Alright, so Cyprian of Carthage. You might remember last week when we were talking about Tertullian, we were saying that the church there in northern Africa was really taking off in its influence and on the number of writers and teachers and thinkers and preachers. in that part of the world was really becoming a bastion of Orthodox Christianity and developing and advancing Christian doctrine. And here we are just maybe 40 or 50 years after Tertullian. Cyprian was born around the year 200. I try to always remind you, I'm not so much interested that you remember all the dates and such as I am, the doctrine and substance behind it. But he was born somewhere around the year 200. became a bishop in 247, I think, or something like that. So, we're dealing with just not long after Tertullian, in the same area of the world. But the writing, teaching, debating, commentating, all of these things that was coming out of Africa at this time, was beginning to shape Christian doctrine and Christian orthodoxy, the way that the world, Christianity worldwide was thinking about some of these doctrines that hadn't been really hashed out yet, that hadn't really been considered in their nuances, and this was beginning to happen. Up to this point, you remember, we've talked really strongly about early, early on they were dealing with Roman paganism, and the Jews and their Judaism. And then after that, Gnosticism came on the scene. And so by this point, even Gnosticism, it wasn't gone, but it didn't have the influence that it was having just 50-60 years earlier, as some of these other writings from the Church Fathers was really beginning to make a dent in this Gnostic way of thinking and conflating it with Christianity. And so now they begin to turn their eyes and their thoughts, their minds, to other doctrines outside of just the most basic doctrines of the Trinity and things of this nature. And so some of the earlier churches that we've already talked a little bit about and thought about is like the church in Jerusalem, the church in Antioch, the church in Rome. As the decades are progressing, each of these churches are having a little bit more influence on the other ones, and now it's Carthage's turn. And Carthage is having an influence in teaching these other churches. Rome and Jerusalem and Antioch are being instructed by much of the writing and teaching that's coming out of Africa. Not only was there commentaries on the Scriptures and letters being written and things of this nature, but as we're going to see as we get into Cyprian's life, there were ecclesiastical debates. The churches and the bishops, the presbytery would come together and they'd debate different topics that there was a difference of opinion on within the clergy and within the churches. And from these, the basic pattern arose for the future ecumenical church councils. Now I don't know If any of you, I think Anna was, maybe some of you others were, I don't remember for sure, maybe the Vices were, were here when we went through the Ecumenical Church Councils several years ago. I got to visit a lot of those sites in Turkey and so we took a semester or two to actually talk about the Ecumenical Church Councils. And the first kind of worldwide ecumenical church council, and when I say ecumenical I don't mean the way we think of it today as all the religions were coming together, but it meant kind of a universal council. The bishops from all different churches around the world would come together. The first one, and that's not what we're here to talk about tonight, but happened in 325 AD. But the point I'm getting at is that we're almost 100 years, 75 years, something like that, before that first council. And they were already kind of setting the pattern for what those church councils were going to be like later. It wasn't as universal. It wasn't as worldwide. It was more local. It was more the churches in North Africa, that kind of thing coming together. But what they did there, and the basic pattern for their discussions and debates, and then coming out with a unified voice from that about what the church believed on this topic or another was setting the pattern for some really influential church councils in the years to come. It was also here in North Africa that the full canon of Scripture became normative. So you remember we've been saying as we go along that from almost immediately after John's passing, the New Testament books were being recognized as of divine origin, that they were inspired of God. But it was here in Carthage and in North Africa that the 27 books of the New Testament, the way that we think of them today, was being accepted in North Africa. These are the inspired works of Scripture and none others. And so the Bible that you're used to holding today would have been what these churches in Carthage only 200 years, or less than 200 years, 150 years, something like that, after the passing of John, would have been using and recognizing as inspired and canonical. Because of the downturn of Gnosticism, and because Judaism had already been answered and people were starting to realize now that Christianity wasn't just a cultish sect of Judaism or something of that nature, these church fathers were able to turn their attention to a lot of more intricate theological questions. And Cyprian taught the doctrines of grace, that's what we like to term these doctrines about the sovereignty of God and the original sinfulness of man. You remember last week we said Tertullian spoke as clearly on the original sin nature of man as any of the Church Fathers had up to this point. Well, Cyprian taught these doctrines of grace, of God's complete sovereignty of man's complete deadness spiritually, of it having to be a complete monergistic work, that is God works alone, not in synergy with man, but monergistically by Himself to regenerate man. Cyprian declared these things more clearly than anyone between the Apostles and Augustine did. And in fact, Many of the people that we think of as heroes and giants in the faith, particularly when we're talking about the doctrines of grace, each of these men highly regarded Cyprian. Augustine, which came just a couple hundred years after Cyprian, said that he was the most lauded commentator on the divine declarations. He said that of Cyprian. Martin Luther said, I have a regard, a high regard, I have a high regard for St. Cyprian's person and faith. And he hailed him as among the most outstanding fathers and one of the greatest theologians. And John Calvin quoted him more than he quoted any other church father before Augustine. So Calvin, Luther, Augustine, a lot of these men that we really hold in high regard for teaching and propagating what we call in many regards the Calvinistic doctrines or the doctrines of grace, all of these men saw Cyprian's works as being very influential to them. They thought that Cyprian was a godly man and a wise scholar when it came to the scriptures. So what about Cyprian in and of himself? Well, he was born in Carthage to an affluent pagan Roman family. When I say affluent, we're talking about wealthy. He had a lot of stuff. His father, from the best we can understand, was one of the principal senators in the Roman administration there in Carthage. So his father was a politician. His father was one of the senators, not one of the Roman senators in the city of Rome, but in Carthage, in the Roman administration there in Carthage, Cyprian's father was one of the senators there that helped run that area of the world under the watch of Rome. And because his father was so influential and wealthy, he became very well educated. He got the best, like some of these other church fathers that we've read about. He got the best education in the classics, in rhetoric, in Greek, in Latin, in all of these things that were so important for people to know in that day and age. Cyprian got the best of it. Not so much like Justin Martyr where he just traveled the world going to the very best schools that were available. But there in Carthage, he got pretty much the best that the world could offer when it came to education. And because of that, because of his intense and high education, he became a professor. a professor of rhetoric. When we talk about rhetoric, we're talking about someone who's able to make a speech and an argument in a very influential way. And so he actually taught this. He became a professor of rhetoric there in Carthage and a lawyer. He boasted before his conversion in his ability to make pleas to the law and be able to represent people before the Roman law there in Carthage. And so he's in his mid-forties. He's the son of a senator. He's got the best education. He's a professor of rhetoric. He's a lawyer. What more could a man want, right? He's got the best of everything in his world, and yet, year after year, he became more and more disenchanted with the vanity and corruption of the world around him. The Spirit of God, from what we can understand looking back through history, was working on him, and was showing him that this world You can have everything the world has to offer and it's not enough. It'll never fill that void. And so at around 46 years old, he came into contact with one of the elders in the church there at Carthage. And again, this name isn't that important for you to know, but the elder's name was Kychilius. spelled C-A-E-C-I-L-I-U-S, if that's of interest to you, Caecilius. And he was an elder there in Carthage, and Caecilius presented the Gospel to Cyprian. And Cyprian was converted, and he gave a very clear testimony of his conversion, and he gave it in such a way that you can hear this monergistic doctrine that's going to come out later in his life and in his writings. There's a lot of big words in here, so try to stick with me and follow his train of thought here. But listen to what he said about his conversion. He said, I myself was held in bonds. by innumerable errors of my previous life." He said, all these errors that were in my unconverted life were bonds to me. "...from which I did not believe that I could by possibility be delivered." He said, I thought it was impossible for me to ever be delivered by the bonds of these errors. "...so I was disposed to acquiesce in my clinging vices." He says, I just gave in. I just sinned because I thought, well, there's no way for me to get out of these bonds. And because I despaired of better things, I used to indulge my sins as if they were actually parts of me, and indigenous to me. I'd just give in to all my sins as though I were helping my finger or my leg, like it was a part of me, I'd give in to my sins. But after that, by the help of the water of new birth, the stain of former years had been washed away, and a light from above, serene and pure, had been infused into my reconciled heart. After that, by the agency of the Spirit breathed from heaven, a second birth had restored me to a new man. Then in a wondrous manner, doubtful things at once began to assure themselves to me, hidden things to be revealed, dark things to be enlightened. What before had seemed difficult began to suggest a means of accomplishment. What had been thought impossible to be capable of being achieved." So remember he said, I thought before that the bonds of sin that I was under, it was impossible for me to ever break free of them. And now, A light from heaven, the Spirit of God, breathes a new life into me, and I recognize that I can overcome these things that I once thought were unable to be overcome. So that I was enabled to acknowledge that what previously, being born of the flesh, had been living in the practice of sins, was of the earth earthy, but had now begun to be of God, and was animated by the Spirit of holiness. So you hear that monergistic language, before I could do nothing, God regenerated me from above, He gave me light from heaven, the Spirit came to me, and all those things that were old had become new. All those things which were dark and shadowy had become light and understandable to me. He recognized that His conversion was not Him meeting God halfway or doing the right things, but that God enlightened Him. The testimony that we have of Cyprian after that is that he abandoned his lifestyle of worldly pleasures and gave his entire fortune to the poor and took a vow of chastity. This was written about him by someone else who was familiar with him. He said, his house was open to every comer. No widow returned from him with an empty lap. That was interesting considering our Wednesday night considerations on the Christian's duty to widows. No blind man was unguided by Him as a companion. None faltering in step was unsupported by Him for a staff. None stripped of help by the hand of the mighty was not protected by Him as a defender. Such things ought they to do, He was accustomed to say, who desire to please God." He said, if you desire to please God, you ought to do these things. You ought to help the helpless. And thus running through the examples of all good men by always imitating those that were better than others, he made himself also worthy of imitation. So he became known as this man who would always help others. He thought, well, I want to imitate those who are doing better. And by imitating those who are doing better, he became known as one who ought to be imitated. Because he was, as the Scriptures tell us, he was following Paul as Paul followed Christ. And so others would follow him as he followed Paul who was following Christ, and so on. Yes sir? Right. Right. Yes sir. That's right. Yes, sir. Right. The Roman Catholic Church has made Caecilius a saint, but even they and all of their fanciful stories that they've come up with don't know anything about him. The only thing we know about Caecilius is that he was the one who led Cyprian to Christ. And Cyprian was so grateful for Caecilius, giving him the Gospel, and bringing him to Christ, that he took the name Caecilius as his middle name. He became known as, I don't remember, but it was a long Roman name, but it was his first name, then Caecilius Cyprianus. So, he took this guy's name as his middle name because he was so grateful for him sharing the Gospel to him. Yes ma'am? How do you spell Caecilius? C-A-E-C-I-L-I-U-S And I had to look that up and listen to two or three people say it to figure out how to pronounce that. So I guess I am pronouncing that right. I am just going off of the way YouTube pronounced it. You said it was pronounced as Chastity right? Ironically I was just listening to this afternoon when they were talking about in that period of time for 400 years up to that period of time. The norm, the gauge and measure of a man's wealth is how many times he's been married and forced. How many cum combines he's had. That was still, because you think about it and think, oh good grief. We all kind of snore at it, right? I know I used to. But when you keep looking at these people and the culture they live in. I mean, women were born to marry and divorce in that day. And they were as bad as the men. The thing with divorce then was much worse than it is now. It was a badge of honor the number of times you've been remarried. Wow. Well you think about it, and like you said, we can't It's unfair of us to judge him based on what we know now of history and what the Roman Catholic Church became and the way that they put celibacy on all of their priests and things of this nature. But here he is, he's 46 years old. He's been engaged in every kind of licentiousness and sin by his own confession. He's given over to it and he says, you know what, I'm just going to give myself over to to the service of God in the church. And so, I don't know of anything in any of his readings where he makes that sign of holiness, or that he calls other presbyters to do that. It's not like that, like you're saying, but it was just kind of a personal decision for him that he was going to sell all that he had, take a vow of chastity, and just give himself over to the service of the Lord. It's actually going to be our sermon Sunday morning is that passage in scripture where the single are called to serve the Lord. And they can make that a priority in ways even that married men and women can't. So Cyprian immediately gave himself, as you're seeing by that, donating all that he had. He was a very wealthy man, donating it all to the poor, taking a vow of chastity. You can see that this is just a radical life change for this man. And he immediately gave himself over to studying the scriptures and Christian books. He would read nothing else. So we're talking about a man who was a professor of rhetoric and a lawyer. Can you imagine how well read this man was? Probably the type of library that he had. But once he was converted, he said, listen, I've given the first 46 years of my life to all this worldly knowledge. All I'm going to read now is the scriptures and Christian books. And it was said of him later on that he would not let a day pass without reading Tertullian. He read Tertullian every single day. enraptured with wanting to learn more about Christ, and of course, Tertullian being that influential writer of his own time and place. His sharp mind, this new dedicated life, and his diligent study of the scriptures and Christian writings quickly began to pay off. Shortly after his conversion, he was made a deacon in the church. Not long after that, he was brought into the Presbyterian to the eldership, and less than three years after his conversion, he was nominated to be the lead bishop of Carthage. And he was unanimously elected to that position. Now when I say elected, the way things were working in the church at this point already, it wasn't like his local church elected him. He was elected by the Synod of Bishops in that region of the world. They were the ones who would nominate and elect someone as a bishop of a church. And so, the surrounding bishops recognized his talents, his dedication, and so they nominated and unanimously elected him as a bishop. Now, I wasn't there. I never knew this man personally or anything like that. We find it a little bit curious when we consider the scriptural commands to lay hands on no man suddenly and not being a novice, but apparently he was so given to learning about Christ and dedicating himself to the church that the bishops of that area had enough faith in him to put him in that position so quickly after his conversion. And so even though he was unanimously elected by the presbytery, he was almost immediately opposed by many of the local elders who were under his bishopric there in Carthage. There were a lot of men who'd been in the church and probably been elders and presbyters there for a long time. And who's this new upstart? He just got saved two and a half years ago, and now he's the bishop over us. And it seems as though there was a spirit of jealousy among some of these other elders, these other presbyters there in Carthage, and what seems to be a spirit of jealousy bore bitter fruit not many years after. And we'll get to that here shortly. So he's been a bishop at Carthage for about a year, and in the year 250, The Emperor, and here's another one, I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing it correctly. Decius, Decious, Decius. I've heard it pronounced all three ways. It's D-E-C-I-U-S. D-E-C-I-U-S. I'm going to say Decius, because that rolls off my tongue the easiest. So the Emperor Decius decreed an empire-wide attack on Christianity by demanding that all citizens in the Empire of Rome offer a sacrifice to the Roman gods, with the exception of the Jews. So he gave the Jews an exemption. He said, you don't have to do this, but everybody else does. So you can see who he was going after here. He was after the Christians. This was the first, as I said, empire-wide decree that seemed to personally attack the Christians. We read about some of these early church fathers who were martyred under Roman decrees and persecution, some of them for nothing more than being a Christian. But as far as all Christians anywhere under Rome's watch care being put to the test, this is the first time that that really happened. He sent this decree out, and he demanded that all citizens offer a sacrifice to the Roman gods, but with an exemption to the Jews. Now, this decree had a large range of reactions from Christians. There had been some persecutions up to this point, very early on from the Jews, then spotty in places from the Romans up to this point. But Christians You know, particularly on the outskirts of the Roman Empire, if you didn't live in some of the largest cities right there where all the Roman soldiers were, you could probably live a pretty normal life as a Christian and not really be harassed that bad. And so you had, kind of like you have in America today, Christians of all stripes and persuasions, all levels of truly being sincerely devoted to Christ and His doctrine. Cyprian's writings, he wrote a book called Concerning the Lapsed. We'll talk about that here in a little while. But, he talks about the different reactions that this had. He said, some Christians, as soon as the decree was made known, was made public, some professing Christians rushed down to the public square to make the offering. Like, they didn't even waste any time. They said, we're going to get this out of the way. We're going to go ahead, sacrifice to the Roman gods, make sure that I don't put me or my family at risk. Can you imagine if today people were put to the test that if you're found out that you're a Christian, your head's going to be chopped off? I bet there's a lot of church-going, professing Christians that would rush down to the courthouse and make sure that they weren't at any threat. And that's exactly what happened. Some Christians did that. They didn't even wait to really be threatened personally. They just immediately went down and sacrificed to the Roman gods. And whenever you do the sacrifice, you'd get an official piece of paper saying, I've done the sacrifices that are commanded. You'd carry that around with you, and if you ever stopped or ever questioned, you'd pull it out. I made the sacrifice. Over 40 of these have been found, are still extant. In Africa today, they found these official papers that people would carry around that say, I've done the required sacrifices that the Emperor Odysseus has required for all of his subjects. I'm a faithful citizen and faithful to the Roman gods. So that was the first reaction. There were some who did that. There were others who didn't go out of their way to go sacrifice, but as soon as they were stopped on the street, as soon as they were rounded up in their churches, whatever the case may be, they capitulated. Okay, we will. Don't kill us. Don't persecute us. We'll make the sacrifice. There was a third group of people that originally, when confronted on the topic, said, no, we won't do it. And they were put to the harshest of persecutions. And I won't go into any gory details, but if you've ever read anything of the Fox's Book of Martyrs or know a little bit about the type of persecutions that have been levied against Christians throughout history, you know the depraved nature that the enemies of God can take in the type of pain that they can inflict on people. And so these Christians were put under very horrific persecutions, and some of them capitulated after suffering greatly. Finally, their bodies couldn't take it anymore, and they said, fine, I'll make the sacrifice. And they did after suffering greatly. Some fled. Some ran away outside of the long reach of the Roman arm and said, I'm not going to... I don't want to be killed, but I'm not going to sacrifice to the Roman gods either, so I'm just going to leave. I'm just going to flee." Cyprian was among these. He left. He fled when he heard that the persecution was coming. And then there were, obviously, many who were just faithful unto death. Who just would not, under any circumstances, capitulate. They stayed where they were. They kept running their business. They kept taking care of their family. And when put to the sword, they bore faithfully until some of them were just persecuted and then released, some were exiled, and many were killed, and stayed faithful now. After about a year, this blew over, and once again, it was politically okay to be a Christian. And a lot of those who had capitulated in one way or another, probably not a lot of people who just ran down to the public square and volunteered, probably not many of them wanted to come back to the church. I don't know, I'm just guessing, speculating there. But a lot of the people who had, at the threat of death or had suffered many persecutions, came back and said, we were wrong, we capitulated, but we do believe in Jesus Christ, we do want to be part of the church, will you please receive us back into the fold, into the membership, and can you imagine the controversy that that brought about? What do we do with these Christians, who for one reason or another abandoned the faith when it was hard, and now that it's easy, want to come back in? What do you say? Well, I bet if we were to take a poll in here and if I were to get everyone's opinions about what you think they should, I bet there'd be a difference of opinion here. Because that's a really hard question. And there was no shortage of a difference of opinions in Cyprian's day either. The bishops were divided. The church members were divided. There were some who said, that's it. Jesus said, that he who denies me here on earth, I'll deny before my Father in heaven. They're not members of the church. If they ever denied Him, that's it. They're done. They don't ever get to come back. There's no repentance for them. There were some who said, hey, we know that Christ forgives sins. If they repent, if they say they're sorry and want to come back in, let's take them back in with open arms. And there were some who took a middle ground, who said they need to go through a time of proving. They need to come before the church with public repentance, admitting their sins and asking for forgiveness. And if they go through a time of proving, and if they come and publicly repent, then after that we can take them back into the church. And this was the position that Cyprian took. Cyprian said, I believe that there's room for repentance and forgiveness, but if they're going to leave when it's hard and want to come back when it's easy, we need to have a time of proving. We need to watch them. We need to see how serious they are about their faith when it's easy. Are they willing to do the things that the church asks them to do as far as giving to the poor, helping the church, whatever the case may be for us to watch and see the depth of their sincerity. So those who, under any circumstance, denied Christ by offering a sacrifice to the Roman gods, they became known as the lapsed. The lapsed. They had lapsed in their faith. They had more profession than they lapsed back into offering sacrifices to the Roman gods, and then they wanted to come back. So they were elapsed, and those who had stood fast throughout the persecution were known as the confessors. So when you read these epistles and these letters and these debates now, and they talk about the lapsed, or they talk about the confessors, that's what they're referring to. They're referring to those who had in one way or another capitulated and offered sacrifices to the Roman gods, and those who had under no circumstances given in to this emperor's decree. And there was a large, we're not talking about two or three families, we're talking about thousands of people. who, under the threat of death or actually under bodily pain and persecution, had given in and sacrificed, and now were wanting to come back to the Church. And this was a huge issue in Carthage. So Cyprian had refused to obey the edict, but he also believed that he would be of more service to the Church by being alive and corresponding with them through letters than he would be by being a martyr. And so he fled. He ran away and he continued to write letters to the church. He wrote letters to his congregation, to his flock, and encouraged them to stay strong in the midst of persecution. He wrote letters to other bishops and elders there in Carthage and the surrounding areas, encouraging them as they continued to serve their flock there locally. So, the persecution is in large part over, but Cyprian hasn't returned yet, and there's this controversy brewing. So Cyprian writes a letter, and that letter is called, Concerning the Lapsed. That's what I mentioned earlier. And it was a letter dealing explicitly with the issue of what was to be done with those believers who had capitulated and now wanted to be allowed back into the church. And in it he says, we can't make a We can't paint with a broad brush here. Are you going to tell me we're going to treat exactly the same those who ran down to the public square and volunteered to offer sacrifices to the Roman gods, we're going to treat them exactly the same as the people who are having their intestines pulled out and burned and capitulate? We can't put them in the same boat. Different people are dealing with this in different ways, and we have to take that into account. And under no circumstance do we want to just act like no matter how much pain you're under, it's okay. It's okay that you sacrificed the Roman gods. We'll just let you back in. So we want to be careful on both sides of the road here, not to fall into a ditch on either side. Yes, sir? What was the letter called again? The letter was called Concerning the Lapsed. L-A-P-S-E-D. Concerning the Lapsed. So we wrote this letter, and I don't know, it probably wasn't the first ever church split, but it's the first church split that I've read about as I'm studying these fathers. Another church started up and elected their own bishops among the people who said, we want to just let them back into the church with no repercussions, with no need for any kind of proving or public repentance or anything like that. And so they started their own church. And they elected their own bishops. And some of the bishops that they elected were some of those elders that had those jealous tendencies to Cyprian when he was first appointed. They were elders there in the church, and now they were among those who were saying, anybody who wants to come in, we need to be seeker sensitive. We need to just let these people come in without any issues. And so Cyprian comes back to Carthage, and he calls one of these councils that I mentioned. This is 251. This is 75 years before the first ecumenical church council. And he calls a council to discuss the matter, and all the elders and bishops come together, and by and large, they agree with Cyprian. That what he's recommending is the most biblical, fair, and prudent way to deal with this. That we don't just let them in with open arms, and we don't completely shut them out of heaven as it were, but rather we were willing to accept them back if they prove their faithfulness and are willing to publicly repent. And over the next ten years of his life, or I guess at this point about eight and a half years, he was bishop there in Carthage for a total of ten years, there were several other synods that he called together. meetings, councils, where he called the other elders and bishops and pastors together to discuss particular church doctrines. And he became known all across the Roman Empire as a very wise and godly Christian teacher. People really respected Cyprian's opinions and teachings on matters, not only in Carthage, but all across the Roman Empire. In the summer of 257, so this is six or seven years after that first persecution, there's a new emperor in Rome, he's Emperor Valerian, and he issues a new decree. And this new decree actually forbade Christians from assembling. So, whereas Decius had simply said, just swear your allegiance, make a sacrifice to the Roman gods and then you can just go about your life and do whatever you want to do as long as you have that piece of paper showing that you made the sacrifice. particularly goes after the Christians. And he says, if you're a Christian, you're not allowed to assemble. No more public assembly for the Christians. Well, this time Cyprian stayed in Carthage. He didn't flee. And he was called to give an account as the head bishop there in Carthage, the Roman magistrates. And I was just going through them. I was just wondering, speculating. He was the son of a senator. He probably knew some of these people. He was probably connected to some of these people that he was called before. But one way or another, he's called before the Roman magistrates there in Carthage, summoned before the authorities. And they asked him to give sacrifice to the Roman gods. And he said, I will not. And they asked him to give up the names of the other bishops that he knew of, and the other elders and presbyters. And he said, I will not. And so they exiled him. They banished him into exile. Once again, about a year goes by, and the persecution lets up. And they allow him to come back to Carthage the following summer. And I couldn't find a whole lot of information on this. I don't know if the persecution really had let up, and then immediately started back up, or whether this was something of a trick, maybe, to let some of the Christians let their guard down. But one way or another, he comes back a year later, the following summer, takes his church, and in about two months, he's summoned before the Roman authorities again. And he goes before the proconsul, Galerius Maximus, and once again, He's demanded to sacrifice to the Roman gods, and when he says he will not, he's immediately taken outside the city. And outside the city walls, he disrobed himself, put his own blindfold on himself, got down on his knees, and they chopped his head off. Now, we still have the official record of that short public examination. And here's how it went. Galerius Maximus, Are you Theseus Cyprianus?" That was his name. Theseus Cyprianus. And he took that other elder's name. What did I say? Cycilius. He made that his middle name. But they didn't call him that. He said, Are you Theseus Cyprianus? Cyprian said, I am. And the Roman magistrate said, The most sacred emperors have commanded you to conform to the Roman rights. Cyprian said, I refuse. Galerius, take heed for yourself. Cyprian, do as you are bid. In so clear a case, I may not take heed. Galerius, after briefly conferring with his judicial counsel, with much reluctance, pronounced the following sentence. You have long lived an irreligious life. Now, what does he mean by that? Remember what we were talking about when Christians would be given the name of atheists, that they'd be charged with being irreligious. That's what he's talking about. He's not saying that Cyprian was irreligious. Cyprian was very religious in the Christian sense, but he wouldn't give sacrifice to the Roman gods. So the Roman authorities said, you have long lived an irreligious life, and have drawn together a number of men bound by an unlawful association. Remember the decree was they weren't allowed to assemble together anymore. and have professed yourself an open enemy to the gods and the religion of Rome, and the pious and most sacred and august emperors have endeavored in vain to bring you back to conformity with their religious observances." So these good, kind, pious emperors are just trying to get you to come back, and you refuse. Whereas, therefore, you have been apprehended as principal and ringleader in these infamous crimes, you're not just a Christian, but you're the ringleader, you're the bishop, You shall be made an example to those you have wickedly associated with you. The authority of the law shall be ratified in your blood." He then read the sentence of the court from a written tablet. It is the sentence of this court that Thasius Cyprianus be executed with the sword to which Cyprian replied, thanks be to God. And so he was taken outside the city walls and executed. So that was Cyprian's life. Now, in his life there were two major writings, there's two major works that we have from Cyprian that have been helpful to the church for centuries since. And that first one is the one we already mentioned concerning the lapsed, in which he wrote the letter about that controversy that was going on, a letter dealing explicitly with the issue of what was to be done with those believers who had capitulated and now wanted to be allowed back into the church. And as we've already discussed, that letter wasn't just met with applause and universal acceptation. There was a lot of people who disagreed with that. As we said, there was actually another church founded, other bishops elected, because of some people who said, we're not going to go along with that, we'll just start our own church that does what we want them to do. And so he wrote another work in response to that, in response to those people. And it was titled, On the Unity of the Church. On the Unity of the Church. And in this work, Cyprian argued that the church is a divine institution, it's the bride of Christ, and there can only be one bride. So you don't get to start a second bride, because you don't like what the pastors said in the church. It was basically his argument. that only in the church is salvation found, while outside of it is darkness and confusion. And since the church is the means which God has chosen to disseminate truth in the world, the visions in the church are the work of Satan. And the preservation of the church's unity is found in the agreement of church leaders who speak with one voice on the matters of salvation. So you could see this being played out in his life when he would call these other elders. It wasn't like Cyprian was on this power ride, you know, just whatever I say has to go. No, he'd call the other preservers and elders and bishops together and they'd discuss it and debate it and talk in and out and then they'd try to come out of the council with a unified voice. Here's what we believe on this topic. And so that those who refuse this authority, he says, call their own salvation into question. Now, as we've said with many of these other church fathers, on the one hand, You can see where he's coming from, and you can see the issues that he was dealing with. And on the other hand, you can see how easily these kind of words and teachings could be corrupted into what became this dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, that whatever the Church says is truth, and no one's allowed to have any dissenting opinions, and it's equal with the Word of God. Now, Cyprian wasn't saying those things, but he was saying, The church needs to be unified. As the church leaders speak with a unified voice, you need to be listening to that and submitting to it. And so, as the years went on, a lot of that thought and that way of wording things became used and abused. in the Roman Catholic system as they looked at it in a physical sense instead of a spiritual sense. They said anyone who leaves the physical institution of the Roman Catholic Church is outside of truth and outside of salvation and all of this. And they left no room for what happens when the physical institution becomes corrupt and heretical. And you remember we said Martin Luther loved Cyprian. Well, remember what Martin Luther's thought was. He didn't want to leave the church. He wanted to reform it. He wanted to say, no, here's where we're wrong. Let's come together, discuss these things. Remember, that's what his 95 theses were. He was wanting to put these up as points of discussion and debate in a public forum. And when the Roman Catholic Church just completely cut him off and said, no, we're not going to have anything to do with you, then he was left no recourse to say, well, I'm not leaving the church. You're just completely apostate. You're not the church anymore. And that's the kind of position he took. You can see where even Martin Luther's thinking was influenced. It was kind of the same train of thought that Cyprian had. I'm not looking to leave the church and start my own denomination because I disagree over this little trivial thing or that little trivial thing because I don't like the color of the carpet, or I don't like the way that they take up the offering, or I don't agree with what day they celebrate Easter on. These little things that we've seen in our own times and even in church history that people have become so up in arms about, Cyprian said, it's not what we're wanting to do. So what do we learn from Cyprian? What do we learn from his life? What do we learn from his writings? Well, as we said, from his own testimony of his own conversion, we're reminded and we see that even this early on in the church's history, true believers, true theologians of the Scriptures recognize that man is spiritually dead. In His lost state, He's spiritually dead, and it must be a monergistic God working by Himself, not God working along with man. But it must be a monergistic, regenerating work of the Spirit of God to save Him. Because He's dead, if He's going to be saved, God has to save Him. He can't reach out and grab hold of the life vest. And we see that very clearly in His own testimony about what it was like when God saved Him. Secondly, we learn from his writings, particularly concerning the lapsed, that there's a prudent and a cautious road to restoring a professing Christian who's fallen. Not an apples-to-apples comparison, but you can imagine what we're talking about, people who had in many ways caused physical harm to the church. What do you do with someone who was a rapist, or a molester, or a murderer? And now he says, I've repented, I want to join the church. We want to see some fruit that's meat for repentance. We want to see a pattern of life. We want to see some public repentance. Wouldn't that be prudent? Don't you think maybe we'd be wise to ask for some of these things and seeing it before you just welcome them in with open arms and give them every right that everyone else has? Well, that's kind of what they were facing here. Here's people who had given the names of other Christians up, who had just unashamedly, in many cases, sacrificed to the Roman gods. And so Cyprian shows us that it doesn't have to be one extreme of the pendulum swing or the other. It doesn't be, well that's it, there's no repentance, they can't have any fellowship with Christians again anytime in their life. Nor is it, let's just pretend that nothing ever happened, and somewhere in between. And thirdly, we learn from his work particularly on the unity of the church, that God's church is always united around central truths. I love that quote that Pastor Michael shared the other week on, things necessary, unity, and things doubtful, liberty, and all things charity. That's kind of where Cyprian was coming from as well, that around central truths there needs to be unity in the church. It's sad that the work of Satan has been successful in so many ways to create so many divisions through so many false teachers and heresies and things of this nature, that it's difficult to know sometimes who's on your side and who's not. But I also find it sad when there's churches who won't associate with any other church or any other pastor or any other teacher. It's like they have some corner on the market on truth. And that's not the case. God's people, God's church, they're unified around these central Christian biblical truths. And schisms and divisions must be absolute last resorts in the case of undeniable heresies. We don't go across the street and start our own church just because We don't like the decision that the pastor made on church discipline or something of that nature. Those are the three main takeaways that I took away from Cyprian's life and writings. Any questions or comments on any of that before we close? Yes, ma'am. You said that there are two major works, and you said in the beauty of the church, you argued that the church was a divine institution. the Bride of Christ. So it's a divine institution, it's the Bride of Christ, so there can only be one Bride. So when you mentioned that he loved to read Circulli, was there any mention about his reaction to the falsehood at the end? I wondered that too, because I couldn't, in none of the things that I found about him, I couldn't find I didn't read anything, which I obviously hadn't read everything that Cyprian wrote, but I read most of Concerning the Lapsed and excerpts from On the Unity of the Church, but I read a lot of what other people wrote about him too, and neither of those places did I find a mention of it one way or the other. So I really was curious whether he recognized the cutoff there and what the difference was before and after he fell into heresy. I'm not sure. I'm not trying to dismiss the importance of this, but there are certain paths that we can be wise in. that some have knowledge and they know that an idol is nothing, there seems to be ways to maneuver that to where you can be commanded to do something and you're not really doing what they think you're submitting to. Sure. They want me to kill this lamb, I'll kill a lamb, I kill a lamb every time, so that's fine, sure. So I'm curious if there's any of that that appeared in some of those defenses. Not in Cyprian's writing that I read concerning the lapse. I will say this, that the decree was you offer this sacrifice to the Roman gods and the paper you got said you've done what was commanded to sacrifice. So it would be hard for me. I'm guessing that there were some of these people who the sword was put to their neck and there was thoughts like that going through their minds. I'm a Christian, but I'll do this because I have a duty to my family or whatever the case may be. But I didn't ever read where Cyprian explicitly mentioned that that was some of the thinking in it one way or the other. Any other questions or comments before we close?