First Christian Voices: Practices of the Apostolic Fathers

Introduction

9

Time Period (AD)

Heresy

Description

Christ has two separate natures, and the Logos passes through Mary. The single nature of Christ is divine and covered in flesh.

430s

Nestorianism

450s

Monophysitism

Secondly, the early authors wanted the church to act appropriately toward one another. In fact, it was expected as the natural outworking of their belief about Jesus. Modern evangelical interpreters of the ancient Christian writers will often assume that the early church went sideways on proper soteriology 9 and taught a salvation by works (Ignatius To the Ephesians 14). Yet, nothing can be further from the truth. The ancient church had a clear understanding of the gracious salvific work of the Father through the Son. And they also knew that evidence of a person’s salvation manifested in their behavior to one another (Ignatius To the Philadelphians 11). There was no “easy-believism” in the early church. However, divisions and schisms occurred in the early church. Most notable was the disunity in the church of Corinth addressed in 1 Clement. In its harshest expression, the leaders in Rome declared to the church in Corinth that the manner in which they were acting toward each other was actually causing those outside of the church to blaspheme the name of Jesus. This sounds somewhat similar to the church today. We will learn something from the Apostolic Fathers about what it means for Christians

9 Soteriology – the doctrine of salvation.