HISTORY

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[00:02] This recording has been released into the public domain by the Bahnsen Institute, where we aim to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

[00:18] ...consideration of the Church of Jesus Christ in history. We have another part of our series that deals with the Church of Jesus Christ and its future that deals with what can be accepted in God's sovereign predisposition of history, what God is going to do with this church in the future, what sorts of hopes and goals, what sorts of accomplishments we can anticipate for the future. But we aren't simply future-looking at the Church of Jesus Christ, we're also backward-looking. We need to look back over the course of history and understand some things about the Church of Jesus Christ.

[00:55] The television series of the decade, I'm told, is the series Roots. Here we have something that has not only fascinated people because of the story that it tells, but it seems to have generated a genuine interest in many people and many families in seeking out the background of the family, knowing something of its history, knowing where it came from, what kind of people were involved in the family, the kind of infinite form, the grand events of that family's life, that family's background.

[01:28] I suppose all of us are interested in that sort of thing. We're interested in our family tradition. We want to know who was great-grandfather Elmer, and what did Aunt Sarah say when she was confronted by the Indians, and all these sorts of things. It's fascinating to us. It's not fascinating just because we have some kind of maudlin idolatry about our own family. I think it's fascinating because there's something important about history, something important about knowing who we are in terms of where we came from, the kind of people we are, what kind of events have shaped, what brings about the current day for ourselves individually and our families.

[02:05] It's rather sad, isn't it, when we find people sometimes who are rootless, people who don't have any idea of who their parents are, or if they knew who their parents are, that's about all they know. They know their father had a certain kind of job and their mother came from a certain city, but they don't know anything about their grandparents or nothing at all about their great-grandparents. They have no sense of where their family is from or what sorts of things the family would delight in, find pride in, or find a shame in, in terms of its background. A rootless individual, though certainly in every sense of the word, made in the image of God and worthy of dignity and respect, nevertheless is a sad individual. It's worthwhile to know our background.

[02:44] Well, the Church of Jesus Christ has roots as well, very important roots, and I'd like to trace them for you today, not only so we'd have a sense of the biblical foundation of the Church and a sense of those key events throughout the history of the New Testament Church that have formed our life and character, but also that you might know something about the denomination in which we worship. We don't say a lot about that in this particular place. Most people know we're members of the Orthodox Presbyterian denomination, but why we're members of that denomination or what it's all about, we don't know a whole lot about these things. And there's a reason why that isn't the main stress in this Church, but there's also a place and a time to discuss those things, and this morning is that place and time.

[03:28] But before we get down to the modern day, we need to know, first of all, about the background of the Church, biblically. Where did the Church come from? How old is the Church? Where did it begin? If I were to throw these questions out to you on a quiz, my guess is we'd probably have 30 or 40 different answers presented to us as to where the Church came from. Where does the Church begin in the Bible?

[03:48] To answer that question, of course, you have to know what the Church is. If I were to ask you a similar question in logical form, but one that you didn't know the content of the main words, if I were to say, where do snark come from? You might know that that's a historical question. It's going to call for some research. You may know the form of your presentation when the answer is given, but the problem is you don't know what a snark is. Well, since you don't know what a snark is, it's very hard to determine where they begin and where they end and what they're all about. So if you don't know what the Church is, if you don't have an adequate definition of the Church, then it's going to be very difficult to trace the origin and the history of the Church as well.

[04:25] So what do we mean by the Church when we speak of the Church in history? Do we mean by the Church the same as the family? Do we mean by the Church the same thing as the state? What kind of group is the Church? Very simply put, the Church is the community of God's redemptive covenant. The Church is the community of God's redemptive covenant.

[04:49] God enters into covenant arrangements with men. He makes promises. He makes demands. He lives in relationship to people. And those people that he lives in a redemptive relationship with, over whom he has set his covenant of grace, those people are the Church.

[05:07] Way, way, way back, the very beginning of time, the beginning of the human race, the Church would not have been a redemptive community. It would have simply been the people of God's covenant. For you see, in the very beginning, God made covenant with Adam. God was in a relationship with Adam where Adam had to live up to certain requirements. And God made certain promises to him. And God was going to be a God to Adam. And God would have been a God to Adam and to his seed after him had Adam passed his probationary test. Had Adam lived faithfully and obediently by the commandments of God that were given him in that day.

[05:45] If Adam had not fallen, that's always fun in theology to work through these speculations. What if this had happened or had not happened in biblical history? If Adam had not fallen, we might wonder exactly what form of relationship with God he would have had, what the nature of society would have been like. But we do know this, that if Adam had not fallen, that his children and his children's children all would have grown up and lived out their lives in obedience to the Lord as well. They would have been in a proper relationship with God. In that case, the state and the family and the church would all have been one and they all would have been the church, the people of God's covenant.

[06:24] But you know very well that that isn't the way history has played itself out. Adam did fall. Adam did rebel against the commandments of God. And after that, God set an enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of Satan, such enmity that makes it clear from this point on that the church cannot be defined in terms of the family or of the state. The church may now only be defined in terms of God's redemptive relationship to his people.

[06:51] There's no guarantee that when somebody is in a godly, God-fearing family, that the children of that family are going to belong to God's covenant. There's no guarantee that because people live in a godly or a God-fearing state, that all of its citizens are going to honor God and be in a redemptive relationship with him. There is now, in the course of human events, an enmity that is set within families, within social orders. And that enmity makes it very clear that God's church is to be found only in those who love the Lord and have faith in him. And so the covenant community, the community of God's redemptive covenant, is the church after the fall of man, after the enmity being set between the seed of the woman and the seed of Satan.

[07:35] In the history of the church, I think we come to a very important turning point when we get to Abraham. In the Old Testament, when God comes to Abraham, God establishes covenant relationship with Abraham and he promises Abraham that he'll be a god to him and to his children after him and, notice, to all the nations of the world. All those who have similar faith as Abraham will stand in this relationship with him. In fact, Abraham is going to become a blessing to the nation. All nations will be blessed in their father Abraham.

[08:08] Now, if you stop and think about that, it's rather clear from the very beginning that the church was not defined as a family organization, that its principle of division was not simply belonging to a family or to a particular race. For how could Abraham be the father of many nations? You might think he was the father of two nations because out of his children we at least have the followers that are now called Jews and also Arabs. So maybe he's the father of two nations in that sense. So how is it that he could be a father of a multitude of nations?

[08:42] So the Bible explains that, I think, as it works out God's redemptive history by showing that Abraham, by being the model of faith, becomes the father of many nations because all nations are to be blessed in him as they have the faith of their father Abraham. And so God's church begins in the Old Testament. The church begins even at the fall where enmity is set between two seeds and those who belong to the godly seed of the woman. Which seed is going to crush the head of Satan belong to God's church. Later that is defined as the people who follow their father Abraham in faith. The Abrahamic covenant makes that clear.

[09:21] In Acts 7, verse 38, we read an interesting expression. This is Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin. And in the midst of rehearsing Old Testament history, Stephen says in Acts 7, 38, he's speaking of Moses, and he says, This is he that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel that spake to him in the Mount Sinai and with our father to receive living oracles to give to us. This is the one. This Moses was the one who was in the church in the wilderness.

[09:53] It's obvious that Stephen, looking back over redemptive history, saw God's working in the church as beginning at least in the days of Moses and the exodus of God's people from Egypt and they're being constituted as a nation at Sinai. And so we see a further development of the church of God. It begins with the enmity set between two seeds. There are two corporations of humanity. One is going to be in hostility to the other. One is going to follow out the ways of Satan, its father. The other is going to be incorporated into the Savior, the Messiah, the seed of the woman. In Abraham's day, we see that this is going to be defined in terms of faith, following after the faithful one Abraham. In Moses' day, we see these people now constituted as a nation.

[10:39] And so in the Old Testament, the final form of God's people, the church, becomes that of a nation. A nation. One people. But does that mean that you couldn't belong to the church unless you were a Jew? Well, by no means. There were plenty of outsiders who came to faith in the coming Messiah, who were honored by God with redemption. They too, belong to the church of Jesus Christ. Israel was to be a light to the nations. Israel was not to be an exclusive domain for salvation. Israel was simply to be the beginning of God's working out of salvation for all the nations on the face of the earth.

[11:15] In Matthew 16, verse 18, we come to the New Testament and a very interesting thing that said Jesus Christ speaking to Peter and speaking of Peter's confession of him as the Messiah, says that Peter is to be called Peter and that upon this rock Jesus says, I will build my church. It's an interesting word. Why is it that Jesus will build his church upon this rock? If we, as we've seen, the church has been in existence from the very beginning of history and it's spoken of as in existence of the church of Jesus Christ, although it wasn't called the church of Jesus Christ, nevertheless existed in the Old Testament.

[11:56] Jesus speaks of the church coming to its final form when he says, I will build my church. Now the church will not be in the form of some kind of redemptive shadow, not just the foreshadowing of what it could be, not just the preliminary or anticipatory form of what God's people should be, but now Jesus will establish in its fullness the covenant of redemption and he will call people to himself to worship him in the way they are to worship until he comes again. He will build his church.

[12:24] The day of Pentecost shows us the founding of that New Testament form of the church of Jesus Christ because there, finally, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is seen. The Old Testament had looked forward to the day in which the Spirit would be given in full measure, when all of God's people would prophesy and see visions, when all of God's people would enjoy that measure of redemption that comes with the fellowship of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. And so the day of Pentecost is finally the beginning of the New Testament, the final form of the church of Jesus Christ on earth.

[12:59] The book of Acts gives us the history of that church. We have to read the opening words of Acts to see what I think is perhaps the most important principle of church history. Acts 1, beginning at verse 1, Luke writes, The former treatise I made, O Theophilus, concerning all that Jesus began both to do and to teach until the day in which he was received up. After that he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit unto the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom he also showed himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing unto them by the speech of forty days and speaking the things concerning the kingdom of God. And being assembled together with them, he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father, which said he, ye heard from me. For John indeed baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days hence. Opening paragraph.

[13:53] What is the book of Acts all about? Well, it's called the Acts of the Apostles. In one sense, that's appropriate because so much of the book has to do with what the apostles did, their deeds, their acts, what sorts of things were going on in the days of the apostles. But in a very real sense, this is not the Acts of the Apostles. This is the Acts of the Church of Jesus Christ. And Luke conspicuously ties together this book that he's writing, this history that he's writing, with the former history that he wrote having to do with the Gospel, the life, the death, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And Luke says that what's going on in Acts is a continuation of that redemptive life of our Savior. That what he began to write in the Gospel, he's now completing.

[14:37] Of course, we know that he doesn't complete the history of the Church. That anybody who thinks that this principle of Jesus Christ directing the history of the Church ends with the book of Acts has a real dilemma on his or her hands when he remembers that the book ends without any resolution to the charges against Paul in Rome.

[14:56] Are we to say that Jesus was directing his Church and that everything happening in Church history up to the end of Acts is the history of what Jesus does in the Church but then it ends and then the Church is on its own? As though Paul is now left in prison in Rome and there's not going to be any resolution that's under the hand and the sovereign direction of Jesus Christ of course not. It's impossible. What Luke tells us is that up to the day in which he wrote this book this is what Jesus has been doing. This is how Jesus has directed his Church and Jesus will continue to do so.

[15:25] Revelation the first chapter the opening vision which is the controlling vision of the book of Revelation is that of Jesus Christ amidst the seven candlestands. At the end of that chapter we have an interpretation given of what that means. Jesus is seen in his ascended glory with flaming eyes and white hair and a resplendent garment. Jesus is seen in all of his glory and he's seen in the midst of the candlestands and in his right hand he has seven stars and we're told that the candlestands represent the seven churches of Asia Minor and the seven stars the angels of the churches which I take to be the pastors the ruling and teaching elders of those churches.

[16:06] Jesus controls the teaching of the church the guidance of the church and Jesus is in the midst of his church. What did he say in the Great Commission? Lo, I'm with you always even to the end of the age. Jesus is with his church Jesus is directing the history of his church.

[16:23] The book of Acts only begins that story of the New Testament church from the day of Pentecost on what Jesus is continuing to do in the development of his covenant people. We can't look at all of the book of Acts this morning and rehearse the history of the church in the New Testament. One of the reasons I'm going to presume that I don't have to do that is because you've all read the book of Acts and you do so from time to time as you read through God's word.

[16:48] Is this the place for a little aside? You are reading through God's word aren't you? It's a good idea to read it through on a yearly basis I believe. Not many of us live up to that but I think even if you know that you're not going to live up to it it's a worthy goal to set for yourself. Maybe you'll read through it in 18 months or 24 but we should all be reading through the Bible on a constant basis.

[17:09] Now if you are you've read through the book of Acts and you know there are many exciting things taking place. Jesus has founded his church begins in Jerusalem it spreads to Judea and to the uttermost parts of the earth all there in the book of Acts all the way out to the edge of the known civilized world out to Rome the church has spread and we don't see any resolution of what happens in terms of the charges against Paul he's still in prison the book ends but I don't think that's the end of the history of the church the church has continued and in its continuation Jesus is working Jesus is doing what is taking place in the history of the church he is the sovereign provider for his church and he's the one who gives guidance to it.

[17:51] Now the pattern for what we see in the book of Acts in the history of the church however is nicely exemplified in Acts 14 verses 21 to 23 I will take just a minute or two with that Acts 14 verse 21 there we read and when they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch confirming the souls of the disciples exhorting them to continue in the faith and that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God and when they had appointed for them elders in every church and had prayed with fasting they commended them to the Lord on whom they had believed

[18:30] there's a nice little capsule statement of how the history of the church is taking place in that day and how it should continue to take place the preaching of the gospel the evangelistic missionary outreach of the church the finding of disciples notice conspicuously they are called disciples those who are going to follow and to learn those who are going to be disciplined the disciples are being confirmed the apostles confirm the souls of the disciples exhort them to continue in the faith warn them of tribulations that are ahead and notice appoint elders in every place when they had appointed them elders in every church and had commended them to God with prayer and fasting they commended them to the Lord on whom they had believed

[19:15] and so the church spread by the preaching of the gospel the finding of disciples the establishment of a church order over them a commending of them to the Lord and then they go to another place and the same pattern is followed there the preaching of the gospel the finding of disciples the establishment of a church order and a commending them to the Lord and so we see the great commission being fulfilled right Jesus said go and make disciples of all nations teaching them to observe whatsoever I've commanded you baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and so this is going to be the continuing history of the church until Jesus comes again

[19:51] well that's our biblical lesson on church history where did the church begin it began after the fall of man the church would not have been a redemptive community before the fall because there would have been no need for redemption but after the fall God set enmity between two sets of seeds and that one seed the seed of the woman is the church the community of God's redemptive covenant

[20:15] that is further defined in the Abrahamic covenant as those who follow after the faith of Abraham further defined in the Mosaic covenant as that nation of priests that God has established in the earth in the Old Testament it takes a national form in the New Testament an international form as Jesus now endows his church with the Holy Spirit and says he will build it on into the future and it's present with his church and the book of Acts tells us it's present directing the history of his church and continues to direct that history until he comes again

[20:43] now if we know these things my guess is that's about all we know about the history of the church I don't say this to your shame but I think it's a general fact of the Christian church today that we are not conscious of our root if we know what I told you thus far we know the beginnings but that's about where it ends so this morning I want to take a few minutes to rehearse for you what Jesus has continued to do in his church as we bring it down to our present day until the very day in which we now live

[21:10] the New Testament I believe was completed by the year AD 70 probably the last book of the New Testament was penned in year 68 as John was anticipating the repercussions of the Neronian persecution as we read of it in the book of Revelation some people would say the book of Revelation was written at the end of the first century during the reign of Domitian there's very little evidence of that although there's a lot of prejudice in favor of that opinion but whether the New Testament was ended right before AD 70 or the last writing was in the 90s of the first century basically the first century the apostolic century is the century of the New Testament

[21:50] and after that what happened what happened in the second century when the apostles were gone when the church government that they had left was now to function what happened to the church of Jesus Christ well basically the second and indeed the third century of the church on earth are centuries that can be known as centuries of persecution for the church of Jesus Christ Jesus had warned that this would follow the book of Revelation spoke of the two great persecutions from the Jews on the one hand and the Romans on the other hand and now we see this coming to fruition but in the midst of the persecution the amazing thing is we see the faithfulness of God's covenant people the church is not stamped out the church is not extinguished during these centuries although if ever there was an opportunity for it to take place that was it

[22:33] the second century two things come to mind as I rehearse the history of the church in my own mind Ignatius on his way to Rome to die for his faith writing seven epistles to the various churches there giving us a feel for the life the mentality of the church in his own day there Ignatius deals with two particular problems one the heresy of docetism the view that Jesus only appeared to be a man anybody that holy who could do those miracles who could rise from the dead and be the son of God couldn't really be a man he could only appear to be a man so Ignatius deals with that heresy on the other hand the major problem of the church the function the authority of the presbytery it's recognized already in the early years of the second century the need for a presbyterian form of government for it to function properly

[23:24] I think also of Polycarp of Smyrna in the stirring account of his martyrdom as there in Smyrna he is asked to curse Christ that he might live and his tormentors the Romans having been put up to this by the Jews interestingly enough in Smyrna the Romans say Polycarp cross your fingers and curse him nobody's going to take it seriously we know you don't mean it just go through the form of it and we'll honor what you do and you'll save your life Polycarp's stirring answer is that lo these many years Jesus has been faithful to me as my king and savior how can I be disloyal to him and he goes to the flames

[23:59] these sorts of things typified the church in the second century I think of the early defenders of the Christian faith Justin Martyr one who suffered and died under Marcus Aurelius the emperor who was the philosophical emperor of Rome the stoic emperor of Rome and Justin having a different philosophy and willing to defend it from the Old and New Testaments gives up his life for that

[24:21] the church however is not only a story or merely a story of such nobility in the face of persecution in these early days there are heresies that are bringing the church's witness into compromise the heresy of Gnosticism the Gnostics thought that matter was evil and that the supreme being was beyond knowledge and therefore the way we live our lives could be either ascetic we deprive ourselves of the comforts of life or libertine we could just indulge ourselves in immorality and excess Gnostic heresy is bothering the church

[24:57] beginnings of Christological problems what are we to think of Jesus Christ the Ebionites say well he must have been a mere man on whom the Holy Spirit came making him the Christ the adoptionistic heresy of the early church is beginning now the Montanists are disturbing the church the enthusiasts who believe that the church is becoming cold in its orthodoxy and needs new revelations from the spirit and new enthusiasm needs to characterize its worship and so the Montanists begin to maintain continuing revelation from the Holy Spirit and this disturbs the early church

[25:29] one thinks of the great lives and writings of Irenaeus and Tertullian and Cyprian and Clement and Origen men who wrote against the heresies of their day and defended the faith against the onslaughts outside and tried to deal with the problems that the church is undergoing but again this is a mixed blessing these are great men but we find in their writings also a tendency toward troublesome doctrines like sacramentalism clericalism asceticism the denial of for instance the goodness of sexual relations and that sort of thing and so these men though they are maintaining the faith once delivered to the saints they are also showing themselves to be less than the apostles less than inspired

[26:10] and so the church is going to have this mixed history Origen just notice the wild allegories in his writing and how he treats the Bible the use of Greek philosophy on a par with the Bible and then there are persecutions under Decius that have to be mentioned in 250 AD one of the most terrible bloodlettings in the history of the Christian church and then finally the last great persecution of God's people under Diocletian which began in 303 AD till the second century the century of Christ working in his church in the midst of persecution through the defense of the faith the development of the church and its life against heresy

[26:49] the fourth and fifth centuries however become centuries of toleration with the alleged conversion of Constantine I'm not going to get into whether he truly was a Christian or not but nevertheless in terms of civil relations he gave the Christians toleration within the empire in 313 the edict of toleration made it legal to be a Christian in the Roman Empire with that came that too is a mixed blessing we have the blessing first of all of Christians not being persecuted but then we have the curse of the fact that the state now believes itself legitimatized and intervening in church matters calling ecumenical councils and telling the church how to direct its affairs

[27:30] there were four great ecumenical councils in the fourth and fifth centuries that should be remembered councils that led to creeds which clarify and defend orthodox doctrine against heresies one thinks of the council of Nicaea that wrote against Arianism the view that Jesus was but the first creation the greatest but the first creation of God and not the eternal son of God that in 325 or the council at Constantinople against Macedonius who had taught the Holy Spirit is not a person that's just a name for the divine influence in the world and so the deity of the Holy Spirit defended there

[28:06] and in 431 the council of Ephesus against Nestorius who had taught there must be a total separation found between the divine nature and the human nature of Jesus Christ so that you almost end up with two persons in terms of that heresy and finally in 451 the greatest of the early church councils at Chalcedon defends the orthodox faith with respect to Christ and the Holy Spirit in the Chalcedonian definition especially written against the monophysites led by Eutyches who had thought that Jesus Christ was but just one nature he had one nature because when the divine and the human came together they mingled and the human is subsumed in the divine four great church councils

[28:47] there's some great churchmen of this age too one can't help but remember Augustine who died in 430 AD the greatest of the church fathers who defended the grace of God against Pelagius in fact so great a churchman and theologian with Augustine that I think it's telling that both the Roman Catholic Church today and the Protestant churches claim Augustine as their own that is the nature the stature of this man he wrote a Christian philosophy of history in that book The City of God which I've mentioned in our Wednesday night Bible studies from the book of Revelation Jerome theologically not nearly as clear as orthodox as Augustine nevertheless significantly translates the Bible into the Latin Vulgate as it comes to be called becoming the official translation of the Roman Catholic Church

[29:33] and here we begin to see the origin of the dark days of the Middle Ages when Leo I claims exclusively the title of Pope in 451 and he says this is based on the primacy of Peter in the city of Rome earlier well the Eastern Church the Greek Orthodox Church it doesn't believe in the procession of the Holy Spirit from Jesus Christ as that had been declared in the ecumenical councils and it certainly didn't believe in the primacy of Peter and the Roman bishop and so the Eastern Church breaks off and continues to be now a separate segment of the Christian Church even to today between the years

[30:07] 410 and 476 Rome fell to the barbarian tribes you all know that from your secular history I guess but along with that fall of Rome it should be seen that there was a great spiritual decline in the tone and the spirituality and piety of the Church of Jesus Christ the superstition and a number of other problems begin to enter the Church

[30:27] and this brings us then to the year 500 and one full millennium from 500 to 1500 in my very rough and ready outline of Church history we find the dark ages of the Christian Church the Middle Ages which culturally were not as dark as people make them out to be but in the Church they were dark the ages Gregory the Great in the year 590 claimed universal supremacy over the Church as the Bishop of Rome he officially promulgated the doctrine of purgatory and began the use the official use of images as part of the worship of the Church in Rome

[31:03] it wasn't all bad in those days we see the Christianization of Britain completed in these days through the efforts of Augustine not Augustine in 597 Patrick came to Ireland in 432 and St. Columba completed the missionary efforts in that area it should be remembered by the way that as Britain was being Christianized the Celtic Church was sending missionaries to Europe and so it isn't as though it was all darkness and paganism in England and thereabouts there was a mixed situation there as well

[31:34] but anyway the overall characterization of the period as I said is one of a dark age papal claims the doctrine of transubstantiation the doctrine of purgatory the adoration of Mary prayers to the saints confession to priests the sacerdotal priesthood ornate places of worship all these things are developing during this period along with the growth of monasticism the idea that men must lead ascetic lives and set themselves apart from the ordinary Christian life into some kind of super spirituality one thinks especially of the Franciscan orders that continue to our day orders of poverty and then the Dominican orders the Dominican orders were finally invested with the Inquisition later on in history

[32:16] the Middle Ages saw the rise of Islam in many lands that would ordinarily have been Christian lands lands where Christian missionaries had gone and because of the rise of Islam we have between 1095 and 1270 that infamous period of church history known as the Crusade the attempt to win back the Holy Land for the Church of Jesus Christ as though the Holy Land had any holiness or had any continuing theological significance after the New Testament the conversion of the Germanic tribes should be mentioned sometimes converted by the threat of the sword Charlemagne founding the Holy Roman Empire in 800 AD Frankish King

[32:53] we see the height of the papacy perhaps in Hildebrand also known as Gregory VII who when he got into an argument with Henry IV and Henry tried to depose the Pope and found out that that wouldn't work Henry finally has to come across the Alps and stand in the snow and wait three days for the Pope to come and to absolutize him that is to absolve him of his sin of opposing the Pope and so the papacy in its domination over civil affairs rather clearly seen in that the height of the papacy perhaps found in the names I hope you'll remember these they are infamous Innocent III if ever there was an irony it would be called Innocent III and Boniface VIII papal power

[33:38] well toward the end of what we are calling the Middle Ages from about 1200 onward opposition to the Roman Catholic Church had been rising even before that one thinks to the 10th century Bogomils of Bulgaria or the 12th century Beghards of the Netherlands the 12th and 13th century Albigensis and Waldensis in South France and North Italy all these groups focused on the errors of the Roman Catholic Church and the one thing that united them all was an emphasis upon the Bible and the common language of the people Marsilius of Padua as well as William of Ockham in the 14th century both stressed individualism in the Bible as a final standard in the church

[34:20] John Wycliffe and John Huss these names now begin to sound familiar to you we're getting back now into Reformation history and most people in our church will know something about these men denied papal claims emphasized the authority of the Bible denied purgatory and transubstantiation in favor of an evangelical understanding of faith and salvation

[34:40] if you want to know how bad the Roman Catholic Church was in these days I might just tell you that in the early 1400s from 1409 to 1449 that church itself sponsored what it called reforming councils for the church the church knew very well that it was not going to be able to continue in its wayward and worldly direction the reforming councils only show us though the need for reform they don't bring us any reform in fact one of those councils condemned Huss to death and so it's clear the church was not ready to be reformed Christian humanists Savonarola even Erasmus in Luther's day are continuing the evidence against the Roman Catholic Church and the need for reform there

[35:18] well we've gone through 1500 years of church history in about 12 minutes here something like that but we come to what I think is perhaps the grandest high water level mark in the church of Jesus Christ in its history up to today when we come then to the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century 1517 do I have to repeat all this for you 1517 Martin Luther nails 95 theses to the Wittenberg church door he says he's willing to debate the doctrine of purgatory and papal infallibility and other doctrines which were he thought corrupting the church Jesus Christ he was of course antagonized by Tetzel selling him indulgences in such a gross way to buy salvation with money

[35:59] one thinks the 1519 Luther stand at Leipzig the supremacy of the Pope he said was unknown in scripture when the Pope heard of that he sent a bull of excommunication which Luther then went out into the city square and burned

[36:14] and so there's here a clear challenge to the authority of the Pope and the diet of worms finally that always bothered me when I was a young man a diet of course is a convocation of people to make an official decision and it just so happens there is a place in Germany called we call it worms I guess it's worms actually in German but the diet of worms not to be understood in other ways in 1521 where Luther was told to recant of these things that he had taught and his famous words here I stand I can do no other his conscience was bound by the word of God Luther great great reformer all of us who live in the western world all of us who live in the evangelical church oh Martin Luther debt of gratitude

[36:57] Luther was not a perfect reformer one thinks of the intransigence of Luther over the Lord's Supper dispute at Marburg in 1529 an intransigence where he actually called Zwingli a heretic and an unbeliever because he wouldn't agree over the Lord's Supper the way he treated Zwingli and the division in the reformed churches because of that Marburg disputation it's a sad sad piece in the history of the reformed churches but a mixed blessing as you see throughout the history of the church we see mixed blessings

[37:24] the Anabaptists in Germany should be mentioned as part of our church history here the source of the name Anabaptists Anabaptists needs to baptize again the Anabaptists did not believe in infant baptism which was practiced universally by the church of Jesus Christ Catholic and Protestant at that time and because they insisted on rebaptizing they were called Anabaptists

[37:45] the Anabaptists have a mixed blessing in church history too one sect of the Anabaptists the Munzer group were filled with fanatics and revolutionaries that brought great disrepute upon the name of the Reformation because of their opposition to the authority of the state but on the other hand we see the pacifistic brethren Anabaptists as well who stress piety sometimes enthusiasm that means the idea of the Holy Spirit and continuing charismatic gifts but piety they were against the idea of a church state and a state church most of them by the way expected the immediate return of Jesus Christ which is a continuing thing in a brethren and Anabaptist movements today the idea that Jesus is going to return any day now and the necessity of piety

[38:28] the Reformation in Switzerland brings us to the names of Zwingli and Bucer and above all John Calvin the Reformation in Switzerland was not as liturgical and medieval in its worship as was Lutheran worship in Germany and I think for that reason more easily spread to France and to Holland to Hungary to Scotland and to the English Puritans in particular

[38:50] Zwingli who died in 1531 established an independent church from the Roman Catholic Church in 1522 in the city of Zurich Bucer was leading the Reformation in Strasbourg at the same time and John Calvin born in 1509 to a noble family who was going to be a lawyer originally studied law died in 1564 was pled with by Farel to come to Geneva and to lead the Reformation there in the city of Geneva Calvin fled a Protestant study group in Paris came to Geneva eventually returned to Geneva in 1536 wrote the first edition of the Institutes of the Christian Religion perhaps the greatest systematic theology to be written in the history of the church

[39:34] to imagine that that early in the Reformation that kind of theological perception and order was possible in a person and of course we see the providential hand of God here the Institutes are a logical exposition of the Apostles' Creed for those of you who haven't read them Calvin preached several sermons every week in the city of Geneva to promote reform he wrote many tracts against the heresies of his day and yet he was an extremely sickly man it's amazing to read of the illnesses that he underwent and yet he fought in the midst of that for the reform of the church he stressed the idea of a separate church government apart from the city he stressed the ecclesiastical discipline of the members of the church and as all of you will know by now his theology centered on the sovereignty of God in grace

[40:18] well the Reformation in England the story that has to be told before we conclude our survey you all know the story of Henry VIII don't you how he broke with the Vatican in order to divorce Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn only to find out that Anne wouldn't give him a son either and finally to marry Jane Seymour Cranmer in those days was made Archbishop of Canterbury in 1532 completing the break from Rome and the Supremacy Act in that day made the kings the head not only of the English society its political order but also the head of the English church

[40:51] after Henry's death there is a continuing struggle between the Romanists and the Protestants in England very quickly Edward VI opened the doors to Protestant influence he is the responsible for the first and second prayer books Mary Tudor however comes to the throne and reestablishes the influence of Romanism the Roman Catholic Church and a large number of Protestants Puritans Reformers die at her hand Queen Elizabeth follows her in 1558 she's a mixed blessing she's more tolerant for the Protestants but she really has a yearning for Rome as well so the Anglican Church finally gets its day of development as a compromise between Protestantism and Romanism

[41:31] and these days John Knox is working in Scotland as a reformer Knox who was willing to put his neck on the block before Mary Queen of Scots Bloody Mary and defied her even with the sword who wrote the Scottish Confession and the first book of Discipline and was known to history as the author in its modern form of the Presbyterian form of church government in Scotland

[41:53] when James I who was known as James VI of Scotland came to be king in 1603 the Puritans finally hoped that perhaps more consideration would be given to them now by a Presbyterian king and yet he insisted on an Anglican rule in the church and insisted on a national church in 1620 we see the beginning well not the beginning but perhaps the heyday of people fleeing from England to come to America the pilgrims seeking liberty of conscience in the new land the Puritans coming here and founding colonies explicitly based on the word of God

[42:25] 1618 the Synod of Dort and rounds out Calvinistic doctrine against the five points of Arminianism do you remember that that the five points are not the five points of Calvinism they're now called that they were originally the five points of Arminius and his followers to which the Synod of Dort gave its answer

[42:43] well let's return to England Charles I and Archbishop Laud are now in control of church and state there and they persecute the Puritans many come to America Charles tries to dominate the parliament the Scottish parliament will have nothing of it in 1638 the national covenant is signed guaranteeing freedom of the church in Scotland in 1642 the English parliament revolts against Charles and civil war begins in England in 1643 the parliament of England and the Scots sign the solemn league and covenant that they will defy the king and maintain the freedom of the church

[43:18] and then we finally come you've been wondering where all this leads to 1643 and the calling of the Westminster Assembly of Divine to write a confession of faith for the church in Britain and that confession is the confession of this denomination which we now worship the Westminster Assembly writes the confession of faith catechisms to expound it a directory of public worship many of those who adhere to Westminster theology have come to America the Puritan colonial background is to be remembered

[43:47] but in the year 1706 in this country the first intercolonial general presbytery following the form of church government of Knox from Scotland and the theology of the Westminster Assembly is established in America Presbyterianism has an up and down history of course coming into the 20th century in the early 1700s there was a division over revivalism the division between the old side and the new side Presbyterian in the early 1800s over high Calvinism the church split over old school and new school theology in 1864 the Presbyterian church was divided because of the civil war between the Presbyterian church in the United States the southern division Presbyterian church in the United States of America the northern division in 1869 the northern division brought together now the old and new schools into a unified northern Presbyterian church

[44:38] toward the end of the 1800s the thing that's going on in the Presbyterian church might best be described as the broadening of the church as modernism enters as modernism is countenanced in the assemblies of the church in the Presbyterians of the church in the seminaries of the church

[44:55] finally things get so bad that J. Gresham Machen in the early 1900s says that Princeton must take a stand for orthodox doctrine Princeton must get rid of those who have signed the Auburn Affirmation which said that it wasn't necessary to believe in the shed blood of Jesus Christ for his virgin birth things of this nature and when Princeton would not conform to the doctrine that originally made it great Machen founded Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia

[45:21] at the same time Machen said the Presbyterian church cannot truly call itself a church if it sends out missionaries like Pearl Buck because Pearl Buck can't proclaim the gospel of Christ's shed blood and when Machen refuses to support the missions agencies of the Presbyterian church the Northern Presbyterian church he eventually is taken to trial where he is not allowed to present a theological defense in his position and is put out of the Presbyterian church

[45:47] now it's the year 1936 and Machen found what becomes the Orthodox Presbyterian church and that brings us to today that's where we are today Jesus has been working in his church but as you see the church isn't given glory on earth there's mixed blessings throughout but you know throughout we see development doctrinal development development in terms of fellowship and worship of the church development in terms of revival and the missionary output of the church the church of Jesus Christ continues to grow

[46:22] and I think if there are three lessons that I would leave you with in terms of our short history of the church of Jesus Christ on earth it would be first of all the oneness of God's people through the ages all the way back to the days of Adam through Abraham Moses the Old Testament prophet the New Testament church the book of Acts the church in persecution in the 2nd and 3rd century the churches that's developed in the 4th and 5th century even through the Middle Ages the church at the Reformation the Scottish church the English church the Westminster Confession the Presbyterian church in America and finally the Orthodox Presbyterian church that is the oneness of God's people throughout the ages it's something we should appreciate

[47:02] a second thing we should understand is the place of tradition in the church you know there's a wrong attitude and a right attitude to our tradition the wrong attitude says we don't have to pay any attention to tradition we're not tied to the past we have no roots we'll do everything new we'll do it ourselves we'll invent the wheel all over again if we have to of course that isn't a Biblical attitude Paul spoke about passing on the tradition to those who would receive it and protect it and pass it on to further people tradition is a good thing when it's tradition rooted in the infallible word of God in the practice of the apostles and therefore we don't despise the creeds of the church we don't despise the history of the church we respect it always as a subordinate standard to the word of God above it

[47:44] and finally the third lesson from church history the sovereign presence in the direction of Christ Luke said it very well when he said everything that Jesus continued to do through his people Jesus is continuing to work through his people today and we praise God for the history of the church the oneness of his people we praise him for the traditions which we have received

[48:05] let's pray Lord we thank you that you are the sovereign head and king of your church we thank you that you have fulfilled your promise not to leave us desolate in this world when you ascended on high you did not leave us alone but have sent your Holy Spirit to be with us indeed that you through the spirit have been present in your church throughout the ages Lord we thank you for the high points of church history in the mild that they leave us Lord we pray we would learn from the low points of church history those errors to avoid and we pray that we might receive the traditions of the church and appreciate the oneness of God's people throughout the ages so that we might function more purely and peacefully as your people in our own age for it's in Jesus name we pray amen

[48:55] this recording has been released into the public domain by the Bahnsen Institute duplication sharing and distribution is encouraged for more information about the life and ministry of Dr. Greg L. Bahnsen visit our website BahnsenInstitute.com where we aim to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ and we'll see you next time to the next time we'll see you next time