The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1890-09-21
EARLY CHURCH SCHISM.
IDEAS OF THE TRUE MISSION OF
CHRISTIANITY.

Work was to Have Wider signih-
cance--The Work Of the Great Apostle
Paul,
The first disciples were Jews. To the
belief of their nation that Messiah
was coming, they added the tenet that
this Messiah was Jesus; but they con
tinued Jews all the same. IL is true
that when they claimed their right tc
explain their new doctrine in the syna
gogue, they were often met with such
bitter opposition that they would with
draw and organize synagogue OF theli
own, but they could still claim TO be ~
orthodox Jews as the members OF the
congregation from which they had Sc
coded. The sect of the Nagarenes'
(Acts xiv. 81 were Just as truly Jew;
as the sect of the Pharasees" XIV. D..
and the sect Of the Sadducees" w.
~.
They also shared the narrowness OF
their fellow Jews. 1t is a mistake to
say that from the day of Pentecost their
ewes were opened to understand the
mission of Christ's Church. 1t was
Peter to task for eating with Cornelius
in other words, for nine years no fellow
believer of Gentle birth would have
been allowed to sit down to the Lord I
Supper with the Church at Jerusalem.
1t is perhaps from the baptism OF Cor
nelus that we should date the rise OF
the Christian Church as we know 1t, a
body which is more than Jewish sect
and admits Gentiles to all its privileges
The next year this broader fellowship
| was displayed on a larger scale. Scat
tered by the persecution which arose
about Stephen, the disciples went every
where preaching the Word, but unto
the Jews only" The ten years had
elapsed since that day of Pentecost,
they still considered that the Messiah
ship Of Jesus pertained only to the
nation of Israel. But there came to
Antioch certain men of Cyprus, the
home of the broad mined Barnabas,
and of Cyreue, removed for its intel
| lectual life. and in the free air OF the
cosmopolitan city these burst the letters
of this narrow Judaism and called on
Gentiles also to become members OF the
Kingdom of Jesus. the invitation was
so widely accepted that soon even the
people of the city saw that the church
| had ceased to be merely Jewish syna-
gogue. that it hadlbecome catholic fra
ternity embracing all nations, and that
| to the new society must be given new
designation.
But this movement opened a contro-
versy of which few then living saw the
close. Believers of more rigid Jewish
ideas declared that as Jesus was the
King of the Jews the Gentle converts
could become full members of his king
dom only by themselves becoming
Jews. through circumcision and the OBJ
servance Of the Mosaic code. The aDOs
tolic conference at Jerusalem refused
to indOrse this view; but the conflict
went on and with increasing bitterness
A heather convert was hardly dry from
his immersion before he was assalled
by the agitatOrs in this hotly-wagec
controversy. The bold Peter who drew
sword on the soldiers in the garden
even he showed the white feath
er before the attacks of Overbear
ing polemics. Christian preachers
could exult when an apostle was cast
into dungeon. and the apps
tie in turn denounced them as
dogs an epithet more opprobrlou'
then than now. the bitterest word the
scOrnful Jew could find to designate the
hated Gentle. Writers on Christian
union often speak of the Apostolic
Church as a model Of iraternal peace
but in fact, from that preaching at An
tioch till the fall of Jerusalem, the
body of Christ was rent by a schisn
which for intense animOslty and fTac
tional bitterness has. perhaps, never
been surpassed in the history OF the
| centuries. Thus early was brought t.
pass that which Is written. Il came moi
to send peace but sword.
Significant in this connection are the
words of James and the elders to Paul
Thou seest. brother, how many thous
ands of the Jews there are which believe
and they are all Jealous OF the law.
| In the observance of each Of the Mosaic
rites they were as strict as the strlctesl
of the nation. Now, if of Jewish
synagogue to-day all the members were
converted to belief in Jesus, but still
adhered rigidly to circumcision, the
Passover. and the other Mosaic rites,
insisting also that their pJsterity should
do the same. we should, OF course, re-
cOgnize them as Christians after sort,
but hardly as a fair example OF a Chris
tan Church. This, however. Is exactly
the character Of the Church at Jerusa-
lem, as set forth by James, and as this
was twenty eight years after Christ :
ascension, we can hardly suppose that
il ever changed. Ia other words, the
church at Jerusalem never became a
Christian Church in our sense OF the
term.
Nor was Paul himself entirely eman'
cipated from Judaism. Though he va.
liantly contended that that Gentle con
vert need not observe the Mosaic code.
he never intimated that the Jewish
Christian might cast off Its burden. He
kept it himself circumcised Timothy
and the very object of his participation
in the ceremony of the vow was to de-
clare more emphatically that he did not
teach the Jews to forsake Moses. but
that he himself walked "orderly, and
kept the law 10 the lull' Ou tile pIih'
ciple thus emphatically Endorsed by
Paul. the very last time he was in the
temple, a Jewish convert of to-day
would be obliged to continue to circum-
else the children born to him, to keep
the Passover. and to observe all the
other Mosaic rites. 1t was not till con-
versions from among the Jews ceased
and the Church became purely Gentle
that all observance OF the Mosaic stat
utes died out from within its ranffs.
1t is often said that the reason why
the Mosaic law need be no longer OBJ
served is that it was fulfilled IN Christ.
But James aud the disciples at Jerusa-
lem did not so understand 1t, nor did
Paul. These kept on observing the
Jewish ceremonies for decades after
Christ had died, all which would have
been a denial of their Lord had these
rites been fulfilled and rendered mean
ingless through his death. Paul could
easily have met the claim that the Gen
tile converts should keep the law could
be have argued that Christ having died
no one need keep it. The Mosaic code,
however, made no provision for its own