< When Christianity was an Icon and Relic - A church synopsis from Muslim Conquests until the 4th Lateran Council (634-1215 A.D.)

During this long, 600-year period, about as much happened as during the previous 200 and 100-year periods. Some call the early Middle ages the "Benedictine centuries"; in the west the monastic rules of Benedict of Nursia were a higher priority than discipling others in God's word.

The Church was under 2 Physical Shadows

Most people at that time became a "Christian" because their ruler was or became one. A Christian ruler opened up great possibilities for trade and alliances. But did God approve of these highly effective "tools of evangelism": money and might? It turns out that during this period, these tools that the church wielded so well were turned against it.

During the time the church in the west accumulated a vast amount of wealth in their monasteries. From about 780 to 920, Vikings frequently looted them.

When Islam attacked both the Persian and Byzantine empires, it had one thing that no other empire had: incentive for the soldiers. They got to keep a fifth of all the spoils. Even some non-Muslims fought in battles, on the Muslim side, for a share of the spoils! After conquest, those who would not convert had second-class status, as dhimmis, and had to pay an extra tax, called the jizya. In the worst case, this could be 20% of your total assets, per year. Large numbers of Christians in Egypt, Syria, converted to Islam, and escaped the tax. Large numbers of Christians in North Africa, Asia, and other places were killed.

Until Islam, Christian influence and power around the world had been slowly but surely spreading from ruler to ruler. By 949 A.D., half of all lands that had been ruled by Christians were now under Muslim control. It was not much like the early church, where persecution just made the church stronger. Rather whole Christian communities were gone, the members who weren't killed converting to Islam and oppressing others. Let's look at the timeline and then speculate on why God might allow that.

year AD	Muslim Conquests until 4th Lateran Council Event (634-1215 A.D.)
634-850	Muslim conquests against non-Muslims
625-638	Monothelite leaning Pope Honorius. 3rd Council of Constantinople anathematized as a heretic.
640	Estimated 1 million Persian Christians
642	Chinese princess pays to rebuild NW Iran church
649	Lateran Council condemns Monothelites
550-650	Oecumenius first taught the sinlessness of Mary
650	Christians in Niger and Indonesia
600-800	30 Bible manuscripts, p31, p34, 096, etc.
664	Synod of Whitby to set the date of Easter
680-681	3rd Council of Constantinople (6th ecumenical)
680-690	Copt John of Nikiu: Apologist against Islam: Islam was God's punishment on Chalcedonians
726-842	Byz. emp. Leo III & the Iconoclast controversy
Oct. 732	Battle of Tours, Franks defeat Arabs in France
712-740	Andrew of Crete. Luke drew Jesus' picture
706-749	John of Damascus defended icons. (98 pgs)
754	Council of Hieria. 338 bishops against icons
762	The Nestorian Uighurs convert to Manichees
769	Lateran Synod supports icons and condemns Constantinople V
781	Nestorian Ta-ch-in-chiao stele in Xian, China
787	Nicea II Council (7th ecumenical) restored Icons, every church must have a relic.
787	Charlemagne kills 14K Saxon pagans
750-800	Donation of Constantine: popes own W Eur.
782-804	Alcuin of York, scholar under Charlemagne
780-803	Nestorian pat. Timothy I:Apology for Christianity
840-846	Gottschalk: double-predestination. 20 yrs prison
780-986	Vikings plunder Christian monasteries
840-846	Taoist Emperor Wu persecutes Buddhists & Nestorians. 44K temples & monasteries gone
9th-11th	Almost 2,000 Byzantine Lectionaries
857	Photian Schism: Rome & Constantinople split
847-859	False Decretals fool W. Europe for 250 years
820-980	Ansgar & others evangelize Scandinavians
Jan. 897	Cadaver synod condemns Pope Formosus
949	Christian lands were reduced by 50%
987-	Russia & Kiev Christianized
1009	Karait Mongols becomes Christian wiped out
1004-12	Egyptian Fatimids plunder pilgrims/Jerusalem
904-1048	"Pornocracy" of immoral popes from Sergius III to Benedict IX, who sold the papacy
1054-	Great Schism between R.C. & Orth. churches
1050-88	Berengar of Tours against transubstantiation
638-1189	Jews persecuted in western Europe. 638,646,722,1121,1146-48,1181,1189
1096	1st Crusade. 12K German Jews killed
1146-48	Rudolph says kill all Jews. Emperor Conrad and Bernard of Clairvaux protect them.
1139-55	Arnold of Brescia says church and priests should not be rich or own property. -hanged
1142-60	Peter Lombard wrote key work: Sentences.
1100-1208	Albigensians in S. France. Like Manichees. Exterminated by Catholics.
1174-	1532: Peter Waldo & Waldenses: Italy, Sp., Fr.
634-	1215: 126 writers, 19 councils, 8 histories

While, until Islam, the western Church would see itself as successful in its own eyes, it is almost as if God was saying, "Uh-uh! Not that way. Money and Might are not shortcuts to seeking after the Lord."

The Church was under 3 Spiritual Shadows

Imagine people going to God and telling Him, "I don't like your gospel; its too simple. Here, let me help you out." Isn't that what some have done to the gospel?

Authority: From 750 to 859 The Donation of Constantine and other False Decretals had an impact on the Roman Catholic church. These documents gave the political control of western Europe to the popes, and established papal succession from Peter. However, they had anachronisms, and by 859, people recognized that they were forgeries. But they did their work, placing all spiritual authority under often corrupt and immoral popes.

Dictatus Papae (c.1075 A.D.) of Pope Gregory VII, "The Roman Church was founded by God alone; the Roman pope alone can with right be called universal; he alone may use the imperial insignia; his feet only shall be kissed by all princes; he alone may depose the emperors; he himself may be judged by no one; the Roman Church has never erred, nor will it err in all eternity." Austin's Topical Hist. of Christianity p.165

Relics: Ever since Helena, Constantine's mother, was trying to find the true cross, many Christians have been obsessed with becoming more spiritual by seeing or touching a relic. In fact, in the Council of Nicea II, in 787 A.D., every church that was built is supposed to have a relic. There are so many slivers of wood claimed to be a part of the true cross, that John Calvin remarked you could build a boat the size of Noah's ark with all the pieces. That was answered by the "pious" by saying the true cross had special properties. Everything wood from the true cross was split, each piece would regenerate so that there would be too. What does this have to do with sharing the good news of Jesus – nothing whatsoever! Relics were (and still are) a big distraction from the gospel.

Icons: Icons are religious images that a person is supposed to "pray through" to pray to God or a saint. According to an Eastern Orthodox writer, icons are an "essential part" of the gospel. I was told that I was told that even Luke used icons. I asked where? Scripture and pre-Nicene writers are all totally silent about any icons, whether by Luke or otherwise. He said it was an "unwritten tradition". Andrew of Crete (712-740 A.D.) and John of Damascus (706-749 A.D.) were the first to mention this. We have more than 8,600 pages of Christian writings prior to these writers, and they could never mention, even once, what is considered an "essential part" of the gospel. Yet people believe a made-up "unwritten tradition".

Similarities with them and us

If you were to ask a typical non-clergy "Christian" of that time about Bible doctrines and other teachings, most of them would not know very much. But almost curiously, if you were to ask a bishop, nun, or monk many of them would know and agree with most of the doctrines common to Christianity. But their devotion was to relics, icons, Mary, the saints, the church, and maybe, if there was any room left, a little to Christ.

Yet throughout this dark period there was still light. Peter Waldo, and the Waldenses in Italy, France, and Spain, were confused. They couldn't find the doctrine of purgatory anywhere in the Bible. They didn't see indulgences, transubstantiation, or a number of other things the church claimed was important in scripture either. So, these simple, Biblical Christians decided they were just going to follow what was in the Bible. They did not see a need to start any wars, or make a big deal of it, they just had their own priests and met in fellowship and read their Bibles. The Roman Catholic Church responded during later by launching a Crusade against these supposed "terrible danger".

Verses to remember them by

1 Corinthians 5:11-13 "But as it is, I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who is called a brother who is a sexual sinner, or covetous, or an idolator, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or an extortionist. Don't even eat with such a person. For what do I have to do with also judging those who are outside? Don't you judge those who are within? But those who are outside, God judges. ‘Put away the wicked man from among yourselves.'" -even if they say they are a pope!

Matthew 16:24-26 "Then Jesus said to his disciples: ‘If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life for my sake will find it." (World English Bible)