BIBLE TOPICS

This process of change within the Christian community had already started while the apostles were alive. Many of their letters contain not only practical advice on the meaning of the Christian life, but also authoritative definitions of doctrine which had become necessary because innovators were attempting to change the apostolic gospel. The apostle Paul opens his letter to the disciples in Galatia with a sharp attack on some who had distorted the message he preached:

"I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ" (Galatians 1 v 6 & 7).

The essential feature of this 'other gospel', according to Paul, was the fact that it originated with man and was designed to please man, whereas the true gospel was received by Paul "by the revelation of Jesus Christ" (Galatians 1 v 12). Elsewhere, Paul contended with those who were saying that there was no resurrection of the dead (1 Corinthians 15 v 1 - 23), with others who were attempting to impose Jewish law on Gentile Christians, and with some who were interpreting the coming of Christ in some mystical sense which in fact denied its reality. As he was leaving the leaders of the Ephesian church he gave this warning:

"I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them" (Acts 20 v 29 & 30).

He warned his close friend and follower, Timothy, of the dangers that lay ahead, when men would be:

"reprobate concerning the faith", "having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof ... ever learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth'"(2 Timothy 3 v 5,7,8).

The time was to come when men would not:

"endure sound doctrine" ... and would "turn away their ears from the truth, and ... be turned unto fables" (2 Timothy 4 v 3 & 4).

In another letter Paul predicted the development of a false system of religion that would dishonour God and deceive many, and he encouraged his readers to "stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught" (2 Thessalonians 2 v 15).

Now Paul's concern to preserve the original gospel entirely unchanged was not a personal obsession. Jesus himself had predicted that many false, deceiving prophets would come (Matthew 24 v 11), and by the time the apostle John wrote his first letter this had already happened (1 John 4 v 1). In both of his first two letters John warned his readers of the many deceivers and anti-Christian elements already in the Church (1 John 2 v 18; 2 John 7). Peter predicted the appearance of false teachers bringing in heretical doctrines, saying, "and many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of" (2 Peter 2 v 1 & 2). Jude's letter warned his readers against the influences of false doctrine that had already infiltrated into the church.

There is then one major premise underlying all these references. It is the conviction that the message preached first by Jesus and subsequently by his apostles was the result of direct, divine revelation - that it contained all that man needs to know about God and His intentions with the earth; that it was complete, unchanging and unchangeable. Indeed Jude referred to the "faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints" (Jude 3 v 4 R.V.). Two of Jesus' messages to the seven churches of Asia urged them to cling to the gospel they had originally received:

"Remember then what you received and heard; keep that and repent" (To Sardis. Revelation 3 v 3 R.S.V.)

"Hold fast what you have, until I come" (To Thyatia. Revelation 2 v 25 R.S.V.)

All seven letters warn of the dangers of corrupt versions of Christianity, which were already appearing. It is indisputable that both Jesus and his immediate disciples expected and predicted a corruption of the gospel message among those claiming to be his followers. While the apostles were still alive, their authority weighed the scales heavily in favour of the preservation of the original message. With their death the Christians faced a crisis, described by the church historian Neander:

'With John the apostolic age of the church naturally closes. The doctrine of the gospel which by him had still been exhibited in its original purity was now exposed, without the weight of apostolic authority, to a conflict with a host of opponents, some of whom had already made their appearance' (Planting of Christianity and Antignostikus Vol 1 p 413).

Greek Philosophy