Christian History

Master of Christian History Lesson 9
1) Who were the apologists and polemicists and how did they respectively approach their task of defending the Christian faith through writing? What was the difference in approach between the Eastern and Western apologists?
                                                  In the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D., The Christian church expressed itself in a different way by using the new writing methods of apology and polemics. The apologists confronted a hostile Roman government which they tried to win over with their written arguments. They tried to convince the powers that be that Christianity deserve persecution. The polymists directed their attentions to the condemnation of internal heresy. These two groups were different from the apolostic fathers in that they did not write to and for Christians.


2) Who was the greatest apologists? Who was the greatest polemicists?

     Justin Myrtyr was the greatest of the apologists, and Irenaeus was the greatest of the polemicists.


3) What were the two polemical schools of Christian thought and what were their respective approaches to formulating Christian theology?

     Around A.D.185, there was founded in Alexandera a school of catechism to teach new pagan converts, the doctrines of Christianity. The men of this school wanted to create a systematic Christian theology, by using philosophy. These men had been trained in classical literature and philosophy and they thought that these things could be used to form Christian theology…. The Carthaginian school., Western/Latin mentality was more concerned with practical involving church polity and doctrines relating to the church rather than speculative theology. The difference can be seen in contrasting the writings of Origen with the writings of Tertullian and Cypian of North Africa.                                                                                                                                                             
                   

*******************************

The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have various classes in Christianity, one on Wicca, along with several Pagan courses, more than a few courses about Metaphysics with more being added regularly.

Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free, legal and lasts for life, so please take advantage of our Free Online Ordination.

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

 

Christian History

Master of Christian History

By Michael Barth

    This course of Christian History was a very fascinating course to take.  This class starts at the very beginning and goes up to the Great Schism of 1054.  The topic that caught my eye was the persecution that the early Christians had to face during the early years.  The persecution was not easy to overcome.  The early Christians faced many different types of punishment that included everything up to death.

            I also felt that during the class that the Christians also persecuted the Muslims when Islam started to spread in the East.  This was surprising to me since Jesus Christ taught lover, peace, and tolerance.  Early Christianity did suffer through dwindling numbers as Islam grew but I could sense through this course that there was tension between Islam and Christianity.

            The early Christians overcame the persecution of the early years when Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity.  While the seriousness of this conversion is in question, Constantine issued the Edict of Milan in A.D. 313 which allowed Christians and other religions the freedom to worship any religion the people chose to worship.  With this edict, Christians did not have to worry about state interference and were allowed to worship without worrying about facing punishment.

            With the Edict of Milan, Christians started to come together to come up with a standard of theology for Christianity.  What I consider the first major meeting was held in 325 A. D. under Constantine at Nicaea.  This helped Christianity spread because this informed people what Christianity believed and stood for.  There was still a division between the East and the West though which was based on how the Bible was to be interpreted.

            In 1054 A. D., the Great Schism happened between the Eastern and Western Churches.  Each church excommunicated the other over differences in how to practice Christianity.  What is interesting about the Great Schism is that the Roman Bishop, Leo IX, had been dead for 3 months so he could not have seen or signed the excommunication for the Eastern Church.  Both churches had been in talks about the differences which led to the Great Schism.

            This class was full of information about Christian History.  I would recommend it to any ULC minister.  This course helped me realize how the early church developed and the hardships that it faced in the very early years.  This course was well written and was presented in an organized and chronological fashion.  The author of this course was very knowledgeable about Christian History.

*******************************

The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity two courses in , Wicca, several in  Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. I have been a proud member of the ULC for many years and the Seminary since its inception.

The Universal Life Church offers handfasting ceremonies, funeral ceremonies and free minister training.
 

As a long time member of ULC, Rev. Long created the seminary site to help train our ministers. We also have a huge selection of Universal Life Church  minister supplies. Since being ordained with the Universal Life Church for so many years and it's Seminary since the beginning, I've watch the huge change and growth that has continued to happen.
 

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

Four Gospels Questions

Hello:

 ⁴³"When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. ⁴⁴Then it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. ⁴⁵Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation."

I feel that this passage is telling us that if a person tries to give up their life of sin, but they do nothing to replace their old, evil ways, they are bound to fail and will go back to their old ways, plus add some other bad habits.  For example, if a person gives up watching porn but does not take up reading the bible, then eventually, they will just go back to watching porn and will, in fact, add other bad habits (i.e.: prostitution, abuse of drugs, etc.) to it.

The Bible tells us in James 2:14-17 that faith is not enough.  If it is not nourished, if the field the seed of faith is planted in is not worked and if it is left alone, then that faith will die and the field will soon be overgrown with weeds.  Faith is like a muscle.  It has to be exercised or it will become weak.

Glenn Kirkland,

"Most people give-up just when they're
about to achieve success." ~ Ross Perot

*******************************

Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free, legal and lasts for life, so please take advantage of our Free Online Ordination.

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

 

Christian History

      Master of Christian History Lesson 8


1) What were the roots of these heresies at this time?
       External and internal. The external front came mainly from the persecution by the Roman state. The internal front came from those persons within the Christian church who were teaching false heretical doctrines and developing their own canons of writings to support those heresies. Converts to Christianity came from either a Jewish  legalistic background or an intellectualism rooted in Greek philosophy.



2) Why was Gnosticism in particular such a great danger to Christian doctrine?
       It was at its peek around A.D. 150, its origins can be tracked back into New Testament times. Gnosticism came about from a natural desire to develop what theologians call today theodicy, an explanation for the beginning of evil. Gnostics believe that matter is evil. As such they wanted to create a method to keep God, as spirit, separate from evil, and which humanity came from.



3) How did the existence of these heresies help the Christian church in the long run?
      In Gnosticism, salvation was only for the spiritual soul. It might start with faith, but the special knowledge that Christ gave to the elite would be far more helpful in the process of salvation. The body was evil and destined to be cast aside. To keep the body in check, asceticism or complete hand over to libertinism was predicted.


By Rev. Julia
*******************************

The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have various classes in Christianity, one on Wicca, along with several Pagan courses, more than a few courses about Metaphysics with more being added regularly.

Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free, legal and lasts for life, so please take advantage of our Free Online Ordination.

The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of minister supplies.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and am proud to have started the Seminary.

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

 

Four Gospels

Dear Amy:

The Blog did not allow me to register, so I am writing you with a question.

The Unvarnished Gospels is a very interesting translation, but it sometimes leaves me feeling uneasy.  For example, according to the Unvarnished Gospel, Matthew 11:6 reads as follows:

"And the person is in luck who doesn't let me down."

The ESV translates it as, "And blessed is the one who is not offended by me."

The Catholic Bible (1958) reads, "And blessed is he who is not scandalized in me."

The NIV says, "Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me."

The King James translates it as, "And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me."

And finally, The Amplified version reads, "And blessed-happy, fortunate and to be envied- is he who takes no offense at me and finds no cause for stumbling in or through me and is not hindered from seeing the Truth."

I just can not help but seeing Jesus,dressed in a pin-stripe suit and white hat, and talking like  Sheldon Leonard while saying, "is in luck who doesn't let me down."  I attribute luck to a gamblers good fortune from a random series of events.  The use of "... let me down." seems to me to be more of a modern slang than a direct translation.

Well, this is my feelings on this and I invite thoughtful, and probing feedback from others.

May God bless you,

Rev. Glenn Kirkland, D.D.

"Most people give-up just when they're
about to achieve success." ~ Ross Perot

*******************************

The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have various classes in Christianity, one on Wicca, along with several Pagan courses, more than a few courses about Metaphysics with more being added regularly.

 

Christian History

Understanding the Foundations

Final Essay for the Master of Christian History Course

By Daniel L. Moore

            What happened in the first century, the execution of a charismatic preacher, still impacts people.   At the time the execution of Jesus Christ occurred, it was considered a relatively minor incident when viewed from the Roman Empire's perspective.    It was no different than the arrest and execution of a local terrorist.  The man was innocent of any crimes and did not have a physical army or kingdom to overthrow Rome with. 

            Why the fuss?  When one analyzes the sermons that Jesus Christ preached, they seem do not seem to advocate violence.  In fact the strongest language was directed to his own nation's leaders.  He advocated loving one's enemies.  He healed a Roman centurion's servant, cleansed a Samaritan of his leprosy, cast a demon out of a Gentile woman's daughter, and dared to heal on the Sabbath.  He emphasized the sharing of resources in order to help those less fortunate.  So what was His crime?  That he dared forgive people of their sins and that rocked the boat of the local religious leaders.

            He was prophetic.  He dared to say that he would be arrested, tried, beaten and then executed.  Then he said he would be raised from the dead on the third day.  The key doctrine of the Christian faith is the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  There were over 500 eyewitnesses to this.  Early historians make mention of this – often as a minor footnote, after all it is Rome – and then there is the movement of followers. 

            Jesus did not "found" a new religion.  He was a Jew who claimed to be the Messiah.  His recorded miracles were such that they could not be tricks or illusions – like raising Lazarus from the dead after the body rotted for four days.  There was the fact that Jewish synagogues were often used by the evangelists like Paul and others that were "conveniently" located throughout the Roman Empire.  They were the repositories for the Jewish Bible which the evangelists would teach from and then show how Jesus fulfilled the messianic prophecies.  They would then offer the Gospel – the plan of salvation.  The initial church was Jewish. 

Complementing the movement was the universal language of the empire at that time – Greek.  Also, Rome had built roads and secured the waterways so that travel was relatively safe.  For a generation, the followers of Christ were able to spread their message of the Gospel with ease.  As the Gospel spread, the non-Jewish peoples began to hear and respond to the message.  The fact that Jesus often emphasized the poor and that the slave population of Rome was quite high led to many of the poorer economic levels becoming Christian. 

The call of  Saul of Tarsus, later known as the Apostle Paul, was a stroke of the divine.  He was a business man, a trained Jewish scholar, and a passionate follower of God who would use his talents to extend the church.  His missionary strategy was to start with a major city located on a major transportation hub – like a port or where several major highways met.  Once a church was established in a major city, the outlying towns would be targeted. 

From the beginning, the church had a simple yet effective organization.  The apostles were the initial leaders of the church and would be replaced by bishops.  Priest – sometimes called elders or pastors – would lead the local congregations and would be assisted by faithful servants called deacons.  The early bishops served as missionaries to new areas by leading teams to start new works, ordaining elders and deacons, and helping them as they grow.  The bishops would also stay and eventually serve as a senior pastor to a group of churches in a city and in the outlying towns. 

Persecution of Christianity caused the leaders to defend its teachings to the outside world, to develop a unifying doctrine or creed for the church to combat any heresies from within, and to unify the various documents we know today as the Bible. 

From my study of these lessons, I determined that the church had an excellent start but along the way the culture tended to creep in.  The legalization of the church was both a positive and a negative.  Though the church had freedom to evangelize, it also was tempted to get into power politics to its detriment.  The fact that Rome was divided into east and west did not bode well for the church as the first major denomination split was east and west.

All in all, this was a very good review of the first one thousand years of the history of the church.  It helped me to see where many of the practices found today originated.  It also reveals that there has always been some political and cultural encroachments along the way.  There is always a struggle between keeping the faith pure and cultural influences.        

********************************************

To ordain yourself with the Universal Life Church, for free, for life, right now, click on the Free Online Ordination link.

Rev. Long created the ULC seminary site to help ministers learn and grow their ministries. The Seminary offers a huge catalog of materials for ministers of the Universal Life Church. 

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar