Christian Heroes # 1
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Because Christ arose giving us the assurance Christ is God as he claimed and that we have eternal life with him after death, Paul can say these tremendous words--“My beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Cor. 15:58).
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The biblical chapter Hebrews 11 mentions some great exploits of men of faith in the Old Testament. Not many Christian believers know these great church heroes from Jesus’ day until today. The world is not worthy of them nor shows appreciation of their work of faith and labor of love. Let me give a few paragraph accounts for our edification and encouragement. I recommend Dr. Rick Cornish’s excellent work 5 Minute Church Historian from which I summerize my material.
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Polycarp (c. 69-155). Polycarp was one of the Apostle John’s disciples. He pastored the church in Smyrna (modern Turkey) and ministered to all classes of society. He wrote a letter to the Philippian church answering their questions somewhat like Paul. In fifty years of ministry in Asia Minor, his enemies knew him as the atheist who destroyed their traditional gods. The authorities who arrested him only wanted him to deny his faith. He served them a meal and prayed for friends who would be crushed by his loss. When Polycarp was standing in the arena, the governor asked him to swear allegiance to Caesar. His reply was that he had served Christ for eighty-six years and couldn’t deny him now. The governor reminded him wild animals were waiting to tear him apart. Polycarp said to bring them on. The governor then said a fire would be built to burn him alive. Polycarp told the governor he would one day face God’s eternal judgment of fire. When soldiers lit the fire, the crowds were appalled at the execution of such an honorable man. Polycarp is a model of how Christians should act under such circumstances.
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Justin Martyr (c. 100-165). While Martyr was not his name, he came to be called that because he was scourged and beheaded for following Christ. As a young man, Justin was a pagan studying the works of the Stoics, Aristotle and Plato. But they gave him no satisfying answers to his questions. An old man he met and talked with about God told him there is more truth in some ancient prophets than in the philosophers. This led him to faith in Christ. He wrote Apology 1 and Apology 2 addressed to the Roman Senate and people and later wrote Dialogue with Trypho the Jew. Justin portrayed Christianity as reasonable, no threat to the state and that it should be made a legal religion. Christians should be punished for crimes committed like everyone else not for their beliefs. Justin wrote as a philosopher to philosophers, but believed that mind alone cannot bring a person to God, that it requires revelation of the living Christ who alone gives saving faith. Justin set the example for us in communicating in language his hearers could understand.
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Irenaeus (c. 130-200). Irenaeus possibly was a student of Polycarp who wrote two surviving books. Against Heresies exposed the false teaching of Gnosticism, a secret knowledge claiming everything material was evil including our physical bodies. Our spirits are good but trapped in a physical body. So Christ’s body wasn’t a real body but only looked that way. Our object is to escape our bodies and the physical world. But Irenaeus knew that if Scripture and the apostles said nothing about it, it’s not of God. The God of the Old Testament is not a lesser God. Jesus is his unique Son, the eternal Word who became fully human. And all God created was good. Irenaeus’ other surviving book is Proof of the Apostolic Preaching. The false teacher Marcion said the Old Testament God was wrathful but the New Testament God loving. He restricted the New Testament books to Luke’s Gospel and ten of Paul’s letters. Irenaeus showed there were only one God and a unity between both Testaments. His sound principles of interpretation saved the church from false teachings, wild speculations, and a pick and choose theology.
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Tertullian (C.160-225). When Rome increasingly persecuted the church, thinking Christians responded to counter the pagan philosophies of the day. Tertullian became one great defender or apologist. He urged Christians to forsake pagan culture and philosophy. “What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?” he asked. Better than any before him, he explained the Trinity and nature of Christ. He spoke with passion and conviction but not always spoke the truth in love as Paul instructs us to do (Ephesians 4:15).
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Athanasius (296-373). This short black African was a giant in defending biblical teaching and setting the church on the right course. People of his day sought to twist the Scriptures much as Jehovah’s Witnesses do today. For forty-six years as bishop of Alexandria, he defended himself against charges ranging from witchcraft to murder. But he would stand against the world if need be to defend God’s truth. He wrote The Life of St. Antony that spread monasteries that kept culture and Christian truth alive in difficult times. He wrote On the Incarnation that explained redemption and the need of Jesus to attain it. He also wrote Against the Arians that defended the full deity of Christ as co-equal and co-eternal with the Father. And he was the first to list all twenty-seven books of the New Testament.
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John Chrysostom (means “golden mouth” 347-407). He lived two years in a cave memorizing the New Testament. Common people applauding his preaching and asked for more even though, he preached for two hours. He condemned church abuse of wealth and government abuse of power and kowtowed to no one. John became bishop of Constantinople the seat of the eastern empire. Condemned and deposed for using church money to build a hospital for the poor, he was forced into exile and died of malnutrition and exposure. John believed in a God inspired Bible, in the meaning of the text, and in applying it to everyday life. He taught verse by verse and eight hundred of his sermons survive. He is a model for all who preach and teach God’s Word today.
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Augustine of Hippo (354-430). Though influenced by Monica, his Christian mother, as a boy he was a thief, liar, hated school and was often punished. But he developed both a love for knowledge and desire for sex. He devoured the subjects of Latin, rhetoric, mathematics, music, and philosophy. He first converted to the Manichean cult. Later he became a professor of rhetoric at the University of Milan. Augustine envied Ambrose, the pastor of Milan, realizing a godly Christian could be an articulate speaker and intellectual as well. He rethought his position. Sitting under a tree one day, he heard a child say take up and read. He opened the Bible to Romans 13:13-14, being convicted of sin, he trusted Christ as Savior. He became the greatest theologian of the first thousand years of the church. He debated Pelagius’ false doctrine of salvation by good works. His books The City of God and The Confessions are classics that inspire and encourage us today. He saw the events of life in light of God’s Word and providence.
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