The Early Chapters

1090-1100 After the death of Jesus, early christians had difficulty spreading there teachings to the Hebrews of Israel. Frustrated by the lack of growth the Apostle Paul decided to expand Christianity beyond the borders of Israel. Paul decided to focus his attention to spreading christianity to the Roman empire. This fateful decision was arguably one of the most influential choice’s ever made. Before the legalization of christianity by Constantine, the early christians were often viewed…

Women’s roles in Christianity are an excellent example of the unevenness of women’s contributions to history. Women were the last disciples at the cross and the first at the empty tomb. They remained integral to the work of the church in its early centuries. Traditional Christianity believed that the statements attributed to St. Paul in I Timothy 2 that women were created second, sinned first, and should keep silence. Women traditionalists believed and accepted these teachings as true. Jesus’…

CThe conflicting elements had caused a significant rupture in the forming of the Christian church. Forinstance,” the doctrine of Docetism. Docetism has long been believed to have been integral to the teachings of the early Christian belief system of several the Gnostic schools however,the doctrine of these schools was to refute that God, in the form of Christ, had taken human form and were allowed to suffer and die on the cross. The doctrine suggested that, human body is composed of matter,…

Christians in over 60 countries, persecution of Christians worldwide is on a rising trend. In the Bible, the early Christians through their house churches demonstrated to the world God’s plan for the salvation of the world. According to Filson (1939), “the house church was a vital factor in the church's development during the first century, and even in later generations.” (p. 112) Just like in the early house churches, the modern days persecuted church demonstrates a sense of community and…

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…

It is an abstract concept involves complex mental process. Children begin to display FBU around age of five (Gable & Hunting, 2001). FBU and SC support each other in bidirectional ways in a cycle (Razza & Blair, 2009). The acquisition of the FBU helps children to learn that thoughts are related to both emotional and behavioural outcome (Razza & Blair, 2009). The information received from FBU can than motivate the child to enrich their growth of SC (Razza & Blair, 2009). In another way around,…

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…

Introduction Acts is a continuation of the Gospel of Luke. Both books are addressed to the same person Theophilus, whose name means “beloved by God”. Also Acts picks up right where Luke 24 ends, with the ascension. When Jesus ascended it marked the completion of his ministry on earth. Verse 1 Acts 1 and Luke 24 have much overlap between them. “Without the book of Acts the story of Jesus would be incomplete. Afterall, he didn’t come merely to save individuals to get them to heaven, but to…

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…