Early effect

The Gospel of Matthew contains a number of verses that provide a conflicting yet intriguing insight to the status of women and the interactions that Jesus had with them. A consequence of these differing views is the uncertainty readers may have over the role of women and their influence in the rise of Christianity. Professor Rodney Stark’s essay on the role of women promotes the notion that women were major stakeholders in Christianity and acted as a catalyst to the religion’s rapid growth.…

The Foundation of the Canon Almost 1,982 years ago Joshua (whose name means Yahweh is salvation ) was crucified. Since that time a substantial amount of writings both, canonical and non-canonical were written about Him and His teachings. I learned in the past that there are certain qualifications that have to be passed in order for a writing to be considered canon and placed in the New Testament of the bible, however when looking back through history I see something quite different has…

The Patristic Era was a time of great growth in the early Christian movement. Experiencing period waves of persecution, the early Christians were not deterred from spreading the good news of the gospel message. Patristic theologians such as Origen of Alexandria would leave a lasting impact on the church as it continued to develop theological dogmas and methods of the interpretation of Scripture. The method of Scriptural interpretation introduced by Origen addressed the questions and heresies of…

James D G Dunn notes: “The epochal significance of Pentecost raises the whole course of salvation-history to a new plane ….In one sense, therefore, Pentecost can never be repeated - for the new age is here and cannot be ushered in again. But in another sense Pentecost, or rather the experience of Pentecost, can and must be repeated in the experience of all who would become Christians.” Dunn is effectively saying that in order to witness for Jesus Christ today, just as the disciples…

Roughly speaking, Acts 1-7 describes the impact of the gospel in Jerusalem. Then Acts 8-12 carries the account forward, depicting the effects of the gospel in several places in Judea and Samaria. Lastly, Acts 13-28 highlights the spread of the gospel to the major cities of the whole Roman Empire, the ends of the civilized world.” There are two references from Isaiah that are important because…

The biblical reading that I selected is from the book of Acts, Chapter 5: 1-11, which is the story of Ananias and Sapphira. My reason for choosing this story is personal. While living in Italy, we were in Rome with some of our seminarian friends. We were waiting to go on the Scavi tour and had some free time. One of the seminarians asked if we had ever seen the sacristy in St. Peter’s. We had not, so he took us in for a tour. After the tour of the sacristy, we walked out into the Basilica.…

For example, persecution is not always a bad thing, and churches today should embrace this ideal. The early church faced a lot of persecution and thrived despite the constant attacks from Roman officials. The church can learn that God can work in all situations, and God in His infinite power can do all things. The church needs to understand that church liturgy…

Faith began with Jesus and his followers and was sustained and upheld – through a period of rapid growth and persecution – by faith in the living Spirit of Christ. Hope for a new era and a dedication to follow Jesus in his work marked this period. Early Christian communities were compelled by a faith that indicated a lifestyle, not strict adherence to set creeds or traditions (5). Shadows of the forthcoming Age of Belief could be seen even a few decades after the beginning of Christianity, but…

Red Rocks Church is only ten years old, and the Lakewood campus is brand new. It’s not even two years old and so many people flock to that campus every Sunday. It’s astonishing to see hundreds of people come through those doors and find a seat in the movie-esk pew area and praise the Lord. The church is nondenominational. They believe that God is the loving creator of the seen and unseen. According to their website, they also believe that Jesus is God in the flesh and that he lived a sinless…

orthodoxy” (p. 16,). In The Heresy of Orthodoxy, Kӧstenberger and Kruger (K2) provide a fair examination of the Bauer thesis which lays its foundation on the major urban centers of the first and early second centuries. The Bauer thesis, as popularized by Ehrman, argues that diversity – not unification - was present in early Christianity; “heresy preceded orthodoxy” (p. 17). K2 examines the Bauer-Ehrman thesis in three parts: pluralism…