Church History

The process by which Scripture has been preserved and compiled is one whose history is worth noting. The early church had many opportunities to share the Good News of Christ via word of mouth, but from the time of Christ’s resurrection until the mid-second century, there had not been a single culmination of writings considered to be essential for the purposes of

The Papacy in Rome became powerful in the 6th century, successfully continuing to be in power throughout the 9th century. The great altitude was reached by the Church when the Roman Empire was torn apart by the barbarians and then ripped throughout Europe. Western Europe is grateful to its preservation due to the rise of the Church. Nothing would manage to survive in the middle ages, if there had not been the alliance of the churches with the barbarian royalty, contributing to the preservation of agriculture and literature, being meantime the conduit of learning.

1.) There are many non-believers who question and try to disprove the validity of the word of God its authors who he spoke to. Many will argue that the number of authors prove that the bible is a collection of stories and go out of their way to deny divine inspiration of its authors. Divine authorship, “recognizes that every word of the Bible originated and came about through the work of God.” (Cartwright and Hulshof, 2016). God used men to put his words to the text of the Bible. Many people fail to realize that words of the scripture are directly his own.

The early American colonies were founded and settled by Great Britain. Accordingly, Church of England was the state sponsored religion in this area. Most individuals identified themselves at Protestants and most of the settlers considered themselves church members. Even with these facts the Anglican Church struggled to keep its base in the colonies and to move into newly settled areas. This happened because of the church leadership, several church practices, and the topography of the colonies.

LAKE ARTHUR - Since 1890, the First United Methodist Church has provided a spiritual home for Lake Arthur area residents.

The Word of God consists of the mind of God. It is the base of our relationship with God the life sustainer of man. When followed man preserves that life. We can take God at his Word; Logos, the Bible Scriptures, the Gospel indeed!

Base of the different church structure mentioned, there’s no conclusive evident that one church model is better than the others, it’s a matter of prefer to the believers on which model they will follow. The scripture show no evident that any one model should be followed. Whatever model a believer chooses cannot prove by scripture that their model is mandated. The only visible scriptural goal for all the models would have a structure that is harmonious, has revelation of God’s plan and should be use according to His purpose. An ideal church structure is nearly impossible from what I can see. Unless we go back to Eden, where it all begin and change what Adam and Eve did in the garden, church structure will always be flawed. Free will has changed God’s plan for man, and there will always be people who will not transform by the renewing of their minds. The NT only speaks about Jesus’ church, also known as Ecclesia from two words. Ek means “out” and kaleo means “to call”, so the gathering of the called-out believers is the Church. The ideal church structure would be the believers who are called-out to represent Jesus’s church. Scripture does not mention the traditional church, organic church, hybrid church, or the attractional church (Gray, 2012). In my opinion the simple church would be more ideal for me. Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger confirmed through a case study on churches that the kingdom is expanding through churches with simple process and the more complex

Over the past years of my life I have seen many changes, some for the good and others not as good. Change can be demanding and also crucial. The early believers would encounter this. One can see that significant change happened, when reading through the gospels and the book of acts it is obvious to the reader that the believers who followed Jesus would never be the same again.

The word of God enables us to know God and be conscious of Him (Heb 4:12). The Bible explains that God is a Spirit “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (Jn 4:24).

When Bede was writing 'A History of the English Church and People ' the conflicts between Christians and pagans were still not long a ago and Christianity was not yet as dominant in England as it would be in the future. Therefore, the memories of these conflicts were still fresh within some people 's minds and Bede made sure to record it. Bede wrote the history of past events of Christianity 's struggles, the great men that protected it and enforced it. He wrote so that Christians would have an example on how to act in order to achieve greatness, how to avoid sin and how to strengthen Christianity and the Church itself in England.

Throughout history, Christianity always had a reputation, or a “name” following it. Different perspectives approached the reputation that was attached to Christianity in different manners. Justin Martyr and Porphyry had objectives when defining whether this “name” really defined Christianity and the past. They wondered whether the past really represented Christianity. Additionally they honed in on the question of was the past that people represented as Christianity really the roots of Christianity? All around Porphyry and Justin was perceptions of what Christianity rooted from and stood for.

The New Testament was canonized over a period of approximately four hundred years (Stotesberg). From AD 50-125, the books which in the end constitute the New Testament were written. Simultaneously, other books, which did not end up being included in the final canon, were produced. These books are the Epistle of Barnabas, the Didache, I Clement, the seven letters of Ignatius of Antioch, etc. (“Development of the Difficult Canon”). As more and more books were written, Christians realized that it was imperative that they gather and consolidate this material before it became lost. Sometime before AD 100, ten of Paul’s letters were gathered and combined into their own canon. The Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) were combined to form another canon soon after the canonization of Paul’s letters. The Gospels and Paul’s letters became the main body of a new group of Scriptures that would soon become the New Testament. Soon Acts, I Peter, I John, and Revelation were inserted into this body of Scripture. Following this, the rest of the books were added to the New Testament (Barker).

The bible was written as an account of what many viewed that God had accomplished so his actions and words could be passed on for generations. Some believe it is a literary account and some believe it is a historical account. The word of God in the bible comes in many forms and is left up to interpretation by the reader. Some believe that the word of God should be the only word and should be strictly followed. Some believe that the words are meant as a guideline to help us through life. Whatever your belief is you can always seem to find the meaning behind your belief through the word of God in the Bible.

During the early history of the church, there was no such thing as a New Testament “canon.” The selection of books that were to be included or excluded from the texts used by the church was the responsibility of each individual church body, and thus varied greatly from location to location. Because there was no canon – (books considered

“Heritage, Memory and Reconciliation: Central Concepts and Methods in the Study and Dissemination of Church History“