In 338AD Emperor Constantine died and was succeeded by Julian as ruler of the Roman Empire. Julian was commonly called Julian the Apostate. For some time prior he had professed himself a zealous Christian, was ordained and read the Scriptures before the congregation. By the year 361AD Julian commenced to openly restore Paganism to the Empire.
His strategy was cunning and wide reaching, too wide reaching to mention here but some aspects drawn from his Epistles deserve mention.
A lesson for Atheists who accuse Christianity of being of no good to the world is that of Julian's attempt to copy Christian activity. He "designed and endeavoured to introduce schools for the education of youth in every city, lectures both of moral and speculative divinity, stated times of prayer, alms-houses and hospitals for the poor and cripple, and reception of strangers; and what he most admired, commendatory ecclesiastic epistles, or letters testimonial, from the governors of the church, whereby persons travelling from one country to another, were upon producing these letters sure to meet with a kind entertainment. All which he commends in his letter to Arsacius."
As if to pioneer the practice of many latter day Atheists and several who call themselves Christians "He took all occasions of exposing Christians, and their religion, to ridicule. He was a man of sarcastic wit, and principally turned it that way. When he read the Scriptures, if he met with a seeming contradiction, he made it real, if with an hyperbolical expression, he improved it to blasphemy. He scorned at the simplicity of the apostles and prophets, whom he represented as ignorant and illiterate fellows."
Surreptitiously, (yet unwittingly mimicked in variant form by many Sydney Anglicans today) "In his pictures and statues he represented Jupiter near him, coming down from heaven, and delivering to him the crown and the purple, and Mars and Mercury giving him skill in war. His design in this was, that when his officers paid their respect to the Imperial statue, they might at the same time worship idols, or that he might have the better occasion to punish their pretended contempt." Do not Theistic Evolutionists within the Anglican Diocese of Sydney, in their attempt to accommodate Evolution within Christianity, impose a Pagan image upon the background of biblical representation of the One who alone is to be worshiped?
Paganism is never far from the Church.
Quotes are from John Gillies - "Historical Collections of Accounts of Revival" (1745) page 18 wherein he cites from Julian's Epistles.
Neil
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4 comments:
Neil,
Acutely observed, I think! I'd imagine that the SADs would reject the comparison, but Michael J's most recent view of hermeneutics suggests that he is conceptually tramping in Julian's footsteps as he let's the world dicatate its view of the beginning over against the Holy Spirit and thus he would teach us things contrary to those in the Bible. This ends up teaching error, as I think the Spirit gives us information in the Bible for a reason: by which we understand God, ourselves and the place he made where the encounter takes place.
Neil, thanks for your blog. Like Eric, I wouldn't think there is anyone of Julian's ilk within the Diocese but, as I have intimated in some of my blogs, there is certainly some thinking which aids a movement at least part way in that direction.
Sam Drucker
The C of E in Britain herald Darwin as a hero, particularly recently on the 150th anniversary since the publication of The Origin of Species. And here, in Sydney, we have Archbishop Jensen believing and teaching evolution is the key to understanding Genesis 1. What more do you want guys? What more needs to be said: fullblown aganism or just a precurser to more idiotic and obstuse "leadership?
I'm with John. It's Paganism but I doubt that the Diocese knows it.
That's where we come in. To blow the bugle.
Neil
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