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Confronting The Da Vinci Code
Part 3: Heroes not to be Forgotten
“[U]ntil
that moment in history {the Council of
Nicea},
Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet …
a great and
powerful man, but a man nonetheless. A mortal.”
(Prof. Teabing in The Da Vinci Code, p.
233)
The witness of
Christ’s divinity begins with the inspired texts and the first century. Peter
stood up and preached on Pentecost to the skeptical gathering of faithful and
orthodox Jewish pilgrims and preached the clear message of Jesus crucified and
risen again. But it is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that so many would
come to believe then and in the days following, and then return to their
homelands with the good news in such a powerful way that the church began to
grow even before the apostles were spread out into the world. James, the
half-brother of Jesus, led the true mother church in Jerusalem, but north in
Antioch, a great, Gentile, sending church grew. Their eagerness and fervency
for the Great Commission gave them the new name “Christian”. From there, Paul
launched out on his remarkably successful missionary tours and we can only
imagine how many others did the same. And why was Paul so eager? There is
simply no other explanation possible for his conversion, his sacrificial zeal
and the doctrine emanating from his missionary letters than the truth of the
deity and the resurrection glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But the
transition from the first to the second century for the church is no less
spectacular and amazing. The signs and wonders had begun to fade and the
inspired texts were now in the hands of uninspired but Spirit-filled men of
conviction and zeal. To speak in general terms, the church virtually doubled
during this century. And her leaders, her pastors and teachers, are referred to
today as Apostolic Fathers. We know of them, their message, their
ministries, and we behold their witness in the growth, the establishment and the
legacy of the early church.
To any
Christians who know anything about this period, these men are usually only known
to be martyrs. In fact, most often, when ancient church history is taught even
to seminary students, that is all you are likely to learn. Polycarp was
martyred. Clement was martyred. Ignatius was martyred. But the real question
is this: what in the world was it about those men – their ministries and their
message - that led to their deaths? In a world such as Rome provided, which
tolerated most anything, what could possibly motivate that government so much as
to pursue, arrest, transport over a long distance, bring to trial, and then
execute a stubborn 86 year old man? Why bother?
Clearly the
answer to the question about their deaths is found in asking who these men were
in life. Here are church leaders who did not come with their four spiritual
laws, their evangelism programs, their sports ministry, their worship wars or
their seeker-friendly services. Here are preachers who declared the one, true
gospel, who called and moved people change their thinking – to reject the
idolatry of their traditions and families, to reject, at great, supposed risk,
their superstitions about crop-growth, fertility, even of national safety, to
reject their immoralities, their selfish lifestyles, even to forsake their
family members as those family members were forsaking them. And for what? Some
higher truth of peace and love found in reaching inward for a vision of a risen
Jesus and trying to be “just like him”? No, my friends. John Lennon had it
terribly wrong. Peace and love in this world have never ever been that
desirable. No, something much greater was stirring in the souls of men,
something bigger than themselves.
Clement of Rome
was one of the greatest pastors of the church in Rome. He called his people to
repentance and faith in the risen Lord and to true fellowship with a radical
hospitality and the development of real community which could effect culture.
Ignatius of Antioch was absolutely devoted to Christ and pastored that great
sending church. He was an example of gospel integrity, claiming that he was
“allergic to sin”. He was exuberant for the glory of the gospel and his
preaching was dramatic and passionate and inspiring. Hermas, a pastor in Rome,
was completely devoted to building up the Kingdom of God and ministering to the
poor, composing a Christian guide called The Shepherd, which directs the
faithful in the practice of the orthodox Christian faith. And Polycarp was that
86 year old man, having been a disciple of John, trained and sent out to do
missionary preaching, whose many years of ministry and preaching, whose
influence and reputation was so effective that finally it could be tolerated no
longer. He was arrested in his home in Smyrna, transported to Rome and tried.
When asked to simply deny Jesus as Lord for his freedom, he said “Fourscore and
six years have I served Him, and he has done me no harm. How then can I curse my
King that saved me.” For that simple response, he was burned at the stake and
stabbed to death.
In the
following centuries, other church leaders would take their places: Justin,
Tertullian, Iranaeus, Cyprian, Melito, Athenagorus, all who preached and taught
with a zeal for the gospel that refused to be watered down, altered or stifled,
even under threat of persecution and death. Such leaders are the bridges
between the witness of the apostles and the church
of Christ as she continues today. They
were not pleading for acceptance, they were not minding their own business.
They were demanding change – conversion, repentance, faith in Jesus Christ
risen, obedience in life and trust through death with firm expectation of
reception into glory. They were inspiring younger men to rise up with them and
take their own place and answer their own calling to lead and shepherd and
pastor the church. They didn’t just serve in their office or put in their time
until retirement. They considered the gospel and the Kingdom of Christ to
be bigger than they themselves were. They believed in the torch that had been
handed down to them from the apostles themselves and that their duty, their job,
their calling, even their very lives were given for the singular objective of
passing that torch on to those who would follow them in the next generation.
Such men could
not have been so inspired and driven by believing Jesus was just another man
with just another philosophy. They believed, preached, lived – gloriously - and
died - mercilessly - holding up Jesus as the God-man and the only name under
heaven given to men by which they must be saved.
David G.
Barker, 2005
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