Christendom Versus Apostolic Age (Part One)

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Recently David Takle urged me to watch a series of sermons that were based on the book “From Christendom to Apostolic Mission: Pastoral Strategies for an Apostolic Age.”[i] I watched the first sermon then switched to the book. It was eye opening. It explained the shifting season we are living in.

It begins with these words, “Every human society possesses . . . a moral and spiritual imaginative vision . . . that is largely taken for granted. It is a way of seeing things.” The entire society embraces this vision whether they know it or not. Once it is settled, it becomes over time, unconscious. When a new vision challenges the old, the original vision will be “reconstituted or overthrown and another overarching vision takes its place.” Our vision “is the basis of our action,” though “for the majority the ruling vision is never examined, because it is not known to exist”.[ii] To most people it seems self-evident”.[iii]

This vision becomes the lens through which we see all of life. It is our “inner narrative that provides a sense of meaning and purpose”.[iv] For example: if we ask people the question, “Are things getting better or worse?”, we might hear a number of views based on their moral and spiritual imaginative vision.

If one “sees the main story of life as battle for economic success” he or she will answer the question based on the stock market and inflation. Are they making, or losing, money? 

If one “sees the world as an arena in which the struggle for personal freedom is played out” they “will evaluate the question” are things getting better or worse, on the basis of the fight for freedom in Ukraine or the restrictions of individual liberties in the U.S.[v]

If one sees life as a “cosmic battle for souls between God and the devil, they will answer the question according to the advance or retreat of Christianity”.[vi]

Every time we ask the question, “How are things going?”, people will answer based upon an “assumed narrative embedded in the overall vision of life, one that spells out” what is good or bad? What is success or failure? What is moral or immoral?

For many centuries, the Christian ruling vision has dominated our culture in the U.S. Most everyone agreed that the 10 Commandments were the right moral standard—Christian or not. But for some time, the vision has been based on Christianity. To be clear, Christianity is not dying, Christianity has not ceased to exist for it is based on reality. He made the world, and his perspective is true, and so much more. But Christendom, the institutions that are based on the Christian ruling vision is declining. We have, as a society, left a time when nearly everyone held to a Christian standard. As such we are moving into an Apostolic age.

The first apostolic age

If we look at the history of Christianity, we see that for the first three centuries, the church inhabited a culture whose ruling moral and spiritual vision was predominately Hellenistic. A culture hostile to Christianity. Christians were often persecuted, even martyred. Yet Christianity flourished during those first three hundred years. It spread from the land where Christ walked the earth to Spain, India, Asia, and everywhere in between. This is astonishing when we consider that at the resurrection of Christ there were only eleven leaders, and a few hundred believers who all lived in the same country. Those Christ followers had little influence, power or resources. No seminaries. No buildings. An Old Testament, but no written Gospels. Yet the church grew and spread in a culture that was—at times—violently opposed them.[vii]

In order to flourish in a hostile world, Christians had to ardently maintain their “distinct and contrasting vision” of the cosmos.[viii] They had to know what was true and hold fast to it. Imagine what it would have been like for the Hellenists to learn what Christians believe.[ix] For example:

  • Much of the world is invisible

  • People have immortal human souls.

  • There are angelic beings

  • Humanities’ true home is in heaven

  • There will be a coming judgement

Christian also believe that we are created by God to worship him and to be a love relationship with him.

In that hostile world, conversion to Christianity required more that agreeing to “moral principles and doctrinal statements.” They needed a “conversion of the mind and imagination.” It was a slow and thorough process. Less so for Jewish converts because they shared a similar vision to the Christian one. More so for converts from Hellenism. It took time. No quick sinner’s prayer. To convert, one had to become a catechumen, and gradually learn, over years, what it would entail to surrender one’s life to Christ. Converts had to see everything differently. Their old ruling vision had to be replaced by the Christian one.

These first three centuries of Christianity were called the Apostolic age.

Christendom (4th century to Enlightenment)

When the Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in 312 AD, Christianity became the state religion of the Empire. The culture of the Roman world embraced the Christian imaginative vision, i.e., the culture began to be dominated by a “general acceptance of basic Christian truths.”[x]

As the Christian vision began to be prominent,  Christendom emerged and eventually came to dominate the entire western world, even while “retaining the cultural patrimony of the ancient world.” This does not mean that all members of society “were serious Christians, or even educated Christians”.[xi] It meant that institutions were influenced by the Christian narrative and vision. Christianity began to fertilize “the soil out of which . . . society’s basic assumptions” began to spring.[xii]

What do we mean by “main institutions”? These would include our moral code. Our sense of what makes a good person. What makes one a success or failure? Our economic and political values and practices. Our legal codes and public policies. Our manners. Our modes of entertainment.

For example, in the Roman world entertainment might include watching people being torn to pieces by wild animals. Today, we find that reprehensible, barbaric.

During the height of Christendom, a good person was one who was honest. Success was raising a family, being faithful to one’s wife. Working hard. Being a man or woman of your word.

One who obeyed the Ten Commandments. Who made God the highest object of worship.

For many centuries, the western world has enjoyed the blessings of living in a culture illuminated by God’s truth. While the Christian world view predominated, preachers such as John Wesley were incredibly effective. “Entire towns embracing the Gospel” . . . because “his hearers shared his fundamental assumptions”.[xiii] Wesley had only to ignite what the people felt to be true.

But that culture has been eroding for some time now and many would argue that it is dead.

What caused its demise? One could argue that Christendom began to decline with the Enlightenment because it ushered in the belief that reason and science trumped faith.  Christendom also took a huge hit in World War I. And World War II, as Christian nations brutally attacked each other. It crumbled further as many Christian public figures began to fail morally. The sex scandals of the Catholic Church brought about more decay. And now Covid has nailed the lid on the coffin.

The besetting sin of Christendom is hypocrisy. There is a tendency for Christians to pretend to be more serious about their faith than they actually are. Christendom has had some spectacular failures. For example, in the 1600s many Christians saw no conflict with the idea of enslaving other human beings, an idea that we find abhorrent today. It seems self-evident to us today that slavery is wrong but was not seen this way by many Christians three centuries ago. 

Many today look at Christendom and see only the hypocrisy, the failure. They turn away.

The New Apostolic Age

Today most of our culture has rejected the Christian moral vision. Our vision no longer influences institutions as it once did. Today the dominant vision in our culture is one where “success” means economic success. A mark of my worth is how much do I own? Money has become a god and an excuse for immoral behavior. What matters most is how others see us, hence the focus on “followers” and “likes.”

Even Christians struggle with the prevailing vision. I recently heard this saying which struck me as true:

We worship our work.
We work at our play.
We play at our worship.

When you read those three lines, what jumps out at you? I see my tendency to make work the highest priority. To strive in my play—climb mountains—instead of entering into restorative, contemplative rest. To treat my worship of the one true God as entertainment.

Today sex outside of marriage is seen as normal.  Indeed, in the current cultural climate young, serious-minded Christians who marry “. . . are often viewed as strange by many of their peers.” Their decision to marry at all—to “remain chaste before marriage, to intend their marriage to last for life, and to welcome children into their family” are seen as counter-cultural.[xiv]

This stands in stark contrast to what Jesus taught.

To review, the first apostolic age began at the resurrection of Christ and extended for nearly three centuries to the conversion of Emperor Constantine and the rise of Christendom. We are now in a new apostolic age. Like before, society is increasingly hostile to the Christian moral and Imaginative vision. This is certainly true in Europe and in much of the U.S., except perhaps parts of the Bible belt. Many people, even those who are  highly ‘educated,’ “are unaware of their ruling visions and the assumptions they bring to questions of the day.” They are blind to their assumptions. Unable to perceive how their vision colors their view. “Most people tend to “drift along with the prevailing current”.[xv]

What does this new apostolic age look like? In a society that rejects Christianity, there will be fewer converts. Christian parents will raise children who reject the faith. The culture will move away from the truth and goodness of God, and as such will be mired in deception. But the good news is that in such a culture, believers who hold fast will be ardent about their faith. Instead of the hypocrisy we saw during Christendom, cowardice will become our besetting sin. Some Christians will fall away or deny their faith even when they hold to it in their heart of hearts. Those who follow Christ, who cultivate an intimate, love relationship with Jesus (and obey him) will shine as stars in the heavens.

They will shine because there will be a stark contrast between Christlike believers and the surrounding culture. Christians and Christianity will persist because God will sustain us. The new vision that has won our culture is not based in reality and leads to heartache. Where Christians continue to love others and continue to press in to God, they will glow with the love of God. As we come into alignment with the goodness and truth of God, goodness will come from our faith. In an ideal season, “the Lord of heaven and earth” will be recognized for who he is.[xvi] There will be “signs of his presence and expressions of his rule” that will impact all of human life.[xvii]

More than 30 years ago God gave me a vision of all of humanity walking on a road. There was a fork ahead and each person had to decide which way they would go. There was no middle ground. It was as if the road were suspended in space. To step off the road was to step into oblivion. Then the Lord said, “The light is getting lighter, and the dark is getting darker, so each one can see clearly and choose.”

I believe that was a prophetic word. The light is getting lighter, and the dark is getting darker, so we can see clearly and choose.

Next month, I will continue this article as we consider what God is calling us to in this apostolic season. In the meantime, I would encourage you to seek God on how he would have you respond in this season. What is he calling you to? I would love to hear your response to this article.  I can be reached at Betsy@GodHealsToday.org

Notes

[i] Shea, J.P., From Christendom to Apostolic Mission: Pastoral Strategies for an Apostolic Age (Bismarck, ND: University of Mary Press, 2020)
[ii] Shea, From Christendom, 12
[iii] Shea, 10
[iv] Shea, 11
[v] Shea, 12
[vi] Shea, 12
[vii] Shea, 29
[viii] Shea, 14
[ix] Shea, 37
[x] Shea, 14
[xi] Shea, 16
[xii] Shea, 14
[xiii] Shea, 34
[xiv] Shea, 11
[xv] Shea, 18
[xvi] Shea, 18