1 Peter 3:15 “In your hearts
honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to
anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with
gentleness and respect.”
We can learn so much from the courage and boldness of the early defenders of the faith. Here is a little piece of a lesson that I came across. In a day of "political correctness:, the concept of Christian Soldiers can easily get lost in the notion of making friends instead of saving souls. The
second century of church history began with the church working to gain its
footing and deal with the hostile Roman Empire, and that helps explain why many
of the earliest post-Apostolic Christians lack theological depth—people were
focused on surviving. Notable exceptions exist. First Clement, a letter written
by an elder in Rome around the year AD 100, and the Epistle to Diognetus, an
anonymous text written as early as 130, both anticipate the fully worked-out
doctrine of justification by faith alone.
Luke 19:10 “For
the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
In
the main, the notable figures of the immediate post-Apostolic period were the
second- century apologists—defenders of the faith. The most significant of the
apologists was Justin Martyr, so named because he was martyred during the reign
of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Justin’s defense of the faith was typical of the
apologists of the time. To the Jews, he stressed how Jesus fulfilled Old
Testament prophecy. He confronted pagans, proclaiming the rationality of
Christian belief and the sound ethics of the Christian religion, and he mocked
idolatry in a manner reminiscent of the old covenant prophets. In many ways,
apologists like Justin model how we should defend the faith today in their
stress on the reasonableness of Christianity, and in looking to Scripture to define
Jesus’ identity.
2
Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is
breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction,
and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be
complete, equipped for every good work.”
With
Irenaeus (130–200 AD) we have the first great theologian of the post-Apostolic
period. Irenaeus, who in his youth knew Polycarp, is best known for his work “Against
Heresies”, in which he confronts the early church heresy known as Gnosticism.
Various beliefs fall under the umbrella of Gnosticism, but the core of the
heresy was that the material world is bad, that the God described in the Old
Testament is not the God and Father of Jesus Christ, and that salvation is
obtained not by atonement but by means of “secret knowledge.” Gnostics said
that this hidden knowledge, or gnosis, consisted in traditions that Jesus gave
in secret and that had been passed down in secret in the Gnostic community.
Irenaeus fought this heresy by pointing to the fact that if such knowledge had
been revealed, it would have been revealed publicly and would have been
preserved in the visible church. For Irenaeus, the bishop had the chief
responsibility in preserving the gospel message, but his understanding of bishops
was not what the later Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions would
embrace. At the time, a bishop was essentially a faithful pastor whose main
work was teaching. He depended on many associates in ministry to help in his
work. Irenaeus’ confrontation of the Gnostic heresy reminds us that
Christianity is a public religion. God revealed Himself in Christ to many
people and not just to a select few, and there is no secret oral tradition that
has been handed down through the ages and is the possession only of select
leaders. The New Testament gives us the teaching of Jesus and the Apostles, and
whatever is not taught therein may not be used as a test of orthodoxy. Defend the faith and save a soul.
Merry Christmas, Christ the Savior is born!
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