The Trial and Testimony of the Early Church

PROGRAM 1 FOUNDATIONS

STEVE: There are more than 5 billion people alive on the earth today.

Nearly one third of these, or about 1.6 billion, would identify themselves as Christians. Today the Christian faith is alive on every continent and in every major geographic area of the world in over 22,000 different denominational expressions. But it was a faith that most people simply did not want in the world into which it as first born, here in  Jerusalem almost 2000 years ago. Its founder was killed and his followers, who became known as “Christians,” were from time to time victimized and put to death. The most powerful political empire the world had ever known used its vast legal and dministrative machinery in a strenuous effort to suppress this feisty, fledgling faith. But it failed. 

NIGEL: In this series of programs, we will look at the Christian church in its early period when it was under attack, a period covering almost 300 years—— up to the Edict of Milan in 313 when the church was finally given legal status. This is one of the most incredible stories in all of recorded human history.

STEVE: We will look at the foundations of the church and how it spread, also the  accusations hurled against it, the persecution that threatened to destroy it and the stories of martyrs who gave their lives rather than surrender their faith, and the transition whereby Christianity in the early 300’s became not only a legal religion but eventually the official faith of the Roman Empire.

SERIES LOGO RUSSELL: As we proceed through this series, you will see us slip into the roles and play the parts of some of the key characters in this story which covers almost 300 years.

JANE: I think you will find it an amazing drama, for it’s a story filled with danger and suspense. It copes with the questions and problems of life that we find in every age.

NIGEL: We will be your guides as we find out what Christianity was like long before it had so much of what we identify with the church today.

JANE: Perhaps a good place to begin might be by asking the question, "What is a church anyway?" Is the church really a building? Is it still a church if we would take away the hymn books or the Bible? What if the organ were removed? What if we take away the pulpit and the vestments of the clergy?

RUSSELL: The answer to all of the questions Jane asked would be an immediate “yes,” if you were a Christian living in the period of early Christianity that we are looking at in these programs.

NIGEL: The early Christians had none of the things that we think about when we think of the church today.

RUSSELL: They did not have church buildings. They didn’t have different enominations or  publishing houses or big bureaucratic organizations or a complex hierarchy.

NIGEL: But they were still a church. The church was not buildings but people. They did have two things that they considered of utmost importance—indeed irreplaceable—they had a faith and a fellowship.

JANE: And both of these were centered on the one they looked to as the foundation.

STEVE BELL: Christianity begins with Jesus of Nazareth and the Jewish people in first-century Palestine. Although no one in history has been depicted by great artists more than Jesus Christ, we actually have no specific knowledge of what he looked like. In the entire New Testament there is no clue at all to his size, build, or any other physical characteristics. Yet the question that was asked when he walked this earth is the same question that has been asked ever since—Who is Jesus?

NIGEL: We do not have any complete biography of Jesus’ life in terms of the modern expectations of biography. But there are some things that we know about him beyond any reasonable doubt. Even those who do not follow him or even those who despise him would admit that at least this much can be said about him.

STEVE:

*Jesus was born into a humble family.

*Yet he came from a distinguished family tree even by careful Jewish standards.

*His teachings were perceived as extraordinary, and he gained a reputation as one

who could perform wonders and miracles.

*His message announced the beginning of an entirely new order, summed up in the

phrase “The Kingdom of God” which, although not immediately recognized or realized, was nevertheless inevitable.

*Jesus gathered around him a group of followers who were mostly common

working people, yet He trained them to become His messengers.

*He caused great controversy and aroused vehement opposition.

*He was condemned by Jewish leaders and crucified by Roman authorities.

*His followers believed and testified that He rose from the dead on the third day and met with them, talked and ate with them.

*Jesus' followers were convinced it was God who had raised Jesus from the dead, thereby validating His claims and teachings; further they believed that Jesus was the divinely appointed Savior of humankind, the Lord to whom all owed faith, loyalty, and total obedience.

*And there can be no doubt that these followers soon believed they were to take this message to everyone at any cost. They were to call all peoples to repent and believe

in Jesus. And we know that they took this word with remarkable energy and

fortitude far beyond the confines of their homeland.

STEVE: Jesus was a Jew and much of his ministry was based at the synagogue here

at Capernaum in Galilee where he worshipped and ministered. In fact, it’s believed

the ruins of that synagogue lie right beneath this very sight. Jesus’ first disciples or apostles also were Jews. They did not see themselves as forming any new religion nor a breakaway group from Judaism. On the contrary, they saw themselves as loyal to their Jewish heritage and a part of the people of Israel; they also believed in the promises given to Israel by God through the writings that we now commonly refer to as the Old Testament. So in the first years after Jesus left them, his followers continued within the Jewish community. They were active in synagogue, testifying to and disputing with their fellow Jews about just who Jesus was and what He was calling Israel to become.

Communities of Jews were scattered throughout the Roman Empire. It took ten Jewish men to establish a synagogue, so synagogues were formed wherever they went. The synagogue offered an ideal setting to spread the word about Jesus as the disciples moved out into wider circles. At that time conversions to Judaism were more common than we find today. Non-Jews could come and worship in the synagogues, and those who did not become full-fledged Jews could still find a place to share in community life. Those worshipers were known as “God fearers” and many proved to be receptive to the message about Jesus.

NIGEL: But the Word was for everyone. Jesus' parting instructions were to go into all the world—and the world to them meant the mighty Roman Empire.

STEVE: The Roman Empire was the largest empire ever known to Western antiquity

with some 50 to 60 million inhabitants. That’s about as many people as Germany

or Britain today-- or approximately one-fifth the population of the United States. It

included all of the nations directly touching on the Mediterranean Sea and also

portions of the Netherlands, all of Belgium, part of West Germany, all of Austria and

Switzerland, and most of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, England,

Wales and Southern Scotland.

Rome, with 1 1/2 million residents, was the capital and center of this vast geopolitical domain. Rome was THE city, but wherever the Romans ruled they built

new cities if they were not there already. Thus, the world into which early

Christianity spread was primarily an urban world.

After Jesus, the apostles formed the backbone of the church. Nearly every Christian tradition today still looks to the apostles as the ones to whom the original treasury of the faith was entrusted and of course some of the apostles’ names have become the most common men’s names throughout the Western world. How many men do you know named John, James, Peter, Thomas, Philip, or Andrew? And these common names came from very common men. Five of them were humble fishermen.

They worked here on the Sea of Galilee, and it was by this very shore that Jesus came and invited them to give up their trade and follow Him.

NIGEL: What happened to this rather ordinary group who were given the most

extraordinary of assignments after Jesus left earth?

STEVE: The New Testament gives us an account of the deaths of two of the apostles — Judas and James.

Judas, who betrayed Christ for thirty pieces of silver, committed suicide by hanging himself.

James, the son of Zebedee, was put to death by the sword, probably beheaded in Jerusalem around 44 AD. According to tradition, he died after preaching the Gospel in Spain.

Andrew is reported to have journeyed to Scythia, the region north of the Black Sea, now part of the Soviet Union. More certain is his preaching in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) and in Greece where he was said to have been crucified.

Thomas, “doubting Thomas,” was most probably active in the area east of Syria. Tradition has him preaching as far east as India where the ancient Marthoma Christians revere him as their founder.

Philip, so tradition records, preached the Gospel in Heirapolis in Asia Minor where he converted the wife of the Roman proconsul. In retaliation, her husband had Philip arrested and cruelly put to death.

Matthew, also known as Levi, is credited with writing the Gospel that bears his name. Different traditions place him preaching the Gospel in areas as far apart as Persia and Ethiopia.

Bartholomew, too, had widespread missionary travels attributed to him by tradition: to India with Thomas, back to Armenia, and also to Ethiopia and southern Arabia. There are various accounts of how he met his death as a martyr.

James, the son of Alpheus, is one of at least three Jameses referred to in the New Testament, and there is some confusion as to which is which. But this James was reckoned to have ministered in Syria, and the Jewish historian Josephus says he was stoned and then clubbed to death.

Simon the Zealot, so the story goes, went to Persia and was killed after refusing to sacrifice to the sun god.

Matthias was the Apostle chosen to replace Judas. Tradition sends him with

Andrew to Syria and to death by burning.

The Apostle John is perhaps the only one of the company thought to have died a natural death from old age. He was the leader of the church in the Ephesus area and is said to have taken care of Mary, the mother of Jesus, in his home. During the persecution in Domitian’s reign in the middle 90’s, he was sent into exile on the island of Patmos in the Aegean. There he is credited with writing the last book of the New Testament, the Revelation of John.

NIGEL: If they did go to all the places that claim them, then we can see that the apostles covered a very wide expanse, bringing their message about Jesus.

STEVE: But we emphasize again that it is not possible to sort out where historical fact ends and fanciful legend begins. It is generally regarded that in most cases there was some truth that gave rise to the legends, which would then become embellished over a period of time. But for two of the apostles, Peter and Paul, we have more information that is considered reliable.

CARSTEN THIEDE: After the resurrection, Peter, the man who had denied Jesus, was reinstated by the risen Lord at the Sea of Galilee. From then on, Peter is indeed the rock, the pillar of the early church. He is their first public speaker, their first evangelist. He defends them before the Sanhedrin. He, as it were, institutes missionary journeys. He is the first to begin a mission to the Gentiles, long before Paul. When Paul finally comes to Jerusalem, he, Peter, is his teacher. He informs him about the history of Jesus, about the beginnings of the church. Finally, he proves himself to be an able administrator when he himself leaves Jerusalem for Rome.

DAVID WRIGHT: Peter is one of the best-known of the early Christians. He was a man just as we are. He was a disciple, apostle, martyr. A disciple of Jesus, an apostle who preached and declared the Gospel and laid the foundations of the early church back in Jerusalem, a martyr in Rome probably along with Paul under Nero. Yet, in all three of these roles the important thing was what he confessed: when he first recognized in Jesus the Messiah, who was promised; when he declared to the assembled Jews at Pentecost and the days that followed the same message that Jesus was indeed the Christ who was to come; and as he died in Rome, faithful to that confession to the last.

NIGEL: The apostle Paul was not one of the original twelve apostles of Jesus, but he was almost certainly the greatest missionary for Christ who ever lived.

STEVE: As a devout Jew, Paul had been a fierce persecutor of the early church but then came an experience on the road of Damascus where Paul claimed Jesus himself had appeared to him. Paul became a man obsessed with one task in life: to bring the Gospel of Christ to as many people as possible with no regard for what he would suffer personally. During one of his many imprisonments, Paul shared his zeal in a letter to his young disciple, Timothy.

PAUL (dramatization): “Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the Gospel according to the power of God; who hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the ospel: unto which I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.

STEVE: Paul’s pattern was to go into the synagogues. But he also taught and preached in the streets, and marketplaces, the Areopagus, Mars Hill, and anywhere he could gain a hearing. Here are the routes of his three recorded missionary journeys. Just about everywhere Paul went, some would respond positively, becoming new disciples of Christ. But inevitably he found resistance from others.

He would often be arrested, beaten or stoned before he was chased out of town. Paul helped the church understand the universality of the faith better than any other. And it involved him in some intense controversy with other apostles, including a showdown with Peter, but ultimately, he opened up the doors to the Gentiles to become full participants in the fellowship of Christ, and he distinguished those parts of the Jewish heritage that were to be maintained from those that were optional or superseded with the coming of Christ. Eventually Paul ended up in Rome, where he traditionally is said to have been beheaded outside the city limits.

DAVID WRIGHT: It’s easy to miss the enormous contribution that Paul made to the early Christian church. One could ask, in fact, what the church would have become had it not been for Paul, because there were pressures around that would have kept the new movement within the fold of Judaism. And it was above all Paul who saw more clearly than anyone else that the new faith could not be confined within the bounds of Judaism alone. He spoke of the mystery that had been given to him to declare. That mystery was an open secret that the Gospel of Jesus was for all peoples. He was himself a man of remarkable gifts. Evangelist, teacher, miracle worker, prophet, writer (many of the New Testament writings come from Paul), theological thinker, but the thing I would like to stress is that he was a strategist, a visionary, someone who saw that the Gospel had to be free from Jewish requirements like circumcision and keeping of the law, if it really was going to appeal to the peoples of the Roman world.

STEVE: It wasn’t long after the death of Paul that Christians began to understand more clearly that they were a community distinct from Judaism. Yet at the same time the church still thought of itself as the true Israel and inheritor of God’s covenant promises to Israel.

A major step in this transition can be seen in the events associated with the Jewish revolt against the Romans in 66 AD. Eusebius, the first major historian of the church, writing in the early fourth century, reports that Christians in Jerusalem were continually harassed by Jews, and many left Jerusalem. When the Jewish revolt broke out, the remaining Christians did not side with the Jews but fled to Pella, a town in Trans-Jordan. In 70 AD, the Roman forces led by Titus, the emperor’s son, attacked and captured Jerusalem and destroyed the temple. Today there are only remains like these, the Western wall, or wailing wall, still visited by the devout as the most sacred site in Judaism.

A band of the Jewish Zealots had escaped and taken refuge in the natural fortress offered at  Masada. On May 2, in the year 73, the Jews barricaded here, numbering almost 1,000, committed suicide rather than be captured or resubmit to the Romans. The failure of the revolt and the destruction of the temple were major disasters for the Jewish people; nevertheless, they found the resiliency to reorganize their religious life around the Jewish Law.

The rift between Christians and Jews only deepened as the centers of the Christian movement shifted to other cities beyond Jerusalem. By the end of the century the Jews had even excluded Christians from the synagogues by changing their liturgical prayers to add a curse upon heretics.

RUSSELL: After the apostles died, the faith was carried on by those who had been taught by them and their associates. But we no longer find missionaries of the stature and effectiveness of Paul leading the way.

JANE: In fact we do not have much by way of records to tell us how the faith spread or who spread it.

RUSSELL: Remember that until about the year 312 the church had been unlicensed, or unregistered, and as early as the Emperor Nero in the AD early sixties it was considered a “religio prava:” that is, a depraved or evil religion, therefore having no legal status and often considered as an enemy both to the state and to the people.

NIGEL: These were not the kind of people that you would erect monuments to, or celebrate in the public arts for posterity to remember. Or, if you do, it was more in ridicule as in this piece of graffiti on the wall of a house on the Palatine Hill in Rome, which, by the way, is the earliest known representation of Christ’s crucifixion. Here you see hanging from the cross the body of a man with the head of an ass. The words of ridicule written beneath: “Alexamenos worships his god.”

JANE: Nevertheless, we do know that the faith spread like wildfire, making its way throughout the whole Roman Empire.

RUSSELL: Now stop and think of the absurdity of the task: A small group in a

remote corner of a mighty empire, a group considered to be a small sect within Judaism (and the Jews were not well liked across the empire), this group sets out to convince the world of their faith.

NIGEL: They preach commitment to one who has died a despised criminal-that’s strange enough-but they also affirm that this same one rose from the dead and is alive today through His Holy Spirit. The world that they are so bold to speak into is steeped in fierce loyalty to inherited traditions and local religions.

JANE: And it wasn’t as though the Christians were asking the world to make room for just one more god--one more faith that they could practice privately. The Romans were very tolerant, really. They could have accommodated that.

RUSSELL: No, the Christians came saying that their God was the only true God, that all were obliged to repent, change from their sinful ways, and follow the Christ they proclaimed as the Lord of heaven and earth.

JANE: They were compelled by an unshakable conviction that Jesus was Lord and that they were duty bound to bring His gospel into the whole world.

STEVE: The aqueduct here at Caesarea still stands as a visible symbol of Roman

power. Yet conditions in the empire at the start of the Christian movement were better suited for the spread of a faith that claimed to be for all people than at any other time in human history. In fact, the Christian historian Eusebius, writing in the fourth century from here in Caesarea, claimed that God had providentially prepared the Roman Empire and the cultural setting that it provided for the spread of the Gospel. And even earlier, the pivotal theologian Tertullian saw the empire and the emperor as God’s agents to preserve society. He made this surprising claim around the year 200.

NIGEL as TERTULLIAN: “We must respect the emperor as the chosen of our Lord.Therefore, I have a right to say that Caesar is more ours than yours, appointed as he is by our God.”

STEVE: Not surprisingly, the empire did not share that view. To put it simply,

Christians were not wanted. Yet, they managed to take advantage of the times and the conditions offered by the Roman Empire to spread rapidly. Over their first 300 years a presence was established in most parts of the empire and across all classes and social boundaries. In our next program we will take a close look at the spread of the faith

CLOSING CREDITS

N.B. This is only video transcript from video teachingVideo: Foundations (The Trial and Testimony of the Early Church, Part 1)Page in Christians Leaders Institute (CLI), a free Bible study course. Please join the Course to study a highly esteemed lessons on theology.