“Philo tried to take Greek philosophy and unite it with
the Hebrew Old Testament,” explains Jordan. “Then came (theologian) Origen, the first
Bible corrector; the first polluter of the Word of God.
“Origen not only developed a false method of
interpretation and introduced it into Christendom, he also developed the
corruptions to the Word of God that are available today in the New
International Version, etc.
“These bibles leave verses out, add verses and change
words around to change meanings. Origen is the source of all that . . .
*****
The opposing school of interpretation, using the Grammatical/Historical
method, was in Antioch, Syria, home of the opposing Bible text.
“Do you remember that the disciples were first called
‘Christians’ at Antioch?” says Jordan. “In Acts 13, it was the church at
Antioch that sent Paul out with the gospel. He reported back to Antioch all
through his ministry.
“If you wanted to find out how to understand and
interpret the Bible, would you go to Egypt or Antioch? I’d go to Antioch!
“For the first few centuries of church history, there was
not one church historian who ever lived who would say the Alexandrian method
was a sound method.
“What they wanted
was to make the Bible equal with human viewpoint--and vice versa--and join them
together. The culprit behind this was education.
“It was about human wisdom versus divine revelation. In
the Bible, the way God expects you to understand His Word is literally, always
making the words on the page the issue.
*****
“The ensuing fight between these two power centers among
the Church Councils led to Antioch losing the political battle in the 3rd
and 4th centuries.
“The ‘church fathers’ turned to the Greeks as the model
by which they trained. The great discussion became what they call virtue. You know, with the Greek
philosophers—Plato, Aristotle—virtue was the big issue; what is the supreme
good?
“Virtue is what? It’s your lifestyle; the rules that
order the things of your life. All of a sudden, things changed from the
assimilation of sound Bible doctrine, which produces life, to the external
lifestyle and academics that would produce--to where you could say, ‘This is
it—we meet the rules.’
“This is where the academic life began. Leaving the
Pauline method of Bible study, you enter into the academic world. This is where
the structures of the university system started and gave rise to all of that.
*****
“In the 5th Century, a controversy started by
Pope Cyril of Alexandria and targeted at Nestorius of Antioch, resulted in church literalists
forever losing to the allegoricalists.
“Cyril got into a conflict with Nestorius, who was
archbishop of Constantinople, about whether Mary was the ‘mother of God.’
“It’s a long detailed issue and they got arguing about
what some words mean and Cyril wanted to take it allegorically. Nestorius says,
‘We take it literally,’ and they wound up with a great controversy.
“Cyril said Mary’s the mother of God. Nestorius spoke of
Mary as the mother of Christ but thought it improper to speak of her as the
mother of God.
“The
fact that Nestorius was trained in Antioch, and inherited the Antioch zeal for
exact biblical exegesis, insisting upon the recognition of the full manhood of
Christ, is of first importance in understanding his position.
“In Antioch, they emphasized the humanity of Christ.
Cyril says, ‘Because you’re emphasizing the humanity of Christ, you’re denying
His deity.’ Strange, isn’t it? Nestorius wasn’t; he was just emphasizing His
humanity.
“But Cyril says, ‘See, you’re denying the deity of Christ
because you don’t think Mary is the mother of God! You only think she’s the
mother of the humanity, so you believe Jesus is only a man.’
“Now, Nestorianism itself, as a theology, developed the
idea that Jesus was two people in one person, but Nestorius didn’t believe that
heresy.
“Nestorius was exactly right and Cyril was wrong, but you
know who won? Cyril. And that controversy . . . by the way, the Nestorians gave out the gospel as missionaries in China
in 7th Century. They took it all over Africa, Persia, and India and
all the way to the Pacific Ocean in China. They were heretics, named that way,
but they had a zeal. You know what they were? They were outside the camp.”
*****
During the Middle Ages, a mixture of biblical teaching and Aristoliean philosophy developed known as scholasticism. There was an attempt to reconcile divine revelation with Aristotle’s human speculations.
“They developed a methodology in the academy and that’s
where systematic theology came from,” says Jordan. “Aquinas, these guys, based
on Aristotle’s Golden Mean—the greatest virtue—and they develop a systematic
way of explaining God.”
Aristotle was a student of Plato, who was taught by
Socrates. In my Dummies book on world
history, it says, “Socrates was a critic. He lived to question, to pick apart
assumptions . . . Plato depicted Socrates as intent on convincing his fellow
Athenians to reexamine their ideas about right and wrong. Plato’s writings
describe Socrates using a technique that’s been called the Socratic method ever since: Socrates
asks the person he is talking to for a definition of a broad concept (such as
piety or justice) and then tries to get the person to contradict himself with
his answer.”
*****
“Now, when you get into Romanism, you get what’s called monasticism; men going into the monasteries,” explains Jordan. “The idea now is you’re not just going to seek virtue, but you’re going to be celibate from the world off in a monastery and find the supreme good through isolation. You’re going to get rid of worldliness by not being in the world.
“Now,
can just anybody do that? If everybody can’t do it, you then have to have a
special class of superior people. That’s where the clergy comes from. See how
it all develops?!
“You now need to go out of culture to a place to learn it
and therefore you’re not learning among the people! Paul says in Thessalonians,
‘Know them that labor among you and over you in the Lord.’ People in leadership
of an assembly are people who are among you—not off on a hilltop somewhere.
“When that developed, it was these guys from the
institutional Church that took it over. And so you have this whole system where
you had this special class of people and this runs really from the 5th
to the 15th Century. That’s called the Dark Ages.
“There were only two places to get any learning—one was
in these segregated places and the other was in the king’s court. And if you
want to see what happens when things go that route, the Dark Ages is what
you’re looking for.”
*****
With the Reformation in the 1600s came a return to training people outside of monasteries, but what was used was the writings of the Greek-Alexandrian influenced Reformers.
Jordan explains, “You ever talk to anybody called a
Calvinist? Why would you call them a Calvinist? Because they follow the
writings of Calvin (who followed Augustinian doctrine). You ever talk to
anybody who tells you they’re part of the Reformed Church? Why do you call them
the Reformed Church? Because they’re following the writings of the Reformers.
Catechisms, creeds . . .
“There’s a big movement to go back to the ‘confessional
church.’ They’re talking about the Reformation churches that have these great
creeds. The Westminster Confession of faith and the Helvitic Confession of
faith. The doctrinal statement becomes the standard. For Paul, what was the
standard? The Book.”
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