Chapter 1 - The Gospels, The Apostles, Then What?

AD 64-177

Book Outline:

Introduction:

“Christian history deeply affects every Christian. It affects how we read the Bible. It affects how we view our governments. If affects how we worship. The church’s history is our family history. Past Christians are our mothers and fathers, our aunts and uncles, our in-laws and (in some cases) our outlaws. 

“When a child in Sunday School asks, “How could Jesus be God and still be like me?” she’s asking a question that, in AD 325, three hundred church leaders discussed in a little village named Nicaea. Somehow, what those leaders decided will influence your answer.

“If you wonder, ‘Why are there so many different churches?’ the answer is woven somewhere within 2,000 years of struggles and skirmishes. When you read words like ‘predestined’ or ‘justified’ in Paul’s letter to the Romans, it isn’t only Paul and your pastor who affect what you believe. Augustine, Aquinas, Martin Luther, and Jonathan Edwards also influence your response, whether you realize it or not. (Jones, 3).

1. Who were the Christians, Anyway?
1. For the first 30 years
1. Jews: renegades who abandoned the Torah
2. Christians: followers of a Jewish Messiah
3. Romans: yet another Jewish sect, which protected the Christian missionaries
2. Shift in second half of 1st century.
1. Jewish synagogues exclude Christians
2. Romans see them as a distinct (and illegal) religion
2. Rome Burns—AD 64
1. summer of AD 64 Rome burned for 6 days in 10 of the 14 districts
2. citizens blamed Nero, the Emporer. Rumors about him spread
3. fire most likely began in an oil warehouse
4. Nero blames the already unpopular Christians and begins persecutions
1. apostle Peter and Paul die 
3. Christians Rejected All Other Gods (refusal to bend morals)
1. Christians only belieived in and worshipped one God
2. Romans, like the Greeks, worshipped multiple Gods just in case.
3. Romans sacrificed for the well-being of the Empire.
4. Christian Customs were Widely Misunderstood (Rumors)
1. Body and blood of Christ misunderstood
2. ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ terms meant sexual partners in Egypt
3. secrecy of the Lord’s supper caused rumors
4. Romans accuse Christians of cannibalism and incest
5. Christians Challenged the Social Order
1. Slaves and women were treated as equals
2. Abandoned children were adopted into the community against the wishes of the birth family
6. Christianity was a New Religion
1. Romans distrusted new ideas
2. Christians were different from other religions
1. no temples, no sacrifices, no sacred city
7. Jerusalem Burns and Bleeds—AD 70
1. Rome constantly harassing Jews
2. Riot of AD 50 in Jerusalem kills 30,000 men and women
3. AD 64, Roman governor Florus kills 3,600 Jews
4. Jewish Zealots revolt in Jerusalem and Galilee
5. Nero sends General Vespasian to put down the rebellion
1. Jerusalem pillaged, temple burned, 1,000,000 killed and 1,000,000 enslaved.
6. Masada falls in AD 73. As the Romans broke through the wall, the entire community committed suicide.
7. To avoid another revolt, Jewish leaders exclued all fringe groups from synagogue worship.
8. By AD 90, synagogue prayers include curse against ‘Nazarenes’, a reference to those following Jesus of Nazereth.
8. What Should We Do With All the Christians?
1. “I Won’t Wait to Be a God!”
1. AD 69 to 81 Emporers ignored the church
2. Vespasian’s son, Domitian becomes Emperor
3. decrees that Jews send their tithe to Rome due to lack of Jewish Temple
4. Persecution continues under Trajan
1. Governer of Northern Asia Minor: Pliny
2. Christians who recant are spared death
3. Christians thought of as atheists because they reject Roman Gods
5. Polycarp (disciple of Apostle John) burned alive for not recanting.
2. “Hey, We’re Not Outlaws!”
1. Christian scholars, called ‘Apologists’ defend the faith using philosophy
2. believed Greek philosophy could lead to God just like the Jewish law did
3. AD 165 Justin Martyr beheaded for refusing to recant Christ
9. Why Did the Churches Grow?
1. God’s spirit was working:
2. Christianity Provided Moral Guidelines
1. many Gentiles were repulsed at the Roman Empires depravity
2. Gentile men often supported Jewish synagogues. Called “God fearers”. Did not want to undergo circumcision.
3. Christianity Offered Equality and Respect
1. Pagan view of women: “We have courtesans for pleasurable sex, young female slaves for day-to-day physical usage, and wives to produce legitimate children and to serve us faithfully by managing our houses.” (Jones, 13)
2. Christians treat women with respect because Jesus did
4. Christianity Offered a Personal Relationship with God
1. Jesus was a God who understood suffering and was not detached from everyday life
2. Christ’s suffering encouraged and strengthened many early martyrs.
1. Blandina, handicapped slave, tortured all day for refusing to offer incesce to the Emperor