Beware of false prophets, which come to
you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they
are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by
their fruits. do men gather grapes of thorns,
or figs or thistles?
Matthew 7:15-16
Allow me this statement: "We are justified not by our own works, but by faith." We are the product of those who went before us, whether they be good or bad. We are not unable to overcome the bad even if it is in your heredity, but we can do good if we turn our minds to the good and the good is Jesus Christ, His words, His commandments, His precepts.
Why study these early Church fathers? Are they not the ones who developed Christianity and the various theological positions? Yes! Some development was good and others bad. Therefore we have the responsibility to learn which is which. We do this by studying those early Church fathers their writing, their lives. For instance: Origen a Church father of the third century (190A.D-250 A.D) who was a student of Sacchus the founder of Neo-Patonism along with Potius who was a strong Neo-Platonist. It is true that these early Christian writers often offered informal, simple statements of sincere faith and piety, yet with Origen who was a student of Neo-Platonism we can notice in his writings evidence of his philosophical training in pagan philosophy. We see excessive use of typological interpretation.
Clement of Rome (30 A.D.- 100 A.D.) who was born about the time Jesus was crucified, lived during the time of the apostles, wrote about the death of Paul and Peter, a leading elder in the Church at Rome when in 95 A.D. a great disturbance in the Corinthian Church wroth to them and this epistle has been assigned the most prominent place among the writings of the apostolic writers because it is the earliest Christian writing apart form the books of the New Testament.
The Christian Church from its beginning had to fight heresy along with the fighting to preserve its existence in the fact of Roman attempts to abolish this religion. With the influx of new converts to the Church came old ideas until they could be properly instructed. There was, and is in this day, threat of legalistic or philosophical perversion of Christianity. Then, and now, overzealous leaders would and have developed a particular interpretation to correct real or fancied evils in the Church and have been able to gather followers of their heretical ideas and by this schisms and from these schisms came new sects.
God gives gifts and a great reward so the question is: How shall we obtain it? Through a denomination, through following men: i.e., Calvin, Arminus, Wesley, Moody, Graham, or others, or Scripture? How shall we become Authentic Christians holding Authentic Christian Faith?
"How blessed and wonderful, beloved, are the gifts
of God! Life in immortality, splendour in righteousness, truth in perfect
confidence, ( Some
translate, “in liberty.”) faith in assurance,
self-control in holiness! And all these fall under the cognizance of our
understandings [now]; what then shall those things be which are prepared
for such as wait for Him? The Creator and Father of all worlds, ( Or, “of the
ages.”) the Most Holy, alone knows their amount and
their beauty. Let us therefore earnestly strive to be found in the number
of those that wait for Him, in order that we may share in His promised
gifts. But how, beloved, shall this
be done? If our understanding be fixed by faith towards God; if we
earnestly seek the things which are pleasing and acceptable to Him; if we
do the things which are in harmony with His blameless will; and if we
follow the way of truth, casting away from us all unrighteousness and
iniquity, along with all covetousness, strife, evil practices, deceit,
whispering, and evil-speaking, all hatred of God, pride and haughtiness,
vainglory and ambition.
(The reading is doubtful: some have ἀφιλοξενίαν,
“want of a hospitable spirit.”) [So Jacobson.] For
they that do such things are hateful to God; and not only they that do
them, but also those that take pleasure in them that do them. (Rom. i.
32.) For the Scripture saith, “But to the
sinner God said, Wherefore dost thou declare my statutes, and take my
covenant into thy mouth, seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my
words behind thee? When thou sawest a thief, thou consentedst with (Literally, “didst run
with.”) him, and didst make thy portion with adulterers.
Thy mouth has abounded with wickedness, and thy tongue contrived (Literally, “didst
weave.”) deceit. Thou sittest, and speakest against thy
brother; thou slanderest
(Or, “layest a snare for.”) thine own
mother’s son. These things thou hast done, and I kept silence; thou
thoughtest, wicked one, that I should be like to thyself. But I will
reprove thee, and set thyself before thee. Consider now these things, ye
that forget God, lest He tear you in pieces, like a lion, and there be
none to deliver. The sacrifice of praise will glorify Me, and a way is
there by which I will show him the salvation of God.” ( Ps. l.
16–23.The reader will observe how the Septuagint
followed by Clement differs from the Hebrew."
This earliest of Christian writers outside of the books of the New Testament has spoken.
O LORD our God, other lords
beside Thee have had dominion
over us: but by thee only will we
make mention of Thy name.
Isaiah 26:13
Fear God: Not men
Richard L. Crumb
No comments:
Post a Comment