The Early Church of the New Testament Responds to External and Internal Threats: Lessons for Orthodox Today
By Paul Rosenboom
The following is adapted from a lecture I gave in 2019. It was my humble attempt to illustrate how the Church described in the New Testament responded to the challenges and threats, both external and internal, that confronted Her. It is in this response that we can draw inspiration and wisdom to confront the challenges we face today.
Christ has a devoted love for His Church Bride, and by the Church we mean the new society reborn of His Body and Spirit, having the spotless moral beauty of her Bridegroom. Christ’s love for the Church Bride is love for the regeneration and perfection of all men and women who strive to be citizens of the Kingdom of God. And this sanctification is attained through the indwelling Logos and His Spirit. This is the Mystery hidden from all ages and the fulfillment of God’s Eternal Plan which is to make man in His image and likeness.
From the day of Christ’s Resurrection, the marriage of Christ the Bridegroom with the Church Bride became everlasting and indissoluble. “And lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the world.” For forty days after the Resurrection, Christ kept company with His Bride, teaching Her about the kingdom of God and preparing Her for the reception of the Holy Spirit. On the day of Pentecost, when the disciples were waiting in prayer in the upper room, they were filled with the Holy Spirit in the form of fiery tongues coming down from the heavenly Bridegroom. God and His people became one flesh when the Bride, purified and adorned with the virtues of faith and love, was filled with the Holy Spirit.
According to St. Justin Popovich, the great Serbian Father of the Church, the whole mystery of the Church is in Christ, the God-Man; God became flesh and brought His entire Godhead, with all his divine perfection into that flesh; the Holy Apostolic Church is His Divine-Human (Theanthropic) Body. The incarnate Logos of God, the God-Man, dwells in our world as the Church. “With the God-Man as its Head, the Church has become the most perfect and precious being in all the world. All that belongs to Christ belong to the Church, all the divine powers by which He gives Resurrection, Transfiguration and Deification. From Him, the immortal Head of the Church, the life-giving powers of grace flow through the whole Body of the Church, giving us immortality and eternity”. Through His indwelling, the Lord has blessed us with all spiritual blessings; He has given us all the means to be holy and without blame before God.
On the day of Pentecost, Christ as the Bridegroom delights in the Bride, and the Bride in the Bridegroom; the one giving and the other receiving the Holy Spirit in fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel. On this day, a multitude assembled to listen to the divine words of the Apostles. The crowd - moved in their hearts - asked: Men and brethren, what shall we do? Peter answered: Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is the fundamental message of Christian life: In humility and repentance we invite the Holy Spirit to purify and illuminate our hearts and minds, and according to the words of St. Andrew of Crete, we are created anew. Although in the course of our earthly existence we continue to fall, the Lord awaits our heartfelt repentance. Of course, we cannot be baptized again for the remission of sins, but we can, instead, shed copious tears that would overflow a baptismal font.
As a result, about three thousand souls were added to the Church, reborn of water and the Spirit. On the same day, about the ninth hour, Peter and John, while going to the Temple, healed a certain man who was lame from his mother’s womb and the amazed people ran to them in Solomon’s porch. Peter’s speech proved to them that Christ is the cause of the miracle and two thousand more listeners entered the baptismal font of regeneration. Oh, the joy of the Church in the regeneration of men! This is the fundamental mission of our Church and yet it seems to be merely an afterthought in some jurisdictions and church communities. In the Greek Archdiocese, one typically no longer even hears the litany of the catechumens during the Divine Liturgy. It reminds me of when, in the early 1960s, a small group of devout faithful went to visit a priest and theologian of the Greek Archdiocese, and upon viewing the impressive library in his office, asked: “Father, I see you have read a great many scholarly books. But tell me, have you made any converts?” Upon the priest replying sadly that he had not, one of the elders told him: “Then take all of these books and throw them into the furnace in the basement. At least they'll keep the Archdiocese warm for a time.” We too must undergo genuine repentance so that we may become that shining light to a world hungry for genuine spiritual life.
This joy of the early Church aroused the envy of the Sadducees who were angry that the message of Christ’s Resurrection was spreading. And here we arrive at the first external threat to the New Testament Church: The Jewish officials arrested Peter and John and threatened them. The rulers and elders, scribes and the high priest gathered and challenged the Apostles: By what power or by what name have ye done this? Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, proceeds to testify the truth of the Resurrection, referring to the prophecies in the Psalms of David. “Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God has made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
After conferring, the Jewish elders threatened the Apostles and commanded them not to speak at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them: we cannot but speak the things that we have seen and heard. What courage and devotion in these grace-filled Apostles. They simply would not be silent and stop speaking the truth, which would have been in opposition to God's will. The whole Church was troubled by these threats when informed by Peter and John, and this spurred them to public prayer to God on behalf of the Apostles and the faithful. These threats were against the entire Church, for She was living in Christ and through the preaching of His Resurrection and the Confession of Him before men. They did not pray for the Lord to crush their enemies or cast them down but, with one accord, they lifted up their voices to God saying: “Grant unto Thy servants to boldly speak Thy Word…!” We must learn to pray in this way. The strongest weapon of the Church has always been prayer, especially corporate prayer. Through prayer, the Church was always strengthened toward fulfilling the Divine Will, for St. Paul says: “For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” (Phil 2:13); Christ says: “Without me, ye can do nothing.” Holy Scripture tells us they were filled with the Holy Spirit, that is, they were aflame with love and faith. Our first response to any crisis should be fervent prayer. And how important it is to pray for our clergy, that they be given the strength and courage to spread the Word today in the face of innumerable threats and challenges. Even more so for those priests and bishops who resist the innovations and modernisms introduced by the hierarchs of our day. This is how we, as laity, contribute to the Apostolic work. So, we see that the first threat - arrest and threat of imprisonment - motivated all to pray to God and, consequently, the Apostles were strengthened to preach the Word boldly, the Word that daily brought forth new souls through baptismal regeneration.
But the Church also faced internal threats, the first of which may be considered that of Ananias and Sapphira who lied to the Church and the Holy Spirit. The Church stood in awe of the wrath of God against the sin of lying to the Church. St. John Chrysostom says they lied to the Holy Spirit and the Lord took them abruptly so that they would not infect the Body of the faithful. As Christians, we are bearers of the Spirit of Truth and united by the bond of love in the truth. A Christian is the temple and house of the Holy Spirit. It is therefore a duty of a Christian to speak and act in accordance with the God within him. We must remember that the Devil is the father of lies. How destructive and divisive are lies in all aspects of our lives, especially in marriage. Such deception is destructive of the love that binds Christians. Always be honest and truthful with one another, for we are brothers and sisters in Christ. And praiseworthy are those clergy who are quick to confront internal threats such as liars, deceivers, innovators, heretics and all those who seek to change Holy Tradition. Diligent and watchful shepherds act with immediacy to protect their flocks from spiritual harm. But this is not the responsibility of the clergy alone. We all must be zealous to defend our faith and Holy Tradition from those within the Church who betray the faith. It is a terrible thing for the faithful to become numb to innovations and changes that threaten our Holy Faith.
Here, I might add, we must also be mindful of honesty and speaking the truth when we confess our sins. We must not hold back; Confession should come with great difficulty, for in this Mystery we battle the pride and ego that lies deep in our hearts. We mustn’t come to Confession asking God to forgive us and then confess only the sins we are comfortable expressing, holding back those of which we are embarrassed. This is a grave sin. We should, instead, approach each Confession as if it were our last, emptying ourselves before our loving and merciful God in the presence of His priest. We must try to express in Confession that which is most humiliating for us, for this is what draws the Grace of God (see article by Archbishop Chrysostomos posted here).
Upon the continued preaching of the Apostles in the face of threats, Christ’s enemies again rose up and imprisoned the Apostles. But an Angel of the Lord opened the prison doors, releasing them. Immediately afterward, they were found speaking in the temple all the words Life.
There are many things on which one might focus but I would like to draw your attention to their preaching early in the morning in the Temple. This presumes there were people there to listen. How sad that so few attend the Orthros or Matins services on Sunday. This service is filled with the joy of the Resurrection and the hymns teach us about the saints commemorated on that day. We must not view services as an obligation and follow some delusional minimal standard. We should hunger for the words of life, the life giving waters. We must also come prepared to the services so that we may truly hear the Word of God, receive it in our hearts and be ready to apply it in our lives.
The Apostles were imprisoned, but initially without violence for the Jews feared the people. You have filled Jerusalem with your doctrines, they raged. But the Apostle responded: We ought to obey God rather than men.The Jewish leaders were enraged and intended to kill them but upon hearing the advice of Gamaliel, they were content with beating the Apostles and again ordering them not to speak in the name of Jesus.
How did the Church respond to this attack and endure this suffering? The Apostles rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Christ and did not stop teaching and preaching Christ resurrected. How beautiful for us to contemplate! In their sufferings, the Apostles experienced joy rather than sorrow.. The partakers of Christ’s sufferings become partakers of His glory. The Beatitudes were fulfilled in these Apostolic witnesses and we too must imitate their witness.: “Blessed are you when men shall revile you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.” If we view the Beatitudes as a ladder of virtues, then persecution is the highest rung. The Apostles became even more fervent in spreading the Good News of Christ for the regeneration of souls. They did not cease preaching, even in the Temple. As members of the Body of Christ, we too must be prepared to show courage and a willingness to suffer for the Truth, whether it be in confronting clergy who have gone astray, or the authorities and larger society that, when faced with a pandemic, imposed excessive restrictions on our ability to come together in worship, confession or funerals.
The next internal threat faced by the Church was division. In Her Divine Liturgy, the Church prays repeatedly for the unity of the faithful. The Book of Acts describes the early Christians continuing steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of Bread and in prayers. They had all things in common and sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all men, as every man had need. They continued daily with one accord in the Temple. They ate their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God …and the Lord added to the Church daily. The Book of Acts describes a murmuring of the Hellenists against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Such murmuring of brethren against brethren is deplorable in the Church. It leads to division and attacks the precious unity of the Church. We must be mindful that the unity of the Church is an expression of the bond of love between Christians. The first Christians resolved to elect seven men of good report, full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom so that the Apostles could continue steadfastly in prayer and in the ministry of the Word. Among the seven, the faithful chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit. We might interpret the phrase “full of the Holy Spirit” to mean all the fruits of the Spirit, including the virtues of love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control.
We today are also plagued by numerous divisions which threaten the unity of the Church and interfere with our witness to the new life in Christ. We struggle with multiple jurisdictions in America: English versus Greek or Slavonic language services, liberals versus traditionalists, and during the pandemic, multiple spoons versus a single spoon and maskers versus non-maskers. Most grievous is the current schism in Ukraine, provoked by the Patriarch of Constantinople. The Patriarch's intrusion, perhaps motivated by American political interests and rivalry with Moscow, has led to the creation of a schismatic church consisting of formerly suspended and defrocked clergy who are now set against the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. If we are divided today, it is because we do not have faith and we do not love! We do not heed the Lord’s commandment to love each other as He loves us. We must love each other, rejoicing and grieving at the same things, giving to each according to need, leaving none in want. Such unity is only possible through acquiring the mind of Christ in the Holy Spirit. What does it mean to acquire the mind of Christ? Among other things, it means to love everything that Christ loves and hate everything that Christ hates. But these divisions can only be healed if we choose men full of the Holy Spirit. But do we have the discernment to choose our leaders if we ourselves have not acquired to some degree these spiritual fruits.
A third external threat to the Church, much more terrible and oppressive, was the fierce persecution unleashed against the Christians by the Jewish authorities. As the men of the synagogue disputed with Stephen, he brilliantly refuted them using the Scriptures. In response, they stirred up the people and the elders and set up false witnesses. And Stephen’s face did shine as that of an angel, that is, with the radiance of the Divine Light, that is, the Holy Spirit. Angered still more when they heard him say: “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God,” they proceeded to stone him. And thus, Stephen suffered the first martyr's death and the great persecution began. But even from this grief, a greater joy is born. The Bridegroom rejoiced in heaven on receiving the first martyr to the Truth. An ancient sermon emphasized the Lord “standing” at the martyrdom of His faithful servant.
There are so many things that we can learn from this account. Stephen knew the Scriptures well enough to use them effectively against his enemies. We too must know the Scriptures. They are words of Life and from them we draw the inspiration and knowledge to answer the questions and challenges posed to us by inquirers as well as enemies of our faith. Do we really know the Word of God? We cannot separate Stephen’s radiance from his knowledge of the Scriptures, which for him was the Old Testament. How much more must we study and apply the New Testament in order to acquire the Holy Spirit and be sanctified? Moreover, these Words of Life gave him the strength and courage to die for Christ. Stephen had a fervent faith, a heart aflame with love for Christ. Are we experiencing this new Life that will enable us to witness to the world, even to the point of death? Martyrdom is the ultimate expression of faith in the Resurrection and love for Christ. How can we be afraid of death if we have eternal life within us? Reverent men then carried Stephen to his burial, as we today would a relic. And thus, the Church experienced joy, as did the Bridegroom in heaven on receiving the Church’s first martyr. St.John Chrysostom says, “let us imitate these…let us be undaunted in all our dangers. There is nothing dreadful to him that fears God…For when a man is delivered from his passions, and regards all present things as a shadow,... from whom shall he suffer anything dreadful? Whom shall he have to fear?...Let us flee to this Rock which cannot be shaken.” I recall an account of the blessed Bishop Augustine of Florina addressing a crowd with reference to threats against his life, to which he responded: “The day I die for the faith will be the greatest day of my life! But I am not worthy of it!”
Moreover, as the faithful were scattered abroad and surely grieved in this suffering, they also rejoiced in carrying the word of the Gospel outside Jerusalem, bringing forth new churches, daughters to the original Church in Jerusalem. We too are called to transfigure our suffering; priests and faithful who defend the faith may be scattered but this is often to the benefit of the Church. We might think of the Kollyvades or Neo-Neptic Fathers, whose persecution by their brethren on Mt. Athos led to their spreading the message of ceaseless prayer and frequent Communion throughout Greece. Or the unprecedented persecution of the Russian Church under communism which led to the diaspora and the increased presence and witness of the Church in the West. We must be mindful that Christ shares in whatever the Church suffers as She endures these threats. Christ calls persecutions of the Church persecutions of Himself. The Lord identifies with his faithful. He shares in whatever the Church suffers and comes to Her aid in the struggle. And so, He turned the great persecutor of His name, Paul, into a great champion of the Faith.
The evil one refused to cease plotting against the Church and continued attacking her both from without and from within, this time internally through Simon the Sorcerer, who was courageously opposed and defeated by Peter. Of course, the practice of simony afflicted the Greek Church under Constantinople in a most grievous way during the Turkish captivity. While the practice of purchasing Church offices is effectively relegated to the past, we must be mindful that political and personal considerations continue to play a role in some cases. Moreover, the example of Simon illustrates not only the practice of purchasing Church offices but also the abuse of the Mysteries for worldly and even evil ends. We have already referred to the schism in Ukraine created by the Patriarchate of Constantinople but we might also suggest the distortion of the canonical tradition and the misapplication of the Mysteries toward a worldly agenda, specifically the changing morals in society and the ecumenical movement. The Church must be vigilant and recognize that the hearts of many of our clergy and faithful are “not right in the sight of God” and they are caught in the bond of iniquity.
The struggles of the Church are also described symbolically in the Book of Revelation, where we read:
- “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars, and she, being with child, cried, travailing in birth and pained to be delivered.” NKJ
- “And she brought forth a man-child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron…” NKJ
- “…And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man-child.” NKJ
- …And to the woman were given two wings of the great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished,... away from the face of the serpent.” NKJ
This woman represents the Bride of Christ, or the Church. Being represented as clothed in the sun, She is clothed in Christ, for, as St. Paul says: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Through Baptism, the Christian puts away the nature of the old man and clothes himself in the new nature of Christ. The twelve stars signify the remembrance and knowledge of the doctrines of the twelve Apostles contained in the New Testament. The Holy Orthodox Church conceived through Christ and gave birth to the dogmas of Truth which establish the boundaries of the Church and save those believing them. At the time when the Bride of Christ gave birth to the saving dogmas of faith, She cried in travail and great pain to be delivered, or to dogmatize and define Christ, the Absolute Truth. According to some interpreters, the Church, through the pain and travail that characterized the Ecumenical Synods, gave birth to Christ by defining His divine and human natures and by expressing Christ in dogmatic terms that were a product of the Church's inward experience of the mystical presence of Christ. The dragon, or Satan, lay in wait, seeking to devour these dogmas and the Church with new heresies and persecutions, but the woman took refuge in the desert. The place prepared in the desert for the refuge of the Orthodox Church after the birth of the saving dogmas of faith and during the long period of persecution by Islam and militant Papism is the monasteries. The monasteries, in accordance with the will of God, became centers for the refuge and maintenance of the Orthodox Church and they continue to be so today.
We must know the dogmas of our faith. For the Fathers, there was nothing more important, absolutely nothing, than the unity of the Church in the True Faith. How these Fathers struggled against heresies to articulate in God-worthy language and terms their experience of salvation and deification in Christ! We must bear in mind, their witness often came at a great price; many of those attending the First Echumenical Synod bore the marks or wounds of their torture and persecution. They have left us our most precious inheritance but, sadly, the many times throughout the Church calendar when we chant intensely beautiful hymns to the salvific work of the Fathers, the Vespers and Matins services are largely unattended. Fr. Florovsky said he gained his first insights into the Mind of the Church through the sacred hymnography. We must persevere and yes, sometimes even suffer, to know our faith and be able to articulate it to a deluded world and even a confused hierarchy. The depth of these dogmas can be glimpsed in personal reading but they are better experienced in the context of the divine services. And the truth held onto by the Fathers must also be our truth and experience of salvation. We must be willing to suffer for the Truth, to hold the Truth above all else in this world. The zealous spirit of the Fathers is preserved in the monasteries even today and it does us good to spend time there, seeking counsel, participating in the cycle of worship and partaking of their spirit so that we too may strengthen and preserve our faith on the wings of prayer and fasting.
To summarize, we must face the current trials and tribulations and the looming persecution and soft totalitarianism with the same attitude and spiritual strength with which the early Church in Jerusalem faced its many trials. We must have the courage to speak the truth to a deluded world, no matter the cost. We must pray, especially in the context of our divine services, for our clergy to spread and defend the faith with zeal. We must turn to humble and fervent prayer when faced with a crisis. We must always be honest and truthful with each other and love one another. Our clergy must act with immediacy to expel any internal threat to the faith and we too must be zealous to confront innovations and heresies. We must rejoice when we are counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Christ even in the face of the ridicule and hostility of the world around us. We must pray for our enemies. We must study and know the Holy Scriptures, which are words of Life. We must love each other and hold unity in the Truth above all else. We must know the definitions of our faith produced by the Ecumenical Synods. We must recognize the historic persecution of the Church over centuries by Islam and militant Papism and their continued impact upon the life of the Church to this day. We must seek to live prayerfully and with watchfulness, guided in these by the counsel of wise monastics. And, finally, we must take consolation in the truth that Christ is in our midst and ever shall be.
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