Download Sammy-New Prophesies Montanism and Tertullian

The New Prophesies and
Montanism
CLASS PRESENTATION
BY SAMMY KU
CH2000 THE EARLY CHURCH HISTORY
New Prophesies
• Who are they? What had they done?
• The Founder was Montanus lived in Phrygia.
• He claimed to have received a series of direct
revelations from the Holy Spirit and began his
prophecy in Phrygia and the rural area of Asia
Minor in the 2nd century (AD170)
Asia Minor in the 2nd Century
Man in Phrygian dress. 3-1nd century BC
http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/File:Phrygian.jpg
New Prophesies
• Some of Montanus’ prophecies were spoken
in the 1st person as God.
• He had two female co-leaders: Maximilla and
Priscilla
• They also claimed the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit and spoke prophecies in ecstatic visions.
• They were called “the Three”.
New Prophesies
• The Three proclaimed the village of Pepuza in
Phrygia as the site of the New Jerusalem.
• Their preaching spread from Pepuza across
Asia Minor reached Syria and Antioch, Rome
and the West, to Africa and Gaul for decades
even though the last of original prophets,
Maximilla, died in AD 179.
• Montanist congregation survived for three
centuries. They were called Phrygian heresy
(in the 2nd century) and Montanist (in the 4th
century).
Montanist Oracles
By Montanus:
• “Behold, man is as a lyre, and I hover over him
as a plectrum; man sleeps but I watch; behold,
the Lord is removing the hearts of men and
giving them (new) hearts.”
• “Do not hope to die in bed nor in abortion nor
in languishing fevers, but in martyrdom, that
he who suffered for you may be glorified.”
• “I am the Lord God Omnipotent dwelling in
man.”
Montanist Oracles
• “I am neither an angel nor an envoy, but I, the
Lord God, the Father, have come.”
• “I am the Father and the Son and the Paraclete
(Holy Spirit).”
Compare to OT‘s oracles
• Isaiah 48:17 This is what the LORD, your
Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel says: I am the
LORD your God, who teaches you for your
benefit, who leads you in the way you should go
Montanist Oracles
By Maximilla:
• “After me there will be no more prophecy, but
the consummation (the End).”
• “I am driven as a wolf from the sheep. I am
not a wolf; I am word, spirit and power.”
• “The Lord sent me as a partisan (co-worker) of
this task, a revealer of this covenant, an
interpreter of this promise, force, whether I
will or not, to learn the knowledge of God.”
Montanist Oracles
By Priscilla
• “Appearing as a woman clothed in a shining robe,
Christ came to me; he put wisdom into me and
revealed to me that this place is sacred and that
here Jerusalem will come down from heaven.”
• NRS Isaiah 61:1 The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon
me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has
sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to
bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to
the captives, and release to the prisoners;
Montanism’s beliefs and teaching
• Montanists claimed to be inspired directly by the
Holy spirits and spoke on behalf of holy spirit (or
the Father, the Son)
• They used the wordings of the Gospel of John “..I
will send you the advocate, the spirit of truth..”
(John15:26) to support them.
• They imitated and proclaimed like OT’s prophets
• They read scriptures literally
• They saw themselves in a relation of complete
alienation from the world.
Montanism’s beliefs and teaching
• Their calling was martyrdom and their duty was
to hope for it and not to flee (escape) from
persecution.
• They fasted longer and more elaborately than
other Christians.
• They discouraged and forbid marriage (Priscilla
and Maximilla left their husbands).
• They proclaimed Christ came very nearly
followed by real resurrection of the dead
Montanism’s beliefs and teaching
• they represented a revival of the apocalyptic
spirit and announced the forthcoming end of
the world, the Lord was about to return, and the
new Jerusalem would be set up in the near
place of Papuza in Phrygia. As a preparation for
the End, they “purified” themselves and cut
themselves loose from their attachments to the
society.
Their influence on the Proto-Orthodox
Churches and Christians
• The problem to the proto-orthodox churches
was not Montanists preached prophecy which
was not unusual in the early church but they
teached a new prophecy unfamiliar in its
wordings which they claimed a new revelation.
• Their apocalypticism and martyrdom were also
new to the proto-orthodox Christians.
Their influence on the Proto-Orthodox
Church and Christian
• Some prophets clashed with the emerging
authority of bishops when they bypass their
authority as they acquired a substantial local
followers for themselves, and their message that
threatening the orderly life of the churches, and
the established tradition of teaching which the
New Prophecy claimed in effect to supersede.
• These provoked divisions within the second
century churches because of their teaching.
Response by Proto-Orthodox Church
Leader
• The Bishops in Asia Minor held one or more
synods to deal with the “Phrygian Problem” and
in the end condemned, rejected and expelled
the New Prophets and their followers from their
communion.
• In AD193, an anonymous writer found the
church at Ancyra in Galatia torn in two, and he
opposed the "false prophecy" there.
Response by Proto-Orthodox Church
Leader
• In Rome, Zephyrinus, the bishop of Rome (199217), first received it tolerantly, but later, fight
against it. In Tertullian’s word, he “put to flight
the Paraclete.”
• In North Africa, it was tolerated and accepted
(particularly in Carthage where Tertullian’s had
great influence) and later separated itself from
other Christians, and lived on there until the
time of Augustine of Hippo.
Tertullian and Montanism
A brief introduction to Tertullain (AD
160 – 220)
• Before a theologian, he was a trained lawyer and
an apologist and a polemicist against heresy (For
example, Marcion)
• He was called “the first theologian of the West”
and “the father of Latin Christianity”
• He evolved the earliest systematic form of the
doctrine of the Trinity (trinitas), arguing that there
is one divine “substance” into three distinct but
continuous “persons”: Father, Son and Spirit.
A brief introduction to Tertullain (AD
160 – 220)
• He offered a reflective account of the incarnation
explaining that the person of Christ is a union of
two distinct, unconfused “substance” divine and
human, in a single “person”
• He wrote his trinitarian formula after becoming a
Montanist
• In middle life (about 207), he was attracted to the
"New Prophecy" of Montanism, and seemed to
have split from the mainstream church.
Tertullian’s beliefs and Teaching
• At the heart of Tertullian’s theology lies his
concern for the purity and holiness of the church
• He believed the church lives by the revelation of
God – that revelation, focused in Jesus Christ and
his Gospel, is the law which governs its life. (his
theological typology emphasis on law)
Tertullian’s beliefs and teaching
• By keeping that law in action and belief, the
church and its members appropriate for
themselves the promises of the Gospel and await
with confidence “the judgment to come”. (his
eschatology is futurist)
• He considered the world, which had the
idolatrous service of demons built into the very
structure of its life.
Tertullian’s beliefs and teaching
• He did not support pagan civilization. In his
treatise “De idololatria” he forbade Christians to
be merchants, since commerce proceeds from
covetousness
• He condemned almost all the artisan trades:
carpentry, joinery, tilery, carving, sculpture,
because they are all associated with idolatry. He
demands that Christians should not be schoolteachers because mythology formed part of the
curriculum. (a counter-culture view)
Tertullian’s beliefs and teaching
• He regarded marriage as inferior to celibacy and
expressly condemned the remarriage of the
surviving partner.
• He was asceticism as he teached celibacy (a
single) but he accepted monogamy.
• He believed in the doctrine of millennium and the
continuance of the prophetic gifts.
Why was Tertullian attracted by
Montanism?
• Though Tertullian in Carthage had no personal
contact with Montanists in Asia Minor, he was
sympathetic to them when they were rejected by
the pro-orthodox churches because New
Prophecy was an extension of Tertullian’s initial
theme of the divine economy.
• Montanist read the biblical texts literally
particularly follow the divine law that was fit to
Tertullian’s theological typology – emphasis on
law.
Why was Tertullian attracted by
Montanism?
• Tertullian would agree Montanists’ complete
alienation from the world as what he believed the
world was imperfect and ruled by the demon’s
act.
• The influence of the New Prophecy confirmed
Tertullian’s ascetic view on fasting, forbidding
marriage, martyrdom and etc.
Why was Tertullian attracted by
Montanism?
• It is not so much by its apocalypticism but by the
seriousness and moral rigor which it required of
Christian believers because to him, Montanism
represented the pure church, uncorrupted by
compromise with the world and equipped with
the living presence and authority of the Spirit.
Thank you!
<End of my presentation>
Discussion
• Is (was) there an ideal church existing in the
world?
• What do you think about Pentecostalism in the
20th century? Does it look like the Montanism in
the 2nd century?
Tertullian vs Pentecostalism
Tertullian in the 2nd
century
Mission model Baptism
Theological
Emphasis on law
Typology
Christology
High
Ecclesiology
Futurist and
individual
Salvation
Spiritual/eternal life
Culture
Negative & countercultural model
Context
Other ??
Pentecostalism in the
20th century
Pentecostalism
Emphasis on law
High
Imminent and
individual
Spiritual
Negative/Positive
Counter-cultural
model