The Literature and History of New Testament Times

by J. Gresham Machen

RETROSPECT: THE FIRST CHRISTIAN CENTURY

The apostolic example can be applied intelligently to the problems of our time only if there be some understanding of the intervening centuries. We are connected with the apostolic Church by an unbroken succession. A study of Church history would help us to apply the New Testament teaching to our own age.

The Christian writings which have been preserved from the early part of the second century show a marked decline from the spiritual level of the apostles. Evidently the special inspiration which had made the New Testament a guide for all ages had been withdrawn. Yet the Spirit of God continued to lead the Church. Even in the darkest periods of Church history God did not forget his people.

Only scanty Christian writings have been preserved from the first three-quarters of the second century; the extant works of the so-called "Apostolic Fathers" and of the "Apologists" are of limited extent. About the close of the century, however, the record becomes more complete. Clement of Alexandria, Irenæus of Asia Minor and Gaul, and Tertullian of North Africa, give a varied picture of the Christian life of the time. The Church had gained rapidly in influence since the conclusion of the apostolic age; persecutions had not succeeded in checking her advance. Finally, under Constantine, in the first part of the fourth century, Christianity became the favored religion of the Roman Empire.

About the same time, in A.D. 325, the first ecumenical council, at Nicæa, undertook the work of formulating the belief of the Church. The creeds which were adopted at the great ancient councils are accepted to-day in all parts of Christendom. During the same general period, the power of the bishop of Rome was gradually increased until it culminated in the papacy.

After the conquest of the western part of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, Christianity was accepted by the barbarian conquerors, and during the dark ages that followed the Church preserved the light of learning and piety until a better day should dawn. During the middle ages, though there was for the most part little originality in Christian thinking, great scholars and theologians formed striking exceptions to the general condition. The political power of the papacy became enormous, but was hindered by the personal weakness and immorality of many of the popes. The degraded moral and spiritual condition of the Church was counteracted here and there by the establishment of monastic orders, whose purpose at the beginning was good, by the writings of certain mystics, and by the work of the three "pre-reformers," Wyclif in England, Huss in Bohemia and Savonarola in Italy.

A genuine advance, however, did not come until the Reformation of the fifteenth century, when Luther in Germany and Zwingli in Switzerland, almost at the same time and at first independently, became the leaders in a mighty protest. A little later Calvin carried out the principles of the Reformation in a comprehensive theological system, and by the power of his intellect and the fervency of his piety exerted an enormous influence throughout the world. The Reformation was distinctly a religious movement, though it had been prepared for by that revival of learning which is called the Renaissance. The work of Luther was a rediscovery of Paul. Not the performance of a set of external acts prescribed by the Church, but, as Paul taught, the grace of God received by faith alone, is, according to Luther, the means of salvation.

The Reformation brought about a counter-reformation in the Roman Catholic Church, and the western European world was finally divided between the two great branches of Christendom. After a period of controversy and wars between Protestants and Catholics, the Church was called upon to fight a great battle against unbelief. That battle, begun in its modern form about the middle of the eighteenth century, continues unabated until the present day. We are living in a time of intellectual changes. To maintain the truth of the gospel at such a time and to present it faithfully and intelligently to the modern world is the supreme task of the Church. The task to some extent has been accomplished; and the missionary movement of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries attests the vitality of the ancient faith. God has not deserted his Church. There are enemies without and within, compromise will surely bring disaster; but the gospel of Christ has not lost its power. This is not the first time of discouragement in the history of the Church. The darkest hour has always been followed by the dawn. Who can tell what God has now in store?