WEBVTT 00:00:00.599 --> 00:00:03.000 Welcome to the official podcast of the Church 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:05.519 of Christ Wheeler area. We're so glad that you've 00:00:05.519 --> 00:00:08.000 tuned in for today's message. Whether you're 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:10.220 on your morning commute or if you're relaxing 00:00:10.220 --> 00:00:12.220 at home, we're here to share the strength and 00:00:12.220 --> 00:00:15.199 truth of God's Word with our community. If you're 00:00:15.199 --> 00:00:16.839 in the neighborhood, we'd love to meet you in 00:00:16.839 --> 00:00:20.460 person. Come see us at 1500 South Allen L. Bean 00:00:20.460 --> 00:00:23.440 Boulevard right here in Wheeler, Texas. We gather 00:00:23.440 --> 00:00:26.480 every Sunday morning at 1030 a .m. and in the 00:00:26.480 --> 00:00:29.339 afternoon at 230 p .m. We meet again on Wednesdays 00:00:29.339 --> 00:00:32.939 at 7 p .m. Right now, let's open our Bibles together 00:00:32.939 --> 00:00:39.579 and dive into today's sermon. We're excited for 00:00:39.579 --> 00:00:42.520 another opportunity to continue the series we 00:00:42.520 --> 00:00:46.340 have going on of the history of the New Testament 00:00:46.340 --> 00:00:50.000 Church. There's a lot of history. And there's 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:52.079 a lot of ground to cover. And every single one 00:00:52.079 --> 00:00:53.619 of the guys that's going to stand before you 00:00:53.619 --> 00:00:56.439 and share with you what they've studied is going 00:00:56.439 --> 00:00:58.420 to have a lot of ground to cover. And so we're 00:00:58.420 --> 00:01:00.399 going to ask you to bear with us a little bit. 00:01:01.560 --> 00:01:04.379 Last week, Zane talked with us about the establishment 00:01:04.379 --> 00:01:07.939 of Christ Church, how Christ had a will. And 00:01:07.939 --> 00:01:11.099 he set a pattern in how the church ought to follow 00:01:11.099 --> 00:01:13.799 that pattern. Because if it's not the original, 00:01:14.819 --> 00:01:18.349 it's not Christ Church. And he talked about Alfredo, 00:01:18.510 --> 00:01:21.349 I think y 'all remember that. This week we're 00:01:21.349 --> 00:01:24.450 talking about the fulfillment of falling away. 00:01:25.090 --> 00:01:31.269 The Bible predicted, it made a prediction or 00:01:31.269 --> 00:01:34.790 a prophecy that there would be a great falling 00:01:34.790 --> 00:01:38.709 away of the church. Now that doesn't sound good, 00:01:38.930 --> 00:01:42.659 does it? I'm gonna tell you, it wasn't good. 00:01:43.340 --> 00:01:47.159 And so in the span of our discussion this morning, 00:01:48.280 --> 00:01:54.799 we are going to be covering about 1 ,447 years. 00:01:56.180 --> 00:02:00.000 That's a lot of ground we're covering, and the 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:03.239 disclaimer I wanna give is that if you're a history 00:02:03.239 --> 00:02:07.319 nerd, if you absolutely love the details of history, 00:02:07.739 --> 00:02:11.139 You're not going to get that this morning because 00:02:11.139 --> 00:02:13.199 there's a lot of ground we have to cover and 00:02:13.199 --> 00:02:15.479 a lot of events and individuals we need to talk 00:02:15.479 --> 00:02:18.580 about and we're going to be giving the highlights 00:02:18.580 --> 00:02:20.900 and the overview of the history that happened 00:02:20.900 --> 00:02:26.840 during this time period from 70 AD to AD 1517 00:02:26.840 --> 00:02:29.879 and we just won't be able to be bogged down in 00:02:29.879 --> 00:02:33.469 details. Unless we want to be here for multiple 00:02:33.469 --> 00:02:36.210 hours, and that's not what we're gonna do this 00:02:36.210 --> 00:02:40.729 morning. We're gonna start in AD 70 where Zane 00:02:40.729 --> 00:02:45.550 left off for us to begin with. During this time 00:02:45.550 --> 00:02:49.250 period, the church was practicing as Christ had 00:02:49.250 --> 00:02:53.009 intended. People were baptized, souls were added, 00:02:53.569 --> 00:02:56.360 proper leadership of the church existed. This 00:02:56.360 --> 00:02:59.400 is the ideal. This was the pattern This is how 00:02:59.400 --> 00:03:01.580 Christ wanted his church to be set up and it 00:03:01.580 --> 00:03:05.180 was happening during this time period And then 00:03:05.180 --> 00:03:08.099 what we're gonna end up at the end of our time 00:03:08.099 --> 00:03:11.300 period that we're gonna cover this morning church 00:03:11.300 --> 00:03:14.960 The way Christ set it up wasn't even visible 00:03:14.960 --> 00:03:17.740 in history I'm not gonna tell you it didn't exist 00:03:17.740 --> 00:03:20.099 at all because I believe and I think that they 00:03:20.099 --> 00:03:22.500 were a good -hearted people trying to do what 00:03:22.500 --> 00:03:24.659 was right throughout all of history, but throughout 00:03:24.919 --> 00:03:27.780 This section of history we're studying during 00:03:27.780 --> 00:03:32.120 the worst parts of this falling away, the way 00:03:32.120 --> 00:03:35.379 Christ set it up wasn't even visible in history 00:03:35.379 --> 00:03:39.219 or recorded for us to see. Doctrines of baptism, 00:03:39.759 --> 00:03:43.580 church leadership, salvation, and even morals 00:03:43.580 --> 00:03:47.599 were severely tainted by 1517. And this stuff 00:03:47.599 --> 00:03:51.039 didn't happen overnight, folks. It took time, 00:03:51.240 --> 00:03:54.460 long. Periods of time for this falling away to 00:03:54.460 --> 00:03:57.020 happen for people to begin falling away from 00:03:57.020 --> 00:03:58.819 the way crisis set it up But I hope that you 00:03:58.819 --> 00:04:02.800 can see as we go along That's how it happened 00:04:02.800 --> 00:04:07.300 slowly Over time and so we're starting off in 00:04:07.300 --> 00:04:09.360 AD 70 talking about the New Testament church 00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:12.180 Acts 2 42 says and they continued steadfastly 00:04:12.180 --> 00:04:14.000 in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship in the 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:16.800 breaking of bread and in prayers That's what 00:04:16.800 --> 00:04:18.800 was happening during this time period They were 00:04:18.800 --> 00:04:21.560 continuing in the Apostles doctrine the Apostles 00:04:21.560 --> 00:04:25.220 were still alive for a time And so they were 00:04:25.220 --> 00:04:27.600 still able to give verbal instructions inspired 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:30.540 by the Lord himself as to how he wanted his church 00:04:30.540 --> 00:04:34.199 to operate and then as the Apostles died off 00:04:34.199 --> 00:04:39.149 during this time around 72 100 AD Guess what? 00:04:39.149 --> 00:04:42.230 These people were still following that that Apostles 00:04:42.230 --> 00:04:45.509 doctrine pretty closely pretty directly We see 00:04:45.509 --> 00:04:47.970 some of that Apostles doctrine in Philippians 00:04:47.970 --> 00:04:50.410 chapter 1 verse 1 Paul and Timothy bond -servants 00:04:50.410 --> 00:04:53.149 of Jesus Christ to all the saints to Christ Jesus 00:04:53.149 --> 00:04:55.230 in Christ Jesus who were in Philippi with the 00:04:55.230 --> 00:04:57.550 bishops and the deacons what we see here is the 00:04:57.550 --> 00:05:00.370 setup of a local congregation here in Philippi 00:05:00.370 --> 00:05:04.129 we have Paul and Timothy writing this letter 00:05:04.129 --> 00:05:07.819 and They're the evangelists and they're writing 00:05:07.819 --> 00:05:11.360 this this letter to the saints that are in Philippi 00:05:11.360 --> 00:05:15.220 That is just the Christians that would be Regular 00:05:15.220 --> 00:05:17.459 old saints saints are Christians and Christians 00:05:17.459 --> 00:05:20.740 are saints and then you had the bishops when 00:05:20.740 --> 00:05:22.680 you study in your New Testament Bible the word 00:05:22.680 --> 00:05:27.060 bishops bishops Overseers elders shepherds. They 00:05:27.060 --> 00:05:28.699 all mean the same thing. It's all talking about 00:05:28.699 --> 00:05:33.360 the same office and doing the same work so what 00:05:33.360 --> 00:05:35.839 we find here is that Paul and Timothy wrote this 00:05:35.839 --> 00:05:39.160 letter to Christians and wrote this letter to 00:05:39.160 --> 00:05:42.980 the elders that were there at Philippi a Plurality 00:05:42.980 --> 00:05:46.459 of them and then we have the third office mentioned 00:05:46.459 --> 00:05:48.800 here at Philippi deacons. This letter was written 00:05:48.800 --> 00:05:53.519 to the deacons So that's the way the local congregation 00:05:53.519 --> 00:05:56.120 was set up by Christ And that's how it was practiced 00:05:56.120 --> 00:05:58.879 by the early church for a pretty good period 00:05:58.879 --> 00:06:03.920 of time Okay, Acts chapter 8 verse 38 the Bible 00:06:03.920 --> 00:06:06.279 says so we commanded the chariot to stand still 00:06:06.279 --> 00:06:08.600 and both Philip and the eunuch went down Into 00:06:08.600 --> 00:06:11.740 the water and he baptized him one of the fundamental 00:06:11.740 --> 00:06:15.060 things of the church was that Baptism was for 00:06:15.060 --> 00:06:17.560 the remission of sins and how did they perform 00:06:17.560 --> 00:06:19.819 these baptisms? Well in this example here in 00:06:19.819 --> 00:06:21.480 Acts chapter 8 with Philip and the eunuch You 00:06:21.480 --> 00:06:23.759 know what they did they both went down into the 00:06:23.759 --> 00:06:27.759 water and he baptized that means that the eunuch 00:06:27.759 --> 00:06:31.959 was immersed in water. He was buried in a watery 00:06:31.959 --> 00:06:35.639 grave of baptism to have his sins washed away. 00:06:35.660 --> 00:06:37.920 That was the practice. That was the pattern that 00:06:37.920 --> 00:06:40.319 Christ set up. And that's what was happening 00:06:40.319 --> 00:06:42.459 within the early church. Second Thessalonians 00:06:42.459 --> 00:06:45.220 2 and 3, this is where we get the letter from 00:06:45.220 --> 00:06:48.800 Paul that was the warning or the prophecy that 00:06:48.800 --> 00:06:50.980 this great falling away was gonna happen. The 00:06:50.980 --> 00:06:54.600 Bible says, let no one deceive you by any means. 00:06:55.680 --> 00:06:58.300 For that day will not come unless the falling 00:06:58.300 --> 00:07:03.699 away comes first and the Sun Excuse me, and the 00:07:03.699 --> 00:07:08.199 man of sin is revealed the son of perdition He 00:07:08.199 --> 00:07:10.939 says there's going to be a great falling away. 00:07:11.220 --> 00:07:14.600 Don't be deceived folks This is going to happen 00:07:14.600 --> 00:07:17.240 as sure as the world and in this time. There's 00:07:17.240 --> 00:07:20.139 going to be the man of sin Also called the son 00:07:20.139 --> 00:07:22.639 of perdition and I'm not gonna get into specifics 00:07:22.639 --> 00:07:25.459 right now on who I believe that is But as we 00:07:25.459 --> 00:07:27.980 go throughout studying this history I think you'll 00:07:27.980 --> 00:07:30.019 be able to understand pretty quickly who this 00:07:30.019 --> 00:07:33.000 man of sin or the son of Perdition is or at least 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:36.399 what my belief is on it We get more details about 00:07:36.399 --> 00:07:38.220 this falling away in first Timothy chapter 4 00:07:38.220 --> 00:07:40.579 verse 1 says now the spirit expressly says that 00:07:40.579 --> 00:07:43.319 in latter times Some will depart from the faith 00:07:43.319 --> 00:07:47.170 giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines 00:07:47.170 --> 00:07:48.790 of demons. This is talking about that falling 00:07:48.790 --> 00:07:51.189 away and it says they're going to depart from 00:07:51.189 --> 00:07:54.689 the faith. That doesn't sound good, does it? 00:07:54.990 --> 00:07:58.110 Departing from the faith. What is it that's causing 00:07:58.110 --> 00:08:00.129 them to depart from the faith? Well first off, 00:08:00.810 --> 00:08:03.569 they're listening to spirits that are deceiving. 00:08:04.009 --> 00:08:05.889 There's gonna be these spirits that come and 00:08:05.889 --> 00:08:09.170 then trick people into falling away and using 00:08:09.170 --> 00:08:13.029 doctrines that are not. Christ doctrine, they're 00:08:13.029 --> 00:08:15.310 not Christ teachings. They're not according to 00:08:15.310 --> 00:08:17.230 Christ pattern the way he set it up and inspired 00:08:17.230 --> 00:08:21.009 his apostles to set it up They were doctrines 00:08:21.009 --> 00:08:23.189 of demons. They were demonic They were wrong 00:08:23.189 --> 00:08:24.889 and they were false and they were causing people 00:08:24.889 --> 00:08:26.889 to depart. They were going to cause people to 00:08:26.889 --> 00:08:30.790 depart from the faith To fall away we get more 00:08:30.790 --> 00:08:32.529 details about this falling away in Acts chapter 00:08:32.529 --> 00:08:36.190 20 verse 29 for I know this After my departure 00:08:36.190 --> 00:08:40.720 savage wolves will come in from among you These 00:08:40.720 --> 00:08:43.720 deceiving spirits that are coming gonna gonna 00:08:43.720 --> 00:08:45.860 come and cause the church to fall away with their 00:08:45.860 --> 00:08:48.820 demonic Practices and doctrines where are they 00:08:48.820 --> 00:08:50.919 gonna come from? Are they gonna be enemies of 00:08:50.919 --> 00:08:53.299 the church that are gonna come from outside and 00:08:53.299 --> 00:08:56.139 cause people to fall away? No, they're gonna 00:08:56.139 --> 00:09:00.360 come in from among yourselves Within the so -called 00:09:00.360 --> 00:09:02.879 church these savage wolves are gonna rise up 00:09:02.879 --> 00:09:05.740 verse 30 also from among yourselves men will 00:09:05.740 --> 00:09:10.710 rise up speaking perverse things To draw away 00:09:10.710 --> 00:09:12.809 the disciples after themselves this falling away 00:09:12.809 --> 00:09:15.330 is gonna happen from the inside out folks This 00:09:15.330 --> 00:09:18.690 is not gonna be good now the exact time frame 00:09:18.690 --> 00:09:20.789 of when this falling away actually happened. 00:09:20.850 --> 00:09:25.110 It's hard to tell Okay, but in the prophecy that 00:09:25.110 --> 00:09:28.049 Paul made in the letter second letter to Thessalonians 00:09:28.049 --> 00:09:30.809 here in chapter 2 verse 7 He gives us a little 00:09:30.809 --> 00:09:32.870 bit of details on that. He said for the mystery 00:09:32.870 --> 00:09:37.759 of lawlessness is already at work During the 00:09:37.759 --> 00:09:39.620 time that Paul was warning about this falling 00:09:39.620 --> 00:09:41.679 away that was gonna happen in the future in these 00:09:41.679 --> 00:09:45.399 latter days He says that it was already at work 00:09:45.399 --> 00:09:48.360 There were the beginnings of the falling away 00:09:48.360 --> 00:09:50.279 was already happening. They were already dealing 00:09:50.279 --> 00:09:54.360 dealing with Judaizers with the Gnostics with 00:09:54.360 --> 00:09:56.980 moral corruption people getting drunk at the 00:09:56.980 --> 00:09:59.220 communion service There was all sorts of corruption 00:09:59.220 --> 00:10:03.720 already happening little by little That really 00:10:03.720 --> 00:10:06.350 was gonna be the beginning of this falling away. 00:10:06.409 --> 00:10:10.029 It was already happening. We're gonna get to 00:10:10.029 --> 00:10:14.230 our next period of time here in AD 100 to 110 00:10:14.230 --> 00:10:19.049 to a man named Ignatius. Ignatius was a man who 00:10:19.049 --> 00:10:21.309 wrote, and we have recorded in us, a certain 00:10:21.309 --> 00:10:24.450 part of history, early church history. This would 00:10:24.450 --> 00:10:27.759 have been just a few years after the... Disciples 00:10:27.759 --> 00:10:31.419 maybe 10 to 30 or 40 years after the last of 00:10:31.419 --> 00:10:33.899 the disciples were either really really old or 00:10:33.899 --> 00:10:37.620 had passed away So they didn't have direct revelation 00:10:37.620 --> 00:10:40.419 from the lord from the apostles at this point 00:10:40.419 --> 00:10:43.620 They still had some if not most or all of the 00:10:43.620 --> 00:10:47.100 writings Of the new testament maybe not in a 00:10:47.100 --> 00:10:49.500 full collection of the books and the bible that 00:10:49.500 --> 00:10:52.299 we would have today But they had those writings 00:10:52.299 --> 00:10:56.179 inspired by god from the apostles We have this 00:10:56.179 --> 00:11:00.639 man named Ignatius and in his writings he distinguishes 00:11:00.639 --> 00:11:04.740 One bishop from the elders early steps toward 00:11:04.740 --> 00:11:08.720 a centralized hierarchy So this is interesting 00:11:08.720 --> 00:11:11.200 because this was just a few short years after 00:11:11.200 --> 00:11:14.039 the Apostles Who were setting forth the doctrine 00:11:14.039 --> 00:11:16.320 of Christ in the early church just a few years 00:11:16.320 --> 00:11:19.320 after they died We already see the doctrine of 00:11:19.320 --> 00:11:21.720 the church leadership the way Christ set it up 00:11:21.720 --> 00:11:26.879 being deviated from They had one bishop that 00:11:26.879 --> 00:11:30.500 stood above the plurality of elders. That isn't 00:11:30.500 --> 00:11:34.840 how Christ set it up Folks imagine we had David 00:11:34.840 --> 00:11:38.039 and we had Brandon as our elders but there was 00:11:38.039 --> 00:11:41.600 something special about brother Garland and Garland 00:11:41.600 --> 00:11:44.600 was our bishop above our elders because he was 00:11:44.600 --> 00:11:49.059 special and he Was the one singular bishop and 00:11:49.059 --> 00:11:52.159 he had authority over our plurality of elders 00:11:52.159 --> 00:11:55.629 and in the writings Early writings in history 00:11:55.629 --> 00:11:58.889 recorded for us by this man Ignatius who had 00:11:58.889 --> 00:12:02.090 some sort of influence at this point in time 00:12:02.090 --> 00:12:05.850 We already see that very early on these these 00:12:05.850 --> 00:12:07.950 doctrines of church leadership were already being 00:12:07.950 --> 00:12:13.009 altered and changed And we're gonna unfortunately 00:12:13.009 --> 00:12:17.019 see it get worse and worse we see this Direct 00:12:17.019 --> 00:12:19.440 quote from his epistle here from Ignatius It 00:12:19.440 --> 00:12:21.399 says while your bishop presides in the place 00:12:21.399 --> 00:12:24.740 of God and your presbyters in the place of the 00:12:24.740 --> 00:12:27.440 assembly with the Apostles Alongside with your 00:12:27.440 --> 00:12:29.399 deacons or along with your deacons. So he talks 00:12:29.399 --> 00:12:31.620 about deacons. He talks about Apostles then he 00:12:31.620 --> 00:12:34.840 talks about bishops and Presbyters now remember 00:12:34.840 --> 00:12:38.240 if we study bishops and presbyters in the New 00:12:38.240 --> 00:12:39.820 Testament Bibles, it's talking about the same 00:12:39.820 --> 00:12:42.919 office the office of elders But here Ignatius 00:12:43.559 --> 00:12:47.120 An early church history makes a distinction or, 00:12:47.120 --> 00:12:50.879 if you will, comes up with a distinction between 00:12:50.879 --> 00:12:55.919 the two offices. So during this section of time, 00:12:55.980 --> 00:13:01.200 starting in AD 100, we see persecution happening 00:13:01.200 --> 00:13:05.059 toward Christians very heavily. Now, I'm talking 00:13:05.059 --> 00:13:08.279 to you early on about some of these slight deviations 00:13:08.279 --> 00:13:10.580 from Christ's doctrine, but I want you to know 00:13:10.580 --> 00:13:13.970 this was not the overwhelming majority. During 00:13:13.970 --> 00:13:16.629 the time of persecution shortly after the Apostles 00:13:16.629 --> 00:13:19.929 died a majority of churches were still practicing 00:13:19.929 --> 00:13:23.049 the way Christ set it up Okay, but there were 00:13:23.049 --> 00:13:26.330 still Little inklings of information you see 00:13:26.330 --> 00:13:28.870 here and then here and there that show that there 00:13:28.870 --> 00:13:31.950 were people even early on departing from the 00:13:31.950 --> 00:13:34.269 way Christ set it up, but during persecution 00:13:34.269 --> 00:13:38.929 the church was thriving and During persecution 00:13:38.929 --> 00:13:42.980 these congregations was for the most part They 00:13:42.980 --> 00:13:45.899 were following the way Christ had intended it 00:13:45.899 --> 00:13:52.700 So in 100 to 300 AC we see AD we see severe persecution 00:13:52.700 --> 00:13:55.179 of the early church and the martyrdom of polycarp 00:13:55.179 --> 00:13:56.759 I want to read you an excerpt out of that says 00:13:56.759 --> 00:13:59.440 this history tells us when they were so torn 00:13:59.440 --> 00:14:02.659 talking about Christians by lashes that the mechanism 00:14:02.659 --> 00:14:05.980 of their flesh was visible even as far as the 00:14:05.980 --> 00:14:10.000 inward veins and arteries they endured patiently 00:14:12.110 --> 00:14:14.789 These people are being tortured so that their 00:14:14.789 --> 00:14:18.870 bodies were being what were visible Were being 00:14:18.870 --> 00:14:21.330 lashed and whipped and beaten so harshly that 00:14:21.330 --> 00:14:24.129 they're they were being their insides were visible 00:14:24.129 --> 00:14:29.049 It was disgusting. It was torture and For a couple 00:14:29.049 --> 00:14:32.370 of hundred years. It was this bad And I want 00:14:32.370 --> 00:14:36.149 you to think about this for a moment during the 00:14:36.149 --> 00:14:40.730 time That the church was being persecuted the 00:14:40.730 --> 00:14:45.590 most That was the time that the church was thriving 00:14:45.590 --> 00:14:50.330 the best It was following Christ the way Christ 00:14:50.330 --> 00:14:54.850 wanted it intended it to be practicing and following 00:14:54.850 --> 00:15:00.289 those rules and they the Least amount of deviation 00:15:00.289 --> 00:15:02.190 from Christ doctrine was happening during the 00:15:02.190 --> 00:15:04.549 time they were persecuted the worst and it wasn't 00:15:04.549 --> 00:15:07.269 till after essentially persecuted Persecution 00:15:07.269 --> 00:15:12.460 ended that they started falling away from Christ 00:15:12.460 --> 00:15:18.820 Think about that We have in about 80 100 to 80 00:15:18.820 --> 00:15:22.940 50 a writing in the early church called the didachi 00:15:22.940 --> 00:15:26.019 We already saw a little bit of deviation of the 00:15:26.019 --> 00:15:28.620 doctrine of church leadership happening from 00:15:28.620 --> 00:15:31.259 the man Ignatius But now we see the doctrines 00:15:31.259 --> 00:15:34.340 of baptism being written about in this didachi 00:15:34.340 --> 00:15:37.059 the didachi was essentially a Christian literature 00:15:37.059 --> 00:15:41.820 that was Unonymous or unanimous? That people 00:15:41.820 --> 00:15:44.419 would just read and learn from it wasn't inspired 00:15:44.419 --> 00:15:46.480 scripture But it talked about scripture it talked 00:15:46.480 --> 00:15:48.100 about the writings of the Apostles and it talked 00:15:48.100 --> 00:15:51.039 about just Christian beliefs Now there were some 00:15:51.039 --> 00:15:53.720 signs of deviation from Christ doctrine in this 00:15:53.720 --> 00:15:57.159 Christian literature where in a section allows 00:15:57.159 --> 00:16:00.419 pouring when sufficient water is not available 00:16:00.419 --> 00:16:04.259 in the context of baptism and It is essentially 00:16:04.259 --> 00:16:08.340 the first that we know of exception to immersion. 00:16:10.039 --> 00:16:13.980 Here's what the Dadachi says about that. But 00:16:13.980 --> 00:16:18.299 if thou have not living water, baptize it into 00:16:18.299 --> 00:16:22.360 other water, and if thou canst not in cold and 00:16:22.360 --> 00:16:27.259 warm. But if thou have not either, pour out water 00:16:27.259 --> 00:16:30.799 thrice upon thine head, upon the head into the 00:16:30.799 --> 00:16:32.960 name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 00:16:33.309 --> 00:16:36.570 The Dadachi, again, during this time of persecution 00:16:36.570 --> 00:16:39.769 in the early church, just within 50 years or 00:16:39.769 --> 00:16:44.769 70 years after the apostles died, there is a 00:16:44.769 --> 00:16:48.070 small sect of an inkling of falling away of the 00:16:48.070 --> 00:16:51.950 doctrines of baptism already happening. Imagine 00:16:51.950 --> 00:16:54.049 this. The apostles are here teaching us the way 00:16:54.049 --> 00:16:55.710 Christ wants it done. And then guess what? The 00:16:55.710 --> 00:16:58.750 apostles die. They go to their resting place 00:16:58.750 --> 00:17:01.899 and just a few short years later, People and 00:17:01.899 --> 00:17:03.759 their corruption are already trying to mess it 00:17:03.759 --> 00:17:06.440 up Already messing up church leadership already 00:17:06.440 --> 00:17:08.799 messing up doctrine now. I want you to know this 00:17:08.799 --> 00:17:11.380 wasn't a majority I want to stress that this 00:17:11.380 --> 00:17:17.420 was not a majority This was just a small Section 00:17:17.420 --> 00:17:19.640 of people that were reading and writing and talking 00:17:19.640 --> 00:17:22.420 about this didachi and learning from this didachi 00:17:22.420 --> 00:17:25.140 that came up with even just an exception It wasn't 00:17:25.140 --> 00:17:27.759 even the rule they didn't all of a sudden change 00:17:27.759 --> 00:17:31.309 how baptism was done the universal This was just 00:17:31.309 --> 00:17:34.549 an exception that this person came up with or 00:17:34.549 --> 00:17:37.890 that these people came up with as they wrote 00:17:37.890 --> 00:17:43.369 this didachi That was an exception to baptism 00:17:43.369 --> 00:17:46.490 by immersion and the exception was only in the 00:17:46.490 --> 00:17:49.150 minimal case where Sufficient water was not available. 00:17:49.150 --> 00:17:51.170 I'm not telling you that this is how Christ set 00:17:51.170 --> 00:17:53.470 it up I'm telling you that these people intended 00:17:53.470 --> 00:17:58.950 it to be an exception not I'm not saying Christ 00:17:58.950 --> 00:18:01.970 okayed this exception, but what I'm saying is 00:18:01.970 --> 00:18:06.150 the overwhelming majority still believed in baptism 00:18:06.150 --> 00:18:10.730 via burial, in water, via immersion. That was 00:18:10.730 --> 00:18:12.650 the overwhelming majority during this time, but 00:18:12.650 --> 00:18:14.470 this is the first time somebody came up with 00:18:14.470 --> 00:18:17.650 the idea of an exception to that rule. And if 00:18:17.650 --> 00:18:20.289 there's not enough water in whatever area you're 00:18:20.289 --> 00:18:25.190 in, maybe just take the water and pour it thrice 00:18:25.190 --> 00:18:27.809 upon thine head. That's the first example we 00:18:27.809 --> 00:18:31.289 see of Christ's pattern for baptism beginning 00:18:31.289 --> 00:18:37.309 to be changed. After the Dadachi, we have a man 00:18:37.309 --> 00:18:41.150 named Cyprian, and that's how we're going to 00:18:41.150 --> 00:18:44.730 pronounce his name, is Cyprian. In this exception 00:18:44.730 --> 00:18:48.269 to baptism, this exception that they said pour 00:18:48.269 --> 00:18:51.079 over people's head three times, there begins 00:18:51.079 --> 00:18:53.480 to be a little bit more exceptions. This was 00:18:53.480 --> 00:18:56.380 about 100 years after the reading from the Dadachi. 00:18:56.500 --> 00:18:59.180 This man named Cyprian defends sprinkling or 00:18:59.180 --> 00:19:01.660 pouring for the sick and it was in the context 00:19:01.660 --> 00:19:05.200 of clinical baptism. Somebody that, based on 00:19:05.200 --> 00:19:07.480 his judgment, was not able to be immersed in 00:19:07.480 --> 00:19:12.099 water, what do you do? You come up with an exception 00:19:12.099 --> 00:19:16.480 so that they could be. baptized via sprinkling 00:19:16.480 --> 00:19:17.940 or pouring. And this was a direct quote that 00:19:17.940 --> 00:19:20.799 we have from history here from Cyprian of Carthage. 00:19:20.920 --> 00:19:23.680 You have asked also, dearest son, what I thought 00:19:23.680 --> 00:19:25.680 of those who obtained God's grace in sickness 00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:28.319 and weakness, for they that are not to be washed 00:19:28.319 --> 00:19:31.180 but sprinkled with the saving water. I want you 00:19:31.180 --> 00:19:33.730 to notice what he's about to say. Because he's 00:19:33.730 --> 00:19:35.809 about to make a claim that a lot of people take 00:19:35.809 --> 00:19:38.450 out of context. And the claim that he was about 00:19:38.450 --> 00:19:42.029 to say was taken out of context, and rules were 00:19:42.029 --> 00:19:44.690 created from this claim. Because he went on to 00:19:44.690 --> 00:19:48.509 say, the sprinkling also of water prevails equally 00:19:48.509 --> 00:19:52.509 with the washing of salvation. Okay? I don't 00:19:52.509 --> 00:19:55.650 believe that. Let's just make that clear. Christ 00:19:55.650 --> 00:19:59.980 didn't set it up that way. However, He simply 00:19:59.980 --> 00:20:03.880 meant this statement as an exception, not to 00:20:03.880 --> 00:20:07.660 create new rules. He was saying the sprinkling 00:20:07.660 --> 00:20:10.339 of water is just as valid as a baptism as immersion 00:20:10.339 --> 00:20:15.519 in water in the context of clinical baptism, 00:20:15.599 --> 00:20:18.759 people who are sick. That was the exception he 00:20:18.759 --> 00:20:22.700 came up with and wrote about. But people were, 00:20:22.700 --> 00:20:26.500 over history, gonna take this idea and make it 00:20:26.500 --> 00:20:31.529 a law or a rule. Now we see a man named Diocletian 00:20:31.529 --> 00:20:35.970 in 303 AD 303 and he gave his last and final 00:20:35.970 --> 00:20:39.529 attempt of persecution from Rome to Christianity 00:20:39.529 --> 00:20:42.309 This was the great in history known as one of 00:20:42.309 --> 00:20:45.049 the greatest if not the greatest attempt to wipe 00:20:45.049 --> 00:20:47.789 out Christianity and in this period of persecution 00:20:47.789 --> 00:20:50.549 You know what they did they failed and Christianity 00:20:50.549 --> 00:20:53.490 prevailed Christianity stayed around and so you 00:20:53.490 --> 00:20:57.450 know what happened the next Emperor Galerius 00:20:57.450 --> 00:21:01.390 grants toleration just a few years later for 00:21:01.390 --> 00:21:04.309 Christianity. After this intense persecution, 00:21:05.149 --> 00:21:07.190 Why were they all of a sudden going to grant, 00:21:07.250 --> 00:21:09.609 okay fine, we're going to tolerate you Christians 00:21:09.609 --> 00:21:12.130 being in Rome, it's going to be okay. This is 00:21:12.130 --> 00:21:14.369 why. This is what they wrote. History tells us 00:21:14.369 --> 00:21:16.529 many were subdued by the fear of danger, talking 00:21:16.529 --> 00:21:19.150 about Christians. Many even suffered death and 00:21:19.150 --> 00:21:22.829 yet since most of them persevered in their determination, 00:21:23.450 --> 00:21:25.670 we thought that we ought to grant our most prompt 00:21:25.670 --> 00:21:28.910 indulgence also to these so that they may again 00:21:28.910 --> 00:21:32.769 be Christians and may hold their... Conventicles. 00:21:33.150 --> 00:21:37.190 So essentially what we see is these people were 00:21:37.190 --> 00:21:40.210 subdued, they suffered, they faced danger, even 00:21:40.210 --> 00:21:44.569 to their death, okay, and they persevered and 00:21:44.569 --> 00:21:47.130 they stayed faithful. And so maybe now we ought 00:21:47.130 --> 00:21:50.470 to take it easy on them. And so they granted 00:21:50.470 --> 00:21:54.529 an edict of toleration in Rome for Christianity 00:21:54.529 --> 00:21:58.230 in 311. And I want you to know from this point 00:21:58.230 --> 00:22:02.730 on, When persecution was essentially ended, this 00:22:02.730 --> 00:22:05.569 is where things really started to spiral. Because 00:22:05.569 --> 00:22:09.049 even before the persecution, we saw these little 00:22:09.049 --> 00:22:12.289 inklings of the falling away begin to just take 00:22:12.289 --> 00:22:14.210 root, but they weren't the overwhelming majority. 00:22:14.650 --> 00:22:18.230 After the end of persecution, the deviancies 00:22:18.230 --> 00:22:20.569 from God's plan begin to become overwhelming. 00:22:21.009 --> 00:22:23.809 It just gets worse and worse, and people begin 00:22:23.809 --> 00:22:27.240 to fall. away farther and farther. We get to 00:22:27.240 --> 00:22:30.539 a man named Constantine and this time the the 00:22:30.539 --> 00:22:32.859 emperors of Rome would come together and battle 00:22:32.859 --> 00:22:35.700 each other and whoever won the battle would become 00:22:35.700 --> 00:22:39.359 emperor of Rome and Constantine wanted to be 00:22:39.359 --> 00:22:42.380 emperor and so he was traveling towards this 00:22:42.380 --> 00:22:47.099 the battle of the Milvian bridge and he was going 00:22:47.099 --> 00:22:49.180 to fight this battle so that he could become 00:22:49.180 --> 00:22:51.720 emperor of Rome and on his way to this battle 00:22:51.720 --> 00:22:56.339 he claimed that he had a vision. And in his vision, 00:22:56.359 --> 00:23:00.900 he saw a cross made out of light. And underneath 00:23:00.900 --> 00:23:04.519 that word spoke to him that said, by this, conquer. 00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:09.279 And so he took this supposed vision as, this 00:23:09.279 --> 00:23:12.539 is Christ, and I am going to help you win this 00:23:12.539 --> 00:23:15.740 battle and help you become emperor of Rome. That's 00:23:15.740 --> 00:23:18.940 what Constantine claimed. That's what Constantine 00:23:18.940 --> 00:23:20.859 believed. And you know what happened at this 00:23:20.859 --> 00:23:23.549 great battle of the Milvian Bridge? He won. and 00:23:23.549 --> 00:23:28.109 he became emperor of Rome. Now something started 00:23:28.109 --> 00:23:32.069 to change here. Because just a couple of years 00:23:32.069 --> 00:23:35.769 ago, Rome was intensely persecuting Christians. 00:23:36.789 --> 00:23:40.109 Now all of a sudden, they have an emperor, a 00:23:40.109 --> 00:23:43.789 leader that is saying, I got in this place by 00:23:43.789 --> 00:23:47.569 the help of Christ. That's a total flip of the 00:23:47.569 --> 00:23:50.490 script there, isn't it? And so what happened? 00:23:50.859 --> 00:23:54.039 The next year, after Constantine became Emperor 00:23:54.039 --> 00:23:56.740 of Rome, there was something called the Edict 00:23:56.740 --> 00:24:00.039 of Milan. And essentially, not only Christianity 00:24:00.039 --> 00:24:03.220 received legal toleration, they were legally 00:24:03.220 --> 00:24:06.259 supposed to, in Rome, tolerate Christians, they 00:24:06.259 --> 00:24:10.440 were now legally receiving imperial favor. They 00:24:10.440 --> 00:24:14.619 were receiving favor from Rome, favor from the 00:24:14.619 --> 00:24:17.839 emperors. And that was all stated in the Edict 00:24:17.839 --> 00:24:21.980 of Milan. Free and unrestricted opportunity of 00:24:21.980 --> 00:24:26.079 religious worship history tells us Their property 00:24:26.079 --> 00:24:28.019 talking about the Christians property that was 00:24:28.019 --> 00:24:30.680 taken from them by Rome Should be restored to 00:24:30.680 --> 00:24:33.000 the Christians without payment or any claim of 00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:35.259 recompense see guys. This sounds great freedom 00:24:35.259 --> 00:24:37.700 of religion That's what we I believe we have 00:24:37.700 --> 00:24:39.279 in our country today that we ought to be thankful 00:24:39.279 --> 00:24:41.779 for and that's what this sounds like in this 00:24:41.779 --> 00:24:46.190 edict in 313 ad the freedom of religion That's 00:24:46.190 --> 00:24:48.410 what it sounds like. People ought to not only 00:24:48.410 --> 00:24:50.490 be able to practice Christianity and be tolerated, 00:24:50.569 --> 00:24:53.789 but also be supported to do these things. We're 00:24:53.789 --> 00:24:57.230 going to give them their land. They started getting 00:24:57.230 --> 00:25:01.269 along with Rome. Christianity and Rome now were 00:25:01.269 --> 00:25:05.029 becoming friendly when they were once enemies. 00:25:05.369 --> 00:25:08.109 During this time of the rule of Constantine, 00:25:08.190 --> 00:25:12.150 when this first church and state began kind of 00:25:12.150 --> 00:25:15.519 working together, This was the influence that 00:25:15.519 --> 00:25:19.039 Rome had over the church at this point in time. 00:25:19.440 --> 00:25:23.180 The emperors of Rome would gather together bishops. 00:25:23.819 --> 00:25:26.940 And by this point, this role of bishop has grown 00:25:26.940 --> 00:25:29.259 into something that was not at all how God intended. 00:25:29.420 --> 00:25:32.140 Originally, bishops were the elders of the congregation. 00:25:32.460 --> 00:25:35.680 And then they morphed into, they were above the 00:25:35.680 --> 00:25:37.400 elders in the congregation. They were the one 00:25:37.400 --> 00:25:40.759 bishop of a congregation. And then those bishops 00:25:40.759 --> 00:25:44.059 gained more power. and popularity, and now they 00:25:44.059 --> 00:25:47.859 were a bishop over a region. And they had control 00:25:47.859 --> 00:25:50.960 and power over multiple elderships and multiple 00:25:50.960 --> 00:25:55.480 congregations in an area. That's what these bishops 00:25:55.480 --> 00:25:57.880 had turned into. They were really well -known 00:25:57.880 --> 00:26:01.640 figures and very powerful figures. And so the 00:26:01.640 --> 00:26:04.200 emperors of Rome were friendly towards these 00:26:04.200 --> 00:26:06.039 bishops because they were well -known and powerful. 00:26:06.589 --> 00:26:09.490 and when there was a church dispute or a church 00:26:09.490 --> 00:26:12.269 discussion or disagreement the emperor of rome 00:26:12.269 --> 00:26:16.470 who had no business being involved would conjugate 00:26:16.470 --> 00:26:19.529 a group of bishops that they would call a council 00:26:19.529 --> 00:26:22.599 that we would call a council to settle church 00:26:22.599 --> 00:26:25.700 disputes and church issues and a famous one that 00:26:25.700 --> 00:26:27.940 you've probably heard of is the Council of Nicaea 00:26:27.940 --> 00:26:31.779 in 8325 when the divinity of Christ was an issue 00:26:31.779 --> 00:26:35.799 that was disagreed upon and Constantine he convoked 00:26:35.799 --> 00:26:38.220 a general council and invited the speedy attendance 00:26:38.220 --> 00:26:41.720 of bishops from all quarters and he got a bunch 00:26:41.720 --> 00:26:44.160 of bishops together created this council to come 00:26:44.160 --> 00:26:47.440 excuse me to terms and make a decision on these 00:26:47.440 --> 00:26:51.609 church issues. Not only did these bishops have 00:26:51.609 --> 00:26:55.049 power to settle agreements and make decisions 00:26:55.049 --> 00:26:59.150 that they had no right to do, now the emperor 00:26:59.150 --> 00:27:02.410 of Rome had the power and authority to take these 00:27:02.410 --> 00:27:04.329 bishops to do those things. You see the power 00:27:04.329 --> 00:27:07.349 that Rome had over the church at this point was 00:27:07.349 --> 00:27:11.690 not at all a good thing. Then we get to emperor 00:27:11.690 --> 00:27:15.450 Theodosius. And what we see here loosely is that 00:27:15.450 --> 00:27:18.089 Christianity becomes the official religion of 00:27:18.089 --> 00:27:20.430 the empire. Now we don't have, that I can find 00:27:20.430 --> 00:27:23.210 any documentation that expressly states this. 00:27:23.769 --> 00:27:29.869 But what we do find is some writings from Theodosius 00:27:29.869 --> 00:27:33.730 that makes it sound like that was the case. Okay, 00:27:33.750 --> 00:27:37.609 and so in this period of time in 83 AD, when 00:27:37.609 --> 00:27:39.730 Theodosius was emperor, we see the church and 00:27:39.730 --> 00:27:42.720 state become deeply. intertwined. This is what 00:27:42.720 --> 00:27:48.880 we see here happening in AD 380. It is our will 00:27:48.880 --> 00:27:53.319 that all the peoples who are ruled by the administration 00:27:53.319 --> 00:27:56.960 of our clemency shall practice the religion which 00:27:56.960 --> 00:28:01.420 the divine Peter the apostle transmitted to the 00:28:01.420 --> 00:28:04.549 Romans. the single deity of the Father and of 00:28:04.549 --> 00:28:06.430 the Son of the Holy Spirit under the concept 00:28:06.430 --> 00:28:09.410 of equal majesty and of the Holy Trinity. Now 00:28:09.410 --> 00:28:11.809 there was this idea becoming increasingly popular 00:28:11.809 --> 00:28:15.089 that Peter himself had been given some sort of 00:28:15.089 --> 00:28:17.849 special authority by Christ. And where this came 00:28:17.849 --> 00:28:20.329 from was a very gross misunderstanding of when 00:28:20.329 --> 00:28:22.730 Christ said thou art Peter and upon this rock 00:28:22.730 --> 00:28:25.190 I will build my church. Well the reality is Peter 00:28:25.190 --> 00:28:27.529 was never the rock. Christ has always been the 00:28:27.529 --> 00:28:29.869 rock, has always been the foundation of his church, 00:28:29.970 --> 00:28:32.809 okay? But he gave Peter those keys, and Peter 00:28:32.809 --> 00:28:35.170 unlocked the gates of the kingdom when he preached 00:28:35.170 --> 00:28:37.569 that very first gospel sermon on the day of Pentecost. 00:28:38.190 --> 00:28:41.309 But what these people thought was that Peter 00:28:41.309 --> 00:28:43.490 was given special authority by Christ because 00:28:43.490 --> 00:28:45.990 he was the rock on which Christ's church would 00:28:45.990 --> 00:28:48.789 be built upon. And not only did Peter have this 00:28:48.789 --> 00:28:51.289 special authority, but Peter, when he was gone, 00:28:51.609 --> 00:28:57.130 passed down this special authority to Rome. That 00:28:57.130 --> 00:28:59.869 doesn't really make sense in our minds, but in 00:28:59.869 --> 00:29:02.190 their minds at some point in Peter's life as 00:29:02.190 --> 00:29:04.769 an apostle, he was loosely associated with the 00:29:04.769 --> 00:29:06.910 church at Rome. And so they thought because Peter 00:29:06.910 --> 00:29:09.589 was associated with them, he passed down this 00:29:09.589 --> 00:29:13.150 special authority from Christ to Rome. And so 00:29:13.150 --> 00:29:17.720 what we see here in this codex from Theodosius 00:29:17.720 --> 00:29:20.079 is that it was written by the emperor himself 00:29:20.079 --> 00:29:22.440 that these people ought to worship this way. 00:29:22.759 --> 00:29:25.380 It was no longer freedom of religion. It was 00:29:25.380 --> 00:29:28.079 Christianity being forced upon people. It was 00:29:28.079 --> 00:29:31.240 the will of Rome that people were to start practicing 00:29:31.240 --> 00:29:34.180 Christianity, but not just however they wanted 00:29:34.180 --> 00:29:37.059 in a very specific way, the way that he believed 00:29:37.059 --> 00:29:42.440 the Apostle Peter had practiced. He keeps going, 00:29:42.579 --> 00:29:44.940 it says, history tells us, we command that those 00:29:44.940 --> 00:29:48.339 persons who follow this rule shall embrace the 00:29:48.339 --> 00:29:52.099 name of Catholic Christians. The rest, however, 00:29:52.500 --> 00:29:55.339 whom we adjudge demented and insane shall sustain 00:29:55.339 --> 00:29:58.000 the infamy of heretical dogmas. Their meeting 00:29:58.000 --> 00:30:00.160 places shall not receive the name of churches 00:30:00.160 --> 00:30:03.099 and they shall be smitten first by divine vengeance 00:30:03.099 --> 00:30:06.319 and secondly by the retribution of our own initiative. 00:30:06.660 --> 00:30:09.390 I just. Clear that I am not here to stand before 00:30:09.390 --> 00:30:12.650 you and trash talk any other people or their 00:30:12.650 --> 00:30:14.509 belief systems or what they've believed in the 00:30:14.509 --> 00:30:16.829 past. My assignment was to teach this portion 00:30:16.829 --> 00:30:19.650 of history and this is a very important part 00:30:19.650 --> 00:30:23.109 of this portion of history and it was a very 00:30:23.109 --> 00:30:25.930 not good part of the history of the church and 00:30:25.930 --> 00:30:29.950 it has to be talked about. They said the people 00:30:29.950 --> 00:30:32.349 that were going to follow this special authority 00:30:32.349 --> 00:30:35.880 that Rome had given to them by Peter They had 00:30:35.880 --> 00:30:37.900 to follow it in this way. And if they were gonna 00:30:37.900 --> 00:30:39.859 follow it in this way, they were gonna go by 00:30:39.859 --> 00:30:42.579 the name Catholic Christians. And to my knowledge, 00:30:42.880 --> 00:30:45.380 this is the first time in history that we see 00:30:45.380 --> 00:30:49.819 this name. Anybody else who did not practice 00:30:49.819 --> 00:30:52.859 in this way, anybody else who chose any other 00:30:52.859 --> 00:30:56.299 direction, they were labeled as heretics. And 00:30:56.299 --> 00:30:59.619 they were called crazy and insane and demented. 00:30:59.920 --> 00:31:02.220 And then they said, these people that are not 00:31:02.220 --> 00:31:04.380 Catholic Christians, not only will they face 00:31:04.380 --> 00:31:06.119 the vengeance of God on that day of judgment, 00:31:06.339 --> 00:31:08.740 but they will also face the vengeance of Rome. 00:31:09.039 --> 00:31:12.599 They will face our authority. If they were not 00:31:12.599 --> 00:31:17.740 gonna follow this teaching that Rome thought 00:31:17.740 --> 00:31:20.359 they had authority over, they were going to punish 00:31:20.359 --> 00:31:24.900 these people. Folks, that's not good. That's 00:31:24.900 --> 00:31:29.069 a great falling away. What ended up happening 00:31:29.069 --> 00:31:31.890 here is that Christianity started off persecuted 00:31:31.890 --> 00:31:34.410 and then a few years passed and then they were 00:31:34.410 --> 00:31:36.829 tolerated and then a year passed and then all 00:31:36.829 --> 00:31:39.470 of a sudden they were favored by Rome and now 00:31:39.470 --> 00:31:41.990 essentially Christianity was established by Rome 00:31:41.990 --> 00:31:44.049 not just Christianity the way Christ intended 00:31:44.049 --> 00:31:47.369 it the way Rome wanted it to be. The influence 00:31:47.369 --> 00:31:50.730 that Rome had over the church was established 00:31:50.730 --> 00:31:55.039 and you had to follow it. And then we get to 00:31:55.039 --> 00:31:58.079 the late 300s and 400s when there were people 00:31:58.079 --> 00:32:01.420 beginning to recognize this corruption. And so 00:32:01.420 --> 00:32:04.539 we see this thing called monasticism. Essentially, 00:32:04.940 --> 00:32:08.509 monks decided that the... Solution to this problem 00:32:08.509 --> 00:32:10.789 of all this corruption was to just go live an 00:32:10.789 --> 00:32:12.829 isolated life and just get away from all the 00:32:12.829 --> 00:32:15.230 corruption And I want you to know that was not 00:32:15.230 --> 00:32:17.309 the right answer But I point this out to show 00:32:17.309 --> 00:32:19.410 you that there were people with sincere hearts 00:32:19.410 --> 00:32:22.470 that wanted to try to have a solution That wanted 00:32:22.470 --> 00:32:25.150 to try to recognize the corruption and that wanted 00:32:25.150 --> 00:32:27.650 to do something about it all along There were 00:32:27.650 --> 00:32:30.190 people that wanted to do right but in this section 00:32:30.190 --> 00:32:33.369 of history the overwhelming majority was corrupt 00:32:34.420 --> 00:32:37.559 Okay, then we see a man named Jerome and he produced 00:32:37.559 --> 00:32:40.380 what is known today as the Latin Vulgate and 00:32:40.380 --> 00:32:43.720 it was essentially the Bible that the Roman Catholic 00:32:43.720 --> 00:32:46.740 Church used and they essentially still use that 00:32:46.740 --> 00:32:50.319 today and it was entirely in Latin and it included 00:32:50.319 --> 00:32:53.420 the books of the Apocrypha and all of those types 00:32:53.420 --> 00:32:55.960 of things and that was the Bible that they exclusively 00:32:55.960 --> 00:33:00.039 used in this period of time in this Church of 00:33:00.039 --> 00:33:04.880 Western Rome. Augustine greatly influences teaching 00:33:04.880 --> 00:33:08.799 on original sin on grace predestination and infant 00:33:08.799 --> 00:33:11.259 baptism so we've already seen earlier in history 00:33:11.259 --> 00:33:13.619 that infant baptism was already kind of talked 00:33:13.619 --> 00:33:16.319 about and it was more of an exception than a 00:33:16.319 --> 00:33:19.339 rule that it could be done but now they're starting 00:33:19.339 --> 00:33:21.859 to come up with the reason why this this man 00:33:21.859 --> 00:33:24.880 named Augustine wrote about what we would call 00:33:24.880 --> 00:33:27.500 today Calvinism and Augustine came before John 00:33:27.500 --> 00:33:30.440 Calvin John Calvin was not the originator of 00:33:30.440 --> 00:33:33.079 these doctrines of predestination and original 00:33:33.079 --> 00:33:35.339 sin and all those things we studied in one of 00:33:35.339 --> 00:33:39.460 our previous series. Augustine wrote about these 00:33:39.460 --> 00:33:43.279 things. History tells us, inasmuch as infants 00:33:43.279 --> 00:33:46.420 are not held bound by any sins of their own actual 00:33:46.420 --> 00:33:49.140 life, it is the guilt of original sin, talking 00:33:49.140 --> 00:33:52.109 about the sin of Adam and Eve. which is healed 00:33:52.109 --> 00:33:55.930 in them. Infants ought to be baptized. It remains 00:33:55.930 --> 00:33:58.990 for us to believe that infants inherit original 00:33:58.990 --> 00:34:03.490 sins. Doctrines of baptism and of sin and God's 00:34:03.490 --> 00:34:05.369 grace were greatly being corrupted during this 00:34:05.369 --> 00:34:10.449 time as well. Then we get to a man named Damasus 00:34:10.449 --> 00:34:16.150 in AD 366 to 384 and he was a bishop of Rome 00:34:16.150 --> 00:34:18.849 and what we see is this idea of the special authority 00:34:18.849 --> 00:34:22.699 that Peter had really being handed to Rome, not 00:34:22.699 --> 00:34:24.940 only was it being handed to Rome, it was being 00:34:24.940 --> 00:34:28.400 handed to the Bishop of Rome. By this time, the 00:34:28.400 --> 00:34:31.920 bishops were not just over multiple congregations 00:34:31.920 --> 00:34:33.940 in a region or in a quarter, is what they would 00:34:33.940 --> 00:34:37.659 call it. Now they were a bishop over Rome. They 00:34:37.659 --> 00:34:39.940 had gained so much power and what they thought 00:34:39.940 --> 00:34:42.900 was authority given to them by Peter, the very 00:34:42.900 --> 00:34:49.440 first bishop, if you will. They had power. They 00:34:49.440 --> 00:34:52.659 were the most powerful influential person of 00:34:52.659 --> 00:34:57.840 all the church. Zane covered this last week, 00:34:57.840 --> 00:35:00.739 but I want you to know that Christ has always 00:35:00.739 --> 00:35:03.219 been and will always be the proper head of the 00:35:03.219 --> 00:35:05.980 church. And that's how it was designed and that's 00:35:05.980 --> 00:35:09.670 how it was set up. And when we see that plan 00:35:09.670 --> 00:35:12.369 of Christ being the head of his church deviated 00:35:12.369 --> 00:35:15.889 from, when we see a corrupt man put in charge 00:35:15.889 --> 00:35:18.389 and have this much influence over the entire 00:35:18.389 --> 00:35:21.909 church, we see corruption. And that's what we 00:35:21.909 --> 00:35:25.409 saw in this period of time. What essentially 00:35:25.409 --> 00:35:28.070 happened here is what they believed was Christ 00:35:28.070 --> 00:35:31.449 gave special authority to Peter, Peter was associated 00:35:31.449 --> 00:35:33.869 with the church at Rome at one point, and so 00:35:33.869 --> 00:35:37.429 the bishop of Rome occupies Peter's seat. And 00:35:37.429 --> 00:35:40.369 this special authority in the seat that Peter 00:35:40.369 --> 00:35:43.230 sat in was passed down from generation to generation 00:35:43.230 --> 00:35:46.489 to the next bishop. Therefore, the Roman bishop 00:35:46.489 --> 00:35:49.849 possessed special authority. That's what they 00:35:49.849 --> 00:35:56.750 believed. Then we get to Leo I, who was in 440 00:35:56.750 --> 00:36:00.929 AD or AD 440, he was the bishop of Rome. And 00:36:00.929 --> 00:36:05.130 what we see here is, the authority of the Roman 00:36:05.130 --> 00:36:07.969 bishop in this period of time, the time of Leo, 00:36:08.190 --> 00:36:12.530 was greatly increased. Why was that? Y 'all remember 00:36:12.530 --> 00:36:16.369 Attila the Hun? I, for a long time, thought Attila 00:36:16.369 --> 00:36:18.550 the Hun was just some dude we read about in history 00:36:18.550 --> 00:36:20.429 books. He was a character in Night at the Museum 00:36:20.429 --> 00:36:22.829 movies, you know, really fun to read about. He 00:36:22.829 --> 00:36:26.889 was actually a horrible, disgusting guy and plundered 00:36:26.889 --> 00:36:30.289 places and he stole and he killed and he destroyed 00:36:30.289 --> 00:36:33.719 and... He went into Northern Italy and he was 00:36:33.719 --> 00:36:36.440 going to plunder the place. And there was a group 00:36:36.440 --> 00:36:39.019 of men that went to Attila the Hun and convinced 00:36:39.019 --> 00:36:41.639 them to not go into this battle and to not plunder. 00:36:42.000 --> 00:36:45.519 And this Roman bishop, Leo I, was in that group 00:36:45.519 --> 00:36:50.780 of men. And so now Rome is looking at the bishop, 00:36:51.099 --> 00:36:53.179 the leader of the church, and seeing how much 00:36:53.179 --> 00:36:57.230 power he really has, the power over war. the 00:36:57.230 --> 00:36:59.909 power to keep somebody from plundering another, 00:37:00.289 --> 00:37:03.469 how much power they have. And so now we start 00:37:03.469 --> 00:37:06.949 to see, instead of Rome controlling the church, 00:37:07.309 --> 00:37:09.389 we begin to see it teeter the other way, where 00:37:09.389 --> 00:37:13.630 the church almost begin to control Rome. And 00:37:13.630 --> 00:37:15.849 you're gonna see a little bit more of that as 00:37:15.849 --> 00:37:20.329 we go along. At this point in time, in this section 00:37:20.329 --> 00:37:24.860 of time, Rome as an empire began to weaken. but 00:37:24.860 --> 00:37:27.360 the authority that Rome had over the church or 00:37:27.360 --> 00:37:30.199 the authority that was in Rome by the bishop 00:37:30.199 --> 00:37:36.119 began to strengthen. And then we get to the 400s 00:37:36.119 --> 00:37:40.980 AD to the 1000s AD. And a lot of this is about 00:37:40.980 --> 00:37:42.739 to begin the dark ages where we just don't have 00:37:42.739 --> 00:37:45.260 a lot of information about, but during this time 00:37:45.260 --> 00:37:48.039 period of about 600 years, there were a lot of 00:37:48.039 --> 00:37:50.639 things that happened. A lot of deviancies where 00:37:50.639 --> 00:37:52.800 all of these things that we've been talking about, 00:37:53.130 --> 00:37:55.250 were just exceptions, and they were things that 00:37:55.250 --> 00:37:56.829 were just beginning to grow, and they were at 00:37:56.829 --> 00:37:59.510 their beginning stages. Well, during this 600 00:37:59.510 --> 00:38:04.010 years, they all became institutionalized. It 00:38:04.010 --> 00:38:06.530 all became set in stone, and that's how it was, 00:38:06.550 --> 00:38:10.110 and there was no other way. That's just how it 00:38:10.110 --> 00:38:12.630 was for 600 years, and it got worse and worse 00:38:12.630 --> 00:38:15.630 and worse. By the way, during this time of the 00:38:15.630 --> 00:38:18.869 falling away was when we see the New Testament 00:38:18.869 --> 00:38:21.710 church worship using instrumental music for the 00:38:21.710 --> 00:38:24.599 first time. That ought to tell us something. 00:38:25.440 --> 00:38:29.380 If the Bible predicted a falling away, and in 00:38:29.380 --> 00:38:32.820 the worst part of the falling away, when Christians 00:38:32.820 --> 00:38:35.699 began to deviate from God's plan, the worst was 00:38:35.699 --> 00:38:38.119 the first time in history we see instrumental 00:38:38.119 --> 00:38:41.539 music being used in worship, that ought to tell 00:38:41.539 --> 00:38:44.929 us something. During this time there was a rigid 00:38:44.929 --> 00:38:47.969 hierarchy Developing this this bishop over Rome 00:38:47.969 --> 00:38:50.769 began to be referred to as the Pope which you're 00:38:50.769 --> 00:38:53.409 familiar with that concept today and the Pope 00:38:53.409 --> 00:38:55.750 and there was higher clergy and there were people 00:38:55.750 --> 00:38:57.650 under the Pope there were bishops and there were 00:38:57.650 --> 00:39:00.690 priests and then there was laity the laity was 00:39:00.690 --> 00:39:02.989 essentially just the regular saints the regular 00:39:02.989 --> 00:39:05.889 people the people that came to to worship that 00:39:05.889 --> 00:39:08.190 came to mass and They couldn't even understand 00:39:08.190 --> 00:39:09.730 what was being read because they didn't know 00:39:09.730 --> 00:39:11.650 Latin But they were still reading out of Latin 00:39:11.650 --> 00:39:14.829 out of that Latin vol And so essentially all 00:39:14.829 --> 00:39:17.849 Christians were dependent on the clergy to teach 00:39:17.849 --> 00:39:23.190 them and to tell them God's way. And so during 00:39:23.190 --> 00:39:27.489 this time, this hierarchy, the Pope, all the 00:39:27.489 --> 00:39:30.570 clergy developed great power, power that they 00:39:30.570 --> 00:39:33.110 shouldn't have had, and they had great power 00:39:33.110 --> 00:39:39.829 over regular Christians. On Christmas Day, 8800, 00:39:40.780 --> 00:39:45.639 Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Emperor in Rome. 00:39:46.780 --> 00:39:49.360 Church and state are now deeply intertwined. 00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:54.400 The Pope had so much power that he now crowned 00:39:54.400 --> 00:39:58.880 this Emperor of Rome. That power began to shift. 00:39:59.699 --> 00:40:01.760 And then we get to the Middle Ages, the beginning 00:40:01.760 --> 00:40:04.659 of this, what we call the Dark Ages. At this 00:40:04.659 --> 00:40:07.440 point in time, worship became very formal. and 00:40:07.440 --> 00:40:10.139 clergy -centered. Clergy and laity are clearly 00:40:10.139 --> 00:40:12.760 separated and a system of sacraments develops. 00:40:12.900 --> 00:40:15.199 So there's regular people and then there's important 00:40:15.199 --> 00:40:17.599 people. The clergy were the important people, 00:40:17.659 --> 00:40:21.329 okay? And they controlled worship. Everything 00:40:21.329 --> 00:40:23.750 about worship was not like what we're doing today, 00:40:23.849 --> 00:40:25.929 coming together and singing praises to God and 00:40:25.929 --> 00:40:28.050 singing with the understanding, praying with 00:40:28.050 --> 00:40:30.190 the understanding and with the spirit and lifting 00:40:30.190 --> 00:40:33.050 each other up. That's not what worship was. People 00:40:33.050 --> 00:40:35.670 were coming together and they were essentially 00:40:35.670 --> 00:40:38.590 trusting in the clergy to perform worship for 00:40:38.590 --> 00:40:41.730 them and to do things that they hoped that God 00:40:41.730 --> 00:40:43.789 wanted because they couldn't even read the Bible 00:40:43.789 --> 00:40:45.869 because it was in Latin, the Bible that they 00:40:45.869 --> 00:40:48.230 were reading in worship. There was a lot of trust 00:40:48.230 --> 00:40:51.920 in this clergy. And so there was a system of 00:40:51.920 --> 00:40:53.940 sacraments developed. Essentially in the church 00:40:53.940 --> 00:40:56.079 at this time, there were seven sacraments that 00:40:56.079 --> 00:40:59.260 they based their belief system off of. Baptism, 00:40:59.840 --> 00:41:02.599 confirmation, the Eucharist, which is similar 00:41:02.599 --> 00:41:06.019 to what we would call communion today, penance, 00:41:06.440 --> 00:41:09.460 anointing the sick, holy orders, and matrimony. 00:41:09.719 --> 00:41:12.139 That's what their worship was centered around. 00:41:12.260 --> 00:41:14.139 It wasn't those five things that we already talked 00:41:14.139 --> 00:41:16.039 about, the singing and the giving and the communing 00:41:16.039 --> 00:41:18.119 and the teaching and the praying. It wasn't those 00:41:18.119 --> 00:41:21.380 things. It was these things that man had come 00:41:21.380 --> 00:41:23.139 up with. And if man hadn't come up with them, 00:41:23.400 --> 00:41:26.099 they altered the belief and the doctrine around 00:41:26.099 --> 00:41:30.219 them. I want you to know the priests that they 00:41:30.219 --> 00:41:32.159 believed that had power to perform all of these 00:41:32.159 --> 00:41:35.630 sacraments, they had it all wrong. The Bible 00:41:35.630 --> 00:41:38.070 clearly teaches in the New Testament church who 00:41:38.070 --> 00:41:40.329 the priests are. And folks, that's you and me. 00:41:40.690 --> 00:41:43.090 First Peter, the person they believed was the 00:41:43.090 --> 00:41:48.349 first pope, taught us who the priests are. And 00:41:48.349 --> 00:41:51.429 that's us. We are that holy priesthood because 00:41:51.429 --> 00:41:55.539 we... It says, as also as living stones by being 00:41:55.539 --> 00:41:57.659 built up a spiritual house, we are that spiritual 00:41:57.659 --> 00:42:00.860 house. A holy priesthood, we are that holy priesthood 00:42:00.860 --> 00:42:03.219 to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to 00:42:03.219 --> 00:42:06.960 God through Christ Jesus. We have the right to 00:42:06.960 --> 00:42:09.460 offer up our spiritual sacrifices of worship 00:42:09.460 --> 00:42:12.199 to Christ and not depend on clergy to do it for 00:42:12.199 --> 00:42:16.300 us. And then, in the later part of these Middle 00:42:16.300 --> 00:42:19.179 Ages, we see this idea of confession, penance, 00:42:19.400 --> 00:42:23.980 and indulgences begin to really popularize. So, 00:42:24.059 --> 00:42:25.820 you've probably heard of it. You get in a wooden 00:42:25.820 --> 00:42:28.300 box, and the priest is on one side, and there's 00:42:28.300 --> 00:42:30.239 a wall, and the Christian's on the other side, 00:42:30.239 --> 00:42:33.079 and they confess their sins to the clergy. And 00:42:33.079 --> 00:42:35.380 that's what happened. And then, they would confess 00:42:35.380 --> 00:42:38.059 their sins, and then the clergy, or this priest, 00:42:38.159 --> 00:42:40.519 would assign penance, assign things that these 00:42:40.519 --> 00:42:42.539 Christians had to do to make it right, so their 00:42:42.539 --> 00:42:45.739 sins could be forgiven. At this time, they had 00:42:45.739 --> 00:42:49.500 a very interesting separation of forgiveness 00:42:49.500 --> 00:42:53.440 that they came up with. They said that if you 00:42:53.440 --> 00:42:55.980 confess to the priest, you can be forgiven of 00:42:55.980 --> 00:42:59.099 the guilt of your sin, but the punishment of 00:42:59.099 --> 00:43:00.860 your sin after you die is not gonna be taken 00:43:00.860 --> 00:43:03.820 away. So if you want the punishment to be lessened 00:43:03.820 --> 00:43:06.480 after you die, when you go to purgatory and you 00:43:06.480 --> 00:43:08.000 don't wanna be punished, you wanna be punished 00:43:08.000 --> 00:43:12.500 less, you gotta do these acts of penance. And 00:43:12.500 --> 00:43:15.159 these acts of penance are written about, we're 00:43:15.159 --> 00:43:16.980 gonna talk about, history tells us here, let 00:43:16.980 --> 00:43:19.300 every one of the faithful of both sexes, after 00:43:19.300 --> 00:43:21.719 he has reached the age of discretion, faithfully 00:43:21.719 --> 00:43:24.960 confess all his sins at least once a year to 00:43:24.960 --> 00:43:27.420 his priest. That was what they were commanded 00:43:27.420 --> 00:43:30.769 to do. And these penance, included things like 00:43:30.769 --> 00:43:34.409 prayers and fasting and almsgiving or other prescribed 00:43:34.409 --> 00:43:36.449 acts. The priest would say, if you want your 00:43:36.449 --> 00:43:38.650 sentence for your sin to be lessened when you 00:43:38.650 --> 00:43:40.949 die, you just do these things. And the more you 00:43:40.949 --> 00:43:44.889 do, the less your sentence will be, your penalty 00:43:44.889 --> 00:43:47.530 will be for your sin after you die. And then 00:43:47.530 --> 00:43:50.789 they were told, after they confessed their sins 00:43:50.789 --> 00:43:54.010 once a year, at least, to the priest and performed 00:43:54.010 --> 00:43:57.090 to the best of their ability the penance imposed. 00:43:58.300 --> 00:44:00.980 And then we get to this point of history where 00:44:00.980 --> 00:44:03.539 we have a very well known and influential man 00:44:03.539 --> 00:44:06.440 named Thomas Aquinas. That's how we're gonna 00:44:06.440 --> 00:44:09.019 say his name. And he acknowledges immersion. 00:44:09.449 --> 00:44:12.230 more clearly represents Christ's burial in the 00:44:12.230 --> 00:44:15.570 context of baptism, but he defends pouring or 00:44:15.570 --> 00:44:18.610 sprinkling as valid baptisms. The exception is 00:44:18.610 --> 00:44:21.409 now accepted theology. So at this point, it wasn't 00:44:21.409 --> 00:44:24.250 an exception anymore. It had deviated so far 00:44:24.250 --> 00:44:27.190 that essentially probably sprinkling and pouring 00:44:27.190 --> 00:44:29.349 was happening more than immersion was happening, 00:44:29.349 --> 00:44:32.170 but it was just as valid as immersion. And it 00:44:32.170 --> 00:44:35.610 was a very regular practice in the church at 00:44:35.610 --> 00:44:37.730 this time. And then we have just a couple of 00:44:37.730 --> 00:44:42.010 years later in 13, The Council of Ravenna also 00:44:42.010 --> 00:44:44.929 recognized immersion and pouring as equally valid 00:44:44.929 --> 00:44:48.789 forms of baptism. Let me get to the end of our 00:44:48.789 --> 00:44:55.090 timeline here. 1517 -80. I can't even stress 00:44:55.090 --> 00:44:57.650 how much corruption there was. You've read about 00:44:57.650 --> 00:45:00.389 it. We've been talking about it. It had gotten 00:45:00.389 --> 00:45:03.469 bad. And this is the end of our timeline of what 00:45:03.469 --> 00:45:05.230 we're going to cover today. And chance is going 00:45:05.230 --> 00:45:09.139 to pick up. In 1517, there were some people that 00:45:09.139 --> 00:45:12.219 decided they had enough of this corruption. And 00:45:12.219 --> 00:45:14.460 then the Reformation begins, and that's what 00:45:14.460 --> 00:45:17.880 chance is gonna cover. But by this point, the 00:45:17.880 --> 00:45:20.480 church had a papal hierarchy. That means there 00:45:20.480 --> 00:45:22.420 was the pope, there were the people under the 00:45:22.420 --> 00:45:24.000 pope, there was all the clergy, and they were 00:45:24.000 --> 00:45:26.400 so special and important and had all of this 00:45:26.400 --> 00:45:28.699 authority that, by the way, was never granted 00:45:28.699 --> 00:45:32.239 to them by God. There was infants being baptized. 00:45:32.650 --> 00:45:35.150 there were traditions of men being influenced 00:45:35.150 --> 00:45:39.389 and taught there was councils put together that 00:45:39.389 --> 00:45:41.409 they weren't turning back to the Bible to go 00:45:41.409 --> 00:45:43.349 find their answers they were taking these high 00:45:43.349 --> 00:45:45.570 influential men that by the way were being paid 00:45:45.570 --> 00:45:50.409 by Rome by the emperors to be friends and these 00:45:50.409 --> 00:45:52.650 councils were making important church decisions 00:45:52.650 --> 00:45:56.389 and essentially deciding doctrine there was non 00:45:56.389 --> 00:45:59.809 -immersion baptism happening regularly there 00:45:59.809 --> 00:46:03.429 was sacramental worship and indulgences The church 00:46:03.429 --> 00:46:07.869 had gotten so far from 70 AD. Christ set it up 00:46:07.869 --> 00:46:12.809 so beautifully and simply and wasn't it amazing 00:46:12.809 --> 00:46:16.889 when people were following that? And then slowly 00:46:16.889 --> 00:46:19.050 there was a change that began that brought the 00:46:19.050 --> 00:46:21.670 church to this point where there was a lot of 00:46:21.670 --> 00:46:24.929 sadness, a lot of evil, a lot of corruption. 00:46:26.269 --> 00:46:28.829 My question as we wrap up is how does a falling 00:46:28.829 --> 00:46:34.619 away happen? Did the church during this period 00:46:34.619 --> 00:46:37.400 of time when the Bible the Bible very much prophesied 00:46:37.400 --> 00:46:39.420 and promised that there will be a great falling 00:46:39.420 --> 00:46:41.960 away And it happened. I hope you can see that 00:46:41.960 --> 00:46:44.739 that promise from the Bible was fulfilled But 00:46:44.739 --> 00:46:47.820 did the church? Universal wake up one day and 00:46:47.820 --> 00:46:51.119 say I'm gonna decide to abandon God today and 00:46:51.119 --> 00:46:53.659 all of a sudden they invented infant baptism 00:46:53.659 --> 00:46:56.400 and instrumental music and this hierarchy of 00:46:56.400 --> 00:46:58.519 the Papacy and all of these things just happened 00:46:58.519 --> 00:47:01.360 overnight. That's not how it worked It happened 00:47:01.360 --> 00:47:04.980 very slow. People began to slowly fall away and 00:47:04.980 --> 00:47:10.179 to deviate from God's plan. How does a falling 00:47:10.179 --> 00:47:14.380 away happen in your life? That's a timeline of 00:47:14.380 --> 00:47:18.079 your life. Would you wake up one day and just 00:47:18.079 --> 00:47:20.480 decide, hey, I'm gonna abandon God today, and 00:47:20.480 --> 00:47:22.679 then you change your entire way of life? That's 00:47:22.679 --> 00:47:25.579 not how it happens. You've seen people fall away 00:47:25.579 --> 00:47:29.289 from God before, haven't you? Did they wake up 00:47:29.289 --> 00:47:31.190 one day and it just happened like that overnight? 00:47:32.869 --> 00:47:35.929 There's a risk of falling away. The Bible makes 00:47:35.929 --> 00:47:39.789 that clear for each individual person. That's 00:47:39.789 --> 00:47:43.989 what it looks like. At some point in your life 00:47:43.989 --> 00:47:46.409 you quit reading your Bible. Not because you 00:47:46.409 --> 00:47:48.789 woke up one morning and made a drastic decision, 00:47:48.789 --> 00:47:50.670 I'm gonna quit reading my Bible, but because 00:47:50.670 --> 00:47:55.050 eventually you just, life gets busy, there's 00:47:55.050 --> 00:47:58.019 stresses, you get out of the habit. You lose 00:47:58.019 --> 00:48:00.320 interest. It's not as interesting to you, and 00:48:00.320 --> 00:48:03.739 you're not as zealous about it as you were once, 00:48:03.739 --> 00:48:05.880 and you just get out of the habit. You don't 00:48:05.880 --> 00:48:08.800 make it a priority. You quit reading your Bible. 00:48:09.780 --> 00:48:12.659 And then what happens? You go on through life 00:48:12.659 --> 00:48:16.260 and you fall away from His authority. Because 00:48:16.260 --> 00:48:18.760 the Bible is the ultimate authority for man. 00:48:19.519 --> 00:48:21.599 The Bible is the number one authority in your 00:48:21.599 --> 00:48:24.019 life, and if you're not reading it, you fall 00:48:24.019 --> 00:48:26.730 away from that authority. that God gives. And 00:48:26.730 --> 00:48:28.409 when you fall away from His authority, you fall 00:48:28.409 --> 00:48:31.210 away from His doctrine. The things and the ways 00:48:31.210 --> 00:48:33.190 that He had set up for you to live your life 00:48:33.190 --> 00:48:34.889 and for you to worship and for you to practice, 00:48:35.269 --> 00:48:37.090 you don't know because you're not reading your 00:48:37.090 --> 00:48:39.650 Bible. And so you fall away from His doctrine. 00:48:39.730 --> 00:48:41.849 Then when you fall away from His doctrine, you 00:48:41.849 --> 00:48:45.250 fall away from His designs and patterns. He set 00:48:45.250 --> 00:48:47.449 certain designs and patterns in a way you ought 00:48:47.449 --> 00:48:49.599 to live your life. the way you ought to conduct 00:48:49.599 --> 00:48:51.579 your parenting, the way you ought to conduct 00:48:51.579 --> 00:48:55.119 your marriages, all of the things he's given 00:48:55.119 --> 00:48:57.920 you a pattern to in that word. But when you're 00:48:57.920 --> 00:49:00.820 not familiar with that word, you don't know what 00:49:00.820 --> 00:49:03.179 it says. And you fall away from those things 00:49:03.179 --> 00:49:06.320 and you start doing things your own way. And 00:49:06.320 --> 00:49:08.159 ultimately when you start doing things your own 00:49:08.159 --> 00:49:10.840 way, when you start doing things man's way, you 00:49:10.840 --> 00:49:13.639 see corruption in your life. So that happened 00:49:13.639 --> 00:49:15.840 in the history of the church, right? They started 00:49:15.840 --> 00:49:18.460 doing things man's way. Man had all this power 00:49:18.460 --> 00:49:22.000 and authority and we saw corruption. You fall 00:49:22.000 --> 00:49:23.840 away from his design and pattern and eventually 00:49:23.840 --> 00:49:27.300 you fall away from his morality. Sin creeps into 00:49:27.300 --> 00:49:29.639 your life and you've fallen so far away from 00:49:29.639 --> 00:49:35.940 God. You've lost interest. You've departed from 00:49:35.940 --> 00:49:40.019 the faith. Eventually you've fallen away from 00:49:40.019 --> 00:49:43.079 his grace. You know the Bible teaches you can 00:49:43.079 --> 00:49:45.960 fall from grace. A lot of people out there tell 00:49:45.960 --> 00:49:47.599 you that the Bible don't teach that, but it does 00:49:47.599 --> 00:49:51.960 in multiple places. When the apostle Paul made 00:49:51.960 --> 00:49:55.820 this prophecy about this great falling away that 00:49:55.820 --> 00:49:58.400 was going to happen when he wrote in 2 Thessalonians, 00:49:58.880 --> 00:50:00.900 what did he say was going to happen to those 00:50:00.900 --> 00:50:04.760 people that fell away? Those wolves, the savage 00:50:04.760 --> 00:50:07.739 wolves, the people that taught those demonic 00:50:07.739 --> 00:50:10.440 doctrines, the people that departed from the 00:50:10.440 --> 00:50:12.280 faith. What did Paul say was going to happen 00:50:12.280 --> 00:50:16.550 to them? Second Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 00:50:16.550 --> 00:50:20.050 8 and then the lawless one will be revealed whom 00:50:20.050 --> 00:50:23.469 the Lord will consume with the breath of his 00:50:23.469 --> 00:50:26.429 mouth and destroy with the brightness of his 00:50:26.429 --> 00:50:29.369 coming the coming of the lawless one is according 00:50:29.369 --> 00:50:32.349 to the working of Satan with all power signs 00:50:32.349 --> 00:50:35.349 and lying wonders and with all unrighteous deception 00:50:35.349 --> 00:50:38.329 among those who perish Because they did not receive 00:50:38.329 --> 00:50:42.389 the love of the truth They might be saved the 00:50:42.389 --> 00:50:46.460 people that had fallen away that God promised 00:50:46.460 --> 00:50:49.539 would happen in his word, they were gonna be 00:50:49.539 --> 00:50:52.840 consumed with the breath of God and destroyed. 00:50:53.480 --> 00:50:56.800 They're gonna face God's judgment. And the Bible 00:50:56.800 --> 00:50:59.599 gives each and every one of us a warning about 00:50:59.599 --> 00:51:02.519 when you depart from his faith, when you have 00:51:02.519 --> 00:51:04.639 fallen away from God, you're gonna face his judgment 00:51:04.639 --> 00:51:08.719 at the end of your life. Folks, there's a chance 00:51:08.719 --> 00:51:11.199 that the same corruption that has been around 00:51:11.199 --> 00:51:14.449 all through the history of the church, because 00:51:14.449 --> 00:51:18.090 of hearts that grew distant from God, that heart 00:51:18.090 --> 00:51:21.170 could be in you. And it might not be at this 00:51:21.170 --> 00:51:23.230 level and it might not happen over the span of 00:51:23.230 --> 00:51:25.329 1 ,400 years, but it can happen in the span of 00:51:25.329 --> 00:51:27.510 80 years in your life if you're not careful. 00:51:29.489 --> 00:51:33.250 The farther away your heart gets from God, the 00:51:33.250 --> 00:51:36.170 more corrupt your life is gonna get. When your 00:51:36.170 --> 00:51:38.309 life is filled with corruption and you've departed 00:51:38.309 --> 00:51:41.969 from the faith, it's not gonna be good for you 00:51:41.969 --> 00:51:44.840 in the end. And that's the warning that history 00:51:44.840 --> 00:51:49.219 gives us. You ever heard the phrase that history 00:51:49.219 --> 00:51:52.599 repeats itself? I don't think the Bible says 00:51:52.599 --> 00:51:54.219 that there's going to be a second great falling 00:51:54.219 --> 00:51:56.519 away. And that's not what I mean by history repeats 00:51:56.519 --> 00:51:59.019 itself. But this history that's been in the hearts 00:51:59.019 --> 00:52:03.000 of mankind to fall away from God and to not care 00:52:03.000 --> 00:52:05.019 about his word and his authority anymore, it 00:52:05.019 --> 00:52:08.519 can happen in your life. And total destruction 00:52:08.519 --> 00:52:11.440 can happen. And I don't know where your heart 00:52:11.440 --> 00:52:15.010 is today. I don't know the habits you have of 00:52:15.010 --> 00:52:16.750 reading your Bible. I don't know the love that 00:52:16.750 --> 00:52:18.750 you have for the Lord. I don't know the practices 00:52:18.750 --> 00:52:22.469 that you make a point in your life to do. But 00:52:22.469 --> 00:52:24.690 if you feel distant from God, I want you to know 00:52:24.690 --> 00:52:26.710 that's dangerous and I hope you can see that's 00:52:26.710 --> 00:52:29.710 dangerous. Today we want to give an opportunity 00:52:29.710 --> 00:52:33.309 to be restored back to God. We want you to have 00:52:33.309 --> 00:52:35.690 a healthy relationship with God. I hope you want 00:52:35.690 --> 00:52:42.719 to have a healthy relationship with God. Thank 00:52:42.719 --> 00:52:44.719 you for listening to today's sermon from the 00:52:44.719 --> 00:52:47.239 Church of Christ Wheeler area. We hope this message 00:52:47.239 --> 00:52:49.619 encouraged you and strengthened you in your faith 00:52:49.619 --> 00:52:52.280 this week. Don't forget the doors always open 00:52:52.280 --> 00:52:56.139 at 1500 South Allen Elbean Boulevard at 1030 00:52:56.139 --> 00:52:59.699 a .m. on Sundays, 230 p .m. on Sunday afternoons 00:52:59.699 --> 00:53:02.739 and recharge with us midweek on Wednesdays at 00:53:02.739 --> 00:53:06.219 7 p .m. For more information or to hear past 00:53:06.219 --> 00:53:09.480 messages Follow us on your favorite podcast platform. 00:53:10.019 --> 00:53:12.699 Look us up on Facebook and Instagram. We hope 00:53:12.699 --> 00:53:14.739 you have a blessed week and we'll see you next 00:53:14.739 --> 00:53:15.039 time.