Clement's Phoenix

I remember reading this last year.  In chapters 23-27, Clement introduces the doctrine resurrection by alluding to a phoenix as if it was a real animal that all people knew about.

Finishing his examples of humility, he said to let us not be double-minded or our soul be lifted because of his exceedingly great and glorious gifts.  Let's not divide our loyalties or feel extra proud because of the gifts God has given in grace.  Soon and suddenly shall his will be accomplished.

Let us consider who the Lord continually proves to us that there shall be a future resurrection.  He points to day and night as a resurrection which happens at all times.  The sun goes down and then rises again.
Also, a sower plants crops by sowing a seed which dies and sinks into the ground and then comes back as a plant.

Ultimately, consider the Phoenix.  It burns up and then rises from the ashes.  It travels from Arabia to Hierapolis, Egypt.  The priest examines it on the sun altar, and then the Phoenix flies for another 500 years.

People today laugh, but then people like Ken Ham exist.  What if the Phoenix did have some truth?  I personally cannot imagine a bird burning up or rising from the ashes, but I suppose with certain conditions, it does not actually die; it just burns.  I doubt it would live 500 years as the same bird.  I certainly would not base my theology on the examinations of a pagan priest in Egypt.  There may be truth to the Phoenix, but it's more important that the resurrection is a common enough concept to be borrowed by other cultures and religions.  The people all have a concept of this hope, therefore, it is real according to the ontological argument for existence.

Scripture testifies a resurrection.  We don't need the signs of science, though I thank God for them.  We just believe because Scripture declares it, and Scripture confirms its authenticity.

With this hope, the Corinthian souls should be bound to Him who is faithful in his promises and just in his judgments.  The same goes for today.  Concentrate all your loyalty to Jesus.  America may fail.  Comfortable society may fail.  Because Jesus never fails, Christianity will always have a place on earth until he returns, and to believe otherwise is to not believe in God.

No matter what happens, "when and as he pleases, he will do all things, and none of the things determined by him shall pass away."  Destruction comes because Christ ordained it.  The church will never fade because it is eternally established by him.

Clement: Look to the Faith Heroes and Throw off all Shame

Clement just cited Jesus as an example of humility.  He already talked about saints, and he decides to mention them again.  He also shouts out to David and his 51st Psalm.  I think he should have finished the list with Jesus because he is not one of many.  He is our God and Savior.  The saints are humble because of him.

"The humility and godly submission of so great and illustrious men have rendered us better."  Clement talks about the example of the faithful people who have gone before us.  His talk reminds me of Hebrews 12.  That author had just finished a list of faithful saints, and now he encourages: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith."  I have no shame in saying that I imagine someone just throwing off all their clothes and running completely free.  They have nothing to hide; they are focused on Jesus till the end of their time on earth.

Clement points to the peace and harmony of the universe.  God even controls the wild ocean.  We should run with this security.  We don't leap in the dark hoping that we will land.  We know exactly where we're going.  God showed us the way in Jesus and it is no secret.  We know that God rules the earth, and despite any discouragement, we must live each day free of any barriers that would keep us from running toward Jesus.

"The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all his innermost parts." Proverbs 20:27.  Spirit can also be "breath."  Clement says, "let us reflect on how near he is...For he is a Searcher of the thoughts and desires of the heart; his breath is in us and when he pleases, he will take it away."
Faith in  Christ confirms all these admonitions.  

"Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord." Psalm 32:10

The message: the Romans may be threatening to destroy the temple and we are about to lose everything we based our lives on.  Heathens are taking our loving acts of kindness and words of warning and calling them bigotry and intolerance.  We must continue knowing that God is as near as our breath and that Jesus is a certainty.  We must rip off all our clothes and run the race marked out for us without fear or shame.

More examples from Clement

Corinth is going through verbal assaults of the elite media of that time.  Rome empathizes.  Clement writes this note to give them company as many godly men of Scripture fell pray to jealous rage because God accepted them over others.  This is now the reason behind Corinth's naysayers.

He cited examples all the way from Abel to Peter and Paul.  In chapters 11 and 12, he finishes the list with Lot and Rahab.

He explains that God saved Lot from Sodom because of his hospitality.  He did welcome strangers into his home not realizing that they were angels.  He moved to protect them.  Both Clem and the Bible agree that Lot was a righteous man.  I read Lot's story and see how righteous he wasn't.  God really saved him because Abraham prayed for him.  God counted Abraham as righteous just because he believed.  Abraham also did not cling to his faith perfectly.  God loved Abraham and Lot because of his grace, and they believed from what ability God allowed them.  Also, Rahab the prostitute welcomed the Israeli spies into her home and her whole family survived the falling of the Jericho walls and joined Israel because she was hospitable to God's people.  One cannot fathom God's generosity in saving people for something as simple as believing in him and protecting his people because of belief in him.

He then tells Corinth to let us be of humble mind and to act according to what is written.  Jeremiah says in his 9th chapter:

²³ Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, ²⁴ but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

All the Roman and Corinthian believers in Jesus believed for nothing more than because God graced them with righteousness.  He gave them such a lavish gift only because they love Jesus.  They were far from perfect, but they loved Jesus, and God will take even a little faith and make it into a mighty lifestyle.

Since it is God who has made the Corinthians to believe and to care for the community and to grow to a successful church that non-believers have to tear down in their envy, they must remember their permanent standing with God and obey him rather than listen to "authors of sedition" who will eventually perish.

"Let us cleave to those who cultivate peace with godliness."  At the same time, with our security in God's love, we must be with peace with all people even if they oppose us.  The others try to have peace by forcing people to accept what they despise.  This is not peace.  True peace is simply accepting people without agreeing with them.  Even better, it is to continue loving God even when people try to make you feel guilty for standing up for the truth.

Psalm 12:5 "Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan, I will now arise,” says the Lord; “I will place him in the safety for which he longs."

Ultimately he leads to Christ's perfect example of humility.  He was God, but he left his glorious throne in heaven to live as a gross human being among gross human beings and to take on all their sins and pay their penalty that they simply cannot pay.  He quotes Isaiah 53, and shows the willingness of Christ to take abuse and accusations, even death on a cross, in order atone for the humans.

Crusade Era Monasticism

This is really the era where monks and nuns pretty much became what they are now.  They mostly took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience to the pope and to their abbot.  The Cluniacs had run a successful monastery system since 1000.  Now they had gained some wealth and other groups rose up in their stead.

A Benedictine monk named Robert founded the Cistercian order in 1098 because of his concern over the lack of discipline.  Just shows that worship wars between traditional and contemporary are not a new thing.  And people being lax in their Christian discipline is not new either and is still alive today.  We need more Roberts to arise and try to make Christians more disciplined, although not in deed, but in devotion to the Lord.  If they learn to love Jesus as their Lord, then discipline will be a natural result.

Bernard of Clairvaux is one of my heroes of church history along with Augustine.  He was more of a mystic who taught his Cistercian monks to labor for their food.  He wrote wonderful hymns such as "Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee" and "O Sacred Head Now Wounded."  When Abelard, another heretic, became popular, Bernard rebutted him and championed true biblical theology.  He did support the Second Crusade, but he also wanted to save Palestine. 

Along with the Crusades, groups formed to care for wounded soldiers and to defend pilgrims.  The Knights of Saint John, aka the Knights Hospitallers, were basically the Red Cross of that era.  The Knights Templars formed around this time because they lived near the Jerusalem Temple.  They mostly were a military group that later got too involved in French politics.

The Franciscan Friars were founded by Francis of Assisi.  He started out as a roue, but then he met the Lord during an illness, and he afterward devoted his life to walking around Europe, poor, chaste, and obedient to the Pope, and he was a missionary to many of the people at the time.  Unlike monks, friars did not live in a central location.  They were chaste like the monks, but they wandered the globe to spread the Gospel.

The Dominicans formed as a witness to the Albigensians and the Muslims.  They had the sophisticated preaching and theology.  Thomas Aquinas is from this group and many other philosophers such as William of Ockham. 

They eventually grew wealthy with time and also faded in spiritual zeal, but they did do their best to serve the needs of the medieval world.

Clement's Lettuce

Here are chapters 7 through 10 of Clement's letter to Corinth.

He claims that Rome shares in the same humiliations as Corinth.  Therefore, he sends them lettuce.

Let us give up vain and fruitless cares.
Let us look steadfastly to the blood of Christ.
Let us turn to every age that has passed and learn that the Lord has granted a place of repentance to all who would be converted to him.

There's that wonderful song by Jeremy Camp, "Let It Fade."  Let this old life crumble, let it fade.  Let this new life offered be your saving grace.  Move on from your past and enjoy your new life in Christ that only he can give.  Noah preached repentance and entered the ark.  Jonah preached to Nineveh.  They believed and God saved them.

Then, citing Ezekiel 18:30; 33:11, and recounting Isaiah 1:16-20, Clem reminds us that though our sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow.  God has called his followers to repentance.  When you are surrounded by unjustified envious rage, remember, that you too were saved from such wrath and turn to God in repentance.

Let us yield obedience to His excellent and glorious will.
Notice, to obey, we simply have to yield.  Bask in God's sunshine.  His will changes us.

Let us contemplate those who have perfectly ministered to His excellent glory.
Enoch preached righteousness and did not have to die.
Noah preached repentance and entered the ark.
Abraham was found faithful because he obeyed God in leaving his country for unknown territory, and he sacrificed Isaac on the alter before God stopped him.  God had enacted Christ's crucifixion and resurrection by providing a Ram in Isaac's place.  This was how the Old Testament people believed the Gospel.

Knowing that Clement's time was no different than today, it is encouraging to read his words and to know that the time of Nero, martyrdom, and the temple's destruction did come to an end and Christianity enjoyed peace for the  next millennium.  Now that oppression is back, we only have to look to Christ's return, the only thing that really matters in life.

Envy: both today and in Clement's Time

This will be more hodge podge.

I'll start with today on a topic that gives me great joy because it is so freeing, and great sadness because people just won't listen.

Okay, we all grew up in school learning about dinosaurs.  The main point is that they died out long before there were humans.

We go to church and read Genesis.  We see a world created in 6 days filled with only things God considers good until man sins.

It's not until you start surfing Answers in Genesis when you realize those two ideas greatly oppose and you never thought of it before.  Are we going to believe the school or the church?

At the expense of looking like a fool, I believe the Bible and science because they do not contradict.  I also believe that dinosaurs lived alongside humans, survived Noah's flood, and are the dragons mentioned of old.  All cultures have dragon legends until the middle ages, making a good point from the ontological argument that they were real because all cultures have a concept of it.  Clearly they died and then got rediscovered in 1840 and called dinosaurs.

With this discovery, I no longer have to compromise my faith.  I can believe dinosaurs are more recent because they have not been proven to not co-exist with humans.  In fact, if you consider the flood and all the fossil graveyard, it makes perfect sense that we all co-existed.

The atheists envy us.  They envy our freedom from a chaotic world history, our devotion to a real God who made the earth as he said in the Bible, and our satisfaction in life.  We value human life, have options for fun other than sex, drugs, and rock and roll, and appreciate people no matter how much we have to take care of them.  The world reacts by calling us immature, unscientific, and fundamental.  Oh well, I like my hope outside this world way better than the lack of hope inside it.

This brings me to the first 6 chapters of 1 Clement.

Clement sent a letter from Rome to Corinth.  The church greatly matured and were winning people to the Lord in Greece.  At the zenith of their success, some naysayers decided to insult their faith as not genuine.  They branded the church as working for material gain and brainwashing the Greeks.  Clement pointed them to heroes of the past and present who also endured shame, even death, because of envy.

Abel presented a better sacrifice to God, and Cain envied killed him.  God chose Jacob to bless, and Esau envied and wanted to kill him.  Aaron and Miriam envied Moses's leadership, but God gave them leprosy.  Same with Dathan and Abiram, except the ground swallowed them in their hatred.  Saul ruined his whole family in his jealous rage over David, the true king.

And in Clement's day, they saw the rise of Peter and Paul and their subsequent martyrdom.  Now they live in glory unharmed.  Others also reach the goal of their faith despite envy's destruction.  Their arrows are only external.  God's truth and our confidence in him can never end.

Clement and his First Epistle to Corinth

Clement of Rome was the first man to really lead the Church after the apostolic era.  As all the apostles, including Peter and Paul, were martyred, Clement led as bishop along with Linus and Cletus. 

Paul mentions him as a young man in Philippians 4:3.  According to Philip Schaff, Clement wrote his epistle to Corinth possibly during the time of Nero and the temple's destruction.  I agree with tradition that Clement wrote the epistle and that he traveled with Paul and Luke as a co-worker.  His epistle to Corinth that I plan to read is in response to persecution in the Roman empire and is very timely in our era today.