Church Of Rome And The Apostolic Tradition example essay topic

Today, Christianity is filled with different denominations. Each denomination differs in opinion in certain areas. The origin of the differences in Christianity dates back to the Roman Empire when Christianity was developed. The Roman Empire was primarily polytheistic and people in the empire were expected to conform and bow down to all Roman gods.

Judaism was the first religion to claim that there was only one God, a strictly monotheistic view. Despite Roman expectations of conformation, Judaism was not seen as a threat to the empire and Jews practiced their religion with minimal persecution. On the other hand, Christianity (also monotheistic) was seen as a threat to the success and continuation of the empire mainly because of Jesus Christ and His teachings. The first followers of Christ were Jews. Non-Jewish followers, called Gentiles (Wiesner pg. 67), created an argument of whether or not they should conform to Judaism.

A direct result of that argument was the separation of Jews and Gentiles, and the development of Christianity. Christianity was based on the lessons of Jesus, but there was initial diversity in the ideas of the Gentile followers. The Apostle's transformed initial diversity in Christianity into a definite split between orthodoxy (truth) and heresy (false) by institutionalizing the orthodoxy in the Apostolic Creed, the Church, and the Apostolic Tradition. The orthodoxy of the Creed, written by the Apostles, played a very large role in separating "true" ideas from heresies because it displayed definite answers to conflicting ideas.

Among the conflicting ideas of the era, the Creed addressed four major concepts and declared them as orthodox. Gnostic thinkers such as Saturnius and Marcion declared that God did not create the world; and that Jesus was not the Son of God. Saturnius, affirmed that there was a Father who made seven angels, and "the world, and all things therein, was made by [those] certain angels... ".

(Irenaeus, Against Heresies, pg. 78). He also claimed that, "Jesus was not born of a virgin but was the son of Joseph and Mary, like other men... ". (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, pg. 79). Marcion denied God the credit of creating the universe by "removing the teachings of the Lord wherein he is most manifestly described as acknowledged the maker of this universe to be His Father" in both Luke and the Epistle's of Paul.

The very first sentence of the Creed addresses those two viewpoints. It declared that God created the universe, and that Jesus is the Son of God. The declaration of the Creed refuted the contrary beliefs and therefore they were separated as heresies. The Creed also separated two other false notions of gnostic thinkers. Marcion argued that the claims of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, were wrong and that Jesus did not ascend into heaven after rising, but, that he "remained impassible" (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, pg. 79).

Marcion also denied the second coming of Christ (final judgment) by "setting aside all the Apostle's teaching drawn from the Prophetic writings which predicted the advent of the Lord" (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, pg. 80). The Creed separated those gnostic notions as heresies and declared that Jesus did indeed ascend into heaven, and that He will return to "judge the quick and the dead" (St. Ambrose, The Apostle's Creed, pg. 79). One last point that the Creed appointed as orthodox was the Catholic Church. The orthodoxy in the Church of Rome aided in the separation between the orthodox ideas and the heretical ideas, because it became a sort of coordinator of all other churches. Because the Church of Rome basically became the center of truth, the other churches looked to "the Catholic Church for the regulation of church discipline" (The Mutation of Canon, pp. 80-81). Whatever the Church said, was considered to be orthodox.

The Church was called upon to approve letters and writings such as from established people such as John, Paul, and friends of Solomon. The Church regulated whether or not those writings would be read or not. Because of the Church had such leadership, it was seen as truth. Because of that, "there was no need to seek among others (because they could) easily obtain the truth from the Church" (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, pp. 82-83). The Church was seen as the center where orthodoxy and unorthodoxy was determined, and people saw it as the place to find truth. The "churches throuought Asia" all supported the validity of the church by claiming that the truth (of the Church) was "far more trustworthy and reliable than (the claims of) Valentin us and Marcion and the other misguided persons" (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, pp. 82-83).

With the support of all the other churches, authority of the Church was definite. The Church's authority to determine what was orthodox and heretical an important factor to observe is the leaders of the Church. The Church believed in Apostolic Tradition, which left the Apostles and their close followers leadership in the churches. Apostolic Tradition puts the Apostle's in leadership because they "received the gospel from the Lord Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ was sent from God. Christ then is from God, and the Apostles from Christ. Both therefore came in due order from the will of God" (Clement, Letter to the Christians at Corinth, pp 81-82).

Because the Apostles were seen to be from God they appointed their successors, the bishops and deacons. Together the bishops and deacons ran the Church. Therefore the bishops and deacons in the Church aided in determining orthodoxy of the many conflicting ideas during that time. The Apostle's instilled their ideas, beliefs, and traditions in their followers. Since their followers were the leaders of the Church and the Church determined orthodoxy, the Apostles had a direct and indirect influence on the determination of orthodoxy. They had a direct influence because the Apostolic Creed (which they wrote) was enforced in the Church.

They indirectly influenced the split between orthodoxy and heresy because of the beliefs and ideas they instilled in the bishops and deacons that they appointed. Amongst the various conflicting ideas initially in Christianity, a separation of the orthodox ideas and heretical ideas gave universal guidelines to what Christians believe. The Apostles of Christ shaped those guidelines through the orthodoxy of the Apostolic Creed, the Church of Rome, and the Apostolic Tradition. While institutionalizing each of the aforementioned did not end the debate, confusion of initial diversities in Christianity came to a definite separation between the ideas displayed truth, and the ideas that displayed a false interpretation of Christianity.