Tag Archives: spiritual gifts

07/9/19

Spiritual Gifts in the Early Church, Part 2

Martins Vanags | 123rf.com; abandoned church in Lativia

Montanism or New Prophecy began in Phrygia in 156. The movement was named after Montanus, who claimed the age of revelation continued in his own day, and that he himself was the Paraclete spoken of in John’s Gospel. He claimed to receive the gift of prophecy at his baptism, saying: “I am God almighty dwelling in man … I am neither angel or envoy; I am the Lord God and Father, and have come to myself.” Along with two prophetesses, Prisca (or Priscilla) and Maximilla, his religion was distinctive in having ecstatic outbursts, speaking in tongues and prophetic utterances. They believed these ‘oracles’ were a revelation of the Holy Spirit and could be regarded as supplementing ‘the ancient scriptures.’

While it was one of the earliest schisms or heresies in the ancient church, Montanism was still a living reality during the mid-fourth century. Eusebius (c. 260–340) and Didymus the Blind (c. 313-98) both devoted several chapters in their writings to address the dangers of Montanism. During his travels, Jerome (c. 342–420) saw Montanist communities in the western part of modern Turkey. It seems that Montanism was one of the issues that prodded the Church to give prominence to the rule of faith (See “Heresy, Canon and the Early Church, Part 2” for more on this). Although it survived attempted suppression by the Roman emperors Severus (193) and Justinian (4th century), as well as the vigorous condemnation of the church orthodoxy, Montanism died of ‘natural causes’ in the fifth century.

Nathanael Bonwetsch said primitive Montanism was: “An effort to shape the entire life of the church in keeping with the expectation of the return of Christ, immediately at hand; to define the essence of true Christianity from this point of view; and to oppose everything by which conditions in the church were to acquire a permanent form for the purpose of entering upon a longer historical development.” As the early church began to adjust to the possibility of living in the world for a considerable time with an increasingly rigid structure, there was a gradual decline in the intensity and frequency of the experience of the charismata that had been so prominent in the earlier life of the church. Jaroslav Pelikan noted in The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition that the decline in eschatological hope and the rise of the monarchical episcopate were closely related to one another.

Montanists claimed that this was a direct result of the moral decline of the church. They particularly focused their attention on the marriage ethic of the church—permitting the remarriage of widows and widowers—and a perceived laxity in fasting, as evidence of this moral decline. Along with issues of flight from martyrdom and penitential discipline, these were the principle concerns of the so–called new prophecy. “Montanism called the church to repent, for the kingdom of God was now finally at hand.” Their zeal was more characteristic of the moral reformers of the church rather than doctrinal or theological reformers.

Montanist prophetic practice had some parallels with modern charismatic practice. Specifically, when caught up in an ecstatic rapture, Montanus spoke of the Holy Spirit in the first person i.e.: “I am the Paraclete.” Although later associated with the claim of Montanus’ deity, it seemed originally to have expressed the sense of passivity as an instrument or mouthpiece of the divine. In support of this understanding, Montanus was quoted as saying: “Behold, man is like a lyre.” Montanism also claimed the source of its prophecy to be the supernatural inspiration by the Holy Spirit. The above noted emphasis on the imminent return of Christ, and attention to fasting are prominent tenets of many modern charismatic and pentecostals groups as well.

The Montanist claim that their prophecy was supernaturally inspired by the Holy Spirit caused some difficulties for the orthodox writers of the second and third centuries, who also claimed the inspiration and prophetic activity was active in the life of the church. To meet the challenge of Montanism, they shied away from taking a cessationist approach, claiming that the age of supernatural inspiration had passed. “Among the earliest critics of Montanism, there was no effort to discredit the supernatural character of the new prophecy.” Cyprian (210-258 AD), for example, argued that the church had a greater share of visions, revelations, and dreams than the Montanists. Instead, the “ecstatic seizures” of the Montanists were said to be demonic.

Hippolytus (170-235), a contemporary of Tertullian, was willing to question the continuation of prophecy—the very foundation of Montanism—more consistently than most anti-Montanist writers of the time. Noting the interweaving of a vivid eschatology with a continuing prophecy, Hippolytus frankly admitted that the church was not necessarily living in the last times. Against Montanism, he defended the process by which the church was beginning to reconcile itself to the delay in the Lord’s second coming. “As he pushed the time of the second coming into the future, so he pushed the time of prophecy into the past.” Hippolytus maintained that the Apocalypse of John was the last valid prophecy to have come from the Holy Spirit. By opposing the biblical prophets of the Old and New Testaments to the claims of the new prophets, he struck at the root of the Montanist movement. In The Refutation of All Heresies, he said the following about the Montanists:

But there are others who themselves are even more heretical in nature (than the foregoing), and are Phrygians by birth. These have been rendered victims of error from being previously captivated by (two) wretched women, called a certain Priscilla and Maximilla, whom they supposed (to be) prophetesses. And they assert that into these the Paraclete Spirit had departed; and antecedently to them, they in like manner consider Montanus as a prophet. And being in possession of an infinite number of their books, (the Phrygians) are overrun with delusion; and they do not judge whatever statements are made by them, according to (the criterion of) reason; nor do they give heed unto those who are competent to decide; but they are heedlessly swept onwards, by the reliance which they place on these (impostors). And they allege that they have learned something more through these, than from law, and prophets, and the Gospels. But they magnify these wretched women above the Apostles and every gift of Grace, so that some of them presume to assert that there is in them a something superior to Christ.

The church began to find its most trustworthy guarantees of the presence and functioning of the Holy Spirit in the threefold apostolic authority taught by Irenaeus rather than the ecstasy and prophecy that the Paraclete supposedly granted to the Montanists. The adoption of this threefold norm for the church’s life and teaching fundamentally altered the conception of the activity of the Holy Spirit that had figured prominently in its early history. According to Pelikan:

To validate its existence, the church looked increasingly not to the future, illumined by the Lord’s return, nor to the present, illumined by the Spirit’s extraordinary gifts, but to the past, illumined by the composition of the apostolic canon, the creation of the apostolic creed, and the establishment of the apostolic episcopate. To meet the test of apostolic orthodoxy, a movement or idea had to measure up to these norms.

Pelikan goes on to say that the apostles became a sort of spiritual aristocracy, and the first century a golden age of the Spirit’s activity. The difference between the Spirit’s activity in the days of the apostolic church and the history of the church was not only a difference of degree, but also of kind. The promises of the New Testament on the coming of the Holy Spirit were referred to the Pentecost event, and only through that event via the apostles, to the church. “The promise that the Spirit would lead into all truth, which figured prominently in Montanist doctrine, now meant principally, if not exclusively, that the Spirit would lead the apostles into all truth, as they composed the creed and the books of the New Testament, and the church.” It was upon these three promises that orthodox believers built the foundation of the church. However, Pelikan himself stated that the church has never been altogether without the spontaneous gifts of the Holy Spirit, even where the authority of the apostolic norms has been most incontestable.

The above discussion of Montanism described many parallels to the current debate among believers regarding the continuation or cessation of prophecy. The opposition of Old and New Testament prophets to new prophecy, the de-emphasis of the imminent return of Christ, passive spokesmanship for God in the act of prophecy (from the belief in the direct inspiration of the prophetic word by the Holy Spirit), charges of the possibly demonic source of “new prophecy” are all issues that we encounter in the modern debate of the cessation or continuation of the spiritual gifts. The issues are not new ones, but ones that have surfaced over and over again within the history of the church.

If you have an interest in learning more about Montanism, you can listen to a YouTube lecture and power point presentation, “Montanism for the Modern Church.”

06/25/19

Spiritual Gifts in the Early Church, Part 1

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According to the Pew Research Center, there are 584 million charismatic and Pentecostal Christians worldwide. This means that pentecostal and charismatic Christians make up about 27% of all Christians and more than 8% of the world’s population. The majority of Christians who believe that spiritual gifts are for today reside in the Americas and in sub-Saharan Africa. Interestingly, there are regional differences between where charismatic and pentecostal Christians reside. “Almost half (49%) of all charismatic Christians in the world live in the Americas, a region in which 16% of the population is charismatic. Nearly 30% of charismatics live in the Asia-Pacific region.” However, about eight-in-ten of the world’s pentecostals live either in the Americas (37%) or sub-Saharan Africa (44%).

Charismatic and pentecostal believers seek to revive “1st century Christianity,” which they believe included the manifestation of spiritual gifts in worship and praxis (how you live out your faith). The concept of spiritual gifts or charismata is primarily found in the writings of Paul, particularly in 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12. With the exception of 1 Peter 4:10-11, charismata is used with this technical sense only in Pauline texts.

Classic Pentecostalism originated in the early twentieth century. The charismatic movement grew out of a growing acceptance of charismatic teachings and ideas within mainline denominations in the 1960s, namely that the spiritual gifts are available to contemporary Christians through the infilling or baptism of the Holy Spirit.

There is evidence from a variety of sources in the early church to the presence of charisms or spiritual gifts with its worship and praxis. According to Kilian McDonnell and George Montague in Christian Initiation and Baptism in the Holy Spirit, by the end of the fourth century John Chrysostom (c. 347–407) nostalgically referred to the charisms as “long gone”; a part of the life of the church during apostolic times “but now no longer.” Despite this pronouncement, there were references to their presence through the beginning of the eighth century. Ronald Kydd concluded from his survey of the early church that, generally speaking, the church was charismatic prior to A.D. 200. However, in the first half of the third century, things began to change; the importance granted to the charisms weakened.

In Charismatic Gifts in the Early Church, Kydd said he formed this impression from observing that a lower proportion of Christian authors made specific reference to the charisms after A.D. 200. He did not have a theory for this, but McDonnell and Montague did. They suggested the controversy over Montanism resulted in a theological position within the church that undercut the validity of both the so-called ‘new prophecy’ movement of Montanism and the continuation of the charisms within the life of the church. Jaroslav Pelikan agreed with this assessment and identified the work of Hippolytus (c. 170-236) as a key factor in this adjustment. Montanism was a negative example of early “charismatic” practice, and a key factor in the passing of the charisms from the life of the church.

The earliest evidence for the charisms in the life of the church comes from the letter of Ignatius to the Philadelphians, and three documents whose authorship is either anonymous or in question: the Didache, 1 Clement, and The Shepherd of Hermas (all are found in The Apostolic Fathers). Ignatius (35-108 AD) is an important source, as he personally claimed the gift of prophetic utterance in his exhortation to the Philadelphians  to obey their appointed leaders: “I called out when I was with you, I was speaking in a loud voice: ‘Pay attention to the bishop and to the presbytery and deacons.’” Noting that there were some who questioned the credibility of his prophetic word, he again affirmed that: “the Spirit itself was preaching.”

The Didache was most likely edited into its present form towards the end of the first century from materials written around 70 A.D. It is composed of two parts: the “Two Ways” (I.I–6.2) and a manual of church order and practice (6.3–16.8). The Two Ways is a summary of basic instruction about the Christian life that was to be taught to those preparing for baptism and church membership. The way of life was essentially the two great commandments to love God and your neighbor, as well as the negatively stated golden rule: “whatever you do not wish to happen to you, do not do to another.” The Lord’s commandments were to be followed; neither adding nor subtracting anything.

Abortion was one of the activities the Didache condemned as sin. The way of death was “evil and completely cursed”, encompassing murder, adultery, lust, fornication, theft, idolatry, magic arts, sorcery, robbery, false testimony, etc. The church order and practice section assumed the existence of traveling apostles and prophets alongside a resident ministry. While a specific form of prayer was recommended to be said after the Eucharist, believers were to “permit the prophets to give thanks however they wish.”

Some scholars have speculated from this reference that the prophets may have had a liturgical role in the Eucharist service. The local church was to appoint men as deacons and bishops who were true and approved; humble, but not greedy. They were to be honored as the prophets and teachers were, for they carried out the ministry of the prophets and teachers within the local church.

The writer of 1 Clement claimed that his exhortation to the Corinthian church was “written through the Holy Spirit.”  The writer of the Shepherd of Hermas described how tell a real prophet from a false prophet: “Determine the man who has the divine Spirit by his life.” He will be gentle, quiet and humble. He will avoid all evil and futile desires of this age and consider himself to be poorer than others. He does not speak on his own, but when God wants him to speak. Both 1 Clement and The Shepherd of Hermas were highly regarded by the early church. Some church fathers even considered them to be canonical writings.

Witnesses from the second century include: Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Origen. In his apologetically inclined Dialogue with Trypho, Justin Martyr (100-165 AD) boasted to the Jewish Trypho “that the prophetic gifts remain with us,” having been transferred from the Jews.  Referencing the work of Irenaeus (130-202 AD) in The History of the Church, Eusebius commented that “He makes it clear that right down to his own time manifestations of divine and miraculous power had continued in some churches.” The dead were raised; demons were cast out of some—who often then believed and became members of the Church. There were some who had knowledge of the future, visions and prophetic utterances. The sick were healed and restored to health by the laying on of hands.

Eusebius quoted Irenaeus as saying: “Similarly, we hear of many members of the Church who have prophetic gifts and by the Spirit speak with all kinds of tongues, and bring men’s secret thoughts to light for their own good, and expound the mysteries of God.” In Against Heresies, Irenaeus commented that they were truly unfortunate, “who, realizing there are false prophets, take this as a pretext for expelling the grace of prophecy from the church.”

Tertullian (160-220 AD) and Origen (184-253 AD) were said by later theologians to have questionable doctrines. Regardless of the final assessment of their theology, they remain significant witnesses to the presence of the charismatic gifts in the life of the church. With Tertullian, we directly encounter the impact of Montanism upon the church itself, for Tertullian himself became a Montanist. However, before his renunciation of orthodox Christianity, he wrote of the association of the charisms with the rite of baptismal initiation.

Tertullian said as the neophyte came up from the water, they were to raise their hands and pray insistently for the bounty of the charisms to be given to them. Charisms were evidently facts of everyday church life; they were expected to be given—to those who asked—within the rite of baptism.  Along with Tertullian, Origen associated baptism with the charisms listed in 1 Corinthians 12. This seemed to have been the common teaching in the early third century church. Although the presence of the charisms was not what it was during apostolic times, Origen said that traces still continued in the church. Although by the Council of Constantinople in 543 there had been two separate condemnations of the “speculations” of Origen, his teaching that baptism was the principle and source of the charisms was never condemned.

In Part 2 of “Spiritual Gifts in the Early Church,” we will look at the unique influence of Montanism on the life of spiritual gifts in the early church.