What I Didn’t Learn in Seminary

I’m so grateful that I was able to do my undergraduate work at a Christian university. It was there that I truly developed a love for the Scriptures and a passion to impact the world for Christ. I’m also thankful for being able to graduate from Seminary, and for the many practical ministerial lessons I learned there.

However, even though I was blessed with a wonderful traditional Christian education and graced with many brilliant professors, I feel like the writings of the earliest Christians have deepened my faith far more than anything I was exposed to in the classroom.

To be fair, we did learn about a few of the major Gnostic heresies during the Ante-Nicene period such as Marcionism, Valentinianism and Manichaeism. However, it was basically implied that real orthodox Christianity began to take root with the 5th century teachings of St. Augustine (who spent his early years as a Manichaean before converting to Christianity).

I have encountered many believers who experienced the same carefully shaped version of Christian history in Bible college or seminary as I did. We were informed of the heresies the earliest Christians stood against, but despite the vast amount of Ante-Nicene writings available to be studied, we were neither exposed to them, not taught what the earliest Christians actually stood for.

So, for the remainder of this blog, I’m going to provide you with a few testimonies from the early Christians that led me to begin questioning my previously held spiritual worldview. Each of these testimonies are from apologetic-type works, with the authors describing the actions of Christians around the entire known world at the time.

As you read these excerpts, I’d like for you to ask yourself this question: Why? Why are testimonies like these rarely being taught to the up-and-coming pastors, professors and leaders of Christendom?

Justin Martyr on Christians and Violence in 160CE:

We who were filled with war, and mutual slaughter, and every wickedness, have each through the whole earth changed our warlike weapons, — our swords into ploughshares, and our spears into implements of tillage, — and we cultivate piety, righteousness, philanthropy, faith, and hope, which we have from the Father Himself through Him who was crucified… Now it is evident that no one can terrify or subdue us who have believed in Jesus over all the world. For it is plain that, though beheaded, and crucified, and thrown to wild beasts, and chains, and fire, and all other kinds of torture, we do not give up our confession; but the more such things happen, the more do others and in larger numbers become faithful, and worshippers of God through the name of Jesus. For just as if one should cut away the fruit-bearing parts of a vine, it grows up again, and yields other branches flourishing and fruitful; even so the same thing happens with us. – Justin Martyr 160CE, ANF Volume 1, p. 413 [CD-ROM]

Irenaeus on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit in 180CE:

Those who are truly His disciples, receiving grace from Him, … perform [works] in His name, in order to promote the welfare of others, according to the gift that each one has received from Him. Some truly and certainly cast out devils. The result is that those who have been cleansed from evil spirits frequently both believe and join themselves to the Church. Others have foreknowledge of things to come. They see visions, and they utter prophetic expressions. Still others heal the sick by laying their hands upon them, and the sick are made whole. What is more, as I have said, even the dead have been raised up and remained among us for many years. … It is not possible to name the number of the gifts which the Church throughout the whole world has received from God, in the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and which she exerts day by day for the benefit of the Gentiles, neither practicing deception upon any, nor taking any reward from them. – Irenaeus 180CE, ANF Volume 1, p. 676 [CD-ROM]

Tertullian on Christians and Government in 197CE:

As those in whom all zeal in the pursuit of glory and honor is dead, we have no pressing inducement to take part in your public meetings; nor is there anything at all more entirely foreign to us than affairs of state. … If, also, Jesus exercised no right of power even over His own followers, to whom He discharged menial ministry; if, in short, though conscious of His own kingdom, He shrank back from being made a king, He in the fullest manner gave His own an example for turning coldly from all the pride and garb, as well of dignity as of power. For if they were to be used, who would rather have used them than the Son of God? What kind and what number of weapons would escort Him? What kind of purple would bloom from His shoulders? What kind of gold would beam from His head, had He not judged the glory of the world to be alien both to Himself and to His? Therefore what He was unwilling to accept, He has rejected; what He rejected, He has condemned; what He condemned, He has counted as part of the devil’s pomp. – Tertullian 197CE, ANF Vol. 3, p. 67, 110 [CD-ROM]

So, what do you think? What could be some of the reasons that testimonies like these are rarely being taught to the up-and-coming pastors, professors and leaders of Christendom?

As I mentioned earlier, these are just a few of the subjects written about by the earliest Christians that began to cause shifts in my spiritual worldview. It can be scary when our worldviews are shaken; I know from experience. However, I’m so thankful that it happened.

The early Christians taught me to take Jesus more simply and seriously than I ever did before. They inspired me to believe with much more fervency that the same Holy Spirit who indwelt and empowered the Apostles still transforms and enables Christians today to walk as Jesus walked. They challenged me to trust more fully in God as my protector and avenger, and to more passionately wage war against the forces of darkness with the divine weapons graced to us by our Lord.

If you’d like to read more about my journey with Christ and how the testimony of the earliest Christians has been affecting my approach toward so many areas of life, please check out my book. Also, perhaps the best way to get introduced to the beliefs and practices of the Ante-Nicene Christians is to invest in The Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs. I recommend the hard copy, as it has proved much more user-friendly when navigating from topic to topic than the digital version. 

Seminary was definitely a blessing for me, but it’s what I didn’t learn in seminary that totally changed the course of my life. 

Violence in the Kingdom of God

One of the strangest teachings of Jesus occurs in Matthew 11:12. Seemingly out of nowhere, our nonviolent, loving, self-sacrificial Savior declared, “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force.”

As weird as the statement is, I never thought anyone would use it to make a case for Jesus being in favor of His disciples acting in physically violent ways. However, I’ve been shocked throughout the years to hear that argument actually used. Still, I wasn’t quite sure what to do with Jesus’ words there.

Recently, I was amazed and convicted when reading the way the early Christians interpreted this teaching of our Messiah.

The Lord [did] assert that the kingdom of heaven was the portion of “the violent.” And He says, “The violent take it by force;” that is, those who by strength and earnest striving are on the watch to snatch it. … Paul the Apostle says to the Corinthians, “Do you not know, that those who run in a race, do all indeed run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may win. Every one also who engages in the contest is disciplined in all things: now these men [do it] that they may obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. But I so run, not as uncertainty; I fight, not as one beating the air; but I beat my body, and bring it into subjection, lest by any means, when preaching to others, I may myself be rendered disqualified.” This able wrestler, therefore, exhorts us to the struggle for immortality. … Both the Lord has taught and the apostle has enjoined us the more to love God, that we may reach this [prize] for ourselves by striving after it. – Irenaeus Volume 1, p. 873 [CD-ROM]

Irenaeus compares Jesus’ words to Paul’s analogy of an Olympic athlete training to win a gold medal. We are supposed to fight and wrestle to obtain all that God wants for us.

I have nappy, frustrating hair, so from an early age I learned the value of a good hat. No matter how catastrophic the condition of my hair, a ball cap can cover it up. A few years ago, my father came over to take me to lunch, but I hadn’t showered by the time he arrived. I figured I’d just put on my favorite hat and we could go. Unfortunately, it wasn’t in the place I remembered putting it last.

Like hounds after a fox I hunted my hat. I spent at least 15 minutes tearing through piles, crawling under beds and rummaging through my car seeking this perceived pearl of great price. Finally, when I had almost given up, something told me to go back to my room. There on the floor, just beneath a pair of pants I had worn the day before was my precious.

My father and I jumped in his jeep and left for lunch, but somewhere between the driveway and the restaurant the Holy Spirit began to prick at my heart. He asked, “Do you seek after Me with the same ferocity, Phil? Is your hat more valuable to you than Me?”

According to the early Christians, Jesus calls us to aggressively pursue Him… not just at the beginning of our relationship, but all throughout our lives. However, does the New Testament really call us to that sort of aggressive approach to God? Or, like some spiritual songs suggest, is there no real worth to what we Christians do? Let’s see:

For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. – 1 Timothy 6:10-12

Applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you. – 2 Peter 1:5-11

If those passages are so familiar to you that you just skimmed through them, please go back and slowly and thoughtfully read them again as if for the first time. Fight. Pursue. Take Hold. Apply all diligence. Supply. Increase. Make certain. Practice.

Like a man seeking fine pearls and then liquidating all his resources to buy one of great value, Jesus wants us to aggressively and joyfully pursue Him and His kingdom. The cost is great, but Jesus is infinitely greater!