I am currently reading and studying “A History of the Baptists” by John Christian. I thought that you might like to read along with me on the things that I want to remember and write down.
This particular set of notes come from Christian’s book. It discusses one of the first doctrinal errors that entered the church. Probably the first was “infant baptism!” Baptism is of extreme importance and so the Devil has worked at getting people to believe what the Bible doesn’t say. But for this post I want you to consider the Montanist!
Montanus rose up in about 156 AD as the leader. His most distinguished advocate was Tertullian.
They held to a very strict lifestyle viewing science, art, worldly education and a fun lifestyle as something to be avoided because they belonged to paganism.
The early (old) church had demanded purity so what they wanted was nothing new.
They stated that anyone who had lapsed from the true faith had to be baptized again.
They rejected infant baptism believing that only adults should be immersed.
They rejected church hierarchy and the idea that the bishop had spiritual powers over others.
The Montanists appealed to the strict disciplinarians, stern moralist, and deeply pious Christians
Here is some more information from this web site:
Prophecy was, indeed, the most prominent feature of the new movement. Ecstatic visions, announcing the approach of the second advent of Christ, and the establishment of the heavenly Jerusalem at Pepuza in Phrygia, and inculcating the severest asceticism and the most rigorous penitential discipline, were set forth as divine revelations, of which the prophet was only the bearer, and proclaimed as the direct continuation and final consummation of the prophetical gift of the apostolic age
Apparently forerunners to many charismatics today and also some preachers, pastors, and spiritual leaders who do not accept individual soul liberty and the priesthood of the believer.
The source for this material is http://bible.org/article/excited-utterances-historical-perspective-prophesy-tongues-and-other-manifestations-spiritua
Montanism — The Fountainhead of Christian Ecstasy
The Phrygian region of Asia Minor was known in its pre-Christian days as “the home of a sensuously mystic and dreamy nature-religion.”11 Given this backdrop, it is perhaps not surprising that Montanism, Christianity’s first schismatic movement, first broke out there.
Montanism was a “prophetic movement” that began around 172 A.D.12 Its founder, Montanus, was a former “mutilated priest of Cybele.”13 Closely connected with Montanus were two “prophetesses,” Priscilla and Maximilla. The Montanists insisted upon the continuation of the gift of prophesy and the use of ecstatic utterances.14
Montanus, Priscilla and Maximilla proclaimed a “New Prophecy,” which foretold that Christ would return to Pepuza, a small village of Phrygia, upon which the new Jerusalem was to come down.15
Recognition of the Holy Spirit in the New Prophecy was the touchstone of authority for the Montanists; they claimed that the New Prophecy claimed for itself a special place in salvation history.16 The followers of Montanus believed that the Holy Spirit spoke to them in the first person through his prophetic mouthpieces.17 As Henry Chadwick described it, Montanus, together with Priscilla and Maximilla delivered utterances of the Paraclete in a state of ‘ecstasy’, i.e. not being in possession of his faculties. It was the peculiar form of these utterances to which other Christians objected: this kind of ecstatic prophecy was not, like that of the biblical prophets, delivered in the third person, but was direct speech by the Spirit himself using the prophet’s mouth as his instrument.18
Indeed, Montanus said that a person in spiritual ecstasy was like a musical instrument on which the Holy Spirit plays his melodies: “Behold, the man is as a lyre, and I sweep over him as a plectrum. The man sleeps; I wake.”19 Thus, Montanus plainly taught that the close of the biblical canon was not the end of God’s special revelation to man.
Montanus taught that the Holy Spirit spoke through him in the same way as He spoke through the writings of Scripture. In Bruner’s words, he “fell into somnambulistic ecstasies, and considered himself the inspired organ of the promised Paraclete or Advocate, the Helper and Comforter in these last times of distress.”20 Eusebius records that Montanus “was filled with spiritual excitement and suddenly fell into a kind of trance and unnatural ecstasy. He raved, and began to chatter and talk nonsense. . . . Of those who listened at that time to his sham utterances, some where annoyed, regarding him as possessed, a demoniac in the grip of a spirit of error, a disturber of the masses.”21
more from the same source
In essence, the Montanists were the first charismatics. Frederick Bruner rightly called Montanism “the fountainhead of all the enthusiastic or pneumatic movements in Christian history.”24 Its basic tenets have been recycled throughout church history by ecstatic sects, including today’s charismatic movement. Bruner noted the following central characteristics of Montanism that recur in today’s charismatic movement:
1. A fervent belief that the last period of revelation has commenced;
2. A distinctive emphasis on the Holy Spirit;
3. Generally orthodox tendencies apart from their doctrine of the Spirit;
4. An ardent expectation of the impending return of Christ; and
5. A strict morality.25
Hence, Bruner declared Montanism to be “the prototype of almost everything Pentecostalism seeks to represent.”26
from the same source
14. What authority has the Bible for us? The Bible is our only and all-sufficient rule of faith and practice. . . 81
Finally, an introductory statement to the 1925 Southern Baptist Faith and Message declared: “That the sole authority for faith and practice among Baptists is the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.”82
Are we to conclude that these great men of God “did not maintain [their] purity?” That they “rejected” the Holy Spirit and His position as “leader”? My answer is a resounding “no.” It seems to me that Rene Pache got it right when he said:
If ‘miraculous’ gifts (healing, miracles, prophecy, tongues) have been absent at certain times, the probable cause has lain not always in man’s unbelief, but in the will of God. If it were otherwise, why should the Spirit unceasingly give certain gifts. . . while failing to bestow others?83
In order to walk with the wise and learn from the past, the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture must be reaffirmed.
I strongly suggest that those who are interested at least read http://bible.org/article/excited-utterances-historical-perspective-prophesy-tongues-and-other-manifestations-spiritua