IV. Inspiring Motive of the Early Church

Expectation by the early Christians of an approaching dissolution of the Roman Empire, with the utter overthrow of the state religion, caused no small concern to Roman statesmen, who held to the eternity of Rome and the continuance of the empire without end. It was bait natural that such antagonistic teachings should be proscribed. But the Christians were convinced from inspired prophecy that pagan Rome, drunk with the blood of martyrs, would fall erelong, and her temporal might soon come to nought. Much, therefore, appeared in their writings with reference to the expected ruin of the empire. Rome was to them the recognized “let,” or “hindrance,” that held back the appearance of the “man of sin” and the consequent end of the world.PFF1 346.1

And there was naturally much conjecture as regards the coming Antichrist, whom everyone feared and expected. But this archenemy of Christianity came increasingly to be regarded as an individual of Jewish extraction effecting a falling away from the faith. Time seemed very short. Therefore, in the belief that his dominion would be short-lived-limited to three and one-half literal years-Antichrist’s appearance was conceived of as but briefly preceding the day of judgment and the end of the world.PFF1 346.2

Nevertheless, the personal, premillennial second advent of Christ—when He will raise the righteous dead and translate the living saints, end the reign of sin and violence, and establish His millennial and then His eternal reign—was the firm belief and expectancy of the pre-Constantinian martyr church. It was this inspiring motive that sent them forth as intrepid missionaries and fearless interpreters of the times, despite all opposition and persecution. It was this prophetic concept that nerved them for the martyr’s stake, and made the early church invincible in her conquests for the faith.PFF1 346.3

This glowing hope was founded upon the clear declaration of prophet and apostle. and upon the express prophetic promise of their resurrected and ascended Lord. They looked for the triumph of righteousness in the great conflict between good and evil—the visible rule of the King of kings in a kingdom of glory established upon the ruins of all nations, and wide as the canopy of heaven. His return was for them the precursor of the restitution of the world, the vindication of the character and government of God, and the consummation of all things in Christ. It was at once a great hope, an assurance of faith, and a certain prediction. They expected to live in His presence, as His redeemed and glorified trophies in Paradise restored, the earth made new.PFF1 346.4

But this clear and glorious doctrine of the early church was destined to become distorted and deflected. Certain non-Biblical doctrines and practices were already creeping into the church from various sources, and these tendencies were accelerated by the subsequent development, as we have seen, under Origen and his followers, of allegorical and philosophical methods of interpretation. Thus the way was paved for the later transformation of the concept of the millennial kingdom, after the church’s elevation to imperial favor by Constantine, from the future glorification of the church after the second advent, to the earthly dominion of the church in the Roman Empire. This self-satisfied concept of the Catholic Church as the millennial kingdom of Christ (Augustine’s “City of God”) was in turn to blind the eyes of the church to its increased worldliness and apostasy from apostolic standards.PFF1 347.1

Still, despite growing departures, most of the clearer prophetic teachings were carried over in main outline from the apostolic century, for the early momentum still persisted. Here is an epitome of these basic teachings.PFF1 347.2