The Quartodeciman Controversy OR How Controversies Should NOT Be Resolved!

I belong to an academic organization (Academia.org) that presents its members’ papers for discussion. I have occasionally been invited to take part in those discussions. I just finished responding to a gentleman’s paper about the so-called “Quartodeciman Controversy.” This was among the earlier controversies that arose in church history, toward the end of the second century. It was about when Easter should be celebrated every year. Should it be on a Sunday – the day of the week upon which Jesus rose from death? Or should it be derived from the Jewish calendar and be celebrated three days after the annual Passover celebration? Since Passover did not occur on the same day of the week every year, this “Jewish solution” meant that Easter might be celebrated on days other than Sunday. Following is my contribution. It deals partially with that controversy, but It is more a reflection upon the departure from the church of the Spirit that was at work in the Book of Acts.

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The Quartodeciman Controversy
OR
How Controversies Should NOT Be Resolved!

I first studied the details of this Quartodeciman Controversy in my Episcopalian seminary back in the mid-sixties. Since then, however, I do not concern myself with which particular decision SHOULD have been made. To me now, the important issue was the spirit (and Spirit) in which the debate SHOULD have been conducted.

This means we should be comparing that controversy to the chief controversy presented to the Apostles and church elders in Jerusalem, as described in Acts 15. The controversy there was more momentous than about when Easter should be observed – MUCH more momentous. And yet, because THEY were as much converted to the heart and spirit of Jesus as they were to correctly handling His revealed truths, THEY were able to resolve the controversy with the solution provided by God Himself, and be able to truthfully say that, “… it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements …”

The resolution of the Quartodeciman Controversy was not really a harmonious solution provided by God Himself, was it! That is the REAL question that should be discussed, no? WHY was it not resolved in the way that Spirit-led true disciples were able to resolve it?

Given the changes that had been going on within the churches it seems that the spirit and the letter underlying what God’s Apostle Paul had written had been relegated to the attic:

“1 Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. 2 For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. 3 Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him. 4 Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand. 5 One person ESTEEMS ONE DAY ABOVE ANOTHER; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks” (Romans 14).

Being “apostolic” should have meant MUCH more than tracing your leadership pedigree back to some apostle. It should have meant walking under the same Spirit’s guidance and heart attitude that is reflected in Paul’s magnificent, Spirit-soaked statement above. They should have been reading that passage to each other every day that the issue was being discussed. Under the influence of a different spirit and Spirit, perhaps they might have concluded with something like, “If you want to enrich the JEWISH calendar with our Master’s events, feel free. And if you want to remember the DAY upon which the Father raised Him, feel free.” So simple, so Pauline, so peace-making, no? And what if they had brought that attitude to bear upon ALL succeeding issues that arose?

The fact that this did not seem to be occurring in this controversy reveals another and deeper problem which far outweighs the significance of which day is the only legitimate day to remember His Resurrection.

The Book of Acts describes a heavenly movement in which the experiencing of the Pentecostal Promise of Jesus in Acts 1 was the norm and was a distinctly REMEMBERED event (as seen in Acts 2, 8, 10 & 19, and implied in Galatians 3:3). It describes a Spirit-guided brotherhood in which the way and the glory and the power of heaven were available within those specific groups of genuine disciples. When the apostles announced that it “seemed good to the Spirit…” it was not just some catchy phrase that equated to, “We all agreed on this solution, so it MUST be from God.” They were Spirit-GUIDED by a Spirit that they were EXPERIENCING guiding them, because they KNEW the difference between His inner presence and their own carnal thinking process.

Where was that Spirit during the angry, often rancorous, arguments that went on at later times as well: not only about when to celebrate Easter, but among those later “Arians” and “Orthodox;” or about which patriarchal leader is to be first among the others; or about how to love our pagan and Jewish enemies now that WE are the chosen buddies of Emperor Constantine and his descendants. Or even regarding the arguments about the divinity of the same Holy Spirit they smugly ASSUMED was on their side.

Could it be that that if you were not wrestling with the REAL teachings and attitudes of Jesus before you entered those baptismal waters, that your “washing” did not penetrate as deeply into your heart as you thought, and that when that monarchical bishop laid his hands on your head you were not experiencing the same thing within you that had happened in the Book of Acts – despite that “efficacy of the sacraments” theology that was being drummed into you? Could THAT be why, as time went by, the churches had to rely more and more upon excommunication and even force – thanks to the emperor’s powerful help – to resolve problems that arose, even when those problems were of less moment than what the Spirit-lead leaders of the church encountered in Acts 15?

Is not THIS the truly important issue?

Reed Merino
ReedMerino.com
Blueprint for a Revolution: Building Upon ALL of the New Testament