Trail of BloodStudies

Church History As It relates To Missionary Baptists

Week 13 and 14 Century 601-700

• Review of the History

– Dark Ages

• The New Testament Church and …… Running

Assignments: Trail of Blood, Pages- 16,17 and 18

Week 14 and 15 Century 701-800

Review of the History– Dark Ages

• The New Testament Church and …… Running

• Assignments: Trail of Blood, Pages- 19, 20

Trail of Blood

The Dark Ages

The Dark AgesHistorical TimelineA. 500 AD: Rome has Fallen to

Barbarians

B. 700 AD: German Tribes setup kingdoms1. They become Christians

C. 730--‐814AD: Charlemagne1. Rules France, Germany, Italy2. Crowned Roman Emperor

D. 800--‐1000AD:Vikings & Muslims Invade

1. Vikings:England, France, N. Germany2. Muslims: N. Africa, Turkey, Israel, Spain

The Dark Ages

F. 1215 AD:King John Signs Magna Carta

1. King John of England = Weak Leader2. Taxed the Nobles, Nobles Rebelled3. Forced to sign “Magna Carta,” Limited his Power

a. No Taxes w/out representationb. Trial Courts w/ Juryc. Protection under law

G. 1300 AD: Bubonic Plague (AKA “Black Death”)1. Killed 1/3 the population2. Weakened the church, prayers didn’t work

E. 1093--‐1200AD:Crusades1. Christians go to save/reclaim Jerusalem2. Try different themes all failed3. As a result:

a. It weakened the Churchb. It weakened the Noblesc. Restarts trade w/ the East

The Dark Ages

PAULICIANS:

The Paulician churches were of apostolic origin, and were planted in Armenia in the first century. "Through Antioch and Palmyra the faith must have spread into Mesopotamia and Persia; and in those regions become the basis of the faith as it is spread in the Taurus mountains as far as Ararat. This was the primitive form of Christianity. The churches in the Taurus range of mountains formed a huge recess or circular dam into which flowed the early Paulician faith to be caught and maintained for centuries, as it were, a backwater from the main for centuries" (Bury’s edition of Gibbon’s History, VI. p. 543).

The earliest center of Christianity in Armenia was at Taron, which was the constant home and base of operations of the Paulicians.

The Dark Ages

PAULICIANS:

THEIR ORIGINSThe Paulician churches were planted in Armenia during the first century (according to their tradition, by the Apostle Thomas).

They were named Paulicians in the 7th century by their enemies because of their emphasis on the letters of Paul, and their practice of adopting Pauline names.

They insisted on being called "Christians"--not Catholics.

The Dark Ages

PAULICIANS: THE STORY OF SIMEON

In 684 AD, the Eastern Emperor ordered an officer of his army by the name of Simeon to hunt down and execute a Paulician preacher named Constantine. When he found him, Simeon commanded Constantine's own congregation to kill him by stoning. They steadfastly refused to do this. Finally, Constantine's own adopted son, Justus, performed the deed.

The event so moved Simeon that he was converted himself from Catholicism to the Paulician persuasion AND BECAME THE PASTOR OF CONSTANTINE'S FORMER CHURCH! Simeon was eventually betrayed by Constantine's son, Justus, and was burned alive. The Paulicians suffered horrible persecutions and history records that at least 100,000 of them were killed, "by beheading, buntings and drawings--and that without pity" during just one 25 year period (842-867 AD).

The Dark Ages

PAULICIANS:The History of the Christian Church, by George Fisher, reads:

"While the Christian world, as it has been the fashion to call it, 'was thus sunk into an awful state of superstition--at a moment when darkness seemed to cover the earth, and a gross darkness of the people'--it is pleasing to contemplate a ray of celestial light darting across the gloom. About the year 650, a new sect arose in the east, under the name of Paulicians, which is justly entitled to our attention.

From George Fisher's History of the Christian Church, we read:“In this manuscript called Key of Truth, we find many of their beliefs. Conybeare says he had at last '...Understood who these Paulicians really were. All who had ‘written about them’ had been misled by their Calumnies (slanders). I now realized (he said) that I had stumbled on the monument of a phase of the Christian Church so old and so outworn, that the very memory of it was lost...

'Their system (he continues) was like the European Cathars, in its basal idea and conception alien to persecution; for membership in it depended upon baptism, voluntarily sought for, even with tears and supplications by the faithful and penitent adult.

The Dark Ages

PAULICIANS:On the contrary, the whole purpose of the scrutiny, to which his heart and intelligence were won, and to guard against that merely outward conformity, which is all that the persecutor can hope to impose.

The Paulicians were the descendants of the original church in his book The Pilgrim Church:

"The persecutions to which they were subjected, and the systematic destruction of their literature, hide from us all but occasional glimpses of their history, though what remains is sufficient to show that there were in those wide regions of Asia Minor and Armenia, around Mount Ararat and beyond the Euphrates, churches of baptized believers, disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, who kept the teachings of the apostles received from Christ and contained in the scriptures, in an unbroken testimony from the first.“

The Dark Ages

PAULICIANS:On the contrary, the whole purpose of the scrutiny, to which his heart and intelligence were won, and to guard against that merely outward conformity, which is all that the persecutor can hope to impose.

The Paulicians were the descendants of the original church in his book The Pilgrim Church:

"The persecutions to which they were subjected, and the systematic destruction of their literature, hide from us all but occasional glimpses of their history, though what remains is sufficient to show that there were in those wide regions of Asia Minor and Armenia, around Mount Ararat and beyond the Euphrates, churches of baptized believers, disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, who kept the teachings of the apostles received from Christ and contained in the scriptures, in an unbroken testimony from the first.“

The Dark Ages

They claimed that their churches were of apostolic origin.They used the Bible as their sole rule of faith.They believed in individual soul liberty.They practiced Believer's baptism only.They rejected Transubstantiation.They rejected ceremony of any sort.They opposed idol worship.They had no hierarchy.

Paulicians were also known as Bogomils "friends of God" and Cathari, "Pure Ones."

Their numbers swelled, and in 1291 AD the Catholics launched an Inquisition to try to eradicate them.They are know to have established churches throughoutTurkey, Greece, Bulgaria, The Balkans, Serbia, Bosnia, and then into Europe.

The Dark Ages

• Before AD 800• Montanism• Novatianism• Donatists• Jovianists• Paulicians

The Dark Ages

• After 800 AD• Cathari

• Albigenses

• Joachimites

• Petrobutians

• Henricians

• Arnoldists

• Waldensians

• John Wycliffe

• Jan Hus (Moravians)

The Dark Ages The Dark Ages 1 The Dark Ages 2

The Dark Ages 3 The Dark Ages 4

Brother James Billings, B.S., Th.B., M.Div. -- Department of Bible

Voice of the Martyrs

Illyricum and Dalmatia

Trail of Blood Studies

– Admit where we are on this journey!

– Knowing the history helps

– Study the history and bible

– Build confidence

– Commit to serving Jesus

– Tell others

THE MESSAGE OF THE PROPHETS OF THE OLD

TESTAMENT WAS

2000 A.D.

1400 B.C..

Moses

Creation of world 2500

B.C.400 B.C..

The Dark AgesHistorical TimelineA. 500 AD: Rome has Fallen to

Barbarians

B. 700 AD: German Tribes setup kingdoms1. They become Christians

C. 730--‐814AD: Charlemagne1. Rules France, Germany, Italy2. Crowned Roman Emperor

D. 800--‐1000AD:Vikings & Muslims Invade

1. Vikings:England, France, N. Germany2. Muslims: N. Africa, Turkey, Israel, Spain

AD 600-700Christianity was found in several Modalistic Monarchian organizations. These were generally referred to collectively as: CATHARI.

AD 610 JESUS NAME WATER BAPTISM (Lambert, p. 62). The Jesus Christ water baptism was almost the only one in Frisia until AD 689. There were almost no Catholics. (J. Laux, p. 218).

NOTE: For 526 years (since AD 37-42) Apostolic Celts in Britain had kept the 14th NISAN Passover! One God doctrine was the dominant religion by far. (E.T. Thompson, "Through the Ages, pp. 106-108). The world has been duped into supposing Catholicism was the only religion there was.

AD 662 MOSLEMS FOUGHT CATHOLICS. Islamism was strong. Muslims had the KORAN, their Holy Book. (Bernstein & Green, p. 172). Muslims in Spain were the Moors; and they protected Jews and other one God Christians from Catholic interest.

AD 695 Jews were killed in Spain by the Catholics. The adult Jews were martyred in Spain by Catholic believers and children of the Jews were seized and reared as Catholics! (C. Roth, p.127).

AD 800-900The Catholic hierarchy slandered all others as, HERETICS! However, alleged heretics filled the lands.AD 800 Quote: "Donatism (Acts 2) was never absent from the medieval scene. It lasted for twelve centuries and it maintained the primitive Apostolic message." (L.Verduin, p.35). The 9th century had more Apostolics than any other. The following references prove this. (Z. Oldenbourg, pp. 29,41,255; J.B. Ressell, pp. 5-14, 172-178). During this period the Catholic system almost suffered total collapse. Apostolic preachers were everywhere. There were more "false priest" as they were called who had been ordained in the Catholic system. (Russell, p. 174).AD 800 Vain kings like Pepin, Charles Martel, Charlemagne, etc., bowed to popes. (Wm. Langer, pp.150-155). Huge land grants were handed to the popes. Charlemagne conquered and confiscated for the Vatican; he made about 54 military campaigns against non-Catholic countries, 18 against Saxony alone. (Berstein & Green, p. 200; E.T. Tompson, pp. 120-125). He then forced people into Catholicism.AD 858-867 Pope Nicholas admitted that Jesus Name baptism was the valid one! ("Enc. Britannica, 11th ed., Vol 3, pp. 365-366).AD 852-889 FEUDALISM STARTED. This is how Europe became Catholic. Rulers used Catholic armies to crush Bulgaria; that religion was forced upon Czechs and Slavics, etc. Jews were then massacred. (Bernstein & Green, p. 150-1; Laux, pp 275-288).