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Encounter Messages  /  The Church Did NOT Fall Apart After the Apostles  /  Discussion Questions
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Question 7
Eusebius wrote of a secondary grade of holiness allowed to ordinary Christians, and the Sermon on the Mount came to be treated as a teaching for the perfect alone. David Bercot answers that God requires one grade of holiness from everyone. How do modern Christians repeat this two-level thinking when they talk about grace, obedience and freedom?
Another way to ask: Some taught that ordinary Christians were allowed a lower grade of holiness. David Bercot says God requires the same holiness from everyone. How do Christians today still divide believers into two levels?

Direct Answer

The transcript does not discuss grace or freedom by name here. The same pattern returns whenever the teachings of Jesus are treated as optional for ordinary believers and binding only on a devoted few.

Support from the Message

- David Bercot says the perfect were understood as monks and priests, and the ordinary Christian was told Jesus did not expect him to live by these teachings. - He agrees with Eusebius that a Christian may marry and have children, and he objects when Eusebius adds undertaking government and giving orders to soldiers. - He answers that there is one grade of holiness, whether you are a minister or live a celibate life. - The result was a loss of the lifestyle teachings of Jesus, and he says the Christians of AD 380 were little different from the pagans of AD 280.

Discussion Follow-up

Which teachings of Jesus do Christians around you treat as being for someone else? Which do you treat that way?

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