"Let me put it this way. If someone is attacking my wife, I'm not going to sit there and tell her to "turn the other cheek.""
That was one of the sticking points in the early Church. On the one hand, you had those who felt that getting too tangled in earthly things was a sin. And the correct response in such a situation would be, indeed, to tell her to turn the other cheek. She would be rewarded in Heaven for her piety and faith in God.
And then there were those who felt such was needless martyrdom. They objected to the Church encouraging young men to challenge the authorities and then admit to being Christians, thus ensuring their execution, martyrdom and a ticket straight to Heaven. If convenient explosives had been available, no doubt the suicide belt would have been invented then. If you read the Gospel of Judas, it points out the argument pretty clearly.
But, when the First Council of Nicaea was convened, the latter doctrine, which was associated with the Gnostics, was ruled one of the heresies and was buried. But, as the Church spread throughout Europe, the opportunities for martyrdom declined. So it eventually fell out of favor.
For me, studying the early Church provoked a crisis of faith. |
