During the course of The Bad Roman project, I have become fascinated by the early church, and when I say early church, I’m talking about the first 300 to 400 years prior to Constantine. I am a full believer that we, as the church, should return to that old-time religion. When I say that, I don’t mean back in the 50’s and 60’s; I mean the true intent of the early church. So what I want to do with this article is show proof of the early church’s Anarchist actions.
If you have followed our project for any amount of time, then you will be familiar with my stance, but this article isn’t for me, it’s for you to decide on your own. If we are to take the teachings of Christ seriously, then we should lean on the understanding of the folks who were a lot closer to the situation than we'll ever be. Yes, we have the Bible, which is a great resource in regards to following Christ, but what happened, and what was said beyond the Bible? Thankfully we have a wealth of information from those folks who were there. I will include a list of books I have read that helped me put this article together at the end so that you can check them out for yourself. We will look at several writings from those who witnessed it first-hand and, in the case of Polycarp, endured persecution to the point of death.
We will start with Polycarp (69-156), who by all accounts, was taught directly by the Apostle John, giving him some significant credibility. Polycarp was a No King but Christ, Jesus-centric disciple. The torture of Polycarp by the state is pretty graphic in Arnold’s book, but it is necessary to understand just how devoted he was to Jesus; he knew without a doubt He is his King. Prior to his eventual arrest and torture, Polycarp immediately ordered food to be served to those arresting him, and they still took him to the proconsul. Polycarp was “cut by scourges until the anatomy of [his] body was visible, even to the veins and arteries, [he] endured everything.” Here is where it gets more interesting. They tried like hell to get him to deny his faith, but he was stoic and did not comply.
I am not willing to do what you advise me.
They pushed him further,
Swear and I will release you! Curse Christ!
This is my favorite part….
Eighty-six years have I served him, and he has never done me any harm. How could I blaspheme my King and Savior?
This is a mic-drop moment for me! He clearly states who his King is, and it dang sure isn’t Caesar! They ended up trying to burn him to death, and when the fire didn’t consume him, they stabbed him to death.
Are you convinced of the Anarchist mentality of the early church yet? No? Let's continue.
Origen (185-254) is very interesting to me. Whenever we quote him on social media, the first pushback we get is “well, he was a universalist”, which is used as a pejorative and has absolutely nothing to do with his Jesus-centric understanding of the state. Origen was a student of Clement of Alexandria (150-215) and widely understood to be the most prolific writer of the pre-Nicene church, dictated around two thousand works. There is some controversy about Origen among modern scholars. They suggest that he did not oppose properly undertaken wars, but if you dig deeper into his writings that just doesn’t seem to be the case. One very important statement by Origen should put all of that to rest. He says, “if all the Romans become Christians, they will not war at all…. Christ forbade the killing of anyone.”
What I want to focus on with this article is the early Christian’s view of the State, and there are a couple of statements by Origen that should be heard loud and clear.
To those who ask us whence we have come or who we have for a leader, we say that we have come in accordance with the counsels of Jesus to cut down our warlike and arrogant swords of argument into ploughshares, and we convert into sickles the spears we formerly used in fighting. For we no longer take sword against a nation, nor do we learn any more to make war, having become sons of peace for the sake of Jesus, who is our leader, instead of following the ancestral customs in which were strangers to the covenants.
There is one key point in this quote that needs to be recognized, which is why I shared it. Origen made it clear who our leader is, and it is without a doubt Jesus. I absolutely love the No King but Christ in this message.
This next statement from Origen comes from his work titled Against Celsus. For context, Celsus was a 2nd century Greek philosopher and opponent of early Christianity. This statement is so much fun for me. It really drives home the point of how the early Christians worked on the fringes of society, having no interest in engaging with political processes.
The Christians form among themselves secret societies that exist outside the system of laws...an obscure and mysterious community founded on revolt and on the advantage that accrues from it.
Now that statement may raise some eyebrows because the word “revolt” is used, but think about what that means. It wasn’t a violent revolt like so many of us are accustomed to understanding; it was a peaceful revolt against the evils of the State. They just did not dirty their hands with these evils.
Now, let me tell you about my guy Tertullian (155-220). His writings have probably had the most influence on how I approach the Bad Roman project. When we started, we understood that we would be in your face about what we believe when it comes to #nokingbutchrist and love you along the way. So, if you want to understand why I approach this project the way I do, then read some Tertullian. No nonsense, and it really is what it is. His approach to the Roman Empire is absolutely fascinating to me and is seriously missing in the church today.
Bercot’s description of Tertullian is spot on; he writes, “Fiery Christian writer in Carthage, North Africa”
I love learning about these folks. The older I have gotten, the more interested in history I have become, and the history of the early Church is no exception. I feel like I was probably born in the wrong era, haha, but I’m thankful we have writings to lean on to get a sense of exactly what was going on back then. I said all of that to give a little background on Tertullian.
He was born into a pagan family in the city of Carthage, which was one of the four largest cities of the Roman Empire. He was very well educated in rhetoric, philosophy, law, and medicine. He worked for a time in Rome as a jurist and returned to Carthage. His conversion to Christianity is somewhat of a mystery but boom! He burst onto the scene with his writing Apology, from which the following texts are taken.
“We are charged with being irreligious people and, what is more, irreligious in respect to the emperors since we refuse to pay religious homage to their imperial majesties and to their genius and refuse to swear by them.
High treason is a crime of offense against the Roman religion. It is a crime of open irreligion, a raising of the hand to injure the deity… Christians are considered to be enemies of the State, enemies of the public well-being… In dealing with religious veneration of the second majesty, we Christians are accused of a second sacrilege because we do not celebrate the festivals of the Caesars among you.
We wage a battle when we are challenged to face the tribunals of law. There, in peril of life, we give testimony for the truth. Guards and informers bring up accusations against the Christians as sexual deviants and murderers, blasphemers and traitors, enemies of public life, desecrators of temples, and criminals against the religion of Rome. Look, you do not deal with us in accordance with the formalities of criminal cases even though you consider the Christian guilty of every crime and an enemy of the gods, emperors, laws, morals; yes, of the whole nature. “You do not,” so they tell us, “worship the gods, nor do you make sacrifices to the emperors.” Accordingly, we are charged with sacrilege and high treason. We are publicly accused of being atheists and criminals who are guilty of high treason.
Wow! Does this show you anything like what we see today? Don’t you wish people would call out the state worship that happens in churches today, just like this? Tertullian was well aware of the religion of the State, also known as statism.
In us, all ardor in the pursuit of glory and honor is dead. So we have no pressing inducement to take part in your public meetings. Nor is there anything more entirely foreign to us than affairs of state.
This quote is interesting to me because he makes it clear that the affairs of the state are entirely foreign to him and certainly should be for professing Christians. Let’s move on to more Tertullian…
All the powers and dignities of this world are only alien to, but are enemies of God. Through them, too, penalties prepared for the impious are ignored.
I’m not sure anything else can be said with regard to the state, but there is one more Tertullian quote I would like to share. This one may be my favorite…
I owe no duty to forum, campaign, or senate. I stay awake for no public function. I make no effort to occupy a platform. I am no office seeker. I have no desire to smell out political corruption. I shun the voters booth, the juryman’s bench. I break no laws and push no lawsuits; I will not serve as a magistrate or judge. I refuse to do military service. I desire to rule over no one- I have withdrawn from worldly politics! Now my only politics is spiritual- how that I might be anxious for nothing except to root out all worldly anxieties and care.
If these examples aren’t convincing you of how a Christian ought to relate to the State, then how about the very words of our King? Who outright rejected Satan’s temptation in Matt 4:1-11. Jesus had the biggest mic drop ever regarding this topic, and as Christians, isn’t He our ultimate example?
Were the early church Anarchists? From my understanding, I would conclude that the early church was indeed anarchist, but labels don’t matter much. What is certain, is that they knew exactly who their King is. In the end, that is the only thing that matters. Choose this day whom you will serve (Joshua 24:15). #nokingbutchrist
There is so much more I could have put into this article. If you are interested in reading more about the early church and its beliefs, here are some book suggestions:
The Early Christians In Their Own Words by Eberhard Arnold
The Early Church on Killing by Ronald J. Sider
A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs by David W. Bercot
The Christians As The Romans Saw Them by Robert Louis Wilken
Liberty in the Things of God by Robert Louis Wilken
Love y’all,
Craig Harguess