[Footnote B: Acts xvi:1-4.]
This question continued to be a cause of contention even after this sharp disputation at Antioch; for though the decision of the council at Jerusalem was against the contention of the Judaizing party, yet they continued to agitate the question whenever opportunity presented itself, and seemed especially to follow close upon the footsteps of Paul in his missionary journeys; and in Galatia, at least, succeeded in turning the saints of that province from the grace of Christ unto another gospel, perverting the Gospel of Christ.[A] This question continued to agitate the Church throughout the Apostolic Age, and was finally settled through overwhelming numbers of Gentiles being converted, and taking possession of the Church, rather than through any profound respect for the decision of the council at Jerusalem.
[Footnote A: Gal. i:6, 7.]
The withdrawal of John Mark from the ministry while accompanying Paul and Barnabas on their first mission in Asia Minor, and which withdrawal grew out of a faltering of his zeal or a misunderstanding with his companions, will be readily called to mind.[A] Subsequently, when Paul proposed to Barnabas that they go again and visit the brethren in every city where they had preached while on their first mission, a sharp contention arose between them about this same John Mark. Barnabas desired to take him again into the ministry, but Paul seriously objected; and so pronounced was the quarrel between them that these two friends and fellow yokemen in the ministry parted company, no more to be united. It is just possible, also, that in addition to this misunderstanding about John Mark, the severe reproof which Paul administered to Barnabas in the affair of dissimulation at Antioch had somewhat strained their friendship.
[Footnote A: Acts xiii:13.]
Schisms Among the Early Christians: Turning from these misunderstandings and criminations among the leading officers of the Church, let us inquire how it stood with the members. The Epistle of Paul to the church at Corinth discloses the fact that there were serious schisms among them; some boasting that they were of Paul, others that they were of Apollos, others of Cephas, and still others of Christ; which led Paul to ask sharply, "Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you?"[A] There were endless strifes as well as divisions among them, which caused Paul to denounce them as carnally minded.[B] Among them also was such fornication as was not named among the Gentiles, "that one should have his father's wife!" And this shameful sin had not humbled the church at Corinth, for Paul denounced them for being puffed up in the presence of such a crime, rather than having mourned over it.[C] They were in the habit of going to law one with another, and that before the world, in violation of the teachings of Jesus Christ.[D] They desecrated the ordinances of the Lord's Supper by their drunkenness, for which they were sharply reproved by the Apostle.[E] They ate and drank unworthily, "not discerning the Lord's body; for which cause many were sickly among them, and many slept" (that is, died). There were heresies also among them,[F] some denying the resurrection of the dead, while others possessed not the knowledge of God, which the Apostle declared was their shame.[G] It is true, this sharp letter of reproof made the Corinthian saints sorry, and sorry, too, after a godly fashion, in that it brought them to a partial repentance; but even in the second epistle, from which we learn of their partial repentance, the Apostle could still charge that there were many in the Church who had not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they had committed.[H] From this second letter, also, we learn that there were many in the church at large who corrupted the word of God;[I] that there were those, even in the ministry, who were "false prophets, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ."[J]
[Footnote A: I Cor. i:12, 13.]
[Footnote B: I Cor. iii:3, 4.]
[Footnote C: I Cor. v:1-3.]
[Footnote D: I Cor. vi:1-20; and Matt, xviii:15, 17.]