2nd Century Apologetics

I read one of the more fascinating letters written by a second century apologist named Justin (given the title of Martyr because that is how his life ended). In the following post I describe 2nd century apologetics and what the church can learn from it.

Apologetics is a defense of one's belief system. In the second century, as a result of persecution by the state, Christians began to defend their faith by incorporating their culture into their defense. Apologists, like Justin Martyr, were defending the faith on several fronts: pagan intellectuals, the state, the Jews, and heretics within the church.¹

Rome was accusing Christians of atheism, cannibalism, and incest.² The accusation of atheism is not what you or I immediately think of. According to Ferguson "An atheist was someone who did not observe the traditional religious practices, regardless of what faith he professed."³ Christianity was not thought of as a traditional religion, but rather a new one... one not recognized by Rome; therefore, Christians were considered atheists. Because of the ignorance about the Eucharist, or what many know as communion, the Christians were accused of cannibalism. To the Roman world, these people of this new religion were drinking someone's blood and eating their flesh. The third accusation comes again from the ignorance of the practice of a "love feast" and the way that the people would address each other. Without knowing any context, upon hearing of this new group, who call each other "brother" and "sister", having a love feast, the state assumes incest is taking place.

The church was being mocked by the ignorance of the pagan intellectuals, who saw this new religion as unreasonable. The church to this point had been relatively quite about what they believed and why they believed it to the outside world... that is until the rise of Christian apologectics. By the second century, much of the Greco-Roman world had been strongly influenced by Hellenism, which had a strong emphasis on reason and philosophy. Christian apologists began to defend the faith using philosophy to appeal to reason. This seems to be a result of the wide spread persecution of Christians by Rome. These apologists would use the mediums of writings and debates. Some writings took the form of letters written to prominent people with the goal of bringing about reasonable action. One such letter comes from an apologist named Justin Martyr, who wrote to the Emperor Antonius Pius Augustus Caesar, his sons, and the senate.

Justin was appealing to the Emperor and senate to be reasonable in their judgments about Christians. He makes the argument that they were arresting and executing Christians based on the fact that they were followers of the Name (Jesus), and not because they had actually committed any crimes. He was asking for those arrested to be tried fairly and punished according to their crimes. In this letter, The First Apology of Justin, he uses reason to show the state their hypocrisy in dealing with issues that pertain to their gods. He attempts to form a reasonable basis for why Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the very Son of God who was crucified, buried, and rose again as the only acceptable sacrifice for sin. His main argument comes through the Old Testament prophesies. He makes a very clear and convincing argument that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophesies beyond reasonable doubt. This does two things, it gives reason-ability to the Christian faith because only the Divine can speak of what is to come in such detail and see it carried out, and it makes the case that Christianity is not a new religion which is huge! Christianity is not new, it was simply a recognition that Jesus was the Messiah prophesied about in the Old Testament. This is what Justin says at the conclusion of his prophesy argument:

"So many things therefore, as these, when they are seen with the eye,
are enough to produce conviction and belief in those who embrace the truth,
are are not bigoted in their opinions, nor are governed by their passions."⁴

According to Justin, it is reasonable to see how Christianity is not just a viable faith but the faith that God has spoken of since the beginning of creation. He also seeks to clarify their practice of the Eucharist, and fellowship (addressing the rest of the accusations).⁵

The fascinating aspect of second century apologetics was their use of culture to communicate the principles of the Christian faith without compromising any of them. When defending the Christian faith they attempted to communicate truth in a way that appealed to a person's thought process and how he looked at the world. The modern church can learn much from this approach. We need to know our context and communicate truth in such a way as to appeal to that context without compromising our beliefs and values. For example, when reaching those who approach life with a post-modern worldview (everything is relative), you might first have to establish a standard (God's Word) before you can explain the Gospel. If not, they might look at you and even agree, but because everything is relative, they will most certainly walk away not having understood the truth but rather one "truth" among many. Knowing our context establishes our starting point. In the New Testament, when the apostle Paul was defending the gospel to Jews, he started with Abraham, yet when he was defending the gospel to Gentiles he started with creation. As it pertains to apologetics, the modern church needs to know its context and determine the appropriate starting point. This may/will mean that we have to adjust our approach to reach a lost world with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

¹Everett Ferguson, Church History: From Christ to Pre-Reformation, 73.
²Everett Ferguson, Church History: From Christ to Pre-Reformation, 66.
³Everett Ferguson, Church History: From Christ to Pre-Reformation, 67.
⁴Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 1, 181.
⁵Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 1, 185-186.