Part 1: From Apostles to Apostates
While the Nicene Council’s intent was to put an end to the speculation and descent within the Church, it in fact served to do just the opposite. The church in the fourth Century had long ago dispensed with the theological teachings of the Biblical religion of Christ. Arguments based on erroneous conclusions only produced more philosophic speculation. Those who opposed these speculations, such as Arius who was a member of the council of Elders, were excommunicated. This however did not mean the end of the Arian movement or a wholesale unification of understanding. It simply broke the Church into smaller factions. These ranged from near-alignment to the Nicene model to all the way to radicalism. Fortunately Arius suddenly died in 336 A.D., and thereafter the movement slowly was absorbed into what was rapidly and systematically becoming the “Classic Theism” or “Acceptable Thinking”, as seen by the senior Bishop ( Augustine). This all-encompassing orthodoxy about the nature of the God Head is still embraced by the majority of Catholic and Protestant churches alike in the world today.
Two of the major figures in this philosophical quarrel at that time, were Pelagius and Augustine. Their opposing views mirrored their contrasting life experiences. If an understanding of how the early Greek philosophers came to this collection of nonsense called collective reasoning, then it is very important to first understand the thinking and background of the men who more than any others, brought it about. It is after all, this reasoning that influenced what the world wide Christian Church would believe for the next 1,500 years.
Starting first with the works of Augustine, these are some of the issues about which he wrote.
1/ The depravity of human man.
The two major influences regarding this point of view were his early immoral life style and the guilt of it that he felt for the rest of his life. Secondly was his 9 years as a Manichean. The latter’s views about man were that his nature was essentially evil and that he by himself could never become righteous. Righteousness was attained by suppressing everything to do with the physical body and its needs while devoting all one’s energies and thoughts to the perfecting of the spirit.
2/ The idea of Saving Grace
This concept came about as a result of his conversion to Christianity which he relates as follows.
Augustine had listened to the lectures of Ambrose because he was fascinated by his eloquence. This led him later to read the epistles of Paul which in turn caused him to feel he should give up his immoral habits. Being imbued with the teachings of the Manicheans that “man is evil and could not overcome evil”, he pleaded, “Give me chastity, but not yet!” The spirit was willing but the body was too, too out of balance to give up all that sin so soon. While in the midst of a battle between his beliefs and his guilt, he prayed to God and asked for help to end his life of immorality. Suddenly he heard the voice of a child singing from a house, “Take up and read. Take up and read.” He immediately got up and found a Book of scriptures. He read the first verse he had opened to. It was the story of a young man who asked Christ what he should do to be saved. Christ replied “Go and sell what thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven, and come follow me.” (Luke 18: 22) He returned to read again from the volume of the Apostles and there read, “Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provisions for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.” (Romans 13: 12-14) That was sufficient for Augustine, he felt he had received direct revelation. Because of this experience, he concluded that evil-man could turn to God only if and when God wanted the change to take place. This gift of grace, he concluded, affected the will of man and was given free by God — not by any works or merit of man himself.
3/ Organizing of Monastic orders
Following his conversion and baptism, Augustine sold his property, gave up his chair in Milan, and with his friends, went to Africa where he set up a form of a Monastic community.
4/ The concept of an material GOD was incomprehensible.
Having struggled with his physical desires, he could not believe that such evil passions could have any place in the nature of a pure God.
5/ Attempting to harmonize the” Trinity” with the teachings of the Bible.
Because of his misunderstanding of the nature of God in the first place, he nor anyone else could come up with a logical relationship between the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
6/ The purpose of Evil.
Without the understanding of the purpose of this life and the plan of Man’s salvation, there is no logical answer for evil in this world. It is in the understanding of choice and opposites provided in this world by Satan, that we appreciate the need for evil.
7/ Original or “Inherited” sin.
The struggle of choosing good or evil portrayed in the garden drama resulting in the ultimate fall from grace of Adam and Eve, was understood to be the penalty of a displeased God imposed upon his disobedient Children. This conclusion demonstrates the complete ignorance on the part of the Church leaders in the 4th century of the purpose for man’s existence.
8/ The “Elect”.
The philosophers clearly thought of themselves as being the “elect” because of their superior education. Still there seemed to be no common reasoning as to the “ways of the Lord” and why he would favour or “respect” certain people over others.
9/ God alone is responsible for man’s salvation.
God selects only a few, the rest he abandons. There is nothing man can do on his own to change this arbitrary selection of God. This is a natural conclusion following the misunderstanding of the Nature of God as shown in item 8.
10/ All must be baptized to enter the Kingdom of God.
Another logical conclusion from an incorrect assumption and understanding of John 3: 3-5. Christ demonstrated by his own baptism and his gathering of little Children around himself what the qualifications were. Easily observable in little children, these qualities we must also have before our entry into the kingdom. Notice also the difference of qualifications in verse 3. Except a man be born again he cannot “see” the kingdom of Heaven or even conceive of the Kingdom of heaven, as opposed to verse 5 which states, “Except a man be born of water and the spirit” (in other words baptized and given the gift of the Holy Spirit), he cannot “enter” the Kingdom of God. The exception is the little children, who, before the years of accountability,“cannot sin for power is not given unto Satan to tempt little children until they begin to become accountable unto me,” (D & C 29: 46-47) or age 8 years.
Another logical conclusion from an incorrect assumption and understanding of John 3: 3-5. Christ demonstrated by his own baptism and his gathering of little Children around himself what the qualifications were. Easily observable in little children, these qualities we must also have before our entry into the kingdom.
Notice also the difference of qualifications in verse 3. Except a man be born again he cannot “see” the kingdom of Heaven or even conceive of the Kingdom of heaven, as opposed to verse 5 which states, “Except a man be born of water and the spirit” (in other words baptized and given the gift of the Holy Spirit), he cannot “enter” the Kingdom of God. The exception is the little children, who, before the years of accountability,“cannot sin for power is not given unto Satan to tempt little children until they begin to become accountable unto me,” (D&C 29: 46-47) or age 8 years.
Starting on the foundation of earlier false assumptions, all these thoughts were original and a result of Augustine’s creative thinking. He used scriptures out of context that supported his theories but ignored others that contradicted them. He relied upon Greek philosophy and personal experiences to arrive at his conclusions. Catholic and Protestant Churches of our day quote Augustine as their authority. He is the great Saint Augustine, and yet there has not ever been a greater contaminating influence than his personal religious philosophy was upon Christianity.
At first Augustine was tolerant of different religious ideas, but this was never the view of Roman Emperors. They had been the Supreme God of the Pagan religions in Rome prior to Christianity. They had tried to unify the Empire around Pagan worship. Constantine had made the Christian Church subject to Emperor’s will in the absence of any recognized christian church leader. Upon his death, this relationship did not change. Those who replaced Augustine continued to enforce Christian doctrine by political decree. They appointed Bishops, decided what was orthodox and what was not, and determined what punishment would be inflicted if disobeyed.
For the next 5 centuries, Augustine’s philosophies were deemed to be correct. Therefore, they were imposed by Imperial edict. Heresy was put on the same level as murder or treason, punishable by death. The Church had become the co-conspirator in the hands of the State to control opposition and heresy. The struggle for dominance between State and Church was inevitable. It was only a matter of time and opportunity until their roles would reverse.