Bryan
Fischer, an outspoken Evangelical Protestant, today (2 August 2019) claimed on
his radio program Focal Point that there were no dedicated church
buildings before St Constantine the Great ascended the imperial throne of Rome. However, if one reads a little Church history,
he will see this is false. Eusebius
writes the following about the time of the Emperor Diocletian, prior to St
Constantine:
5. And one could see the
rulers in every church accorded the greatest favor by all officers and
governors. But how can any one describe those vast assemblies, and the
multitude that crowded together in every city, and the famous gatherings in the
houses of prayer; on
whose account not being satisfied with the ancient buildings they erected from
the foundation large churches in all the cities?
--Church History,
Book VIII, Ch. 1
4. It was in the
nineteenth year of the reign of Diocletian, in the month
Dystrus, called March by the Romans, when the feast of the Saviour's passion
was near at hand, that royal edicts were published everywhere, commanding that
the churches be leveled to the ground and the Scriptures be destroyed by
fire, and ordering that those who held places of honor be degraded, and
that the household servants, if they persisted in the profession of Christianity, be deprived
of freedom.
--Ibid., Ch. 2
There
certainly were dedicated church buildings prior to St Constantine. However, this error on the part of Mr Fischer
is understandable because of Protestant revisionism with respect to Church
history. Their version of it is given by
Fr Zechariah Lynch, himself a former Pentecostal who is now an Orthodox priest:
. . . between the year 311AD and 1300AD is
simply the word “Darkness” (from 33AD to 311AD the church was said to be
operating in its original “power”). That is, the Church went into a time of
captivity and darkness.
1300AD is
labeled “Refreshing Starts,” during this period such figures as John Huss, John
Wycliffe, and others are considered the pioneers of refreshment.
1500AD –
“Grace,” clearly this refers to what is known as the Protestant Reformation.
1700AD –
“Personal holiness and conversion.”
1800AD –
“Prayer and Evangelism.”
1900AD –
“Baptism of the Holy Spirit.”
1950AD –
“Charismatic.”
Late 1900’s –
“Combine them all!” The note below the diagram reads, “God is building, adding
and adding, God is restoring His Church!” And with a note of surprised delight
its comments, “In the 1950s and after charismatic gifts began to flow even in
traditional churches.”
Such
a scheme distorts one’s view of actual Church history, as it likely has in the
case of Mr Fischer. Perhaps, though,
this oversight of his vis-à-vis church buildings will help him and other Protestant
Evangelicals to consider where else they have gone astray with respect to the truth
about the Orthodox Church and those who claim to be the Body of Christ.
--
Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England,
South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð,
unworthy though we are!
Anathema to the Union!
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