Welcome back to another episode of Five Minutes in Church history.

On this episode, we are still talking about the crisis of the third century, and we left off last week with Dishus and his persecution.

Well, a key figure in all of this in the church is Cyprian of Carthage. He was born into

a very wealthy pagan family. He had the best education money could buy of his day and went on to be

quite a rhetorician and a lawyer, and then he converted to Christianity. In 248, he became the Bishop of

Carthage, and then 250 comes the Decian persecution.

Again, that was empire-wide. It was very intense, and Cyprian chose to go into hiding rather than get caught and arrested.

He felt like it was important to preserve the leadership of the church there at

Carthage. And Carthage is a very important city in the Roman Empire. It would, of course,

play a role later in the life of Augustine. But back to Cyprian and back to the third century.

After Dishus dies, the persecution comes to an end and there is a time of reprieve, and

Cyprian goes back into his post as bishop.

And this created a moment of crisis in the church because now you have three groups in the church,

because you have people who under Dishas would make that sacrifice, and they would, in essence,

recant their faith, make the sacrifice to the Roman gods in order to preserve their life.

And there were three views on this.

One is called the Novationist Group.

And they were more harsh.

They thought these folks should not be admitted back into the church under any circumstances. They had apostatized. They had left the church,

and therefore they are excommunicated for life.

There's another group that just wanted immediate forgiveness. just bring them back into the church.

Everybody understands. This was an intense time and they were under pressure and bring them in.

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