Merging of Church and state - 2000 years of Charismatic Christianity part 3

I am off to the "heaven touches Earth" conference this afternoon but before I go I thought I would write up a few more of my notes on the book "2000 years of charismatic history" by Eddie and L Hyatt.

In A.D. 312 Constantine was converted and in A.D. 313 issued be "Edict of Milan" permitting freedom of worship and granting special favours to the church. He "presided over the first general counsel of the Christian church" in A.D. 325, "adapted the church organisation to the state organisation", and "built facilities to accommodate the religious gatherings of Christians". 

"Prior to this, believers had met primarily in homes. Constantine, however, erected buildings in which the church was to meet. These he modelled after the architecture of the civic auditorium's of the Day. This architecture, with its elevated throne like seating at the front for the Bishop and its rows of seating for the congregation, made significant congregational involvement impractical. In addition, the liturgy and worship style, once plain and personal, became adorned with the pomp and practice of the imperial court." p34

"In AD 381 the new Emperor, Theodosius I, made Christianity the exclusive religion of the state." Other forms of worship "risked punishment" and so lots of non-Christians started turning up to church gatherings. This lead to increased immorality and a watering down of genuine faith. John Chrysostom describes the church as pickup joint, business centre, and gossip vine (my terms for his description) and writes of the "cessation" of spiritual gifts. p 35.

"The Bishop of the city of Rome began to be looked upon as of first among equals...the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's supper began to be looked upon as sacraments possessing inherent salvific value and able to impart the grace and gifts of God...only the bishop or his appointed representative had the right to administer the sacraments... these developments had devastating ramifications for the ministry of the holy spirit through the people of God. The gifts that had once flowed spontaneously among the whole congregation were now bound to the ecclesiastical office and transmitted by a sacramental act." Most of the church "now became passive spectators in a highly developed sacramental ritual presided over by ecclesiastical officials". p 36

With the lack of persecution from without, and everyone in the empire being by default in, the church began to focus its attention on internal matters of doctrine, and "many violent struggles ensued, producing sharp divisions in the church." p36 "It is not surprising that the spiritual gifts, which Paul taught were to function within the context of Christian love, became extinct in the institutional church." p 36

By the fourth century the gifts of healing and prophecy that had been widespread in the early church had all but died out. The activity of the holy spirit seems to have been quenched by:

• an emphasis on the role of bishops rather than everyone's gifting,
• a concept of the effectiveness of the sacraments over personal faith
• the linking of the church to the state, no persecution, perks for church-goers, lots of non-Christians in church, ...
• the jealousy and distrust of the gifts where they operated outside of the "official" church,
• an increase in immorality in the church,
• moving out of "homes" and into larger buildings with formal "auditorium" style layouts.

These points would therefore produce the following actions to encourage the work of the spirit amongst us in our churches, many of which I think we are already doing which is encouraging:

• Expecting and encouraging many of those in the church who do not necessarily have leadership roles to be active in prophesying and healing. While it is important that leaders press forward in this to teach and model it, we must be careful that we do not tie these gifts to any particular leadership role. Just like the Ephesians 4 gifts the role of leaders operating in these things must be to equip the church for works of service.
• We must never let our expectation for God to speak or heal etc be based on a particular way of doing things. Some structure in these things is often helpful but it's faith that God looks for in exerting his strength.
• I guess here we just need to be continually clear in the way we preached the gospel, and bring people into membership in the church. As we grow, to be careful  not to let large scale structures crush the life of the spirit beneath them. This has implications in the local church for things like small groups, but also for church streams in terms of how they are organised.
• We must maintain an openness to the gifts operating outside of our own sphere, while of course maintaining a good degree of discernment.
• We must not neglect matters of personal holiness, and maintain good and loving relationships with one another.
• There must be an expectation for the gifts to operate in small groups and other contexts apart from the large-scale church gatherings. Where we do gather in large buildings, we need to continue to find appropriate ways of expressing "body ministry", with a number of people having some contribution.

The next chapters are rather more exciting, looking that individuals who even through this dark time operated in signs and wonders.