Four Gospels o 1 Mark is the shortest and simple From the point of view of history it is very valuable as it describes the facts as they were It speaks of Jesus as son of God and Messiah Performed miracles and speaks of public life o 2 Matthew is the most charming Gospel Portrays Jesus as the new Moses It speaks of his birth death and resurrection Traces his genealogy to David o 3 Luke written for Greek audience The Christianity for all and universal religion He also traces Jesus genealogy to David o 4 John Jesus is divine incarnation of God Made visible in human form Jesus was messiah o First three gospels are called Synoptic and John is called Asynoptic Early Christianity o Early Christians beliefs simple and few Jesus is indeed the expected messiah These are the final days before coming of the new world order The early Christians were Jews living in Jerusalem o Following Jesus resurrection disciples gathered o Then the spirit of God came upon them in form of fire and encouraged them to spread belief in Jesus as Messiah The Christian bible new testament o Four Gospels o The acts of the Apostles o Epistles o Revelation The acts of Apostles 85 CE o It is maintained that book of acts of Apostles is really the second part of Gospel Luke o The gospel of Luke and Book of Acts of Apostles sometimes referred as single work Luke Acts o In these two books the parallels are drawn between Jesus and Paul o In Luke Jesus is portrayed as moving toward his sacrifice in Jerusalem o So does Paul makes his final journey to Rome for his sacrifice in Rome o Here the impressive image of stone dropped in a pond that makes ever widening ripples is presented suggesting life of Jesus spreading widely The Epistles o They can be divided in to two parts Early Pauline Epistles Genuine Pauline letters date 50 60CE Universal Epistles Includes Hebrews Timothy Titus Ephesians Colossians and others are debated o Impressive images are also used in the Epistles o Christian community is like solid building set on secure foundation Church becomes the body of Christ etc o Main focus of the epistles is proper belief morality and church order Paul of Tarsus and the Epistles Letters o Paul s original name was Saul o Spread Christianity among non Jews o Born as Pharisee educated in Greek system o Roman citizen o Initially opposed Christianity later experienced vision and becomes a staunch Christian o 1 In Letters emphasized faith in and acceptance of Jesus Christ by which right relationship with God is established o 2 Becomes Christian Doctrine that salvation is possible only through faith in Jesus Christ preexisted o 3 He saw Jesus as a messiah and manifestation of divinity and logos of god which o 4 He provides the ethics and morals as to how a Christian must live his life Revelation o Images and symbols are used Lamb is Jesus Dragon and seven heads are Roman empire The number 666 mark of the beast is Nero Written by early Christians to not give up their faith Good will overcome evil The Christian Canon o It took about 300 years before Christian bible is made as canon that includes Hebrew Bible plus all the books of the new testament o The early Christians continued to read the Pentateuch Psalms to which were added the books of the New Testament interpreting as that they fulfill and complete the Old Testament o Bible is an inspired word by God but expressed in human language and according to Interpreting the Bible human understanding Arius and the formation of Nicene Creed o Arius was a Bishop of Egypt who held the view that Jesus was human being o Though he was a great and an ideal human being but nonetheless he was not son of God The title son of God was a courtesy title o This created a great confusion among the Christian communities Part 2 o The council was called at Nicea around 325 CE in which more than 300 bishops were present They formulated the Nicene Creed 1 Essence Ousia substance Development of the Eastern orthodox church o Eastern Orthodox Church developed in Greece Bulgaria Ukraine Romania and Russia o This happened when Constantinople byzantine was made new capitol of the Roman Empire by Constantine o Western churches latin Eastern greek o 1 The eastern church has always held a decentralized consensusbased model 1 Decisions regarding doctrines and practices made by local community members in consultation with patriarchs and bishops o in the western church centralized authority is vested in the pope the western church includes at this point the Christians in the west as yet we had no Catholics and protestants o 2 The Eastern Church holds that Jesus had two separate natures not united in single person 1 Thereby they emphasize the divinity of Jesus o The western church held that divine and human were united in a single person 1 Thus they emphasize more on human aspect of Jesus o 3 The eastern church emphasizes on monasticism 1 They have great monastic centers o 4 The eastern church allows only icons in the worship whereas the western church allows statues o 5 the eastern church allows the marriages of bishops and ministers 1 In the western church ministers are not allowed to marry o 6 In the western church it is held that father and son generated the holy spirit In Eastern Church one holds that father generated the Holy Spirit 1 2 According to the Eastern Church the Latin word Filioque from the son was added for no reason o 7 in the eastern church when one is baptized his whole body is sunk into water 1 In the western church it is done by sprinkling the holy water on the forehead o 8 in the sacrament of Eucharist Lord s supper the eastern church uses both wine and bread symbolizing blood and body of Christ 1 In the western church bread alone was used for many hundreds of years The protestant reformation from local parish churches o Western church establishment had become rich from bequest of the rich and collection o Endowments of land and money was a natural form of piety in the hope that rich people and aristocrats would benefit in after life o The indulgences became widespread o Instances of sex offence committed in the church became common place o Saint veneration became wide spread o All these factors contributed to the formation of reformation which began with Martin Luther Martin Luther o Presented his objections in the form of the ninety five theses 1 Live by faith sola fides and live by scripture sola scriptura No authority of pope is required Everyone is a minister and relate to god directly