Hi, I'm David Bercot. And tonight we're going to talk about early Christianity and the gifts of the Spirit. Now, today, a lot of Christians debate whether or not the gifts of the Spirit continued after the apostles. And it's usually approached from a theological level debating what the scriptures say about that or what they seem to say, et cetera. And I have never been able to quite figure this out. I mean, to me, it's not a theological issue. It's an historical issue.
I mean, either they did continue or they didn't. We should be able to look at the record of history and see what happened. I mean, it would be like arguing whether or not persecution continued after the apostles and then going to different verses in the Bible and saying, well, now, see, this would seem to indicate that they're going to they would end and some of that. I mean, that's silly. Just go look at the record of history. Now, this is a very volatile issue today.
People tend to have very strong views about it. And so let me just say at the outset, to kind of just let you relax on this matter that whether or not the miraculous gifts of the Spirit continued after the apostles has little bearing on the various issues that Christians face today about gifts of the Spirit. And let me just explain what I mean. Now, let's say that the record shows that after the apostles died, none of the Christians in the second century had gifts of the Spirit.
Now, that wouldn't prove that there hasn't been a new outpouring today. Or on the other hand, let's say the historical record shows that the gifts of the Spirit did continue into the second century. Well, that doesn't mean they didn't end at a later time. And it doesn't mean that somebody's claim of having miraculous gifts is authentic. So we shouldn't try to fudge the and play with the record of history to fit our point of view on this matter.
I mean, let's be honest about what the record of history shows and then we can deal with today's issues on that particular basis, what's really happening today or not happening. So that's what we're going to be doing. I'm going to read to you from the early Christian writers themselves so you can hear from their lips what they have to say about the gifts of the Spirit. Now, I will let you know what my prejudice was going into this subject when I first read the early Christian writings.
I was raised to believe that the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit ended with the apostles. And so it was with that assumption that I began reading the early Christian writings. Now, I didn't get very far into their writings to find out that that wasn't true, that they had not ended with the apostles. And let me read to you just some of the passages that I came upon. The first one is from the letter of Barnabas, which may be one of the earliest writings we have outside of the New Testament.
Some would date it as early as the year 70. I don't think anyone dates it later than 130. You can find this in volume one, page 137 of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. And there we read," Seeing that the divine fruits of righteousness abound among you, I rejoice exceedingly and above measure in your happy and honored spirits. For you have received the engrafted spiritual gift with such effect.
From the letter of Clement of Rome, which dates to about the year' 96, found on page 15 of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, he writes, let everyone be subject to his neighbor according to the special gift bestowed upon him. The letter to Diognetus, which dates probably to around the year 125, found on page 29 of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, says," Grace widely spread increases in the saints.
It furnishes understanding, reveals mysteries, announces times, and rejoices over the faithful." Justin Martyr, writing about the year 160. You can find this in volume one of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, page 214. He says," Daily, some are becoming disciples in the name of Christ, who are also receiving gifts each as He is worth." These are illumined through the name of this Christ.
For one receives the Spirit of understanding, another of counsel, another of strength, another of healing, another of foreknowledge, another of teaching, and another of the fear of God. He says again on page 240, and this is an apologetic where he's speaking to Jews. He says," The prophetical gifts remain with us even to the present time." And therefore, you should understand that the gifts formerly among your nation have been transferred to us.
Again, on page 243, it was necessary that such gifts would cease from you speaking again to the Jews, and would again, as had been predicted, become gifts, which from the grace of His Spirit's power, He would impart to those who believe in Him, according as He deems each man worthy of. Now, it is possible to see among us women and men who possess gifts of the Spirit of God. So that's just a flavor of what I saw right away when I began reading the early Christian writings.
Almost from the outset, I found references to miraculous gifts still being around. And in particular, Justin Martyr is fairly specific. And this is the year 160, which would be about 60 years after the apostle John had died. So I realized it was incorrect for me to keep saying the gifts of the Spirit had ended with the apostles because the historical record showed otherwise. Let me read to you then some more of the quotations on the subject.
Irenaeus writing about the year 180, and he was the overseer of bishop in the city of Lyon, which is now in France. It was in what was called Gaul back there in the Roman Empire. We find this in volume one, page 407 of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. He says," Those also will be thus confuted who belonged to Simon and Carpocrates." These were two heretical teachers.
And if there are any others who are said to perform miracles, for they perform what they do neither through the power of God nor in connection with the truth, nor for the well-being of men. They could neither confer sight on the blind, nor hearing on the deaf, nor expel all sorts of demons, except those who are sent into others by themselves if they can even do this. And so far are they from being able to raise the dead that they do not even believe this can possibly be done?
However, the Lord raised the dead and the apostles did so by means of prayer. And this has been frequently done in the Brotherhood on account of some necessity. When the entire church in that particular locality entreated God with much fasting and prayer, the Spirit of the dead man has returned and he has been bestowed in answer to the prayer of the saints.
Again, on page 409, Irenaeus writes," Those who are truly His disciples receiving grace from Him perform works in His name in order to promote the welfare of others according to the gift that each one has received from him. Some truly and certainly cast out devils. The result is that those who have been cleansed from evil spirits frequently both believe and join themselves to the church. Others have foreknowledge of things to come. They see visions and they utter prophetic expressions.
Still others heal the sick by laying their hands upon them and the sick are made whole. What is more, as I have said, even the dead have been raised up and remained among us for many years. What more can I say?
It is not possible to name the number of the gifts which the Church throughout the whole world has received from God in the name of Jesus Christ who is crucified under Pontius Pilate, in which she's talking about the Church, exerts day by day for the benefit of the Gentiles, neither practicing deception upon any nor taking any rewards from them.
For just as she has received without charge from God, so does she minister without charge, nor does she perform anything by means of angelic invocations, incantations, or any other wicked, curious art. Calling upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, she has worked miracles for the benefit of mankind and not to lead them into error. The name of our Lord Jesus Christ even now confers benefits. It cures thoroughly and effectively all who anywhere believe on Him.
Again, on page 531 of Volume One, Irenaeus says," For this reason, the apostle declares we speak wisdom among those who are perfect, calling those persons perfect who have received the Spirit of God and who through the Spirit of God do speak in all languages as he himself also used to speak. In like manner, we also hear many brethren in the church who possess prophetic gifts and who through the Spirit speak all kinds of languages and bring to light for the general benefit, the hidden things of men.
So in the year 180, the record would indicate that there were still miraculous gifts of the Spirit in existence. Tertullian writing about the year 197. This is in volume three, page 91. He says," What is nobler then to tread underfoot the gods of the nations to exorcise evil spirits, to perform cures, to seek divine revelations, and to live to God?" These are the pleasures, these are the spectacles that befit Christian men.
Again, he writes on page 256," If the church were in error, as the Gnostics claimed, during the interval, so many thousands were wrongly baptized, so many works of faith were wrongly wrought, so many miraculous gifts and so many spiritual endowments were wrongly set in operation, which would intimate any way that the gifts were still around in his day.
Origen, writing about the year 248, this is in volume four, page 427, says this," The name of Jesus can still remove distractions from the minds of men, expel demons, and also take away diseases." Furthermore, it produces a marvelous meekness of spirit and a complete change of character. As volume four, page 427, that same volume on page 433 we read from Origen, the Jews no longer have prophets or miracles, yet traces of those things are still found among Christians to a considerable extent.
Some of these miracles are more remarkable than any that existed among the Jews. I have witnessed these myself.
And finally, on page 473 of Volume 4 Origen writes, we can clearly show a countless multitude of Greeks and barbarians who acknowledge the existence of Jesus, and some give evidence of their having received through this faith a marvelous power by the cures which they perform, invoking no other name over those who need their help than that of the God of all things and of Jesus, along with a mention of His history.
For by these means, I too have seen many persons free from grievous calamities, from distractions of mind, madness, and countless other ills that could not be cured by either men or devils. So I think if we're spiritually honest and intellectually honest, I think we have to acknowledge that the gifts of the Spirit did not cease when the apostles died.
Otherwise, we have to say either all of these writers were lying or that all of the miracles they thought they saw were fake or that they were all accomplished by the means of Satan. Now, on the other hand, I need to put those quotations in perspective because I've seen the early church used in ways that I feel are not really honest. Now, I read to you a number of quotes. There's probably about 10 there that I read to you.
And I've seen magazine articles in Christian magazines that will have, you know, basically those same quotes. They'll have some other ones that the context in reading them seems to be talking about what happened during the apostles. It doesn't seem to be describing what was happening in the day of the writer. So I have not included, but there's only one or two that even fall in that category.
Now, the significance of this is that all of those quotes put together would fill up about one page of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. And there are 10 volumes of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, each volume being about the size of a typical encyclopedia volume. So when you glean those out and put them all together, it's very easy to portray the early Christians as being very focused on the gifts of the Spirit.
But when you read all of those 10 volumes, you see very clearly that there was very little emphasis on the gifts of the Spirit. I mean, these are just little sentences that you just happen to catch here and there. There's not a whole lot really said beyond what I've just read to you. Now, a lot of people have asked me very specific questions. Well, did the early Christians do this? Or what about this sort of thing? And I can answer those.
And I'm going to just share with you some of the questions and the answers that I've given on that. But again, with the caveat that all I can tell you is what the record of history shows was occurring in the days of the early church. Because something occurred then does not mean that it's still occurring today. And likewise, because something didn't occur then, doesn't mean it can't occur today.
But I think all of us should maybe soberly look at the whole issue of gifts of the Spirit from what we do learned from the record of the early Christians who were not involved in any debates about this subject. There was no split in the congregations. And so what they share is really fairly matter of fact and totally free from trying to persuade someone one way or the other. Many have asked me if the early Christians talk about having a special prayer language. And the answer is no.
There's absolutely no references to that because again, do we references we have or what I've just read to you? What about being slain in the spirit? I didn't find a single reference anywhere in the early writings to that. What about special healing services? No. No mention is made of that. There is quite a bit of mention, as you may have noted, of miraculous healing, that it did continue to take place that people were healed through the gift of prayer.
There's no person who stands out who is named as somebody with a particular gift of healing and who had a particular ministry that way. Some of those references sound like just maybe an ordinary person in the church or the elders, as the book of James says, just by praying that people were healed. Someone asked me what about laughter revivals. No, there's no mention of that sort of thing in the early church either. And there's really none of what some have called charismania.
And by that, meaning where a church or a group makes the gifts of the Spirit the predominant characteristic of Christianity, or at least the predominant aspect of their particular church. And probably, to be fair, you could say other groups would have gone to perhaps the other extreme and have made a belief that there can be no gifts of the Spirit in modern day as the central part of their Christianity.
And again, I don't care to get involved in these modern theological battles because again, all I'm in a position to relate is what the historical record shows in the second and third century. I do want to read to you a quote that helps to put their view of the gifts of the Spirit. I think in a very proper perspective, that is a true truth that applies in any century, any age. This was written about, well, it wasn't written, but it was compiled about the year 390.
We don't know when this was written sometime prior to that. It may well date back to the 200s, the third century. And it says this, it is not necessary that every one of the faithful should cast out demons, raise the dead, or speak with tongues. But only such a one who has been graciously given this gift for the purpose that it may be advantageous to the salvation of the unbelievers. We say these things so that those who have received such gifts may not exalt themselves against those who have not received them.
We are referring to those gifts pertaining to the working of miracles. Otherwise, there is no man who has believed in God through Christ, who has not received some spiritual gift, for it is a gift of God to have been delivered from the impiety of polytheism and to have believed in God the Father through Christ. Therefore, do not let anyone who worked signs and wonders judge any of the faithful who is not given the same.
For there are various gifts of God that are bestowed by Him through Christ, and one man receives one gift and another man another. Perhaps one has the Word of Wisdom, another the Word of Knowledge, another the discerning of spirits, another foreknowledge of things to come, another the word of teaching, another longsuffering, and another celibacy. Therefore, let none of you exalt himself against his brother, even though you may be a prophet or a worker of miracles.
For if it happens that there are no longer any unbelievers, all the power of signs will afterwards be unnecessary. To be godly is from one's own good disposition. And that doesn't mean it's not through the power of the Holy Spirit, but he means that we can all control that. But to work wonders is from the power of Him that works them by. Now, godliness concerns ourselves. However, to work wonders concerns God. To be a Christian is in our own power or control.
But to be an apostle, bishop, or to be in any other such office, this is not in our own power. Rather, it is at the disposal of God who bestows the gifts. Furthermore, every person who prophesies is not holy. Every person who casts out devil is not religious. For even Balaam the prophet, the son of Beor, prophesied, although he himself was ungodly. So did Caiaphas, the falsely named High Priest. In fact, the devil foretells many things about God, and so do the demons.
Yet despite that, there is not even a spark of godliness in them. It is obvious, therefore, that the ungodly, even if they prophesy, do not cover their own impiety by their prophesying. And those who cast out demons are not sanctified by the fact that demons are made subject to them. So I think that's good counsel. And I think, and I'm not reading the scriptures on the gifts of the Spirit because I'm assuming all of you are quite familiar with them.
And you'll notice many things that we just read in that quotation are things that are right out of Scripture. I realize I should have clarified a little earlier when I said the quotes that I've read you are all that I have found in all of the early Christian writings. What I meant to say is the quotes I have read you and are about to read you, because there's a few quotes that I've held back that I'm going to be reading as we go through this subject.
But basically, at the end of this message, you're going to have heard everything are just about everything. You know I'm not infallible. I may have missed a quote here and there, but certainly not one that would stand out, I think, largely. You will have basically heard everything they had to say on the subject. So you can come to various conclusions yourself as to things being claimed or things that are seen today.
Now, Origen does state that in his day, this is about the year of 240, 250 in there that he was writing. He said that the gifts had diminished, that they were still around, but they weren't around in the same force that they had been around in the days of the apostles. He says this," There are still preserved among Christians traces of that Holy Spirit that appeared in the form of a dove.
They expel evil spirits, perform many cures, and foresee certain events." The Holy Spirit gave signs of His presence at the beginning of Christ's ministry, and after his ascension, he gave still more. But since that time, these signs have diminished, although there are still traces of His presence in a few who have had their souls purified by the gospel and their actions regulated by its influence. This is volume four. And the first one was on page 415, the second one on page 614.
So at least at that time, there was a diminution of the gifts of the Spirit. They had not stayed in the same intensity that we read of in, for example, the Book of Acts. I would some would say, well, that's because the church was maybe a backsliding or something like that. Well, again, I'm not going to try to guess on issues like that. I would only say if when you read about the lives of the early Christians, if they were backslidden, if they were not walking close to God, they weren't living godly and holy lives.
Well, what about the church today? Are we so bold as to believe that we today are living more Godly lives than they are? And I noticed that even though they believed in the gifts of the Spirit and state that they were still around in some measure, the early Christians didn't chase after signs and wonders. They took very seriously Jesus' warning about not being deceived by miraculous works.
I said Matthew 7, verses 22 and 23, where he says," Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness." So Jesus made it clear that it is possible to do miraculous works, prophesying, casting out demons and other wonders. And he warned us, don't think that that is a sign that somebody is close to Jesus Christ.
It may mean they are. They may be doing this through the power of the Holy Spirit. And it may be something they're doing through miraculous power, but from the demons. And then, of course, there's a whole issue of people faking things. So I think a spirit of discernment is definitely needed. This is how the early Christians approached it and what Jesus tells us to do. Let me just read to you some of the quotes on that aspect of the gifts of the Spirit.
Irenaeus, volume one, page 408, wrote," It behooves us to flee from the Gnostics as we would from Satan.
The greater the display with which they are said to perform miracles, the more carefully should we watch them as having been endowed with a greater spirit of wickedness." Tertullian, volume three, pages 264 and 265, said the heretics will besides at a great deal respecting the high authority of each teacher of heresy, how these teachers mightily strengthened belief in their own doctrine, how they raised the dead, restored the sick, foretold the future.
They say this so that they might deservedly be regarded as apostles, as if this warning were not also in the written record that many would come who were to work even the greatest miracles in defense of the deception of their corrupt teaching. And again, volume three, page 322, he wrote, talking about Jesus, he declared that many would come and display great signs and wonders so as to turn aside the very elect. Yet despite that, Christ would not receive them.
So he showed how rash it was to believe in signs and wonders, for they would be so very easy to accomplish even by false Christs. Again, Tertullian believed in the gifts. He spoke about them favorably in the earlier quote I had read to you. But he also recognized that we have to be very careful. They in themselves do not prove that somebody is approved by Jesus Christ.
Origen, volume 4 page 450 says, Jesus says that even some who lead wicked lives will perform miracles in the Name of Jesus and expel demons out of men. We see then that it is possible for someone who makes use of His name and who is moved upon by some power in an unknown way to make the pretense that He is the Christ and to seem to perform miracles like those of Jesus. Others through His name would perform works resembling those of His genuine disciples.
The next page he says," The works of the Antichrist and of those who pretend that they can work miracles as though they were the disciples of Christ are said to be lying signs and wonders. They prevail among those who perish with all of the deceit of unrighteousness. In contrast, the works of Christ and His disciples did not have deceit for their fruits. Rather, they had the salvation of human souls.
Who would rationally assert that an improved moral life, one that daily lessened the number of a man's sins could proceed from a system of deceit. So if we once acknowledge that some works can be found among men that proceed from divine power, why would we not test those who profess to perform them? Why not test them by their lives, morals, and consequences of their miracles? Do they result in the injury of men or in the reformation of conduct?
So again, the early Christians weren't just gullible to believe anything. They tested people who claim to be miracle workers. They did not test them in a spirit of disbelief that we don't believe miraculous gifts can be around. So therefore, we already have our minds made up that you're from Satan. No, they believed that very much that Jesus Christ could give us such powers. But he also had warned us that false prophets would have powers to work miracles in his name.
So we have to be very, very careful and look at what they're teaching, look at how they're living, and look at the fruit that their works are bringing among their disciples. And the one last quote I want to read on that subject. This is from the debate or disputation of Archelaus and Manes, written about the year of 320.
You can find it in volume six pages 209 and 210 where the writer said, even if you were to work signs and wonders or even raise the dead or present to the very representation of Paul himself, you would still remain a curse. For we have been instructed beforehand concerning you, he's talking about the false teachers. For we already know that the devil himself is to be transformed into an angel of light and that his servants are to make their appearance in a similar manner.
We know that they will do signs and wonders so much so that if it were possible, they would deceive the very elect. So what we've seen, I think we can sum up to this point that the gifts of the Spirit were still around in the second and third century, or at least the early Christian writers believed that they were still around. There was evidence to that effect that according to Origen around the mid 200s, at least by that time, they had diminished in power.
Maybe they were diminished in power in the year 150 or 100. We don't know. Nobody comments on that. We've seen that the Gnostics and many of the heretical teachers who set up sects SECTS back in that period also were able to perform miraculous wonders. So the early Christians put a lot of emphasis on practicing discernment, looking at what was being taught, realizing that because somebody is able to work wonders, does not prove that their gospel is from Jesus Christ or that they have been sent by Jesus Christ.
The quotes that I have found would indicate that the gifts that they speak about the most, apparently the gifts that were most in being were healing and casting out demons. There's more references to those two than any of the other gifts. Speaking in tongues is probably down at the bottom of the list. You know, I only found two brief references to it, one from Irenaeus and then one in the apostolic constitutions, which dates into the 300s, at least when it was compiled.
Okay, now I want to talk a little bit about the Montanists. Usually when I'm speaking on the subject of the gifts of the Spirit, I'll normally get a question at least from one person about the Montanists. Some groups have or some reference works, I should say, have described the Montanists as a charismatic sect of that time period.
And many groups today write about them or refer to them with strong approval as being a group that was filled with the Holy Spirit that had been sent by God and was an example in the early church of what many groups feel that they're practicing today. Now, again, I'm not going to try to pass judgment on this group or that group that's in existence today. All I'm going to try to pass on to you is the historical information of what existed in the early church. And you can draw your own conclusions from there.
Now, it definitely is true that of all the groups of the early Christian period, the Montanists were the ones who placed the most emphasis on miraculous gifts. Now, the Montanists are sort of unique in that, unlike the Gnostics, for example, they were not teaching doctrines that were different from that of the main church. I mean, their basic theology was the same as the rest of the body of believing Christians.
There was no big theological issue like there was with the Gnostics who claimed that Jesus had not even come in the flesh, who claimed that this world was created by a different God and all that. The Montanists, I don't think any of those sorts of errors can be pinned on them. And I don't have any judgment. I don't pass any judgment on them, whether they were part of the Christ's true church or not. I'm happy to leave that in their hands, in Christ's hands, that is. But I'll tell you what we do know.
And unlike the case of, say, some of the groups in the Middle Ages that almost the only thing we have today are the writings of their critics. And so you don't know what's true and what isn't. It's different with the Montanists because we have quite a bit of their writings. And that's because Tertullian joined this group towards the end of his life. I say join. We don't know exactly what his joining them consisted of.
There's some evidence and some would believe that he stayed in the normal regular church up until the end of his life. Certainly in his writings, up until the end of his life, he writes as a member of the church. He does not view himself as having left that church. And he doesn't seem to view everybody outside the Montanists as being outside of that church. Now, around the year 200, basically with the turn of the century, you can start seeing some Montanist influence in his writings.
He starts using words that were sort of touch words for the Montanists. But then as you get further and further into the third century, his writings become harsher and harsher till by the end, the latest writings that we have of his, he's got some very strong denunciations of the basic body of Christians, although he still does not view them as being non-Christians or outside of Christ's church.
But like you say, as a result of this turn of events, we get to hear from a Montanist or certainly a Montanist sympathizer himself what was going on. And it certainly sounds like at an early stage that the Montanists in his area, which was in Carthage, North Africa, were just part of the congregation. And it was a matter of some viewed Montanus as a true prophet and others viewed him as a false prophet. But Montanus himself was from Phrygia. And so, I mean, that was a great distance.
And I think he was not even living at this time in the early part of the third century, the early 200s. And so it was more having an opinion of whether this man had been a true prophet or not. And it sounds like Tertullian is part of the main church there in Carthage at that period of time. Now, whether he eventually left that and met with just other followers of Montanus, we don't know for sure. It is interesting that the Montanists felt that they were the only spiritual ones of their day.
In fact, in his later writings, when he's a thorough Montanist, Tertullian refers to other Christians as being natural men. Now, he doesn't seem to be using that in the sense that they were not spirit of begotten. They were not born again, but he's saying there's the spirituals and there's the naturals within the body of Christ. And the Montanists were the spirituals. Now, the primary gift that the Montanists claim that they had and that they put so much emphasis on was the gift of prophecy.
And they believed that they were receiving new special revelations from God. In fact, the name they gave to their movement, they didn't call themselves Montanists. That's what their detractors called them. They called themselves their movement, the New Prophecy Movement, that they were Christians of the New Prophecy. So I think we should sit back and look at what some of these prophecies were.
We have one advantage point over the early Christians and that we can read what the Montanists were saying and look back now 1,800 years later, and we know whether some of these things came about or not. Or in other matters, we know whether or not we think this was really from God. And I think if we think it's from God, then we should follow what they say God had revealed.
And if we're not willing to do that, I don't think we should write about the Montanists as being genuine prophets or a movement that was from the Holy Spirit. All right. So let's look at some of the things the Montanists were saying. Tertullian writes, this is in volume four, page 27, one of his Montanist writings, or at least influenced by them. He says the law of faith being constant, that is unchanging. The other succeeding points of discipline and manner of living allow the novelty of correction.
For the grace of God operates and advances even to the end. For what kind of belief is it that while the devil is always operating and adding daily to the ingenuities of iniquity, the work of God should have ceased or else desisted from advancing. What then is the Paracletes Administrative Office but this? The direction of discipline, the revelation of the Scriptures, the reformation of the intellect and the advancement toward the better things.
In other words, what they were saying is that the gospel was not completed, was not finished as far as discipline. That is as far as how we are to live. The doctrines, the theological doctrines of the faith. He said, those are constant. Those are unchanging. And as I said, there was no heretical theological views that could be attributed to the Montanists other than this particular one, perhaps, that they believed that new revelation was still coming from God, which the rest of the body of Christ did not believe.
And like I say, I think we can sit back and make a judgment decision based on the evidence of whether or not we think God was giving them new revelation or if this was simply their own imagination. Okay, one of these new revelations was concerning the prayer veil. And this is what Tertullian writes about it, also in volume four, page 28.
He says," Now through the paraclete." And see, that's one of the kind of identifying marks that the Montanists always referred to the Holy Spirit, I shouldn't say always, but the majority of the times as the paraclete or helper, which is a biblical term. But you'll notice that Tertullian's writings before he was influenced by the Montanists nearly always refers to the Holy Spirit. Afterwards, he nearly always talks about the paraclete, just like they did.
He says, now through the Paraclete, it is settling into maturity. He will be after Christ, the only one to be called and revered as master. For he speaks not from himself, but what is commanded by Christ. He is the only prelate because he alone succeeds Christ. Those who have received him set truth before custom. Those who have heard him prophesying even to the present time, not of old, bid virgins to be wholly covered.
The issue there was whether 1 Corinthians 11 applies just to married women or to virgins about not praying with your head uncovered. And one of his arguments is, well, the Paraclete today says that it applies to virgins as well, which argument would be accepted as authoritative only from people who believed the Paraclete was really speaking through the Montanists. That's in volume four, page 28. I may have already given that to you. And then again, on that same subject on page 37, he says this, very interesting.
He says," To us, the Lord has, even by revelations, measured the space for the veil to extend over, for a certain sister of ours was thus addressed by an angel." So they claimed a lot of contact with the spirit world, not the evil spirits, but with either the paraclete or the angelic world, and claiming an angel had said this or that.
In this particular case, this sister said that an angel had told her that the veil should extend all the way down to the part of the body that would be covered by the hair when it was hanging loose. And of course, they wore long hair at that time. I mean, all Christians did, and I think it would generally in the world as well. So in other words, basically almost down to the waist should be the length of the prayer veil.
Now, again, if we're going to say, well, see, these were a spirit-filled group who were hearing from God, well, then I think we have to acknowledge, and that's how we should be wearing a prayer veil if we're a sister, and it needs to be that long all the way down to the waist. Okay. Another interesting teaching that we see, and I mentioned this on my message on the intermediate state, the afterlife. Tertullian writes this, this is on volume three, page 235.
No one will hesitate to believe that the soul undergoes in Hades some compensatory discipline without prejudice to the full process of the resurrection, when the recompense will be administered through the flesh as well. This point, the paraclete has also pressed home on our attention in most frequent admonitions, whenever any of us has admitted the force of his words from a knowledge of his promised spiritual disclosures.
Now, it wasn't unique to the Montanists to believe in waiting in Hades, that the soul waits in Hades for the resurrection. As we saw when we were discussing that subject, that's what all of them believed. But again, Tertullian, and this particular writing, there's other writings from Tertullian on that subject written before he was part of the Montanist movement. But you notice now he uses the paraclete. Again, the paraclete has stressed this, has revealed it.
And it's in his Montanist writings that Tertullian presents an argument. And it's the earliest I've found anywhere that some soul, he's talking about Christians are going to have to undergo punishment in Hades before they will be allowed to rest in Abraham's bosom. And that was the basic beginning of the doctrine of purgatory. And you see something very similar in a Montanist work entitled The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas.
And again, there's the claim that this martyr's brother, she saw him in Hades and then prayed for him. And the next time she had a vision in the vision, he was now in Abraham's bosom. So she was able to help him after he was dead. So it's one of the things I have not been able to draw or connect a pipeline from the Roman Catholic Church to the Montanists. But it's very interesting that some of the stances of the Roman Catholic Church are first found in the Montanist movement.
And of course, there is one strong connection there. Tertullian was one of the few early Christian writers who wrote in Latin. His early works, he wrote in Greek, and most of them had been lost. But he did write a number of non-Montanist works in Latin, quite a few, in fact. But it's his Latin works that have primarily been preserved.
And as you get away from the period of the early church after the Council of Nicaea, as you start getting closer to the 400s, you find that in the West, Greek is less and less spoken and used that most people are now speaking and reading Latin. If they can read and write, it's usually Latin, not Greek. And so when you get to the church of say the fifth century in the 400s, almost nobody is reading Greek in the West. And the writings they have from the early church are going to be largely those of Tertullian.
And a lot of his writings, like you say, were under the influence of the new prophecy or Montanist movement. And so I guess it would be my theory that it was from the Montanists that the Roman Catholic Church picked up some of these doctrines. And two of the ones that I think would be, in particular, the doctrine of purgatory, and also the whole doctrine about there's new revelation. I hear the same argument from Roman Catholics that, oh, you mean the faith is just static. It just stopped with the apostles.
The world goes on creating new forms of wickedness and the faith just ended. That's it. Nothing new. It's a static thing. Well, the early church would have said yes, because it was complete that Jesus Christ is the same today, yesterday, and forever. So of course, there's not anything new because the faith was not lacking anything. It was once for all handed down. But see, the Montanists argued, no, we need some new rules, some new teachings to keep up with the world.
And like I said, that became and is today the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. Part of these new revelations from the Montanists concerned fasts. Tertullian writes volume four, page 111, the Holy Spirit, when he was preaching in whatever lands he chose and through whomever he chose was in his role as Paraclete used to issuing mandates or commandments for observance of this nature. For example, at the present time, he issues mandates for the purpose of practicing the discipline of sobriety and abstinence.
We who receive him must necessarily observe also the appointments that he then made in the appointments are he's talking about special fasts. The Montanists, the church fasted at regular times throughout the year, and then individual Christians were free to fast anytime they wanted to. But the Montanists claimed that the Holy Spirit had given new commandments that certain fasts that are not in the Scriptures are mandatory that we must keep.
And again, I can see somewhat of a precedent in that with the Roman Catholic Church. Another one of these new teachings from the Paraclete was that it is wrong for Christians to flee in the face of persecution. Now we all know that Jesus said, if you're persecuted in one city, flee to the next. But this is what the Montanists had to say. Volume 3, page 93.
Just as those in the church have rejected the prophecies of the Holy Spirit, they are also proposing the refusal of martyrdom, nor do I doubt that some are already turning their back on the scriptures, are making ready their luggage and are equipped for flight from city to city. For this is all of the gospel they care to remember. Well, I'm not going to read to you the whole discussion, but in essence, it boils down to, yes, Jesus said that, and that was true for the apostles, but that's not true in our time.
Now we should stand and face persecution. It is wrong to flee from it. The Holy Spirit has given us clarification or new revelation. Another one of their distinctive teachings concerned second marriages. I don't mean second marriages after divorce, but rather second marriages after a spouse dies. Again, I think all of us are familiar with the passages in Scripture that allow a person to remarry when their spouse is dying, their spouse dies.
Well, the Montanists said, no, that may have been true back there in the days of the apostles, but now the paraclete or Holy Spirit is telling us we should not marry again. That is fornication or adultery if we do so. I'll read to you. Volume four, page 71. The new law, that is, he’s talking about Christianity here, abrogated divorce. It had to abrogate. The new prophecy abrogates second marriage, which is no less a divorce to the former spouse. He's not talking about second marriage after divorce.
He says the scriptures abrogate divorce. But now the Holy Spirit, the new prophecy, says it's wrong to marry again because you're denying the spouse that has died when you do that. Again, he reads, I'll read to you. I didn't give you this quote before when we were talking about persecution. It's in volume four, page 119. It says," Jesus says, when they begin to persecute you, flee from city to city. But we maintain that this applies only to the apostles personally and to their times and their circumstance.
See, anything in Scripture can be changed when you say, well, that applied to them, not to us.
Again, on the subject of Second Marriages, Volume 4, page 55 Tertullian writes," If we look deeply into his meanings and interpret them, second marriages will have to be termed nothing other than a type of fornication." Then volume four, page 75 Tertullian writes this, by us, and he's talking about the believers in the new prophecy, precaution is thus also taken against the greatest or highest sins in that it is not permitted for us after believing to experience even a second marriage differentiated though it is to
be sure from the work of adultery and fornication by the marriage endowing rules.
Accordingly, with the utmost strictness, we excommunicate those who are twice married, for they bring infamy upon the paraclete by the irregularity of their discipline. This is one of his later writings about the year 212. So you'd see how strict and serious the Montanists were about this, that they would excommunicate you for remarrying when your spouse died. They also believe there was no forgiveness of sins after baptism.
That if you sinned, and they didn't, by that mean the everyday falling short of perfection, but of transgressing a specific commandment of Jesus Christ, particularly a sin like adultery, idolatry, murder, theft, the ones that Paul lists saying those who practice these things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Again, from Tertullian, page 99 and 100 of volume four. And now he's writing to members of the church at large. It says, you say, but the church has the power of forgiving sins.
This I acknowledge and a judge of Moore, who happily lead himself in the persons of the new prophet saying, the church has, and he's quoting now, one of the new prophets, the church has the power to forgive sins, but I will not do it lest they commit others besides. So in other words, he's saying that Paraclete says, yes, the church was given power, but I'm not going to forgive any sins because then they'll just commit other sins.
Accordingly, it is true that the church will forgive sins, but this is the Church of the Spirit by means of a spiritual man. It is not the church that consists of a number of bishops. For the right and decision is the Lord's, not the servants. It is God Himself, not the priests from about the year 212. So they fancied themselves as being the church of the Spirit versus the more carnal worldly church, the Church of Bishops, because their leaders receive direct communication from the Holy Spirit.
So it sounds like they might forgive a sin here and there, but only if the Holy Spirit made it clear that that was to be done so. So what do we learn from the Montanist movement? Well, I guess a lot of Christians don't and won't learn anything from it, but I think there's a valuable lesson there. If you're like me, when I read the writings of Tertullian after he became a Montanist or was heavily under their influence. I'm not convinced that this was from God. I don't think these prophecies were from God.
I don't think the Holy Spirit was giving them new revelation. Because if he was, then the Montanists would still be around. I mean, it would be absurd for God to be giving them these new revelations that apply to all Christians and then let them disappear so that we don't have access to it today. The church that Tertullian ridiculed is still around today. And at least foreign, it may have totally apostatized, but at least it's still around. The Montanists aren't.
And there are plenty of spirit-filled Christians around today, people who walk closely with God, who have no connection with the Montanist movement and would not believe like they do. So I would have to believe that this movement was not from God. And so I think any of us today should be careful when we are convinced that our leaders or that we ourselves have a direct pipeline to God.
I grew up in a sect that believed they had a direct channel from God and that God would give us new understandings that would be revealed through them. I mean, very similar to the claims of the Montanists. I think we need to be very, very careful because the record of history, I mean, there have been all kinds of groups beginning with the Montanists and then going all through the centuries. And many of these, obviously, were basically Orthodox in their theological teachings.
And yet they led a lot of people astray and they made claims that were not true. I mean, Jesus told us to beware of false prophets. And I cannot believe that he would ever use a false prophet as his means to bring renewal or revival into his church. And yet the Montanists were not all bad. Certainly in their day or in the day of Tertullian, this was after the time of Montanus himself. The church in general was growing more lax, particularly the church in the city of Rome.
And by the time you get to Constantine and after the Council of Nicaea, the Montanas were still around after the Council of Nicaea, probably they better represented the essence of early Christianity than did the institutional church that was still around at that time. And so again, I'm very loath to say, well, these people weren't Christian. They were lost. I'll leave that in God's hands because as I say, in the end, they had strayed less from the truth of Christ than did the institutional church.
But in the year 200, when they were at their height, well, no, I'd have to say they were out of line. The church in general was more walking in the footsteps of Jesus. Well, let me sum up then what we've talked about. We've seen that the gifts of the Spirit, according to the testimony of the early Christians, continued into the second and third and even fourth centuries. And yet we have the statement from Origen who's very favorably inclined towards these spiritual gifts that they had diminished.
He uses the word in his time. We see that the Gnostics also had miraculous gifts. And so the early Christians did not strongly emphasize the miraculous gifts. And they were very careful in discerning whether this person was really from God or was from perhaps Satan or was perhaps just a charlatan. And then we've seen that the group that put the most emphasis on spiritual gifts and particularly the gift of prophecy were the Montanists who had certainly some compelling good things we could say about them.
And yet I have to say that the record of history would indicate that they were false prophets that they weren't from God. And perhaps a lesson to us when we imagine that God is giving us revelation and prophecy. Perhaps he is. On the other hand, we might be like the Montanists, very sincere, very dedicated to Jesus Christ, and yet at the same time, very wrong.