Jerusalem

Jerusalem, sometimes called the “holy city,” is the epicenter of four major world religions. Today, Dr. Stephen Nichols walks us through the many centuries of religious history that have taken place in this city.

Welcome back to another episode of 5 Minutes in Church History. On this episode, we are finishing our world tour of great cities. We've been in cities this month. We started with Cambridge, then we went to that ancient port city of Ephesus, and then we went to the eternal city, as it is called, Rome. And now we are moving to the Holy City, and that of course is Jerusalem. Jerusalem is hands down the capital city of biblical times. It is the most important city in the story of the Old Testament, and it is clearly the most important city in the New Testament. But after biblical times, Jerusalem continues to have a history. Let's move into the church history of Jerusalem and look at, of course, five things while we're at it. But first, I'm going to go ahead and dip back into biblical history and just mention Acts chapter 15 because it's an important moment.

We speak of the ecumenical councils in church history, but the very first church council was held in Jerusalem, and you can read all about it in Acts chapter 15. So the first event, that church council there in Acts 15 in Jerusalem. Well, Jerusalem is destroyed in 70 A.D. by the Romans. And so, from 70 A.D. to 325, as far as the Christian presence in Jerusalem goes, it is a time of decline and a period of neglect. This changes with Constantine. We mentioned Constantine and especially his mom, Helen, in our last episode. But Helen shines a spotlight on Jerusalem. She visits Jerusalem. She discovers the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which has the sight, the traditional sight in Roman Catholicism of first the crucifixion of Jesus, and then within eye shot the resurrection of Jesus. Most historians do not accept the church of the Holy Sepulchre of the sight, but that didn't stop Helen, and it didn't stop the building of a church there, and it doesn't stop millions of pilgrims visiting that sight.

Well, let's move into the era of the Crusades. And to set the stage here, we have to back up to 638 A.D., the patriarch of Jerusalem. And at this point, Jerusalem and the Christian Church there was largely under control of Constantinople and would've been considered Eastern. Well, in 638, the keys of the city were turned over to Muslim control, and the Muslims controlled Jerusalem up until 1099. That is the date of the first crusade. And the Christian pilgrims who made their way to Jerusalem captured the city, and both Muslims and the Eastern Christians were removed, and all was placed under Rome and the Pope. And so the time of the Crusades.

Then we move into General Sir Charles Warren. Well, who was Charles Warren? He was a British Royal Engineers’ officer, and he was one of the first in the modern era of archeology to excavate Jerusalem. He went to Jerusalem in 1867, made discoveries along the Temple Mount.

If you ever visit to Jerusalem, you may be tempted to ask your guide something like this, “Are we walking in the footsteps of Jesus?” And the guide will probably tell you something like this in reply, “No, the footsteps of Jesus are about 17 feet underneath of us.” So, as you can imagine, over the centuries, the city was built up and built up and built up. And so, we have that modern era of archeology of the city of Jerusalem and General Sir Charles Warren. His work and his writings inspired successive archeologists. And so the work continues to this day.

Well, lastly, with the city of Jerusalem, in many ways, it represents the religions of the western world with its so-called four quarters. There is the Armenian Quarter representing the Armenian church. There is the Christian Quarter, there is the Jewish Quarter, and the Muslim Quarter. So there you have it, the church council in the first century, Constantine and Helen in the beginning of a new era, the Crusades, Sir Charles Warren in archeology, and the four quarters. That's a quick tour of Jerusalem and church history, and I'm Steve Nichols. Thanks for joining us for 5 Minutes in Church History.