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

A History of the Church (Week 5)

It's been a while since we had anyone share their story with us, but this week Betsy graced us with hers. If you missed it you're just going to have to ask her yourself next time you see her.

George continued our series on the history of the church picking up where Brent had left off by talking about establishing Christian doctrine.

Early Christians struggled with leadership and doctrinal authority in the church. One example is Clement's letters to the Corinthian church after they had overthrew their leadership. What gave Clement the authority to admonish and correct the church? Tradition has it that the apostles passed their spiritual authority down to spiritual successors to guide the church. The name these church leaders were given was "Elder" or "Bishop".

During this time scripture was being established, particularly the gospels. There was some confusion as to the nature of God. Gnosticism and Marcionism established a dualistic view of God. Arianism said that the Son was created by the Father. The elders of the church combated these heresies and established important Christian doctrine at the Council of Nicea and other church meetings.

Here are some of the primary doctrinal points established by the early church:

• Scripture is inspired.
• The God of the Old Testament is also the God of the New Testament.
• Tradition is important. (apostolic teaching)
• Jesus is the same "stuff" as God.
• The son is "co-equal" with God.
• Only God initiates salvation.
• The Holy Spirit is also God. (added shortly after original Council of Nicea)

Two systems of thought began to develop in the church, one in the east and the other in the west. In 1050 they would later become the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches.

We will learn more about early theology, church leadership, and the councils that helped to determine doctrine this coming week.

Announcements

• May 1st - Go And Be! - Day of service. Details here.
• May 5th - Cinco De Mayo Celebration - 6:30 pm at Los Cabos in Addison.
• May 15th - Single Parent Carnival - with Central Park Afterparty! Sign up at irvingbible.org.

A History of the Church (Week 4)

Brent continued to teach us about Constantine, the ruler who legitimized Christianity in the Roman empire.

Constantine, after taking control of the western empire, formed a bond with Licinius who controlled the east, but it wasn't long before he set his sights on the entire empire. And when a relative of Licinius got involved in a plot to assassinate Constantine, Constantine saw his opportunity to increase power and took Byzantine, encroaching on Licinius's territory. The two rulers forged another short-lived pact until 322AD when Constantine again attacked Licinius. Licinius surrendered in 324 AD and ruled the entire empire until his death in 337 AD.

Constantine moved the capital of the empire from Rome to Byzantium and changed its name to Constantinople. He attempted to restore the greatness of Rome under the banner of Christianity.

So what was Constantine's experience with Christianity? We discussed a couple of possibilities. The first is that he was a true believer, used by God to establish the church. The opposing view is that he was a political opportunistic using religion to his own ends.

As a class we had a discussion on what marks a true Christian conversion. We discussed confession, baptism, growth and discipleship.

With these in mind, was Constantine a true Christian? The church at the time was divided, and some of the church leaders didn't know how to deal with him. He did not have the typical Christian conversion experience and was not baptized until just before his death. Then again he had little political reason to try to gain the favor of Christians. They certainly didn't have any political power.

Constantine did believe God was on his side, but he was still a very shrewd politician. He knew he couldn't throw out the pagan religions suddenly without revolt so he worked at it slowly. He was at odds with the senate. (Who ironically declared him a god after his death. )

Constantine did do many thing for the church.

• Halted the persecution of Christians.
• Made Christianity the official religion of the empire.
• Abolished slavery, concubines, and gladiator fighting as a result of Christian values.
• He had a huge impact on church worship. Meeting on the first day of the week. Use of incense. Separation of the clergy and laity. Rituals. Signs of respect like kneeling and crossing. Building of church buildings. Introduction of choirs. Systematizing theology. Constantine was responsible for council of Nicea. Generally unifying of the church.

He had some negative impact on the church as well. Many Christians despised Constantine for the direction he took the church, making it the official religion, taking it in a secular direction. In response, some Christians withdrew from society, creating monastic movements. Some broke from the official state church. Others focused on doctrine creating councils and systematizing the faith.

The question of whether Constantine's impact on Christianity was positive or negative is an interesting one. Did he strengthen or weaken Christianity as a whole. He certainly helped it expand which many would see as good. Others might argue that he weakened the message of Christ. What do you think? Feel free to discuss below. Please keep it civil.

Announcements

• May 1st Day of Service - More details to come in an e-mail. This is a day out serving for all young adult ministries.
• May 15th Single Parent Carnival - Sign up at online irvingbible.org.

A History of the Church (Week 3)

Brent continued our series on a history of the early Christian church.

Towards the 3rd century the Church enjoyed a relatively peaceful existence despite the anti-Christian laws. In 284 AD Diocletian became the ruler of Rome. He was a brilliant leader and administrator who divided rule of his empire into eastern and western regions with heads who reported to him.  Galerius, Maximian, and Constantius Chlorus helped Diocletian rule. Diocletian was open to Christianity; his wife and daughter were Christians.

Galerius who was pursuing extending the empire in the north began having problems with Christians in the military. Many soldiers had a crisis of conscience when they converted. Galerius was not content with kicking Christians out of the military. He demanded that Diocletian create an edict where soldiers who wouldn't recant their Christian faith be killed. This was extended to all Christians in the government. Then they began to burn Christian buildings. Diocletian rather impartially went along with Galerius's ideas until the imperial palace caught on fire. Galerius convinced Diocletian that the Christians were to blame and helped him produce a law where all Christians had to sacrifice to the Roman gods or be killed. This edict extended through most of the empire.

In 304 AD Diocletian became ill and retired, leaving Galerius in charge. Galerius forced Maximian out of office by threatening military force. Galerius replaced Maximian with a weak ruler who did whatever Galerius said. However, the sons of Maximian and Constantius Chlorus, were well respected military leaders who enjoyed much influence over the army and the people in the west.

In 311 AD Galerius becomes ill, and someone told him it was a result of his persecution of the Christians. In response Galerius issued the Edict of Toleration marking the official end of the persecution Christians in the Roman empire. Galerius died three days later.

The Labarum - A superimposed "X" (Greek: Chi) and "P" (Greek: Rho) representing the first two letters in Christ's name.

Constantine (son of Constantius Chlorus) saw his opportunity to take over, and went to battle against his former ally Maxentius (son of Maximian) . Before going to battle Constantine received a vision of the labarum (a symbol of Christ) and made it his army's banner. Under that symbol he won the battle and took over the Western portion of the Roman empire. Christians see this as Constantine's conversion to Christianity. He issues the Edict of Milan in 313 AD, reinforcing the end of persecution and adding the return of confiscated properties.

Brent finished up by discussing the various classifications of Christians who had gone through the persecution of the church.

Martyrs - People who didn't deny Christ in the face of persecution and were killed for their beliefs.

Confessors - People who didn't deny Christ in the face of persecution and somehow managed to live through it all.

The Lapsed - These people fled persecution or recanted temporarily before returning to the church.

Apostates - These people denied Christ in the face of persecution.

In the 4th century church martyrs and confessors enjoyed the highest respect among their peers. Confessors often became church leaders. And so a natural church hierarchy beganto emerge.

Next week we'll learn more about Constantine's beliefs and his impact on Christianity in the Roman empire.

Announcements

• May 1st Church Service Project - A sign up sheet is going around in class. More details to come!
• We continue to raise money for our car project.
• "What's your story?" also continues.

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!