College Notes
Church History
Lecture 2
Establishment of the New Testament Church
I. Harnack - German church historian
A Prime source used
in this time frame. Called father of Church
history
1. Others quote heavily from his
work
B. Wrote late 1800's and early 1900's
C. Wrote book on the
spread of Christianity in the first 300 years
D. Strong German
influence in study of theology
E. Gave 7 Reasons for "Christianity
boom"
1. Diffusion of Judaism throughout
empire
a. colonies spread -
dispersion (Diaspora)
b.
Jews laid the foundation so when Paul went out there were communities in
place in all major cities
2. Hellenization of the
world (Greek culture)
a.
Language - communication
b.
The society became
polytheistic
c. They allowed
God's religion to exist
3. Roman monarchy - one
world government
a. This
gave the empire one law
b.
It united people in thought and protected all
4.
Communication system
a.
travel/roads
b. postal
system
c.
trade/commerce
5. Humanitarian ideas
developed
a. Tolerant
attitude about religion
b.
Generated questions about man's importance and purpose, questions
Christianity could answer
c.
Christianity grew under guise of Judaism
6. Roman
tolerance of religion
a.
Church was viewed as a sect of the
Jews
b. It was forbidden to
have a new religion
c. This
proves that the Church had the doctrines we have
today
1. If it had X-mas, Sunday, or others then
outlawed
2. All scholars agree that the early church was
Jewish
3. Judaism had Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, Essenes, and Nazarenes,
the church
7. Diffusion of Assyrian and Persian
religion
a. Persians
emphasized religion and allowed
all
b. Greeks carried on the
concept of Polytheism
c.
these groups blended -
Syncretism
1. System developed that was Greek, Jewish, Babylonian,
etc.
2. Into this, Simon Magus began to add Christianity
SIMON MAGUS
* He had the whole system to work with.
* He had background of mythology.
* He had the belief in after life and the legends of Isis and Osiris.
* None of the Apostles ever included any other religions into what they preached - Simon did.
SIMON WAS NOT THE FIRST POPE
* The Catholic Church took time to develop.
* What Simon did to blend Christian concepts with Pagan led to what finally became the Catholic Church.
* What came out of this was a church that accepted the name and the person of Jesus, yet held totally different doctrines and preached a totally different message.
* Mr. Armstrong explained it as a church that preached about the person of Jesus but did not preach His message.