Is it true that, from the first century, there have always been at least small groups of true, faithful Christians in existence, as I have heard claimed?
Question:
I’m wondering if there is any historical or biblical evidence behind there being a strain of Christianity that got it right throughout the centuries? I have heard Baptist apologists say that there is always a remnant (sometimes maybe only one person) with biblical truth. I have also heard mainline Church of Christers claim to be able to trace their theology back at least a thousand years. I’ve even heard that there may have been more accurate denominations in early Christianity that were historically erased by the Catholic Church. I would be honoured if you would weigh in on this interesting topic.
Answer:
There is clearly no “biblical” evidence of such groups, simply because the Bible, basically, ends with Acts, when there were a lot of faithful disciples out there! As for history, yes, there is a modest body of evidence for true Christian groups at all times since Pentecost, and, of course, there have been occasional individuals who we do not know about as well, presumably who practiced true Christianity in obscurity. The latter are hard to document.
Groups worth noting include the Paulicians, who took the Bible as the only authority, rejected sacramentalism, promoted the priesthood of all believers, and more. This group was active beginning in the mid-7th century, particularly in Armenia, Georgia and what is today eastern Turkey. They were active until the 9th century, and remnants continued into the second millennium. They were viciously persecuted by Byzantium, and fled to Armenia, where, ironically, they found protection under Muslim rulers. Tens of thousands were martyred. Some have tried to put heretical labels on this group, but with scant evidence. They appear to have been a sincere back-to-Christian-basics group.
Another important reform movement was that of the Waldensians, who were begun by Peter Waldo in the twelfth century. They rejected the papacy, indulgences, Purgatory, etc. They claimed only the Bible has authority, and the priesthood of all believers. They were active in Northern Italy, France and Switzerland. Initially tolerated, after 1215 they were pronounced hetetics by the Catholic Church and viciously persecuted. They survived in smaller pockets, mainly in the Swiss Alps, up to the time of the Reformation, and a very small remnant exists even today.
Then, of course, there are the reforms of John Wyclyffe in England in the late fourteenth century and of Jon Hus in Bohemia in the early fifteenth century. Both advocated the Bible as the only authority, rejected the papacy, taught the priesthood of all believers and more. Both had remnant groups active up to the time of the Reformation.
During the Reformation, the Anabaptists were a devoted group of true Christian disciples, who rejected the church/state connection, practiced adult baptism, and rejected virtually all of the Roman Catholic innovations, as well as some of the theological errors of Luther, Zwingli and Calvin. Such groups exist to modern times, including the Amish, Mennonites and others.
Other groups with less influence, but who also attempted to return to apostolic Christianity (with varied success, and with varied quality of their theology) include the Bogomils in Bulgaria, the Cathars in Southern France, and other groups as well. You can learn about these groups in my book, “The Christian Story: Finding the Church in Church History, Vol. 2” It is available at www.ipibooks.com It is difficult to give a super-solid line of reform groups, with zero time-gaps from the first century until modern times. but there is sufficient evidence to say without equivocation that there were at least some remnant faithful groups of believers since the first century in a solid line until modern times. There were periods when the situation was quite bleak, such as the tenth and eleventh centuries, but it is not unreasonable to claim a continual line of faithful believers–devoted to the Bible as the only authority, and faithful to the spirit of apostolic Christianity from Pentecost until today.
You are correct when you imply that the Eastern/Greek Orthodox and the Roman Catholic churches have tended to downplay or even suppress the significance of these groups, and have attempted to falsely label them as heretics. For this reason, we know relatively little about the Paulicians, the Cathars and other groups (but a good amount about the Waldensians, Wyclyffe and Hus). But some historical knowledge has leaked through the attempts to suppress them. We can, therefore, assume that there were other, smaller reform groups about whom knowledge has been completely lost. This is a sad legacy of Christendom, with its unwise joining of church and state at the hip, which gave too much power over religious thought to the governments and to religious hierarchies. It also serves as a warning to Christian believers today.
The churches of Christ have the tendency NOT to trace their beliefs back in history. Rather, they tend to more or less ignore history, to leap beyond the timeline of history and to trace their origins back to the Bible and to the apostles. They can be thought of as ahistorical. This is a bit of a simplification, but Alexander Campbell, Barton Stone and others generally turned away from their spiritual heritage, and chose to leap backward in time to the New Testament. Stone and Campbell both came from a Presbyterian background. Campbell aligned himself with Baptists in his early period, but both more or less disowned their denominational ancestry. They thought of themselves as New Testament Christians, not as reformers, per se, although, in truth, they were reformers.
John Oakes
