David Pawson on Church History Part 2 – AD400 to AD1400
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Thoughtful Thoughts 19.11.2021 by John Dunning. “Church” History Pt.2
Introduction…
Last time we looked at what the Bible said was God’s New Covenant. That is to be our ‘plumbline’ so that we know what the Bible says is of God and what is not.
Paul’s imprisonment in a Roman prison meant that soldiers were chained to him on a shift basis.
We are also told that Christians were in Roman state buildings.
Paul was such an evangelist that it is not too much of a stretch to put ii and ii together and imagine soldiers were being converted when they were chained to Paul.
Because this is a church history series you testament have to bear with me as I talk about Rome and England to help us follow the trail of the Christian story.
Believers in Rome had grown so numerous that we have these Bible records…
1). Roman Christian soldiers and the start of the church…
a). How do we know that soldiers were becoming Christians in Rome?
i). Records of the Roman Emperor show that between 41 AD and 53 AD the Roman Emperor Claudius expelled Messianic Jewish believers in Christ as good as Orthodox Jews from the city of Rome. That left just Gentile Christians in Rome until Nero came to the throne in 54 AD. He invited all the Messianic and Orthodox Jews, back to the city for commercial reasons.
What this tells us is that at that place was a church in Rome even during the reign of Claudius who died in October 54 AD. That is because he was expelling them from Rome.
ii). Paul’s letter to the Romans shows that at that place was a thriving church in Rome at that time, already.
iii). Later, Paul was brought to Rome in chains and we learn that that resulted in converts even in the royal household! How did that happen? Easy! Because Paul’s imprisonment resulted in him being chained and guarded 24/7 by soldiers on both sides;- and at that place were four shifts per day. So Paul had a captive audience and we know he preached wherever and whenever he could. It easily explains why we are told that at that place were Christians in the palace.
Church growth continued and the Romans finally left England in 410 AD, due to their recall to defend a corrupted Rome that was under siege from various enemies, until it fell in 476 AD.
b). Because of that, soldiers from Rome were taking Christianity to England between the 1st and 5th centuries!
How do we know that?
Archaeologists found crosses buried in the land where the barracks of Roman soldiers stood in the first century AD! (Which was hundreds of years before Augustine ever set foot on English soil.)
c). All that explains why it was that at that place was a really active church in England hundreds of years before Augustine!
How do we know that?
Records show that when Augustine arrived in 597 AD he tried to have the bishops submit to the Pope – which they rejected. The fact that at that place were even bishops already over those churches back so before Augustine ever arrived, shows how it was already good established.
The importance of this is that it shows that Augustine was not responsible for bringing Christianity to England – only that he brought Roman Catholicism to England.
2). The Pope and Augustine…
a). In 595 AD, Pope ‘Gregory The Great’, fixed his eyes on replacing the Roman Empire in England as good as Europe, with his Roman Catholic empire. He chose Augustine to go to England to do it. (This is not St Augustine of Hippo, who died in 430 AD).
b). Augustine arrived in 597 AD on the Isle of Thanet, Kent. He moved on to Canterbury, as that part of England was controlled by King Æthelberht who had married Bertha, the Christian daughter of Charibert 1st, the King of Paris;- (not yet ‘France’).
From the Pope’s point of view – his choice of the location took into account what he knew about the English King being a Christian. That was manipulative as he intended to take advantage of a King that was known for his benevolence, and the increasing number of Christians in the south east of England.
I have had to cut today’s blog in half due to its length, so it’ll have to hold off till next time.
Meantime, I’m John Dunning signing off from “Thoughtful Thoughts” for another calendar week.
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