Throughout the first 400 years that Christianity was present in the world it changed dramatically. It started small in an area near the eastern Mediterranean area but within these 400 years, it grew to encompass the whole of the Mediterranean and its surrounding. Throughout this time of growth, there was also much change within the beliefs of Christianity with the main belief centering around Jesus Christ. While Christianity grew and made it to new areas it was introduced to new people that interpreted the different scriptures and preaching of what it meant to be a Christian. Some of the most influential writings in these years came from Irenaeus of Lyons, a second-century writer, Christian, theologian, and bishop. He expressed his beliefs of what made a Christian a Christian within his writing. One of his most famous writings, The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching, highlights the idea of the Holy Trinity and the Rule of Faith in the interpretation of the bible. Irenaeus believed that the Rule of Faith was ultimately necessary and required when reading and interpreting the word of Christianity saying, in the words of Isaiah, “If ye believe not, neither shall ye understand” (paragraph 3). In the eyes of Irenaeus, the Rule of Faith is one of the main things that makes a Christian a Christian.
The first part of the rule of faith reminds Christians of “God, the Father, not made, not material, invisible; one God, the creator of all things” (paragraph 5). Irenaeus believes this is important when interpreting the bible because God the Father is the creator of everything and “by His Word has created the whole world” and “has given laws wherein each several things should abide” (paragraph 10). Irenaeus says that since God is t...
... middle of paper ...
...t is from Him” (paragraph 100). A stated previously, Irenaeus puts much emphasis on the belief in all three figures.
Ultimately, Irenaeus believes that the Rule of Faith is one of the major attributes that Christians must have in order to be Christian. He backs this up by mentioning the reasons why the Rule of Faith is so essential for true Christians to remember. He furthers this by giving the arguments against his viewpoint and omits them by giving his truth to what the Rule of Faith is. Overall, while there are many major beliefs that can come from Christianity, the major belief that helps with the interpretation of scriptures and the Bible can be seen in the Rule of Faith. The rule of Faith is supposed to serve as guidance and a reminder to the truths of Christianity. Without the rule of Faith, it would be easy to get lost and forget what the truth really is.
There are five core beliefs in the Bible that has a significant impact on the Christian faith and the lives of its adherents. These five beliefs are, the divinity and humanity of Jesus, the death and resurrection of Jesus, the nature of God and the trinity, the revelation and salvation. These beliefs are all clearly demonstrated in various forms and quantities across all Christian denominations.
The book of Matthew chapter 5 through 7 was known as, “The Sermon on the Mount”. Which were words spoken by Jesus Christ. The purpose of this Sermon was to show representation of the normative foundation of Christian Morality. For instance, this passage was more so fixated on whole hearted benevolence towards others around you and genuine devotion to God.
St. Thomas Aquinas presents five arguments to demonstrate the existence of God. However, this paper focuses on the fifth argument. The fifth argument is regarded as the Teleological Argument and states that things that lack intelligence act for some end or purpose. While the fifth argument satisfies God’s existence for Aquinas, some contemporary readers would argue that Aquinas neglects the laws of physics. Others argue that Aquinas allows a loophole in his argument so that the Catholic conception of God is not the only intelligent designer.
Moreover, Stern’s explains how God is the creator of all things he is the uncreated [author’s italicization]. Furthermore, he gives in details God’s unfailing love for his creation by showing creation right from wrong. “According to the New Testament, he is love. His love is expressed, in part, in providing law
The rise of the church had a great impact in medieval society. The great belief of Christianity began with Jesus of Nazareth who presented public preaching’s of a friendly and forgiving God as he claimed he was the Messiah. According to Jesus, god’s command was for all human kind to love, cherish, and focus their lives to the Lord. The love that was expected for humans to have for God was to adore him with all of their hearts, minds, and souls. He also preached to the early people of how one should love one another. A friendly and forgiving God would later attract many sacredly inspired communities to worship him. People of the medieval world placed great belief in Christianity causing the rise of the church to impact many aspects of the society including government, family, and architecture.
In all human history, there are rare occasions of great individuals who not only have profound effect on future generations, but who also stand the test of time and scrutiny for millennia. These people are often thought to be great leaders of society or business but when we go back even farther in time, the great thinkers and societal leaders and influencers were more often also some of the great religious influences of their day. Religious influences like Origen of Alexandria and Tertullian, even the great philosophers like Socrates and Plato have all left a make on society and Christianity. This essay briefly introduces Athanasius of Alexander and Eusebius of Caesarea, two major influences of the Christian belief that were significant in shaping some of the fundamental principles of Christian faith and principles.
Christianity developed with Jesus of Nazareth (6 BCE- 29 CE). He was born during the reign of Augustus Caesar. He practiced Christianity from 26 CE to 29 CE. He was the Son of God and the Redeemer of all Mankind. The Romans viewed him as someone “rocking the boat” with what was already a nation of the religiously obsessed. Eventually h...
The most important historical fact of Christianity is the life of Jesus, the prophet that the faith of Christians is centered around. The historical Jesus grew up in Nazareth where John the Baptist baptized him, thus beginning his career as a teacher and healer of God. Little is known about where Jesus came from or what he looks like, only his personality through actions and words. Like most prophets, Jesus looked to the spiritual world to find answers to remove the suffering; John was the prophet to open Jesus’ eyes to heaven, leading him into a state solitude until he became empowered by the Spirit. The actions that speak for his personality are of power to heal sickness, cast away evil, and perform miracles, all that the prophets gave credit to Jesus, but this what not the focus of his ministry. What drew people into Jesus was his hope to heal humanity, not just people; he urged peace and loving of the enemies, which created ties with the Pharisees. However, the Pharisees did not see God as compassion, so they created categories of clean and unclean people. Christianity is originally created for the undesirables, so Jesus felt that the boundaries were not exemplifying His compassion, thus he set out to change the system. This did not sit well with the Pharisees, so Jesus began to compiled enemies of Rome, which would lead to his crucifixion. It was the death of Jesus that began the Christianity faith, but his words and deeds that empowered the people. Jesus had no new teachings that were different from those before him, but he had a weight of meaning to his words. Christ’s teachings were mostly in the forms of stories where lessons of the heart lay behind the message. Not only did he speak with authority, but he spoke out ag...
Averroes begins by analyzing the Book of God in order to prove that philosophy, or intellect, is a vital aspect of religion, and that it is necessary for complete comprehension of the Law. “Since it has now been established that the Law has rendered obligatory the study of beings by the intellect…therefore we are under an obligation to carry on our study of beings by intellectual reasoning”(165). He goes on to instruct that intellect should be collected by means of gathering all previous knowledge of its kind since one person cannot discover everything about one particular subject. Of course, not all people will interpret text the same way, and some might even make wrongful interpretations by accident. When this happens, the original texts from which the interpretations come from should not be prohibited because more competent individuals will come along that will be able to infer the proper meanings to pass on to the people.
Jesus, a name known by billions throughout the world. To each, this name means something different; savior, friend, philosopher, prophet, teacher, fraud, fake, liar. Some even believe that He is just an imaginary character from the minds of those who wrote about Him. The Westminster Dictionary of Theology describes apologetics as, "Defense, by argument, of Christian belief against external criticism or against other worldly views" (Apologetics 31-32). Though there are still many mysteries that surround the ongoing debate about Christianity, evidence can now prove some of what Christians took by faith before. Now, more than ever, there is information to prove the existence of this man that walked the earth more than two thousand years ago. Little remains of His life and works except for that which is contained within the pages of the Holy Bible. Throughout the past century alone, there have been numerous discoveries, both scientific and archeological; to further prove the existence of a man called Jesus and reinforce the Bible as a legitimate historical document. The validity of Christianity and Jesus Christ himself has been the center of religious controversy for centuries. Though His identity has not and probably never will be proven, He did exist. This paper will use apologetics to prove this so. Sufficient evidence proves the existence of Jesus and forms a firm basis for Christianity.
Walls, Andrew. 2000. 'The Expansion Of Christianity: An Interview With Andrew Walls'. Christian Century 117: 2--9.
The broadest definition of Christianity is also perhaps the simplest. Across the history and branches of the religion, “it is faith in Christ, not the scrupulous and religious keeping of the law...which is the basis of salvation” (McGrath 15). The religion that is now a major global force has grown out of a small group tucked away in one corner of the world, breaking and changing over time, yet united by a faith in this revolutionary man who claimed to be the son of God, Jesus Christ.
Nearly 300 years separated Ignatius of Antioch and Augustine of Hippo, during that time a lot changed for Christians in the Roman Empire. The church moved from being a criminal religious organization, to a legal religious organization, to the only legal public religion. Christians during this time were always engaging the culture around them—religion, politics, literature, education, etc. This paper will describe the Christian Roman religion before Constantine and after Constantine.
I invite you to consider the life of an interesting human being with me in this paper. Let us investigate together the man known as Irenaeus of Lyons. We will endeavor to gain an overall verbal portrait of the man who is considered the most significant ecclesiastical witness before Eusebius and the leading theologian in the second century A. D. The Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church both consider Irenaeus to be one of their “holy saints“. The name Irenaeus means a “‘man of peace,’ and the early Christian historian Eusebius honored Irenaeus as a peacemaker in keeping with his name.”
Throughout the first half of the 3rd century, source information relies heavily on the writings of Eusebius, a Roman historian. When he talks about evidence of Christ...