A summary: i guess.

Church History. My brain is so full. (warning: stop reading now if you find History dull)

Where do i start?? i want to keep some summary "notes" on this topic just to solidify it in my own memories. (writing this down, forcing myself to restate that which i have read, really helps me do that)

Here goes:
Section One: Jesus and the Apostles
6BC-70AD

- Christianity's roots go back into Jewish history long before the birth of Jesus Christ
- Jesus came, attacking established Judaism, brought a renewal.
-after his death and resurrection, his teachings spread throughout the Mediterranean
-The Apostle Paul stressed God' s gift of salvation for all men, causing Christianity to grow from Palestinian Judiasm and become a universal religion.
-Stephen openly proclaimed that the Old Testiment (O.T.) declared all that God was going to do through Jesus, that Jewish rules and regulations were only meant to be temporary. Quoting from Isaiah and other O.T. books Stephen built his case, showing the Jewish Council how they were God' s chosen people to receive the law, but that they had not obeyed it. Then they stoned him.
-Jewish leaders were baffled at the rate in which Christianity spread after they killed its ringleader. After all, how could so many people follow a 'dead' man?
-The first company of believers was Jewish. They called themselves followers of "The Way" until soon after they changed their title to "ekklesia" (greek) or Church. (the equivalent of the O.T. term for the assembly of Israel.)
-Christians still met at the temple for services, strictly observed Jewish laws and rituals.
-the only practices that showed they were different: baptism and communion
- Christianity spread very quickly to the Hellenistic Jews (Greek) who were from all over the Roman Empire, mixed more easily with the gentiles, were more exposed to Greek culture, more responsive to new ideas.
- Hellenistic and Palestinian Jewish Christians began to have friction when the widows of H.J.'s were being 'overlooked' by the P.J.'s. Thus Deacons were called into service. (meaning of deacon: servant or minister)
-A.D. 36 marks the first major blood shed of Jesus-followers and a widening gap btw Christian and Jew.
-Hebrew Apostles did not have to run, but the Hellenistic Christians fled and began to start churches in other parts of the world due to the bloodshed . (samaria, syria, damascus, antioch, tarsus, egypt)
-Paul's conversion: he realizes that "the Law of God was given for a time to convince men of their inablilty to fulfill the will of God and to leave them with no option except to embrace the good news of Jesus Christ's death and resurrection." (page 20)
-by 70 A.D. the break btw Christianity and Judaism was complete. (Christian Jews were banned from Synagogue services, etc)
-The 'old wineskin' was torn. Christianity would remain a 'gentile' movement.


Section Two: The Age of Catholic Christianity
70-312 A.D.

we'll do that another day...i want to jump ahead to my reading in section three....talk to you again soon! (maybe)
sue