Montanism
Montanism is named after its founder, Montanus, who had been a pagan priest until his conversion to Christianity in 155. Montanism emerged in Phrygia after A.D. 155 as an attempt on the part of Montanus to meet the problems of formalism in the church and the dependence of the church on human leadership instead of on the guidance of the Holy Spirit. He was opposed to the rise to prominence of the bishop in the local church. This attempt to combat formalism and human organization led him to a reassertion of the doctrines of the Second Advent and the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, as so often happens in such movements, he swung to the opposite extreme and developed fanatical misinterpretations of Scripture.[1]
Montanus also had an extravagant eschatology. He believed that the heavenly kingdom of Christ would soon be set up at Pepuza in Phrygia and that he would have a prominent place in that kingdom. In order that they might be prepared for that coming, he and his followers practiced strict asceticism. There was to be no second marriage if a mate died, many fasts were to be observed, and dry foods were to be eaten. [2]
At a later time he began prophesying, declaring that he had been possessed by the Holy Spirit. Soon two women, Priscilla and Maximilla, also began prophesying. This in itself was not new, for at that time, at least in some churches, women were allowed to preach or prophesy. What was new, and gave rise to serious misgivings, was that Montanus and his followers claimed that their movement was the beginning of a new age. Just as in Jesus Christ a new age had begun, so was a still newer age beginning in the outpouring of the Spirit. This new age was characterized by a more rigorous moral life, just as the Sermon on the Mount was itself more demanding than the Law of the Old Testament. At least some Montanists affirmed that this more rigorous law included celibacy.
The rest of the church opposed the preaching of the Montanists not because
they prophesied, but because they claimed that with them the last age of
history had dawned. According to the New Testament, the last days began with
the advent and resurrection of Jesus, and with the giving of the Holy Spirit in
Pentecost. As years went by, this emphasis on the last days being already here
was progressively forgotten, to the point that in the twenty-first century many
find it surprising. But in the second century the conviction of the church was
very much alive, that the last days had already begun in Jesus Christ.
Therefore to claim, as the Montanists did, that the end was beginning then,
with the giving of the Spirit to Montanus and his followers, was to diminish
the significance of the events of the New Testament, and to make of the gospel
one more stage in the history of salvation. These were the consequences of
Montanism that the church could not accept.
1.
Montanus
insisted that the Holy Spirit was speaking through him in his ecstatic
utterances. In fact, he claimed to be the embodiment of the Spirit of Truth
sent by Jesus in fulfillment of John 14:26. Followers of Montanism also claimed
inspiration for themselves, saying that their words of revelation were as
authoritative as anything in Scripture. Often, they could not even be
understood. They were known for speaking in tongues, prattling, and chanting
nonsense.
2.
The Montanists
differentiated themselves from “ordinary” Christians in that they were
“Spirit-filled,” and other Christians were not. The Montanists saw themselves
as possessing a more advanced form of Christianity, having received a special
baptism of the Spirit that enabled them to live a life of holiness.
3.
The church reacted against these extravagances by
condemnation of the movement. The Council at Constantinople in 381 declared
that the Montanists should be looked upon as pagans. But Tertullian, one of the
greatest of the church fathers, found the doctrines of the new group appealing
and became a Montanist. The movement was strongest in Carthage and Eastern
lands. It represented the perennial protest that occurs in the church when
there is overelaboration of machinery and lack of dependence on the Spirit of
God. The Montanist movement was and is a warning to the church not to forget
that its organization and its formulation of doctrine must never be divorced
from the satisfaction of the emotional side of man’s nature and the human
craving for immediate spiritual contact with God.
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