Page 73 - LD215 History of the Church in Africa A4 final

The Gospel Comes to Africa

as much care of our modesty and chastity as if we had been a
school of virtue rather than (at) a banquet. (Apology, 39)

Montanus

Tertullian was influenced positively by Montanism, a system of beliefs
that was started by Montanus of Phrygia in the second century A.D. By
this time, the church had drifted toward elitism (leadership or rule by
an elite). Some church leaders taught that the gift of the Holy Spirit was
only for the bishops, who in turn would communicate with God. As a
result, they tended to depend upon human leadership rather than the
Holy Spirit. By contrast, Montanus taught that the dispensation of the
Holy Spirit was for every Christian and that the gifts of the Spirit could be
manifested through both women and men. Montanists held that the Holy
Spirit could speak through them as He had done through the apostles. In
effect, Montanism was a Pentecostal-Charismatic reaction to formalism
and cold orthodoxy. However, some historians label Montanism as heresy.

Much of the information about Montanism comes from opponents
like Eusebius. It was condemned by the contemporary church. But was it
heresy or a stream of biblical Christianity? While most of the historians
who wrote about Montanism were enemies of the movement, in recent
times Montanism has been given a more favorable hearing. Although it
is true that Montanists’ desire for purity led to some excesses, perhaps
their use of spiritual gifts was misunderstood.

I see some parallels between Montanism and the modern Pentecostal
movement. Admittedly, there have been some extremes, but the basic
teachings are biblical. John Wesley read an early eighteenth century
work by John Lacy entitled The General Delusion of Christians Touching
the Ways of God Revealing Himself to and by the Prophets. This led him to
write the following in his journal on August 15, 1750:

I was fully convinced of what I had once suspected: (1) That the
Montanists, in the second and third centuries, were real Scriptural
Christians; and (2) That the grand reason why the miraculous gifts
were so soon withdrawn was not only that faith and holiness were
nigh lost, but that dry, formal, orthodox men began even then
to ridicule whatever gifts they had not themselves, and to decry
them all as either madness or imposture. (quoted in Hyatt, 20)

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