1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,880 Christianity. It's the world's largest religion, it's almost 2,000 years old, and it's very diverse. 2 00:00:06,880 --> 00:00:12,240 Sometimes it looks like this, and sometimes it looks like this. How did this happen? 3 00:00:12,240 --> 00:00:17,600 So right after Jesus ascended into heaven, he left the 12 apostles in charge until he comes back. 4 00:00:17,600 --> 00:00:21,360 When's he gonna come back? Well, he said it wasn't for them to know, but still, 5 00:00:21,360 --> 00:00:26,559 everyone thought Jesus was about to come back. So at Pentecost, the 12 apostles all receive 6 00:00:26,559 --> 00:00:30,799 the Holy Spirit, who empowers them to preach the gospel in many different languages. 7 00:00:30,799 --> 00:00:34,560 So they're living together as one big happy family and preaching to the people, 8 00:00:34,560 --> 00:00:38,560 and their numbers begin to increase dramatically. They're worshiping in the temple, 9 00:00:38,560 --> 00:00:42,560 and the Jewish leaders of the temple don't really like these new followers of Jesus. 10 00:00:42,560 --> 00:00:47,520 So they begin to persecute them, and they even kill some of them, starting with Steve. 11 00:00:47,520 --> 00:00:52,400 One of the people who persecutes the Christians is Saul of Tarsus. He's all like, 12 00:00:52,400 --> 00:00:58,720 Christianity is cringe, change my mind. He changed his mind. And his name. And now it's 13 00:00:58,720 --> 00:01:03,200 his job to preach Christianity everywhere, not just to the Jews. He goes to a bunch of cities 14 00:01:03,200 --> 00:01:07,839 and begins preaching to the Gentiles, which are people who are not Jewish people. Which raises 15 00:01:07,839 --> 00:01:15,199 the question, is Christianity Jewish? Yes, said Peter. No, said Paul. Who's right? Paul is right. 16 00:01:15,199 --> 00:01:19,440 You don't need to become Jewish to become Christian. Cool. Now we've got Christianity 17 00:01:19,440 --> 00:01:24,160 all figured out. And just in time, because everyone still thinks Jesus is about to come back. 18 00:01:24,160 --> 00:01:27,839 Man, I'm so glad we have all these apostles who can teach us. Oh wait, no, they're dying out. 19 00:01:27,839 --> 00:01:32,160 Quick, preserve their teachings. So people begin preserving their teachings and writings, 20 00:01:32,160 --> 00:01:36,160 and compiling them into what would eventually become the New Testament. And it's good that 21 00:01:36,160 --> 00:01:40,080 we have the New Testament, because in the second century, a bunch of weird heretics 22 00:01:40,080 --> 00:01:45,199 and schismatic groups begin to pop up. You've got the Gnostics who hate the world, the Marcionites 23 00:01:45,199 --> 00:01:50,239 who hate most of the Bible, the Montanists who get a bit too crazy sometimes, and the Docetists 24 00:01:50,239 --> 00:01:56,080 who think Jesus was too cool to be human. And the apostolic fathers, like these guys, the successors 25 00:01:56,080 --> 00:02:01,360 of the apostles, are able to use the New Testament as a shield against these heresies. It's kind of 26 00:02:01,360 --> 00:02:05,839 hard to officially deal with these heretics, because remember, Christianity is still illegal. 27 00:02:05,839 --> 00:02:09,759 Unless you live in Armenia. But in Rome, it's illegal. But it's hard to keep it illegal because 28 00:02:09,759 --> 00:02:13,919 people keep converting. Don't worry, the emperor will solve this. Oh wait, no, he just converted as 29 00:02:13,919 --> 00:02:17,759 well. Now he wants everyone to be Christian, so he gathers all the Christian leaders at Nicaea to 30 00:02:17,759 --> 00:02:23,039 clarify what Christianity is. Well, we worship Jesus because he's God, says almost everyone. 31 00:02:23,039 --> 00:02:28,000 Actually, said some guy named Arius, Jesus is like God, but he's still created by God. There was a 32 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:33,279 time when Jesus didn't exist. Bro, that's heresy, said Santa Claus, punching him in the face. So the 33 00:02:33,279 --> 00:02:38,160 council of Nicaea clarified that Jesus is truly God. Arius got kicked out, and they wrote a statement 34 00:02:38,160 --> 00:02:42,639 summarizing the basics of Christianity. And the Arians kept trying to creep back into the church, 35 00:02:42,639 --> 00:02:47,039 but luckily Saint Athanasius was able to defend the true faith, even though he was against the 36 00:02:47,039 --> 00:02:51,839 world at times. Cool, now we've got Christianity all figured out. Just kidding, we need a second 37 00:02:51,839 --> 00:02:56,000 council to clarify what the first council meant. The Holy Spirit is also God, just in case you're 38 00:02:56,000 --> 00:03:00,399 wondering, and Jesus is also fully human, because this one guy thought Jesus had a human body but 39 00:03:00,399 --> 00:03:05,039 not a human mind. Okay, so he got kicked out, and now we've got Christianity all figured out. 40 00:03:05,039 --> 00:03:10,479 We know that Jesus is both truly human and truly divine. Some guy named Nestorius said, 41 00:03:10,479 --> 00:03:15,919 yeah, but humanity and divinity are like really different things, so we gotta separate them. 42 00:03:15,919 --> 00:03:21,839 The human part of Jesus isn't God, and Mary gave birth to human Jesus but not divine Jesus. 43 00:03:21,839 --> 00:03:27,039 Bro, that's heresy, said Cyril of Alexandria. The whole point of Christianity is God coming down, 44 00:03:27,039 --> 00:03:31,839 becoming human, and dying for us. So they had another council, and Cyril wins, and Nestorius 45 00:03:31,839 --> 00:03:36,000 gets kicked out. They decide that Mary is the mother of God, but some people still side with 46 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:40,960 Nestorius. You can make a denomination out of this. Okay, so we know that we can't separate 47 00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:45,679 Jesus's humanity and divinity. Now we've got Christianity all figured out. Some people really 48 00:03:45,679 --> 00:03:50,160 want to avoid the Nestorian error, and they don't want to separate Jesus's humanity and divinity, 49 00:03:50,160 --> 00:03:55,360 so they say they're united in one nature. Hold up, Jesus is one person, but he has two natures. 50 00:03:55,360 --> 00:04:00,479 That's Nestorian. No it isn't. Yes it is. No it's not. Jesus has two natures. We can't separate them 51 00:04:00,479 --> 00:04:04,240 like the Nestorians did, but we can't mix them into one like you're doing. He has two natures, 52 00:04:04,240 --> 00:04:08,080 and they're united in one person. They have another council, and the two natures people win, 53 00:04:08,080 --> 00:04:11,919 and the one nature people get kicked out. But some people still side with the one nature people 54 00:04:11,919 --> 00:04:16,320 because they thought the council of Chalcedon was stupid. You can make a denomination out of this. 55 00:04:16,320 --> 00:04:20,640 Okay, so Jesus has two natures, human and divine. We can't mix them or separate them, 56 00:04:20,640 --> 00:04:25,040 and Saint Augustine just clarified that we need to depend on God. Now we've got Christianity all 57 00:04:25,040 --> 00:04:29,519 figured out. Good news, it's now cool to be a Christian. Bad news, a lot of people are only 58 00:04:29,519 --> 00:04:33,839 being Christian because it's cool. Bro that's so lame, I'm so sick of all these phonies. 59 00:04:33,839 --> 00:04:38,000 Say the hardcore Christians going off to live in monasteries to show how Christian they are. 60 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:42,480 There they pray for hours, deny themselves, and sing Gregorian chants, which are a cool new style 61 00:04:42,480 --> 00:04:47,839 of music invented by Gregory. Knock knock, it's Muhammad. He's politely asking everyone to become 62 00:04:47,839 --> 00:04:53,040 Muslim, and when that doesn't work, he asks less politely. So the Muslim armies spread rapidly and 63 00:04:53,040 --> 00:04:57,200 take over a lot of formerly Christian lands. And if you're someone who's not Muslim living in a 64 00:04:57,200 --> 00:05:01,519 Muslim land, you need to pay to not be Muslim. And there's a lot of persecution of Christians. 65 00:05:01,519 --> 00:05:05,200 So in these times, it's very important for the Christians to stick together and defend against 66 00:05:05,200 --> 00:05:09,920 the Muslim empires. So it's important that Christianity stays united, despite cultural 67 00:05:09,920 --> 00:05:15,040 differences. Yo, remember the Nicene Creed, the document that says what Christianity is? 68 00:05:15,040 --> 00:05:19,359 The Pope wants to add something to it to clarify that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father 69 00:05:19,359 --> 00:05:25,440 and the Son. Dude, you can't change the Creed, says the Patriarch of Constantinople. Yes I can. 70 00:05:25,440 --> 00:05:30,720 No you can't. You're kicked out. No you're kicked out. So Christianity splits. You can make 71 00:05:30,720 --> 00:05:35,760 denominations out of this. Bro, the Muslims keep invading. We should defend our land and maybe even 72 00:05:35,760 --> 00:05:40,799 retake the Holy Land. It's time for a crusade. They recruited soldiers from everywhere and got 73 00:05:40,799 --> 00:05:45,119 the war really hyped up. It's going to be the most epic holy war ever, and everyone thinks Jesus is 74 00:05:45,119 --> 00:05:50,239 about to come back. Maybe the war can reunify East and West. Just kidding, they turn on each other and 75 00:05:50,239 --> 00:05:54,720 they don't retake the Holy Land. But they do retake Spain and Portugal. That's actually really 76 00:05:54,799 --> 00:06:01,359 impressive. They reconquered Spain. They retook the Spain-lined church. Very inspiring. Anyway, 77 00:06:01,359 --> 00:06:05,359 the crusades end up being kind of anticlimactic. They weren't that violent, and they definitely 78 00:06:05,359 --> 00:06:09,679 weren't nearly as bad as your high school history textbook probably said they were. Despite the fact 79 00:06:09,679 --> 00:06:13,839 that they didn't do much, there's still a lot going on, because Saint Anselm just figured out that God 80 00:06:13,839 --> 00:06:19,440 exists. He exists because of the way he is. And just in time for the period of medieval scholasticism, 81 00:06:19,440 --> 00:06:23,839 Thomas also comes along later and finds other reasons why God exists. He also has a thing where 82 00:06:23,839 --> 00:06:28,000 he takes non-christian philosophy and makes it christian, because all truth is God's truth. He's 83 00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:32,640 got a whole system for figuring out everything, and the catholic church gets on board. The orthodox 84 00:06:32,640 --> 00:06:36,799 church has an alternative. And he's not the only one doing this. Everyone's trying to figure out 85 00:06:36,799 --> 00:06:41,119 everything. And since we're figuring out everything about God, we should learn about the world as well, 86 00:06:41,119 --> 00:06:45,760 because the world's God's creation. So they learn about astronomy, the sciences, math, and music, 87 00:06:45,760 --> 00:06:50,399 and lay the groundwork for modern science, because theology is the queen of the sciences. And they 88 00:06:50,399 --> 00:06:54,640 start the modern university system and hospital system. Now it looks like we've finally got 89 00:06:54,640 --> 00:06:59,679 christianity all figured out. Bro, the church is getting kind of corrupt. Yeah, shut up. It's time 90 00:06:59,679 --> 00:07:03,760 for the black plague. Everyone's dying, and no one knows why, so everyone thinks Jesus is about to 91 00:07:03,760 --> 00:07:08,880 come back. But after the plague dies down, the church has time to party, so they make a lot of 92 00:07:08,880 --> 00:07:14,079 really cool art and stuff. It's the renaissance. But who's paying for all this? Easy. The people 93 00:07:14,079 --> 00:07:18,959 give money to the pope, and the pope gives them less time in purgatory. Yeah, this is really 94 00:07:18,959 --> 00:07:24,880 corrupt. It's time for some brave man to speak out against this. Martin Luther? No, it's Huss. He's 95 00:07:24,880 --> 00:07:29,679 gonna reform the church. You can make a denomination out of this. Except it fails, and he gets executed. 96 00:07:29,679 --> 00:07:36,000 That's too bad. Maybe try again in a hundred years. Martin Luther has something to say. 95 things, 97 00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:40,399 actually. So he nails them to the door of the church. Maybe he can fix the church. Except no, he 98 00:07:40,399 --> 00:07:45,119 gets kicked out. But churches keep siding with him, and doing the reformation anyway. So he begins 99 00:07:45,119 --> 00:07:49,440 reforming the church's teachings, saying that salvation's by faith alone, purgatory's not real, 100 00:07:49,440 --> 00:07:54,000 and the bible is our ultimate authority. Everything gets really heated, and everyone thinks Jesus is 101 00:07:54,000 --> 00:07:58,320 about to come back. So the reformation spreads throughout Germany. I wonder if it's happening 102 00:07:58,320 --> 00:08:03,040 anywhere else. It is, actually, in Switzerland. What if we could unite the two reformations and 103 00:08:03,040 --> 00:08:07,519 reform the entire church? So Luther meets with Zwingli, the head of the Swiss reformation, 104 00:08:07,519 --> 00:08:08,959 to see if they agree on the issues. 105 00:08:09,679 --> 00:08:13,760 Bro, what do you think about the Lord's Supper? So the bread isn't really the body of Christ. 106 00:08:13,760 --> 00:08:20,239 What do you mean? He says, this is my body. Well, is means represents. No, is means is. Is means is. 107 00:08:20,239 --> 00:08:24,640 Calm down, Luther. Get out, Zwingli. So that failed, and now there's two reformations. You can 108 00:08:24,640 --> 00:08:28,480 make denominations out of this. And there's also some radicals who don't want to be part of either, 109 00:08:28,480 --> 00:08:31,679 because they want to change everything, and that means not baptizing babies. 110 00:08:31,679 --> 00:08:35,440 You can make a denomination out of this. Man, all these reformations going on, 111 00:08:36,400 --> 00:08:41,359 Bro, you can't divorce your wife, says the pope. So Henry cancels the pope and makes himself the 112 00:08:41,359 --> 00:08:45,520 head of the Church of England. You can make a denomination out of this. Looks like Zwingli 113 00:08:45,520 --> 00:08:49,440 just died, so John Calvin is predestined to take over the reformation in Switzerland, 114 00:08:49,440 --> 00:08:53,200 and he's predestined to write a big book about a bunch of stuff, including the fact that God's in 115 00:08:53,200 --> 00:08:57,840 control of everything, especially whether or not you'll be saved. And he wants to unify with the 116 00:08:57,840 --> 00:09:03,119 Lutherans, so he modifies the reformation. So, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. 117 00:09:03,119 --> 00:09:07,919 with the Lutherans, so he modifies the reformed view of the Lord's Supper. He says we really do 118 00:09:07,919 --> 00:09:12,320 receive the body and blood of Christ, just spiritually. He sends them his view, but 119 00:09:12,320 --> 00:09:17,280 they're predestined to leave him on read. John Knox takes Calvin's reformed ideas to Scotland, 120 00:09:17,280 --> 00:09:21,760 and makes it so that the Church is run by elders. You can make a denomination out of this. But the 121 00:09:21,760 --> 00:09:25,840 Church of England still isn't sure whether it's reformed or Catholic. I guess it's somewhere in 122 00:09:25,840 --> 00:09:30,719 the middle. Bro, that's not good enough, say the Puritans, trying to purify the Church of 123 00:09:30,719 --> 00:09:34,719 England of everything Catholic. You can make a denomination out of this. Some of them give up on 124 00:09:34,719 --> 00:09:39,200 trying to purify the Church and just run away to America. It takes a bit of time for the dust to 125 00:09:39,200 --> 00:09:44,159 settle, but once it does, it's time for Protestant Scholasticism. Let's write down everything we 126 00:09:44,159 --> 00:09:49,760 believe and put our beliefs into neat theological systems. The Dutch Calvinists are writing everything 127 00:09:49,760 --> 00:09:54,000 they believe, including the whole predestination thing. Arminius is one of them, but he doesn't 128 00:09:54,000 --> 00:09:58,640 like that part. So in response, the Dutch reformed to clarify what the Calvinist position is. 129 00:09:58,640 --> 00:10:03,679 But aside from that, this inspires people to start a bunch of universities to study all sorts 130 00:10:03,679 --> 00:10:08,640 of things. And people's religious beliefs inspire them to make advancements in math, music, law, 131 00:10:08,640 --> 00:10:13,760 and philosophy. And now it looks like we've got Christianity all figured out. Bro, this is all 132 00:10:13,760 --> 00:10:19,919 going way too far. We need less of this nerdy theology and more personal piety. Say the pietists 133 00:10:19,919 --> 00:10:24,799 who think the Lutheran churches are getting way too nerdy. And they invent the concept of a Bible 134 00:10:24,799 --> 00:10:28,799 study because everything needs to be more personal. Something similar is happening in the 135 00:10:28,799 --> 00:10:33,760 American colonies, where a bunch of preachers go around and preach personal religious experience 136 00:10:33,760 --> 00:10:40,320 over religious ritual. Is this a good thing? Churches split over this. One of these awakening 137 00:10:40,320 --> 00:10:45,119 guys is John Wesley, who wants to awaken the Anglican Church, which he thinks has gotten 138 00:10:45,119 --> 00:10:49,440 spiritually cold. He starts a movement, which ends up making a denomination out of this. 139 00:10:50,400 --> 00:10:54,000 So all this questioning of religious authority is leading people to question 140 00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:58,640 everything, which leads to the Enlightenment. America questions whether they need a king. 141 00:10:58,640 --> 00:11:02,479 France goes even further and questions whether they need God. I bet they're going to be the 142 00:11:02,479 --> 00:11:07,119 most enlightened people ever. Oh wait, no, they just killed everyone. Let's not do that. But 143 00:11:07,119 --> 00:11:11,280 anyway, the Enlightenment makes everything more secular, and some people adopt a more deistic 144 00:11:11,280 --> 00:11:16,239 view of God, which causes other people to think we need another Great Awakening. People are starting 145 00:11:16,239 --> 00:11:23,119 to distrust traditional religion. So now we've got revivals, social movements, and societies galore. 146 00:11:23,119 --> 00:11:28,320 There's also the Restorationist movement, where people try to rebuild Christianity from scratch. 147 00:11:28,320 --> 00:11:32,559 You can make a bunch of denominations out of this, some of which are actually heretical. 148 00:11:32,559 --> 00:11:37,520 And do I even need to say it? But that's all going on in America. How's Europe doing? 149 00:11:37,520 --> 00:11:41,359 Prussia just said the Lutheran and Reformed churches in their country have to unite, 150 00:11:41,359 --> 00:11:45,679 and they end up just being Reformed. So some of the Lutherans run away to America. 151 00:11:45,679 --> 00:11:49,359 I wonder how the Catholics are doing. I haven't checked in on them in a while. They just had a 152 00:11:49,359 --> 00:11:53,359 council where they said the Pope can make infallible statements. Things are pretty crazy 153 00:11:53,359 --> 00:11:58,479 for the Protestants too. They're being influenced by the Enlightenment, which leads to theological 154 00:11:58,479 --> 00:12:03,520 liberalism, which is basically where Christians stopped believing in Christianity. You see, 155 00:12:03,520 --> 00:12:07,599 now we're enlightened. We know miracles can't happen because there's no examples of them 156 00:12:07,599 --> 00:12:11,200 happening, because all supposed examples of miracles have a natural explanation, 157 00:12:11,200 --> 00:12:16,000 because everything has a natural explanation, because miracles can't happen. Makes perfect sense. 158 00:12:16,880 --> 00:12:21,119 So there's no virgin birth, no divine revelation, Jesus didn't do any miracles, 159 00:12:21,119 --> 00:12:25,359 and there's no resurrection. Bro, you're denying the fundamentals of Christianity, 160 00:12:25,359 --> 00:12:29,359 say the fundamentalists yelling at the modernists who are beginning to take over the mainstream 161 00:12:29,359 --> 00:12:35,359 churches. But the instinct of the fundamentalists isn't really to reform the churches. It's more 162 00:12:35,359 --> 00:12:39,359 like they want to run away, because they're still coming out of the Great Awakening, 163 00:12:39,359 --> 00:12:43,520 and they're beginning to distrust everything mainstream, like mainstream schools, mainstream 164 00:12:43,520 --> 00:12:47,919 universities, mainstream science, and they want to retreat from the cities because they think 165 00:12:47,919 --> 00:12:52,799 Jesus is going to come back anyway, so they should just retreat to the rural areas until that happens. 166 00:12:52,799 --> 00:12:57,359 And with the fundamentalists gone, it just makes the mainline churches even more theologically 167 00:12:57,359 --> 00:13:02,960 liberal. Yo, a bunch of people just had some serious spiritual experiences on Azusa Street. 168 00:13:02,960 --> 00:13:08,080 You can make a denomination out of this. Also, sick of theological liberalism? Karl Barth sure 169 00:13:08,080 --> 00:13:12,719 is, because after World War I he realized that human progress can't save us. But he's not a 170 00:13:12,719 --> 00:13:17,119 fundamentalist either, so he has a sort of middle ground. And he signs a statement with Dietrich 171 00:13:17,119 --> 00:13:23,440 Bonhoeffer saying they're not going to be fascist. And after World War II starts, yeah. After the war 172 00:13:23,440 --> 00:13:27,599 is over, the state of Israel forms, which causes a rise in dispensationalism, which is where people 173 00:13:27,599 --> 00:13:32,960 think Israel is going to make Jesus come back. Also, some fundamentalists want a more friendly, 174 00:13:32,960 --> 00:13:38,080 diet version of fundamentalism, partly because they don't like racial segregation. Speaking of 175 00:13:38,080 --> 00:13:42,000 evangelicals, a lot of churches are now non-denominational. It's actually Baptist, 176 00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:45,440 but don't worry about it. And a lot of conservative Christians are flocking to 177 00:13:45,440 --> 00:13:49,200 these non-denominational churches from the mainline churches, which only causes the 178 00:13:49,200 --> 00:13:53,520 mainline churches to become more theologically liberal. I wonder what the Catholics are up to. 179 00:13:53,520 --> 00:13:58,400 They just had another council. They clarified that the Pope is only infallible in very special cases. 180 00:13:59,039 --> 00:14:02,400 And they said that Protestants are still technically Christian, so that means they 181 00:14:02,400 --> 00:14:07,760 can start to be more ecumenical. How's the Eastern Orthodox Church? Persecuted. How's 182 00:14:07,760 --> 00:14:13,919 the Oriental Orthodox Church? Persecuted. Hey, can pastors be women? Yes, said the liberals. No, 183 00:14:13,919 --> 00:14:17,440 said the conservatives. And the liberals win, so the conservatives get kicked out. Actually, 184 00:14:17,440 --> 00:14:21,119 no, they don't really get kicked out. But they run away anyway, and they make their 185 00:14:21,119 --> 00:14:25,119 own evangelical denominations, which only causes the mainline church to get more theologically 186 00:14:25,119 --> 00:14:30,159 liberal. These evangelical denominations have a new style of worship music, and their numbers 187 00:14:30,159 --> 00:14:35,200 are rising, even though Christianity in the West overall is collapsing. It's exploding in Africa 188 00:14:35,200 --> 00:14:41,119 and Asia, though. Hey, can marriage be gay? Yes, said the liberals. No, said the conservatives. 189 00:14:41,119 --> 00:14:45,440 And the liberals win, so the conservatives run away again. And at this point, the mainline 190 00:14:45,440 --> 00:14:49,840 churches are so theologically liberal that most of the churches within them don't even really 191 00:14:49,840 --> 00:14:55,280 believe in Christianity at all. So if you're in America, and you go to the old historic church 192 00:14:55,280 --> 00:14:59,520 in the center of any given town, like First Presbyterian Church or First Methodist Church 193 00:14:59,520 --> 00:15:04,400 or First Anything Church, chances are it's a mainline church that's so theologically liberal 194 00:15:04,400 --> 00:15:08,719 it doesn't even have any real Christian believers in it. There's evangelical churches that have a 195 00:15:08,719 --> 00:15:13,200 lot of passionate believers, but they're kind of on the outskirts of society. So Western 196 00:15:13,200 --> 00:15:16,799 Christendom is basically dead. Unless we retake the mainline church.