Tag: Apostate

Chapter 1: Introduction

Part 1: From Apostles to Apostates

  • ( Apostles) Persons who are commissioned by the Authority of Jesus Christ to preach the gospel to the World and administer the Affairs of his Church here on Earth.
  • * ( Apostate) Persons who have intentionally abandoned their former believe system and those who follow them

As long as Jesus Christ was alive, the Jewish Authorities hounded him without let up. Inciting, heckling, and disrupting him during his public teachings, the shouting and accusations soon escalated to physical violence and in the end, his death. His fellow Jews threatened civil unrest if Christ did not cease and desist. The local Roman authorities had already reached their limits of tolerance with these almost ungovernable, religious fanatical Jews.

Yet what they feared even more were reprisals from Rome if they took no action at all to squash this latest rebellion.

 Pilot had already been threatened with retribution because of his mishandling of Roman/Jewish affairs in Jerusalem. He was more that eager to collaborate with the Jewish Sanhedrin to bring about a quick and final solution which culminated in the execution of Christ. There on a cross, among thieves at Golgotha, the place of the skull, he died like a common criminal. 

This deed, accomplished in a very ordinary, unspectacular location, was intended to end the rise of this troublesome teacher. Instead it was his launching pad, literally when he rose from the dead three days later.

There was nothing ordinary about the life of Christ. Not the way he was born, not the way he lived and not the way he died. Certainly no one had risen from the dead before. Every effort was made then, and ever since, to make it appear that none of the supernatural events recorded ever happened. His death and the disappearance of his body from the tomb was explained away. The Roman guards were bribed to falsely report his friends came by night and stole the body. Unarmed rebel-rousers overpowering the experienced, battle hardened Roman soldiers? I hardly think so. The penalty for such dereliction of duty was death. Where were the dead bodies of at least some of the rabble the guards had managed to kill before submitting? Where were the dead bodies of the soldiers who had been overwhelmed? Surely, they would have fought to their death. Where was the evidence to suggest such a scenario? The shoddy attempt at a cover up was obvious. The Jews do admit Jesus was a good and wise teacher. In the end, they could eliminate the teacher, but they could not eliminate his teachings.

In the short three years Jesus taught, his teachings were filled with wisdom and life-changing concepts for those who believed Him. He turned the skeptic’s conception of heir God from one of oppression and punishment to one of Love, Compassion and Forgiveness. He redirected their hopelessness into service for others and hope for an eternal life for all. He organized a Church with Apostles, Pastors, Priests and Prophets. He commanded them to go into the world to preach His word to every nation, tongue and people.

After his appearance following his crucifixion they, being filled with the Holy Ghost, went forward to do this missionary work as they had been commanded. With the exception of John, each sealed his testimony with the shedding of their own blood.

In one of Christ’s last acts of encouragement, He stood outside Jerusalem reassuring these disciples of His love and promised he would return. Then He suddenly ascended in a light into the Heavens. He was gone. They were on their own. What great courage and conviction it must have taken for them to pull their hoods over their heads, wrap their cloaks tightly over their shoulders and walk into the winds of adversity and death. In a few short years, they too, would lay lifeless, having sacrificed their all to the cause.

The message of Christ, his atonement and his resurrection were immediately subjected to a deliberate conspiracy to falsify and distort. This conspiracy reached its pinnacle of madness in the third and fourth centuries, A.D. Roman and Greek scholars and philosophers reconstructed the teachings of Christ in a manner more acceptable to their limited logic and understanding. Had Christ’s ministry been an exercise of futility? Had He failed? Ask the millions of followers who have embraced his gospel since. Ask yourself the same question. 

This written testimony is a brief summary of that period of history. It hopes to catch both the miraculous as well as the malicious events that occurred to the orphaned child, the Church of Jesus Christ.

Abandoned almost at birth in a wild and scheming world, the Church grew into an almost totally unrecognizable adulthood. The simple yet profound gospel, taught with so much hope by Jesus of Nazareth, became a sophisticated lady of the night. Powerful and unprincipled, she reigned with blood and horror. Miraculously, an ember of its former self still burned in her calloused heart. This ember is what fed the hopes of millions down through the dark centuries that followed.

I will be satisfied if even one soul, my own perhaps, will have been improved from better knowing the history of those colossal events and the persons that shaped the western Church for the next 1600 years. After all, it was this same Church that spawned the New Testament , the Bible. It became the only witness of Christ available to countless Christian Martyrs for over 1800 years. And it was that same Bible that sent a searching young boy into the woods, to his knees in prayer in 1820 after reading these words in James 1: 5.

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given him. “

The long dark night of spiritual ignorance, and famine of hearing the word of God would have to wait almost two millennium before that event.

Chapter 2: Loss of Authority and Revelation

Part 1: Apostles to Apostates

Peter, James and John were called as the first presidency of Christ’s church in the meridian of time. Evidence of them receiving the keys for such is recorded in Matt 16: 19. Following this event, we have several accounts of these same brethren accompanying Christ on His various special moments and miraculous events (Mark 5: 37-42, Matt 26: 37–39, John 20: 1-10). How did it happen that within a few short centuries the Church of Jesus Christ, laid with a foundation of Apostles, 70’s , Bishops, Elders, Teachers and Priests, had all but disappeared? While persecution from without was a ever deadly and constant danger, it was not the determining factor. The real threat was discord and contention and came from within.

As the center core of priesthood leaders began their solemn mandate to bring Christ’s message to the world, they immediately drew the attention of the political authorities, both Jewish and Roman. 

The Romans generally were tolerant of diverse religions, but Palestinian Jews were in constant rebellion. Nero is rumored to have been responsible for the burning of Rome. He found it was convenient for his own future to blame the Christians. This started a new round of serious Christian persecution. The brutal attacks on these newly converted Jews brought imprisonment and execution of some of their leaders. James, brother of John, (both sons of Zebedee), was slain by the sword of Herod. Peter was imprisoned and later disappeared under the decree of Nero. He is believed to have been crucified in Rome, nailed to the cross, upside down. The first James was replaced by James the Brother of Jesus. It is his book (Epistle of James) we have in the New Testament. This James was brought up on the walls of the City by the Jews and commanded to deny Christ in front of the congregation. Instead he bore his testimony of Christ’s Messiahship. He was cast down off the walls and stoned to death. John the Beloved (the same John also known as the son of Zebedee) was promised to remain on Earth until the second coming of Christ, but we lose track of him for almost half a century. In his later years, John was banished to the Isle of Patmos where he received a vision which now forms the basis of the Book of Revelation. Meanwhile he wrote three other letters that we are aware of (1st, 2nd and 3rd John), then disappeared after 98 A.D. By that time, tradition records the deaths of the other Apostles as follows:

Judas Iscariot, Suicide 33. A D 
Jude (Judas, brother of James), Martyred in Egypt
Simon the Zealot, Killed by sword in Persia
Thomas, Speared in India
Matthew, Martyred in Ethiopia
Bartholomew, Flayed and beheaded in Arabia for refusing to honour Pagan God
Phillip, Died in Phrygia by a Roman Proconsul
Andrew, Crucified in Greece
Paul, Beheaded by Nero in Rome

With no Prophets or Apostles to guide them,the Church lost its Priesthood channel to Christ, the source of revelation. The most senior Priesthood authority was that of a Bishop. But which one should lead and by what authority? There had been many called and set apart through-out the Middle East. However, it was not in the mandate of any Bishop to receive revelation and speak for the entire Church.

When Paul (formerly Saul) was converted and commenced his major missionary efforts,they extended far beyond the boundaries of Jerusalem, Syria or Palestine. His success resulted in a sudden wave of untrained members, most without any in-depth knowledge of their newly found religion. Many spoke foreign languages. Even more still clung to old beliefs and practices. As fast as they established branches and appointed local Bishops, the Jewish, the Gnostics, the Pagans and the Romans pressured the new converts to abandon their faith. Paul spent most of his time and energies correcting and decrying the false doctrines of the rebellious and floundering factions within the Church. Paul’s warnings were numerous, but in general they were ineffective as the swarms of opponents overwhelm the capabilities and resources of the new members. Paul specifically warns of the impending disintegration:

Acts 20:28 -29
“Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own Blood. For I know this that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them.”

Paul’s words to Timothy were accurate and ominous:
2 Timothy 4: 3
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine: but after their own lusts shall they heap themselves teachers having itching ears.”

After the death of Paul, his influence all but ceased and the hearts of the disbelievers and total membership began to shrivel. The Old Testament Prophet, Amos had cautioned this would happen.

Amos 8: 11-12
“Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread nor of the thirst for water, but of hearing the word of God. And they shall wander from sea to sea and from the North even to the East they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it”. 

Among the Bishops who wrote letters of concern were, Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, and Polycarp of Smyrna. These men however recognized they did not have the authority to receive revelation regarding the affairs of the overall Church as did the Apostles or Paul. They recorded their concerns regarding the apostate affairs of the various branches but could not do anything more to change them. 

It was a period of extreme confusion of which we have the least amount of documentation in all of church history. Charismatic and popular members in some branches were appointed as Bishops, while other already appointed were dismissed. Where no authority existed, members contested for Priesthood positions. This led to competitions within branches for authority over other branches whose geographical boundaries and membership was smaller. Writings from other concerned Bishops indicate the level of chaos that existed from the early second to the early fourth centuries A.D. 

Author, Location, Date, Concerns 

Herman: Rome 150 AD
– Stresses righteousness in the face of apostasy.
– Emphasizes baptism for living and dead.

Justin Martyr: Rome 150 AD
– Presents Christ as second to God. It was He(Christ) who revealed early Christian doctrines and worship.

Irenaeus: Lyons 200 AD
– Against heresies.
– Opposes Gnostic views and the Rationalization of the teachings of Christ.

Clement: Alexandria 190- 215 AD
– Opposes paganism but is personally influenced Greek philosophers.

Tertullian: Carthage 195-220 AD
– Left Church to support a growing movement away from floundering Saints to the primitive purity thought only to exist in the breakaway sects in the Dessert

Origen: Alexandria 203-253 AD
– Most influential theologian of his day.
– Author of first systematic attempt in Christian theology.
– Heavily influenced by Greek philosophers

Cyprian: Carthage 249 AD
– Wrote 65 letters regarding doctrinal and administrative concerns.
– Insisted on his Bishopric being independent of Rome.
– Held strict views regarding lapsing Christians.

Eusebius: Caesarea 325 AD
– Attempted to show apostolic continuity, thereby  preserving valuable quotations from early writings from the Pre-Nicene Christian beliefs.

As the Church spiraled downward, none of them could have imagined that they and their entire squabbling, disorganized, Church would be saved by a brutal, savage Warlord. He had already had his wife and son executed .His bloodied hands held the only power strong enough to force the contentious Church leaders together. He was to become the longest ruling Emperor of Rome. His titles would include, Augustus Constantine, Emperor Constantine, Constantine the Great and finally, Saint Constantine. All titles, he bestowed upon himself because there was no other that he, with power to do so.

The Head of the Church moves from being “Christ Directed” to “Roman Emperor Directed”

This is the defining moment in time when the Church, established by Christ Himself, lost all recognition and pretense of being “From God”. The Head of the Church, while clothed in the Bishop’s religious finery and augmented by scriptures, now was no more than a puppet, a tool under the of control of the firm hand of the most powerful, undisputed ruler of the Western Empire. 

After securing this grip and bringing a brief, rare degree of stability to the Roman Empire, Constantine focused on halting the practice of persecuting Christians and the almost impossible task of bringing peace and order among the Bishops. Until then, these two problems had been the major threats both to the Church and to the Emperor.

Through the Edict of Milan, Constantine dealt with the first threat from the outside. Under the leadership of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, the fiercest persecution ever launched against the Christians was resulting in the deaths of thousands. Constantine ordered that Christianity be legalized, their scriptures deemed sacrosanct and that their property returned. In 305 A.D. Constantine was victorious. Christianity was proclaimed as the State Religion.

The second threat was much more difficult. Not only was there major geographic, political and language differences between the Bishops, but the misunderstandings and the quarreling had now threatened to split the West and Eastern Empires. Their reasoning and differences, which had formerly been somewhat modified by the influence of the Holy Ghost, had produced a degree of moderation and cooperation. But with the power of the Holy Ghost long departed, everything of a spiritual nature was now resolved by theologians or philosophers over whom the Emperor exercised total and complete control. In contrast to the former Bishops and other spiritually minded Church leaders who still possessed a degree of conviction of the Gospel truths. Now in control of the Church were educators, philosophers, who required only that they were adequately and formally educated in he traditional schools of Rhetorical principles, available in Troy and Alexandria

Constantine’s main concern was to quell the religious dissent and turmoil that threatened the unity of his Empire. He already had total control of his subjects while they were alive. What more could he ask for than to gain complete power over men’s lives even after they were dead? Was not the Church, with its promise to grant men their salvation, just the means whereby he could achieve such a goal? 

Constantine’s resolve to save the Church and grant himself the supreme and ultimate power that it alone held, could do just that. He did just that. Such a bold move gave him what previous Emperors could not even have dreamed of. He succeeded but the price to the Church of Jesus Christ was the total spiritual bankruptcy of Christianity. The Church was now effectively hijacked by the State through a merger of the two most powerful bodies in the Empire., the Church and the State.

In a first attempt to consolidate, Constantine convened a conference to be held in Nicaea in 325.A.D. Between 250 to 318 Bishops from all of the Christian world attended. Constantine presided over the council. His presence, while certainly intimidating, did not necessarily influence the outcome of the theological conclusions reached. But with the specific goals which he was determined to have resolved, he was resolute. 

Here are some of the goals and topics on the agenda:

1/ To establish a common uniform doctrine and creed, acceptable to everyone and which would become compulsory for all citizens.

2/ To agree upon which books would be included as cannon (accepted scriptures and writings.)

3/ No council had been held since the one in Jerusalem (which had convened to set conditions so Gentiles could join the Church). This Council was to be recognize as the precedent for all future councils.

4/ The Council would resolve disagreements regarding the understanding of the nature of God, his Son and the Holy Ghost.

5/ To establish when holy celebrations, such as Easter and Christmas, would be held. 

6/ To establish a system whereby consensus would be reached on issues, now and in the future.

7/ To find a solution to the Arian Controversy. (Arius led a group, deemed to be heretical, that believed the nature of Christ was different from that accepted by the other Bishops).

8/ To establish procedure to ordain future clergy.

9/ To agree upon a system for the construction of Church buildings.

10/ To establishing norms for public repentance and punishments.

11/ To agree upon how to admit repentant heretics.

12/ Find clarification for the role of Deacons.

Two of these agreements drastically reduced the authority previously held by the Church:

1/ The Bishop’s role became inferior to the Emperor’s and in some cases, no power existent beyond the Bishop’s own parish. 

2/ It opened the door wide for the academics, (appointed by Rome), to tinker, revise, replace or otherwise transform the basic core doctrines of the Church as they pleased

Upon the death of Constantine in 337 A.D. the civilized Christian Church of the world waited to see how all that Constantine had wrought would work out. Waiting in the wings was the perfect candidate to take advantage of this transformation. His name was Aurelius Augustine.

St. Augustine.

Augustine was born 354 A D in Tagaste, North Africa. Not for better, but for worse, he took the lead to further complicate what Constantine had started.

He is a window to everything that was wrong with the Greek society of his day. Having spent his early youth in a wild orgy of living, Augustine reasoned that man had not the power by himself to change his own behavior from sinful to righteous. His father was a pagan and his mother a Christian. She deterred him from being baptized until, as she put it, “The irregularities and excesses of youth were passed”. Augustine expressed his attitude in his own words: “Give me chastity, but give it not yet.” 

He rejected the religion of his mother (Christian) because he thought the Bible was “barbarous and incomprehensible”. He practiced the Manichean lifestyle, a Persian religion popular in his day that proposed that there were two opposing powers in the world: good and evil. Unfortunately, they were out of balance and nothing but living an ascetic lifestyle of complete self-discipline and denial would bring the two into a balanced position again. All these experiences and influences early in his life reflected themselves in Augustine’s prolific writings later. Naturally, these strong-held personal beliefs surfaced thereafter as the foundational principles of the dogma of the Roman Catholic Church. 

The victory of the philosophical conclusions of the purpose of man’s existence over the recorded scriptures of Christ and the inspired Apostolic teachings, was completed by the hand and mind of Augustine. Tutored in the sciences, rhetoric, mathematics and philosophy, the antithesis of the simple soul-teachings of Christ, he was perfectly positioned to become the greatest influence on the thinking and doctrine of the Catholic Church since Paul. 

Chapter 3: Effects of Greek Philosophy: Augustine

  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.

Chapter 4: Effects of Greek Philosophers: Pelagius

 Part 1: From Apostles to Apostates

The only other intellectual person of a caliber capable of challenging Augustine on a philosophical level, was Pelagius. He was an educated Monk from Britain whose temperament, lifestyle and personal experience was very different from that of Augustine.

His chief concern was the immorality of the Roman Empire. Augustine’s conclusions, as far as he was concerned, would have a very damaging effect on the faith of the people. More specifically, he concluded, it killed the incentive of those who might be inclined to think of themselves as elect or already saved. How could they repent? Why would they feel it necessary when there was nothing they could do, good or bad, which could alter their God given status. And what about those who were not elect? Would this not have a detrimental effect if they were doomed to rot in hell regardless of what good they might do? What incentive would they have to improve their lot both here and in the here-after? The idea of such an arrangement most appealed to those who wanted salvation but were not interested in living the gospel to acquire it. 

Pelagius rejected the concepts of:
1/ Infant baptism.
2/ Inherited sin. (We inherited Sin of Adam and Eve’s partaking of the fruit of the tree.)
3/ Adam having been born mortal.
4/ Grace being for only select individuals.

His own Doctrine included:
1/ Confession of faults and responsibility for choices.
2/ 10 commandments were an obligation to personal, moral cleanliness.
3/ Free agency or the ability of man to choose salvation or reject it for himself.
4/ Salvation obtained through obedience to God’s commandments.
5/ Saving power of Good Works contributes to Salvation.
6/ Baptism and Redeeming Blood of Christ (atonement) was essential.
7/ Man was not inherently evil, but by his own volition, he could overcome evil by doing good without recourse to Grace.
8/ No original sin resulted from the fall of man.
9/ Man responsible for his own sins.
10/ God does not pre-destine man to Heaven or Hell. Man makes this choice though his own behaviour.

Pelagius began his teaching in Rome where he met no opposition. However, when he went to Africa the reaction to his teaching was violent. There he was brought before a council in Carthage and his teachings condemned. In Palestine he was attacked by Jerome, even though Pelagius had the support of Bishop John of Jerusalem. The source of his main opposition came from the influence of Augustine. In the Western world, Augustine’s word on things theological was considered to be the ultimate authority.

Pope Innocence I of Rome condemned Pelagius and his teachings. When he refused to acquiesce, Pelagius was excommunicated and banned from Rome. This effectively silenced him as he no longer had credentials or access to an audience. 

Their differences however divided the Church. The timing was not in his favour. At the first opportunity, Pelagius would be labelled a heretic. With Augustine’s new powers, he achieved far more from connections than corrections. Pelagius was eliminated. We do not know if he was executed but history lost contact with him about 422.A.D. We cannot help but wonder how much better off the fledgling church might have been had this power struggle ended differently.


Chapter 5: Councils

 Part 1: From Apostles to Apostates

Over the centuries many councils in many locations were called. Some were considered to be without authority or legitimacy and others were of an insufficient nature so as not to affect the entire Christian World. Only the first 8 conferences have been accepted generally as they established orthodoxy.

The views express in these councils, instead of bringing unity of thought and purpose, caused a war that festered and never, ever healed. Dethroning, anathematizing, beatings and killings could not impose one side’s doctrine on the other. Nor could they ever come to a common solution acceptable to both deeply entrenched sides. Their bitterness and rivalry are exposed in raw reality through the minutes of the Councils.

After personally reading a summary of the minutes of those councils beginning in 325 AD, at the Council of Nicaea that stretched over 1,500 years to the First General Council of the Vatican 1870, I can only express a feeling of sadness, loss and betrayal by those who had been entrusted with the stewardship of the Church of Jesus Christ following the death of the Apostles and the loss to the church of the Apostles’ inspired leadership. 

The following is a list of the first of those councils:

1st Nicea (325 AD)
– Resolve Christ’s divinity and Status
– Establish Common Creed, Settle Arien Controversy

1st Constantinople (381 AD)
– Refine Nicene creed
– Abolish Arianism
– Clarify Trinity (Three in One God Head)
– Define role of Holy Ghost

1st Ephesus (431 AD)
– Character and Nature of Christ
– Condemn Nestorians

2nd Ephesus (449 AD)
– Solve divisions over the 1 or 2 possible natures of Christ
– Flavian, supporter of two natures, was beaten and died.
-Pope Leo was anathematized along with most Eastern Bishops.
This entire Council was rejected and declared a “Robber Synod.”

Chalcedon (451 AD)
– To reverse the results of the 2nd Council of Ephesus
– Two natures of Christ accepted

2nd Constantinople (553 AD)
– Monophysite (One Nature of Christ) movement continued to split the Empire. Council condemned controversial writings which only resulted in a deeper split.

3rd Constantinople (680 AD)
– To settle arguments of Doctrine, ( I.E the nature of Christ.)

The Great Schism
– In 800 AD, Pope Leo 3rd is crowned Charlemagne, King of the Franks, as Emperor of Rome. This act cemented loyalty between Rome and the Franks, instead of the Byzantines. This split the Empire into two: the Roman Church (Franks) and the Church of Constantinople (Byzantines).  
– The schism became formal by 1054 AD under Pope Leo 4th.
– Byzantine and Roman Church Popes excommunicate each other. Each declared the other heretics.

Now we have two Churches, Roman Catholic in Rome and Eastern Orthodox in Africa.

During the seventh century, the Byzantine Empire split violently over the argument of the natures of Christ. Both East and West were severely weakened by constant external wars and violent internal religious strife. Both sides deemed their stand as absolute and non-negotiable. These religious wars did as much, if not more, to destroy the Roman Empire than any other major threat it faced. The worst and the best minds of its academics, the dim witted as well as the most devious of leaders, all tried but could not provide the solution.  

Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. 
All the Kings horses and all the King’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

Chapter 7: Monasticism 

 Part 1: From Apostles to Apostates

The idea of monks, monasteries and hermits began long before Christ. It is thought to have begun in India and early writings of such holy monks date back to 2400, B.C. Its origin was not Christian and there were no Christian monks or monasteries prior to the middle of the third century. It was certainly never a teaching of Christ who taught love, serve and treat your neighbours as yourself. Rather, it was motivated by a more selfish withdrawal from the wicked world in an attempt to save one’s own self. Somehow, the idea of torturing the body to increase the purification of the soul seems to be linked to all sects who embrace this style of life.

The beginnings of Christian monks began as a movement of individuals without any kind of Church authority or encouragement. All were laymen without priesthood or office. During the period of the Decian persecutions (250 A.D.), many Christians fled to the caves in Upper Egypt spawning a legacy of hermits and small communities.

There were of course no rules and each not only lived as they saw fit but also developed lifestyles that included a competition to see who could out do the other in their extremes of self-punishment. Athanasius, defender of the Nicaean Creed, wrote a biography of one such person known only as Anthony. He, like his mentor Augustine, was influenced by the words of Christ who said, “If thou wouldst be perfect, Go, sell all that thou hast and give to the poor and come follow me.” Strange how some people react to that scripture. They seem to get the first part right, “go sell all that thou hast,” but totally miss the next part, “Come follow me.” They all seem to get lost by trying to find themselves.

Living a life in rags, solitude and perpetual pain was never what Christ advocated. How could such behaviour produce the leaven for the bread that Christ spoke about? (1 Corinthians: 5: 7-8) This lifestyle was more like the salt that had lost its savour (Matthew 5: 13). The idea of fleeing to the wilderness and giving up all luxuries has a very luring melody. Even in our society today, there are those who yield to it. Alaska, British Columbia, Montana and other areas of North America have become havens for those who have the desire to do the exact same thing for the exact same purpose: “Me first”. In the process, they have become lost to Christ, to the rest of society and most of all, to themselves.

Anthanasius’ biography of Anthony, pictured such a lifestyle choice with such colour and allure that it started a headlong rush to the hills and caves. Before too long, Saint Anthony, as he has since become known, had over 15,000 followers. Well know personalities of the early Church promoted the concept. Hilary brought monastic life to Palestine. Cassian took it to Gaul. Even Anthanasius became a monk and when he was banished to Alexandria, his lifestyle drew admiration. To those in Rome who could see the Church absolutely devoid of morals, this life of asceticism became a very attractive option for those still seeking personal salvation. By the end of the fourth century there were legions of hermit monks. The life of a hermit was even more popular than the institute of Monasteries. Neither had any sort of ecclesiastical authority or formal connection to the Church. 

It was not until the Bishop of Caesarea, Basil, visited the Monks in Egypt, Syria and Palestine that things changed for the better. He started to live the life of a monk at age 21 but became disgusted by those he perceived had, through ignorance, self-deprivation and austerity, reduced themselves to a collection of wasted lives and meaningless ideals. As a priest first, then a Bishop, he was determined to turn the lives of Monks towards religious channels or at least something that could be beneficial to both the Church and the lost legion of humanity of self-imposed exiles. He drew up a new rule to be added to the three existing rules of Voluntary, Poverty and Chastity. The fourth was “Irrevocable vows.”

Many monks began to join his order. He insisted upon law and order and in particular, absolute obedience. The monastic life began to shift somewhat to being subject to the supervision of the Church, which was Basil’s hope and desire. This all took place about the same time that Jerome was busy translating the Bible from Greek to Latin. So the timing was perfect to rewrite the rules regarding Church Monasteries into Latin as well.

The movement towards the Monastic life had a great revitalizing effect to the flagging Christian Church in the fourth Century. By the fifth century convents for Nuns began to appear. Christianity found its greatest strength in the cloisters of the monks. Here they provided training, discipline and education as they qualified themselves as missionaries, teachers and even leaders of the Church. At first things seemed to benefit everyone:,the monasteries, the Church, the monks and those common people both in and out of the Church. But the fundamental ideals of monastic living are not supported or in harmony with the gospel of Jesus Christ for a very good reason. 

As the monasteries grew, they became prosperous. Various orders of monks (Augustine, Benedictine, Trappist, Cistercians, Medicant Friars, Dominicans, Jesuits and Franciscan), each in their own time and in their own turn became rich, powerful, corrupt and self-indulgent. In the medieval monasteries, the majority of monks were priests. The abbots became landowners and as such they wielded great social and political power. They became immoral and their behavior brought denunciation and condemnation from the very populous they were commissioned to teach. They became so impervious to Christian virtues and moral living, the core principles of personal salvation, as to produce extreme personal and offensive selfishness.

Under the leadership of corrupt Bishops or despot Emperors, they became, in some cases, armies or militias to enforce edicts and suppress heretics. Fanatical and cruel, they fought soldiers as well as one another. To press their cause, they incited riots and intimidated members of meetings into submission. They were instrumental in keeping Bishops in office or likewise, deposing them. Through it all, lots of innocent blood was shed. Augustine, Jerome, Ambrose and many others tried to contain the abuses and corruption but with little success. The persecution and obliteration of the Albigenses was just a forerunner to the period of the inquisitions when thousands were tortured before dying on the rack, burned alive or mercifully beheaded. They interfered in the political affairs and drew the wrath and hatred of every nation in Europe. 

Started by the noble and pure intent of seeking salvation for themselves by purifying themselves to the honour of Christ, and while rejected by a cruel and corrupt society themselves, they evolved instead into the perhaps most brutal, cruel and completely corrupt religious force the Christian world had ever known. 

In hindsight it was entirely predictable what the end result would be. Such men, living such austere conditions without the moderating influence of the Holy Ghost, became what King Mosiah described as the “Natural Man.” (Mosiah 3 :19)

“For the natural man is an enemy to God and has been from the fall of Adam and will be for ever and ever unless he yields to the enticing s of the Holy Spirit and putteth off the natural man and becometh a Saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord and becometh as a child, submissive, meek humble, patient, full of love willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him even as a child doeth submit to his Father.”

The Holy Ghost is the source of such virtues as love, compassion, mercy and forgiveness. And we are obliged to mention women for whom in this world is more responsive, generally speaking, to the enticing of the Holy Spirit than women?

Proverbs 31: 10 – 31 “Who can find a virtuous woman for her price is far above rubies …”

Men most often truly only learn such virtues by the examples they see at the feet of their mothers and in the arms of their wives. In monasteries, the monks would have had none of these influences. Once they were brought into the political influence and control of the most powerful Emperors of Europe as well as the Roman Church, what should anyone have expected? 

Through such a willing, natural minded, brutal army to enforce its will, the Church was able to survive as a powerful political entity well into the nineteenth century.

Chapter 9: Under the Control of Evil Families

 Part 1: From Apostles to Apostates

With the loss of any superior Empirical power to check the aggressive aristocracy, the Papacy was totally without a protector. That exposed it to the forces and dictates of rich, corrupt and ruthless Italian, French and German families. For the next century (870 AD to 970 AD) unholy princes and princesses bought, sold and totally controlled the office of Pope.

With the loss of any superior Empirical power to check the aggressive aristocracy, the Papacy was totally without a protector. That exposed it to the forces and dictates of rich, corrupt and ruthless Italian, French and German families. For the next century (870 AD to 970 AD) unholy princes and princesses bought, sold and totally controlled the office of Pope.

The family of Counts of Tusculum and the Family of the Theophylact imposed the candidates of their choice upon clergy and people alike. These they elected only from the ranks of the nobility. Included are:
Pope John X, Pope John XI, Pope John XII, Benedict VIII, Benedict IX, Benedict X

Wars of conquest and retaliation were waged constantly between the rival warlords. Meanwhile Otto I had succeeded at getting himself crowned King of the German tribes. His ambition was to rebuild the Empire of Charlemagne. Pope John XII felt threatened by both the Romans and the Lombards (one of the powerful Italian families), so he called upon Otto of Germany to come to his rescue. Otto, assuming the crown of Italy, proudly marched into Rome on Feb 2, 962 AD. While he was at it, he also accepted for his pretentious services the title of “Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire”. It was definitely not holy, and it certainly was no longer Roman. Far from protecting the Church, Otto oppressed it. 

Pope Leo XII realized too late that he had exchanged a terrible fate for a deadly one. After quarrelling, Otto I chose a new Pope, Leo VIII, and Pope John XII fled. Within a year John XII was dead.

The Roman Italian families elected another Pope, Benedict. Otto of Germany threatened to besiege Rome unless Benedict was delivered to him and Leo VIII reinstated. The Romans had no choice but to surrender. This showdown gave Otto total power over the Papal seat and brought a temporary end to the control and domination of the Italian families.

Otto I strengthened his Empire by strengthening his hold on the Church. He appointed Bishops and made them Princes of the Realm. They swore allegiance to him before they were invested as Bishops. The custom of conferring a ring and a crosier (ornamental staff) upon Bishops, as a sign of episcopal dignity, can be traced back to this very ceremony. This combined office of Bishop and Prince now became very lucrative to the incumbent, and the basest of practices of simony and corruption developed. The power of the offices was sold, bought, rented, given as dowries and even in some cases, included their entire parish. The clergy no longer even made an attempt to keep up the visible charade of trustworthiness or honesty. 

After Otto’s death, Otto III, who was only four years old, became Emperor. Under the influence of the corrupt and ambitious Cresentius Family a number of Popes were killed while they plotted to install a grand total of three of their own family members in their place.

When Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor, visited Rome in 1048 he found three rival Popes each claiming the coveted position: The Northern Italian city-states, divided by the Guelph and Ghibe lines had each appointed their own candidate because of the unprecedented, unbecoming behaviour of Benedict IX. Henry deposed all three and installed his own preference, Pope Clement II. The history of the Popes between 1048 and 1257 is replete with soiled and gangrenous incumbents followed by their tainted and corrupt replacements. The struggle for ultimate control for power between Emperor and Pope continued unabated.

Into this cesspool of infamy, Hildebrand, a monk from Cluny, appeared in Rome with an unbridled passion for reform. Fired up by the reform movement of the monasteries who were forced to return to the rules of St. Benedict and discontented with the complete corruption of everything to do with religion in Rome, he was imbued with a spirit for change. The manner of choosing Popes by the Emperor for instance, must cease. In 1059 a new Papal decree was issued demanding that the Pope must be chosen by the College of Cardinals, which consisted of Elders and Deacons of the Italian Churches in Rome. Hildebrand, was adviser to five succeeding Popes and eventually became Pope himself in 1073, taking the name of Gregory VII. More than everything else, he was obsessed with the idea of Papal World Supremacy. His conception of the Office was expressed in his own words:

“The Roman Church was founded by God alone. The Roman Pope alone can with right be called universal; he alone may use the Imperial Insignia, his feet only shall be kissed by all the Princes. He may depose the Emperors; he himself may be judged by no one, the Roman Church has never erred, nor will it ever err in all eternity.”

In 1075 Hildebrand, now Pope Gregory VII, issued a decree prohibiting Princes from ordaining Bishops. Still, the German King would not give up his right. The Germans had the bigger army, but the Pope held the more effective weapons. The Pope Gregory VII had five weapons at his command. Each were deadly. And they all hung on an incorrect principle of doctrine.

Weapon 1: That belief was that there was no salvation outside the Roman Church and of course, the Pope held all the keys to that door. 
Weapon 2: The Pope could call Kings and release them.
Weapon 3: The Pope could excommunicate anyone he pleased. By a decree of excommunication, princes and all other such people, could not be provided with food or shelter as long as they lived, and a Christian burial would be denied to them when they died. Anybody helping an excommunicated person, would suffer the same fate.
Weapon 4: Sacrament was essential to Salvation. Excommunicated persons would be deprived of the sacrament. That meant they would be cut off from all rights provided by the Church. A Mass could not even be held in their presence. If it was a king, no services would be held in his kingdom. No funeral would be held. And no one would hear a prayer or a bell ring. Church buildings would be closed. Extreme unction applied.
Weapon 5: In the case of an errant king, the Pope could release the king’s subjects from their oath of allegiance to him. The king would then be without power, purse or pity. With this power, the Pope did not hesitate to both threaten and apply his total weight on all peoples, kings, rulers and subjects, with impunity. The horrors of facing hell had been taught since Augustine’s false interpretation of the teachings of Christ. Now, it successfully silenced all who would dare challenge the Pope. While Gregory did not see the fulfillment of his goal to raise the Papacy to ultimate superiority over all the Western World in his lifetime, it did reach that epitome under his successors, Urban II (1088 – 1099) and Innocent III (1179- 1180). This is also the point at which the Eastern and Western Ecclesiastical authorities, chose to excommunicate each other. 

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the Kings horses and all the Kings men,
Couldn’t put Humpty together again
 -English Nursery Rhyme

Often, when we think things cannot get worse, it proves to be the very point at which they do. Pope Urban II, the consummate warlord of Europe, having obtained what other Popes could only dream of, possessed complete power to enforce anything he wanted or imagined, in the name of the God. Looking around from this most enviable position, he decided that what was most needed was something or some cause to unite his people.

There are those who think the motivation for Pope Urban II’s solution to this problem was much more sinister. Perhaps it was a diversion to involve, and even cull out, many young heirs to thrones who were thirsty to make their name known in battle. Restless for fame or notoriety, these youth left to their own devises might cause great harm to the realm. Whatever his real reason might have been, the answer he came up with for forging unity would have been absolutely brilliant if it were not for its total lack of foresight and planning. Maybe that was the appeal and beauty of it. The plan was not impeded by facts and its gross stupidity was rationalized by the equally gross ignorance of those who were called upon to participate in its fulfillment. There is almost no other explanation for what was to have faultlessly become the most mind boggling, colossal failure of the middle ages. We are referring to, of course, the Crusades. 

At the Council of Clermont in 1095 AD, Pope Urban II issued his infamous first rally call. He asked for a mighty army to repossess the Holy Lands then in the hands of the infidels. 

What instantly emerged from the streets, jails, asylums, convents and slums of Europe, were the desperate and the destitute, almost to a person. Over half-a-million naive, poorly informed and unprepared men, women and children, rushed headlong onto the roadways to begin walking to The Holy Land. With their wholehearted acceptance and approval, they chanted and sang as they threw what little sanity they possessed to the winds and rushed blindly into hell.

As mentioned, the Pope had become the highest-ranking position of power in the Western World. The Pope, not the Emperor was the great warlord of Europe. Now he had opened a new front in his campaign. The First Crusade’s initial goal was simply to move in a mass against the infidels in the Holy Land. To ensure sufficient manpower, he issued indulgences to all who would go, the most enticing being the forgiveness of sins past and sins not as yet committed. Next he opened the doors of the prisons in Europe for the worst of criminals to join under the same generous conditions. A monstrous hoard of hundreds of thousands of people, of all ages and stages, lacking health, wealth or wisdom, obliviously worked their way like a vast lava flow directly aimed to the most inhospitable and hostile place in the world. 

Exempted from any spiritual consequence regarding their immoral actions, they were instructed to find their own food and lodgings along the way. Can you imagine what those in the path of this hoard must have thought as they learned of its impending arrival in their community? It would be a worse fear than of a descending plague of the entire forces of Atilla the Hun. Pestilence, famine, destruction of crops and loss of property would have followed every footstep of the way. There would be nothing left to eat, drink or sleep under for those who survived after the “Pilgrims” had passed through. By the time they arrived to liberate Jerusalem, there were only 40,000 pilgrims left. The Islam forces, of course, attacked and killed most of those that were still alive. It was a total and complete annihilation, serving only to embolden the infidels.

There were ten crusades in all, each ending in failure like the first.

The second crusade had over a million, two hundred thousand soldiers. Sickness, heat, contaminated water and lack of food constantly reduced their force to impotency.

The third crusade involved Richard the Lion-Hearted of England. He fought, lost and left ignobly.

The fourth crusade of roughly the same proportions and objectives were terribly massacred.

The fifth crusade was aimed at Constantinople but achieved no military advantage. It only served to create a further alienation between the Eastern and Western Churches.

The six, seventh, eighth and ninth crusade were repeats.

The Children’s Crusade was led by a boy who vanished. Thousands were captured and sold into slavery.

All failed miserably. Most of the pilgrims carried no weapons of defense against Arab armies or other hostile forces, such as the many robbers, pirates, thieves and scoundrels who lay waiting in great anticipation of their arrival. All they brought was enthusiasm, and that, as everyone discovered, was woefully inadequate.

Hoping to reverse their failures, the next Pope, Innocent II started a crusade against heretics and Jews in France instead. But the Bishops of France did not participate with enough enthusiasm against their own people. The Crusade began to falter. Sensing another fiasco, Innocent II turned the episcopal inquiry over to the Mendicant orders and the Dominican and Franciscan Monks who had sworn allegiance to only the Pope himself. This action was called the Papal Inquisition. The efficiency and barbarity of the methods used against even the innocent, who were tortured to obtain confessions, and the despotic actions of the Pope, eventually led to a call for reform.

Pope Boniface VIII, an arrogant, delusional man, attempted to enforce his edicts by quelling the rebellious German King Phillip who had initiated the reform. But the time when those bullying tactics worked had passed. Phillip cut off vast resources which were generating tremendous revenue to the Pope by disallowing their removal to Italy. Included in King Phillip’s reforms were a call to cease:

1/ The shedding of blood.
2/ The widespread simony (or money charged for ecclesiastical services).
3/ Nepotism (or favouring relatives).
4/ Unethical means of securing money, such as the selling of priesthood offices to the highest bidder.
5/ Selling indulgences.
6/ The immoral and luxurious lifestyles of Pope and Papal staff.
7/ The uncontrolled tyranny of the Popes.

The Pope issued a Bull or edict which made extravagant claims regarding the authority of the Pope. 

“The gospel informs us that there are in the Church and in the power of the Church, two swords, the spiritual and the temporal. Both swords, therefore the spiritual and the temporal are in the power of the Church, but the latter must be drawn for the Church and the former by the Church.
The first by the hand of the Priest and the second by the hand of Kings and Soldiers, but always with the consent and the will of the Priest. 
As a consequence, we state, declare and define that all creatures must be subject to the sovereign Pontiff in order to be saved.”

Phillip reacted by calling together the heads of states of the realm, including the ecclesiastical leaders, and accused Boniface of crimes. Phillip’s accusations were brought before the General Council.

Following Phillip’s lead, Germany, England and Bohemia revolted from Papal authority. These countries were followed by the Italian Provinces under Austrian control. In 1849, an assembly elected by the people, striped the Pope of his temporal power and confiscated all his Ecclesiastical property. Under the leadership of Victor Emmanuel and military support from Garibaldi, all Italy was brought under one single government. Rome was made its capital. Thus, the career of Pius IX saw the grasp of temporal world power ripped from him. Since 1866, all that was left was the Vatican, which the Pope was allowed to occupy, as a virtual prisoner, until the end of his life.

We see through a review of historical evidence that the office of Pope never did have a continual link from Peter to itself. Peter was never a Bishop anywhere, let alone in Rome, where he died. The office was foreign and in complete contrast to the nature of the Bishops in the first and second centuries. If there is a continual link of any description that binds the Pope of the Roman church to its past, it has to be the link of continual fighting and quarreling about doctrine (with its bloody enforcement by torture and excommunications) and the continual destructive warring between Church and State for control over people, subjects, dominions and principalities. 

Rome, as a center for the church, came to prominence through intrigue, fraud, manipulation, self-assertion and the process of elimination.

After the fall of the Eastern Church in Alexandria, Jerusalem and Antioch, Rome in the West was the only Patriarch left standing. There was no one else left to challenge what the Roman Patriarch did or said, so he ruled by default. The original church doctrines and scriptural messages were so completely missing and misunderstood by the Greek philosophers and apologists that all understanding of the nature of God and our relationship to him was completely skewed and lost by the fourth Century.

The long slow evolution of the church from apostles to apostates was complete by the end of the first millennium, transforming the Church of Jesus Christ into a politically powerful Empire, with absolute control over the spiritual and temporal affairs of all its subjects. It was enforced with blood, sweat and tears upon the entire Western civilized world until the middle of the nineteenth century, when its power was finally wrestled to the ground.

The “Times of the Gentiles” was coming to its inevitable end. 

Chapter 3: Zwingli

Part 2: From Apostates to Apostles

Although he was the first of the reformers, Zwingli decided not to merge his movement with Luther. The success and acceptance of Luther’s reforms gave great encouragement, motivation and inspiration to Zwingli. His focus on going back to the original teachings of the Bible, coincided with the invention of the printing press. By 1520, there were 18 German, 2 Dutch, 11 Italian and 4 Bohemian translations of the scriptures circulating.

As the common people gained access to the original teachings of Christ, the discrepancy between them and what was currently being taught by the Roman Church became very evident. 

Zwingli came under the influence of Erasmus, a learned Greek Humanist while at the University of Vienna and Basle. Erasmus believed the best course of reform was to publish the Greek New Testament at Basle and present the Church Fathers with copies. Both Erasmus and Zwingli believed that all good heathens could be saved as well as Catholics. They also believed they were personally influenced by the Holy Spirit in their endeavours. 

By 1516 Zwingli had been appointed as Vicar at Einiedelin, which was a place that drew large numbers of people to see the “Black Madonna.” As many as 100,000 came annually, thus Zwingli was able to preach to many pilgrims. Many miracles were attributed to this image of the virgin Mary. At the entry way, an inscription had been posted: “Here the full forgiveness of all sins may be obtained”. Zwingli thought such notions were all “superstitious absurdities”, and preached accordingly. 

In 1518 Zwingli was elected as the of the principle of the Church in Grossmunster in Zurich, a prosperous town of about seven thousand people. Here he began to teach from all the books of the New Testament, except Revelation, which he did not accept as written by John.

It is interesting to note that while both Luther and Zwingli could not accept the abuses of the Roman Church nor agree with many of their teachings, they nonetheless accepted the dogmas and creeds of the Roman Church. The false assumptions of Augustine proved to be a stumbling block to the Reformers, just as they had been to the early Church Fathers. They too, could not arrive at the true principles. As a result, they likewise became intolerant of others and cruel in their behavior. Zwingli’s teachings were basically moral doctrines and he stuck to that which he could prove from the New Testament. He therefore rejected everything that was not specifically authorized by those scriptures. His conclusion was in complete contrast to Luther who allowed anything that was not expressly forbidden by the New Testament.

The Roman Church did not oppose Zwingli at first, even when he ranted against the sale of Indulgences. The Officials of Zurich and even the Arch Bishop of Constance supported him against any action from Rome. Gradually though, Zwingli’s criticisms included the doctrine of Purgatory, the intercession of saints, monasticism and fasts. He convinced the City Council in Zurich to issue an order that preachers should teach only that which is found in the New Testament. As in Germany, civil authority was given the right to exercise religious control, which previously had been exclusively the right of the Bishop.

This was the first instance of civil authority eroding the authority of the Bishop in episcopal matters. It was to become common practice in Switzerland. This crack in the concrete, that went on to cause a complete fracture of the foundation of the Roman Church, started here with this subordination of the Church to the State. Zwingli was able to convince the willing ministers of the Cantons (townships) to abolish Roman worship including images, relics, frescoes and ornaments. Thus, the silver and gold crosses, the robes and tapestry were removed – and Zwingli justified the vandalism. 

The reaction was predictable. The Catholic Townships would not tolerate the behaviour of the reformist protestants and they clashed in the town of Kappel. Zwingli was among the protestants who were defeated in the battle and he was killed. His body was quartered and burned for treason and heresy, and his ashes scattered. While this stopped the protest movement in German speaking Switzerland, the rest of the country continued its protest under the leadership of John Calvin.