- [Narrator] "And to the
woman were given two wings
00:00:02.66\00:00:05.40
of a great eagle,
00:00:05.40\00:00:06.94
that she might fly into
the wilderness, into her place,
00:00:06.94\00:00:10.74
where she is
nourished for a time, and times,
00:00:10.74\00:00:14.51
and half a time, from
the face of the serpent.
00:00:14.51\00:00:18.01
[swords clanging]
00:00:19.31\00:00:22.08
- 20 years after the sack
of Rome by Alaric the Goth,
00:00:22.08\00:00:25.32
the Church Father
Augustine of Hippo
00:00:25.32\00:00:27.52
could hear
another wave of barbarians
00:00:27.52\00:00:29.59
attacking his
city in North Africa.
00:00:29.59\00:00:32.16
The whole
empire was in disarray.
00:00:32.16\00:00:35.06
Augustine had just finished
his literary masterpiece,
00:00:35.06\00:00:37.57
"The City of God",
00:00:37.57\00:00:38.90
which argued that
the fall of the empire
00:00:38.90\00:00:40.90
was not an act of
vengeance by the pagan gods
00:00:40.90\00:00:43.47
who were angry about the
Christianization of Rome.
00:00:43.47\00:00:46.24
It would be one
of the final works
00:00:47.51\00:00:49.01
coming from the pen
of classical antiquity.
00:00:49.01\00:00:51.18
After the fall of Rome,
00:00:52.41\00:00:53.78
the age of culture and
learning came to an abrupt end,
00:00:53.78\00:00:56.92
because illiterate barbarians
00:00:56.92\00:00:59.09
had little use for such things.
00:00:59.09\00:01:00.72
[dramatic music]
00:01:02.06\00:01:05.39
The Romans and
the Greeks before them
00:01:05.39\00:01:07.50
held the
barbarians in utter contempt.
00:01:07.50\00:01:09.96
They were crude,
unlearned and uncivilized.
00:01:09.96\00:01:13.84
Even their language
sounded like nonsense,
00:01:13.84\00:01:16.00
and the civilized
Romans made fun of it.
00:01:16.00\00:01:18.14
"Bar, bar, bar!
00:01:18.14\00:01:19.34
Is all those people can say."
00:01:19.34\00:01:21.48
And some people believe
00:01:21.48\00:01:22.74
that's how we got
the word barbarian.
00:01:22.74\00:01:25.38
An outsider who speaks
the simple tongue of nonsense.
00:01:25.38\00:01:29.18
The hallmarks of civilization
were being destroyed.
00:01:30.49\00:01:33.15
As the author
Thomas Cahill points out,
00:01:33.15\00:01:35.82
"A world in chaos is not a world
00:01:35.82\00:01:38.09
in which books are copied
and libraries maintained."
00:01:38.09\00:01:41.96
As Rome collapsed,
00:01:41.96\00:01:43.53
the world came within a hair's
breadth of losing everything.
00:01:43.53\00:01:46.47
Plato, Aristotle, Socrates,
00:01:46.47\00:01:49.30
almost every classical
masterpiece from antiquity.
00:01:49.30\00:01:52.47
And tragically, it also meant
00:01:52.47\00:01:54.88
that Christianity
itself was in peril.
00:01:54.88\00:01:57.71
[dramatic music]
00:01:59.15\00:02:01.88
[fire crackles]
00:02:04.62\00:02:07.39
[intense string music]
00:02:22.14\00:02:25.44
A huge portion of the church
had been deeply influenced
00:02:29.11\00:02:32.08
by Roman government and
politics because of constancy.
00:02:32.08\00:02:35.88
The church was suddenly flooded
00:02:35.88\00:02:37.15
with half-hearted "Christians"
00:02:37.15\00:02:38.65
who only joined for the
prestige and social benefits.
00:02:38.65\00:02:41.46
And the hearty fiber of the
church that held it together
00:02:41.46\00:02:43.89
through all those persecutions
began to disintegrate.
00:02:43.89\00:02:47.40
Now that Rome had become
00:02:47.40\00:02:48.60
the key center of
Christian influence,
00:02:48.60\00:02:50.80
when the empire
began to collapse,
00:02:50.80\00:02:52.93
Christian learning and
scholarship found itself
00:02:52.93\00:02:55.20
in as much peril as
the pagan philosophers.
00:02:55.20\00:02:58.27
The secular government of Rome
00:03:00.28\00:03:01.78
began to pull rapidly to
the east, to Constantinople,
00:03:01.78\00:03:05.31
leaving Roman
style Christian bishops
00:03:05.31\00:03:07.98
as the last civil authority
figures in the crumbling West.
00:03:07.98\00:03:11.82
An empire once ruled
by Caesars and senators,
00:03:11.82\00:03:15.12
was now ruled by bishops
00:03:15.12\00:03:16.69
who became the last
vestige of Roman law and order.
00:03:16.69\00:03:19.53
To the far north in
places like Britannia,
00:03:21.13\00:03:23.77
Roman armies started going home
00:03:23.77\00:03:25.67
because their efforts
were no longer sustainable.
00:03:25.67\00:03:28.54
The retreat of
those Roman forces
00:03:28.54\00:03:30.54
emboldened
Germanic barbarian tribes
00:03:30.54\00:03:32.77
to move into the
newly vacant regions.
00:03:32.77\00:03:35.48
[mysterious music]
00:03:35.48\00:03:38.98
And so beginning
in the fifth century,
00:03:38.98\00:03:41.18
the Saxons crossed the
waters into the British Isles,
00:03:41.18\00:03:43.69
pushing Celtic Britons
into Wales and Cornwall.
00:03:43.69\00:03:47.12
But the bigger problem
wasn't the new Germanic tribes,
00:03:47.12\00:03:49.69
it was Celtic slave
traders from Ireland
00:03:49.69\00:03:51.96
who began to
raid the west coast,
00:03:51.96\00:03:54.30
stealing British children.
00:03:54.30\00:03:55.96
These Celtic pirates
were some of the most
00:03:55.96\00:03:57.70
feared people in the world.
00:03:57.70\00:03:59.47
They were rough, violent,
00:03:59.47\00:04:01.17
and shockingly promiscuous.
00:04:01.17\00:04:03.24
In battle, they almost seemed
to become non-human entities,
00:04:03.24\00:04:06.04
demons from the
very pits of hell.
00:04:06.04\00:04:08.01
Under cover of night,
they would cross the sea
00:04:08.01\00:04:10.38
in tiny skin covered
boats called coracles,
00:04:10.38\00:04:12.85
which they
commanded so masterfully
00:04:12.85\00:04:15.18
that they were able to explore
as far abroad as Iceland.
00:04:15.18\00:04:19.19
In the darkest
part of the morning,
00:04:19.19\00:04:20.62
they would silently
slip into British homes
00:04:20.62\00:04:22.72
and be halfway back to
Ireland with your children
00:04:22.72\00:04:25.43
before you woke up and
realized what had happened.
00:04:25.43\00:04:28.00
[dramatic music]
00:04:29.03\00:04:31.87
At about the same
time that Alaric the Goth
00:04:34.94\00:04:37.11
was marching into
the north of Italy,
00:04:37.11\00:04:39.17
Irish raiders kidnapped
a 16 year old British boy
00:04:39.17\00:04:42.11
by the name of Patricius,
00:04:42.11\00:04:43.85
or Patrick in modern English.
00:04:43.85\00:04:45.85
He was taken back to Ireland
00:04:47.42\00:04:48.78
and forced to
work as a shepherd,
00:04:48.78\00:04:50.62
slave to an Irish chieftain.
00:04:50.62\00:04:53.22
For six long years,
Patrick tended sheep
00:04:53.22\00:04:55.52
in the chilly
countryside of Hibernia,
00:04:55.52\00:04:57.79
the land of winter.
00:04:57.79\00:04:59.96
And with all that
quiet time on his hands,
00:04:59.96\00:05:02.06
he started to think about
the God his father worshiped.
00:05:02.06\00:05:05.23
The Christian God.
00:05:05.23\00:05:07.07
As a child at home,
00:05:07.07\00:05:08.47
he had considered Christianity
the religion of fools,
00:05:08.47\00:05:11.67
but as a slave, it
began to speak to him.
00:05:11.67\00:05:15.01
Patrick himself
tells us what happened.
00:05:15.01\00:05:17.91
[calming piano music]
00:05:17.91\00:05:19.58
- [Patrick] Tending
flocks was my daily work,
00:05:19.58\00:05:21.98
and I would pray constantly
during the daylight hours.
00:05:21.98\00:05:25.62
The love of God
and the fear of him
00:05:25.62\00:05:27.76
surrounded me more and more.
00:05:27.76\00:05:30.33
And faith grew, and
the spirit was roused,
00:05:30.33\00:05:33.70
so that in one day I would say
as many as a hundred prayers.
00:05:33.70\00:05:37.73
And after dark,
nearly as many again.
00:05:37.73\00:05:41.07
Even while I remained in
the woods or on the mountain,
00:05:41.07\00:05:44.74
I would wake and
pray before daybreak,
00:05:44.74\00:05:47.41
through snow, frost, rain.
00:05:47.41\00:05:50.48
Nor was there any
sluggishness in me,
00:05:50.48\00:05:52.75
such as I experience nowadays.
00:05:52.75\00:05:54.95
Because then, the
spirit within me was ardent.
00:05:54.95\00:05:58.69
- At the lowest
point of his life,
00:06:00.86\00:06:02.42
he found comfort in
the religion of Jesus.
00:06:02.42\00:06:05.03
And then one night,
he suddenly heard a voice
00:06:05.03\00:06:07.86
calling him in his dreams.
00:06:07.86\00:06:09.63
"Patrick, your hungers are
rewarded, you are going home."
00:06:09.63\00:06:14.30
He woke up certain that
it was nothing but a dream,
00:06:14.30\00:06:16.47
but amazingly, the
voice continued to speak.
00:06:16.47\00:06:18.97
"Look, your ship is ready."
00:06:18.97\00:06:21.48
Patrick rose to his feet
00:06:22.38\00:06:23.65
and walked about
200 miles to the sea,
00:06:23.65\00:06:26.15
through a
countryside he had never seen.
00:06:26.15\00:06:28.72
And sure enough, he
eventually found a ship
00:06:28.72\00:06:31.25
that agreed to take
him away from Ireland.
00:06:31.25\00:06:33.42
From that point on,
00:06:41.86\00:06:43.33
much of the story has been
muddied or lost in antiquity,
00:06:43.33\00:06:46.47
but we do know this.
00:06:46.47\00:06:47.67
After traveling on
the European mainland
00:06:47.67\00:06:49.54
for an unknown period of time,
00:06:49.54\00:06:51.07
he eventually went
back home to Britain,
00:06:51.07\00:06:53.34
where his family
hoped he would stay
00:06:53.34\00:06:55.34
for the rest of his life.
00:06:55.34\00:06:57.25
[tense music]
00:06:57.25\00:06:59.68
But it wasn't to be.
00:06:59.68\00:07:00.88
Patrick had another dream.
00:07:00.88\00:07:02.58
And in the dream, a man
he had known back in Ireland
00:07:02.58\00:07:05.05
appeared as Patrick's angel,
00:07:05.05\00:07:06.99
and he was holding
a batch of letters.
00:07:06.99\00:07:09.06
He pulled one out
and handed it to Patrick,
00:07:10.79\00:07:13.06
and at the top it said,
00:07:13.06\00:07:14.30
"Vox Hiberionacum", or
the voice of the Irish.
00:07:14.30\00:07:19.03
As Patrick clutched the letter,
00:07:20.04\00:07:21.54
he suddenly heard the voice
of a crowd pleading with him,
00:07:21.54\00:07:23.71
"Come and walk
among us once more!"
00:07:23.71\00:07:26.37
[wondrous mysterious music]
00:07:26.37\00:07:30.31
The dreams kept coming,
00:07:30.31\00:07:31.78
and eventually he heard
the voice of Jesus himself.
00:07:31.78\00:07:34.98
"He who gave his life for you,
00:07:34.98\00:07:37.05
he it is who speaks within you."
00:07:37.05\00:07:39.12
That was the deciding moment.
00:07:40.72\00:07:42.66
He went to Gaul to
study for the ministry,
00:07:42.66\00:07:45.16
and then amazingly,
he went back to Ireland,
00:07:45.16\00:07:48.36
to the very people
who had stolen his youth.
00:07:48.36\00:07:51.20
[dramatic music]
00:07:52.73\00:07:55.54
He set up shop in Ard
Mhacha, or modern day Armagh.
00:07:56.81\00:07:59.87
From there, he
began to share the gospel
00:07:59.87\00:08:01.61
with some of the
roughest people on the planet.
00:08:01.61\00:08:03.65
And amazingly, they listened.
00:08:03.65\00:08:06.28
The Irish began
to accept Christ.
00:08:06.28\00:08:09.02
He even managed to baptize
00:08:09.02\00:08:10.45
the famous Irish
high king Ķengus,
00:08:10.45\00:08:12.29
behind me here at
the Rock of Cashel.
00:08:12.29\00:08:14.79
Legend has it that
Patrick carried a crozier,
00:08:14.79\00:08:16.86
it's kind of a
stylized shepherd's crook
00:08:16.86\00:08:19.06
with a sharp
spike at the bottom.
00:08:19.06\00:08:21.13
Now, he usually planted
that crozier in the ground
00:08:21.13\00:08:23.10
while he went about the
business of baptizing people.
00:08:23.10\00:08:25.67
But this time he
accidentally planted it
00:08:25.67\00:08:28.37
in the waiting king's foot.
00:08:28.37\00:08:30.34
And surprisingly, the
King didn't say a word.
00:08:30.34\00:08:32.97
Now when they later
asked him why he didn't protest
00:08:32.97\00:08:34.98
the impalement of
his foot, he said,
00:08:34.98\00:08:36.95
"I thought it was
part of the ceremony."
00:08:36.95\00:08:39.35
Ireland was utterly transformed
by Patrick's efforts.
00:08:40.62\00:08:43.82
He managed to set up
centers of Christian learning
00:08:43.82\00:08:45.82
and influence all
across the island.
00:08:45.82\00:08:48.19
The Irish slave trade
suddenly came to an end,
00:08:48.19\00:08:50.96
the first emancipation campaign
in the history of the world.
00:08:50.96\00:08:54.73
And the wars between
various Irish chieftains
00:08:54.73\00:08:57.13
suddenly dropped
to an all time low.
00:08:57.13\00:08:59.27
[wondrous music]
00:08:59.27\00:09:02.10
There are
actually very few records
00:09:05.51\00:09:07.38
of Christian
missionaries traveling
00:09:07.38\00:09:08.94
to the remote
corners of the globe
00:09:08.94\00:09:10.71
between the close
of the New Testament
00:09:10.71\00:09:12.55
and the collapse of Rome,
00:09:12.55\00:09:14.62
but Patrick May have
been the first missionary
00:09:14.62\00:09:16.79
to the barbarians
outside of the Roman Empire,
00:09:16.79\00:09:19.85
completely apart from the
influence of Roman Christianity.
00:09:19.85\00:09:23.46
We do know of early missionaries
00:09:23.46\00:09:24.93
among the Germanic tribes
like Ulfilas among the Goths,
00:09:24.93\00:09:28.76
but those were usually converts
00:09:28.76\00:09:30.17
who were already
members of the tribe.
00:09:30.17\00:09:32.53
Patrick was different.
00:09:32.53\00:09:34.34
He was a missionary in
the spirit of Acts chapter 1.
00:09:34.34\00:09:36.94
A missionary to the
uttermost parts of the Earth.
00:09:36.94\00:09:40.08
And look at the timing.
00:09:40.08\00:09:41.68
Between the
years 410 AD and 476,
00:09:41.68\00:09:44.55
the Roman Empire is collapsing.
00:09:44.55\00:09:46.75
Patrick is bringing Christianity
to the Celtic barbarians
00:09:46.75\00:09:49.95
at precisely the same time.
00:09:49.95\00:09:52.35
[wondrous music]
00:09:52.35\00:09:54.79
It was almost as if
God was taking Christianity
00:09:54.79\00:09:57.13
out of a volatile and
compromised situation,
00:09:57.13\00:09:59.89
and putting it somewhere
completely safe, away from Rome,
00:09:59.89\00:10:03.50
out on the edge
of the continent,
00:10:03.50\00:10:05.23
on a distant
island in the Atlantic.
00:10:05.23\00:10:08.00
[wondrous music]
00:10:08.00\00:10:10.84
So, what kind of Christianity
would emerge in isolation,
00:10:16.44\00:10:19.95
away from the
influence of Constantine's Rome?
00:10:19.95\00:10:23.05
What kinds of
Christians would you get
00:10:23.05\00:10:24.52
if the man who
led them to Christ
00:10:24.52\00:10:26.55
was not part of
the great compromise
00:10:26.55\00:10:28.59
taking place on
the European continent?
00:10:28.59\00:10:31.19
It was a non-Roman Christianity,
00:10:31.19\00:10:33.53
completely free from the
cultural baggage of Imperial
00:10:33.53\00:10:37.17
Rome. A Christianity
that was distinctly Irish,
00:10:37.17\00:10:40.10
and distinctly biblical.
00:10:40.10\00:10:41.90
It utterly transformed
the wild band of Celts.
00:10:41.90\00:10:45.21
Not only did they give up
00:10:45.21\00:10:46.51
pagan idolatry
and human sacrifice,
00:10:46.51\00:10:48.84
but they suddenly
became passionately literate.
00:10:48.84\00:10:51.78
Suddenly, miraculously,
they could read and write,
00:10:51.78\00:10:54.78
which proves to be one of
the most important developments
00:10:54.78\00:10:58.35
in the history of the world.
00:10:58.35\00:11:00.26
Why?
00:11:01.69\00:11:02.86
Because Hibernia
proves to be the place
00:11:02.86\00:11:04.59
where God kept
the scriptures alive
00:11:04.59\00:11:06.49
during the darkest
period of Western history.
00:11:06.49\00:11:09.30
The
transformation was remarkable.
00:11:09.30\00:11:12.00
The pagan Irish had
been big, loud and powerful.
00:11:12.00\00:11:15.10
They loved big
gestures and big feasts.
00:11:15.10\00:11:17.94
But the Christian
Irish, they were different.
00:11:17.94\00:11:21.01
They suddenly delighted
in simplicity and modesty,
00:11:21.01\00:11:24.68
preferring to live in humble,
close contact with nature.
00:11:24.68\00:11:28.75
They lived in simple abbeys,
00:11:28.75\00:11:30.25
centers of learning
run by pious Irish monks,
00:11:30.25\00:11:32.82
who lived in
modest stone structures.
00:11:32.82\00:11:35.49
[wondrous music]
00:11:36.76\00:11:39.59
Back on the mainland,
00:11:52.47\00:11:54.08
there was a much different
church structure emerging.
00:11:54.08\00:11:56.41
Ecclesiastical power was
firmly merging with civil power.
00:11:56.41\00:12:00.18
There was a
marriage of church and state.
00:12:00.18\00:12:02.58
The bishop of mainland Europe
00:12:02.58\00:12:03.99
was a distinctly
political figure,
00:12:03.99\00:12:06.05
as opposed to the Irish
Abbott, who was just religious,
00:12:06.05\00:12:09.32
who merely spoke
to the Irish kings.
00:12:09.32\00:12:12.43
The Irish monks,
usually 13 to an abbey,
00:12:12.43\00:12:15.03
an Abbott with 12 disciples,
00:12:15.03\00:12:17.23
spent their days
preaching and teaching,
00:12:17.23\00:12:19.23
learning and carefully
copying the scriptures.
00:12:19.23\00:12:22.30
To a large extent,
00:12:22.30\00:12:23.54
the reason we
still have Bibles today
00:12:23.54\00:12:25.67
is because of
faithful Celtic scholars
00:12:25.67\00:12:27.98
who made absolute certain
the Bible did not disappear
00:12:27.98\00:12:31.31
in the chaos of the Dark Ages.
00:12:31.31\00:12:33.82
Their monasteries
emerged all over the land.
00:12:33.82\00:12:36.32
From the centers of learning,
00:12:37.65\00:12:38.99
the Irish monks began to travel,
00:12:38.99\00:12:40.76
collecting every
scrap of literature
00:12:40.76\00:12:42.42
they could lay their hands on,
00:12:42.42\00:12:44.16
carefully making copies
so they wouldn't be lost.
00:12:44.16\00:12:47.96
[seagulls
chirping] [waves crashing]
00:12:47.96\00:12:52.90
[dramatic music]
00:12:54.54\00:12:56.00
The hand illuminated manuscripts
00:12:56.00\00:12:57.64
they produced were stunning.
00:12:57.64\00:12:59.51
Some of the most
beautiful manuscripts
00:12:59.51\00:13:01.14
in the history of
Western civilization.
00:13:01.14\00:13:03.71
The Irish were
passionate people,
00:13:03.71\00:13:05.55
and they had a strong
sense of the artistic.
00:13:05.55\00:13:08.38
The writing was
beautiful, even poetic,
00:13:08.38\00:13:10.72
something that is still
true of the Irish to this day.
00:13:10.72\00:13:13.89
The Irish are
marvelous storytellers,
00:13:13.89\00:13:15.76
producing literary
geniuses like James Joyce,
00:13:15.76\00:13:18.56
Samuel Beckett,
C.S. Lewis, Oscar Wilde,
00:13:18.56\00:13:21.63
Jonathan Swift, Bram
Stoker, William Yeats
00:13:21.63\00:13:24.63
and countless others.
00:13:24.63\00:13:26.07
Names that tower over
the literary landscape.
00:13:26.07\00:13:29.60
These were
exactly the right people
00:13:29.60\00:13:31.61
to preserve the Christian faith
00:13:31.61\00:13:33.04
out on the edges of
the European wilderness,
00:13:33.04\00:13:35.61
away from the
compromise and corruption
00:13:35.61\00:13:37.61
that was starting to
degrade the mainstream church.
00:13:37.61\00:13:40.72
The Celts were
wild and passionate,
00:13:40.72\00:13:43.22
artistic and determined.
00:13:43.22\00:13:45.05
The kind of people who would
not only preserve the faith,
00:13:45.05\00:13:48.06
but do it with flair.
00:13:48.06\00:13:49.39
[mellow synth music]
00:13:54.36\00:13:57.37
They proved to be
talented scholars,
00:14:08.11\00:14:10.28
quickly learning to
speak Greek, Hebrew, and Latin.
00:14:10.28\00:14:13.55
But in spite of that,
they were very careful
00:14:13.55\00:14:15.65
to preserve the
gospel in the native language
00:14:15.65\00:14:17.55
of the people
they were teaching.
00:14:17.55\00:14:19.49
They preached in
the Gaelic tongue,
00:14:19.49\00:14:21.06
as opposed to the
Christians of the continent
00:14:21.06\00:14:23.29
who were starting to lock
up the mysteries of the gospel
00:14:23.29\00:14:25.46
in the ancient
tongue of a dying empire.
00:14:25.46\00:14:27.86
Sermons and documents
were produced in Latin,
00:14:27.86\00:14:30.37
so as to not sully the
sacred things of Christianity
00:14:30.37\00:14:33.60
by exposing them to
mere uneducated peasants.
00:14:33.60\00:14:37.27
What happened with the Irish
is really pretty remarkable.
00:14:37.27\00:14:40.88
The Book of Daniel
had accurately predicted
00:14:40.88\00:14:43.28
the collapse of the
world's fourth major empire.
00:14:43.28\00:14:46.18
Rome was not to be
replaced by a fifth empire,
00:14:46.18\00:14:49.12
but simply
fragment and fall to pieces.
00:14:49.12\00:14:52.05
600 years after
Daniel, the book of Revelation
00:14:52.05\00:14:54.96
predicted that
the Christian Church
00:14:54.96\00:14:56.32
would go through
some very dark times
00:14:56.32\00:14:58.69
after it compromised with
Constantine's political empire.
00:14:58.69\00:15:02.66
It's exactly what happened.
00:15:02.66\00:15:04.93
So, what else do we know
00:15:06.67\00:15:08.00
about these early
Celtic Christians?
00:15:08.00\00:15:10.21
Fortunately for us,
the Celts loved to write,
00:15:10.21\00:15:12.71
so we have plenty
of written evidence
00:15:12.71\00:15:14.34
to help us study their lives.
00:15:14.34\00:15:16.38
When you read some of
the words that Patrick wrote,
00:15:16.38\00:15:18.38
one of the first
things you'll notice
00:15:18.38\00:15:20.08
is his love for the Bible.
00:15:20.08\00:15:22.12
We actually
have two major works.
00:15:23.02\00:15:24.52
The confession,
and a short letter.
00:15:24.52\00:15:27.22
Neither of them
is particularly long,
00:15:27.22\00:15:29.09
but in the space
of a few short pages,
00:15:29.09\00:15:31.29
Patrick manages to quote the
Bible no less than 340 times.
00:15:31.29\00:15:35.53
At a time when
mainline Christianity
00:15:38.00\00:15:39.83
was starting to adopt
hundreds of manmade customs,
00:15:39.83\00:15:42.84
the Celtic Christians
were building a new church
00:15:42.84\00:15:45.21
primarily on the
words of the Bible.
00:15:45.21\00:15:47.94
The Venerable Bede,
00:15:47.94\00:15:49.41
one of England's most
notable church historians,
00:15:49.41\00:15:51.68
marveled at how doggedly
00:15:51.68\00:15:53.28
the Irish stuck
with the scriptures.
00:15:53.28\00:15:55.45
- [Bede] The Celtic missionaries
00:15:57.19\00:15:58.69
diligently follow
whatever pure and devout customs
00:15:58.69\00:16:01.76
that they
learned in the prophets,
00:16:01.76\00:16:03.59
the gospels, and the
writings of the apostles.
00:16:03.59\00:16:06.96
- In other words, they were
determined to follow the Bible.
00:16:09.46\00:16:12.30
They were building a faith
00:16:12.30\00:16:13.74
on the evidence
of the scriptures.
00:16:13.74\00:16:15.97
[calming music]
00:16:18.67\00:16:21.41
[bird caws]
00:16:29.25\00:16:31.65
[calming inspiring music]
00:16:38.33\00:16:41.90
And what kinds of things
did they learn from the Bible?
00:16:47.74\00:16:51.51
Well, most of us would recognize
much of what they taught
00:16:51.51\00:16:54.14
because to some extent,
00:16:54.14\00:16:55.68
it closely resembles a
lot of Christianity today.
00:16:55.68\00:16:59.28
Celtic Christians, for example,
00:16:59.28\00:17:00.52
believed in a triune God.
00:17:00.52\00:17:02.18
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
00:17:02.18\00:17:05.19
Now, they didn't spend much time
00:17:05.19\00:17:06.52
trying to understand
exactly how that works,
00:17:06.52\00:17:09.26
they just accepted it
because the Bible was so clear
00:17:09.26\00:17:12.83
about the divinity of Christ.
00:17:12.83\00:17:14.63
So in that regard,
they were a lot like us.
00:17:14.63\00:17:18.47
They also taught a
literal creation story
00:17:18.47\00:17:21.30
that God made the
world in six days,
00:17:21.30\00:17:23.07
and rested on the seventh.
00:17:23.07\00:17:24.87
And the reason
they believed that,
00:17:24.87\00:17:26.57
was because that's
exactly what the Bible says
00:17:26.57\00:17:28.71
in the Book of Genesis.
00:17:28.71\00:17:30.51
That's not to say there
were no competing theories
00:17:30.51\00:17:32.65
back in the fifth
and sixth centuries.
00:17:32.65\00:17:35.08
There were.
00:17:35.08\00:17:36.55
But Celtic Christians
were determined to believe
00:17:36.55\00:17:38.19
the whole Bible.
00:17:38.19\00:17:40.09
They also believed
in the power of prayer,
00:17:40.09\00:17:41.99
just like many of us do.
00:17:41.99\00:17:43.86
In fact, Patrick
was known to pray
00:17:43.86\00:17:45.73
up to a hundred times a day,
00:17:45.73\00:17:47.60
convinced that
God would hear him.
00:17:47.60\00:17:49.80
They also believed in a
literal second coming of Christ
00:17:51.13\00:17:53.90
at the very
culmination of human history.
00:17:53.90\00:17:56.37
Now, what some Christians might
find very interesting today
00:17:56.37\00:18:00.04
is the fact that
the Celtic Christians
00:18:00.04\00:18:01.71
never, ever spoke of a
secret coming of Christ.
00:18:01.71\00:18:04.88
They simply taught
that Jesus returns in glory
00:18:04.88\00:18:07.05
at the last trump when
everybody gets the reward>
00:18:07.05\00:18:09.98
It was a very simple
approach to the subject.
00:18:09.98\00:18:12.92
They were also big
fans of the 10 Commandments,
00:18:12.92\00:18:15.22
like most Christians are today.
00:18:15.22\00:18:16.89
Teaching that sin is the
transgression of God's moral
00:18:16.89\00:18:20.96
law. The reason we need
a savior, the Celts taught,
00:18:20.96\00:18:23.26
is because we broke God's law
00:18:23.26\00:18:25.10
and deserve the wages of sin,
00:18:25.10\00:18:26.87
which the Bible says is death.
00:18:26.87\00:18:29.77
The only chance you
have, they preached,
00:18:29.77\00:18:31.87
is to lay hold of the
righteousness of Christ.
00:18:31.87\00:18:34.61
So in many ways,
Celtic Christianity
00:18:35.81\00:18:38.08
was a lot like
modern Christianity,
00:18:38.08\00:18:40.12
or at least the
Christianity that eventually
00:18:40.12\00:18:42.38
grew out of the
Protestant Reformation.
00:18:42.38\00:18:44.89
While the church
of continental Europe
00:18:44.89\00:18:46.72
was struggling with
the mistakes that it made
00:18:46.72\00:18:48.32
after the rise of Constantine,
00:18:48.32\00:18:50.39
there was a very distinctive,
different kind of church
00:18:50.39\00:18:52.89
rising on a distant island
out in the Atlantic Ocean.
00:18:52.89\00:18:56.56
But in some ways,
the Celts were almost
00:18:56.56\00:18:58.77
ahead of modern Christianity,
00:18:58.77\00:19:00.27
because they also
taught some things
00:19:00.27\00:19:02.10
that we are only now
starting to see for ourselves
00:19:02.10\00:19:04.44
in the pages of the Bible.
00:19:04.44\00:19:06.11
For example, following
the lead of Bible passages
00:19:06.11\00:19:09.11
like first Timothy 6, verse 16.
00:19:09.11\00:19:11.51
The Celts taught that only
God has natural immortality.
00:19:11.51\00:19:14.62
Only God can live
forever by his own strength.
00:19:14.62\00:19:17.52
The rest of us, they taught,
00:19:17.52\00:19:19.02
are only mortal, because we die,
00:19:19.02\00:19:21.16
and we do not live forever.
00:19:21.16\00:19:23.32
[dramatic string music]
00:19:23.32\00:19:25.63
So, how is that different
from modern Christianity?
00:19:25.63\00:19:29.30
Well, the Celts taught,
based on the scriptures,
00:19:29.30\00:19:32.67
that the only way
to become immortal
00:19:32.67\00:19:34.70
is to be forgiven,
covered by the blood of Christ.
00:19:34.70\00:19:37.64
Apart from that, the
wages of sin is death.
00:19:37.64\00:19:40.44
The only thing waiting
for the unrepentant sinner.
00:19:40.44\00:19:43.61
And curiously, they never spoke
00:19:43.61\00:19:45.95
of a place of eternal torment,
00:19:45.95\00:19:47.32
a place where
God tortures sinners
00:19:47.32\00:19:49.32
throughout the
ceaseless ages of eternity.
00:19:49.32\00:19:51.62
And the reason
they didn't teach it,
00:19:51.62\00:19:53.79
is because that doctrine,
00:19:53.79\00:19:55.39
the doctrine of ever burning
hellfire that never goes out,
00:19:55.39\00:19:58.49
well, the Celts never
found it in the Bible.
00:19:58.49\00:20:01.63
And today, we're
just starting to catch up
00:20:01.63\00:20:03.16
with those early believers,
00:20:03.16\00:20:04.43
because a lot of
sincere Bible believing scholars
00:20:04.43\00:20:07.10
are starting to come to
the very same conclusion.
00:20:07.10\00:20:09.77
The stories of an
everlasting place of torment
00:20:09.77\00:20:12.64
seem to have more to
do with Roman paganism
00:20:12.64\00:20:15.78
than the actual
words of the Bible.
00:20:15.78\00:20:17.95
It's one of those things that
should make us check the Bible
00:20:17.95\00:20:20.05
one more time to
see if they were right.
00:20:20.05\00:20:23.39
[calming music]
00:20:23.39\00:20:26.12
[tense string music]
00:20:36.83\00:20:39.87
And there's
another curious fact.
00:20:43.30\00:20:45.77
Back in the year 321 AD,
00:20:45.77\00:20:47.81
Constantine
suddenly passed a law
00:20:47.81\00:20:50.11
declaring that the
first day of the week, Sunday,
00:20:50.11\00:20:53.05
was now a day of rest.
00:20:53.05\00:20:54.62
It was the first "blue law"
in the history of the world.
00:20:54.62\00:20:57.99
And it really
stemmed from the fact
00:20:57.99\00:20:59.82
that Constantine had
been a sun worshiper,
00:20:59.82\00:21:02.19
and the Romans
dedicated the first day
00:21:02.19\00:21:04.06
of the week to the sun.
00:21:04.06\00:21:05.36
It was literally the "Sun"-day.
00:21:05.36\00:21:08.16
Now, growing
up, I always assumed
00:21:08.16\00:21:10.10
that the apostles were the ones
00:21:10.10\00:21:11.53
who changed the day of
worship from Saturday to Sunday.
00:21:11.53\00:21:14.70
But if that was true,
00:21:14.70\00:21:16.84
why would a newly
Christianized Roman emperor
00:21:16.84\00:21:19.04
need to pass a law
forcing the matter?
00:21:19.04\00:21:21.88
And why would the
Council of Laodicea
00:21:21.88\00:21:23.88
more than 40 years after that,
00:21:23.88\00:21:26.01
need to follow up Constantine's
law with another one
00:21:26.01\00:21:29.18
that actually forbid
the observance of Saturday
00:21:29.18\00:21:31.69
as the Sabbath?
00:21:31.69\00:21:33.29
The reason was,
there were still Christians
00:21:33.29\00:21:36.02
keeping the Sabbath
of the fourth commandment
00:21:36.02\00:21:37.79
when Constantine came to power.
00:21:37.79\00:21:40.30
And that fits the
words of Jesus perfectly.
00:21:40.30\00:21:42.76
He said the Sabbath
would still be in effect
00:21:42.76\00:21:45.73
years after he
returned to heaven.
00:21:45.73\00:21:47.84
Speaking of the Roman
sack of Jerusalem in AD 70,
00:21:47.84\00:21:50.84
Jesus warned his disciples...
00:21:50.84\00:21:52.84
"Pray that your
flight may not be in winter
00:21:52.84\00:21:55.61
or on the Sabbath."
00:21:55.61\00:21:57.08
[calming vocal
music] [water patters]
00:22:00.12\00:22:05.09
[bird caws]
00:22:13.70\00:22:16.06
Now, this is where the
story of Celtic Christianity
00:22:23.27\00:22:25.64
gets very interesting.
00:22:25.64\00:22:27.58
Patrick is living some
400 years after Christ,
00:22:27.58\00:22:31.45
in an environment that
is distinctly different
00:22:31.45\00:22:33.62
from the
Christianity of the Dark Ages.
00:22:33.62\00:22:36.79
From what we can tell,
00:22:36.79\00:22:37.99
there are still
countless Christians
00:22:37.99\00:22:39.52
keeping the original Seventh
Day Sabbath all over Europe.
00:22:39.52\00:22:42.59
And the reason we know that,
00:22:42.59\00:22:43.69
is because the official church
00:22:43.69\00:22:45.69
felt the need to
crack down on them.
00:22:45.69\00:22:48.26
So you've got to wonder then,
00:22:48.26\00:22:49.33
which day would Patrick keep?
00:22:49.33\00:22:51.40
Remember, all the
Celts have is a Bible.
00:22:51.40\00:22:53.77
They don't have canon law,
00:22:53.77\00:22:55.27
they don't have the traditions
of the continental church.
00:22:55.27\00:22:58.34
The answer comes as a
surprise to a lot of people.
00:22:58.34\00:23:01.21
Remember, an
angel visited Patrick,
00:23:01.21\00:23:03.81
and his
surviving letters indicate
00:23:03.81\00:23:05.55
that angel
visited him many times,
00:23:05.55\00:23:07.98
and almost always on
the seventh day of the week.
00:23:07.98\00:23:10.92
[calming vocal music]
00:23:12.65\00:23:14.32
Another great Celtic missionary
by the name of Columbanus,
00:23:14.32\00:23:17.66
a man who lived almost
200 years after Patrick,
00:23:17.66\00:23:20.90
wrote these words.
00:23:20.90\00:23:22.40
- [Columbanus] We are
bidden to work on six days.
00:23:23.70\00:23:25.63
But on the seventh,
which is the Sabbath,
00:23:25.63\00:23:28.07
we are restrained
from every servile labor.
00:23:28.07\00:23:31.04
Now, by the number six,
00:23:31.04\00:23:32.64
the completeness
of our work is meant,
00:23:32.64\00:23:34.91
since it was in six days
00:23:34.91\00:23:36.48
the Lord made heaven and Earth.
00:23:36.48\00:23:38.51
Yet on the Sabbath,
we are forbidden to labor
00:23:38.51\00:23:40.98
at any servile work.
00:23:40.98\00:23:42.48
That is sin, since he who
commits sin is a slave to sin.
00:23:42.48\00:23:47.49
[calming music]
00:23:48.32\00:23:51.06
- Toward the end
of the sixth century,
00:24:02.57\00:24:04.37
Pope Gregory the
Great started sending monks
00:24:04.37\00:24:06.71
to live in Britain.
00:24:06.71\00:24:08.28
And those monks came in contact
00:24:08.28\00:24:10.55
with some of the
Celtic missionaries.
00:24:10.55\00:24:12.71
They sent Pope
Gregory a very curious report.
00:24:12.71\00:24:15.48
The Celts were
radically different.
00:24:15.48\00:24:18.32
They allowed
their priests to marry,
00:24:18.32\00:24:20.59
they were practicing an
older form of immersion baptism,
00:24:20.59\00:24:24.09
they didn't know
anything about Roman canon law,
00:24:24.09\00:24:27.40
they had their own
translation of the Bible,
00:24:27.40\00:24:30.40
and they kept
Saturday as a day of rest.
00:24:30.40\00:24:33.87
Is it possible that God knew
00:24:33.87\00:24:36.44
the greater part of
our Christian church
00:24:36.44\00:24:37.97
was going to compromise?
00:24:37.97\00:24:39.87
It's a fact we can't escape.
00:24:39.87\00:24:41.64
We really did burn
heretics at the stake.
00:24:41.64\00:24:44.71
We seized their
property and tortured people
00:24:44.71\00:24:47.58
who didn't tow
the official line.
00:24:47.58\00:24:50.45
[fire crackles]
00:24:50.45\00:24:53.22
The Christianity we
perpetrated in the Dark ages,
00:24:57.96\00:25:01.46
the Christianity
skeptics still make fun of,
00:25:01.46\00:25:03.77
you and I know full well,
00:25:03.77\00:25:05.77
it doesn't match the
Christianity of the New
00:25:05.77\00:25:09.27
Testament. To be
perfectly honest,
00:25:09.27\00:25:10.47
we even
compromised the gospel itself.
00:25:10.47\00:25:12.94
We started selling
salvation to desperate people,
00:25:12.94\00:25:16.28
convincing them that good
works and a few gold coins
00:25:16.28\00:25:19.38
could actually
secure a spot in heaven.
00:25:19.38\00:25:22.35
But then you start to dig
past the official stories,
00:25:22.35\00:25:25.19
the well-known ones,
00:25:25.19\00:25:26.69
and you begin to discover
a very biblical Christianity
00:25:26.69\00:25:30.13
surviving outside the
boundaries of the Roman Empire.
00:25:30.13\00:25:33.53
Today, we know.
00:25:33.53\00:25:34.66
In the earliest centuries,
00:25:34.66\00:25:36.43
there were Christian churches
stretching deep into Africa,
00:25:36.43\00:25:40.10
across the
Middle East, into India,
00:25:40.10\00:25:42.97
and maybe even as
far away as Japan.
00:25:42.97\00:25:46.61
And then at
Earth's darkest hour,
00:25:46.61\00:25:48.78
a brand new Christian Church
00:25:48.78\00:25:50.28
just happens to spring up in
one of the most remote places.
00:25:50.28\00:25:53.88
A church with a distinctly
New Testament Christianity.
00:25:53.88\00:25:57.79
The Book of Revelation
got it absolutely right.
00:25:57.79\00:26:01.36
"The woman was given
two wings of a great eagle,
00:26:01.36\00:26:04.03
that she might fly into
the wilderness to her place,
00:26:04.03\00:26:07.56
where she is nourished for
a time, times, and half a time
00:26:07.56\00:26:11.23
from the
presence of the serpent."
00:26:11.23\00:26:13.00
[dramatic music]
00:26:14.10\00:26:16.91
There are stories we
know and stories we don't.
00:26:23.51\00:26:26.11
One of the most
remarkable untold stories
00:26:26.11\00:26:28.68
is that of the
Celtic Christians.
00:26:28.68\00:26:30.52
What's even more remarkable
00:26:30.52\00:26:32.59
is how we get from
Patrick to Martin Luther.
00:26:32.59\00:26:35.39
[dramatic music]
00:26:36.96\00:26:39.79
[dramatic music continues]
00:26:49.54\00:26:53.17
This has been a broadcast
of The Voice of Prophecy.
00:26:58.41\00:27:02.28
To learn more about
how you can get a DVD copy
00:27:02.28\00:27:05.42
of "A Pale Horse
Rides" for yourself,
00:27:05.42\00:27:08.29
please visit
palehoresridesdvd.com,
00:27:08.29\00:27:12.36
or call toll free, 844-822-2943.
00:27:12.36\00:27:16.26
[dramatic music]
00:27:18.07\00:27:20.90
- [Presenter] Life
can throw a lot at us.
00:27:32.68\00:27:35.08
Sometimes we don't
have all the answers.
00:27:35.08\00:27:38.45
But that's where
the Bible comes in.
00:27:38.45\00:27:40.92
It's our guide to a
more fulfilling life.
00:27:40.92\00:27:43.99
Here at The Voice of Prophecy,
00:27:43.99\00:27:45.53
we've created the
Discover Bible Guides
00:27:45.53\00:27:47.66
to be your guide to the Bible.
00:27:47.66\00:27:49.26
They're designed to
be simple, easy to use,
00:27:49.26\00:27:51.77
and provide answers to many
of life's toughest questions.
00:27:51.77\00:27:54.77
And they're absolutely free.
00:27:54.77\00:27:56.81
So jump online
now, or give us a call,
00:27:56.81\00:27:59.11
and start your
journey of discovery.
00:27:59.11\00:28:01.48
- [Presenter] Dragons,
beasts, cryptic statues.
00:28:02.74\00:28:07.05
Bible prophecy can be
incredibly vivid and confusing.
00:28:07.05\00:28:11.59
If you've ever read
Daniel & Revelation,
00:28:11.59\00:28:13.76
and come away
scratching your head,
00:28:13.76\00:28:15.52
you're not alone.
00:28:15.52\00:28:16.83
Our free focus
on prophecy guides
00:28:16.83\00:28:19.23
are designed to help you unlock
the mysteries of the Bible
00:28:19.23\00:28:22.03
and deepen your
understanding of God's plan
00:28:22.03\00:28:24.47
for you and our world.
00:28:24.47\00:28:26.07
Study online or
request them by mail,
00:28:26.07\00:28:28.50
and start bringing
prophecy into focus today.
00:28:28.50\00:28:31.47