Friday, April 18, 2025

It is the 18th of April 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

A blessed Good Friday to you. This is a heads-up that if you are looking for resources to reflect on the day, week, and coming celebration of the Resurrection, over at 1517.org, we have a number of articles and resources for you.

And while Easter is on the 20th (a quick note: we have the convergence of the calendar such that we have Easter in the Western Church on the 20th, coinciding with both Easter in Eastern Church this year, and Wrestlemania… I don’t know what that means. But back in 245 Easter was on the 19th, and the reason we know this is because it was on this Easter Eve that the church father Cyprian was baptized, as was the custom in the early church- catechumens took instruction and were initiated into the church in time for Easter Sunday. In the Weekend Edition: Worship in the Early Church, I will talk more about it. The link is in the transcript (https://www.1517.org/podcast-overview/2022-04-09).

Cyprian, or St. Cyprian, or Cyprian of Carthage is one of the more underrated and overlooked of the church fathers- his significance in the pre-Nicene (that is, before 325) church deserves a look and can teach us about what the early church was concerned with.

The basic bits of his bio run like this: born around 200 in Carthage (that’s North Africa- modern day Tunisia), he lived the life of a metropolitan, wealthy pagan until his conversion in the 240s, and baptism on this day in 245. By 249, he was the Bishop of Carthage and involved in the key controversies of his day. In 250, when the Decian persecutions began, he, like many Christians, fled for safety. When Decius died in 251, Cyprian and others went back home and were immediately challenged by those Christians who didn’t flee. Sometimes called “the rigorists,” they claimed that people who left during persecution should not be allowed back into the church.  

Cyprian opposed the rigorists but did not go as far as the so-called “laxists”- those who were accused of being too “lax” in letting the backsliders back in, he held to a “middle position” that required public penance for those who left before they could be readmitted.

The rigorists, led by Novatian, became a sect that was baptizing outside the authority of the local bishops leading to Cyprian writing his most famous work: On the Unity of the Church in which he argues that there was “no salvation outside of the church”.

As the Bishop of Carthage, he also argued for apostolic succession (that church leadership could trace itself back to the Apostles), but he famously did not think that the Bishop of Rome, aka the Pope, held any authority over other bishops. In fact, it is in a letter to Cyprian from the Bishop of Rome, Pope Stephen I. In this letter from 256, Stephen is the first to argue that when Jesus made his proclamation in Matthew 16 that “you are Peter, and on this Rock I will build my church,” he was giving primacy to Peter, who, as the first Bishop of Rome, made that office the primary patriarch in the church. At the time, there were 5 “heads”- Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Constantinople, and Rome- this is the beginning of the Roman church claiming supremacy.  

With the popularity of Cyprian it seemed that a schism between Carthage and Rome was inevitable, but the new Emperor Valerian began persecuting Christians which not only lead to the church unifying but both Stephen and Cyprian would lose their lives to the Valerian persecution with Cyprian dying in 258. Born in 200, Baptized on this day in 245 he was believed to be 58 years old.

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary for Good Friday and Hebrews 10:

“This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary. Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 18th of April 2025 brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by Our Tribal Chief- he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man telling you that if there’s a reference at the end of the show that doesn’t make sense, it’s probably a wrestling reference. I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.