THE MOST ANCIENT RELIGION
In
antiquity, one argument against Christianity as a legitimate religion was its seeming
novelty. Other religions has been around for millennia. The Jews existed since
Abraham. The pagan ‘gods’ of the Roman gods (really just the Greek ‘gods’ with new
names) had history dating back to Homer. The seeming newness of Christianity
was one reason why Rome persecuted the earthly Church. Roman law demanded that
all people within the Empire worship the Roman gods and the Emperor. The Jews had
been exempt from this requirement since the intertestamental period. Rome
recognized that Christianity worshiped a different God from the Jews (contrary
to what some want to believe today). Not worshiping the Romans ‘gods’ and not
worshiping the Jewish god, Christians were declared to be atheists! This is
attested to in The Martyrdom of Polycarp (circa
155 A.D.) Polycarp is given a chance to spare his life by disavowing his fellow
Christians by saying “Away with the Atheists!”
To
correct this false notion Eusebius, Bishop of the diocese in Caesarea (260-340
A.D.), wrote a short defense of Christianity in his work The History of the Church (Book 1: Section 4). He writes:
But although we certainly are a
youthful people and this undeniably new name of Christians has only lately
become known among all nations, nevertheless, our life and mode of conduct,
together with our religious principles, have not been recently invented by us,
but from almost the beginnings of man were built on the natural concepts of
those whom God loved in the distant past, as I shall proceed to show.
Eusebius mentions Noah and the pre-flood Patriarchs up
through the time of Abraham:
All these, whose righteousness
won them commendation, going back from Abraham himself to the first man, might
be described as Christians in fact if not in name, without departing far from
the truth.
Eusebius’ point is that the Patriarchs were Christians in
their faith and their practice of their religion. They were “Christians in fact if not in name.”
In the mind of Eusebius (and the other
church fathers with him) the Old Testament saints were Christians by virtue of
their faith in Christ.
Eusebius uses Abraham as his chief example of the primitive
truth and primacy of Christianity:
Obviously we must regard the
religion proclaimed in recent years to all nations through Christ’s teaching as
none other than the first, most ancient, and most primitive of all religions,
discovered by Abraham and his followers, God’s beloved. If it is argued that
long afterwards Abraham received the ordinance of circumcision, I reply that
before this, as we are informed, he had been commended for righteousness
through faith, as the sacred record tells us: Abraham believed God, and it was
counted to him for righteousness. Such he was before his circumcision, and it
was then that an oracle announced to him by God – Christ Himself, the Word of
God – show showed Himself to him. This concerned those who in later days were
to be justified in the same was as himself.
Abraham was justified by faith in the promise of God.
Eusebius is not making a new point. He is reiterating St. Paul’s point in
Romans 4 when the apostle writes:
For the promise that he would be
the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but
through the righteousness of faith. Therefore it is of faith that it might be
according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only
to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham,
who is the father of us all. (Romans 4:13, 16)
Paul’s point and Eusebius’ point is the same. What has always
justified sinners before God is faith in Christ, either Christ promised in the
future or the promise of the forgiveness of sins won by Christ on the cross.
Abraham was justified by faith in Christ just as you and I are today. All the
promises made to Abraham find their fulfillment in Christianity. Eusebius
writes:
For it was by faith in Christ the
Word of God who appeared to him that he was justified, abandoning the
superstition of his fathers and the error of his old ways, acknowledging one
God, the God over all, and serving Him with right actions, not with the worship
of the Law of Moses, who came later. Such he was when he was told that all the
races of the world and all the nations would be blessed in him. And in actions
more convincing than words at the present time Christians alone can be seen
throughout the world practicing religion in the very form in which Abraham
practiced it.
Eusebius makes the point that the Jews do not share the faith
of their Father Abraham because they reject Jesus who appeared to Abraham to
speak with him. The Jews of Eusebius’ day still lived according to the Law of
Moses, searching for a righteousness of the Law. Abraham was a Christian
because he believed the promises of Christ.
Eusebius’ argument encourages us to “keep the main thing the
main thing” in our present evil age of the world. Many in what calls itself the
church have abandoned the faith of Abraham by instead preaching a ‘gospel’ of
pleasing God with your actions (which is works righteousness) or ‘having a personal
relationship with Jesus’ that will transform your life. The Christian gospel,
that we are forgiven all of our sins for the sake of Christ’s life, suffering,
and death, must be taught, preached, confessed and defended against both the
true atheists of our time and the false church which rages against the Gospel
of the forgiveness of sins and justification by faith. If we jettison the
Gospel entirely, if we demote it, or if we get tired of it so that we replace
it with truly novel teaching, then we
risk becoming a modern sect which seeks a righteousness apart from faith. The
‘churches’ that teach what I usually call ‘Jesus plus something else for
salvation’ are not in line with the church catholic to which Eusebius, the
apostles, or Abraham belonged by faith.
As long as we adhere to and treasure the pure Gospel of
Christ and justification by faith alone we stand in the company of Abraham and
all the Old Testament saints, the apostles, and the orthodox fathers of the
church like Eusebius. This provides a great comfort to us, that we practice a
religion older than Mohammedanism, Judaism, and any eastern religion. We
practice the oldest religion: the religion of faith in Christ. Eusebius writes:
What
then is to prevent us from admitting that we, Christ’s followers, share one and
the same life and form of religion with those who were dear to God so long ago?
Thus the practice of religion so communicated to us by Christ’s teaching is
shown to be not modern and strange but, in all conscience, primitive, unique,
and true.”
In this world which constantly seeks to overthrow the truth
of the Gospel with its accusations of novelty and superstition, irrelevance and
out datedness, we are able to stand firmly upon the ancient Gospel. We do not
stand for a novel religion which continually needs to reinvent itself to be
relevant. We do not defend a religion borne out of human design and modern
innovation. Our own Augsburg Confession states, “This
is about the Sum of our Doctrine, in which, as can be seen, there is nothing
that varies from the Scriptures, or from the Church Catholic,” meaning, “We’ve added nothing new to this One, Holy,
Catholic and Apostolic Faith. Rather, the Lutheran Confess IS the catholic
faith of Eusebius, Paul, and Abraham.
By the grace of God we believe, teach, and confess the most
ancient and primitive religion: faith in Christ alone justifies. Ad Finem
Illum! Amen.
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