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| Image taken from http://www.worldology.com/Europe/decline_rome.htm |
Although North Africa enjoyed the blessing of the presence of
Tertullian, Cyprian of Carthage and Augustine of Hippo, the impact of
these great Catholic leaders was unable to maintain a long-lasting
effect. The influence of Vandal Arianism supplanted Trinitarian
Catholicism to the point that when the Muslims invaded from the East,
there was no sufficient, theological base in the North Africans to
resist the new Islamic heresies. Through a series of events, over a
couple of centuries, the Byzantine people, and their Catholic culture,
had become undesirable to the North Africans. When Vandal Arianism
arrived on the scene, the North Africans were emotionally and
psychologically prepared to have their Catholic dogma replaced. They did
not specifically seek it out, but they were unprepared to repel the
Vandal Arian heresy. Upon the acceptance of Vandal Arianism, the North
Africans rejected Chalcedonian Christology and therefore, had no problem
with the Islamic idea that Jesus was only a great prophet and that
Mohammed had come as an even greater, and final, prophet. It was this
religious difference between North Africa and the rest of Europe and
southwest Asia, rather than any economic or socio-political differences,
that opened the door for Islam to nearly eradicate Christianity from
northern Africa.
Vandal Arianism developed in the Teutonic regions of northern Europe
where Christ was viewed as a step above the average man, rather than a
“second degree” God as he was viewed in Hellenic Arianism. Jesus was a
hero, a commander, or king, but not God like the divine All-Father.
This is as clearly heresy as the Hellenic version, albeit distinctive in
the details.
In the early 430’s, the Teutonic general, Geiseric moved down through
the Iberian Peninsula across the Straits of Gibraltar into North
Africa. By 439 he had conquered North Africa from present-day
Mauritania to Tripoli in Libya. He had become “master of North
Africa”. As surely as modern politicians show favors to those who will
be favorable to advance their campaign, Geiseric, a Vandal Arian,
promoted his religion in all the cities of his dominion. Things were
much easier for adherents to Vandal Arianism than for those who
maintained the Trinitarian Catholic faith. Many clerics were exiled to
Italy and the treasures of the local churches confiscated for Arian
use. To portray Geseric and his successors as merely religious zealots
would be to oversimplify the matter, for politics played an important
role in establishing their rule over the Berber people of North Africa.
With little to no religious allegiance to Rome or Constantinople, a
North African ruler could count on that much more fidelity from his
constituency. These anti-Catholic moves by the North African leaders, as
well as some dumb moves by the Byzantines and Catholics themselves,
solidified the shift from Trinitarian Christianity to Vandal Arianism.
Mohammed crafted his vision in 610 A.D., and within 80 years of his
death in 632 A.D., his followers had spread the Muslim religion and
kingdom throughout the Middle East, Egypt, North Africa and Spain.
Although the Byzantine generals and troops put up a fight every step of
the way, the Arian predisposition of the Berber peoples in North Africa
made them prime candidates for conversion to the Muslim faith. This
predisposition to a subordinate Christology aligned them more closely
with an Islamic view of Jesus than a Catholic one. The Quran refers to
Jesus as a Prophet and the son of the virgin Mary but also says that
Mohammed was a greater servant of God than Jesus. The Vandal Arian
heresy had primed the pump for the next greater one than Jesus to come
along. As C.J. Speel surmises,
“Conversion from Teutonic Arianism, the faith of the bulk
of North Africa’s population from ca. 450 to ca. 670 A.D., to Islam was
an easy step. In Teutonic Arianism Jesus was not God; neither was He
the “Second degree” God of Arius, a philosophical logos. He was a great
tribal leader, or healer, or commander, an historical figure, a man who
was manifested as the Son of God. Islam did not seriously alter this
picture of Jesus; it simply added another and even more distinguished
figure—the Prophet of Mecca to whom was revealed in most recent times
the will of God.”
By 698 A.D. Carthage had fallen to Muslim invaders and has not yet
risen from the ashes. This is not simply an accounting of things that
happened a long time ago on a continent far, far away. We are not only
concerned for the conversion of North Africans to Christianity, but we
must take note of the current state of Christianity in our own land. If
a shift from the Trinitarian Catholic Faith of the historic creeds of
the church is a tell-tale sign of what is coming, then we need to hang
on tight. This ride is about to get a lot bumpier.
For example, we are not too far removed from the Republican Mormon
that was offered to us for consideration last presidential election. He was weighed
in balances and found wanting, but the sobering thing is that he
accomplished being the last “conservative” on the scale. What are
conservative Americans attempting to accomplish if a Mormon is the man
for the job? Trinitarian Christianity cannot be anywhere but on the
fringes of American culture if Mitt Romney made it as far as he did.
Not to mention the support he received from overtly Christian
organizations like Billy Graham’s, who removed Mormonism from its list
of cults on their website a few months before the election. “Christian”
leaders like Joel Osteen, the pastor of a Houston church, with tens of thousands of members, says that “Mitt Romney is a believer in Christ like
me.” If Osteen was the exception rather than the rule, it would be
different, but American Christians bought it hook, line and sinker, and
sent Romney up against Obama. As least the Vandal Arians imposed the
rule on the North Africans as their conquerors, as opposed to the GOP,
who has willingly traded Nicaea and Chalcedon for some golden plates
found buried on a hill in New York.
This is not meant to be a harsh judgment of folks who view the
General Election as a zero-sum game, and therefore felt compelled to
vote for one of the two options, however abhorrent the choices were.
It’s not the individual’s vote in November that is as disconcerting as
the fact that Romney was ever considered viable by the conservative
populace.
America is following in the footsteps of
the North African culture, which has not known Christendom for over 1300
years. She walked away from orthodoxy and God let her keep walking.
America is just a flash in the pan compared to many cultures,
and we’ve already walked away.
Speel II, C.J. “The Disappearance of Christianity from North Africa in the Wake of the Rise of Islam.”
Church History 29, no. 4 (1960): 379-397.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3161925. Accessed February 1, 2013.
This article was originally posted on the Kuyperian Commentary
On a recent journey from our little hamlet in middle Tennessee to the
bustling metropolis of Nashville, I was accompanied by my son, Calvin. The journey takes about an hour, which gives ample time to
listen to a lecture en route. Dr. George Grant
willingly rode in the mp3 player on the dashboard, while Calvin was
happy to have the whole backseat to himself. I asked Dr. Grant if he
would tell me about Alfred the Great again, and he obliged. 
When the enemy comes in a’roarin’ like a flood,
