Apologetics10

Few Christians, it seems, have much knowledge about the early church. This means that when others attack their faith and assert that there is little or no foundation for the Christian faith, those Christians have no answer.

On this and the following pages, we will be looking at various facets of the early church following Jesus Christ, and we'll see why the things that happened then are important for us to understand, and how they can strengthen our faith today.

On this page we'll simply introduce the first century of the Christian Church to see who continued after Jesus' ascension and the passing of the Twelve. This page thus sets the scene for the next three pages

We will look in detail the the key important ‘Early Church Fathers' on a later page.

The following are particular elements of the early centuries of church history that are helpful to understand which we'll be looking at on this and following pages:

a) Who were involved in those early centuries

• Jesus, Paul and the other apostles in the first half of the first century

• The leaders who followed on in the second half of that first century

• “Early Church Fathers” who lived and led in the following centuries

b) The Events & Trends of those times

The centuries following Jesus were characterised by persecutions, oppositions and heresies that we will considered on the following three pages.

1. Who were some of the key figures of the First Century?

Answer:

Let's try and outline the first hundred years in table form:

Romans		Palestinian		New Testament
Emperors	Ruled	Ruler	Ruled	People/Events	Dates
Augustus	27BC-14 AD	Herod the Great	37-4 BC
Tiberius	14-37 AD	Herod Antipas	4 BC-39 AD	Jesus	Possibly 3 BC to 30? AD
Caligula	37-41 AD	Herod Agrippa	37-44 AD	Paul converted	34 or 35 AD
Claudius	41-54 AD	Herod Agrippa II	44-100 AD	Jerusalem council	48 AD
Nero	54-68 AD			Fire of Rome	64 AD
Vespassian	69-79 AD			Fall of Jerusalem	70 AD
Titus	79-81 AD
Domitian	81-96 AD			Persecution	81-86 AD
Nerva	96-98 AD
Trajan	98-117 AD

NB. We will consider the Roman emperors more fully on the following page when we consider persecutions.

To see fuller details of those who were martyred go to Christian Classic Ethereal Library - http://www.ccel.org/ and look under author for “Foxe” for Foxe's Book of Martyrs . Alternatively try Christian Martyrs by Robert Backhouse.

Most Christians are familiar with the first half of the first century – the life of Jesus, Paul etc. but starting to put dates to them helps build the picture, so let's now add more detail.

2. What was Happening in the First Century?

Answer:

The following gives an indication of some of the key important things that happened in that first century, largely as seen in the New Testament.

Time	Event	N.T. references
About AD 30/33	Jesus crucified and rose from the dead	All 4 Gospels
AD 34/35	1st Jerusalem persecution	Acts 8:1
AD 34/35	Paul's Conversion	Acts 9
Uncertain	Cornelius converted	Acts 10
Uncertain	Church started in Antioch	Acts 11
AD 44	James martyred, Herod Agrippa I dies	Acts 12
AD 46-47	Paul's first missionary journey	Acts 13,14
AD 49	The Council at Jerusalem	Acts 15
AD 49	Paul's second missionary journey begins	Acts 15
AD 52	Paul's third missionary journey begins	Acts 18
AD 57-59	Paul's Caesarean imprisonment	Acts 23,24
AD 60-62	Paul's imprisonment in Rome	Acts 64
AD 64	Probable martyrdoms of Peter & Paul in Rome	…..
AD 70	Fall of Jerusalem
AD 81-96	Persecutions under Domitian
AD c.100	Death of John

3. What were the Main Problems facing the Early Church ?

Answer:

The centuries following Jesus were characterised by persecutions, competition and heresies

Without doubt these were centuries of all-out spiritual warfare with the enemy seeking to inhibit church growth, yet the opposite happened:

Enemy action	Intention	Effect
Persecutions	To frighten Christians and those who might be turning to the faith.	The grace of God in the martyrs showed the reality of the faith and many were converted.
Competing Beliefs	To steal away converts or prevent people becoming Christian believers	In fact were revealed as inadequate in the face of Christianity
Heresies	To distort, confuse and water down the faith.	The struggles against untruth meant the New Testament was written and creeds formulated to establish accepted doctrine.

In the following three pages we will consider each of these forms of the enemy's activity against the Church of the early centuries, and then on the fourth page look in some detail at the key Christians in the first three centuries who helped build the church.

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