Announcement

Collapse

Church History 201 Guidelines

Welcome to Church History 201.

Believe it or not, this is the exact place where Luther first posted the 94 thesis. We convinced him to add one.

This is the forum where the Church and its actions in history can be discussed. Since CH201, like the other fora in the History department, is not limited to participation along lines of theology, all may post here. This means that anything like Ecclesiology can be discussed without the restrictions of the Ecclesiology forum, and without the atmosphere of Ecclesiology 201 or the Apologetics-specific forum.

Please keep the Campus Decorum in mind when posting here--while 'belief' restrictions are not in place, common decency is and such is not the area to try disembowel anyone's faith.

If you need to refresh yourself on the decorm, now would be a good time.


Forum Rules: Here
See more
See less

The Revelation of Peter on Abortion and Homosexuality

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • The Revelation of Peter on Abortion and Homosexuality

    For some reason I never read the Apocalypse/Revelation of Peter on my first pass through of the early Church writings. Not to be confused with the Gnostic book of the same name, this book was written in the early 2nd century (approx. 135), widely read among early Christians along with John's Revelation, considered authoritarial by early Christian writers like Clement of Alexandria, and found in the list of authoritative, pre-canonical books in the Muratorian Fragment.

    The portion of the book that survives gives us a vision of those in heaven and the plight of those who find themselves in hell in a pre-Dante's Inferno fashion. The two passages that stood out to me in this work were:

    Source: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1003.htm

    25. And near that place I saw another strait place into which the gore and the filth of those who were being punished ran down and became there as it were a lake: and there sat women having the gore up to their necks, and over against them sat many children who were born to them out of due time, crying; and there came forth from them sparks of fire and smote the women in the eyes: and these were the accursed who conceived and caused abortion.

    © Copyright Original Source



    Source: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1003.htm

    31. And other men and women were being hurled down from a great cliff and reached the bottom, and again were driven by those who were set over them to climb up upon the cliff, and thence were hurled down again, and had no rest from this punishment: and these were they who defiled their bodies acting as women; and the women who were with them were those who lay with one another as a man with a woman.

    © Copyright Original Source



    Obviously I don't think there's anything inspired about this text, but it's interesting from a historical perspective in understanding the views of the early church and what they considered sinful. Not that anymore evidence is needed, but it's another refutation to the lie that the sinfulness of homosexuality and abortion are relatively modern concepts.

  • #2
    Originally posted by Adrift View Post
    For some reason I never read the Apocalypse/Revelation of Peter on my first pass through of the early Church writings. Not to be confused with the Gnostic book of the same name, this book was written in the early 2nd century (approx. 135), widely read among early Christians along with John's Revelation, considered authoritarial by early Christian writers like Clement of Alexandria, and found in the list of authoritative, pre-canonical books in the Muratorian Fragment.

    The portion of the book that survives gives us a vision of those in heaven and the plight of those who find themselves in hell in a pre-Dante's Inferno fashion. The two passages that stood out to me in this work were:

    Source: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1003.htm

    25. And near that place I saw another strait place into which the gore and the filth of those who were being punished ran down and became there as it were a lake: and there sat women having the gore up to their necks, and over against them sat many children who were born to them out of due time, crying; and there came forth from them sparks of fire and smote the women in the eyes: and these were the accursed who conceived and caused abortion.

    © Copyright Original Source



    Source: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1003.htm

    31. And other men and women were being hurled down from a great cliff and reached the bottom, and again were driven by those who were set over them to climb up upon the cliff, and thence were hurled down again, and had no rest from this punishment: and these were they who defiled their bodies acting as women; and the women who were with them were those who lay with one another as a man with a woman.

    © Copyright Original Source



    Obviously I don't think there's anything inspired about this text, but it's interesting from a historical perspective in understanding the views of the early church and what they considered sinful. Not that anymore evidence is needed, but it's another refutation to the lie that the sinfulness of homosexuality and abortion are relatively modern concepts.
    See also the Didache:
    Source: Didache chapter 2

    And the second commandment of the Teaching; You shall not commit murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not commit pederasty, you shall not commit fornication, you shall not steal, you shall not practice magic, you shall not practice witchcraft, you shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is born.

    © Copyright Original Source



    and Athenagoras of Athens (2nd c.):
    Source: Plea for the Christians Ch. 35

    And when we say that those women who use drugs to bring on abortion commit murder, and will have to give an account to God s for the abortion, on what principle should we commit murder? For it does not belong to the same person to regard the very foetus in the womb as a created being, and therefore an object of God's care, and when it has passed into life, to kill it; and not to expose an infant, because those who expose them are chargeable with child-murder, and on the other hand, when it has been reared to destroy it.

    © Copyright Original Source



    Clement of Alexandria (2nd c.)
    Source: Stromata Book 3.108

    "To the pure," he says, "all things are pure: but to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure, but their mind and conscience are polluted." With reference to illicit indulgence he says: "Make no mistake: neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate men nor homosexuals nor covetous men nor robbers nor drunkards nor revilers nor thieves shall inherit the kingdom of God. And we," who used to indulge in such practices, "have washed ourselves." 'But they have a purification, with a view to committing this immorality; their baptism means passing from se1f-control to fornication. They maintain that one should gratify the lusts and passions, teaching that one must turn from sobriety to be incontinent. They set their hope on their private parts. Thus they shut themselves out of God's kingdom and deprive themselves of enrolment as disciples, and under the name of knowledge, falsely so called, they have taken the road to outer darkness.

    © Copyright Original Source

    Enter the Church and wash away your sins. For here there is a hospital and not a court of law. Do not be ashamed to enter the Church; be ashamed when you sin, but not when you repent. – St. John Chrysostom

    Veritas vos Liberabit<>< Learn Greek <>< Look here for an Orthodox Church in America<><Ancient Faith Radio
    sigpic
    I recommend you do not try too hard and ...research as little as possible. Such weighty things give me a headache. - Shunyadragon, Baha'i apologist

    Comment

    widgetinstance 221 (Related Threads) skipped due to lack of content & hide_module_if_empty option.
    Working...
    X