June. Remembering Tertullian.

June.  Remembering Tertullian.

http://www.tertullian.org/ .  This resource looks very rich, although we have not had a chance to dig around.  Here’s an introductory article.

No author. “The `Noddy’ Guide to Tertullian.”  The Tertullian Project. N.d. http://www.tertullian.org/readfirst.htm. Accessed 3 May 2014.

The 'Noddy' guide to Tertullian

Tertullian lived in the ancient city of Carthage in what is now Tunisia, sometime around 200AD. Very little is known about his life - that little comes either from writers two centuries later¹, or from the scanty personal notes in his works². Much of it has been asserted to be untrue anyway by some modern writers ³.

He was born a member of the educated classes, and clearly gained a good education. Life in his times wasn't very different in some ways to the modern day - he indulged his passions as he saw fit, including sex, and like everyone else attended the games where gladiators killed each other and criminals were eaten alive, for the enjoyment of the spectators².

But among the sights he saw, was that of Christians being executed this way. He was struck with the courage with which stupid and contemptible slave men and little slave girls faced a hideous death, against all nature; and after investigating, became a Christian himself, and turned his budding talents to writing in defense of this despised and victimised group⁴.

Tertullian was the first Christian writer to write in Latin ⁵, and was described three centuries later as writing 'first, and best, and incomparably', of all the writers to do so. (by the unknown author of 'Praedestinatus'). His writing is aggressive, sarcastic and brilliant⁶, and at points very funny even after 2000 years⁷. He was deeply conscious of his own failings⁸, and had a burning desire for truth and integrity⁹. He was described by Jerome as celebrated in all the churches as a speaker¹⁰; and his works bear the marks of the need to keep an audience awake!¹¹ His erudition was immense. Much of what he read is lost, but what remains gives a picture of wide reading¹², which was celebrated even in antiquity^12a.

He wrote a great number of works - how many is unknown. Thirty-one are extant; lists of known lost works are elsewhere on this site; but we have no reason to suppose this to be anything like an exhaustive list. Most of those extant have come down to us by the slenderest of threads, and the very nature of Tertullian's terse and ironic style, means that copyists made many errors, and in some cases his text is beyond certain restoration. Not all of his works were ever completed¹³.

His most important work is the Apologeticum, in defense of the Christians. Running it close must be Adversus Praxean, in which the doctrine of the Trinity comes into clear focus for the first time, in response to a heretic who was twisting the biblical balance between the persons of the Godhead. In this work, he created most of the terminology with which this doctrine was to be referred (and is still), such as Trinitas, etc¹⁴.  His discussion of how heretical arguments are in general to be handled in De praescriptio haereticorum also deserves wider recognition.

Tertullian wrote no systematic theology; all of his works are brought forth by a local event, a persecution, or a heretic.

In his time, the church finally decided to reject a movement calling itself 'The New Prophecy', and known later as Montanism¹⁵. The New Prophecy made no doctrinal innovations¹⁶, but said that the Holy Spirit was calling Christians to a more ascetic position. But obeying the prophets inevitably meant a problem, if the bishop did not recognise their authority.

Tertullian had grown angry at what looked like compromise creeping into the church - unwillingness to be martyred, willingness to forgive more serious public sins¹⁷ - and aligned himself with the Montanists. It is unclear whether this involved actually leaving the church ^17a, but his later works are avowedly Montanist, and one or two explictly attack the mainstream church on these points. As such he was not recognised as a Saint, despite his orthodoxy, and his works were all marked as condemned in the 6th Century Decretum Gelasianum.

His later life is unknown, and we do not know if he was martyred or died of old age as Jerome says¹⁸.

Churchmen have not liked him - he is not easy reading for those who prefer compromise and ambiguity to truth, and of ecclesiasticism there is no trace in his works¹⁹. The rhetoric that impressed his contemporaries has been often laid hold of and twisted in misquotations by enemies of the Church²⁰. He is often misquoted²¹ - and as a subtle and ironical writer, is easy to misquote.

He has been called the first Protestant, as the first Christian writer of impeccable orthodoxy to enunciate the unpalatable truth, that the church was not a conclave of bishops, but the people of the Holy Spirit²².

But his legacy was the very shape of Latin Christianity ²³. St Cyprian never went a day without reading him, and called him 'the master'²⁴. He gave Christians the means with which to meet paganism on its own ground and defeat it²⁵. And whenever the errors against which he wrote resurface, as they do from time to time, what Tertullian had to say about them will again be readable; who wrote 'first and best and incomparably' ²⁶ against them.

References

For all works cited, look at the bibliography for a full reference.

1. See St. Jerome's biography.
2. He was brought up a pagan (De paenitentia 1.1), had a relative who turned a philosophical dialogue (the Pinax attributed to Cebes, the friend of Socrates) into a cento of Virgilian verse (De praescriptio haereticorum 39.4), knew the rhetorical schools and could quote the peroration of a popular rhetor, named Phosphorus (Adversus Valentinianos 8.3), delighted in adultery (De resurrectione mortuorum 59.3), and he married a Christian girl after conversion (De uxorem). His movement towards Montanism is attested by notes referring to them (e.g. Adversus Praxean 1) and is discussed by Barnes.
3. Notably T.D.Barnes in his revisionist study. See bibliography.
4. No-one actually knows why or how this bright young pagan came to Christ, as Barnes has pointed out. However many writers (including Bardenhewer, Quasten) have seen Tertullian's description of how the sight of Christians in the arena affects the pagan in the Apologeticum as autobiographical. It is certainly true that Tertullian returned to the theme that the true note of a Christian is the willingness to face martyrdom (De corona, De fuga in persecutione).
5. See Quasten, II. Of course there are earlier scraps of work - the Acts of the Scillitan Martyrs - but these are anonymous. See also Vincent of Lerins in 434AD, Commonitorium, 17, where he describes Tertullian as 'first of us among the Latins' (Quasten IV, p.549).
6. General agreement among writers both ancient and modern that have been cited so far on this one.
7. For an example that appeals to me, see Apologeticum 40: "If the Tiber rises so high it floods the walls, or the Nile so low it doesn't flood the fields, if the earth opens, or the heavens don't, if there is famine, if there is plague, instantly the howl goes up, "The Christians to the lion!" What, all of them? to a single lion?"
8. See the end of De Baptismo, where he asks the newly baptised to pray for "Tertullian, a sinner". Or the introduction to De Patientia, where he describes himself, "always burning with the fires of impatience".
9. The word veritas (truth) is used 162 times in one of his works (Quasten, vol 2, p.247).
10. See Jerome's version of Eusebius' Chronicle, entry for 208AD, here (from Barnes).
11. In my opinion, anyway.
12. See Barnes, p196, for an assessment. See also p.332 of the postscript in the 2nd edition, for a qualification, that Tertullian may have depended more on encyclopedias than he had at first thought. But see also F.G.Kenyon, Books and Readers, p36, for a different view on the need to use compendia of knowledge - cheap papyrus books mean that at that period, there is no real need to suppose the unavailability of the actual texts quoted.
12a.Vincent of Lerins in 434AD, Commonitorium, 17
13. Lists of works are derived from Quasten, and Barnes. Text problems are likewise discussed by both, and in the introductions of the critical editions. For an example of the problems, see T.R.Glover on the Apologeticum, p.xxii ff. For the unfinished nature of Adversus Judaeos and De cultu feminarum I, see Barnes, .
14. For Trinitas, see Quasten, vol 2, p286, who gives ch.2 of Adversus Praxean as the first use of Trinitas as a technical term by a Latin writer.
15. For Montanism, see the references to Eusebius and Epiphanius on my Montanism page. It's a large issue, and only peripheral to Tertullian, so I've not listed much on this. Barnes gives some references, p130ff.
16. According to Tertullian, in the fragment of his lost work De ecstasi quoted by the author of Praedestinatus.
17. De fuga in persecutione, De pudicitia.
17a. The earliest statements in favour of the argument that he did leave are by Jerome and Augustine.  But there are some scholars who do not accept that they had any special knowledge.  It is therefore argued that in view of the way that the early church venerated North African 'Montanists' like St.Perpetua, and the use of Tertullian by St. Cyprian, that he must in fact have never been condemned, or done more than take part in a para-church grouping of those influenced by Montanism.  See Tabbernee, Montanist Inscriptions, pt II for this, and references to other scholars.  In fact this view seems to have become orthodoxy in anglophone circles.  The original article was Douglas Powell, Tertullianists and Cataphrygians (1975).  I understand the issue is discussed in David Rankin, Tertullian and the Church, (Cambridge University Press 1995),xvii+229 pp, 35, on p.27 with full bibliography, but I haven't seen this.
18. Jerome says he lived to an advanced old age, Barnes suggests we do not know this is true, and since his last known works place him about the age of 40, for all we know he may have been martyred (p.59).
19. T.R.Glover, Apologeticum, ix.
20. T.R.Glover, Apologeticum, x-xi, for examples of Gibbon and Matthew Arnold doing just that.
21. See Bartlett's quotations, for both the erroneous and correct versions of De carne Christi 5: "It is certain because it is impossible." NB: Certum est, quia impossibile est. This is usually misquoted, "Credo quia impossibile" (I believe it because it is impossible).
22. Barnes, p84, quoting De pudicitia 21.17.
23. He has been called the Father of Latin Christianity, but I don't have a reference for this. The introductions to Quasten, Souter's editions of Adversus Praxean, Bardenhewer, make his position in Latin Christianity clear.
24. According to Jerome (see above).
25. Barnes, p101-2.
26. Praedestinatus I, 26.

(Mr. Andy Underhile): Church Fathers on Depravity

By Mr. Andy Underhile

Church Fathers on Depravity

If you’ve ever entertained the notion that the freedom of the will is something that has been monolithically believed by the Church, then perhaps the contents of this short post will help unburden you of that mistake.


 One does not need to study the Fathers very long to read their declarations on human sinfulness. Paul’s disciple and traveling companion, Clement of Rome, writes, “Let us turn to every age that has passed, and learn that, from generation to generation, the Lord has granted a place of repentance to all such as would be converted unto Him.” (1) And again he says, “And we, too, being called by His will in Christ Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, nor by our own wisdom, or understanding, or godliness, or works which we have wrought in holiness of heart; but by that faith through which, from the beginning, Almighty God has justified all men…” (2) God must grant repentance, because fallen man is so lost he would never seek it on his own. God does not merely grant forgiveness, but the desire for repentance itself. Paul says, “It is God who works in you both to will and to do” (Phil. 2:13). And notice also that Clement affirms that our calling is made effectual by God’s will.
 

“They who are carnal cannot do spiritual things… unbelief (is incapable of) the deeds of faith.” (3) This is the pronouncement of Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp’s fellow disciple of the Apostle John. Those who are in the state of unbelief cannot repent and believe unless it be granted from above. Faith and repentance are spiritual acts. Those who are in the flesh cannot perform spiritual acts.

In the anonymous Epistle to Diognetus, we read, “having made it manifest that in ourselves we were unable to enter into the kingdom of God, we might through the power of God be made able…Having therefore convinced us in the former time that our nature was unable to attain to life.” (4) The author of this short work clearly affirms that it is only through the power of God that we can attain to life. This is nothing in our nature that can avail.

Irenaeus writes, “For the Lord taught us that no man is capable of knowing God, unless he be taught of God; that is, that God cannot be known without God.” (5) This refers to more than special revelation. Irenaeus means to say that a saving knowledge of God must begin on God’s part. We cannot begin the process.

Explaining how our corruption is such that we must be rendered spiritual by God Himself, Irenaeus attests, “But we do now receive a certain portion of His Spirit, tending towards perfection, and preparing us for incorruption, being little by little accustomed to receive and bear God… This earnest, therefore, thus dwelling in us, renders us spiritual even now.”(6)

 

The great Carthaginian theologian Tertullian quite aptly remarks, “To begin with the passage where He says that He is come to ‘to seek and to save that which is lost.’ What do you suppose that to be which is lost? Man, undoubtedly. The entire man, or only a part of him? The whole man, of course. In fact, since the transgression which caused man's ruin was committed quite as much by the instigation of the soul from concupiscence as by the action of the flesh from actual fruition, it has marked the entire man with the sentence of transgression, and has therefore made him deservedly amenable to perdition.”(7)
 

For the rest, see:

http://andycontramundum.blogspot.com/2010/04/church-fathers-on-depravity.html

The First Theologians: Irenaeus and Tertullian

Mr. (Rev. Dr. Prof.) Justo Gonzalez and the Second Century A.D.

Gonzalez, Justo. The Story of Christianity, Vol.1. NY: Harper Collins, 2010. 

It is available at: http://www.amazon.com/The-Story-Christianity-Vol-Reformation/dp/006185588X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377551282&sr=8-1&keywords=justo+gonzalez

Mr. (Dr. Prof.) Gonzalez summarizes the second century along five lines. And he maddeningly does not document his claims extensively, even unacceptably. This might work for an undergraduate text, perhaps. But, we are not convinced it is suitable for serious graduate work.  In fact, quite unacceptable in terms of footnotes and documentation. But, here are his five points on the Second Century A.D. along with a few interpolated musings.

  Chapter 6: Persecution in the Second Century

• Correspondence between Pliny and Trajan,
• Ignatius of Antioch (the God-bearer),
• Martyrdom of Polycarp,
• Persecution under Marcus Aurelius,
• Toward the End of the Second Century

Pliny had a “profound respect for Roman law and traditions,” but Christianity was a problem. The pagan temples were being abandoned, the pagan deities eschewed, a theological paradigm or shift was at hand, and the sellers of animals and temple accoutrements were unpleased. Christians were brought before him.

Pliny’s normative practice was to give the “Confessing Churchman” or “Confessing Churchwoman” (Confessionalists) three chances to recant. If not, he sentenced them to death. If they were Roman citizens, they were sent to Rome for adjudication in accordance with Roman law. It was less about theology and more “about obstinacy” Mr. Gonzalez claims (48).

Pliny had heard that the Christians met together, sung a hymn to Christ “as to a god,” and took moral oaths to avoid adultery, theft and more. The Christians also held a “common meal.”

Pliny wrote Emperor Trajan for counsel. The Emperor’s response was two-fold: (1) do not expend imperial or provincial resources seeking out the Christian and (2) if Christians were brought to court, they should be tried and punished accordingly.

Apparently, this policy had effect more widely beyond Pliny’s province and beyond his time frame. Mr. Gonzalez makes a good point here. Tertullian addresses this later (later than Pliny, Trajan, Justin Martyr, Ignatius and Polycarp).

Tertullian, a lawyer, querulously pierced the legal fallacy of Trajanism:

"What a necessarily confused sentence! It refuses to seek them out, as if they were innocent, and orders that they be punished as if they were guilty. It pardons, yet is cruel. It ignores, yet it punishes. Why do you circumvent your own censure? If you condemn, why do you not inquire? And, if do not inquire, why do you not absolve?"

Whatever Tertullian’s game was (point-scoring), Trajan’s policy was more practical and political.

Yet Mr. Gonzalez urges, unconvincingly, it was about the “dignity of the Roman courts” and avoiding “contempt of the Roman courts” (51). The policy was two-fold: don’t seek out prosecutions of Christians but if they end up in court, proceed and follow-through.

After discussing Emperor Trajan and Pliny, Mr. Gonzalez turns his attention to Ignatius, the “Bearer of God” as he called himself. Ignatius was a second generation Christian it might be argued. He was a bishop of Antioch. He was born c. 30-35 A.D. He knew John the Apostle.

In 107 A.D., Ignatius was arrested, imprisoned and forwarded for further transfer to Rome. He was guarded en route and had an attending amanuensis, but was allowed to have visitors. This indicates, as Mr. Gonzalez argues, that there was not a general persecution or a mass round-up of “Confessors.” He wrote 7 letters during his travels to Rome.

The evidence of no mass round-up. He received a bishop, 2 elders, and a deacon from Magnesia. He received Bishop Polybius from Tralles. He received Bishop Onesimus from Ephesus (perhaps the Onesimus of Paul’s correspondence). He wrotes letters from Smyrna.

At Troas, he wrote 3 letters. 1 to Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, 1 to Smyrneans, and 1 to the Philadelphia church (52).

Ignatius died in Rome; we are not pleased with Mr. Gonzalez's summary here; but, we need to continue the evaluation of this volume. The discussion shifts to Polycarp.

The Martyrdom of Polycarp

Polycarp was the younger friend and colleague of Ignatius. He will die in 155 A.D. (54).

Trajan’s policy still had force. But Germanicus, an elderly Christian, came to trial. A mob got whipped up and called, “Death to the atheists! Bring Polycarp!” Polycarp went into hiding, but soon eschewed that and exposed himself to imperial judgment.

Brought before the proconsul, Polycarp was directed to “worship the Emperor” (54). He refused. The Judge decreed, “Out with the atheists!” Polycarp responded to the gathered crowd, “Yes, away with the atheists!”

The Judge offered him a plea-arrangement: "...swear by the Emperor and curse Christ." Polycarp offered his infamous rejoinder and refusal:

"For 86 years, I have served Him and He has done me no evil. How could I curse my King who saved me?”

Observe this. There is no Tractarianism in Polycarp’s story: purgatory, treasury of the saints, treasure of merits, invocations of departed saints, Petrine supremacy, mandatory celibacy, Erastianism, Mariology, mitres, chasubles, copes, justification by works-merits or more.

Rather, Polycarp evinces assurance of salvation, strong faith over an entire 86-year life going back to 69 A.D, and an assured claim of Christ as his King. He also was reared from infancy in the faith, a covenantal child.

Persecution under Marcus Aurelius, Emperor from 161 to 180 A.D.

According to Mr. Gonzalez, he was not “enamored with power and vainglory” like Nero or Domitian, but advocated for “perfect and simple dignity” with “freedom, kindness and justice” (55).

On the other hand, he was allegedly superstitious, sought the advice of seers, and offered propitiatory sacrifices to his whatever-deity in the pantheon. He also favored a revival of the old Roman religion. He believed the Christians lacked these fundament virtues because they were “obstinate.”

Felicitas and her 7 sons come to view during Aurelius’s reign. She was devoted to the Church and good works. The Prefect tried to get her to recant by promises followed by threats. She answered: “…while I live, I shall defeat you, and if you kill me, in my death I shall defeat you.” The children stood by their mother’s “Confession of Faith.” One man's claim of obstinacy is a Reformed Churchman's claim of saving faith.

Note her assurance of faith and trust in Christ concerning, inferentially, the intermediate state; she is confident of heaven, not purgatory. Christ alone without invoking saints.

The records were sent to Marcus Aurelius. He ordered their deaths to occur in different parts of Rome. Mr. Gonzalez suggested this was to propitiate and cleanse various sections of the city. On this evidence, we would be inclined to infer "setting examples more widely" as a warning to other Confessionalists.

Justin Martyr also died during Marcus Aurelius’s reign. Apparently, he “bested” a famous pagan philosopher in a debate in Rome. Apparently, or as is frequently asserted, he was of a scholarly cast of mind. He died in Rome, as a result.

Information on Justin's dispatch comes from letters from Lyons and Vienne to churches in Asia Minor and Phrygia (56).

After Marcus Aurelius’s death in 180 A.D., there was a respite until Septimus Severus became the Emperor in 193 A.D.

Mr. Gonzalez’s gives his summary of the last period of the second century:

"During the entire second century, Christians were in a precarious position. They were not constantly persecuted. Sometimes they were persecuted in some areas of the empire, and not in others” (57).

Further, it was not always the “worst” emperor but sometimes the “better emperors” who did the persecuting...who saw Christians as importing a “subversive overtones” warranting suppression as a “matter of policy in defense of the integrity of the state” (58).

Fallout over Koran burning continues in Afghanistan

http://video.foxnews.com/v/1481571168001/fallout-over-koran-burning-continues-in-afghanistan/?playlist_id=87937

Feb 29, 2012. Bret Baier talks to Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Gen. John Allen. 

First, Karzai is demanding U.S. military personnel be tried based on Afghan law.  That will not happen.  Second, why isn't Karzai prosecuting the murderers of four U.S. troops--a COL, MAJ and two enlisted men?  Karzai's "apology" does not cut it.  Third, the General does not say much.  "Morale is good..." he assures us.  As they generally say. 

Rev. Youcef Nadarkhani: A Christian Martyr? If so, One Amongst 1000s

http://video.foxnews.com/v/1474541504001/a-martyr-for-christianity/?playlist_id=87937&intcmp=obinsite


Tertullian famously noted that "the blood of the martyrs' was the seedplot of the Church."  He spoke of the persecutions of Imperial Rome.  One must read Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History or John Foxe's Book of Martyrs.  Queen Mary 1 solidified the Reformation amongst the laity by her burnings of 300 English Reformers.  We hope the current pressures on this totalitarian regime will prevent this Martyrdom of Rev. Yousef Nadarkhani.

Holy Heresy (Pt 1): Andy Underhill

Holy Heresy (Part 1)  by Andy Underhill

Heresy?  What is it?  Schism?  What is that?
Apostasy?  What is that? Declension? What is That?

At first blush, it seems like a strange statement to say that the true Church needs heresy. But history demonstrates the truth of this assertion. The great ante-Nicene African theologian, Tertullian, wrote, “We ought not to be astonished at the heresies (which abound) neither ought their existence to surprise us, for it was foretold that they should come to pass; nor the fact that they subvert the faith of some, for their final cause is, by affording a trial to faith, to give it also the opportunity of being ‘approved’.” 1 This statement is especially poignant when one stops to remember that Tertullian himself fell for Montanism is his later years. St. Paul warned that heresies must occur. He said, “For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.”2

Perhaps at this point we should define heresy. In the earliest uses it meant primarily the work of schismatic or divisive teachers within in the Church. But by the writing of Peter’s second epistle, heresy had come to mean the false teachings of these schismatic or divisive teachers. This is the meaning which has persisted to the present day. Peter calls their teaching,”damnable heresies.” 3

But even in the Old Testament, God warned Israel that false

teachers would arise and that the whole point was to test Israel’s faithfulness to God’s covenant. Moses wrote, “If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”4 This means that attractive leaders are not always led by God. New ideas from inspiring people may sound good, but we must judge them by whether or not they are consistent with God’s Word.

Throughout the history of the Church, heresies have forced us to formulate more clearly what we mean to say by the terminology we employ. In the first four centuries of the Church, the heresies of Marcion, Arius, Paul of Samosata, Nestorius, Eutyches, Sabellius and Pelagius drew forth from the early Fathers the great Creeds of Nicaea, Constantinople and the definition of Chalcedon. During the Reformation era, the Remostrants prompted the synod of Dort. This is perhaps one of the greatest services of heresy for the true Church: it forces us to think clearly. We are required by the exigencies of the situations to declare the whole counsel of God not in an “uncertain sound.” 5

For more, see:

http://andycontramundum.blogspot.com/2012/02/holy-heresy-part-1.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FDofecr+%28Contra+Mundum%29

January 2010: Tertullian

January 2010: Tertullian

We remember in January 2010, the lawyer...that fiery North African, Christian apologist, Tertullian.

Later in life, regrettably, he became an enthusiast and Montanist, the equivalent of a modern-day supremactic Pentecostalist...or what Luther would call a Schwarmer...proof that even intelligence does not preclude one from falling on one's theological sword.

We offer some discursive thoughts.

Tertullian is important, however, for some other observations.

For example, Tertullian exclaimed: “All your ingenious cruelties can accomplish nothing; they are only a lure to this sect. Our number increases the more you destroy us. The blood of the Christians is their seed" (Context: persecutions).

Concerning the early church, the moral earnestness of the Christians contrasted powerfully with the prevailing corruption of the age. Gibbons in The Rise and Decline of the Roman Empire notes this contrast between Christians and non-Christians. Light and day. "Good deeds" (Mt.5.16) shon in the darkness, the fruit of justifying faith.

In those times of persecution, then, as now, the Gospel extended to the the poor and oppressed, demonstrating its redeeming and comforting power. This afternoon, we sent a prayer list of those persecuted throughout the world. We think of parts of Africa, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Indonesia. Or the bombing of an Egyptian Church during Christmas season, 2010. We think of the theological repressions in Italy. (We also think of the enslavement of the oppressed, enslaved to Pentecostal madness and who need liberation.) These persecuted saints, like our English Reformers, have something Americans know nothing about.

We have the poor and less educated amongst us.

But on the other hand, we remember that Nicodemus, St. Luke the Gospeller, Joseph of Arimathae, the apostle Paul, the proconsul Sergius Paulus, Dionysius of Athens, Erastus of Corinth, and members of the imperial household were counted among the earlier followers of Christ, holding esteemed and elevated positions in their times...each had their sphere of influence in a pagan context. We have the elevated amongst us too. So, whether high or low, both shon in darkness with effect. Every place, station, level and rank is infinitely below the sovereignty, dignity and majesty of the Triune God.

Speaking of the elevated, as it were, those who suffered during Emperor Domitian's furious rage were his own family members, Flavia Domitilla and husband Flavius Clemens.

This is something that Mr. H.L. Mecken, the witty and sarcastic 20th century commentator missed...something that would be lost on this dark-souled unbeliever, to wit, that living witnesses bore fruit and cast light during their times...men, women and children of all places, ranks and positions.

Philip Schaff offers another reminder:

"...the oldest part of the Catacomb of Callistus, which is named after St. Lucina, members of the illustrious gens Pomponia, and perhaps also of the Flavian house, are interred. The senatorial and equestrian orders furnished several converts open or concealed."[i]

Rich or poor, educated or uneducated, Pliny laments that men of every rank (omnis ordinis) in Asia) had become Christians. Such may be said of our time. We are everywhere and we must encourage ourselves along these lines.

As an Anglican in the American exile, for example, one may be encouraged by the Protestant and Reformed witness of Bishop Orombi of Uganda. Men, women and children, by the millions, of every sort, are Bible-believing Anglicans.

According to Schaff, similarly, Tertullian asserted that one tenth of Carthage (which had a large population) had “among them senators and ladies of the noblest descent and the nearest relatives of the proconsul of Africa” who had professed Christianity. So, Mr. Mencken can take an hike in one respect (in another, however, he is right on re: anti-intellectualism amongst the descendants of the Second Great Awakening: Baptists, Fundamentalists, Pentecostalists and others).

My Congressmen (3rd District-NC), Walter Jones, is such a man and has expressed his faith in the clearest of terms.

As to the doctrine of predestination and preaching the Gospel, as the English Churchman has noted, the doctrine of election was of comfort to evangelical Anglicans laboring in poor parts of the country. Obversely, the same doctrine is of comfort in speaking God's sovereign Word to leaders and those of greater position and income. That must be done also.

As such, the elect will be justified in God's due time, assuredly. This was of comfort to Paul at Corinth (Acts 18). God has His people everywhere, top to bottom. This applies to Queens at Buckingham Palace as well as dishwashers at Wendy’s.

Tertullian (150-220 A.D.?) puts it this way in his Apology,

"We are a people of yesterday and yet we have filled every place belonging to you—cities, islands, castles, towns, assemblies, your very camp, your tribes, companies, palace, senate, forum! We leave you your temples only. We can count your armies; our numbers in a single province will be greater."

Christ's Church is global, catholic, and encompasses all whom He has elected--from every station, nation, rank and position.

The means of grace are the same---God's Word and God's sacraments, faithfully administered.
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[i] Philip Schaff, The History of Christianity, Volume 2 (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994), 15.

Dr. Gerald Bray: Tertullian and the Early Church

http://www.theologian.org.uk/churchhistory/TertullianandtheEarlyChurch.mp3

An historian who sticks to his field.

From theo-pedia:
http://www.theopedia.com/Gerald_L._Bray

Gerald Lewis Bray is an Evangelical theologian, writer, and research professor for Samford University. He previously taught at Beeson Divinity School, where he continues to teach specialized courses. Dr. Bray is an ordained minister in the Church of England.

"Prior to coming to Beeson in 1993, he served as lecturer in theology and philosophy at Oak Hill College in London and was visiting fellow at General Theological Seminary in New York."Bray has an M.Litt. and D. Litt. from the University of Paris-Sorbonne. :