And now for something completely different!
There were loads of miracles and healing and prophecy in the NT and this continued and was documented by the early church fathers as I mentioned before. So where did they go? What lead to their demise in the life of the church? Here are my notes and quotes from the next chapter of "2000 years of Charismatic Christianity". In it Eddie L. Hyatt puts it down to two things. The increase of institutionalism compounded by a negative reaction towards a movement called Montanism that for a time enjoyed the gifts of the Spirit.
"Spiritual gifts continued to be manifested after the first century. As institutionalism increasingly dominated the life and ministry of the Church, however, their prevalence and influence gradually diminished. Institutionalism is an emphasis on organisation at the expense of other factors. In the church, such an emphasis, or over emphasis, on organisation always comes at the expense of the life and freedom of the spirit. Prof James L. Ash, Jr. Says that virtually all historians of Christianity agree that the institutionalisation of the early church was accompanied by the demise of the charismatic gifts." Eddie L Hyatt page 24
One of the structural shifts staking place was the evolution of the office of the Bishop who had authority over several churches and authorised things like baptisms and breaking bread. The thinking was that if you had been made a bishop then surly you must be spiritual and gifted and have insight in to the word of God. You didn't need signs and wonders or even other people to help.
outward ecclesiatical forms of both office and ritual came to be valued over personal, spiritual experiences... Spontaneous manifestations of the holy spirit became less and less desirable, especially by those in authority. Hyatt p 26
The bishops, not the canon, expelled prophecy. Ash, The decline of ecclesiastic prophecy in the early church p 228 quoted on p 26 of 2000 years of Charismatic Christianity
A guy called Montanus came on the scene who was "distinguished in working signs and miracles", and began in 172 AD to
"assert the importance of the supernatural ministry of the spirit, insisting that Christians practice a morally strict lifestyle.... The qualifying factor for ministry in the Church, according to Montanus, was possession of a spiritual gift rather than appointment to ecclesial office.... The emphasis on spiritual gifts brought Montanus into sharp conflict with many church leaders who contended that the newly developing ecclesiastical office held preeminence over any spiritual gift.... Several regional councils or synods held in the latter half of the second century censored Montanus and his followers.... These were the first church councils in the history of the church except for the Jerusalem Council of Acts 15.... In North Africa, the Montanists were defended by Tertullian, who joined the movement around the year A.D. 200...." Pages 26-28
Tertullian persuaded the Bishop of Rome to accept the Montanist churches but then a guy called Praxeas, who taught the doctrine called monarchanism (Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one and the same person), persuaded him to withdraw his letters of piece.
Tertullian says that Praxeas did a twofold service for the devil: "He drove away prophecy, and he brought in heresy; he put to flight the Paraclete, and he crucified the father."... After the death of Montanus, his followers became more strict in their athleticism,....[and eventually by the third century] they also began to institutionalise, setting up their own ecclesiastical system of bishops and deacons. Pages 26-28
John Wesley wrote in 1750 :
The grand reason why the miraculous gifts were so soon withdrawn was not only the faith and holiness were well-nigh lost, but that dry formal orthodox men began even then to ridicule whatever gifts they had not themselves, and to decry them all as either madness or imposture. p29
The institutional church obviously over reacted to the movement and accelerate the trend of disregard and disdain towards spiritual gifts. It also began the trend, as Philip Schaff has pointed out, wearin a sharp line was drawn "between the age of the apostles, in which there had been direct supernatural revelations, and the later age, in which such revelations had disappeared" McDonnell says, "the church never really recovered its balance after it rejected Montanism" p29
It's so sad that this vital power destined to be wielded by the church in mission was short circuited so early on. The challenge still remains today of how to have structures that effectively steward the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church rather than snuff it out. Its makes me think of keeping a fire alight in an oil drum. If you simply light a fire in the bottom it will go out quite quickly but if you pierce it all over with holds it will burn and give of immense heat. Some structures oxygenate and some suffocate. Here are some thoughts on how to make sure that a structure intended to contain what God is doing has enough holes in to allow the Holy Spirit to continue to blow in.
1) Keep it contact with God through Prayer, Prophecy, worship, and his word.
2) Make sure our faith, confidence and expectation is not in the structure but in God. Making sure as someone once said that we are doing things that will fail unless God is in them.
3) Respond to what God says. The first two are obvious and in a sense straight forward. This is the hard one as we some structures are for the long hall, and some are for the moment. Some will need strengthening and some taking down. Much wisdom is needed to know which is which. Small groups seem to be a long term structure, but we need to be flexible within that to respond to what God is saying and doing.
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