Chapter 4 Christianity on the Move AD 300 to AD 500
How did the legalization and growth of the Christian “movement” affect the church?
Some got caught up in the excitement of being part of this new Christian thing after it became the official religion of the empire.
Some got caught up in the excitement of being part of this new Christian thing after it became the official religion of the empire.
Others felt that the lack of persecution and lack of threat had diluted Christianity. They yearned for the monastic austere sacrificial Christian life.
What would be some pros and cons of the monastic movement?
Monks copied and preserved the early biblical manuscripts.
The monastic communities were dedicated to preserving orthodoxy.
But………………….
Matthew 28:19-20 (KJV)
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Matthew 5:13-16 (ESV)13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s
feet. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
feet. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
It seems living an isolated life is not fulfilling the Great Commission.
Who was Gregory of Nazianzus and what was his role in the early church?
A reluctant father of the church and one of the Great Cappadocians. About the Year 379, Gregory came to the assistance of the Church of Constantinople, which had already been troubled for forty years by the Arians; by his supremely wise words and many labors he freed it from the corruption of heresy, and was elected Archbishop of that city by the Second Ecumenical Council. His famous five sermons on the Trinity, called the Triadica used superior biblical argument to again reject the Arian heresy which had been rejected earlier at Nicaea. When Saint Gregory came to Constantinople, the Arians had taken all the churches. When he left Constantinople two years later, the Arians did not have one church left to them in the city.
How did the fall of Rome affect Christian thinking?
Many identified the Roman Empire with the Kingdom of God and felt the fall of Rome would mean the end of the church.
Some blamed the church for weakening the Roman Empire.
What role did Augustine play in this period of church history?
Augustine wrote the City of God to explain to Christians that Rome and the Empire should never be confused with the City of God, the legitimate home of Christians.
Genesis 50:20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.
Galatians 4:4 But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
Why did God chose this time in human history during the Roman Empire to bring the world to Christ.
Pax Romano Roman peace maintained by the Roman legions.
Roman Law
Greek and Latin languages.
The Roman road system
What was the Pelagian Heresy?
The church condemned Pelagianism at several local councils. Pelagius was condemned at the Council of Ephesus in 431, though there seems to have been little discussion of the issues here. The Council of Orange, a Western church council in AD 529, gave the definitive condemnation of semi-Pelagianism and thus became the definitive statement that the western church would be officially Augustinian in doctrine.
What was the Apollinarianism Heresy?
Apollinarianism was the heresy taught by Apollinaris, bishop of Laodicea in Syria about 361. At the time when the doctrine of the Trinity was being established in an official sense, he taught that the Logos of 
God, which became the divine nature of Christ, took the place of the rational human soul of Jesus and that the body of Christ was a glorified form of human nature. In other words, though Jesus was a man, He did not have a human mind but that the mind of Christ was solely divine. Apollinaris taught that the two natures of Christ could not coexist within one person. His solution was to lessen the human nature of Christ. He taught that sin resided in the spirit of man and if Jesus was both God and man, then he would have sinned. Therefore, he denied the Orthodox doctrine of the hypostatic union which states that in the single person of Christ are two distinct natures: divine and human.
God, which became the divine nature of Christ, took the place of the rational human soul of Jesus and that the body of Christ was a glorified form of human nature. In other words, though Jesus was a man, He did not have a human mind but that the mind of Christ was solely divine. Apollinaris taught that the two natures of Christ could not coexist within one person. His solution was to lessen the human nature of Christ. He taught that sin resided in the spirit of man and if Jesus was both God and man, then he would have sinned. Therefore, he denied the Orthodox doctrine of the hypostatic union which states that in the single person of Christ are two distinct natures: divine and human.
Apollinarianism was condemned by the Second General Council at Constantinople in 381.
What was the Nestorian Heresy?
Nestorius was the bishop of Constantinople in AD 428. His elevation to this influential position had profound repercussions for the church. Nestorius argued that the Godhead joined with the human rather as if a man entered a tent or put on clothes. Instead of depicting Christ as one unified person, Nestorius saw him as a conjunction of two natures so distinct as to be different persons who had merged.
Nestorius refused to call Mary the “Mother of God.” Her baby was very human, he said. Jesus’ human acts and sufferings were of his human nature, not his Godhead. He never denied that Christ was divine. On the contrary, it was to protect Christ’s divinity that he argued as he did, lest it be lost in worship of the human child. The divine nature could not be born of a woman.
The problem with Nestorianism is that it threatens the atonement. If Jesus is two persons, then which one died on the cross? If it was the “human person,” then the atonement is not of divine quality and thereby insufficient to cleanse us of our sins.
Are these heresies really that important or is this just religious hairsplitting.
If Jesus is a created being and not the infinite eternal God, then the cross is not an infinite eternal sacrifice.
If Jesus is only an exalted human and not an infinite eternal God, then the cross cannot pay for the massive sin debt of all humanity.
If Jesus is only appeared to be human or his humanity was “swallowed up in divinity, then He could not be tempted at all points as we are and would not be a vicarious sacrifice for humans.
Anything that violated the biblical doctrine of the hypostatic union would dilute the atonement.
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