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The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

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    V. Melito of Sardis—Death a Long Sleep; Immortality Regained Through Christ

    MELITO (d. C. A.D. 190), little known and less quoted bishop of Sardis, was an early apologist. 4545) A. Cleveland Coxe Preface to “Melito the Philosopher,” in ANF, vol. 8, pp 750, 751; Robert R. Williams, A Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church Fathers (1960), pp. 36, 42-44; ODCC, art., “Melito,” p. 884; J. B. Lightfoot, The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 1, part 2, p. 510. According to Eusebius, 4646) Eusebius, Church History, book 4, chap. 26, in NPNF, 2nd series, vol. 1, pp. 203-205. he was a prolific writer, authoring some sixteen or eighteen treatises. But the majority of these have long since vanished except for scanty fragments. Dealing with the doctrinal questions of the day, Melito is best known for his Apology, written to Emperor Marcus Aurelius about A.D. 176. 4747) Philip Carrington The Early Christian Church, vol. 2, p. 226. Melito visited the East, and seems to have met Clement. 4848) Coxe, op. cit., p 750.CFF1 848.3

    1. ETERNAL CHRIST WAS CREATOR OF MAN

    Melito was deeply imbued with a sense of the deity of Christ, repeatedly calling Him both God, and man in the highest sense, the Creator of the universe and of man, and insisting that in Him all things subsist. Here are pertinent samples:CFF1 849.1

    “By His power doth everything subsist. This Being is in no sense made, nor did He ever come into being; but He existed from all eternity, and will continue to exist for ever and ever.” 4949) “Remains of the Second and Third Centuries” in ANF, vol. 8, p. 751.CFF1 849.2

    “Christ, who is veritably God the Word existing before all time.” 5050) Ibid., p. 759.CFF1 849.3

    “This is He who made the heaven and the earth, and in the beginning, together with the Father, fashioned man.” 5151) Ibid., p. 758.CFF1 849.4

    “The deeds done by Christ after His baptism ... gave indication and assurance to the world of the Deity hidden in His flesh. For, being at once both God and perfect man likewise, He gave us sure indications of His two natures”—“His Deity” and “His humanity.” 5252) Ibid., p. 760.CFF1 849.5

    “He was the true God existing before all ages.” 5353) Ibid.CFF1 849.6

    Melito’s soundness on the Godhead is thus attested.CFF1 849.7

    2. COMING FLOOD OF FIRE TO DESTROY EARTH

    Testifying to the emperor as to the mystery of “why this world was made, and why it passes away, and why the body exists, and why it falls to decay, and why it continues,” Melito says, “thou canst not know until thou hast raised thy head from this sleep in which thou art sunk, and hast opened thine eyes.” 5454) Ibid., p. 754.CFF1 849.8

    Melito warns of the coming “flood of fire” that will come upon “all the world.” Then he adds:CFF1 849.9

    “So also it will be at the last time; there shall be a flood of fire, and the earth shall be burnt up, together with its mountains; and mankind shall be burnt up ...; but the just shall be preserved from wrath.” 5555) Ibid., pp. 755, 756. (Italics supplied.CFF1 849.10

    3. CHRIST DIED THAT WE MIGHT BE RAISED

    In his discourse “On the Soul and Body” Melito eloquently says that Christ was “born man” that “He might save man, and gather together those members of His which death had scattered.” 5656) Ibid., p. 756. To this end “the Immortal dieth, and answereth not a word; the Celestial is laid in the grave.” “When our Lord arose from the place of the dead, and trampled death under foot, and bound the strong one, and set man free, then did the whole creation see clearly that for man’s sake the judge was condemned.” He “died in order that He might give life, was laid in the grave that He might raise from the dead.” 5757) Ibid. “He that hung up the earth in space was Himself hanged up; He that fixed the heavens was fixed with nails; He that bore up the earth was borne up on a tree.” 5959) Ibid., p. 758. But He is risen “from the place of the dead, and ascended to the height of heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father.”CFF1 849.11

    4. SLEEP OF DEATH A LONG SILENCE

    In the papyrus containing Melito’s “Homily on the Passion,” or more correctly “On the Passover” (Peri Pascha), discovered largely in its entirety in 1940 (Papyrus Bodmer XIII, 1960), in chapter twenty-five Melito says: “The angel of death tells the first born in Egypt that to Him belongs the long silence ... the silence of death.” 6060) See C. Bonner, Studies and Documents (ed. by K. and Silva Lake), XIX, 1940. Cf. ODCC, p. 884.CFF1 850.1

    And in chapter thirty-nine he adds that, though Adam and Eve lived a long time after their expulsion from Eden, the heritage they left their children was “not immortality but corruption.” 6161) See E. J. Wallesz, “Melito’s Homily on the Passion,’ in J.T.S. xliv (1943), pp. 41-52.CFF1 850.2

    Because of its pertinence let us note it in greater detail. This rarely cited papyrus codex, translated by Dr. Campbell Bonner, of the University of Michigan, is of special interest because it is not the customary contemporary defense of Christianity against paganism, Judaism, or heresy. Instead, it is a fairly complete early sermon by a respected leader for the “edification of the Church.”CFF1 850.3

    5. DEATH AND DISSOLUTION FROM DISOBEDIENCE

    Melito here deals with the dual nature of the Passion—(1) the ancient institution of the chosen people; (2) illuminated and interpreted in the sacrifice of Christ and the divine plan for the salvation of mankind. The type of old is presented as a preparation for the new and eternal reality. Melito again stresses the person of Christ and the new dispensation. Born as a son, sacrificed as a lamb, suffering and dying as a man, He has risen as God, being by nature “both God and man.” 6262) “The Homily on the Passion by Melito Bishop of Sardis,” in Studies and Documents, XII, by Kirsopp and Silva Lake (1940), edited by Bis Campbell Bonner, pp. 3-5, 16. And we are recipients both of His grace and life. Originally, man, created in a state of innocence, had only to obey in order to “enjoy it always.” 6363) Ibid., p. 17.CFF1 851.1

    The forbidden fruit and the transgression, the temptation and the Fall and the dire consequences, are then dwelt upon, along with “the inevitable penalty—death and dissolution.” 6464) Ibid., pp. 17, 18. To redeem man the mystic Passover is consummated in the sacrifice of Christ. Melito deals with the pre-existence of Christ, His earthly life and death, and why and how He was put to death, as Creator and Deliverer. 6565) Ibid., pp 18, 168.CFF1 851.2

    6. CORRUPTION AND DESTRUCTION FROM DISOBEDIENCE

    In chapter twenty-five of the text, dilating on the death of the “firstborn,” as mentioned, Melito twice speaks of “the long silence of death ... the silence of death.” 6666) Ibid., p. 170 (chap. 25). And he comments (in chapter thirty-one) on how “the death of the sheep [that was slain] became the life of the people,” typifying the Lord (chapter thirty-two). Turning in chapters forty-eight and forty-nine, to Creation, the primal pair in the Garden were declared “capable of good or evil,” and coming to the prohibition as regards the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” Melito takes up the warning against death for disobedience, and tells how Adam “returned to earth,” and bequeathed death to mankind as an “inheritance.” Here is his expressive statement. Adam left them—CFF1 851.3

    “not incorruptibility but corruption, not honor but dishonor, not freedom but slavery, not sovereignty but oppression, not life but death, not salvation but destruction. And strange and terrible was the destruction of men upon the earth.” 6767) lbid., p. 173 (chap. 49). (Italics supplied.CFF1 852.1

    7. RANSOMS AND RESTORES FROM GRAVE

    As a result “Sin” became the “co-worker of death.” And, Melito adds (in chapters fifty-four and fifty-five), “Upon every soul Sin sets its mark in all alike devoted she to Death.” Note his graphic description:CFF1 852.2

    “So all flesh fell into the power of Sin, and every body into the power of Death, and every soul was driven forth from its house of flesh. That which was taken from the earth was resolved into earth, and that which was given of God was shut up in Hades [gravedom] ... for man was separated into his parts by Death.” 6868) Ibid., p. 174 (chap. 55).CFF1 852.3

    He was “captive under the shadows of death.”CFF1 852.4

    Then in chapter sixty-seven comes the “mystery” of redemption through Christ, as He “ransomed us from ruin” and “freed us from slavery to the devil.” 6969) Ibid., p. 175 (chap. 67). Thus man is “raised from the grave below to the heights of the heavens.” 7070) Ibid., p. 176 (chap. 70). Thus our Creator and Redeemer, who “fixed the stars in heaven,” restores us. 7272) Ibid. p. 180 (chap. 101). Thus He makes “the dead to live again” and raises up “him who was buried.” He is the Christ who “put down death.” Thus “He brought man home, safely to the heights of heaven.”CFF1 852.5

    Such is a contemporary Conditionalist presentation of the times—brief but expressive.CFF1 852.6

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