Severance

"Just as then the one born of the flesh persecuted the one born of promise and the Spirit, so it is now". Galatians 4:29.

The year is 250 AD, and many Christian leaders are in hiding for their lives because of their service, stirring the empire against the faith. Rather than their stance being viewed as good, however, those who are suffering in prison, seeing themselves as genuinely vexed because of this, deride such leaders as weak by their choosing to keep themselves from public view.

When the persecution eases, a church leader (bishop) named Cyprian from the African city of Carthage - one of those who had fled - seeks to address the issue of 'the lapsed' in a document bearing this title, stating that apostasy is beyond the remit of men to forgive, but later (AD 251), other African bishops assembled to review how they can quell the troubles caused by these events.

They resolve that penitents should not be treated severely, and seek to have this accepted as sound church policy, and after some disconcerting events involving a replacement bishop named Novitan, it was finally agreed that such sins could be remitted by those in authority.

The trouble did not end there. The Novitanists then sought to re-join the main body of the Christian community, but Cyprian argued that as they had not been baptised in what the authorities deemed 'church', they were schismatic, and could not be recognised. The tangle quickly escalated when the new bishop of Rome named Stephen stated that so long as they had received trinitarian baptism, they were already part of the Christian community and there was no need for their penance and re-baptism. This developed from a theology which emphasised that the sacraments did not belong to the church, but were Christs, and therefore their efficacy is dependent upon Christ at work in them and not the faithfulness of the one giving them.

When Cyprian refused to accept such leniency, a major rift opened between the two seats of authority, and it would take most of the next five decades before any resolve would prove possible.

The adversity Christianity faces is not only an external matter, but as is shown above, it is often the case that factors which originate outside the church penetrate within to bring points of disagreement and conflict.

In the case of Cyprian, he believed that his position of authority was not to be questioned, and therefore when he became inflexible in respect to those who wished to find a way to bring reconciliation between the various parties, he brought a major division in both the teaching and practice of the church of his day.

The issue at the centre of this conflict was what manner of 'godliness' or 'purity' makes us truly Christian? Is it something shown in our virtue and faithfulness to what we understand to be 'the faith', or is it, in truth, something outside of ourselves, given only in the riches of God's great mercy towards us?

Cyprian believed these 'marks' had to been identifiable to those ruling and leading a 'church' that was deemed Apostolic - those wanting to part of such a community had to be known to him and those who lead with him, but this in effect meant that other believers - those who had suffered greatly during this conflict - were left outside of that community, purely often times because they had experienced more trial than those who had managed to remain concealed from the authorities. Why should such be deemed properly excluded if they shared the same faith?

There are several parallels between these events and today.

A significant minority of Christians now find themselves outside of the main body of the church at this time, purely because of the state-imposed policies in respect to the pandemic regulations, especially regarding the use of medically injected substances that are clearly ethically dubious at best. These believers are seeking to remain faithful to their witness and consciences, and have a great deal of trouble resolving how the mainstream denominations can continue 'business as usual' in respect to their gatherings when they find themselves not only without regular fellowship, but often facing termination of employment, purely because 'official' church statements are used against them to argue that theirs is not a Christian position (!).

The Carthagian incident shows us that resolving such divisive issues cannot come about easily or without genuine desire to examine truth in order to bring righteous reconciliation between those who have been divided by impositions from outside of the faith.

Let us be clear. Christians here in the UK are now facing expulsion from churches and employment purely because they cannot allow the state, or the church's enforcement of state policy, to break their convictions in respect to the precedence that must be given to the requirements of the truth - the 'severity of Cyprian' is raining upon them just as surely as in what happened centuries ago.

Sadly, there is presently no church council or authority that recognises this - no ecclesiastical arbiter who is stating that such austere action is clearly wrong if the church is to be the instrument whereby grace and truth are delivered to the world.

This is a very tragic state of affairs, and at present, it appears this misery will only intensify in the days ahead.

Even with instruments of appeasement, it took the ancient church some five decades to find resolve.

How long will it take our generation when, at present, the issue isn't even being acknowledged by those who deem themselves to be authoritative? How can believers ever become one when these issues are, in effect, viewed as irrelevant or even irreconcilable?