Biblical Literacy Podcast

Church History: Chapter 15– Augustine and the Fall of the Roman Empire This is a study of Augustine and the fall of the Roman Empire but it also serves as a reminder that the Kingdom of God is the only enduring kingdom. As the Empire fell the Christian church was affected tremendously. Augustine was born in 354 A.D. in Northern Africa. Most of his early years he claimed to be a Christian, but he w...

Church History: Chapter 14 – Saint Antony – A Desert Father The principal source for the life of St. Antony is the biography written by Athanasius. Born around 250 AD to parents that “were of good stock and well-to-do,” when his parents died (he was only 18-20), he chose to give all of his earthly belongings to the townspeople. He became an ascetic, moved out of town and devoted his life to prayer...

Chapter 13 – Athanasius, Ambrose and Arianism The variety of issues discussed in the Council of Nicaea (325 AD) ranged from how to date Easter to whether to ordain eunuchs as priests, but everything was secondary to settling the Arian controversy. Arius taught that Jesus was made by God and was not divine on the same level as God. Athanasius played a key role in opposing Arianism, condemning it as...

Chapter 12 – Constantine and Council of Nicaea Constantine adopted Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire and he moved the Empire’s capital from Rome to Byzantium, which was renamed in his honor, Constantinople. Today we call it Istanbul. He was instrumental in organizing the Council of Nicaea and during that meeting, which lasted several months, the position of the group, terme...

Chapter 11 – Science the Bible and the Early Church Truth is God’s truth, whether it is found in math, science, or philosophy. Many of the early church leaders (Clement of Alexandria, Irenaeus of Lyon) used their Greek logic (“science”) to defend the faith. Clement believed that God had providently provided the world with Socrates and Plato to prepare the Greeks for the gospel in the same way that...

Chapter 10 – Part 3: “The Accuracy and Collection of the New Testament” Modern skeptics challenge that the New Testament is not an assembly of the true Scriptures, but reflect the spoils of victory for one group of beliefs that triumphed over others. The Nicene Creed, written during the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, expresses core orthodox beliefs that were based upon Old Testament writings....

Summary Many early believers were martyred by the Romans and whatever ‘books’ they had…many early manuscripts for the New Testament…were burned. Nevertheless, we still have some original manuscripts that survived. Emperor Constantine (272-337) ordered Christianity as the the state religion of Rome. He ordered that copies of the New Testament be made to enable better dissemination. The “Codex Sinai...

Summary The ‘canon’, what we consider our Bible, is ultimately the collection of writings that the church uses as its measuring stick…the defining reference for Christian faith. Christianity has two general canons, the Catholic canon and the Protestant canon. The Catholic canon includes writings commonly called the ‘Apocrypha’. Our Old Testament is essentially the same as the Hebrew scripture. Som...

Chapter 9 – Alexandria and Early Biblical Understanding Reading and understanding the Bible was challenging in the early Church as it is still today. When passages do not seem to make sense it opens up to interpretation. Many early leaders struggled with this and their writings shed some insight into prevalent thought. Philo, of Alexandria tried to find consistency between the Old Testament and pr...

Chapter 8 – Part 1: The Trinity – Biblical Basis There is not an explicit reference in our Bible that states, “The LORD your God is one God who in His oneness exists as three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.’ It would be more accurate to say that the Bible reflects and expresses the Trinity doctrine and it does so in a variety of ways. We do see the Trinity reflected in three ways throughout...

Many New Testament churches met in homes of the wealthy because these homes would have had enough room to accommodate the larger groups. The earliest official “church building” was a converted house in Dura-Europos, Syria, which is dated to have been converted around 250AD. Although there is not a record of how a typical service was performed early church services were most likely patterned after...

Ignatius of Antioch was the Bishop of the church at Antioch circa 110 AD. Typically Christians were charged with atheism because they would not worship Caesar as god and for this they were martyred. He wrote seven letters to the churches along his way from Antioch to Rome providing strong guidance in various Christian themes. Polycarp was the Bishop of the church at Smyrna and was considered an Ap...

Christian martyrdom was typically the end result of extreme persecution, which may have been rooted in three broad categories: Jewish persecution of the church – which was an extension of their hatred of Jesus; persecution that arose from local interests – where Christian moralities may have upset the local economy; and government sponsored persecution – because leadership either misinterpreted ea...

The Didache is a book that contains very straightforward and simple instructions about life, closely akin to parts of the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7). It speaks directly to how to live day-to-day as well as how to conduct core services as a church, or group of believers. It was used as a guide to assist early believers to train ne converts to the faith. Key Words Two roads, way of life, Aaron...

Clement was a Roman bishop who wrote to the church in Corinth around 95AD. He was the bishop over the house churches in Rome. He wrote to the church in Corinth because it was in turmoil again with problems similar to what Paul had covered in his earlier letter. He referenced numerous Old Testament passages and teachings of the apostles to correct what he recognized as problems with their personal...

Why study Church history? It is a study of Scripture and theology. Understanding the “canon,” or why we have the Scriptures we have we gain more understandings of the meanings because