Islam #88

Smoky Mountain Bible Institute

(Est. 2009) Lesson #88

            It would be helpful at this point in our walk-through world History to look at a brief summary of the history of Islam. Islam is the religion of Muslims; the word means follower of Islam. Currently close to 22% of the world’s population are Muslims around 1.6 billion people claim to follow Islam.

            Muhammad is believed to have been born in 570 and was orphaned at the age of 5 he was raised by his grandfather for a few years then an uncle. He then became a merchant, married a wealthy widow and had about 6 children. It was in 610 that he claims to have had his vison from the angel Gabriel after some time of fasting and meditation in a cave outside the town of Mecca. From 613 to 622 he developed a small group of followers but they were not received well in Mecca so they moved to Yatrib later called Medina. For the next few years his power and influence grew to the point that the people of Mecca noticed. This led to a few battles which led to a treaty that the Meccans broke in a year but they were later conquered in a bloodless coup. In a few years, Mohammad and the Muslims had united most of the Arabian Peninsula.

            Unlike most other world religions which at some level separate religious and civil matters, causing the church and the state to struggle for power and influence throughout history. From the beginning this relatively young 1400 year old religion was both a religious and a civil system. This can be seen in what is called Sharia law which is the legal system that developed within Islam. This can also be seen in tracking the history of Muslim kingdoms and empires known as Caliphates. The first began after Mohammad’s death in 632 the  Rashidun Caliphate (632-661), The Umayyad Caliphate (661-750), the Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258) The Fatimid Caliphate (909-1171), The Ayyubid dynasty (1171-1260), The Mamluk Caliphate (1250–1517), The Ottoman Caliphate (1299 –1923). The maxim extent of these empires covered north Africa, most of Spain, as far east as India and north into Turkey and Pakistan. Many western lands were also controlled on and off by the Muslim kingdoms. The reason there are overlapping dates is because these Caliphates, Kingdoms and dynasties ruled different areas over different times and often were at odds with each other. The only thing they always seem to  unite around and work together in were struggles against the west. We see this play out in the 9 crusades which we will discuss in another lesson.

            Unlike divisions between Christians, Jews and the things that separate most of the eastern mystic religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism, the things that separate Muslim groups is not mainly doctrinal. The doctrine of most Muslims is very much the same, 5 pillars;  1. Declaration of Faith 2. Obligatory Prayer 3. Compulsory Alms, 2.5% 4. Fasting in the month of Ramadan 5. Pilgrimage to Mecca. No pork, and many of the cultural norms are the same as well. There are some doctrinal differences but none are sufficient to cause any real division. 

What separates these groups is Central Authority….who is in charge? The 1.6 billion Muslims fall into 3 groups 1. Sunni 1.2 billion 85-90% of all Muslims for them the authority is with the Caliphate seen as a successor to the prophet. This position has been empty sense 1920 until ISIS claimed to fill it and started trying to conquer the world. 2. Shia 150 to 200 Million 10-12% of Muslims for them authority is with the Imamate; a religious body headed by the Imam – He must be a descendant of Mohammad, chosen by God and sinless. The remaining 5 to 8% are 3. Ibadi Primarily in Oman Iraq started in the 8^th century and teaches that Islam needs no earthly leader. There are other strains of Islam but most function within the three above or are very small sects relatively speaking; Sufism, Quranism, Ahmadiyya (founded in British India in the late 1800’s) Black Muslim movements such as the Nation of Islam run by Louis Farrakhan sense 1981 and there are even Muslims who identify as Nondenominational.                              

Till next month

In Christ Pastor Portier  

#87 The 7 Ecumenical Councils

Smoky Mountain Bible Institute

(Est. 2009) Lesson #87

       The word ‘ecumenical’ means worldwide or general in extent, influence, or application.  So, as we reference the 7 Ecumenical Councils from 325 to 787, what is an Ecumenical Church council?  A Church Ecumenical council is a council with representation from the whole body of churches across the world. If you remember, until the east and west split on a few theological issues, there was only one universal Catholic (Christian) church. Let’s get to the councils, first these are not meetings of a few church leaders for a few days to do a ‘little church business’.  Business was not really done democratically at that time.  Councils were often preceded by much conversation and multiple small councils about some issue of doctrine or practice that needed attention. The Ecumenical council would then come together and hash out what God’s word had to say on the topic and seek to communicate clearly to the universal church what the biblical position of the church was on the topic or topics. These gatherings could take weeks or months and sometimes even years. So take out the idea of quorums and votes and think of lots of bishops, pastors and other church leaders coming together in order to reach consensus on issues of faith. In order to get all seven into this article I will limit commentary to Dates, Locations and Major Topics addressed.

-        The Council at Nicaea 325, The remains of ancient Nicaea are located in modern day Iznic in North western Turkey. The major issue they dealt with was Arianism, the belief that Jesus is a created being with a beginning. This leads to the development of the Nicaean creed minus the “and the Son” phrase which begins to appear in Western practice around 410.

-        The Council at Constantinople I 381, The current location is called Istanbul. Arianism is again condemned and so is a heresy called Apollinarism.

-        The Council at Ephesus Jun – Aug of 431, The current location is still called Ephesus just south of Izmir western Turkey. Pelagianism and Nestorianism are condemned.

-        The Council at Chalcedon Oct 8-31 of 451, Was the ancient town of Bithynia and is now a district in the city of Istanbul. Monothelitism is condemned.

-        The Council at Constantinople II May – Jul of  553, From this point forward councils become a bit more political and signs of division between east and west are starting to emerge. This is further solidified when the synod of Toledo in Spain officially accepts the “filioque” “and the Son” phrase in the Nicaean creed in 589. This also affirmed the teaching that Mary can be rightly called “Theotokos” (Greek for Mother of God).

-        The Council at Constantinople III Nov 7 of 680 to Sep 16 of 681, Luther had issues with many of the conclusions of the last three councils.

-        The Council at Nicaea II 787, The Iconoclastic controversy was the main doctrinal issue addressed by this council.

These are the seven historic councils accepted but most of modern trinitarian Christianity. All of the conclusions and decisions made by these councils are not fully recognized by all Christians however most of world Christianity does hold that the conclusions of the first four councils are in keeping with scripture.

The first Crusade was in 1096 -1097 but before we discuss the Crusades we will need to address a brief history of Islam and have a brief discussion of the division between Eastern and Western Christianity.

Till next month

In Christ Pastor Portier 

           

            

Post Nicene Fathers SMBI # 86

Smoky Mountain Bible Institute

(Est. 2009) Lesson #86

            As I mentioned last month, throughout history the church has taken the best works of all the church fathers and used them to better teach and project the faith into the world around them.  Much of what they wrote still guides us today. Over time the church continues to add the best of each past Christian generation to its vast written and musical data base to teach the faith in worship, word and sacrament in multiple cultures and languages.           

            As we enter a discussion on the Post Nicene Fathers, it would be helpful to have a little information on the relationship between the Eastern and Western parts of civilization and the church at the time. There were multiple kingdoms because the Roman empire was divided from 286 to 337 and again for the last time in 364. The western half of the Roman empire collapsed in 476, while the Eastern half, also known as the Byzantine empire, didn’t fall until 1453. Primarily due to the geography of the kingdoms, the church fathers of the time  are called East and West. The Christian church functioned as one Holy Catholic (universal Christian) Apostolic Church in those multiple kingdoms at first, but during the time of the seven Ecumenical councils, 325 to 787, there started to be small differences in how the faith was believed and taught and confessed in the regions. This became even more pronounced with the Post Nicene Fathers, discussed here in two groups, the East and the West.

East

John Chrysostom (374-407) made bishop of Constantinople in 398, Gregory of Nazianzus (330-390) Gregory of Nyssa (330-394) & his brother Basil (329-379). The two Gregory’s were instrumental in clarifying Trinitarian doctrine and Basil (with a short ‘a’ sound not a long one like the herb) wrote one of the first sets of monastic rules in 370. Cyril of Alexandria (376-444) helped the church come to grips with a number of Christological controversies.

West

Ambrose (340-397) Bishop of Milan, wrote “Savior of the Nations Come” a favorite Advent hymn (LSB 332). Ambrose is also a great example of speaking the truth to power; he stood with his congregation, barricaded in the church at Milan, rather than hand it over to the emperor. He also excommunicated Emperor Theodosius (379-395) for a massacre of 7000 people in Thessalonica, readmitting him after he repented. Jerome (345-420) was the primary translator of the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into Latin, known as the Vulgate (382-405) Agustine (354-430) Bishop of Hippo (Algeria) published “City of God” in 427. He is also gets credit for our current numbering system of the 10 commandments.

            There are many other early church fathers who also provided the church with a wealth of valuable writings and insights into the Christian faith. Some other key dates during the 4^th and 5^th centuries are: 311 the Edict of Milan recognizes and tolerates Christianity; 330 Constantinople becomes the capital of the East; 367 in an Easter letter, Athanasius lists the 27 books of the New Testament Canon; 380 in the Edict of Thessalonica, Christianity becomes the state religion of the Roman Empire; 410 Alaric the Goth sacks Rome; and in 451 Attila the Hun attacks Italy. In the latter half of the 5^th century the “Goths & Vandals” Germanic tribes of the north, have started expanding their territories to the south and that leads to the sack of Rome in 455 and the fall of the western empire in 476. The Vandals (the eastern Germanic tribes) began a persecution of Christians in 478.

            Next month we will spend some time discussing those 7 Ecumenical councils from 325 to 787.

         

Till next month Pastor Portier                         

SMBI #85 Early Church Fathers

Smoky Mountain Bible Institute

(Est. 2009) Lesson #85

            It has been a few months since we departed from our time line but we return. We are at around 180 AD. The first 400 years of Christianity show both growth and persecution. After centuries of strife and struggle eventually the Gospel message goes from being the faith of persecuted minorities to a faith that spans the Roman Empire and eventually becomes the faith of the emperor and all respectable citizens. That actually presents the church with a new and different set of problems.

            It may be helpful to cover early church history from the perspective of early church leaders called ‘Fathers’. For the sake of our discussion we will break the ‘Fathers’ into five groups and address each group separately, including notable historic facts associated with each of them or their group. This list is by no means exhaustive but instead is an overview.

Apostolic Fathers: called this because they learned directly from Jesus’ apostles. Polycarp (69-155) Bishop of Smyrna in Turkey and student of the apostle John. Ignatius (35-117) Bishop of Antioch. Clement (30-100) of Rome, said to have been consecrated by Saint Peter and listed as the 4^th of Rome’s 266 Popes.

Early Apologist: Justin Martyr (100-165) Known for his theological writings, most of which are lost but his works titled “First Apology”, Second Apology”, “Dialogue with trypho” and fragments of the work “On the Resurrection” are available to this day. Tertullian (155-240) 31 of his works are still available today and cover many areas of the Christian faith.

The following were church fathers who, through their leadership and writings, contributed to the organizing and clarifying of what the universal Christian church believed, taught and practiced in accord with God’s word.    

Early Fathers Origen (185-254), Sextus Julius Africanis (160-240) known as the father of Christian chorography, Irenaeus (130-202) Bishop of Lyons.

Nicene Fathers Called that because they lived during the council of Nicea (325) the council in which the church adopted the Nicene Creed.  Athanasius (296-373) Bishop of Alexandra Egypt, the man for whom the Athanasian Creed (later in the 4^th or 5^th century) is named because of his stand against the Arian heresy (which, in its modern form, is Jehovah Witnesses), Eusebius (263-339) a bishop and historian, wrote his famous church history in 303.  Lactantius (c240-c325) Christian writer who became an advisor to Emperor Constantine.   Hilary (c291-c371) Bishop of Poitiers and a Doctor of the Church. He was sometimes referred to as the "Hammer of the Arians".

            Throughout history the church took the best works of all these Fathers and used them to better teach and project the faith into the world around them, and much of what they wrote we still us to guide us today. 

            Some other key events during this window of time would be the Edict of Tolerance for Christians in 260 by Emperor Valerian. Arius and the Arian heresy condemned at Alexandria in 318, debated and finalized at the Council of Nicea in 325. We will look at group five, the Post Nicene Fathers, in our next lesson.  

Till next month Pastor Portier                         

SMBI #84

Smoky Mountain Bible Institute

(Est. 2009) Lesson #84

Let’s continue our discussion of how we got the bible this month. Some early historical witnesses and early church witnesses. Irenaeus of Lyons is a man studied under Polycarp who was martyred in 155 AD, and it is traditionally held that Polycarp was a student of the Apostle John. So, Irenaeus was only one generation from the original writers of Scripture.  This makes him a very reliable witness.  Irenaeus is one of the earliest and greatest defenders of Scripture’s divine inspiration.  In his writings from around 180 AD, he quoted over 1000 scripture passages from all but 5 books of the New Testament. Irenaeus called them “the Scriptures” given by the Holy Spirit.  Similar claims of divine inspiration can be cited in the 3^rd century by the early church fathers, Clement and Origin of Alexandria.  They too cite Scripture as a fixed number of writings with divine authorship. Origin is the first to mention all 27 books of the NT in 240 AD. Let’s look at one more church father—Athanasius of Alexandria. He too cites 27 NT books in 367 AD, and he wrote the following words: “These are the fountains of salvation, that whoever thirsts, may be satisfied by the eloquence which is in them.  In them alone is set forth the doctrine of piety. Let no one add to them nor take anything from them.” You may think these witnesses are biased and they probably were, but their bias does not invalidate their witness.  Their credibility is not historically in question, so their witness is of great value.

            We also have the Jewish historian Josephus who is accepted world-wide as one of history’s earliest historians.  He refers to sacred scriptures divided into three parts: the five books of the Torah; thirteen books of the Nevi'im, and four other books of hymns and wisdom. Since there are 24 books in the current Jewish canon instead of the 22 mentioned by Josephus, some scholars have suggested that he considered Ruth part of Judges, and Lamentations part of Jeremiah. “The Jewish Canon has only 24 books because of the combination of books like Kings & Chronicles their 24 contain the same information as our 39.  So let’s see what he had to say about our Old Testament.  In about 90 AD, Josephus wrote the following words: “for we have not an innumerable multitude of books among us, disagreeing from and contradicting one another [as the Greeks have] but only twenty-two books, which contain all the records of all the past times, and which are justly believed to be divine.” 

Till next month Pastor Portier                         

SMBI #83

Smoky Mountain Bible Institute

(Est. 2009) Lesson #83

So let’s do a brief discussion of how we got what we today call the bible. Discussing what we know as the 66 books of the bible and how they came together in the first three centuries of Christianity. Much of this was covered way back in lessons 3 and 4 but it is appropriate to review that here as we addressed that over 7 years ago.

            First let’s look at the Old Testament (OT).  39 books written between 1446 BC to around 433 BC.  It constitutes the solid foundation upon which the New Testament stands, and points to Christ in its entirety.  All Hebrew scholarship is in agreement as to what constitutes the TANAK, The Torah or (Law); Genesis, through Deuteronomy, Neviim or (Prophets); Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the 12 minor prophets, The Kethubim (writings); Psalms Proverbs, Job, Ruth, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Ester, Daniel, Ezra & Nehemiah, Chronicles.  This Old Testament Canon has been accepted as the divine Word of God by His people for almost 2500 years.  And since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, we have copies of OT text that range in age from 2100 to 2300 years old with the exception of the book of Esther the oldest copy being just over 1000 years old. 

            Trinitarian Christianity and all of biblical scholarship find full agreement on the 27 books that constitute the New Testament, written between 45 and 95 AD.  The earliest list is the Muratorian Canon from 150 AD listing 24 books.  Origen of Alexandria listed all 27 in 240 AD, and by 397 AD Eusebius, Athanasius, and the Council of Carthage had all listed the 27 books we call the New Testament.

            Now you might ask: Why did it take them so long, some 150 to 300 years to identify these 27 books?  Well, that would be a very good question and here are some very good answers.

            - Over half of the NT is letters that were spread all over the Roman Empire, The Gospels were also spread throughout the early church.  These obviously took time to be brought together and for their authorship to be verified.

            - The “technology” of the day was not conducive to large collections of books: scrolls which can only hold one or two books.  Scrolls were replaced by what is called a Codex or “books with pages” and these did not start being produced until the second and third centuries.

            - The first century Christians probably did not see the need for a collection of books because they thought Christ’s return would be very soon, but “soon” for us and “soon” for our eternal God are very different.

            - Heretical writings existed, like the Gnostic gospels, and other “pseudepigraphal” books—spurious writings falsely attributed to biblical characters or times.  These texts were written between 200 BC--200 AD and were easily identified by the early church as fraudulent because of their clear contradiction to the rest of the canon.  But excluding these fraudulent works also took time.

            Now many say that centuries of copying to replace old worn-out text would introduce many errors.  Well, let’s look at all the errors introduced into the book of Isaiah between the Dead Sea Scroll copy (from about 100 BC) and the earliest copy we had available (before the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered) known as Codex Leningradensis (1000 AD).  The differences between these two texts over that 1100 year period, can be described as changes in the style that a particular letter is written, changes in the way words are spelled, changes in the way sentences are constructed, changes in prefixes or suffixes.  It seems that over time as the language changed, but God’s word grew to communicate the same truth. So, while grammar and spelling have changed, God’s word has not. 

Till next month In Christ Pastor Portier

Smoky Mountain Bible Institute

(Est. 2009) Lesson #82

Last time we ended at around 180 AD and I said we would make our way up to around 300 AD. Discussing how what we know as the 66 books of the bible how they came together in the first three centuries of Christianity. However, one of your classmates asked a question about the iron age and I remember discussing that topic a few years back so for the sake of time and space we will come back to our time line next year and for now I will re-present to you lesson # 43 from march of 2013 in answer to that question.

To give a thorough treatment of history, we must have a brief discussion of prehistory.  I say brief because as a “young earth” creationist, I believe most, if not all, topics of discussion in the bulk of scientific study that would fall under the umbrella of prehistory to be incorrectly dated.  However, just because I disagree with most experts on the timing of prehistoric research, does not mean there is not a lot of valuable information to be drawn from that research. So, what we will do in this lesson is see how a young earth creationist can piece together all the great information in the prehistoric realm of study (what is popularly held to be a period from 3.5 million years ago to around 5000 BC when ancient recorded history began), and logically plug that information into the biblical timeline that starts around 4000 BC.  I would like to suggest that all that is called prehistory can fit logically into a timeline that starts around 4000 BC and ends around 1500 BC.  This proposal will seem ridiculous to some, but in prehistory, all timeline assertions are based for the most part on Carbon 14 dating and other assumptions.  I addressed these false assumptions in lessons #21 and #22.  To do this, we must first discuss the commonly held timeline for prehistory, and then discuss how that can be applied to a biblical timeline.

            Prehistory forms the popularly held three-age world view:  Stone age 3.5 million to 4500 BC, Bronze age 3750 BC to 300 BC, and Iron age 1300 BC to 400 AD.  You will notice some peculiar things about my summary of ages here. First, there are some major overlaps and second, this goes deep into the time of recorded history. This is because I have summarized the entire world’s progression through these ages.  Different regions of the world entered and exited these ages at different times.  What I have listed here is the earliest entry into an age followed by the latest exit from that age.  These ages are determined by when these regions progressed through these technologies (stone, bronze, iron) be it through conquest, commerce, or ingenuity. Prehistory also starts at different times in different places based on the development of written languages which is popularly held to be between 3500 BC and 2500 BC. Ancient history is typically defined as around 3300 BC to 600 AD. To finish things out, the Middle ages is popularly defined as 300 AD to 1500 AD with the Renaissance starting around 1350 AD, and the modern period beginning as early as 1450 AD. Again, you will see overlaps due to different regions entering and exiting these ages at different times. As you can see in a discussion of world history, a simple question of where to begin can be a bit complicated.

            I propose that all the prehistoric scientific dates listed above are simply misdated and can logically be placed in a biblical prehistoric time of 4000 BC to 1500 BC. During this biblical period of prehistory, the world was created around 4000 BC, plus or minus no more than 50 years.  The world was populated to about 25 billion in the first 1650 years. Then the world was destroyed in a flood around 2350 BC reducing the population to 8 and covering the earth with a large fossil layer and causing what remained of pre-flood civilization to be hard to date and analyze because of the vast geographic and geological changes that took place. In the 700 years that followed the flood, large ice caps formed and receded (see lesson #35).

            From a biblical perspective, the oldest written words are found in the book of Job from around 2000 BC. The next books in line are the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible written by Moses from 1446 BC to 1406 BC during the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.  While we can have an intelligent debate on when history began, you would be hard pressed to find any written historical accounts that talk about events that predate 4000 BC because they do not exist.  This means that all discussion of prehistory must depend on areas of research outside the realm of written history.  When it comes to written history, the most dependable is the written account of a firsthand witness. What we have in Genesis, chapters 1 through 11, is the first-hand account of the Creator given directly to Moses for him to record in the Hebrew language some 3400 years ago. So, there is a basic representation of Lesson #43 and next month we will resume our time line walk and probubly end up at around 300 AD. And a brief discussion on the canonization of scripture. Full plate for January.

Till next month Pastor Portier