The Early Christian Church

In history, understanding the past is key to foreseeing the future and understanding the roots of the present world. As such, understanding the beginnings of the early church gives us insight into the success of the Catholic Church today and its 1.2 billion followers. The major transformation of Catholicism today can be traced to its early days, in particular, the early first century AD. After the Ascension of Jesus into heaven, the apostles brought themselves to embrace the mission Jesus gave them, and in doing so, they began preaching the word of God to all nations. As Christianity was still developing, a man named Saul, once a persecutor of the early Christians, would experience a powerful vision of Jesus in heaven on the road to Damascus,

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

Pluralism attracted the most negative attention to the Church of the 1400-1500s because when Church-appointed officials did not show up to their benefices, leading to the lack of responsibilty of the Church officials. Immorality was mostly neglect of the rule of celibacy, however immorality was not entirely sexual transgressions, there was also clerical drunkenness, gambling, and indulgence in fancy dress. Ignorance was the lack of education, as many priests were barely able to read or write. Finally, in regard to pluralism or absenteeism, many clerics had benefices, but rarely ever visited them, let alone performed the religious duties the offices entailed, this led to the attracton of the most negative attention.

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).

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.

From being a persecuted religion, Christianity rose up to be an official religion of Rome with the support of the Emperor Constantine and Theodosius I in the fourth century. By the early Middle Ages, the Church had become extremely powerful and was one of the two dominant forces that controlled the entire Europe, with the other being the State. Although the popes and the kings were ought to be supportive of each other, there usually existed between them a constant struggle for ultimate authority over the kingdoms. More than often, these conflicts created tension between the State and the Church eventually resulted in the people's sufferings.

During the middles ages, church was more than just the place you went to worship, it was a place of power. It had a government, courts, a system of taxation, and laws. Teachings of the church influenced everyone in the society. The Christian Church molded the way the culture was during the middle ages. Christianity is the name given to the system of religious belief and practice which was taught by Jesus Christ in the country of Palestine during the reign of the Roman Emperor Tiberius. Since Christianity was the dominant religion during the Middle Ages, attempts to purify the church and society led to many Christian campaigns against other religions. These campaigns were led by bishops, scholars and warriors who made efforts to make the Christian world free of all the non-Christians.

But only when they received this power that Comes from God. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts1:7)

The primitive illiterate life of believers required an interdependence that few experience in North America today. Sharing homes, foods, water, and relying on one another for work was the structure of life at the time. The benefit of this life was the “forced” community it created. While today many believers are independently secure and provided for, the sense of community is less apparent. Reclaiming communal aspect of discipleship will be beneficial because it is the biblical design of discipleship as the Acts narrative and epistles

Effects of Church on Medieval Times Life during the Medieval Times was mostly based on the church and royalty. The word “royalty” meant to have status, dignity, or power. The Roman Catholic Church had much influence in this particular time of history. Before the church began gaining influence in the people, the Roman Catholic Church got its name during the Roman Empire. The word “church” had two meanings, one of them was, a group or meeting of believers; and the other meaning was universal and meant the “body of Christ”.

My personal philosophy of small groups is scriptural based. Acts 2:46 says, “And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart.” As the original church began, it is obvious from Acts chapter two and particularly from verse 46 that the church met in unity in large groups. They actually used a two-fold approach of meeting in large-group meetings and then in the homes for more intimate small-group gatherings. Acts 2:46 clearly shows the church gathering in homes, eating together, and continuing the work of the ministry.

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.

Through consistent praying and the power of doing miracles which were bestowed upon them through the Holy Spirit, the apostles brought more and more people to become the followers of Jesus. The Book of Act was regarded as the “Christian history” because it recorded how the early Christians formed a community and began to build up their faith through the persecutions they faced.

The efforts made by the early church fathers during the Patristic Period made a significant impact on the actions, practices and beliefs of the Christian community during the past as well as today. The Apostolic Fathers such as Papias, Polycarp, Hermas, Ignatius and Clement of Rome focused on matters such as church organization, righteous living and faith (“Church Fathers” 2). With their writings, these fathers fought to keep the faith within the old church in the face of persecution. As the attention turned to defending Christianity, the Apologist Fathers used their writings to counter the false claims that Christianity was faced with. Among the famous apologists are Tertullian and Justin Martyr (“Church Fathers” 3). Later,

Each of the four Gospels contains points in ecclesiology. In the Great Commission, Jesus’ last instruction to the Apostles is to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching people (Matthew 28:19-20). For Jesus’ mission to continue and for his Church to grow, discipleship is necessary. Discipleship is a prominent theme in all four Gospels, for purposes of this essay, only the Gospels of John and Luke-Acts will be analyzed. The similarities regarding discipleship in these Gospels include images of the net and fishing, and the sheep/shepherd/sheepfold. The differences include the preparing of the Twelve to carry on Jesus' ministry in Luke, and service to the community and passing of authority in John's Gospel.