Central Park Bible Community A community of young adults at Irving Bible Church

A History of the Church (Week 2)

Paul continued our series on historical Christianity by talking about Ignatius of Antioch. Ignatius was born around 30-40 AD. By the end of the first century Ignatius was a leader in the church, and in 107 AD he was arrested and sentenced to death for reasons that are still unclear. As he was being sent to Rome to go on trial leaders from various churches intercepted him en route and received letters of encouragement for their churches. Among these leaders was Onesimus, the run away slave from Philemon, who had become a leader in the church at Ephesus.

The church in Rome began to make plans to break Ignatius from prison. Ignatius instructed them not to because he believed it was God's will for him to be martyred.

Polycarp was another early church leader who was martyred in 155 AD. Roman authorities went on the hunt for Polycarp after were insighted by a crazy old man named Germanicus. Polycarp fled and narrowly escaped capture a few times before giving himself up. At his trial, the crowd cried, "Out with the atheist!" (Christians and Jews were seen as atheists because they only believed in one God and followed Christ.) Polycarp turned turned the crowd's words back at them by pointing back at them declaring, "Out with the atheists!" He then publicly thanked God for the opportunity to serve Him before being sentenced to death.

Then as a class we discussed how our church today interacts with culture. We discussed everything from mimicry to politics to concern with image.

The early church also struggled with how to interact with culture. Everything from military service to the acceptance of classical Greek philosophy was debated among early Christians. And while some believe in a severe separation between the church and the surrounding culture, others like Justin Martyr looked for points of contact. He built upon the classical philosophies to explain how Christ and the church were the answer to the questions the philosophers had posed.

Paul finished up by reminding us that the question of how the Church should interact with the culture is not new, and we can take some comfort in that. As always feel free to discuss your thoughts below.

Announcements

• Spring Retreat - It's about time to go spend some time at Mary's Mom's lake house again. We're not sure when it will be, but look for information to come soon. It will likely happen the last weekend in April...or the first weekend in May.
• We're continuing to practice generosity by putting aside a little each week for the car fund.
• To support this we're continuing to forgo eating out in favor of dinner at someone's house each week. If you have a nearby house or apartment you don't mind sharing, please let us know!

Interesting Post on Leaving Christianity

Today I read this interesting blog post by a local bible teacher who has a passion for teaching theology. He believes there is an epidemic of young people leaving the evangelical church because the church has not done a good job of answering questions and doubts.

Do you agree or disagree with the article? If you agree, what do you think needs to be done? What role can small communities like Central Park play in helping to develop the intellectual side of one's faith? What role should intellect even play in faith?

I'm curious to hear peoples' thoughts on the matter, so feel free to discuss.

A History of Christianity (Week 1)

Paul kicked off our new series by endorsing The Story of Christianity by Justo Gonzalez. He also described the scope of the series...to tell the story of Christianity between the book of Acts and the time of Martin Luther.

During the first few decades of the Christian church, the the religion was seen as sect of Judaism. As Christianity grew two heads of the church emerged, Peter and Paul, the former heading the church in Jerusalem and the latter leading the ministry to the gentiles.

Nero was the narcissistic Roman emperor who ruled during the latter portion of Paul's ministry. When Rome burned, Nero blamed the fire on Christians because "Christian" parts of Rome were largely spared. Christians already had a reputation as atheists, "incestors", and cannibals. The general public viewed Christians as troublemakers, and Nero's accusation kicked off intense persecution of Christians in the Roman world. Nero's reign ended in 68 AD when he killed himself.

Vespasian was the next emperor of Rome. He and his son Titus who succeeded him largely ignored Christians in favor of rebuilding Rome. Christians were still not popular, but they were not heavily persecuted. Vespasian destroyed the temple in 70 AD.

The next Roman emperor, Domitian, tried to regain the glory of Rome and its polytheistic tradition by persecuting the Christians and Jews. Domitian's reign ended at the height of Christian persecution. He was a hated emperor.

Domitian's successor, Trajan (98 AD - 117 AD), along with Pliny, a Roman magistrate and scholar, established sustained persecution of the church with an official edict that allowed Romans to turn in their Christian neighbors as troublemakers.

Several decades later, Marcus Aurelius, an intellectual and relatively enlightened Roman emperor would write eloquently about humanity yet fail to overturn the edict established by Trajan. He still idolized the religion and ideal of Rome.

Persecution was not the only challenge to the early Christian church. Internally, Gnosticism threatened to corrupt early church beliefs. Gnostics believed that the material world (the flesh) was evil. They did not believe Christ was truly God because they saw the spiritual and physical worlds as being at odds. They believed in demi-gods as well as the creator. Marcion simplified Gnosstic thought by relegating the Hebrew god (Jehovah) to a secondary position below the supreme God who is all loving.

Hints of the social, political, and theological struggles of the early church are still apparent today.

Announcements

• March 26, 6:30pm, The Alvoce - Wii Game Night - We will be challenging each other to Wii sports and all other matter of Wii fun. Bring a few bucks if you'd like to order pizza.
• Remember to pray for one another!

March 7 – When Generosity Trumps Talking About Generosity

John shared his story. Thanks for your openness, John.

We watched the sixth and final video in Erwin McManus's "Uprising" series - The Path of Servanthood. It was about generosity, a subject we've discussed at length recently. We didn't have much time to discuss the video because we spent quite a bit of time talking how we were going to go about getting money to buy a car for someone who needed it. When theory is trumped by action, that's never bad.

Announcements

• Saturday, March 13th, 9am - Help a Sister Move!! - Meet at UHAUL at Northwest Highway and Harry Hines. We'll be loading up a van, and moving it to an apartment in Grapevine.
• Coming Soon - Wii Game Night - We don't yet know the details, but it's bound to be fun.

Remember...

• Pray about how you would like to contribute to the car we want to donate. Be creative. Is there something you could give up so that someone else can have transportation. If you have any creative ideas on what we could do as a group to fund raise, share it!
• Pray about and consider sharing your story with your fellow believers in Central Park.
• Pray for each other.