CHURCH HISTORY (You May Wish To know)

  1. What was the common Language of the day?  Koine Greek
  2. What did the Roman Roads Provide?  They provided an infrastructure that knit the empire together
  3. How many days was the Pentecost after the crucifixion?  Fifty days .
  4. How many days was the Pentecost after the ascension of Christ?  Ten days.
  5. What day marks the birth of the Church? The day of Pentecost.
  6. What apostle dominates the first 12 – 15 chapters of Acts?  Peter.
  7. How many believers according to acts were filled with the Holy Ghost?  120 believers.
  8. On the day of Pentecost when Peter preached how many converts did his sermon produce? 3,000 converts.
  9. Was Peter the founder of the Roman Church, its first Bishop, its first Pope?  No. There is no evidence to support this claim.
  10. What does tradition say about the end of Peter’s life? The best evidence says Peter died as a martyr during Neronic persecution, about A.D. 68. (Crucified upside down on a Roman cross).
  11. How did Paul’s life intersect three great ancient traditions?
    1. He was religiously Jew.
    2. He was culturally a Greek.
    3. He was politically a Roman.
  12. Approximately how many years after Paul’s conversion was his first missionary mission? 13 years (A.D. 48).
  13. What two fundamental questions surfaced as the early gentile churches began to flourished?
    1. What was the relationship between Christianity and Judaism? A Judaistic group from Judea insisted circumcision was necessary for salvation. This contracted Paul’s free-grace gospel. Hence the Jerusalem Council of Acts 15. The mother church affirms Paul’s free-grace gospel.
    2. How is a person justified? The mother church affirms Paul’s ministry of justification by faith plus NOTHING ELSE.
  14. How did Rome capture the Greeks? They captured the Greeks Militarily (pg7).
  15. How did the Greeks capture Rome? They captured Rome Intellectually (pg7).
  16. What is meant by Diaspora as related to the Jews?  It refers to the migration of Jews through out Roman (pg7).
  17. How did Rabbis treat women in the ancient world prior to the gospel? Rabbis were encouraged not to teach or even to speak to women.
  18. According to Jewish Tradition what was unacceptable concerning women and the synagogue prior to the gospel?   Women could never be a part of the count needed to establish a synagogue.
  19. What did the gospel do for women in the ancient world?  The gospel was a liberating force for women in the ancient world.  Luke cited both men and women who were baptized and persecuted, and contributed to the growth of the church (Acts 5:14; 8;12; 9:2; 17:4,12)  (Pg 11).
  20. Who was the first to bear news of Christ’s resurrection, Men or Women? Several women had this honor in spite of the strict Jewish teachings on valid testimony.
  21. Women in the Early Church: Who was Dorcas (Tabitha)? (Acts 9:36) She was the only woman to be called a disciple in the N.T.
  22. Women in the Early Church:  Who was Mary of Jerusalem, John Mark’s mother? She was a wealth woman widow whose house became the vital hub of the Jerusalem church. (Acts 12:12)
  23. Women in the Early Church:  Who was Lydia?  She was a wealth woman of commerce and apparently Paul’s first convert in Europe (Acts 16: 14-15).
  24. Women in the Early Church:  Who was Priscilla (Prisca)?  She and her husband, Aquila,  were early converts to the faith and were banished from Rome. Tradition has it that Priscilla was martyred in Rome. (Acts 18:1-3, Romans 16: 3-5, 2 Timothy 4:19).
  25. Women in the Early Church:  Who was Phoebe ?  She was probably a bearer of Paul’s letter to the Romans. Paul commends her to the Roman church.  He calls her a “helper” which clearly implies active and important function in the church. Paul ask the Roman church to take care of her.  (Romans 16: 1-2).
  26. Women in the Early Church:  Who were Philip the evangelist’s four daughters ?   Philip’s four daughters were “virgin prophetesses” (Acts21:9). Note Paul’s instructions in 1 Corinthians 11:5.
  27. Women in the Early Church:  Who were Euodias and Syntyche?  They were women identified as “fellow Workers” with Paul just as Paul had also label Titus and Timothy.
  28. How many of 29 people commended by Paul were women?   Ten of the 29 people were women.
  29. According to the book, who were some of the early Church fathers that may have been trained by John, the son of Zebedee? Polycarp, Papias, and Ignatius.
  30. According to the writings of the early church fathers what two things did their writings often glory?  The early church fathers writings often gloried martyrdom and celibacy.
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  32. Who was the brother of John, the son of Zebedee? James.
  33. Where and how did John, the son of Zebedee die? He was in exile and died in Ephesus of a natural death.
  34. Why did Paul go to the Synagogue each time he entered a city? He took the gospel message to the Jews first and only then did he proceed to the Gentiles.
  35. After the death of the apostles,  by the end of the first century who filled the leadership gap in the church?  The Church Fathers. Father was a term of affection and esteem given to spiritual leaders of the church (known as bishops or elders).
  36. What three groups can the Fathers be divided into?
    1. The Apostolic Fathers (A.D. 95-150). After the Death of the Apostles, the first shift was to the group called “Church Fathers” who would guide and guard the flourishing church.
    2. The Apologists (A.D. 150-300). This period marks the combat of theological errors creeping into the church. This shift marks the beginning of the second group of Church Fathers known as the Apologists.
    3. The Theologians (A.D. 300-600). Theologians disputed over the nature of the Godhead, the nature of Jesus, and the doctrine of salvation caused the church to systematize its beliefs and reach consensus on what the scripture taught.
  37. What was the aim of the Apostolic Fathers? Their desire was to edify and exhort the saints and to give them the hope they needed to persevere.
  38. What did the writing of the Apostolic Fathers often glorify? Their writings often gloried martyrdom and celibacy.
  39. What did the Apostolic Fathers (the Church) struggle with in the second century?  The second century marked a Church struggling with how to live obediently and how to structure a Church in a vastly pagan culture.
  40. What is another name for one of church writings called Didache? The teachings of the twelve.
  41. Where did the false teaching come from that the Apologists confronted?
    1. Errors came from outside the church.
    2. Errors came from within the church.
  42. What were most of the Church errors a mixture of?  Most errors ware a crude mixture of Greek philosophy, Judaism, and eastern beliefs that assailed Christian teachings about Jesus Christ and his work.
  43. What did Non-believers often characterized Christians as?  They characterized them as atheist, cannibals, or immoral.
  44. Define the Criticism of the Christians?  
    1. Criticism arose because Christians refused to worship the emperor or Greco-Roman gods.
    2. Criticism arose because of misconception about the Lords Supper.
    3. Criticism arose because of the love displayed within the early church.
  45. What were some of the Heresies the Apologist confronted outside of the church?
    1. Gnosticism. They had a dualistic view of reality. The material world and the immaterial world was totally separate. The material is evil  and the immaterial is good. They didn’t believe Jesus had a physical body.
    2. Manicheanism.  Also has a dualistic view. It proclaimed two opposing forces, light and darkness, were in eternal combat.
    3. Neoplatonism.  Build on the teachings of Plato. Taught the goal of all humans was reabsorption into divine essence. Believed salvation was purely spiritual with no Jesus, no cross, and no atonement.
  46. What were some of the Heresies the Apologist confronted inside of the church?
    1. Marcionism. Marcion argued that there were two gods – creator and a redeemer.

                                                              i.      The former was the god of the Old Testament who was evil and capricious.

                                                            ii.      The latter was the god of love and redemption, whom was Jesus Christ revealed.

                                                          iii.      Marcion also developed his own Canon because of his view.

                                                          iv.      He repudiated major portions of the N.T.  Only accepted portions of Luke’s Gospel and only ten epistles of Paul.

    1. Ebionitism.   It taught that Jesus was the prophetic successor of Moses and that Jesus was not the eternal second person of the Trinity.
    2. Montanism. Central to Montanus was the revelation of “Prophecy”  that the coming of Christ is near. The movement involved the use of the sign gifts (speaking in tongue) as evidence of the anointing for the second coming.
  1. When did the most merciless persecution of the Christians occur?
    1. Caesar Nero ruthlessly persecuted the Christians in the Late 60s.
    2. Emperor Decius in 250AD was responsible for the first worldwide persecutions. He attempted to enforce sacrifice to the Roman gods.
    3. Emperor Diocletian in the early 300s was responsible for the most merciless persecution.  He ordered the destruction of the church buildings, the burning of the scriptures, the closing of church meetings, and the imprisonment of Christians. He made the refusal to sacrifice to the gods a capital crime.
  2. What did the Council of Nicea in 325 do? The Roman Emperor Constantine called the council together in 325 to deal with the controversy that erupted over the teachings of a North African Priest name Arius. Three positions were represented at the Nicea:
    1. Jesus was of different essence than the Father (Arius).
    2. Jesus was of the same essence as the Father (Athanasius).
    3. Jesus was of a like essence to the Father (a compromise position).
  3. What was the outcome of meeting at Nicea?
    1. They condemned Arius as a heretic.
    2. They declared Jesus to be “True God from True God”
    3. They proclaimed Jesus as “begotten, not created”.
  4. Who was the man responsible for writing the Bible, “The City of God”?  Augustine.