What the Early Christians Believed about Salvation.
Salvation by works? Faith Alone? Salvation by Grace?
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Faith Alone?
Grace Alone?
Once Saved Always Saved?
Who Are the Early Christians?
By the terms, “primitive church” or “early Christians,”
I’m talking about the Christians who lived before the
time of the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325. The Council
of Nicaea marks the end of the early Christian era, because
it marks the beginning of the joinder of church and
state. It also marks the turning point where theologians
and church councils begin creating new defined doctrines
that all Christians had to subscribe to or face state persecution.
From A. D. 325 on, the emphasis of the church
changed from lifestyle to theology.
When looking at what the early Christians believed,
we should in particular look to what Christians believed
and practiced in the second century. In other words, we
want to look at what Christians believed during the first
hundred years after the last apostle died. That’s because
they were only a generation or two removed from the
apostles. In fact, men like Polycarp and Ignatius received
the gospel from the apostles themselves.
Now, because these men received the gospel directly
from the apostles doesn’t mean that they were infallible.
And it doesn’t make their writings inspired—nor did any
of them claim that their writings were inspired. As one
minister put it, we go to the early Christians for information, but we go to Scripture for inspiration.
Obviously, the disciples of the apostles were in a position
to better understand the apostolic faith than we are
because they received it firsthand. They could ask questions
to the apostles if something they said was unclear.
I mean wouldn’t it be nice today if we could ask Paul,
“Paul, would you clarify for me what you meant by this
passage?” What if we could ask John exactly what he
meant by certain things he said in his letters. Well, Ignatius,
Polycarp, and Clement of Rome all had the opportunity
to do that.
Not only that, but they also spoke koiné Greek. That was their
native tongue. It wasn’t something they went to seminary
and studied and still weren’t fluent in. It’s what they grew
up talking; they thought in koiné Greek. There was no language barrier nor any cultural barrier between them and the apostles because they lived in the same culture as the apostles.
They could understand the cultural and congregational settings in which the New Testament was written. So the odds are that if they understood the New Testament differently than we do, their interpretation is more likely to be right than ours.
Obviously, the Scriptures are our final source of authority. But as we are going to see in this series of messages on What the Early Christians Believed, everything they believed has very strong Scriptural support. In fact, on any given spiritual subject, if you bring together all of the New Testament passages on the subject, and take those passages literally and seriously, you will invariably end up believing exactly what the early Christians believed. At the very least, it’s certainly worth our time to at least look at what the early Christians believed and to ask ourselves, “Is it possible that maybe I’m wrong on this issue or that maybe my church is wrong on this one point?
“Let us, therefore, be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience” Heb 4:11-12.
“See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth,
much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven” Heb 12:25.
The writer of Hebrews is talking to saved Christians. That’s clear throughout the entire epistle. The Israelites had been saved out of Egypt, which represents the world. Yet, they were afterward disobedient in the wilderness, and they never reached the Promised Land as a result. The writer of Hebrews tells us clearly that the same thing will happen to us as Christians if we turn back or become disobedient.
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