The Church was much different in the early days. There was strict discipline, an awareness of what it meant to be Christian and many other things which made the Church beautiful. Although the structure and teachings of the Church have remained the same, many attractive characteristics have been lost.. The Christian religion was not simply a domination that one belonged to. It was a lifestyle that one lived. It was a reason to live and it was a reason to die. Many, knowing that they would be rewarded after death, suffered horrible tortures and even death for their faith. The early Church had the joy of a young child. Like young children, the people of the Church proclaimed the good news to all. They told everyone that would hear them in places of the public such as in forums. Many, being made aware of the gospel and being confronted with people who had been living the life of a Christian, had a change of heart and were converted. All those who belonged to the Church knew the importance of helping one another reach their desired end, that is, Heaven. They would encourage each other and rejoice with another when they overcame some battle. It was especially joyful event when one was …show more content…
Preparation for certain events, such as baptism, required the act of fasting, Sins required heavy penances for reparation, and people were required to help those in need. One might believe that these rules were too strict. To understand the necessity for strict regulations a person may look at the example of a child. Often when a household has lax rules, the children become negligent of their duties and lose the importance of doing things such as doing the laundry. Again, when the rules are strict, one often sees the opposite happen. The children seem careless of their duties at the same time they know the consequences of not doing certain chores around the house. In other words, order seems more vulnerable when discipline is not
Evangelism in the early church is different then evangelism in the church today. Today some churches do not even share the truth but only talk about money and how to make the church bigger. Some churches do not share the whole true and are not bold like the early church because they are afraid that they will lose members because of the truth. Also in some churches there is a lot of division. In the early church like stated earlier, they were unified and helped each other out. Now there is a lot of gossip and others try to excel above others in the church.
The evidence that exists to prove the diversity of the early Christian community is the many other writings which have been discovered by historians from the same time period (Harris 2014). In addition, the writings reveal that each separate group of Christians from this era had their own understanding of what Jesus was teaching His followers. The “fifth gospel” of Thomas paints the picture of Jesus as a guide towards His disciples by enlightening them with the message that God’s Kingdom already rules, but many people would not believe him. The portrait that Thomas provokes is an example of the diversity of the early writers and several of his ideas are similar to Matthew, Mark, and Luke (Harris 2014).
The earliest recorded text teaching Christianity has its roots buried deep within Judaism. The birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, as the Messiah, created a new ideology of worship. The Messiah is the savior for all people and of all sins. Paul carried the message of the Messiah to the Gentiles. His missionary journeys and establishment of churches enabled the spreading of the message throughout the Roman Empire. Christianity grew in acceptance; those that believed in the Messiah separated and began to worship on their own. This marked the beginning of the split of Judaism and Christianity.
The beginning of church is said to have risen from the resurrection of Jesus. In fact after the Pentecost, the disciples were celebrating the blessing given to Moses at Mount Sinai in which he experienced the presence of God. After this experience, the disciples were believed to be bold, understanding and Courageous. These characteristics till this day are still celebrated on Pentecost Sunday and are used for the sacrament of Confirmation, which is receiving the responsibility of a Christian and accepting the Holy Spirit. Church has been the backbone of people's faith. It has given them a comforting home to pray and be one with God. Today, however, more people are practicing faith outside the church. The majority of followers believe in God and life after death, however, many have lack of interest in the church. Church must be looked as a community of disciples. The book uses a suggestion from a Roman Catholic theologian Avery Dulles. He suggests, "that most appropriate image of the church for our times is the church as a community of disciples"(pp. 157). I totally agree with his suggestion. In order for Christians to find fulfillment in ones faith, one must help others understand their faith. We need to be grounded in grace; by being a Christian community your focus on believing is responding freely to a personal call and
The church and its followers started to make the idea known to others that God would send them to
Some people, especially the religious, clung more fiercely to their beliefs. The Church was the one thing that would not pass away or fall to shambles. Humans are wont to cling to a constant in times of trouble and the Church proved to be the rock in the river.
Christianity is the most practiced religion in the world. There's many ways to believe in or practice the religion. There's also multiple categories like catholic, baptist, lutheran, and christian.
The Catholic Church has many people who went to the peripheries. These people went out of there way to help people who needed them the most. They helped in churches across the world, gave supplies to the poor, and asked God to help the people who are sick and in need of assistance. Even if people made fun of them and shut them out of their community, they listened to Gods word and did what they thought Jesus would do.
This converted the Christian churches into the centre of learning. The priests or monks of the churches performed the role of teachers and used to give religious as well as other teachings to the people. These churches also preserved a lot of the old knowledge and writing of the classical world. The Christianity brought with it new ideas and views of the life and the world which differed from that of the ancient world, and this created many followers of the religion.
What happen next was to change the believers and establish the early church, when the day of Pentecost came, they were all together
The mission of the early church included a number of things. Some of these were to communicate and spread the news that Jesus was the Messiah and the son of God, to propose a new way of life to those who believe in God and to inspire more people to become a part of the Christian community.
There is so much one can learn from the early Church, especially when it comes to how
One could suggest that one of the main reasons why Church was such
Firstly, the Church is illustrated as a mystery in Lumen gentium. “The Lord Jesus, the only Saviour, did not only establish a simple community of disciples, but constituted the Church as a salvific mystery.” However, this statement raises the
The similarities from the First Century Church and the Churches of today are that we suppose to give up the world and follow Jesus. When we focus on Jesus we can love people and take the message of the Gospel to the people by making friends and making disciples. The differences of the First Century Churches and the Churches of today are the availabilities. In the First Century Church the message was only able to be delivered to the people that were in ear shad of Jesus and the Disciples. In today’s Church we have social media, computers, and radios to assist with delivering the message of Jesus. We do not have to walk everywhere we go we have the availability to go in Cars, Motorcycles, and planes. Which allows us a greater opportunity to spread the