Worship-12A-NTChurchEurope

LONELY HEART, WANDERING SOUL &
THE SIDE-TRACKED CHURCH

THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH SINCE THE FIRST CENTURY
IN EUROPE

�� The New Testament Church has always existed.� What God began on the Day of Pentecost nearly 2000 years ago, he would never allow to die.� God is not weak.

�� Because the only world headquarters of the New Testament Church is to be heaven, there is no way to record just when and where all these congregations have existed down through the ages.� We can only know that by reading the writings they have handed down, or hearing them speak, both of which is usually not possible.� Only with God is this possible.

�� Further, because the only world headquarters of the New Testament Church is to be heaven, and the only other headquarters is to be the confines of the elders/presbyters of each congregation (I Timothy and Titus), records cannot really be kept except among those congregations who know about each other.

�� What does it take to be the New Testament Church founded on the Day of Pentecost and seen throughout the first century?� Some claim there has to be a written list of successions at one location with never a break.�

�� But that is like cutting a string a specified length, then cutting a second one after that pattern, then a third one after the pattern of the second, and so on.� Anyone with experience doing this knows those cut later will probably not be true to the size of the one cut first.

�� The only way to assure we are identical with the pattern set out by the first string is to always use the first string as the pattern, no matter how many strings are cut.� And so it is with the New Testament Church.� The only way we know the New Testament Church exists is if we measure it by the pattern set up on the Day of Pentecost and in following years as established only by the apostles and set forth only in the New Testament.

�� And so it is that we trace the New Testament Church through the ages.� Most will not be represented here simply because most did not have writers leaving letters and books we can read today.� But God knows.� That is all that is important.

Second Century

�� The Apostle Simon the Zealot, according to EUSEBIUS' ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY written about 350 AD, and FOXE'S BOOK OF MARTYRS, established the New Testament Church in Britain.� Apparently he established congregations on his way there in both Spain and France.� And it is likely he went over to far western Germany not too far away, and established the New Testament Church there also. [1]

�� According to READERS' DIGEST STORY OF THE BIBLE WORLD, by 185 AD, there were European congregations in Cologne and Mainz, GERMANY; Lyon in FRANCE; Leon, Saragossa and Merida in SPAIN, Carthage in northern AFRICA, and of course ITALY, GREECE and TURKEY as mentioned in the Bible.� (The following will not cover Christianity in Africa, the Middle-East, or the Orient, language barriers precluding a study of that history.) [2]

�� Apparently, these congregations were established by the students of the apostles called the "Apostolic Fathers."� For instance, Ireneaus was a life-time missionary to Lyons, Gaul (France).� He was a student of Polycarp who had been a student of the Apostle John.

�� In Ireneaus' writings we find:� "...we walk on the highways and sail withersoever we will without fear" (iv.30.1-31.I). [3]

FRANCE:

�� Ireneas was careful to stay as close to the scripture as possible.� He warned "therefore such as introduce other doctrines, hide from us the opinion which they themselves have concerning God; knowing the unsoundness and futility of their own doctrine, and fearing to be overcome, and so to have their salvation endangered" (iv.32.I) [4]

�� Other evidence we have of the New Testament Church in France is found in Eusebius, Book V, Chapter 1, where he devoted fifteen pages to telling about the persecutions they endured.� Amphitheaters were built for this purpose both in Lyons and Vienna.

�� Their crime was cannibalism because they ate the body and blood of Jesus (at the Lord's Supper), and incest because they married their (spiritual) brothers and sisters.� They ranged in age from 15 to 90, both men and women.� One was a physician.

�� After their arrest, they were dragged to prison with the crowds beating up on them or throwing stones at them as they passed.� Tortures continued in prison day after day.� They were put on the rack to get them to recant being Christians.� One man had red hot plates of brass placed on the most tender parts of his body.� After he died, his body was "one continued wound, mangled and shrivelled, that had entirely lost the form of man to the external eye."�

�� If the foregoing did not kill them, Romans citizens were beheaded.� The rest were taken to the amphitheater where they were sent through a gauntlet of scourges and dragged around by wild beasts.� If this did not kill them, they were then placed in a hot chair to be roasted to death.� One woman endured it all, still without being killed.� Thereupon she was put in a net and cast before a bull who killed her. [5]

GERMANY:

�� According to George Trabert in his CHURCH HISTORY of 1897, there were also congregations in today's Germany at Strasburg, Trier, Augsburg, and along the Rhine River

�� Since the Roman Empire version of overly-organized and overly-formalized Christianity was not popularized until the mid-300s under Constantine, every congregation in remote areas was on its own based on the scriptures that would have been taken to them by the missionaries.

Third Century

�� Both EUSEBIUS' ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY and FOXE'S BOOK OF MARTYRS written in the mid 1500s, tell of persecution of Christians in western Europe because they had established the New Testament Church there among the pagans.�

FRANCE:

�� In Nice, France, Trypho and Respicius were imprisoned for believing Jesus was the Son of God.� Nails were pounded through their feet, then they were forced to run or be dragged through the street.� Back in prison they were scourged, torn with large iron hooks, scorched with lighted torches, and finally beheaded on February 1, 251.

�� In 257 in Toulouse, France, the Christian Saturninus was arrested for refusing to sacrifice to an idol.� After being tortured and returned to the idol temple, his feet were fastened to the tail of a bull.� The enraged animal was then driven down the temple steps until his head burst open.

�� In 287 in Acquitain, France, an unnamed Christian woman was broiled on a gridiron and then beheaded.

�� Also that year Quintin and Lucian went to Amiens, France and then to Beaumaris.� Lucian was martyred.� Quinton went on to Picardy.� There he was put on the rack and stretched with pulled until his joints were dislocated.� He was also torn with wire scourges, endured boiling oil and pitched poured over him as well as lighted torches.� He died in prison shortly after.

SPAIN:

�� In 259 in Tarragon, Spain, Fructuosus, Augurius and Eulogius were burned at the stake for believing Jesus was the Son of the only God being New Testament Christians.

BRITAIN:

�� In Hertfordshire, Britain, Alban, who had been a pagan, was converted to Christianity by Amphibalus.� Alban then hid Amphibalus and claimed to the soldiers entering his home that he was Amphibalus.�

�� He was scourged and then ordered beheaded.� His would-be executor was so impressed with this Jesus that Alban was willing to die for, he requested to be executed in his place.� On June 22, 287 they were both beheaded.

Fourth Century

FRANCE:

�� In 303 in Marseilles, France, the Christian named Victor spent his fortune on relieving the poor in his congregation, and visiting them at night to comfort and them.� Arrested, he was dragged through the street while the crowd further degraded him in other ways.� In prison he was placed on the rack, and finally returned to a dungeon.�

�� While there he converted his jailers, Alexander, Felician and Longinus.� He was put back on the rack, beaten with batoons, and returned to the dungeon.� On a third occasion he was ordered to offer incense to a small idol.� He kicked the idol and altar over, and that foot was immediately cut off.� He was then thrown into a mill where he was crushed with the stones.

SPAIN:

�� The following year in Terragona where the New Testament Church existed, Valerius an elder, and Vincent a deacon, were arrested for their faith, chained with heavy irons, and dragged to prison.� Valerius was banished.�

�� Vincent was placed on the rack until his joints were dislocated.� His flesh was torn with large hooks.� Then he was placed on a gridiron with fire under him and spikes over him that were driven into him.� Still not recanting his belief in Jesus, he was put in a dark dungeon with sharp flints and broken glass on the floor where he died.

RUSSIA TO ATLANTIC:

�� In 308, God was about to use a barbarian warrior to further strengthen the New Testament Church in France and Spain.� According to Origen around 200 AD, the New Testament Church had already been established in Russia (then called Scythia) by the Apostle Andrew late in the first century.

�� The areas of northern Greece and northeast to Russia around the Black Sea were occupied by the Goths.� In Pannonia (later known as Hungary), Christian Quirinus was arrested, chained heavily and put on display from town to town along the Danube River.� In the city of Sabaria, a stone was fastened about his neck and he was drowned.

�� Although the Christians probably had writings left behind by Andrew, it was good for them to have the entire New Testament.� In the mid-300s, an alphabet was created for the Goths.� The Bible was then translated into that language from the original Greek.� This is all they needed to know to make sure they were organizing and worshipping according to the New Testament first century pattern.

�� Then Attila the Hun arrived with his army.� The Goths during the next hundred years gradually moved across southern Europe.� They ended up in southern France (Gaul) and Spain.�

�� They had taken their Bible translated in their own language with them.� The Gauls remained in control of Spain and France for the next 350 years.�

�� Therefore, the Christianity of western Europe would have been fairly untainted but also fairly strong before the Roman Empire was able to effectively spread its religious wings to that area.�

�� These Goths were never Roman Catholics or Jews, although they treated both minority groups with respect.� They were Christians with a leaning toward Arianism, rejecting worship of the Lord's Supper as the actual presence of Jesus.� They had the Bible available to everyone written in their own language.� These Scriptures were never surpressed until the Roman Catholics grew powerful enough to do so.

Fifth Century

SCOTLAND & IRELAND:

�� Early in this century the church spread to Scotland and Ireland, probably as a result of missionary work done by the students of students of the Apostle Simon (the Zealot) in Britain.

�� In 430, Ninian, who had been educated in Rome tried to set up congregations, of course with Roman church beliefs, but met with resistance.� Both the Scottish and Irish churches were distinct from the Roman church in many things.� Later Rome coerced them to live a Catholic or face severe persecutions, tortures and deaths.

�� Late in this century when Patrick did missionary work in Ireland and tried to set up diocese with bishops over them, he met with resistance.� These people probably knew from the New Testament that elders/presbyters/bishops were to be heads of only one congregation.

ARMENIA:

�� Also in Armenia at the far end of Turkey up near Russia, the second Bible translated into the language of the common people was made.� Using this Bible alone without the influence of church hierarchy, they would have been able to worship just like the Christians of New Testament days.

Sixth Century

BRITAIN & IRELAND:

�� As the rest of Europe headed into the Dark Ages, in the Celtic northern European territory, especially Britain and Ireland, education and reading flourished.� Beautiful books such as the Lindisfarne Gospels survive from this period.� With education flourishing, people could read the Bible for themselves and worship just as Christians in the first century did.�

�� (Even at the opposite end of the Roman Empire down in Syria, Christians there objected to bowing down to paintings and statues of Christ, the virgin Mary, apostles and various saints.� Did they do it because the Christians in Britain and Ireland did?� No, they had no idea who they were.� They merely had the same New Testament.)

Seventh Century

BRITAIN:

�� The New Testament Church in Britain had been personally started by the Apostle Simon the Zealot.� During this century the Roman church sent missionaries, apparently not knowing the church was already there.�

�� These representatives from Rome tried to convert them to fall in line with Roman teachings.� But the Brits remained true to the teachings of their Apostle.� Therefore they rejected celibacy of the clergy, purgatory, confession to priests and so on.

GERMANY:

�� One such Christian was Killien who was raised a Christian.� He later went to preach in Franconia, Germany.� In Wurtzburg he converted Gozbert, the governor.� Later, an opponent in the royal house had him beheaded in 689.

Eighth Century

BRITAIN:

�� In Britain, the Bible was first given to the people in what we today call Old English, a combination of German, French and Latin by Caedman.� Although it was in the form of poetry and not an actual translation, it gave the common people an opportunity to read for themselves.� Also about this time, Bede made an actual translation of parts of the Bible.

�� Therefore, all the people had to do who wanted to worship the way people did in the first century, was to read their Bibles.� Later the Roman Church was able to influence government officials here.� But they had trouble getting the Brits themselves to fall in line with them.�

�� When the pope quoted Matthew 16:19 saying the keys of the kingdom were given to Peter only, they wrote the pope back quoting Matthew 18:18 saying the keys of the kingdom had been given to all the apostles.

Ninth Century

GERMANY:

�� The Bible was translated into the German language by an unknown translator.

THE SLAVS:

�� In Moravia, the Slavic alphabet was invented.� Then the Bible was translated into the language of the people.� It was called the "Old Church Slavonic Bible."� So, although their King Boris in Bulgaria nearby affiliated with the central church in Constantinople, they still had the Bible and could still meet the way the first century did.

�� Anyone wanting to organize and worship the same way people did in the first century could then just read the Bible for themselves and do so.

Tenth Century

BRITAIN:

�� Old English was in the process of changing into what we today call Middle English.� In Britain, in 995, Aelfric wrote so many articles about scriptures in the Old and New Testaments that he ended up quoting most of it.� Thus, people could still refer to the writings of the Bible in their own language to organize and worship the same way Christians did in the first century.

EUROPE:

�� The ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA, discussing the Waldenses, states that there were numerous "sects" (anyone who was not Roman Catholic) during the Middle Ages, but they are obscure because they did not have writings of their own defending their faith; rather they chose to remain to themselves, being congregational in organization.�

�� All we know of them is what their enemies wrote about them.� But later they would find it necessary to write letters and tracts defending their New Testament views.� "In early times these sectaries produced little literature of their own."� They had no need to.� The New Testament was all the literature they needed.�

�� "When they produced a literature at the beginning of the 15th century, they attempted to claim for it a much earlier origin....the historical continuity of Protestantism from the earliest times.�

�� "According to this view the church was pure and uncorrupt till the time of Constantine (350 AD) when Pope Sylvester gained the first temporal possession for the papacy, and so began the system of a rich, powerful and worldly church, with Rome for its capital.�

�� "Against this secularized church a body of witnesses silently protested; they were always persecuted but always survived." [6]

Eleventh Century

FRANCE:

�� Around 1010 in France, a man named Berengarius (Berengar of Tours) preached Gospel truths according to the primitive ways of the first century.� He insisted that the Lord's Supper was a symbolic memorial service and not to be worshipped.� He insisted that the Bible was the only foundation of faith, not church rules and traditions.� People called his followers Berengarians.� They just wanted to be called Christians.

�� About that same time, Peter Bruis (de Bruys), who had heard Berengarius, taught similarly with his followers completely separating from the Church of Rome.� He wrote a book against the pope entitled ANTICHRIST.� Outsiders called this group Petrobusians, although they considered themselves simply Christians.

�� Some of their beliefs were as follows:

1.�� The Lord's Supper should be kept as a memorial, and not as a Mass where it is worshipped.

2.�� Ministers should marry.�

3.�� Infant baptism is never found in the Scriptures.

4.�� Churches need not be officially consecrated

5.�� Holding masses for the dead is not in the Bible and should not be practiced.

GERMANY & NETHERLANDS:

�� Around mid-century, the Four Gospels were translated from Latin into the language of West Saxony which today is the western part of Germany and the Netherlands.

Twelfth Century

FRANCE:

�� In Toulouse, France, in 1147 another congregation of the New Testament Church became called by outsiders Henricians.� Their leader was Henry of Toulouse.� He was a former monk who believed as Peter De Bruys had.� These Christians were centered in Tours.� �They declared that Christians could do nothing except that which came directly from Scriptures themselves.

�� Peter Waldo/Valdo, was a native of Lyons where the Apostolic Father, Ireneas had established the New Testament Church.� Around 1170, he openly opposed the church at Rome.� People began calling his followers Waldenses or Waldoys.�

�� Alarmed at his effectiveness in spreading the New Testament Church wherever he traveled, in 1179, Pope Alexander III ordered him to cease preaching except by direct consent of the local Roman bishop.� This did not work, so in 1184 he ordered them exterminated.� The French tried to oblige him.� It began in Toulouse and spread to Province, an area in extreme southern France.� So they escaped to Italy.

ITALY:

�� In 1155 in northern Italy, Arnold of Brescia and the simple Christians with him declared that it was unscriptural for....

1.�� The church to own property

2.�� Minister and bishops to control the civil government.

He was hanged at the request of Pope Adrian IV.� Still the New Testament Church refused to die.

Thirteenth Century

ITALY:

�� Here the Waldenses translated the Bible into the language of the Italian people.

�� Eventually there were two large groups of them involving many congregations scattered north of the Alps and down in Italy.� Their beliefs were nearly identical.

I.�� North of the Alps

�� 1.�� Oaths are forbidden by the gospel.

�� 2.�� Capital punishment is not allowed to the civil power.

�� 3.�� All Christians are priests; therefore any layman may consecrate the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

�� 4.�� The Roman Church is not the New Testament Church

�� 5.�� Asceticism is not a requirement of Christianity.

II.�� Of Lombardy, Italy

�� 1.�� Oaths are forbidden by the gospel.

�� 2.�� Capital punishment is not allowed to the civil power.

�� 3.�� All Christians are priests; therefore any layman may consecrate the sacrament of the Lord's Supper as long as they were not in mortal sin.

�� 4.�� The Roman Church is not the New Testament Church, but was the scarlet woman of the Apocalypse, whose precepts ought not to be obeyed, especially those appointing fast-days.

�� 5.�� Asceticism is not a requirement of Christianity.

�� Many fled to Alps in valleys of Piedmont, and settled in valleys named after them, the Vaudois.� Persecution continued in the lower regions.

�� 1487, Pope Innocent VIII issued a bull for their extermination in Italy.� Alberto de-Capitanei, Archdeacon of Cremona, put himself at the head of this "holy" crusade.

�� The New Testament Church was attacked in Dauphine and Piedmont at the same time.� They took refuge in valley of the Angrogne.� Charles II, Duke of Piedmont, defended them to save his territory from extinction.

GERMANY:

�� Others of these Waldenses ended up in GERMANY where they found refuge also.� They influenced, and afterwards joined, the Hussites and the Bohemian Brethren who had been independently re-establishing the New Testament Church in their own regions, based only on the New Testament (see below).

�� In 1530, Georges Morel of Dauphine, and Pierre Masson of Provence conferred with German and Swiss Reformers.� An extant letter to Oecolampadius shows their attempt to form a separate church from all organized religion, the New Testament New Testament Church.

�� They were even disturbed about the Lutheran teaching about freewill and predestination, since people did good works when stimulated by God's grace, and predestination was actually foreknowledge.

�� At first they continued to submit to baptism and communion from Catholic priests, but then isolated themselves for own secret services.� They finally broke away completely.

�� The Waldenses in 1532 at Chanforans in the valley of the Angrogne, the merged with the Swiss and German reformers.� They adopted a new confession of faith and recognized election, and renounced all future recognition of Rome, and decided to worship in public.

NETHERLANDS:

�� During this century, several translations of the Bible into the common language of the people in the Netherlands came into being, names of translators unknown.� But the author of the Bible was always known ~ God, not man.

Fourteenth Century

BRITAIN:

�� John Wycliffe was born in Yorkshire, England 1320.� In 1365 he was appointed warden of a mixed body of monks and secular clergy in Canterbury Hall.� In 1367, he was replaced and the secular clergy were replaced with monks

�� In 1372 he was awarded doctor of theology.� In 1374 he published a work supporting the English parliament for refusing to pay tribute to Pope Urban V.� That same year he was appointed head of the rectory of Lutterworth in Leicestershire which he held until his death.� At first Wycliffe's writings were about local government power versus Roman church power.

�� In 1376 he took the middle road between predestination and free will.� Man, of his own free will, does good or bad.� God controls all spiritual things, but not material things.� Therefore the church has no right over material things.� At this time he did not object to a pope as long as he was good.

�� Wycliffe translated the Latin Bible into English with the aid of Nicholas Hereford and John Purvey.� He also sent out "simple" priests to preach his doctrines throughout England, some of them holding positions at Oxford.� His preachers were to supplement the services of the church by religious instruction in the vernacular.� The commoners, with their new knowledge, continued to denounce evils of the church, especially among the rich.

�� In 1379 he wrote public attacks on the pope.� He also began a formal attacks on the "new" doctrine of the Lord's Supper, transubstantiation, saying rather that in spirit only the bread and wine actually became Christ, but not materially.�

�� Although he never left the Catholic Church, he provided the basis for any group of people who wanted to be simple New Testament Christians to do just that.

�� * * * * *

�� Followers of Wycliffe were called by outsiders "mutterers," or "Lollards" probably because they continually murmured against the Roman church.� This group headed by a friend of Wycliffe, Nicholas of Hereford of Queen's College in England.� At first the group was made up of scholars at Oxford.

�� Philip Repingdon carried the movement of Leichester where, by 1382, William Swinderby led a group of lay adherents into neighboring towns.� In 1390-92, he was hidden by sympathizers in Wales.

�� John Purvey compiled the second translation of the Bible, more idiomatic and readable than Herford's.

�� In their Twelve Conclusions drawn up in 1395, the told Parliament that the church of England had become subservient to her stepmother the church of Rome.�

1.�� The present priesthood was not the one ordained by Christ

2.�� The Roman ritual of ordination had no warrant in Scripture.

3.�� Clerical celibacy created unnatural lust.�

4.�� Feigned miracle of transubstantiation led men into idolatry.

5.�� Hallowing wine, bread, altars, and vestments was related to necromancy (witchcraft).�

6.�� Prelates should not be temporal judges and rulers.�

7.�� Condemned prayers for the dead

8.�� Condemned pilgrimages

9.�� Condemned offerings to images.�

10.�� Confession to a priest unnecessary to salvation.�

11.�� Warfare is unscriptural.�

12.�� Vows of chastity by nuns led to abortion and child murder.

13.�� Unnecessary flamboyant pursuit of the arts by the church encouraged waste.�

14.�� The prime duty of priests is to preach.�

15.�� All men should enjoy free access to the vernacular Scriptures.

�� William Sawtre (Sawtrey), another leader, was burned in 1401.

�� In 1407, Oxford University fired all of its Lollards professors.

�� Sir John Oldcastle was arrested in 1413 for maintaining Lollard preachers, denying transubstantiation and the confessional and put in the Tower of London.� He escaped, and in 1414 led a march on London.� Henry V's troops disbursed them.

�� Between 1424 and 1430, hundreds were arrested in various cities in Norwich, Somerset and Lincoln.

�� They were not normally demonstrative or heroic, but flourished in quiet evasion.

�� About 1500 a Lollard revival of the New Testament Church began, which John Foex wrote about in his Acts and Monuments.� Around Essex in 1510, some 50 Lollards were prosecuted, and again in 1518.� In 1514 Lollard merchant Richard Hunne was murdered in an episcopal prison in St. Paul's.� Between 1527-32 at least 218 "heretics" were prosecuted.�

�� In the Chilterns 1506-07 45 cases were prosecuted.� In 1521, five were burned, and others followed the next decade.� In Tenterden in 1511, five Lollards were burned alive.� Also Thomas Man was burned at the stake at Smithfield in 1518.� All because they just wanted the follow the pattern of the first-century New Testament Church.

�� Around 1530 William Tyndale's N.T. was sold by Lutheran Robert Barnes to Lollards in Britain.�

�� In York 32 Christians were prosecuted under King Henry VIII, and 45 under Queen Mary I.� The Christians attacked....

1.�� saint worship

2.�� images

3.�� relics

4.�� holy bread

5.�� holy water

6.�� sacred buildings and objects

7.�� confession

8.�� transubstantiation

�� All they wanted was to imitate the simplicity of the New Testament, the first-century New Testament Church.

FRANCE:

�� The Anglo-Norman Translation of the Bible was done in part, but never completed.� The Anglo-Normans were of Viking descent and lived mostly in the northern part of France.

BOHEMIA / CZECHOSLOVAKIA:

�� Also in the middle of the fourteenth century, Jan (Johan) Milic of Kromeriz led a Bohemian national reform movement.� He was a wealthy Christian who deliberately embraced poverty to preach return to the simplicity of the primitive New Testament Church.� He died in 1374.�

�� His pupils founded the Bethlehem chapel in Prague where public sermons were preached in Czech in the spirit of Milic's teachings.� From 1402, Huss was in charge of the chapel.

GERMANY:

�� In 1366, the Bible was translated literally word for word from the Latin into the common language of the people in Germany.� It was this Bible that, a century later, would be the first one reproduced on a printing press.

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