Acts of the Apostles

Outside of Jesus Christ, there may not be a more important figure in Christianity other than St. Paul the Apostle. Paul was at one point a persecutor of early Christians, however a revelation experience in the mid-30’s AD changed his view of the faith. He ultimately became the most prominent figure in the spread of early Christianity, as his many missions established Christian churches throughout the Roman Empire. During the time of his missions, Paul penned numerous letters to the various…

Chapter 9 “Music and the Temple” Musical Instruments It is important to note here that when Moses was given the original instructions, in Numbers 4, of how the holy items were to be transported, music was not part of the plan! Furthermore it does not state in 2 Sam 6 that God had commanded David to establish music and singing when the Ark was being returned. So some might say assembling a musical ensemble was a risky instruction given by David considering what had happened to Uzzah (2 Sam 6:7).…

His Father. “To find God’s will for His life and to do it, was the ruling principle and the energizing purpose of Jesus’ life.” Thus, this was the reason for Jesus being sent into the world. The will of God was also the motivating force behind the apostle Paul (Rom. 1:10), and “one might bring the whole religious and ethical teaching of Paul under the heading…for Paul God is the God of the Old Testament, living and active, whose will manifests itself in Creation in the ordering of human…

In this passage Luke summarizes the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, including his teaching, miraculous deeds, and calling of his first disciples. Jesus declares that the time has come for God’s promises to be fulfilled. The hopes revealed in the Old Testament start becoming true through his life and ministry. Luke emphasizes that Jesus is Messiah, who is sent by God the Father to proclaim and demonstrate the Good News. We see that not everyone is open to this, as Jesus meets some opposition…

"I know that many will blame me that I act thus openly. But I do it both on my own account and on yours; on my own, so that those who see me henceforth possessing any money may say that I am mad, and on yours, that you may learn to place hope in God and not in riches" (Waldo). "The Conversion of Waldo" acts as a precursor to the idea of lay brethren helping sects of like the Dominicans on their preaching and various recruiting journeys throughout Europe (Madigan 216). While the story mainly…

Scot Mcknight speaks about how Western evangelicals have lost touch with the gospel. He says we’ve reduced the gospel to making a decision for Christ. Mcknight argues that it’s been reduced to a 4 point presentation that’s a surefire way to salvation. Telling people that “God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their life” is one of the most dangerous things you can tell someone. When you assure someone that they’re in God’s love when in reality they are an enemy of God and stand under his…

Humility “I believe the first test of a truly great man is in his humility.” ~John Ruskin John Ruskin’s quote tells us that a great man is determined by his humility, but what is humility? Humility is not lacking pride but not having too much pride it’s being confident but at the same time having respect for others ideas and beliefs and viewing yourself or putting yourself in others shoes.Everyone has their own perception of humility, whether that is humility in Judaism in accepting who you…

The authorship of the book of Hebrews has been debated for quite some times, and this essay will address issues concerning who wrote Hebrews and the evidence that suggest whether or not the Apostle Paul was the original writer of the Hebrews. First of all, the Book of Hebrew is not considered a letter such as the other epistles written by Paul. It was a book that was written to the Jews that had been converted not to revert back to Judaism. Because of persecution, many decided…

amazing things through this study. Before I get into anything I just want to summarize what I read. In the book of Acts, early church members in the church in Jerusalem were giving their money freely to help the poor. But this caused a bit of a problem because the church was growing so fast that some of the widows in the community were being overlooked. The complaints of this got to the apostles and they chose seven men to give out the gifts to the poor. Among these seven men was Stephen who the…

The Spread of Christianity in Roman Empire By around the time of 312 A.D. it is believed that one in ten people in the Roman world classified themselves as Christians. The spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire evolved with the act of war. As the power hunger Rome conquered and won over a vast amount of cities, they also had a mix of a variety of cultures. As they took people from all over Europe as either slaves or granted them citizenship, different cultures started to emerge. Rome came…