GrowingGrowing
and Struggling
We know there was a time before there was a written Bible. The sayings of Jesus were by passed by word of mouth.
Are
there any sayings of Jesus that you can remember without looking
them up in the Bible?
The first years of Christianity, the Church went through many changes. Think of Church today and compare it to then...
| The Church Today... | The Church then... |
| Structured worship by an ordained minister with scriptures, hymns, sermons, the Lord's Prayer, an offering, a benediction, etc.! | Unstructured worship in a house, in a town square, or on a mountain top. |
| Scriptures read from The Bible | Scriptures were Jewish Law, Jewish Writings, the Psalms, and writings of the Prophets. |
| The Nicene Creed, The Apostles Creed, or many other creeds found in the back of the United Methodist Hymnal. | Simple creeds or affirmations like "Jesus is Lord." |
Think about This:
|
| After a failed Jewish revolt
in 70 A.D., Christians left Jerusalem and spread out in surrounding areas. |
Use this interactive map to see the different areas to which Christians moved:
The Spread of Christianity (external link)
http://shell5.ba.best.com/~gdavis/ntcanon/mapsmall.htm
Not everyone was happy about the spread of Christianity! Actually it resulted in a lot of deaths and violence! Let's take a second to read about a couple people of many who died in the name of Christianity. (Click BACK to return!)
•Peter and Paul
•Ignatius of Antioch
•Perpetua and Felicitas (Outside Link. Click BACK to return.)
Now, let's move
on to different ways of interpreting the Bible!
