Church History Paper I

The disputes Erhman examines involved rejecting the adoptionist theory of Jesus. The adoptionist view of Jesus holds that he was the Son of God by adoption only. There was no agreed upon view between Christian groups on whether Jesus was a divine or a human being which caused variations within copies of the bible. Erhman states how many scribes who opposed the adoptionist view of Jesus wanted to change their texts in places to emphasize their view that Jesus was human, but at the same time a divine being on earth. These types of textual changes heavily impacted the Gospels by altering the symbolic meanings of Jesus’s teachings and parables so much that they have become doubtful. This caused major concerns because once texts are altered from the original, the words of the texts become different words with different value which affected the grasps of the words by later readers. Bart Erhman’s redaction criticism in his, Misquoting Jesus, offers a significant new idea that contemporary Christian churches can both benefit and learn from. Redaction criticism has revealed that not all books included in the bible have stayed in their original form. From this, knowledge of the unoriginal text can serve as a basis for more thoughtful study into the bible and its history. Debates surrounding

Determining what exactly influenced the official canonization of the Scriptures that we have today is debated among many Christian theologians and scholars. It is important to understand how the books that are found in the Bible today, where Christians receive their foundation of belief, were selected and what encouraged the church to actually close their canon and make it official. The church began with a canon, the Jewish Scriptures, but as the Gospels were written and the apostolic writings were located, published, and recognized, the need for a closed canon became imperative. The church was beginning to expand quickly, and with the expansion of the church, different and somewhat false beliefs were soon to follow. Some of these beliefs became stretched to their full extent and were recognized as heresies. One heretic in particular drew a significant amount of attention from the church, and we know him as Marcion and his heresies as Marcionism. The Marcion heresy greatly influenced the official canonization of Scripture by drawing the church of Rome’s attention to the need of a sure and solid closed canon.

“Of the many influences that have shaped the United States into a distinctive nation and people, none may be said to be more fundamental and enduring than the Bible (Reagan).” These are words spoken by the 40th President of the United States of America, Ronald Reagan. The fundamentals of the Bible are vast, a few include God as creator of all, sin and its consequences, God’s redemption of mankind through Jesus, the work of the Holy Spirit, and Heaven and hell. The Christian Bible is comprised of the 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament. A man by the name of Marcion is believed to have rendered the first canon of the Bible. Though he grew up in a Christian home, and is perhaps one of the most influential and impactful men to walk the earth, Marcion is also considered one of the most reviled heretics. So much so, he was excommunicated from the church because his teachings departed from traditional Christianity. His teachings were radical, and caused many to follow him, thus starting a movement that came to be known as Marcionism.

Marcion of Sinope is a Christian theologian who has made many arguments in wanting to separate Judaism and Christianity and devaluing the Old Testament. He has quite the backstory about his life, opposing the Old Testament, and making an impact on Christian History.

The general church is the branch of government in the Church of the Nazarene that effectively and efficiently connects the members and resources of our denomination to preserve our core values and beliefs and advance our mission to preach holiness, make Christ-like disciples in all the nations, and bring relief to the needy. Recognizing the strength and equality of all partners, the general church combines and apportions time and resources for global mobilization. Simply stated, we can accomplish more united as a global denomination than we ever could at the local church or district level.

Through reading the chapter 4 of the book “Church History”, written by Kevin Hughes, I find the connection between the Luther's Conflict with Catholic opponents and the definition of the Church. In other words, although the traditional Catholic theologians and Luther have different views about the if a human could follow Gospel perfectly, they were still a unity that gathered by God to form the Church, and both of them were doing their best to teach the Holy Spirit of God to other citizens. Arguing the sense of human sinfulness, Christians could better ways to bring Jesus’ Holy and love to others. Moreover, the deeper understanding of sins could save from people from the suffering of further sins. For example, between 1517 and 1520, Luther wrote thirty works about his theology ideas and sold more than 300,000 copies total. It gives many people a completely new view about human sins.

Marcion believed that the God of the Old Testament (Yahweh) and of the New Testament (Father of Christ) were two different gods. Because he viewed Yahweh as the creator, he rejected the incarnation since it would have made Jesus subject to an inferior god. He established a church that used the letters of Paul and the Gospel of Luke and explained away Old Testament references by blaming them on Judaizers (Gonzalez 74). These dualistic viewpoints directly relate to

The Pauline Tradition focused on the writings of Paul (an apostle of Jesus). Many people that opposed the Paulines said that Paul’s teachings were completely different than those of Jesus, but the believers said his writings were the true meaning of Jesus’ teachings. “Marcion of Sinope, the 2nd century theologian and excommunicated heresiarch, who asserted that Paul was the only apostle who had rightly understood the new message of salvation as delivered by Jesus Christ” (1). Some of Paul’s views influenced the church. Scholars have been studying the effects

In the early church, Christians were persecuted and had to think about the doctrines of salvation and the church. Some of the Christians denied their faith. Ferguson states, “The reign of Decius marked the turning point from local, sporadic persecution to an empire-wide assault on Christianity. The first action of Decius was the arrest of the higher clergy. The second was a universal order to sacrifice to the gods of the empire (burn incense, pour a libation, and taste the sacrificial meat). Those who sacrificed received a certificate testifying that they had complied.” [1] Church members became martyrs by their faith. Ferguson states, “Christian practice made some changes in these customs. The funerary meals were eucharistic in the church (Acts of John and Tertullian). Cyprian is the first to call the eucharist a sacrifice offered in memory of the martyrs, commemorating their victory as well as praying for their repose.” [2]

A church is considered as a sacred place for various religions. It symbolizes a foundation of people beliefs. When one enters inside it, he or she should observe the proper decorum that are set. Respect is given to the preachers or speakers by listening to them very carefully. Songs are sometimes sung in a synchronize manner incorporated with sounds and music.

Throughout Church history, there have been many views of Scripture. As early as A.D. 140, Marcion rejected the Old Testament and only saw Luke’s Gospel with omissions and ten of Paul’s letters as Scripture (Shelley, 62-63). In one of the

Having rejected the Hebrew Scriptures as the word of a lesser God, Marcion found it necessary to put something else in the place. This was his own version of what we now call the New Testament. Its core was the corpus of Paul's epistles, joined to the Gospel of Luke whom Marcion held in high regard because he had been Paul's companion Both the epistles and Luke, however, were edited in order to erase from them all positive references to the Hebrew Scriptures or to the material world.

Polycarp contributed to Christianity by his confrontation of the Gnostic Marcion and his witnessing to other Gnostics, his writing to the church at Philippi, and his faith in the moments leading up to his death. Polycarp confronted Marcion who developed one of the first heresies that affected the Church. According to Marcionism, there was a God of the Old Testament but a different God of the New Testament. Therefore, he rejected all of the Old Testament writings in favor of the New Testament. In addition, he rejected the incarnation of Christ, asserting that he was simply God appearing to be a man. Marcion’s teachings had a very dangerous influence on the Church, as they were

Believed to have originated in Syria or Palestine c.100-150, the Didaché is one of the earliest Christian writings outlining the beliefs and practices of the Church at the time. Although there are a number of different areas discussed by the author(s), there are four main subtopics that are focussed on. These are: the practice of baptism, the need for fasting, the observation of the Eucharist, and the importance of strong leadership in the church. The relevance of the Didaché in today’s church is often a topic of debate, with some seeing it as outdated, while others still see it as significant.

Alternate doctrines and beliefs of the person of Christ and proper worship sprang up within the time of the first apostles. It was for this reason the first writings to the Churches and then the four Gospels of the New Testament were written to believers (Shelly, & Hatchett, 2013, p.51-53). Paul wrote the letter to the church at Colossae addressing syncretism within the church. Paul urged the Colossians to trust in the supremacy of Christ, and to do away with ideas added to the truth of the Gospel (Alexander & Alexander, 2009, p.723; Cairns, 1996, p.97). John’s Gospel expresses both Christ as fully human, and declares Christ is also fully God. Written in the late first century, John’s gospel is written to those who already knew the facts of Jesus life, but concepts are dealt with concerning both the Jewish and Hellenistic worldviews (Alexander & Alexander, 2009, p.621-22). Wither rebuking the forced circumcision of Christians, or declaring the Deity and incarnation of Christ, many of the writings of the New Testament were written in part to dispel wrong beliefs and practices