These laws and church council edicts referred to above –( described in “The Conflict of the Church and the Synagogue”,-by J.Parkes;pp379-391 (Soncino Press, 1934),of which these are only a small selection) were probably inspired by a remembrance of past hostility by the Jews towards the emerging church, which the Jews viewed as an heretical sect.-eg. see Acts,ch.14,v.5.; ch.22,v.22ff. The severe and ungracious treatment of the Jews by these ancient authors may also have arisen because of their fear of a reversion by young converts towards legalism and Jewish religious customs. The most potent seed of church hostility was the obsession that the Jews were solely responsible for the crucifixion of the Lord of the church,- Jesus Christ.
Any modern criticism of these ancient church writers must be tempered and considered alongside the truth that these same men were the foundational authors of most Christian doctrines, expositors of all the scriptures and the interpretations flowing from them, and the leaders who codified Christian theology in the church councils. A few outstanding names and doctrines may be mentioned, because such detail is beyond the competence of the writer of this blog note.-
Tertullian and Justin Martyr… the doctrine of the Trinity.
Athanasius, Justin Martyr, Origen and Augustine…the Person of Christ, the incarnate God.
Augustine…the doctrine of man and original sin.
Anselm…. the doctrine of the atonement, by Christ’s satisfaction for the sin of man.
Luther.. the doctrine of justification by faith by faith alone.
Calvin… the doctrine of the authority of scripture, and Christ’s substitutionary and sacrificial death.
The church councils formulated most of our Christian doctrines;-
NICEA- 325…Jesus Christ has the same nature as God the Father.
CONSTANTINOPLE .-382…the full human nature of Christ.
EPHESUS- 428…the unity of the human and divine natures in Christ.
CHALCEDON-451…the Christ is “complete as to His Godhead and complete as to His manhood.”
As most Christians realise, since the early medieval period one large part of the body of the church has adulterated the original doctrines with non-Biblical teachings and church traditions, such as the cult of Mary, the invocation of Mary, saints and angels, prayers for the dead, salvation by means of the sacraments, rather than by faith in the value of Christ’s death ,etc. This mixture or adultery of teachings has some resonance with “babel” ( confusion, cf. “The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English,” by Fowler, (Oxford, 1934,)p.77.)
No comments:
Post a Comment