The Saddest Story Ever Told?

The differences between the church of the first few centuries and everything that came after are staggering. I don’t see how a Christian could read about the early church and not think something has gone terribly terribly wrong.

June 27th, 2008 ~ View Comments ~ Christianity

I’m starting to think that the reason so many people have a hard time with Christianity and Christians is that we’re not really Christians.

We live in the most powerful country in the world, perhaps in the history of the world. We have prosperity, a massive military, and are the world’s only true superpower.

We call ourselves a Christian nation. “In God We Trust” is printed on our money. Our president is sworn in with a Bible. We say the pledge of allegiance as a nation “under god.” The identity of the church has been grafted into the fabric of America to the point that the majority of Christians have a hard time distinguishing between the two.

But here’s the crazy thing – the story of the Bible is the story of a God who never associated himself with a superpower. He wanted a people “set apart” from the world, a people with no king other than Himself, a people who did not hoard their money, did not fight their enemies, who tried to love people and reflect God’s glory in everything they did.

The early church understood these things, and tried to embody them. They lived during the peak of the Roman empire – a nation similar in might and prosperity. And they did everything they could to set themselves apart from it. Consider the following – how many of these statements sound like anything you’ve ever heard from a Christian or a church?

“The Christians form among themselves secret societies that exist outside the system of laws.” ~ a letter to Origen

“He called Abraham and commanded him to go out from the country where he was living. With this call God has roused us all, and now we have left the state. We have renounced all the things the world offers” ~ Justin Martyr

“You cannot demand military service of Christians any more than you can of priests. We do not go forth as soldiers wit the Emperor even if he demands this” ~ Origen

“I recognize no empire of this present age” ~ Speratus

“I do not wish to be a ruler. I do not strive for wealth. I refuse offices connected with military command.” ~ Tatian

“All of us throughout the whole wide earth have traded in our weapons of war. We have exchanged our swords for plowshares, our spears for farm tools.” ~ Justin Martyr

“The professions and trades of those who are going to be accepted into the community must be examined. The nature and type of each must be established… brothel, sculptors of idols, charioteer, athlete, gladiator… give it up or be rejected. A military constable must be forbidden to kill… a proconsul or magistrate who wears the purple and governs by the sword shall give it up or be rejected.” ~ Hippolytus

“You who are God’s servants are living in a foreign country, for your own city-state is far away from this city-state. Knowing which is yours, why do you acquire fields, costly furnishings, buildings and frail dwellings here? … Acquire no more here than is absolutely necessary. Instead of fields, buy for yourselves people in distress in accordance with your means.” ~ Hermas

“We who formerly treasured money and possessions more than anything else now hand over everything we have to a treasury for all and share it with everyone who needs it. We who formerly hated and murdered one another now live together and share the same table. We pray for our enemies and try to win those who hate us.” ~ Justin Martyr

“The desire to rule is the mother or heresies” ~ John Chrysostom

“Emperors could only believe in Christ if they were not emperors – as if Christians could ever be emperors.” ~ Tertullian

All of this started to change with Constantine, who claimed to be a Christian, slapping crosses on his army’s shields as they expanded the Roman empire. Theodosius later made Christianity the state religion and made it a crime to not be a Christian. Every soldier was soon required to be a Christian. Charlemagne instructed his “Christian” armies to kill pagans who did not choose to be baptized.

One wonders if the last 1700 years have been an enormous, heartbreaking exercise in missing the point. The Crusades, the Inquisition…the War on Terror. Christianity has been so thoroughly co-opted, morphed, twisted that we don’t even realize it. We praise the words of Christ and Paul and then immediately ignore much of what they said.

What if every Christian you ever met was living violently opposed to their God and didn’t even realize it?

About Sean Johnson

Sean is a Chicago-based entrepreneur and product development executive, currently working as a partner at Digital Intent. He founded Jelly Chicago, designs, writes, and spends time with his beautiful wife and baby boy.

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  • anonymous

    let me make a statement. In the bible, God explained that there is a time for peace and a time for war. he stood along warriors in biblical times (to this day he does!) and stood by his people. God ensured David beat Goliath, didn’t he? He protected Moses and wiped out every non-believer that was against him.
    And what about the MILLIONS of Christions brutally slaughtered to this day in other countries by non-Christians??? Yet you only give this accusation to the people of the Christian religion during the Roman era??? I know your explaining how Christians got it all wrong, but just take into notice that war isn’t a sin if your fighting for a cause. At this moment in time, there are Christian soldiers fighting against terrorists of a demonic religion who are trying to literally conquer Christians and other religions. By what their bible states….they’re trying to LITERALLY conquer the entire planet. In “Revelations”, all the events occuring right now are interwining with the bible’s predictions of the world’s end. It speaks of a war between two groups of people: God’s people, and the Devil’s people. So understand that war is a part of life, not against God’s word.

  • http://don'thaveone anonymous

    let me make a statement. In the bible, God explained that there is a time for peace and a time for war. he stood along warriors in biblical times (to this day he does!) and stood by his people. God ensured David beat Goliath, didn’t he? He protected Moses and wiped out every non-believer that was against him.
    And what about the MILLIONS of Christions brutally slaughtered to this day in other countries by non-Christians??? Yet you only give this accusation to the people of the Christian religion during the Roman era??? I know your explaining how Christians got it all wrong, but just take into notice that war isn’t a sin if your fighting for a cause. At this moment in time, there are Christian soldiers fighting against terrorists of a demonic religion who are trying to literally conquer Christians and other religions. By what their bible states….they’re trying to LITERALLY conquer the entire planet. In “Revelations”, all the events occuring right now are interwining with the bible’s predictions of the world’s end. It speaks of a war between two groups of people: God’s people, and the Devil’s people. So understand that war is a part of life, not against God’s word.

  • anonymous

    sad i guess?

  • hamid al-murid

    i would also like to make a statement…or a few of them.

    first of all, i am a muslim and my religion is not demonic.  the real demonic forces in our world are those that cause unnecessary division between groups of people, often swirling around various forms of hidden idolatry.

    how do we recognize hidden forms of idolatry?  well, when you start to feel really uncomfortable and you can’t quite put your finger on it, you’re getting close.  for me, it’s a bit like what i feel when i go to church.  you see, i’ve been going to church lately–partly to challenge and overcome some of my own religious prejudices, and partly because i’m inspired by all the moral beauty that i see.  it’s why i found this website.  it’s why i’m making Christian friends, why i don’t feel as alone in America and in the world as i did even a few short weeks ago.

    so:  i want to let you know, “anonymous”, that this Muslim brother of yours, whom you seem very intent on disowning, would die to protect you in the war you think you are waging with my religion. 

    i want you to have the world open up to you that is opening up to me:  a safe world, in which all people who love God, and all people who are good, can join together for good things.  i want for you to hear about Islam from the good hearted people you will find at a mosque you’ve never been to, someplace near to your home, rather than by glancing one day sideways through a translated version of a holy book, when the eyes of your heart are obscured by prejudice and unreflected fears.

    i am here on this website because i love jesus, and all of what he stood for.  i am a muslim.  muslims are christians too, just heretical ones in terms of modern christianity.  but all muslims love jesus, and all the most important wars are internal ones as jesus taught, and many people who are completely deranged and diabolical claim to follow religions that they don’t follow at all, at all.

    so, i am with you, brother or sister “anonymous”, more than you could possibly know.  please let my Islamic sacrificial love, inspired by the example of all the prophets sent by the Most High, penetrate your heart.  please let me love you, and be changed by it.  our world is desperate for us to love each other.  without that, all the empires that feed on fanning the flames of war, all the empires that thrive on manufacturing and selling weapons to conflicting parties, will continue to hold sway.

    and God knows best

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