ad, however, portrayals o Christ and the saintswere becoming increasingly widespread. This was accompanied by theveneration of Mary which, by 400ad, was occupying an ever-increasing

place in private devotions.

the imperialChurCh

Ater almost three centuries o on-again, o-again persecution by theRoman government, the Edict o Toleration was issued at Milan in 313ad.Soon aterward, Christianity went rom simply being ocially toleratedby the Roman Empire to actually becoming the ocial state religion o the


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empire. Did this represent a success story or the Church that Jesus Christbuilt? Had true, biblical Christianity triumphed in the Roman Empire?

Far rom it! What we have seen is a Gentile-infuenced religion thatappropriated Christian terminology while retaining pagan traditionsallenorced by the Roman emperor, Constantine. It was vastly dierent romthe persecuted, Judeo-Christian Church established by Jesus Christ Himselin the rst century. Constantine recognized the important role that religioncould play in uniting his empire and giving his populace a common identity.Motivated primarily by these political concerns, Constantine orged analliance with the bishop o Rome and began the process o creating a standard

brand o Christianity throughout his empire. He was instrumental incalling the Council o Nicea in 325ad and actually presided over it himsel.Keep in mind that Constantine was not even baptized yet! In act he put obaptism until he was on his deathbed, at which point he was too ill to beimmersed. His personal example o being sprinkled contributed much to anabandonment o immersion in avor o sprinkling.

The Council o Nicea primarily sought to resolve two thorny issues

that had not been ully settled earlier. These involved controversiesabout the nature of God as well as the Easter/Passoverquestion. Backedup by imperial muscle, the views o the Roman church prevailed at thecouncil. All opposition was squelched.

Constantine was also responsible or making the venerable day othe Sun a state holiday when the courts were to be closed and mostbusinesses were to shut their doors.

This Roman emperor had previously been a devotee o Sol Invictus

(the Unconquered Sun) and with his conversion, many motis osun worship, such as the use o the cross and the halo in art, enteredChristianity. Also at this time, there began to be mass conversions othe populace. To acilitate this, popular holidays such as Saturnalia andLupercalia were recycled into new Christian observances, now calledChristmas and St. Valentines Day. The leaders o the church at Romeclaimed that they were merely broadening the way, making Christianity

more accessible to the masses and certainly much less Jewish. Anti-Semitism was a motivating orce in Roman Christianity.

where waSthe ChurCh JeSuS ChriStbuilt?

What had happened to the Church that was established throughan outpouring o Gods Holy Spirit on the day o Pentecost in 31ad?Where was Christ and what was He doing during this time?


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In the second and third chapters o the book o Revelation, wend messages that Jesus Christ recorded or the seven churches o Asia

Minor. In the rst chapter, the Apostle John saw a vision o the gloriedChrist standing in the midst o seven golden lampstands. These sevenlampstands represent the Church o God in its entirety throughouttime (Revelation 1:1220). The seven cities o Asia Minor mentionedin Revelation were physically situated as successive stops on a Romanmail route. What is the signicance o these seven messages?

Clearly, these message have a historical application to sevenliteral congregations in the rst century. Additionally, howeverand

important or us todaythese congregations exempliy attitudes andproblems that might characterize the Christian community, as well asindividual Christians, in the years since John wrote (c. Revelation 2:7).

When we look at the context o the book o Revelation, we mustrecognize that it is primarily intended as a prophecy. Revelation 1:1shows that the books purpose is to show to Gods servants things thatwould soon begin to happen. Thus the seven churches should primarily

be understood as representing the entire history o Gods Church inseven successive church eras.The rst Church to be addressed in Revelation 2 is the Church at

Ephesus. This Church characterized the Apostolic era. In verse 2, weread that the great test o that rst era lay in determining who were thetrue Apostles o Christ and who were liars (c. 2 Corinthians 11:315).This was an era that labored long and hard to do the Work o Godand endured much diculty and persecution in the process. The true

Christians o the Ephesian era were those who rejected and hated thepractices o the Nicolaitans (ollowers o Simon Magus).

However, ater the destruction o the Temple in Jerusalem in70ad, discouragement and spiritual lethargy set in. The brethren hadexpected Christ to return shortly ater Roman armies had surroundedJerusalem. But now most o Judea and Galilee lay in ruins, occupiedby Roman legions. The Jewish Christians were considered traitors by

their ellow countrymen, and probable troublemakers by the Romanauthorities. Lie was hard and dangerous.This era had let its rst love, that early zeal or doing the Work. The

membership began losing ocus regarding those doctrines, practicesand priorities that gave them their true identity and purpose.

The living Christs message to Christians o the Ephesian era wasthat i the Ephesians did not repent and return to their rst works ozealous proclamation o the Gospel, He would remove their lampstand.


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In the second and thIrd chapters of revelatIon, the apostle John recorded

messages from Jesus chrIst to churches In seven partIcular cItIes In western

asIa mInor (nowthecountryof turkey). thesecItIes, Important Incommerce

and communIcatIon, were lInked by maJor roads as successIve stops on a

roman maIl route when John wrote hIs vIsIon. note that chrIst addressed

the churches In theIr exact geographIc order. when we recognIze that the

wholebookof revelatIonIsIntendedasaprophecy (revelatIon 1:1) andthat

certaIn dIfferent cIrcumstances present In the seven churches could not have

been contemporaneous (cf. 2:10; 3:78), It Is apparent that these churches

representthehIstoryoftheentIre churchof godasseven churcheraswhIch

occurInchronologicalorder.

2) messagetoSmyrna:

youwIllhavetrIbulatIon

tendays. befaIthfuluntIl

death, and I wIllgIveyou

thecrownoflIfe (2:10).

1) messagetoEphESuS:

youhavetestedthose

whosaytheyare

apostlesandarenot...

nevertheless... youhave

leftyourfIrstlove

(2:2,4).

4) messagetoThyaTira:

I knowyourworks...

thelastaremorethan

thefIrst (2:19).

5) messagetoSardiS:

youhaveanamethat

youarealIve, butyouare

dead (3:1).

6) messagetophiladElphia:

I havesetbeforeyouan

opendoor, andnoonecan

shutIt; foryouhave... not

denIedmyname (3:8).

7) messagetolaodicEa:

becauseyouarelukewarm,

andneIthercoldnorhot,

I wIllspewyououtofmy

mouth (3:16).

patmos Isthe IslandtowhIch JohnwasexIled, where

hereceIvedhIsprophetIcvIsIonandrecorded It Inthe

bookof revelatIon.

3) messagetopErgamoS:

I knowyourworks... I

haveafewthIngsagaInst

you (2:1314).


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The apostasy o the overwhelming majority o the Jerusalem Church in135ad (when the Second Jewish Revolt against Rome was totally crushed)

is generally taken to mark the ending o the Ephesian era. Those whoremained aithul during these trying nal days were labeled as Nazarenes(c. Acts 24:5) and Ebionites (poor ones) by the larger church. As is alsothe case today, a wide variety o independent groups, mixing truth anderror in a wide assortment o ideas, existed alongside the true Church oGod. These groups were sometimes lumped in as ellow heretics withthe Nazarenes or Ebionites by the Roman church.

The Church at Smyrna is the second o the seven churches to be

addressed. The Apostle John died in Ephesus at the end o the rstcentury. The next aithul leader in Asia Minor, as noted in the previouschapter, was Polycarp, bishop o Smyrna. As a young man, Polycarp hadbeen a personal disciple o John and had observed the Passover with himon several occasions. Polycarp became prominent during the rst coupleo decades o the second century. The churches under his leadershipremained one o the ew areas where Gods Festivals continued to be

observed throughout the remainder o the second century. In his oldage, Polycarp even made a journey to Rome seeking to convince thebishop o Rome, Anicetus, o his errors in not celebrating the biblicalPassover date and in observing, in its place, an annual Sunday Paschalobservance (Easter) and a weekly celebration o Eucharist.

In the closing decades o the second century, Polycrates, a aithulchurch leader who had been personally trained by Polycarp, arose. Heremained the only Christian leader o prominence who was aithul to

the example o the Apostles o the Jerusalem Church o God. Polycratestaught the true Gospel o the literal establishment o the Kingdomo God on earth, the unconscious state o the dead awaiting theresurrection, the importance o keeping Gods law and the observanceo the biblical Festivals.

Toward the end o the second century, Victor, bishop o Rome,had begun labeling Polycrates and those who ollowed his teachings as

hereticssources o discord and schism in the church. Polycrates remainedaithul despite increasing pressure and isolation rom supposed ellowChristians, as well as persecution and hostility rom the surroundingpagan society. Ater his death, however, we know o no other strong,prominent leader among those aithul churches in Asia Minor.

In the publics perception, true Christians lost ground to the muchmore popular and accommodating Roman church. Their numbers shrankand they became increasingly isolated. Despised and labeled Ebionites


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by the mainstream church, individuals and groups o amilies whoremained aithul had to relocate into more remote areas o Asia Minor.

Even as early as the end o the rst century, there were true Christiansbeing put out o congregations headed by apostate leaders (3 John 910).By the second century, others, such as the aithul remnant who reused toaccept new truth rom Bishop Marcus o Jerusalem, were being orcedto withdraw themselves rom congregations o which they had beenmembers. This occurred as unaithul leaders led the visible church urtherand urther astray.

The great test o the Smyrna era lay in two areas. One was their

ability to distinguish between the continuation o the true Church oGod and what was, in reality, the emerging Synagogue o Satan. Theother lay in their willingness to endure persecution and even death inorder to remain aithul to God (Revelation 2:910).

Physically, the Christians o this era were impoverished and persecuted.They were rejected as heretics by the rapidly growing Orthodoxmovement, labeled as apostates rom the synagogue by the Jews, and

looked upon with contempt and suspicion by the surrounding paganRoman society. In Gods estimation, however, those who remained aithulduring this horrible time were accounted as having spiritual wealth ogreat value, and will ultimately receive a crown o lie (Revelation 2:910).

Ater Constantine began the systematic enorcement o compliancewith Roman theology in 325ad, the remnants o the true Church werein large part orced to fee the bounds o the Roman Empire into themountains o Armenia, and later into the Balkan areas o Europe. They

were ew in number, utterly lacking in prestige or wealth and labeled asenemies o the state by a supposedly Christian Roman Empire.

In Gods sight, however, they were precious. It was not Gods purposethat His true Church grow into a great, powerul organization that wouldChristianize the world. His true Church was to remain a little fock(Luke 12:32). Its continuity would be measured, not by a succession oproud, powerul, presiding bishops in a particular city (c. Hebrews 13:14),

but by a succession o aithul, converted people who, though scatteredand persecuted, continued to worship the Father in spirit and in truth(John 4:2324).

There would be times when God would raise up aithul leaders torevitalize His people and do some sort o Work that had public visibility,at least in localized areas. There were other times when Gods Churchcontinued to exist in such scattered obscurity that it was visible only toGod. Still, it never died out.


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In the atermath o the Council o Nicea, Emperor Constantine andhis successors sought to stamp out all non-conorming brandso Christianity. Groups that reused to conorm to the teachings

and practices o the established church, which now called itselthe Catholic (universal) Church o God, were viewed not merely asheretics, but as subversive enemies o the Roman state.

The true Church, symbolized by a woman in Revelation 12, was

orced to fee into the wilderness or 1,260 days. In Bible prophecy, aday oten represents a year (Numbers 14:34; Ezekiel 4:6). Thus, thetrue Church would have to remain in hiding or 1,260 years ollowingthe Nicene Council. Historically, that is what happened. Though thesewere truly dark ages, there was a light that continued to burn. Its famesometimes fickered, but it was never extinguished.

Several problems conront any church scholar or historian who wishesto trace the wanderings o the true Church during this 1,260-year period.

This is because the true Churchs history is not about one continuoushuman organization. The preserved history o the Sabbath-keeping Churcho God has been almost entirely written by its enemies who viewed it asheretical. We read o groups labeled by hostile outsiders with such namesas Paulicians, Bogomils and Waldenseso whom smaller or largersegments, at dierent times, appear to have been true Christians in themold o the rst-century Jerusalem Church. Another diculty is that the

teachings o each o these groups changed over a period o time, generallybecoming more like those o their Catholic and Protestant neighbors.Also we nd that writers oten lumped together various groups

o heretics, including the true Church, under the same name, nottruly distinguishing the dierences in their teachings. Thus the greatchallenge in Church history is not simply to identiy who taught what,but to recognize when a church ceased to be part o the true Church,and when God removed that true Church to another place.

Chapter 3The Church in the Wilderness


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the ChurCh fleeStothe wilderneSS

During the rst three centuries o its existence, the Church oGod aced intermittent periods o harsh persecution. However, duringthose times, they were not singled out, but were generally lumpedin with the Jews and a wide range o Christ-proessing sects. Thosepersecutions were o limited duration and local in scope. The RomanEmperor Diocletian, rom 303 to 313ad, unleashed the worst o thesepre-Council o Nicea persecutions. These are the ten days reerred toin Revelation 2:10.

When Constantine consolidated his power in the Empire, thingschanged signicantly. Gibbon tells us that Constantines religiousdevotion was peculiarly directed toward the genius o the Sun andhe was pleased to be represented with the symbols o the God o Lightand Poetry. The unerring shats o that deity, the brightness o hiseyes seem to point him out as the patron o a young hero. The altarso Apollo were crowned with the votive oerings o Constantine; and

the credulous multitude were taught to believe that the emperor waspermitted to behold with mortal eyes the visible majesty o their tutelardeity. The Sun was universally celebrated as the invincible guide andprotector o Constantine (The Triumph of Christendom, p. 309).

Four years prior to the Council o Nicea, Constantine proclaimeda law or the Roman Empire that was to have ar-reaching implicationsor Gods people. The earliest recognition o the observance o Sundayas a legal duty is a constitution o Constantine in 321ad, enacting that

all courts o justice, inhabitants o towns, and workshops were to be atrest on Sunday (venerabili die solis, i.e., venerable day o the Sun). Thiswas the rst o a long series o imperial constitutions, most o which areincorporated in the Code o Justinian. About orty years later, the CatholicChurch ollowed up on this imperial edict in canon [29] o the Council oLaodicea [363ad], which orbids Christians rom Judaizing and restingon the Sabbath day, and actually enjoins them to work on that day

(Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed., Sunday).The very act that, in the latter ourth century, the Roman Churchelt the need to legislate against Sabbath observance shows that aithulremnants, particularly in Asia Minor, persevered in the Truth. Thisincreasingly powerul church insisted that all must now accept theChristianized brand o Roman Sun worship. Those who reused wereeasily identied and could no longer unction i they remained in theurban areas o the Roman Empire. Consequently, in the ourth century,


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The Church in the Wilderness

those Christians labeled as Nazarenes disappeared rom the populousareas o Asia Minor. For three centuries the remnants o the true Church

had sojourned there, but with the enactment o this Sunday law byConstantine, they were orced to fee. The ourth-century Catholichistorian Epiphanius describes these people who diered romthe Jews and [Catholic] Christians: with the Jews they do not agreebecause o their belie in Christ, with [Catholic] Christians becausethey are trained in the Law. This heresy o the Nazarenes exists inBeroea in the neighborhood o Coele Syria and the Decapolis in theregion o Pella. From there it took its beginning ater the exodus

rom Jerusalem when all the disciples went to live in Pella (Ray Pritz,Nazarene Jewish Christianity, p. 34).

the pauliCianS appearin armenia

In the th century, the Church appeared in remote areas o easternAsia Minor near the Euphrates River and in the mountains o Armenia.

These people were labeled by their contemporaries as Paulicians.Who were they?According to Armenian scholar Nina Garsoian in The Paulician

Heresy, It would, then, appear that the Paulicians are to be taken as thesurvival o the earlier orm o Christianity in Armenia (p. 227). Theauthor also states that the Paulicians were accused o being worsethan other sects because o adding Judaism (p. 213).

Christs message to this third stage o Gods Church (Paulicians)

is characterized by the Church at Pergamos (Revelation 2:1217). Theword Pergamos means ortied, and the Church members o this erawere noted or dwelling in remote, mountainous areas. In Revelation2:13, Christ said o the Pergamos Church that they dwell where Satansthrone is. Pergamum was a center o the ancient Babylonian mysteryreligion. In 133bc, Attalus III, the last god-king o Pergamum, diedand in his will bequeathed his kingdom and his title, Pontifex Maximus

(Supreme Bridge-builder between man and God), to the Romans.The Roman rulers took the title and held it until Emperor Gratianbestowed it on Pope Damascus in 378ad. The Catholic popes continueto use that title to this day. Also, historically, the term Satans thronealludes back to Nimrods ancient kingdom, which in distant antiquityincluded Armenia and the upper Euphrates (Genesis 10). The PergamosChurchthe Pauliciansgeographically relocated to that same areaater Constantine enorced Sunday keeping on the Roman Empire.


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As ar back as the th century, we nd the Paulicians condemnedas heretics in Catholic documents. However, the rst prominent leader

among them with whose name we are amiliar is Constantine o Mananali(ca. 620681ad). About 654ad he began to preach, helping to revitalizethe Church. Prior to his ministry, most o the Church membershipconsisted o descendants o Christians who had fed Greece and AsiaMinor more than two centuries earlier. They preserved the names otheir original congregations and continued to reer to themselves as thechurch o Ephesus or the church o Macedonia, even though theywere located hundreds o miles rom the original sites.

In 681ad, Constantine o Mananali was executed by Byzantine(Eastern Roman) soldiers commanded by an ocer named Simeon.Prooundly overwhelmed by Constantines example and teachings, thisSimeon returned in 684adnot as a Roman soldier, but as a convert.Simeon became a zealous Paulician preacher, and in turn was martyredthree years later, in 687ad.

In 1828, the manuscript o an ancient book titled The Key of Truth

was discovered in Armenia. The book, portions o which date to 800ad,provides us with the greatest detail o the teachings o the Paulicians.Translated into English by Fred Coneybeare around 1900, we learnrom it that the Paulicians shunned the use o the cross in worshipand religious art, calling it a cursed implement. They condemnedwarare, and they observed the Passover on the ourteenth day o therst month o the sacred calendar. The Paulicians rejected the RomanCatholic Churchs claim to be the Church o God, and they disputed

papal claims o apostolic succession. They regarded the Trinity,purgatory and intercession o the saints as unscriptural.

In the introduction to his English translation oThe Key of Truth,Coneybeare provides invaluable historical background on the practiceso the early Paulicians. We also know rom a notice preserved inAnanias o Shirak that the Pauliani, who were the same people at anearlier date, were Quartodecimans, and kept Easter in the primitive

manner at the Jewish date. John o Otzuns language perhaps impliesthat the old believers in Armenia during the seventh century wereQuartodecimans, as we should expect them to be (Coneybeare, intro.,clii). Coneybeare urther states, The Sabbath was perhaps kept andthere were no special Sunday observances (p., cxiii). He goes on to sayo the Paulicians that they were probably the remnant o an old Judeo-Christian Church, which had spread up through Edessa into Siuniqand Albania (p. clxii).


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At some point in their history, however, many Paulicianssuccumbed to a atal error. They reasoned that they could outwardly

conorm with many o the practices o the Catholic Church in orderto avoid persecution as long as in their heart they knew better. Thisroad o compromise led many to have their children christened andothers to attend mass. Christ prophesied o this, admonishing theChurch at Pergamos about those who held to pagan, immoral doctrines(Revelation 2:1415). The result o their compromising was that Christallowed severe persecution to come upon them. When persecutioncame, some o the beleaguered Paulicians decided that the solution

to their trouble lay in entering into an alliance with the Muslim Arabswho were then making serious incursions into the Byzantine Empire.Controversies among the Paulicians during these years created varioussplits in the group.

Prior to 800ad, a leading Church personality, a man named Baanes,came to the leadership o the Paulicians in Armenia and promulgateda doctrine o military retaliation. Shortly thereater, another minister

named Sergius became prominent within the Paulicians. BecauseSergius condemned warare, disagreeing with the position taken byBaanes, he was accused o causing a schism within the group. But, inspite o diculties, Sergius ministry lasted more than 30 years. Aterhis death, however, most o his ollowers began to take part in warareas well.

riSeofthe boGomilS

In the eighth and ninth centuries, many Armenian Paulicians wereorcibly resettled in the Balkans by Byzantine emperors. They wereplaced there as a bulwark against the invading Bulgar tribes. Relocatedto the Balkans, the Paulicians came to be called Bogomils.

What did these Bogomils teach? Baptism was only to bepracticed on grown men and women images and crosses were idols

(Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed., Bogomils). They also taughtthat prayer should be done at home, not in separate buildings such aschurches. They taught that the congregation consisted o the electand that each individual should seek to attain the perection o Christ.Their ministry is said to have gone about healing the sick and castingout demons.

In the tenth and eleventh centuries, many Bogomils spreadwestward and settled in Serbia. Later, large numbers took reuge in


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Bosnia by the end o the twelth century. These Bogomils were onlyone version o a group o related heretical sects that fourished across

Asia Minor and southern Europe during the Middle Ages under avariety o names, the best-known being the Patarenes, Cathars andAlbigensians (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th ed., vol. 29, p. 1098).They were condemned as heretics due to their belie that the worldis governed by two principles, good and evil, and human aairs areshaped by the confict between them; the whole visible world is givenover to Satan (Encyclopaedia Britannica, p. 1,098). From their Balkanbase, the Bogomils infuence, initially ostered by a merchants trading

network, extended into Piedmont in Italy and also southern France.By the time the Ottoman Turks assumed power in Bosnia, the seeds othe Truth had spread to the Piedmont, Provencal and Alpine areas oEurope.

the CatharSand waldenSeS

In the beginning o the twelth century, there was a revitalizationo the Truth with the raising up o the next phase o the Church underthe leadership o Peter de Bruys in southeastern France. This stage inchurch history is characterized by the Church at Thyatira in Revelation2. The Piedmont valleys o southeastern France were described byPope Urban II, in 1096, as being inested with heresy. It was rom oneo these valleys, the Valley Louise, that Peter de Bruys arose in 1104and began to preach repentance. He gained many ollowers among the

Cathars, initially, and later among the general public.The Cathars (meaning puritans), among whom de Bruys

originally preached, were remnants o earlier Bogomil settlements.However, by this time, most had accepted a variety o new and strangedoctrines and were quite divided among themselves. His preaching,and that o his successors, brought about a revitalized Church duringthe rst hal o the twelth century in the valleys o southeastern

France. De Bruys proessed to restore Christianity to its original purity.At the end o a ministry o about 20 years, he was burned at the stake.In rapid succession ater him, there arose two other strong ministers,Arnold and Henri.

Ater the death o Henri in 1149, the Church languished andseemed to go into eclipse. A ew years later, a wealthy merchant inLyons, Peter Waldo, was struck down by an unusual circumstanceand began preaching the Gospel in 1161. Ater being shocked into


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contemplating the real meaning o lie as a result o the sudden deatho a close riend, Waldo obtained a copy o the Scriptures and began

studying Gods word. He was soon amazed to nd that the Scripturestaught the very opposite o much o what he had learned during hisCatholic upbringing.

Historian Peter Allix, quoting rom an old Waldensian document,The Noble Lesson, tells us: The author upon supposal that the world wasdrawing to an end, exhorts his brethren to prayer, to watchulness.He repeats the several articles o the law, not orgetting that whichrespects idols (Ecclesiastical History of Ancient Churches of Piedmont,

pp. 231, 236237).Elsewhere, Allix writes that the Waldensian leaders declare

themselves to be the apostles successors, to have apostolic authority,and the keys o binding and loosing. They hold the church o Rome tobe the whore o Babylon (Ecclesiastical History, p. 175).

Peter Waldo made Lyons, France, the center o his preachingrom 1161 until 1180. Then, because o persecution, he relocated

to northern Italy. From about 1210 until his death seven years later,Waldo spent his time preaching in Bohemia and Germany. Like St.Francis [o Assisi], Waldo adopted a lie o poverty that he might beree to preach, but with this dierence that the Waldenses preachedthe doctrine o Christ while the Franciscans preached the person oChrist (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed.).

What were some o the other doctrines taught by the Waldenses?Is there evidence that the early Waldenses were Sabbath-keepers? One

o the names by which they were most anciently known was thato Sabbatati! In his 1873 work, History of the Sabbath, historian J.N. Andrews quotes rom an earlier work by Swiss-Calvinist historianGoldastus written about 1600. Speaking o the Waldenses, Goldastuswrote, Insabbatati [they were called] not because they werecircumcised, but because they kept the Jewish Sabbath (Andrews,p. 410). Andrews urther reers to the testimony o Archbishop

Ussher (15811656), who acknowledged that many understoodthat they [the names Sabbatati or Insabbatati] were given to them[Waldenses] because they worshipped on the Jewish Sabbath (p.410). Clearly even noted Protestant scholars at the end o the MiddleAges were willing to acknowledge that many Waldenses had observedthe seventh-day Sabbath.

In his 1845 work, The History of the Christian Church, WilliamJones wrote:


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Investigators made a report to Louis XII [reigned14981516], king o France, that they had visited all the

parishes where the Waldenses dwelt. They had inspectedall their places o worship but they ound no images, nosign o the ordinances belonging to the mass, nor any o thesacraments o the Roman church. They kept the Sabbathday, they observed the ordinance o baptism according to theprimitive church, instructed their children in the articles othe Christian aith and the commandments o God.

The Waldenses could say a great part o the Old and NewTestaments by heart. They despise the sayings and expositionso holy men [Roman Catholic church athers], and they onlyplead or the test o Scripture. The traditions o the [Roman]church are no better than the traditions o the Pharisees, andthat greater stress is laid [by Rome] on the observance ohuman tradition than on the keeping o the law o God. They

despise the Feast o Easter, and all other Roman estivals oChrist and the saints (A Handbook of Church History, pp. 234,236237).

CompromiSinG onCe more

There was, however, a serious problem that aected most o theWaldensian groups through the latter Middle Agesjust as it had

troubled the Paulicians. This was the tendency o many to allowCatholic priests to christen their children, as well as their willingnessto participate in Catholic worship ceremonies. Knowing that suchceremonies were useless in gaining salvation, many elt that outwardconormity with Rome would avoid persecution and allow them toprivately practice the Truth. This tendency was prophesied o theChurch in Thyatira in Revelation 2:2024. From Gods standpoint,

what they were doing amounted to spiritual ornication and partakingo Catholic communion was eating things sacriced to idols.What happened to the Waldenses? Waldenses slowly disappeared

rom the chie centers o population and took reuge in the retiredvalleys o the Alps. There, in the recesses o Piedmont a settlemento the Waldensians was made who gave their name to these valleys oVaudois. At times attempts were made to suppress the sect o theVaudois, but the nature o the country which they inhabited, their


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obscurity and their isolation made the diculties o their suppressiongreater than the advantages to be gained rom it (Encyclopaedia

Britannica, 11th ed., Waldenses).In 1487, Pope Innocent VIII issued a bull calling or theirextermination and a serious attack was made on their stronghold. A ogsettling over and encircling the Catholic armies saved the Waldensesrom total destruction. However, most were simply worn out and hadlapsed into a spirit o compromise. When the Reormation began a ewyears later, the Waldensian leadership sent emissaries to the Lutheranchurch. Thus, as the Encyclopaedia Britannica writes, the Vaudois

ceased to be relics o the past, and became absorbed in the generalmovement o Protestantism.

As total apostasy swallowed up most remnants o the Waldensesby the end o the 1500s, God preserved a aithul remnant. Individualswho were the ruit o the last seven years o Waldos ministry hadbeen converted in Bohemia and Germany in the thirteenth century. Inremote areas o the Carpathian Mountain area o central and eastern

Europe, individuals and small groups survived. In act, a aithulremnant has survived in isolation in those areas down to modern times(c. Revelation 2:2425).

As the seventeenth century approached, the next era o GodsChurch was ready to emerge on the stage. Remnants o GermanWaldensians, sometimes labeled Lollards by outsiders, had penetratedinto Holland and England as early as the ourteenth and teenthcenturies. However, it was only in the nal decades o the sixteenth

century that the Church could begin to emerge openly in Germany andBritain.


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What happened to the Church that Jesus built? It endured andit survived against incredible odds! The men and women whowere the spiritual ancestors o Gods people today exemplied

aith and courage. Time ater time through the centuries they had torelocate in order to remove themselves rom either outside persecutionor internal apostasy and compromise. At those times, when it seemedthat the fame o Gods Truth fickered most dimly, Christ always raised up

another aithul leader to rally His people and revitalize the Work o God.By the end o the 1500s, congregations that the world labeledSabbatarian Anabaptists had emerged rom remnants o the Waldensiansand were growing in Central Europe, Germany and England. They weretermed Sabbatarian because they taught and observed the seventh-daySabbath. They were called Anabaptists, meaning re-baptizers, becausethey reused to accept as Christians those who had merely been sprinkledas babies. They taught that baptism was only or adults who had come to

believe the Gospel and had repented o their sins (c. Acts 2:38).

the Storyofthe anabaptiStS

Among them were remarkable men such as Oswald Glaidt, AndreasFischer and Andreas Eossi. Their area o ministry was primarily in Germany,Poland, Hungary and parts o what later became known as Czechoslovakia

and Romania. These men taught obedience to the Sabbath and Holy Daysas well as a rejection o inant baptism and the Trinity. God used them tostrengthen the aithul remnant and to provide a witness o the Truth as theturbulent Protestant Reormation was sweeping the same area.

Glaidt and Fischer met during a trip up the Danube River in 1527. Theyboth wrote books in deense o the Sabbath. In response to those who accusedhim o trying to earn salvation because he taught that obedience to the TenCommandments was necessary, Glaidt responded, The moral law says, Do

Chapter 4Taking Root in a New World


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Taking Root in a New World

not murder, yet nobody would argue seriously that this is no longer in eect,nor would anyone argue that simply to rerain rom murder is an attempt to

achieve salvation on the basis o works (Daniel Liechty, Sabbatarianism inthe Sixteenth Century, p. 31). Glaidt was executed in Vienna in 1546. Shortlyprior to his death he told his accusers, Even i you drown me, I will notdeny God and His Truth. Christ died or me and I will continue to ollowHim and would die or His Truth beore I would give it up (p. 35). Booksand tracts on the Sabbath and other related subjects were also published inthe late 1500s by Eossi, a Hungarian o noble birth.

By the mid-1600s, remnants o the Church in Central Europe were being

increasingly persecuted by a resurgent Catholic Church that was regainingcontrol there ater the turbulence o the Reormation. True Christians wereaced with either severe persecution or emigration to an area that oeredgreater reedom to practice their belies. The remote Trans-Carpathianmountain area, which was already home to Waldensian remnants, becamea sanctuary or many. In the eighteenth century, most o the ew remainingGerman Sabbath-keepers migrated to Pennsylvania. There were also a

number o people who were associated with the Anabaptist movement,but who accepted otherProtestant teachings o the Reormation. From thosedescend such modern-day groups as the Baptists, Mennonites and Amish.

In the meantime, remnants o the true Church had come intoEngland. The scene was set or the th stage in the history o theChurch o God, characterized by the Church at Sardis. Our rst clearrecords o Sabbath-keeping church congregations in England daterom the 1580s. By the early 1600s a public debate was being waged

as to whether or not the biblical Sabbath was still in eect. During thisperiod, quite a ew books were writtenmany o which surviveonthe subject o the law o God and the Sabbath.

John Traske was one o the rst in England to publish a book dealingwith the Sabbath. Writing around 1618, he was imprisoned or his eorts.Some credit him with raising up the Mill Yard Church in London, theoldest known Sabbath-keeping church still unctioning and parent o later

Sabbatarian churches in America. Though some other historians date theounding o Mill Yard to the 1580s, well beore Traskes time, he certainlypastored the church in the early seventeenth century. Traske was later arrestedand put in prison. While there, he seems to have recanted his teachings inorder to gain release, though his wie reused to do so; she remained aithulto the Truth and spent the remaining 15 years o her lie in prison.

In 1661, John James, another Church o God minister in theLondon area, was arrested or preaching the Truth.


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best-known minister o the German Sabbath-keepers in Pennsylvaniaand was a riend o Benjamin Franklin.

The time o the American Revolution was dicult or many oGods people. The history o that era also demonstrates how spirituallydead many o the ministers and members were. Several congregationswere greatly divided on the issue o warare and political involvement.Jacob Davis, pastor o the Shrewsbury, New Jersey, Church o God,joined the Continental Army as a chaplain. Many o the membersollowed his example and enlisted also. One member, Simeon Maxson,boldly objected and labeled any church members who supported carnal

warare as children o the devil (Richard Nickels, Six Papers on theHistory of the Church of God, p. 60). He was put out o the congregationbecause o his stand.

Sabbath-keepers in the Shrewsbury area were impoverished anddivided by the War. Many relocated to Pennsylvania ater the Revolutionand, prior to 1800, most o those moved to Salem, Virginia (later WestVirginia). The area around Salem became one o the major centers

o Gods people rom about 1800 on into the twentieth century. Thehistory o Gods people in this area is not, however, the story o unityand o a great work being done. It is the story o division, apostasy andspiritual lethargy on the part o the majoritymuch o it urthered bythe infuence o the prominent Davis amily, which produced many othe leading ministers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Thevast majority o the brethren appear to have been so spiritually deadthat they blindly ollowed apostate ministers into Protestantism.

William Davis, born in Wales in 1663, went rom the Church oEngland to the Quakers, then became a Baptist. In 1706, he acceptedthe Sabbath and applied or membership in the Newport church, butwas rejected because he held wrong doctrines. Finally, in 1710, he wasaccepted or membership and, in 1713, was authorized to preach andto baptize. Yet he believed in the Trinity, the immortality o the souland in going to heaventotally contrary to the doctrines taught by

the Church at that time! For the rest o his lie, Davis was variously inand out o ellowship with the Church. Davis played a powerul role inshaping the uture o Sabbatarian Baptists (Nickels, p. 55).

In the earliest days, no special thought was given to an ocialchurch name. The congregations in their correspondence withone another reerred to themselves as the Church o Christ whichis at Newport or the Church o God living in Piscataway. Mostmembers simply called it the Church. Outsiders reerred to them


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as Sabbatarians or Sabbatarian Baptists. When the church in Newportreceived an ocial state charter in 1819 (it had been established in

1671, but legal requirements were changing), it was registered underthe name Seventh-Day Baptist Church o Christ.In 1803, a general conerence was organized by eight Sabbath-

keeping congregations in the Northeast in order to coordinate theirevangelistic eorts and cooperate in the publication o literature. In1805, they adopted the name The Sabbatarian General Conerence.By 1818, the name was changed to Seventh-Day Baptist GeneralConerence and the organization had grown to include Sabbath-

keeping congregations outside the Northeast.The Church was undergoing many changes. We can note a progression

rom non-Trinitarianism to the Trinitarian position championed bythe Davis amily and others. A statement written in 1811 upheld thetraditional teaching o the Church, noting that Sabbatarian Baptistsbelieved the Holy Ghost to be the operative power or spirit o God.There are ew who believe that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, are

three absolute distinct persons, coequal and yet one God (Nickels, p.91). Just 22 years later, however, in the 1833 Expose of Sentiments, theocial position had become, We believe that there is a union existingbetween the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and that they areequally divine and equally entitled to our adoration (Nickels, p. 91).Even as late as 1866, it was acknowledged that some o the ministers stillpossessed a strong aversion to using the word Trinity.

During this time, many ministers and members had diverged so

ar rom the Truth that they were now merely Protestants who meton Saturday. The November 18, 1983, edition o The Westerly Sunnewspaper described the anniversary celebration o the oldest Sabbath-keeping church in the United States with this headline: Church WillCelebrate 275 Years Marked with Change. The article in the newspapersaid the church will celebrate its 275th anniversary this weekendanexperience which has been marked by change rom societal pressures,

despite its Sabbath-keeping custom.The changes that have occurred have been marked by a steadyerosion o the Truth and a move into mainstream Protestantism. Inact, the Seventh-Day Baptist churches in Rhode Island have longsince ceased housing the living Church o God. They are merely oldbuildings, museums o where the Truth was once taught and the Worko God was once carried on. The congregations that now meet therebelieve in the Trinity, observe Christmas and Easter, and have even


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gone back and built steeplesdenite pagan symbolsonto some othe old buildings.

While the bulk o Sabbath-keepers were moving urther and urtherrom the Truth, there were individual members and congregations thatremained aithul. We nd records o the South Fork church, in WestVirginia, which observed the Passover and avoided unclean meats inthe early 1800s. This little group was orced to withdraw ellowshiprom the General Conerence and all other Seventh-Day Baptistorganizations, because o doctrinal dierences (Nickels, p. 68). By the1870s, another generation was on the scene and, eventually, most o

the South Fork church accepted the Seventh-Day Baptist organization.Another group, calling itsel the Church o God at Wilbur, was

organized in 1859 by Elder J. W. Niles rom Pennsylvania. It was stillunctioning in the 1930s and was called by Andrew Dugger, in hisbook A History of the True Religion, the oldest true Church o God nowunctioning in the state o West Virginia (p. 311).

the adventiStmovement

In the 1830s, a movement arose among Protestant churches inwestern New York that ocused on the return o Jesus Christ to thisearth, and on the establishment o His literal Kingdom. This message,which rst began to be orceully proclaimed by William Miller, wastotally dierent rom accepted Protestant doctrine. His teachings onprophecy attracted much interest and stirred increasing attention as

his predicted 1844 date or the return o Christ drew near. Ater whatwas termed the great disappointment, conusion set in among theseProtestant Adventists. Ridiculed by mainline Protestants, some becamedisillusioned and gave up religion altogether. Others continued tosearch the Scriptures to see where they had gone wrong.

Frederick Wheeler was a Methodist minister in Washington, NewHampshire, who had accepted the Adventist message o Christs Second

Coming, and o the literal establishment o His Kingdom. Around thebeginning o 1844, he received a visitor to his congregation. One RachelOakes, a member o a Seventh-Day Baptist congregation in Verona,New York, had come to visit her daughter.

Hearing Mr. Wheeler call upon his congregation to obey God and keepHis commandments in all things, Mrs. Oakes conronted him ater theservice with the truth that Sabbath-keeping played a vital part in obeyingGods commandments. Taken aback, he promised to study the subject.


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Within weeks, he was convinced o the truth o the Sabbath, and began toproclaim it. The truth o the Sabbath spread like wildre among disillusioned

Adventists. Hundreds o others responded, as well, to the simple truth o thereal Gospel and o obedience to all o Gods commandments.Into the ellowship o these zealous Sabbatarian Adventists came

Roswell Cottrell, a long-time minister and Sabbath-keeper. His amily hadbeen among the earliest members o the

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God's Church Through the Ages

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