Another view of the Montanists
Any knowledgeable Roman Catholic who reads this will probably feel that we are in error when listing the Montanists as forerunners of modern Christianity. Roman Catholic writing abounds with references to their heresies, and counts the person they admit to be the most eminent Latin ecclesiastical writer of the early church, Tertullian, as falling into Montanist heresy (Markoe, p. 10). In his book, Catholicism (page 611), Priest Richard McBrien classifies the Montanists as a purist heresy, that is, they considered themselves holier than the Church............ Henry Vedder, A Short History Of The Baptists, pp. 58,62: "169 (The Montanists) clearly apprehended the truth that a Church of Christ should consist of the regenerated only. Of course the Montanists immersed - no other baptism , so far as we know, was practiced by anybody in the second century. There is no evidence that they baptized infants, and their principle of a regenerated Church membership would naturally require the Baptism of Believers only."
Robert Rainy, The Ancient Catholic Church, p. 170: "Montanism is best understood as a reaction against a condition of the Church and of the Christian life, which seemed to the Montanists to be pitched too low and also to have decayed from an earlier and purer standard."
Thomas Armitage, History Of The Baptists, p. 176: "History has not yet relieved the Montanists of the distortion and obliquity which long held them as enemies of Christ; while in fact they honestly, but in some respects erroneously, labored to restore that Christ-likeness to the Churches which had so largely departed." On p. 177: "Tertullian and the Montanists denied that baptism was the channel of grace."
W.A. Jarrell, Baptist Church Perpetuity, p. 69: "In historic times, Phrygia comprised the greater part of Asia Minor. `Montanism' appeared there about the middle of the second century (150 A.D.). Montanism enrolled its hosts and was one of the greatest Christian influences throughout the early Christian centuries. As there was, at the time when the Montanists arose, no essential departure from the faith in the action, the subjects of Baptism, Church Government and doctrine, the Montanists, on these points, were Baptists."
I.A. Dorner, The Person Of Christ, Volume I, page 398: "If now Montanism implicitly reproached the Church with hitherto possessing too little of the Holy Ghost, it is evident that, dogmatically viewed, the charge implies, that however much the Church might have spoken concerning the Son, or the Logos, and the Father, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit had been hitherto kept in the background."
Arthur McGiffert, A History Of Christian Thought, Volume I, page 168: "The Montanists were entirely orthodox in their theology. The truth is their interests were not theological but practical."
They were thoroughly conservative in their attitude, reproducing in a remarkable degree the spirit of the primitive days which had largely disappeared."
William R. Williams, in Lectures On Baptist History quotes Comte de Champagny, a thoroughly orthodox Catholic, "it was hard to find any doctrinal errors in (Montanist) views; they were rather like the Jansenists or Methodists in their high views of religious emotion and experience. They were accused of claiming inspiration, when they intended, probably only, like the early followers of Cameron among the Covenanters, or Wesley among the English Methodists, the true experience of God's work in the individual soul."
Ernest William Moller, in his article, Montanism from Schaff-Herzog's Encyclopedia Of Religious Knowledge, Volume II, page 1562, speaking of Tertullian states, "To him the very substance of the Church was the Holy Spirit and by no means the Episcopacy whose right to wield the power of the keys he rejected." He further states, "Montanism was, nevertheless, not a new form of Christianity; nor were the Montanists a new sect. On the contrary, Montanism was simply a reaction of the old, the primitive church, against the obvious tendency of the day, to strike a bargain with the world and arrange herself comfortably in it."
We will close this section on the Montanists with an incisive quote from Eusebius, and then leave you to come to a conclusion. Eusebius Pamphilius, in Ecclesiastical History, page 229, says, "Montanism continued for centuries and finally became known under other names."
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