Ambassador College
Church History
Lecture 10
Council of Laodecia/Arianism/Easter
I. SYNOD OF LAODECIA:
A.
6O canons signed into law and later accepted.
The Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition, says that the Synod of Laodicea
was:
"...held at Laodicea and Lycum in Phrygia, some time between 343 and
381...adapted sixty canons, chiefly disciplinary, which were declared ecumenical by the council of Chalcedon, 451. The
most significant canons are those directly affecting the clergy, wherein the clergy appear as
a privileged class, far above the laity, but with sharply differentiated and carefully graded orders within itself. For
example, the priests are not to be chosen by the people; penitents are not to be present at ordinations (lest
they should hear the failings of
candidates discussed)... Other canons treat intercourse with
heretics, admission of penitent heretics, baptism, fasts, Lent, angel-worship (forbidden as idolatry) and the canonical
books, from which the Apocrypha and Revelation are wanting." p. 189
B.
Ecumenical Councils.
1. Major doctrines and canonization laws
set into effect.
2. There have been over 2O such councils.
3. Last council was in the late 196O's
at the Vatican.
a. Last decision of the councils:
infallibility of the pope when he speaks "ex-cathedra"
C.
Council of Chalcedon - 451 A.D.
1. Accepted the canons of the Synod of
Laodicea.
2. Solidification of clergy emerges as
privileged class in the church
Of the council of Chalcedon, the Encyclopedia Britannica says:
"The Council
of Chalcedon, the fourth ecumenical council of the Catholic Church, was held in 451, its occasion being
the Eutychian heresy.... In response to the imperial summons, five to six hundred bishops, all Eastern, except
the Roman legates and two Africans, assembled in Chalcedon on the 8th of October 451. The bishop of Rome claimed
for his legates the right to preside, and insisted that any act that failed to receive their approval would be
invalid. The first session was tumultuous; party feeling ran high, and scurrilous and vulgar epithets were bandied
to and fro.... The emperor requested a declaration of the true faith; but the sentiment of the council
was opposed to a new symbol.
It contented itself with reaffirming the Nicene and Constantinopolitan
creeds and the Ephesine formula of 431.... The council rejected both Nestorianism and Eutychianism, and stood upon the doctrine that Christ had two
natures, each stood upon the doctrine that Christ had two natures, each perfect in itself and each distinct from
the other, yet perfectly united in one person, who was at once both God and man.
"The most important enactments of the council of Chalcedon were the
following: (1) the approval of the canons of the first three ecumenical councils and of the synods
of Ancyra, Neo-Caesarea, Changra, Antioch and Laodicea; (2) forbidding trade, secular pursuits and war to the clergy,
bishops not even being allowed to administer
the
property of their dioceses; (3)
forbidding monks and nuns to marry or to return to the world; likewise forbidding the establishment of a monastery
in any diocese without the consent
of
the bishop, or the disestablishment of a monastery once
consecrated; (4) punishing with deposition an ordination or clerical appointment made for money;...
"The emperor Marcian approved the doctrinal decrees of the council and
enjoined silence in regard to theological questions.
Eutyches and Dioscurus and their followers were deposed and banished. But
harmony was not thus to be restore; hardly had the council dissolved when the church was plunged
into the Monophysite controversy."
D.
Canons of Chalcedon to be familiar with:
1. 7th - "Persons converted from
heresies, that is, of the Novatians, Photinians, and Quartodecimans, whether they were catechumens or communicants
among them, shall not be received until they shall have anathematized every heresy, and particularly that in which
they were held; and afterwards those who among them were called communicants, having thoroughly learned the symbols
of the faith, and having been anointed with the holy chrism, shall so communicate in the holy Mysteries.
2. 16th - Gospels to be read on the Sabbath
along with other scriptures (OT).
3. 29th - dealt with Sabbath -
equated it with "Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather
honoring the Lord's Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found
to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ."
4. 37th "It is not lawful
to receive portions sent from the feasts of Jews or heretics, not to feast together with them."
5. 38th "It is not lawful
to receive unleavened bread from the Jews, nor to be partakers of their impiety."
6. 39th "It is not lawful to
feast together with the heathen, and to be partakers of their godlessness."
7. 51st "The nativities
of Martyrs are not to be celebrated in Lent, but commemorations of the holy Martyrs are to be made on the Sabbaths
and Lord's days."
E.
Judaising - main issue of the council.
F.
Discussed which scriptures were holy - did not include Apocrypha
or book of Revelation at that time.
II. ARIANISM:
A.
Founder - Dr. Arius, Bishop of Alexandria.
B. Aryanism - the movement:
1. Began in early 3OO's - was a very popular
movement.
2. Developed doctrine that Christ could
not have been equal to God or co-existed with him.
a. Believed Christ was a created
entity and through him God created everything
3. Doctrine in and out of popularity for
4OO years.
III. EASTER:
A.
General Information:
1. Carries controversy in church.
2. Major reason causing split.
3. Shows where Catholicism and true church
had beginnings.
a. Duchesne showed how at first
the Passover was kept at Rome:
"There were many Christians of Asia in Rome at the time (remember that
the Church of God at Rome was founded by those who came from Asia Minor where Paul preached) and the very early
Popes, Xystus and Telesphorus, saw them every year keep their Pasch (the true Passover) the same
day as did the Jews. They maintained that was correct.
It was allowed to pass...though the rest of Rome observed a different
use (THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, Vol. I, p. 210)."
b. Irenaeus
showed that the West did not keep Passover:
"Irenaeus, who lived toward the close of the second century, wrote to
Bishop Victor of Rome, ‘we mean Anicetus, and Pius, and Hyginus, and Telesphorus, and Xystus. They
neither observed it [the true Passover on the 14th of Nisan] nor did they permit those after them to do so....'"
c. He shows How Sixtus 1st to
oppose the Passover:
"It was Bishop Xystus (his name is also spelled Sixtus) who was the
first recorded individual to prevent the proper observance of the Passover, and to celebrate the sacred mysteries
annually on a Sunday. Irenaeus speaks further have him, declaring that his doctrine was in direct 'opposition'
to the practice of the remainder of the churches.
Bishop Sixtus was living at the beginning of the second century,
just after the Apostle John died (NICENE AND POST-NICENE FATHERS, Vol. I, p. 243).
d.
Irenaeus documents Polycarp’s approach to Easter:
"But Polycarp also was not only instructed by the apostles, and acquainted
with many that had seen Christ, but was also appointed by apostles in Asia, bishop of the Church of Smyrna.... He
also was in Rome in the time of Anicetus (bishop of Rome, A.D. 155-166) and caused many to turn away
from the...heretics to the Church of God, proclaiming that he had received from the apostles this one and sole
truth.' While at Rome, Polycarp discussed the matter of Easter with the Roman bishop.
"Irenaeus continued: ‘For neither could Anicetus persuade Polycarp not to observe it (the Passover) because he
had always observed it with John the disciple of our Lord, and the rest of the apostles, with whom he associated;
and neither did Polycarp persuade Anicetus to observe it, who said that he was bound to follow the customs of the
presbyters before him' (Eusebius' ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, book V, chapter 24, quoted in NICENE AND POST-NICENE
FATHERS, Vol. 1, p. 244)."
e. A Forged Letter Helped Bring
About the Change to Sunday:
"Shortly after Polycarp left, there appeared an amazing letter -- said
by many scholars to have been a deliberate forgery.
This letter states: 'Pope Pius, who lived about 147, had made
a decree, That the annual solemnity of the PASCH (PASCH is the Greek word for PASSOVER) should be kept on the Lord's
day (Sunday) and in confirmation of this he pretended, that Hermes (Hermas), his brother, who
was then an eminent teacher among them, had received instruction from an angel, who commanded that all men should
keep the PASCH on the Lord's day' (Joseph Bingham, ANTIQUITIES OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, pp. 1148-1149).
f.
The Forgery Said and Angel Commanded the Change:
"Of this same hoax, we read in APOSTOLICAL FATHERS, by James Donaldson,
page 324: 'One of the letters forged in the name of Pius, where one Hermas is mentioned as the
author; and it is stated that in his book a commandment was given through an angel to observe the Passover on a
Sunday.'"
g. Gal. 1:7-8 "If I or an angel teach
an other gospel let him be accursed."
B.
Origin:
1. Began in time of Nimrod.
2. Name derived from goddess Ishtarte.
3. Nimrod killed. Tradition says buried on Friday
and rose on Sunday.
C.
Mentioned in Bible - Ezekiel 8:14-16.
1. As a great abomination.
a. People mourning death of Tammuz
b. This worship can be related
to Easter celebrations
2. Reference: Two Babylons and Golden
Bough
3. Pagan festival worshiped - very sexual.
4. Priests worshiping the sun - their
back was towards God.
D.
After 3OO years these customs became habit and were accepted into
the church. It took this long to accomplish.