Major Issues In The Early Church

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entile Inclusion
A major issue in the early church was if Gentiles could become Christians. Jews thought of Christianity as a God-given right that they had inherited and no one outside that heritage could be saved my “their God.” Ehrman says that “early Christians maintained that Jesus was the Jewish messiah sent by the Jewish God to the Jewish people in fulfillment of the Jewish Scriptures.” When Paul entered the ministry, God stirred his heart to start spreading the gospel to the Gentile nation. During this time, the early Christians were not accepting the Gentile nation as their brothers in Christ. Jews believe that if people (Gentiles) wanted to become Christians, they had to become Jewish first (Ehrman 335). Gentiles were considered pagans because they were very liberal in beliefs. Paul spent his ministry telling the story of Jesus and encouraged that this faith (Christianity) was not …show more content…

Samarians were pagan worshippers and were consider unclean to the Jews. Jews could not have any dealings with these people without becoming unclean themselves. In result, Jews went out of their way to avoid Samarians. Jesus on the other hand chose to come to Samaria and talk to a woman to offer her a new, everlasting faith. I believe this would later be a representation Paul could refer to in his ministry that Jesus came to save anyone and everyone.
Jesus’ main ministry was to the Jewish people. Since Jewish law required the act of circumcision, it was not a pressing issue in Jesus ministry. However, Jesus came across the issue of circumcision in his ministry in John, chapter seven. Jesus says, “Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgement” (John 7:24). I think Jesus would have the early church to accept the Gentiles on who they were. Gentiles were not raised in the Jewish law and therefore, do not have to follow a nation’s law they do not belong

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