6 But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows: “DO not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down), 7 or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).” 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. Romans 10:6-10 (NASB)
Since God drew me into spiritual boot camp in 2004 I have read many of the Reformers. I have also read as much as I can of what are referred to as the Ante-Nicene Fathers such as Polycarp and Irenaeus. The Reformers were used by God to recover the Gospel which had become hidden and corrupted by the apostate Roman Catholic Church. The Reformers such as Luther and Calvin were good theologians, but also former Catholics. Their form of “religiosity” was highly effected by their years in the R.C.C. On the other hand, Polycarp was a disciple of the Apostle John while Irenaeus was his disciple. Reading them gives us a very different view of “church structure.” Nowhere in their writings do we see state churches or massive cathedrals or Christian leaders becoming national leaders, etc. No, they served the Lord during a time when Christians were persecuted, that is, during the time of the Roman Empire. Bishops had been appointed by the Apostles and these Bishops would appoint Bishops in other churches they planted and select their successors. Irenaeus said that way of doing things kept the church from pursuing false teachers and false doctrines because they had the Word from Apostles themselves (the New Testament) and their teachings passed down directly from them to their Bishops who passed it down and so forth. As I read about their focus during that time in Church History they talked a great deal about “The Resurrection.” Polycarp was martyred when he was in his late 80’s because he would not worship Caesar as lord. He told the Romans who were going to burn him that he was excited about his “better resurrection” because he was going to share in the sufferings of Christ. I’m sorry, but I don’t see or hear much preaching or teaching about the resurrection in our time that we should be excited about it like Polycarp was. Instead, we hear about Heaven.