MODULE 1

3. Triumph Church
Church o Glorious church
- Church (upper case) – group of people/institution. o church with God in heaven
People of God
- church (lower case) – structure or building *Constantine the Great – is the Roman emperor who
- People are all part of the church proclaimed the church
- Church is all about the people of God *Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC)
- The spotless church is the spotless spouse of Holy *Catechism for Filipino Catholics (Filipino version)
God
- The church also considered the people who are sinners,
MODULE 2
marites, outcasts, and etc.
- “people are made out of clay” means even though we
Jesus instituted the Church
are created in the likeness or image of God, we are
fragile (marupok)
The Meaning and the Birth of the Church
- if you know that there is a problem, be a solution
 Did Jesus intended to build the Church?
3 C’s
1. Creed – beliefs of the church
Upon this rock I will build my church:
2. Code – laws of the church (e.g. 10 commandments)
And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I
3. Cult – practices of the church
will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld
shall not prevail against it. - Matthew16:18
Faith
- faith with actions
- the rock is Peter
- The foundation of the church is Jesus Christ who is
- this happened when Jesus called Peter a fisherman to
the son of God and is free from any sins. (Biblical
be a fisher of man
based)
- but they believe that the founders of the church are the
Peter’s authority
apostles
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter,
- Jesus inaugurated the church to bring salvation
“Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He
- there is no salvation outside the church, but it depends
said to him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” He said to
on mercy and compassion of God
him, “Feed my lambs.” He then said to him a second time,
- Latin – language used in the church before (kaya hindi
“Simon, son of John, do
nila naiintindihan)
you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I
- Martin Luther believes that faith alone can save us
love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him
the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter
Pope John XXIII
was distressed that he had said to him a third time, “Do you
- see church as old fashioned
love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything;
- he changed the church
you know that I love you.” [Jesus] said to him, “Feed my
- he wants to make the church always young
sheep......... And when he had said this, he said to him,
- he is the reason why church can be understood
“Follow me.” - John 21:15-19
- summoned the Vatican II (reform), which transformed
the Roman Catholic Church
- Peter denied Jesus 3 times
- Vatican I – women are prohibited in the church but,
- The 3 authorities are connected to the 3x denial of
Pope John XXIII gave liberty and role to the women
Jesus by Peter
- church is inclusive, it is open to all
- Among the 12 apostles, Peter is the Pope
- Church is for the sinners who wants to seek healing
- Peter is in the presence of the Pope/he represents the
from God
Pope
People of God
Church in different languages
1. Journeying Church
o English: Church
o people of God baptized as catholic
o Tagalog: Simbahan
o sinful but still holy
o Greek: Ekklesia
o militant church
o Latin: Ecclesia
o Italian: Chiesa
2. Suffering Church
o French: Eglise
o souls in purgatory
 o German: Kirche
o Spanish: Iglesia
o Kapampangan: Pisamban/ Kapulungan
 Church (the Greek ekklesia) originally signified a
legislative assembly of citizen. In the Greek
translation of the Hebrew Bible, ekklesia was used to
translate kahal, the religious assembly of the Israelites.
 The early Christian community became ekklesia
because in a new way, God had called them together to
share in the risen life of Jesus. The new ekklesia was
born.
 Jewish people = you are not part of the church
 Gentiles – not Jewish / outcasted (sinners, tax
collectors, leprosy, widow, prostitute)
 all people believed in Jesus became Christians
 The word Church or Ekklesia is written in the NT (bible)
114 times!
➔ Apostolic Succession: House churches (Num 27:15–23,
Deut 34:9/Acts 6:5–6)
➔ Persecution of Christians: Birth of the Catacombs (Acts
7:54-60)
➔ Constantine proclaims Christianity as the official religion
of the Roman empire: Builds churches, cathedrals and
basilicas after his conversion in 312 AD
PENTECOST EXPERIENCE (ACTS 2:1-12)
The moment when Jesus died, the member of Jesus’
community scattered, in fear and in shame. And yet, some
time later (God cannot wait longer than “three days” to act),
the community gathered again and proclaimed, “No, this is
not the end. Jesus is alive! God raised him from the dead.
The Kingdom has, indeed, come; we received definitive
salvation from God in Jesus.” This experience of Jesus’ Spirit,
which made them proclaim that he is alive, was a second
and definitive step in the birth of the Church.

7 Gifts of the Church

Ekklesia in the Bible 1. wisdom
For example, 2. understanding
● Acts 11:26 says that “Barnabas and Saul met with the 3. counsel
church [ekklesia]” in Antioch. 4. fortitude
● And in 1 Corinthians 15:9 Paul says that he had 5. knowledge
persecuted the church [ekklesia] of God.” 6. piety
● The “called-out assembly,” then, is a congregation of 7. fear of the Lord
believers whom God has called out of the world and “into
His wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9).

Therefore....Ekklesia is
- the people not the structure
- looks like a family
- We (people) are the body of the church
- Head is Jesus Christ
- Mother if the church itself

When Jesus was crucified, he was with John and Mary

- John is representing the whole church
- Jesus wants us to consider Mary as our mother

Where it all started?

➔ Last supper (Matthew 26:17–29; Mark 14:12–25; Luke
22:7–38; and I Corinthians 11:23–25)
➔ Jesus’ death and resurrection (see last part of the 4
Gospel)
➔ Ascension(Luke 21:34, Acts 1:1-11)
➔ Pentecost: Coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2)
➔ Acts of the Apostles: Apostolic mission (Acts of the
Apostles and Epistles)
➔ Paul begins missionary work (Acts 13:1-3)
➔ Wherever Paul goes, he builds small communities that
he called the church or “ekklesia” (Acts 11:26)
MODULE 3.1
Dimensions of being Church
In our incarnation of discipleship, five dimensions are
particularly important for the birth and growth of a
community.
 Together with the core dimension of the faith in the
Risen Lord, they form the structural skeleton around
which the Church, as a local community and worldwide
Church, can be built.
 The New Testament describes communities that
1) had a strong sense of fellowship,
2) were nourished by the Word of God,
3) were celebrating their communion with God and one
another in prayer and the celebration of the
sacraments (Baptism and Eucharist),
4) developed a plurality of ministries, among them the
ministry of leadership, and
5) continued Jesus mission of proclaiming the Kingdom.
We need these six dimensions to be able to speak of
“Church”:
1. confession of faith
2. fellowship
3. the word of God
4. Prayer and sacraments
5. Ministries
6. Missions
The concrete realization or incarnation of these dimensions
will depend on the creativity of the community, which,
guided by Jesus’ Spirit, has to respond in new ways to the
challenges of a particular historical and cultural situation.
In the ongoing life of the Churches, we find very different
shapes of being Church. The 6 dimensions should be
present, but the focus may be on one particular dimension,
while other aspects of Church life are neglected or pushed
into the background.
 The Church needs a confession of faith. It took four
centuries of debate to arrive at a generally accepted
Creed. This Creed developed in the Greek-Roman
culture, and may be in need of a reformulation.
 Scripture which was a source of nourishment in the
early Churches, ended up in the background during the
Middle Ages. Luther made the Scripture central again.
Catholicism followed suit at the time of the Second
Vatican Council.
 The 7 sacramental rites that we celebrate today were
only decided upon during the Council of Trent (1545-
63). The Medieval Churches had between two to thirty
sacraments, since medieval theology did not make a
clear distinction between sacraments and
sacramentals.
 The forms of fellowship also underwent many changes.
From small communities at its birth, the Church
developed into a strongly organized and centralized
entity. Today, we rediscover the need to stress the
community dimension.
 The many ministries that we read about in the New
Testament got centralized in the figure of the bishop
and priest. In the charismatic renewal of today’s
Churches, we try to develop again a plurality of
ministries.
 The mission became a specialized job of the monks and
the missionary religious institutes. But, the Second
Vatican Council refocused the missionary task by
stressing that all Christians should participate in it.
MODULE 3.2
The Church Interprets Itself
Life comes first, then, interpretation follows. The early
Christian community struggled to know who they were.
Two important events led them to separate from Judaism
where they came from. These events are:
1. The missionary work among the Gentiles that was
spearheaded by the apostle Paul.
2. The destruction of the Temple, which was the center
of Judaism, in 70 CE, by the Romans.
The Easter experiences of the disciples did not imply that
they instantly grasped the full meaning of their experiences.
 It was a slow and painful process to realize that the gift
of salvation, which they had received in Jesus, went
beyond the boundaries of Israel.
 The Christian communities needed some new
experiences and a former persecutor, Paul, to bring
their message to the Gentiles. The Council of Jerusalem
finally recognized that “God, who can read hearts, put
himself on their (Gentiles) side by giving the Holy
Spirit to them just as he did to us... We believe, indeed,
that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus,
just as they are” (Acts 15:6-11).
Letters of Paul
- are our oldest sources in the New Testament, to
reconstruct how the early Christians defined their
identity as Church.
- Two of the three images of the Church that we find in
them, People of God and Temple of the Spirit, are
basically Jewish. A third image, the image of body,
belongs to the Greek world.
The 3 Images of the Church according to the Letters of
Paul
1. People of God
 In the Exodus experience, God made them into a people,
into a nation in which “God reigns” (the Hebrew Israel),
into an assembly of God (the Hebrew Kahal Yahweh,
Greek ekklesia).
 It is quite remarkable that the first Jewish Christians
dared to apply the image of People of God to their own
community. They believed that their community
gathered, not only on the basis of their Exodus
experience, but now based on the faith conviction that
they had received final definitive salvation-from-God-
in-Jesus.
 In his letter to the Galatians and to the Romans, Paul
explains that even without the law, Christians, even of
Gentile descent, are true children of Abraham and they
belong to the true people of God.
2. Temple of the Spirit
 Christians no longer have the need for a Temple made
of stone because God has made their community into a
living temple, into a “sanctuary of God’s presence.”
 The Lord now dwells within the community: “Do you
not know that you are God’s temple, and that God’s
Spirit abides within you? God’s temple in holy, and you
are this temple” (1 Cor 3:16-17).
 Paul sees, first of all, each Christian as a Temple of the
Spirit, by virtue of the new life, and freedom that they
received from God in baptism (1 Cor 6:19).
3. Body of Christ
 This is Paul’s original creation. He did this by
borrowing a notion of Greek political life. Body
expressed a group of persons, who embraced common
political ideals or followed a particular political figure.
 By adopting this image, Paul wished to highlight the
Church’s unique relationship to Christ and the special
relationship of the members to one another.
 In baptism, although we were many, we were made
into the one body of Christ. “All of us, whether Jews or
Greeks, slaves or free, have been baptized in one Spirit
to form one body and all of us have been given to drink
from the one Spirit” (1 Cor 12:12-13).
Once Paul applied the term of body to the Church, new
horizons of meaning became available.
 He referred to the physical structure of a human body
and made it into an image of
talents and responsibilities within the Christian community
(1 Cor 12:14-27).
 Since no single organ can claim itself to be the body, no
individual or group within the Church is entitled to the
singular dignity of being Church.
 We are only one Church, when we have a diversity of
responsibilities and ministries that all together build
up the body. The different ministries have to care for
one another. All of them are encompassed by the
greatest gift, the gift of love (1 Cor 13).
The Church, People of God Today (A Reflection by Hans
Kung)
This is a summary of the reflection of Hans Kung on the
relevance of St. Paul’s images of the Church for today’s
Church.
1. We are a Church “of God, of the Spirit, of Christ” (no
exclusivism)
 We are part of the Church because of God’s call, the
presence of Christ, the initiative of the Spirit.
 We are not the builders of the Church. So, we are not to
attempt to make the Church private and exclusive.
 We create among us a basic misunderstanding, if we
view the Church as a collection of individuals, who at a
certain point decide to gather as Church. The Church
begins, not with the decision of pious individuals,
but with God who makes us into a people.
 No group of individuals has the privilege to determine
who has the right to be part of the Church or not. God
calls everyone.
2. We are “people, temple, body.” (no clericalization)
 All the faithful belong to the People of God. Thus, there
is to be no clericalization of the Church.

 It would be a misconception to identify the clergy with

the Church, while the laity would stand for uneducated
masses.

 There are different charisms, services, tasks or

functions in the Church. But, they are secondary to the
idea of fundamental equality.

3. We are the People of God, through our human

decision in history. (no sacralization)
 We are not to treat the Church as a supra-historical
phenomenon that exists undisturbed by earthly space
and historical time.

 We affirmed that the Church is a result of God’s call. It

is God’s doing. And yet, in a paradoxical way, God’s
grace works within human free acts and decisions.

 The decisions of human beings are ambiguous and

revocable. We are the Church – not God, not Christ,
not the Spirit.

 The Church has to be constantly aware that it is a

people on a journey. It is constantly in need of
conversion in order to become more faithful to the
Spirit.

 The statement that “the Church has constantly to be

reformed” (ecclesia semper reformanda) is not just a
slogan of our time, but is God’s everyday command to
His people.
Dimensions of being Church  The New Testament describes communities that:
- had a strong sense of fellowship,
- were nourished by the Word of God,
- were celebrating their communion with God and one
another in prayer and the celebration of the
sacraments (Baptism and Eucharist),
- developed a plurality of ministries, among them the
Ministry of leadership, and
- continued Jesus’s mission of proclaiming the Kingdom.

6 DIMENSIONS OF TODAY’S CHURCH

 The concrete realization or incarnation of these
dimensions will depend on the creativity of the
community, which, guided by Jesus’ Spirit, has to
respond in new ways to the challenges of a particular
historical and cultural situation.

 In the ongoing life of the Churches, we find very

Adoration vs Veneration different shapes of being Church. The 6 dimensions
 adoration – is for God only should be present, but the focus may be on one
 veneration – you can venerate someone who is holy particular dimension, while other aspects of Church life
are neglected or pushed into the background

1. Creed
how does a person become a person? 2. Fellowship
how does a family become a family? 3. Scriptures
4. Sacraments
 beliefs 5. Ministries
 bonding/me time 6. Mission
 inspirations
 traditions and practices 1. Creed
 roles - Apostles' Creed: The Apostles' Creed is the oldest
 purpose statement of faith and shortest creed in the Church and
dates back to sometime in the second century. While
the author is unknown, the Catholic Church often
attributes the 12 apostles for contributing one article
1. Sacred traditions each to the creed. The Apostles' Creed helps define core
2. Sacred scripture or the Bible beliefs in Catholicism relating to God, salvation, the
3. Teachings Church, and other significant theological topics.
- The author of the Apostle’s Creed is unknown
- They say that it is from the 12 apostles of God
- 12 articles of faith

- The Nicene Creed: is influential because it helped

How does a church becomes a church?
6 Dimensions of being Church
 In our incarnation of discipleship, five dimensions are
particularly important for the birth and growth of a
community.
 Together with the core dimension of the faith in the
Risen Lord, they form the structural skeleton around
which the Church, as a local community and worldwide
Church, can be built.
settle how Catholics worship one God, who is three
persons. The Nicene Creed was also the first to obtain
universal authority within the Church, expanding upon
verbiage in the Apostles' Creed. Compared to the
Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed has clearer
statements regarding the divinity of the Holy Spirit and
Christ. While we refer to the Nicene Creed as one creed,
it resulted from the combination of two ecumenical
councils, including one in Nicaea in 325 and one in
Constantinople in 381. These helped end the debate
about the relationship between the three identities of
the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
2. Fellowship Sacraments vs Sacramental
- Family as the Domestic Church: According to the  Sacraments – visible gifts of the invisible God (e.g.
Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church)
Church: “The family, is so to speak, the domestic  Sacramental – these are from the church that
church.” (Lumen Gentium #11) This means that it is in supplements the sacraments
the context of the family that we first learn who God is
and to prayerfully seek His will for us.

- Basic Ecclesial Communities (BEC): BECs are indeed 5. Ministries

the concrete realization of the vision of a renewed - The many ministries that we read about in the New
Church of Vatican Il and PCP II. The BEC is the locus of Testament got centralized in the figure of the bishop
communion where the members become one heart and and priest. In the charismatic renewal of today's
mind (unity & friendship) and share their resources Church, we try to develop again a plurality of ministries.
(community of goods). Through the BECs, the Church is - These are the people who are members of the church
truly experienced as a community of disciples. The lay
faithful experience communion. The church becomes
truly the Church of the Poor.
- BEC people gathers every week to have bible study
- Fellowship (meal)
- eating together is a form of fellowship
- it is not about food, it is about the people you eat with
- Worldwide: Around 1.3 Billion
- Philippines: 111 million (80%)

3. Scriptures
- Scripture which was a source of nourishment in the
early Churches, ended up in the background during the
Middle Ages. Luther made the Scripture central again,
6. Missions
Catholicism followed suit at the time of the Second
- The mission became a specialized job of the monks and
Vatican Council.
the missionary religious institutes. But, the Second
- what we believe is rooted in the bible
Vatican Council refocused the missionary task by
stressing that all Christians should participate in it.
- Our Mission is anchored on the THREEFOLD
MINISTRIES OF JESUS:
4. Sacraments
1) Priest
- The 7 sacramental rites that we celebrate today were
2) Servant
only decided upon during the Council of Trent (1545-
3) King Prophet
63). The Medieval Churches had between two to thirty
sacraments, since medieval theology did not make a
clear distinction between sacraments and sacramentals.

- 7 Sacraments
Images of the Church
The Early Christians
 Life comes first, then, interpretation follows. The
early Christian community struggled to know who they
were.
 Two important events led them to separate from
Judaism where they came from. These events are:
1. The missionary work among the Gentiles that was
spearheaded by the apostle Paul.
2. The destruction of the Temple, which was the center of
Judaism, in 70 CE, by the Romans.
 The Easter experiences of the disciples did not imply
that they instantly grasped the full meaning of their
experiences.
 It was a slow and painful process to realize that the gift
of salvation, which they had received in Jesus, went
beyond the boundaries of Israel.
 The Christian communities needed some new
experiences and a former persecutor, Paul, to bring
their message to the Gentiles. The Council of Jerusalem
finally recognized that “God, who can read hearts, put
himself on their (Gentiles) side by giving the Holy
Spirit to them just as he did to us… We believe, indeed,
that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus,
just as they are” (Acts 15:6-11).
Paul the Apostle
Letters of Paul
 The Letters of Paul are our oldest sources in the New
Testament, to reconstruct how the early Christians
defined their identity as Church. Two of the three
images of the
Church that we find in them, People of God
and Temple of the Spirit, are basically
Jewish. A third image, the image of body,
belongs to the Greek world.
1. People of God
 In the Exodus experience, God made them into a
people, into a nation in which “God reigns” (the
Hebrew Israel), into an assembly of God (the Hebrew
Kahal Yahweh, Greek ekklesia).
 It is quite remarkable that the first Jewish Christians
dared to apply the image of People of God to their own
community. They believed that their community
gathered, not only on the basis of their Exodus
experience, but now based on the faith conviction that
they had received final definitive salvation-from-God-
in-Jesus.
 In his letter to the Galatians and to the Romans, Paul
explains that even without the law, Christians, even of
Gentile descent, are true children of Abraham and they
belong to the true people of God.
2. Temple of the Spirit
 Christians no longer have the need for a Temple made
of stone because God has made their community into a
living temple, into a “sanctuary of God’s presence.”
 The Lord now dwells within the community: “Do you
not know that you are God’s temple, and that God’s
Spirit abides within you? God’s temple in holy, and you
are this temple” (1 Cor 3:16-17).
 Paul sees, first of all, each Christian as a Temple of the
Spirit, by virtue of the new life, and freedom that they
received from God in baptism (1 Cor 6:19).
3. Body of Christ
 This is Paul’s original creation. He did this by
borrowing a notion of Greek political life. Body
expressed a group of persons, who embraced common
political ideals or followed a particular political figure.
 By adopting this image, Paul wished to highlight the
Church’s unique relationship to Christ and the special
relationship of the members to one another.
 In baptism, although we were many, we were made
into the one body of Christ. “All of us, whether Jews or
Greeks, slaves or free, have been baptized in one Spirit
to form one body and all of us have been given to drink
from the one Spirit” (1 Cor 12:12-13).
 Once Paul applied the term of body to the church, new
horizons of meaning became available
 He referred to the physical structure of the human
body and made it into an image of talents and
responsibilities within the Christian community
 Since no single organ can claim itself to be the body, no
individual or group within the Church is entitled to
the singular dignity of being Church.
 We are only one Church, when we have a diversity of
responsibilities and ministries that all together build
up the body. The different ministries have to care for
 one another. All of them are encompassed by the  The decisions of human beings are ambiguous and
greatest gift, the gift of love (1 Cor 13). revocable. We are the Church – not God, not Christ,
not the Spirit.

 The Church has to be constantly aware that it is a

A REFLECTION OF HANS KUNG
1. We are a Church “of God, of the Spirit, of Christ” (no
exclusivism)
 We are part of the Church because of God’s call, the
presence of Christ, the initiative of the Spirit.
people on a journey. It is constantly in need of
conversion in order to become more faithful to the
Spirit. The statement that “the Church has constantly to
be reformed” (ecclesia semper reformanda) is not just
a slogan of our time, but is God’s everyday command to
His people.

 We are not the builders of the Church. So, we are not to

attempt to make the Church private and exclusive.
 We create among us a basic misunderstanding if we
view the Church as a collection of individuals, who at a
certain point decide to gather as Church. The Church
begins, not with the decision of pious individuals,
but with God who makes us into a people.

 No group of individuals has the privilege to determine

who has the right to be part of the Church or not. God
calls everyone.

2. We are “people, temple, body.” (no clericalization)

 All the faithful belong to the People of God. Thus, there
is to be no clericalization of the Church.

 It would be a misconception to identify the clergy with

the Church, while the laity would stand for uneducated
masses.

 There are different charisms, services, tasks or

functions in the Church. But, they are secondary to the
idea of fundamental equality.

3. We are the People of God, through our human

decision in history. (no sacralization)
 We are not to treat the Church as a supra-historical
phenomenon that exists undisturbed by earthly space
and historical time.

 We affirmed that the Church is a result of God’s call. It

is God’s doing. And yet, in a paradoxical way, God’s
grace works within human free acts and decisions.

MODULE 4: THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH
Part 1: The Pentecostal Church
(From the Ascension of Christ, 30 CE, to the Preaching of
Stephen, 35 CE)
I. ACTS 1:15/ACTS 2:1-4
“During those days Peter stood up in the midst of the
brothers (there was a group of
about 120 persons in the one place).”
 On every occasion, Peter comes to the front as the planner,
“When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in
one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a
noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire
house in which they were. Then there appeared to them
tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each
one of them. And they were all filled with the holy spirit
and began to speak in different tongues as the Spirit
enabled them to proclaim.”
II. The three-fold Effects of the Experience of Pentecost
1. Illuminating – the kingdom of God is not a political
empire but a spiritual realm.
2. Empowering – every member was given a fervor of
spirit and a power of utterance
which made their testimony convincing.
3. Abiding – the divine spirit has dwelt in the church
from that day as the personal,
individual possession of every true believer.
III. The Locality and the Membership
The church began in the of city Jerusalem, and apparently
was limited to that city and its
immediate surroundings during the earliest years of its
history.
All the members of the Pentecostal Church were Jews. The
Jews of that age were of three
classes.
They were the:
1. Hebrews – were those whose ancestors for
generations had dwelt in Palestine, and were of pure
Israelite race.
2. Grecian Jews or Hellenists – were Jews descended
from “the diaspora or dispersion,” that is Jews, whose
home or whose ancestry was in foreign lands.
3. Proselytes – were people of foreign blood who had
renounced heathenism, embraced the Jewish law, and
entered the Jewish Church by receiving the rite of
circumcision.
IV. The Leaders of the Early Church
A reading of the first six chapters in the Book of Acts will
show that during the early period the apostle Simon Peter
was the leader of the church.
the preacher, the wonder-worker and the defender of the
church.
By the side of Peter the practical we see John the
contemplative and the spiritual, rarely speaking yet ever
held in high honor by the believers.
V. The Government of the Early Church
In a church of comparatively small numbers, all in one city,
all of one race, all absolutely
obedient to the will of their ascended Lord, and all in
fellowship with the Spirit of God, little government was
needed; but that little was given by the twelve apostles as a
body, Peter being their spokesman.
VI. The Theology of the Early Church
At first, the church had simple theology or body of belief
which can be seen in the discourses of
Peter (3 doctrines):
1. Jesus the Messiah – that Jesus of Nazareth was the
Messiah, the Christ, long expected by Israel, and now
 reigning over his kingdom though invisible in the peoples. It needed the stimulus of sharp persecution to
heavens; to whom each member of the church was send forth on its world-wide mission, and that stimulus it
expected to give personal loyalty, reverence, and soon received.
obedience.

2. The Resurrection of Jesus – that he had been

crucified, had risen from the dead, and was now living,
the head of the church, to die no more.

3. The Return of Jesus – that he who had ascended to

heaven was in due time to come back to earth and reign
over his church.

VII. The Weapon of the Early Church

The weapon of the church through which the world was to

be won, was the testimony of its
members.

 A close reading of the history shows that all the

apostles, and all the church gave their testimony to the
gospel not only Peter. (all became preachers of the
Word)

 As the numbers were multiplied, the witnesses

multiplied, for every member spoke as a messenger of
Christ, there being no distinction between clergy and
laity.

 Toward the close of the period, we find Stephen rising

to such eminence as a preacher, that even the apostles
are less prominent.
*** This universal testimony was a potent influence in the
rapid increase of the church.
VIII. The Spirit of Brotherhood in the Early Church (Acts
2:42-47) (Acts 4:32-37)

 They sell their possessions and give the money to the

Apostle and they distribute them according to each
one’s needs.
 They pray for one another even the Emperor’s welfare.
 Teaching and practicing the faith
 Comforting one another in suffering.
 One in mind and heart.

“The LOVE they practiced drew the attention of the world.”

IX. A General Description of the Early Church

In almost every aspect, the church of the first days was

faultless. It was strong in faith and testimony, pure in
character, and abundant in love. But its one defect was its
lack of missionary zeal. It stayed at home, when it should
have gone abroad with the gospel to other lands and other
Part 2: The Expanding Church
(From the Preaching of Stephen, 35 CE, to the Council at
Jerusalem, ca. 48 CE)
In this epoch, the great question was settled, that is,
“whether Christianity should remain an obscure Jewish
sect, or should become a church wide open to all the
world?”
I. Stephen’s Preaching
Stephen was a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.
 He was the first in the church to have the vision of a
world-wide gospel; and it was that which caused him
to become the first Christian martyr.
Among those who heard Stephen, and were aroused to
anger by his utterances, was a young
man from Tarsus named Saul.
 Saul took part in the slaying of Stephen and,
immediately after his death, became the leader in a
persecution of the disciples of Christ, seizing,
binding, and scourging both men and women.
*** The fiery hate of Saul proved an aid to the expansion of
the church.
II. Saul’s Conversion (Acts 9:1-22)
Saul, the persecutor, was arrested on his way to Damascus
by a vision of the ascended Jesus, and he who had been
the most dreaded antagonist of the gospel now became its
most powerful advocate.
 When converted, Saul at once adopted Stephen’s views,
and was a greater than Stephen in carrying onward the
movement for a church open to all men, whether Jews
or Gentiles.
 In all the history of Christianity, no single conversion to
Christ carried with it such momentous results to the
whole world, as that of Saul the persecutor, afterward
Paul the apostle.
III. The Problem in the Council at Jerusalem, ca. 48 CE
(Acts 15)
The ultra Jewish element in the church held that there
could be no salvation outside Israel;
hence, that all the Gentile disciples must receive
circumcision and observe Jewish regulations.
On the other hand, the progressive teachers led by Paul
and Barnabas declared that the gospel
was for Jews and Gentiles upon the same terms of faith in
Christ without regard to the Jewish
law.
*** Between these 2 parties a great controversy arose,
threatening a division in the church.
IV. The Council at Jerusalem, ca. 48 CE (Acts 15)
It is noteworthy that in this council not only the apostles,
but the elders, and “the whole church,” were represented.
Paul and Barnabas, with Peter and James, the Lord’s
brother, took part in the debate; and the
conclusion was reached that the law was binding upon
Jews only, and not upon Gentile
believers in Christ.
*** With this decision, the period of transition from a
Jewish Christian Church to a church for people of every race
and land, was completed, and the gospel could now go
forward on its ever- widening way.
Part 3: The Church Among the Gentiles
(From the Council at Jerusalem, ca. 48 CE, to the
Martyrdom of St. Paul, 68 CE)
By the decision of the Council at Jerusalem, the church was
free to enter upon a larger work for the bringing of all
people, of every race, and in every land under the realm of
Jesus Christ.
In this epoch, the field of the church is now the entire
Roman Empire. Its membership we shall find increasingly
Gentile and decreasingly Jewish.
I. The Leaders in the Church during this time
1. St. Paul – the tireless traveler, the indomitable worker,
the church-founder and theologian.
2. St. Peter – whose name scarcely appears upon the
record, but who was recognized by St. Paul as one of
the “pillars.”
3. St. James – a younger brother of our Lord, and head of
the church in Jerusalem.
II. The First Imperial Persecution (65-68 CE)
In the year 64 CE, a large part of the city of Rome was
destroyed in a great conflagration.

 It has been said that the fire was started by Nero, worst
of all the Roman emperors, but this is dispute.

 It is certain that Nero was charged with the crime by

common report.

 In order to clear himself, Nero declared that the

Christians had set fire to the city, and began a terrible
persecution.

 Thousands were tortured and put to death, among

them St. Peter by crucifixion, in the year 67 CE; and
St. Paul by being beheaded, in the year 68 CE.

It is one of “the revenges of history,” that the gardens of

Nero, where multitudes of Christians were burned as
“living torches,” while the emperor drove his chariot among
them, are now the seat of the Vatican palace, the home of
the Roman Catholic pontiff, and of St. Peter’s Church,
the largest edifice of the Christian faith.

III. Literature of the Period

 At the time of the Council of Jerusalem, 50 CE, none of

the New Testament books had been written, and the
church was dependent for its knowledge of the
Savior’s life and teachings upon the memory of the
earlier disciples.

 But before the close of this period, 68 CE, a large part of

the New Testament was in circulation, including the
gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, the epistles of St.
Paul and James, I Peter and perhaps II Peter.
Part 4: The Age of Shadows
(From the Martyrdom of St. Paul, 68 CE, to the Death of St.
John, 100 CE)

I. The Fall of Jerusalem

 The fall of Jerusalem in the year 70 CE made a great

change in the relation of Christians and Jews.

 The great effect upon the church of this destruction

was that it put an end forever to all relation between
Judaism and 90-Christianity.

II. The Second Imperial Persecution (90 CE)

About the year 90 CE, the cruel emperor Domitian began a

second imperial persecution of the Christians.

 Thousands of the believers were slain, especially in

Rome and Italy; for this persecution, like that of Nero,
was spasmodic and local, not extending throughout the
empire.

 At this time St. John, the last of the apostles, who had
been living in Ephesus, was imprisoned on the isle of
Patmos, in the Aegean Sea, and there received the
Revelation contained in the last book of the New
Testament.

 It is probable that St. John died at Ephesus about 100

CE.