5 Controversies That Still Plague the Church

Many of the Church's most interesting debates are also their oldest.

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing
new under the sun, says the teacher in Ecclesiastesand nowhere is this more true
than in Christian controversies. While arguments about divisive subjects like the role of
women may be new to us, its all but guaranteed that the saints who have gone before
us wrestled with these very issues hundreds of years ago.
And heres the good news: Those hundreds of years have put many of these works in
the public domain, which means you can benefit from the wisdom of our forebears, for
free, on your laptop.
You may not agree with the thoughts of all these ancient theologians, but it's still vital to
be mindful of them. As C.S. Lewis once wrote, reading old books is worthwhile not
because there is "any magic about the past. People were no cleverer then than they are
now; they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes." You won't have
to agree with all of these thoughts to find that wrestling with an older perspective is
worth your time.
Here are five voices from church history to get you started:
1. Justin Martyr (100-165 AD) On The Destiny of the Unevangelized
What happens to people who die without hearing about Jesus? Does God condemn the
majority of humanity, even though they never had a chance to be saved?
This debate flared anew with the 2011 release of Rob Bells Love Wins, but its hardly
original to our time. Justin Martyr, one of the earliest Christian apologists, faced the
exact same issue just a century after the life of Christ, when Hellenic philosophers
claimed that the Christian God was unjust for this very reason.
Justin responded by arguing that God is constantly drawing all people to him according
to their capacity, always urging the human race to thought and recollection, showing
that He cares for it and provides for men and women. Some of the unevangelized,
Justin suggests, may respond to Gods revelation in their own hearts and in nature,
coming to saving faith through the work of Jesus without explicit knowledge of that work.
Read: Justin Martyrs First Apology
2. Tertullian (160-225 AD) On Christians and Pacifism
When Tertullian was writing from Africa in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, Rome was at its
peak. And as the new church spread throughout the empire, the question inevitably
arose: Should Christians serve in the Roman military? Although Jesus
had explicitly rejected violence for His followers, the gospels dont record him telling
the faithful centurion, for instance, to quit his job.
Faced with this issue, Tertullian argued for peace:
Shall it be held lawful to make an occupation of the sword, when the Lord proclaims that he who
uses the sword shall perish by the sword? And shall the son of peace take part in the battle when it
does not become him even to sue at law? And shall he apply the chain, and the prison, and the
torture, and the punishment, who is not the avenger even of his own wrongs?
Tertullian answers with a strong negative, suggesting Christians should avoid war even
at the cost of martyrdom.
Read: Tertullians De Corona (The Crown), especially Chapter 11
3. John Chrysostom (347-407 AD) On Consumerism and Poverty
Though comparatively unfamiliar to Catholics and Protestants in the Western church,
John Chrysostom is well-loved in the Orthodox tradition. A monk from Antioch, John
was made the Bishop of Constantinople in 398 ADa position he accepted unwillingly
at the behest of the populace.
Installed in the most important pulpit in the most important city in the empire, John railed
against consumerism in the face of poverty, preaching uncompromising sermons which
would lead to his exile. In one homily, he chastises those who use fancy chamber pots
while others starve: So many poor stand around the Church; and though the Church
has so many children, and so wealthy, she is unable to give relief to even one poor
personone voids his excrement even into silver, another has not so much as bread!
What madness!
Read: John Chrysostoms homilies on Colossians, especially #7
4. Margaret Fell Fox (1614-1702 AD) On Women in Church
The mother of Quakerism, Margaret Fell was the wife of George Fox, the primary
founder of the Quaker movement. A wealthy and educated woman, Margaret used her
means to foster Quakerism in its early days, fund mission work, and support religious
tolerance in England. She also argued in favor of full equality of the sexes within the
church, writing while imprisoned for refusing to abandon her beliefs.
In Womens Speaking Justified, Margaret makes a bold case, suggesting that those
who silence women are doing the work of the devil:
Let this Word of the Lord, which was from the beginning, stop the Mouths of all that oppose
Women's Speaking in the Power of the Lord; for he hath put Enmity between the Woman and the
Serpent; and if the Seed of the Woman speak not, the Seed of the Serpent speaks; for God hath put
Enmity between the two Seeds; and it is manifest, that those that speak against the Woman and her
Seed's Speaking, speak out of the Envy of the old Serpent's Seed.
Read: Margaret Fell Foxs Womens Speaking Justified
5. Roger Williams (1603-1683 AD) On Church and State
If youve heard of Roger Williams at all, it was likely via a quick mention in high school
history class of his role in founding the state of Rhode Island. Roger was a Baptist in an
age when it was dangerous to be a Protestantmuch less one of those weird
Protestants who rejected the idea of a state church. He left his native England to pastor
in Plymouth, MA, but found himself expelled from the colony when he tried to separate
his congregation from the English government.
After founding Providence, RI, Roger stirred up controversy first by advocating fair
treatment of Native Americans, and then by calling for a separation of church and state.
His groundbreaking defense of legal tolerance argued that an enforced uniformity of
religion throughout a nation or civil state, confounds the civil and religious, denies the
principles of Christianity and civility, and that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.