The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

III. Tertullian Expounds Order of Last Events

TERTULLIAN (c. 160-c. 240) was born in Northern Africa, at Carthage, the ancient rival of Rome. He was perhaps the most conspicuous religious writer of his time. Receiving a liberal Graeco-Roman education, and probably legal training, he lived in pagan blindness and licentiousness to his thirtieth or fortieth year, knowing well the coarseness and repulsiveness of it all. He was strongly attracted by the martyr courage and life of holiness of the Christians, in contrast to the life of the sensual cynic and proud stoic. PFF1 252.2

Accepting Christianity, he embraced it with all the strength of maturity and all the fiery energy of his soul, defending it thenceforth against pagan, Jew, and heretic. In passing from paganism to Christianity, Tertullian believed himself to be passing from darkness to light and from corruption to purity. His vehemence, therefore, against any form of Christian precept or practice that fell short of his ideal may be the more easily understood. Brilliant and versatile, but fiery and tempestuous in temperament, he spurned every kind of recognized compromise. PFF1 253.1

1. CARTHAGINIAN SCHOOL OF LATIN THEOLOGY

This gifted, once-pagan lawyer became the father of Latin theology and creator of the church language in the Latin tongue. He laid the foundations upon which Cyprian and Augustine built, though, curiously enough, he died out of harmony with Rome. He paved the way for the labors of Jerome, who, in creating the Vulgate, lifted the Western churches to a position of intellectual parity with the East. Tertullian’s was an extraordinary literary activity in two languages, most of which fell in the first quarter of the third century. His most powerful polemic works were against the Gnostics. PFF1 253.2

It is essential to have this historic background and setting for Tertullian’s witness, and it is desirable to note, first, that the apostolic church was principally Jewish, the ante-Nicene was largely Greek, and the post-Nicene, predominantly Roman. The literature of the Roman church was at first dominantly Greek, and her earliest writers wrote exclusively in Greek. ⁴⁴ Latin began to appear in Christian literature at the end of the second century, and then not in Italy but in Africa, not in Rome but in Carthage, and with lawyers and rhetoricians, not speculative philosophers. PFF1 253.3

Strangely enough, Rome itself under the emperors was essentially a Greek city, with Greek as its second language. The first sermons preached at Rome were in Greek; for the mass of the poorer population, among whom Christianity took root, were predominantly Greek speaking. Paul wrote to the Roman church in Greek, as did Clement, and various others that followed. The apologies to the Roman emperors were phrased in Greek. The churches in Gaul, evangelized by missionaries from Asia Minor, wrote out the story of their persecutions in Greek, and Irenaeus employed it. On the other hand, Latin Christianity had its birthplace in North Africa. The Vetus Latina (Old Latin) version of the Bible evidently had its origin in Africa. By the close of the second century Carthage was a thriving Christian center—a second Rome. Greek was no longer current there, having been supplanted by Latin. ⁴⁵ So Tertullian was truly the first Latin father, his writings offering the starting point in the history of the Latin church. PFF1 254.1

A century of missionary endeavor reached a place where the missionary fire blazed out in Tertullian, and, by the middle of the third century, had so grown that several councils were held in Carthage, each attended by not less than seventy bishops. Thus came the great expansion of the church in Africa. And this Carthaginian school of Latin theology molded Christian thought for centuries. Also, Northern Africa probably gave to the Western church the first Latin translation of the Bible, miscalled the Itala, which was the basis of Jerome’s Vulgate. ⁴⁶ Rome, at the close of the third century, was still but a prominent member of the sisterhood of Christian churches, and reputable authorities claim there were some ten million Christians within the bounds of the Roman Empire at this time. ⁴⁷ PFF1 254.2

2. VIOLENT PERSECUTIONS BRING RELIGIOUS LIBERTY PLEA

It is essential further to note that martyrdom in Africa began in the second century, when a tempest of persecution broke upon the church in various sections of the empire. ⁴⁸ The fires of religious fanaticism burst into flame. Many were imprisoned, torture and death followed, and the African church received her share of the baptism of blood. Violent attacks destroyed Christian homes and places of worship, rifling the resting places of the dead, and depriving the living of their church assemblies. PFF1 255.1

The intensive persecution in the reign of Septimius Severus was most active at the height of Tertullian’s career. The floodgate opened, and the tide of fury swept on, full and strong. Tertullian’s Apology to the Roman rulers is a monument to this heroic martyr age of the church, which is stamped in letters of blood upon its pages. Tertullian resisted the attacks of heathen bigotry, and demanded equal rights and freedom of religion for Christians. He appealed not for mercy but for justice. ⁴⁹ This may be regarded as the first plea for religious liberty as an inalienable right, which just governments should, in their own interest, respect and protect. His legal training is observable throughout this affirmation of rights. Juridical in style, Tertullian is ever the advocate for the unnamed army of Christian martyrs. “The blood of Christians is seed,” he said. ⁵⁰ PFF1 255.2

3. RESURRECTION AT SECOND ADVENT, NOT AT DEATH

Tertullian believed in and expressly taught the second advent: PFF1 255.3

“For two comings of Christ having been revealed to us: a first, which has been fulfilled in the lowliness of a human lot; a second, which impends over the world, now near its close, in all the majesty of Deity unveiled; and, by misunderstanding the first, they [the Jews] have concluded that the second—which, as matter of more manifest prediction, they set their hopes on—is the only one. ⁵¹ PFF1 255.4

Tertullian was a decided premillennialist, and affirms it customary for Christians to pray for a part in the first resurrection, which literal resurrection takes place at the advent at the end of the world, and not at death. ⁵² PFF1 256.1

4. CHRIST THE STONE THAT SMITES THE IMAGE

He specifically declares Christ to be the stone of Daniel 2 that will smite at His second coming the “secular kingdom” image of Daniel 2. PFF1 256.2

“Now these signs of degradation quite suit His first coming, just as the tokens of His majesty do His second advent, when He shall no longer remain ‘a stone of stumbling and rock of offence,’ but after His rejection become ‘the chief corner-stone,’ accepted and elevated to the top place of the temple, even His church, being that very stone in Daniel, cut out of the mountain, which was to smite and crush the image of the secular kingdom. Of this advent the same prophet says: ‘Behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days; and they brought Him before Him, and there was given Him dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away; and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. ‘” ⁵³ PFF1 256.3

5. FULFILLED PROPHECIES ASSURE FUTURE EVENTS

Tertullian was the first Latin father to use the prophecies to show the superiority of Holy Scripture over all pagan productions. PFF1 256.4

“We bring under your notice something of even greater importance; we point to the majesty of our Scriptures, if not to their antiquity. If you doubt that they are as ancient as we say, we offer proof that they are, divine. And you may convince yourselves of this at once, and without going very far. Your instructors, the world, and the age, and the event, are all before you. All that is taking place around you was fore-announced; all that you now see with your eye was previously heard by the ear.” ⁵⁴ PFF1 256.5

After declaring that what was then taking place had been foreannounced, and that the truth of prophecy is the fulfillment of things predicted, he continues: PFF1 256.6

“The truth of a prophecy, I think, is the demonstration of its being from above. Hence there is among us an assured faith in regard to coming events as things already proved to us, for they were predicted along with what we have day by day fulfilled. They are uttered by the same voices, they are written in the same books—the same Spirit inspires them. All time is one to prophecy foretelling the future.” ⁵⁵ PFF1 256.7

6. ANTICHRIST—BEAST—MAN OF SIN IS NEAR

Tertullian, like Irenaeus, identifies the Antichrist with the Man of Sin and the Beast. ⁵⁶ On the one hand he speaks of many antichrists—as indeed John himself does—men who rebel against Christ at any time, and he specifically mentions Marcion and his followers as antichrists. ⁵⁷ Yet on the other hand he expects the specific Antichrist just before the resurrection, as a persecutor of the church, under whom the second company of martyrs, awaited by those under the altar of the fifth seal, will be slain, and Enoch and Elijah will meet their long-delayed death: ⁵⁸ Unlike Irenaeus, however, Tertullian does not describe Antichrist as a Jew sitting in a Jewish temple at Jerusalem. Indeed, he says that the temple of God is the church. ⁵⁹ He expects Antichrist soon. ⁶⁰ PFF1 257.1

7. ROME’S CONTINUANCE DELAYS ANTICHRIST’S APPEARANCE

Commenting on the Antichrist of 2 Thessalonians 2:3-6, he observes truly that it is the Roman state that is the restraining “obstacle” which, by being broken up into the “ten kingdoms,” would make way for Antichrist, who would ultimately be destroyed by the brightness of the advent. PFF1 257.2

“‘For that day shall not come, unless indeed there first come a falling away,’ he [Paul] means indeed of this present empire, `and that man of sin be revealed,’ that is to say, Antichrist, ‘the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or religion; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, affirming that he is God. Remember ye not, that when I was with you, I used to tell you these things? And now ye know what detaineth, that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work; only he who now hinders must hinder, until he be taken out of the way.’ What obstacle is there but the Roman state, the falling away of which, by being scattered into ten kingdoms, shall introduce Antichrist upon (its own ruins)? ‘And then shall be revealed the wicked one, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming: even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish.’” ⁶¹ PFF1 257.3

8. BABYLON THE RECOGNIZED FIGURE OF ROME

The “Babylon” of the Apocalypse is, by Tertullian, applied to the city of Rome and her domination. PFF1 258.1

“So, again, Babylon, in our own John, is a figure of the city Rome, as being equally great and proud of her sway, and triumphant over the saints.” ⁶² PFF1 258.2

Consonant with such a view, he depicts her as “drunk” with the blood of martyred “saints.” ⁶³ Such was the obviously immediate application. PFF1 258.3

9. ROME’S BREAKUP SIGNAL FOR END

The mighty shock hanging over the world, Tertullian declares, is retarded only by the continuing existence of the Roman Empire. Rome’s breakup will be the signal for the terrors of the end; and so they definitely prayed for Rome’s continuance. PFF1 258.4

“There is also another and a greater necessity for our offering prayer in behalf of the emperors, nay, for the complete stability of the empire and for Roman interests in general. For we know that a mighty shock impending over the whole earth—in fact, the very end o f all things threatening dreadful woes—is only retarded by the continued existence of the Roman empire. We have no desire, then, to be overtaken by these dire events; and in praying that their coming may be delayed, we are lending our aid to Rome’s duration.” ⁶⁴ PFF1 258.5

10. ENUMERATES ORDER OF LAST EVENTS

Tertullian attempts to enumerate the order of last-day events, as brought to view in the Apocalypse—the plagues, Babylon’s doom, Antichrist’s warfare on the saints, the devil cast into the bottomless pit, the advent, the resurrection of the saints, the judgment, and the second resurrection, with the harvest at the end of the world; and the sixth seal extending to the final dissolution of the earth and sky, in which he included the stars. ⁶⁵ PFF1 258.6

Picture 1: PROPHETIC SYMBOLS FIND COUNTERPARTS ON ROMAN COINS
Emblem on Back of Faustina Coin Reminds One of the Woman in Purple Riding the Scarlet Beast, in Revelation 17 (Upper Left); Caracalla Coin Picturing Rays, Like Horns on Beast, Exemplifying the Multiple-Horn Device, Used in Prophecy, Was Employed in Roman Days (Right); Maximian Coin Showing Hercules Seeking to Destory Hydra-headed Symbol of Christianity (Lower Left)
Page 259

11. PROPHECY SPANS FIRST AND SECOND ADVENTS

Tertullian regarded prophecy as largely prefiguring, in orderly succession, the chief events and epochs of the church and the world from Christ’s first advent to His second coming, and assures us that the events surrounding the second advent, such as the resurrection, were as yet unfulfilled. ⁶⁶ PFF1 259.1

12. MILLENNIUM FOLLOWS RESURRECTION OF DEAD

In controverting Marcion, the most formidable Gnostic heretic who had yet opposed revealed truth, Tertullian contends against the Jewish hope of the restoration of Judea, and for the spiritual significance of the promises to Israel. He maintains that the thousand years of the Apocalypse will follow the resurrection, upon the earth, with the New Jerusalem in its midst, and precede the eternity of heaven. PFF1 259.2

“Our inquiry relates to what is promised in heaven, not on earth. But we do confess that a kingdom is promised to us upon the earth, although before heaven, only in another state of existence; inasmuch as it will be after the resurrection for a thousand years in the divinely-built city of Jerusalem, `let down from heaven,’ which the apostle also calls ‘our mother from above;’ and, while declaring that our no Mteuwa, or citizenship, is in heaven, he predicates of it that it is really a city in heaven. This both Ezekiel had knowledge of and the Apostle John beheld .... PFF1 259.3

“This city [new Jerusalem] ⁶⁷ has been provided by God for receiving the saints on their resurrection, and refreshing them with the abundance of all really spiritual blessings, as A recompense for those which in the world we have either despised or lost; since it is both just and God-worthy that His servants should have their joy in the place where they have also suffered affliction for His name’s sake.” ⁶⁸ PFF1 260.1

As the next quotation shows, Tertullian describes the resurrection of the saints as covering a period of time, some rising sooner than others. PFF1 260.2

13. AFTER MILLENNIUM, WORLD’S DESTRUCTION AND HEAVEN

Tertullian further declares that the world’s destruction, at the execution of the judgment, will come at the close of the thousand years spent by the saints in the New Jerusalem on earth. PFF1 260.3

“Of the heavenly kingdom this is the process. After its thousand years are over, within which period is completed the resurrection of the saints, who rise sooner or later according to their deserts, there will ensue the—destruction of the world and the conflagration of all things at the judgment: we shall then be changed in a moment into the substance of angels, even by the investiture of an incorruptible nature, and so be removed to that kingdom in heaven.” ⁶⁹ PFF1 260.4

14. SEVENTY WEEKS FULFILLED BY FIRST ADVENT

Tertullian contends that by the prophecy of Daniel’s seventy weeks ⁷⁰ the time of Christ’s incarnation, as well as of His death, is foretold. He gives an extensive sketch of the chronology of the seventy hebdomads, or weeks of years, starting them from the first year of Darius, and continuing to Jerusalem’s destruction by the Romans under the command of Titus. This was to show that the seventy weeks were then fully completed, the vision and prophecy thus being sealed by the advent of Christ, which he places at the end of the sixty-two and one-half weeks. His knowledge of chronology is, of course, inexact, as is demonstrated by his putting the destruction of Jerusalem fifty-two and a half years after the birth of Christ. ⁷¹ PFF1 260.5

15. ESPOUSED MONTANISM IN PROTEST OF ROMAN LAXITY

The Montanist movement arose after the middle of the second century. This group purposed to restore what they considered the original Christianity. The Manichaeans, on the contrary, attempted to reconstruct Christianity, and questioned the integrity and the authenticity of the Christian records and writers. About the beginning of the third century Tertullian espoused Montanism, ⁷² noted for its moral austerity. Repelled by the growing laxity of the Roman clergy and the worldly conformity of the Roman church, he was attracted by the martyr enthusiasm and chiliastic beliefs of the Montanists, who became extremists in millenarian positions. ⁷³ PFF1 261.1

The Montanists lived under the vivid impression of the final catastrophe, and directed their desires toward the second advent and the end of the world; but the abatement of—the advent hope in the dominant church brought increase of worldliness, as she began to establish herself in the earth. Thus the separating line over this issue of worldly establishment began to be rather definitely drawn as relates to the advent expectancy. PFF1 261.2

Tertullian ruthlessly exposed the corruptions of the Roman church. He attacked the lax edict of the Roman bishop who had given remission for gross, carnal sins, ironically calling him “the Pontifex Maximums”—a term then referring only to the pagan chief priesthood, which was held by the Roman emperors at this time. ⁷⁴ He likewise challenged the power of the “keys” as usurped by the church at Rome ⁷⁵ PFF1 261.3

16. THE SABBATH AND TRADITION

Before leaving Tertullian we must turn briefly to a different aspect of the picture. While still holding to the advent hope, Tertullian had, in common with the majority, already departed considerably from the original teachings and practices of the church, in bringing in traditional customs which he admits are non-Biblical, as will be seen. Writing against Marcion the Gnostic, he upholds the Sabbath as consecrated by God the Father for the good of roan, and not rescinded by Christ but sanctified by His life arid action. ⁷⁶ But to the Jews he writes that the Sabbaths were Jewish and temporal, and argues for a perpetual, spiritual sabbath, just as he contends for a spiritual eternal law in contrast to a temporal law, and both beginning with the new covenant. ⁷⁷ PFF1 262.1

He answers lamely the contention that they were like the worshipers of the sun-god-because they also prayed toward the east and celebrated Sunday—simply by saying, “Do you do less than this” ⁷⁸ He also takes pains to disavow the observance of the Jewish Sabbath. ⁷⁹ He explains how the pagans would not join in Christian customs, lest they seem to be Christians, but at the same time declares that Christians were not fearful of being called heathen, though they joined the pagans in their observance of the annual heathen festivals. ⁸⁰ Thus the pagans appeared truer to their convictions as to separation than the Christians. PFF1 262.2

In discussing the Christian soldier’s refusal to wear the crown of laurel leaves, Tertullian touches the relation of Scripture to tradition, and whether none save a written tradition ought to be received. In this connection he reveals the extent to which customs based on “tradition alone” had crept into the church. He mentions dipping three times in baptism (thus exceeding the Scripture mandate), offerings for the dead, abstaining from fasting or from kneeling in worship on the “Lord’s day” and from Easter to Whitsunday, undue veneration for bread and wine, and the use of the sign of the cross. ⁸¹ Then comes this startlingly frank admission: “1 f, for these and other such rules, you insist upon having positive Scripture injunction, you will find none. Tradition will be held forth to you as the originator of them, custom as their strengthener, and faith as their observer. ⁸² PFF1 262.3

Nevertheless, we find in this period our five determining factors in the advent belief still standing forth—the literal resurrection of the dead at the second advent; the millennial period following the advent; the Antichrist expected upon the heels of Rome’s breakup; and, in the interpretation of outline prophecies, Christ’s first advent fulfilling the seventy weeks of Daniel, Christ’s second coming as the smiting stone of Daniel 2, Rome as the fourth world power to be divided into ten kingdoms, and considerable emphasis upon last-day events as disclosed in the Apocalypse. Thus premillennialism, despite certain departures, is still predominant. PFF1 263.1