The Early Days of the Christian Church: Sin and Salvation

The unredeemed of humanity has jumped on a run-away freight train careening down a slithering track, winding around corners at breakneck speed, and it happens to be hurdling towards a 100’ thick brick wall. This train has no brakes, the engineer just died, and the passengers have a short time to live. However, hope abounds – someone can save them. Salvation reaches out to them, expressing love and compassion and exposing its power so save any of them would have just reach out. However, they must reach out in faith, and accept the salvation freely offered, but will they do it. They know there can be no other way of escaping their eventual death. The Savior knows the emanate danger and can see their calamity and eventual horrible

“What is the relationship among sin, salvation history, and the church? (Be sure to explain the significance of man having been made in the image and likeness of God, the role of Divine revelation, and the importance of God’s covenants with his people.)

After close examination of the historical article provided, this document appears to be a letter containing a firsthand account relating the procedures of the interrogation and persecution of Christians during the spread of early Christianity. The author addresses the recipient of the letter by proclaiming, “my lord” and further referring to his lord as his authority throughout the remaining four paragraphs through the use of second person such as “you,” “your name,” and “your instructions” (1, 3-5).

Historically, theologians and philosophers have struggled to agree on the ideas of human freedom. This struggle seems to stem from the debate over faith vs. reason, or the internal and external sources that lead to human thought and understanding, through which free will is then interpreted and carried out by means of the will. A hidden and constant strive for spiritual enlightenment has always been embedded within humans since the beginning of the Fall. Through this natural drive of pursuing spiritual enlightenment comes the creation of the road to which it leads. Throughout most of time, religion has taken the reigns of showing humans the road to salvation, externally, by means of scripture, which requires faith. Yet in the past, there have been times when the powers of evil have inevitably hijacked religion, turning those who have witnessed or experienced this treachery against external values based on faith, but rather internally based values by means of philosophical thought and reasoning through God’s gift of grace.

The story of the early Christian church involves a number of experiences of persecution. Most of the conflicts happen between Christians and Jews. Acts narrates that Peter and John were arrested by Sadducees (4:3-22), then harshly questioned by the Sanhedrin (5:17-42), and then flogged for what they believed in (5:40). The readers can begin to see the reason for persecution from the start—their belief in the unconditional love and resurrection of Jesus. Acts continues to show the demonstration of persecution by telling the stories of how Saul imprisoned many Christians (Ch. 8); how Jews plot to kill Paul (9:23-24, 20:19, 23:12-14); how King Herod executed James and imprisons Peter (12:1-5); how Paul and Barnabas were driven out of Antioch

In conclusion, we can say that Pelagianism rejects the belief and the doctrine of the Original Sin and claim that humans have not been corrupted, so people are capable of deciding to do good and avoid sin without the help of God. In summary, humans are capable of merit salvation on their own without God’s grace. Pelagius believed that the only thing that can affect us to obey God would be the human ignorance of God’s will.

“Christianity first started about 2000 years ago in a place called Judea with Jesus and his disciples.” (#2). “ The religion was created in Palestine on a small part of land of the eastern part of Mediterranean. There was conflict was centuries, Christianity had been created in an atmosphere very related to the spread of religion.” (#5) The new religion rested in issues in the Jewish religion, including a long-standing belief in the coming of a Messiah The emperor of Rome was known as their ruler. Jesus was known to be a Jew. The meaning of Christianity is relevance and humanity contribution. The History of Christianity began with the Old Testament. In the New Testament, jealous only preached to a Jewish audience. Christianity was emerged

The old testament is the first part of the Christian Bible, comprising thirty-nine books and corresponding directly to the Hebrew Bible. Most of the books were originally written in Hebrew between about 1200 and 100 BC. They comprise the chief texts of the law, history, prophecy, and wisdom literature of the ancient people of Israel. The old testament and the new testament connection between the two is the covenant. (McFarland 1/12) The new testament is the second part of the Christian Bible, written originally in Greek and recording the life and teachings of Jesus and his earliest followers. It includes the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, twenty-one epistles by St. Paul and others, and the book of

It is never enough for a student of theology to receive historical narratives of contexts that speak about the evil and corruption of humankind, at the same it is important for the student as well as the reader of this paper to be reminded how meaningful it is to read into the culture of certain people with respect to history and culture of their time. This week’s readings present a historical overview of Christianity in the U.S., beginning from 1942 until the present. I intend to draw parallels from Zinn (Chapter1) and Stone (Chapter 6) making a claim that the humankind to this day continues to crucificy Christ in every day contexts, whether it be culture or politics.

“For the third year in a row, the modern persecution of Christians worldwide has hit another record high” according to Christianity Today (Persecution in the Early Church). Right now, it is very dangerous to be a Christian in some countries of the world. Countries in Asia and the Middle East show the most violence towards Christians. If history really does repeat itself, Christianity will grow in numbers and in faith. More people will convert and the religion as a whole will be strengthened. This current issue can be related to Christian persecution starting in 64 AD which became most prominent in the Roman Empire. Christians have continued to be persecuted sporadically throughout history.

There are many different ways to interpret the theology of grace. In this paper, I will be discussing four major theologians who have the most popular insights on grace. These theologians include Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, and Rahner who all have their own unique perspective on grace. All of their theories seem to intertwine with one another but each individual one has a different twist that makes them slightly different.

Saint Augustine’s “Confessions” is an extremely important book, not only for the reason it is the very first, or one of the first spiritual biographies, but because Augustine was and continues to be one of the most important Christian theologians in history. His biography reflects his views on Christian scripture and theology as well as his personal journey on how he came to be a part of the Christian faith. Some noteworthy parts of his biography are; how he becomes a Manichean, when he meets Faustus and Bishop Ambrose, when he repudiates Manichaeism and gives up his career to devote himself to god and finally, how he discusses how Christian scripture can and should be interpreted. “Confessions” allows people to see Augustine as a man and a human being who had to struggle to find himself just as we all must do. Even one of the greatest theologians and greatest thinkers in history had to find his way in life, intellectually, spiritually and emotionally; all which are demonstrated in his biography.

In 1986, a nuclear power plant at Chernobyl melted down, causing thousands to be evacuated. Fortunately, no one was harmed in this incident. This disaster raised awareness of the potential dangers that could arise from nuclear power plants. Since then, large steps have been taken to increase the safety in power plants to ensure that another accident does not happen. By learning from this mistake, experts have been able to ensure that nuclear power plants are safer, and that another, more serious accident will not occur. Mistakes, despite their potential consequences, can have very large benefits when a lesson is drawn from them. People must learn not only from their own mistakes, but from ones that others make as well. Mistakes range from breaking the law, to failing a test, and even an accidental nuclear meltdown, but each mistake holds its own benefit to society, and the individual. In Puritan society, the mistakes of people are equivalent to sin. Puritans believe that sins have the potential to lead to the destruction of society. However, despite this belief, Puritan literature seems to suggest that sin serves a crucial function in society. Through the works of Arthur Miller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and John Winthrop, the benefits of sin become evident. Puritan literature implies that sin has two large benefits. The first is benefit to society, by setting an example of what is wrong and allowing sinners to more effectively serve their

The early churched mentioned in Acts 2:1, demonstrates what it is like to be brave through faith in Jesus, was a model of unity in believers, and showed the power of prayer while they nervously anticipated the arrival of the Holy Ghost. These people were the body of Christ coming together in its infant and earliest form. Jesus had been crucified by the local authorities less than two months previous to this, and at this point the disciples no longer had their leader to guide them. Yet, rather than allowing the negative feelings of doubt, fear, or anxiety to limit their capabilities, the disciples spent their time together in prayer and expecting the coming of the Helper. It would have been easy for any number of the disciples to go about with their everyday lives as they lived before they experienced Jesus, but they allowed their faith in what was promised to them to empower them to be courageous in

The early church started after Jesus had resurrected and ascended into heaven. There were three specific things that made the churches different. First, separation from the world. Second, unconditional love. Third, childlike obedience to the teachings of God. here are the differences from the Early church and the Modern Day churches.