C] - Baptism. At the time of Paul, baptism was a common occurrence in Christian worship [Eph 4.5]. However, Christians were not the first to use the baptism. Baptized Jews to the Gentiles who were converted, some Jewish sects practiced baptism as a symbol of purification, and John the Baptist's baptism was an important part of his ministry. The New Testament does not say whether regularly baptized Jesus who converted, but at least once before the imprisonment of John is said to be baptized. [It may have been, however, the baptism of John who ran]. In any case, the early Christians were baptized in the name of Jesus, following the example of Jesus [Mark 1.10] [Gal 3.27].
seems that the early Christians interpreted in various ways the meaning of baptism as a symbol of the death of the person to sin [Rom 6.4] [Gal 2.12], cleansing of sins [Acts 22.16] [ Eph 5.26], and the new life in Christ [Acts 2.41] [Rom 6.3]. Occasionally the whole family was baptized a new convert [Acts 11] [Acts 16] [1 Cor 1.16], which could have meant the person's desire to consecrate all that Christ had.
D] - The church calendar. The New Testament gives no evidence that the early church celebrated holidays, apart from holding their worship services the first day of the week [Acts 20.7] [1 Cor 16.2] [Rev 1.10]. The Christians kept Sunday as a day of rest until the fourth century AD, when Emperor Constantine designated Sunday as a holy day for the entire Roman Empire. Mistook the early Christians on Sunday with the Jewish Sabbath, and did not try to apply the law of the Sabbath Sunday.
The historian Eusebius tells us that Christians celebrated Easter from apostolic times, [1 Corinthians 5.6-8] maybe relates to such a celebration. Tradition says that the early Christians celebrated the resurrection at the time of Passover. Around 120 AD the Roman Catholic Church changed the celebration to the Sunday after Easter, while the Eastern Orthodox Church continued celebrating Passover.
V] - New Testament concept of the church. It is interesting to study the various concepts regarding the New Testament church. The Scriptures refer to the early Christians as a family and the temple of God, as sheep and bride of Christ, like salt, yeast, fishermen, bulwark of the truth of God, and in many other ways. Was thought the church as a world fellowship of believers only, which each local congregation was a result and shows. Early Christian writers spoke of the church as the body of Christ and the new Israel. These two concepts reveal much of the understanding of Christians about their mission in the world.
A] - The body of Christ. Paul describes the church as one body in Christ [Rom 12.5] and his body [Eph 1.23]. In other words, the church comprises a single community of divine life to all who are united to Christ by the Holy Spirit through faith. They are partakers of his resurrection [Rom 6.8], and are called and equipped to continue ministry of Christ to serve and to bless others suffer [1Cor 12.14-16]. Are united in a community to embody the kingdom of God in the world.
Because they were united with other Christians, these people understood that what they did with their bodies and skills was very important [Ro 12.14] [1Cor 6.13-19] [2Cor 5.10]. They understood that the various races and classes become one in Christ [1 Cor 12.3] [Eph 2.14-22], and should accept each other so this is demonstrated in reality.
In describing the church as the body of Christ, early Christians emphasized that Christ was head the church [Eph 5.25]. Christ directed his actions and deserved all praise. All its power to worship and service was divine gift.
B] - The new Israel. The early Christians were identified with Israel, God's chosen people. They believed that the coming and ministry of Jesus fulfilled God's promise to the patriarchs [Mt 2.6] [Luke 1.68] [Acts 5.31], and claimed that God had established a new covenant with the followers of Jesus [2 Cor 3.6] [I 7.22 ] [Acts 9.15].
They claimed that God had established a new Israel on the basis of personal salvation, rather than by family lineage. His church was a nation every kindred spirit that transcended cultural and national. Anyone who put their faith in the new covenant of God to give his life to Christ became a spiritual descendant of Abraham and as such, part of the new Israel [Mt 8.11] [Luke 13.28-30] [4.9-25 Ro] [Ro 11] [Gal 3-4] [I 11-12].
C] - Common Features. Some common characteristics emerge from the various images of the church who are in the New Testament. All show that the church exists because God did exist. Christ has commissioned his followers to continue their work, and that is the reason for the existence of the church.
The various images of the church who are in the New Testament stressed that the Holy Spirit empowers the church and determines its direction. It involves members of a common task and a common destiny under the guidance of the Spirit.
The church is an active entity, live, shows the way of life that God intended for all people, and proclaims the Word of God to the present era. The unity and spiritual purity of the church is in sharp contrast to the enmity and corruption of the world. It is the responsibility of the church in each of the congregations in particular where it is visible, practice, unity, love and interest in such a way that shows that Christ truly lives in which they are members of his body, so that their life is the life of Christ in them.
VI] - Doctrines of the New Testament. The Bible establishes the fundamental teachings of the Christian faith. The early church lived according to these doctrines and preserved for us. Focus our attention on how the New Testament presents to Christianity.
A] - Living in Christ. First of all, we are told that God the Father puts Christians in communion with himself, as children in his family through the death and resurrection life of Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God. As Paul wrote, God was in Christ reconciling the world [2 Cor 5.19]. Thus the eternal Son took on human flesh. Jesus of Nazareth, fully God and fully man, revealed the Father to the world. The early Christians saw themselves as people with which you believe in God [1P 1.21]. They found new life in Jesus Christ, and came to be united with the living God through Him [Rom 5.1].
Jesus promised that, being born again human beings would find its proper relationship with God and saved enter the kingdom of God [Jn 3.5-16] [Jn 14.6]. The early Christians proclaimed this simple but amazing message about Jesus.
in the world has proclaimed that its founder had a unique knowledge about the eternal verities of life. But Christians say even more, because Jesus himself told us that he is the truth, not one that teaches the truth [Jn 14.6] The early Christians rejected the pagan religions and philosophies of his day, to accept the Word of God incarnate.
B] - To teach the correct doctrine. The pagan religion of Rome was a ritual more than a doctrine. Indeed, the emperor said: This is what you should do, but you think as you please. Romans believed that the faithful need only perform the appropriate ceremonies of religion, that is understood or not. As they were concerned, a skeptic could be so religious hypocrite and the true believer, offered as sacrifice in the temple of the gods.
On the other hand, the early Christians insisted that both belief and behavior are vital, and the two go hand in hand. They took seriously the words of Jesus that the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth [Jn 4.24]. What a Christian thought in his head and felt in his heart, would do with your hands. So the early Christians obeyed God [1 John 3.22-24], and contradicted and opposed those who called Christians trying to spread false teachings [1 Timothy 6:3-5].
This is essentially what we mean when we speak of Christianity. It's a new life in Jesus Christ, who brings genuine obedience to his teachings.
The article on Jesus describes his teaching in detail. Here we stress the differences between what Jesus and his followers taught, and what they taught their pagan neighbors.
C] - The doctrine of God. Almost every major religion teaches that a Superior Being governs the universe and nature shows that this Being powerful is at work. These religions often described as being in terms of natural forces such as wind and rain. But the early Christians did not look to nature for the truth of God, looked at Christ. They believed that Jesus fully revealed to the heavenly Father [Col 2.9]. Well understood God in terms of Jesus, and based on the life of Christ, his doctrine of God.
D] - Father God as personal. Jesus taught his disciples that God is my Father and your Father [Jn 20.17]. In other words, he showed them that God cared about them personally as well as a human father cares for his children. He dared to speak to God the Creator as a child tells his father, and told his disciples that God had given all things [Mt 11.27].
Jesus explained that God loves those who receive him [Jesus] in life [Jn 17.27]. Reminded his followers that God the Father cares for the smallest details of their daily needs [Mt 6.28-32].
Jesus taught that his Father is holy, and that he and the Holy Spirit share the same sanctity and act in accordance with it [John 15.23-26]. Unlike the gods of Greek and Roman mythology, who were angry and immoral, the true God is just and right [Luke 18.19]. Intervenes to save his people from their sins. Jesus explained that for this purpose God had sent into the world, brought God's mercy to a sinful humanity and dying, and we met him the holy purpose of God [Jn 15.9-14]. Again, we see Jesus emphasizing the personal love God has for every human being.
Jesus showed in his own ministry that love. He did everything possible to find people suffering from the effects of sin in order to deliver them. The rabbis were welcoming the sinner to repentance. But go for the sinner, was something new in the religious history of Israel.
Jesus was willing to pay any price, even the price of death, to save humanity from the clutches of sin. Moreover, when one of his disciples advised him not to, he replied: "Get behind me, Satan! [Mt 16.23]. Jesus demonstrated that God is the big bailout that the Old Testament prophets had described [Is 53].
Jesus also broke down the narrow national boundaries that the Jews had built around God. Jesus spread the love of God to all people, of every race and nationality. He sent his disciples all over the world to win the men for God [Mr 16.15]. The early Christians obeyed this command, bringing the gospel to the Jew first and also to the Greek [Rom 1.16].
E] - The doctrine of redemption. Jesus taught that God redeems individuals and nations. This was a radically new thinking in the Jewish world. However, the doctrine of personal salvation was the heart of Christian teaching.
F] - God the Creator. The Christian doctrine of salvation stood on the fact that God created the human race. Even this was an unpopular idea in the days of Jesus.
Many Greek philosophers and followers of sects insisted that God could not have done this evil world, and it emanated from God through a natural process, and the waves emanate when a stone is thrown into a lake. But the Old Testament was that God created the world on their own initiative. He chose to do so. And because God created the world could deal with it as I would like [Is 40.28] [Rom 1.20]. The cult believed that evil forces had distorted the emanations of God, corrupting the world.
The Bible teaches that God created the world perfectly, and made man in His own image, but he chose to rebel against him [Gen. 3]. The Greeks believed that the forces of good and evil the world had reached an impasse, they thought that evil had corrupted the good and good evil prevented seize absolute control of the world. Christians rejected the idea, and taught that the world still belongs to its Creator, and that the forces of evil can not ultimately prevail. The evil is only the influence that God allows [2.3-10 Ro] [Ro 12.17-21].
G] - The fallen man. Jesus gave the world a new understanding of man. His followers realized that every person is a lost child of God the Father trying to restore the family, through Christ [John 1.10-13] [Eph 2.19].
Greek myths say that man is a strange mixture of spirit and flesh, carried hither and thither by the unpredictable forces of the world. Myths orfeicos [stories having to do with the Greek god Orpheus] insisted that the man had a domestic nature as the gods. Plato had taken this idea in his philosophy of the World Soul; believed that humans had a spark of divine intelligence, and a man becomes like a god as you develop your intellect and reasoning ability.
Scripture Greek contradict this idea about the man. They knew that the most important test of a man's character was his moral fiber, not his intellect, and in these terms the man certainly could not claim to be like God! As it is written, Paul told Christians in Rome, there is none righteous, no not one [Rom 3.10]. The early Christians believed that even if the man is totally unworthy of the love of God, God continues searching and trying to bring him back to the holy communion with Him [Rom 5.6-8].
Early Christian preachers spoke clearly about the man's fall from grace of God in the Garden of Eden. Reigned death from Adam, Paul wrote, even those not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression [Rom 5.14]. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive [1Cor 15.22] [1Co15.45].
Christians believe that Adam's sin in Eden was the first key event in human history. This meant that the man was a fallen creature who needed to return to God.
H] - The nature of sin. Greek and Roman writers criticized the immorality of the ancient world, but they had a definite concept of sin. They feared that uncontrolled destroy life the harmony of society, but by no means thought that immorality offended the gods. Why should I? According to their myths, the gods were more lustful and greedy than man could ever imagine.
Jesus taught that sin defined in [1 John 3.4] and lawlessness is rebellion against God is the human decision to dismiss the love of God and reject his way, and this brings trial. Because if you believe that I am [ie, the Redeemer] will die in your sins [John 8.24]. Jesus predicted that the Holy Spirit would convince the world of sin because they believe in me [Jn 16.9]. Man chooses to sin, and in the eyes of God is fully responsible for their position.
I] - The sacrificial death of Jesus. The Old Testament priests offered for the sins of the animal sacrifices and sprinkled the blood upon the altar. Jesus told his disciples that he shed his blood for the remission of sins [Mt 26.28]. God Himself in the person of Jesus Christ, was willing to surrender to die for the sins of man. Thus closed the gap that sin had opened between himself and man. The incarnation of the eternal Son of God allowed him to be the final sacrifice for sin.
Jesus gave the Jewish authorities were offended that the message he brought to the world. He was accused of perverting the nation to teach their followers that it was the long awaited promised Messiah [Luke 23.2]. Jesus had broken no Roman law, but the Roman governor Pontius Pilate allowed his soldiers executed Jesus to appease the Jewish leaders. Jesus was not guilty of breaking any laws or of God or man, even his betrayer Judas Iscariot confessed, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood [Mt 27.4]. But Roman centurions pierced Jesus on the cross like a common criminal. Moreover, Christ became the pure sacrifice of God for man's sin, and the early Christians emphasized this in his preaching and teaching [I 10].
J] - The Resurrection of Jesus. Christians declared that Jesus' ministry was not finished on the cross, because God raised Jesus from the grave. Jesus ministered among His disciples for several weeks before God took him to sit at his right hand in heaven [Acts 7.56].
early Christians told the world how they had witnessed the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. This electrified the Roman Empire, and made many people consider Christians as a group of fans [Acts 17.6]. But Paul told his Christian friends: If Christ be not risen, your faith is vain, yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ have perished [1Cor 15.17-18].
K] - The Kingdom of God. We have already noted that Jesus focused on God's salvation of the individual, but also taught that God brings his people to a large community of redeemed, the domain of God's saving sovereignty, which he called the Kingdom of God. In this realm (currently expressed in the church), God required His people to live a life of brotherly love. Should practice the ethics of Christ and work for the redemption of all mankind. Jesus did not limit the Kingdom to the Jews, said he belonged to anyone who produces the fruit of it [Mt 21.43]. The Gospel of Matthew records many parables in particular [real life illustrations] of the kingdom, see especially [Mt 20.1-16] [Mt 22.2-14] [Mt 25.1-30].
Note that many of these parables point to the end times when God will gather all the people of his eternal kingdom to reign with him forever. The first Christian evangelists reinforce the message of Jesus about the end times, because they believed living in the past few days. This has caused Christians to take the gospel to the corners of the Roman Empire. They had a burning desire to win lost souls for Jesus Christ before the end came.
! Grace and Peace to you
0 comments:
Post a Comment