Where can I find early Christian history?

[Guest godgivesall4us]

I have been a Christian for about 14 years now. I have attended many churches after having the rude awakening that everyone doesn't believe the same thing. I went to many churches that preach from scripture alone and they all say that God is leading them, and yet they all have differing interpretation of scripture and it is frustrating.

How can there be two or three or four totally contradicting positions on the same exact subject in scripture? And who is correct? And who is the judge of who is correct? My goodness, didn't Jesus promise his ministers, the apostles that He would lead them into ALL Truth? ANd didn't he pray the night before he was betrayed by Judas that they remain One as He and the Father are one? jn 17:17-23

And aren't He and the Father perfectly one? I was reading in John and it says There shall be one fold and one shepherd. jn 10:16

I was reading in eph 4:3-6 one Lord one Faith etc... I was reading in romans 16 and it says to avoid those who created division(dissentions).vs17

I was reading in 1 cor 1:10 and it says that there be no divisions among you.

I was reading in 1 cor 12:13 and it says in one Spirit we were baptized into one body, does Christ have more than one body with contradicting teaching? wouldn't that mean he contradicts himself if there are contradicting teaching? My pastors have said again and again, "we look to scripture" when i ask them these questions. But it seems the more I see these men look to scripture, the more answers we get, and they almost all contradict each other. Can this be God? and again, I ask my pastor, "who is the judge of which interpretation is correct"? and they say that it isn't important, God is leading us, or they say that their interpretation is correct, but how can I believe that when many many other pastors with differing views of scripture say it is correct?

It just seems to me that Jesus made it clear that there is one faith, and one body with the same solid teaching and that we are to avoid dissenters and divisions. It seems that division is all I can see in the churches. I have gone to four churches that divided while I went to them. whew! this is frustrating.

Can't we see some history to see what the first centuries of christians believed to see what was being taught according to scripture? please help!

thank you,

godgivesall4us

[redeemed098]

Hi,

See how you go with these two links...I'm sure they will change your heart and your focus, to what really IS important. I hope they are a source of true encouragement for you...About what it really IS to be Christlike. Truly Christlike.

http://www.ccel.org/f/foxe/martyrs/home.html

http://www.williamtyndale.com/0reformersburned.htm

Take some time to soak it all in...Dont try to read too much in one sitting..Give it time to digest.

I hope you find these writings a blessing.

Regards,

Ben.

[pointer]

Can't we see some history to see what the first centuries of christians believed to see what was being taught according to scripture? please help!

Sorry, but there is no help, except in Scripture and in the guidance of the Holy Spirit- and those are more than enough. The church is built on Christ in the gospels, the prophets in the Old Testament, the apostles in the New. There are precious few who build on them. Most do not obey even the basic commands, and use the traditions of men, i.e. Satan's teachings, instead. Those blasphemously called 'Early Fathers' each corrupted Scripture in one way or another. Most of them had vested interests in keeping in with the Roman emperors- one of whom called himself 'The Thirteenth Apostle'.

The most terrible fact in all history is that there is virtually no history of the church from the close of Acts until John Wyclif, over a thousand years. There is not even a pretence of history for about forty years after Acts. Now if, as we are told, a week is a long time in politics, how fatal is 40 years? It is a terrible, terrible silence. A church can be corrupted by persecution, entryism and bribery in a few months.

The best that one can do, and the only thing that anyone who loves the Lord will do, is pay very, very close attention to this:

'From Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the overseers of the church. When they arrived, he said to them: "Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears."' Acts 20:17-18, 28-31 (modified NIV)

'Test everything.' 1 Thess 5:21

[Guest godgivesall4us]

Hi,

See how you go with these two links...I'm sure they will change your heart and your focus, to what really IS important. I hope they are a source of true encouragement for you...About what it really IS to be Christlike. Truly Christlike.

http://www.ccel.org/f/foxe/martyrs/home.html

http://www.williamtyndale.com/0reformersburned.htm

Take some time to soak it all in...Dont try to read too much in one sitting..Give it time to digest.

I hope you find these writings a blessing.

Regards,

Ben.

Ben, thank you for your thoughts and the books. I have read much of foxes book of martyrs, and the latter book seems to be history dating from the 1500s forward. I have read much of the reformers and it seems that Luther wrote about his frustrations in that what he had done caused more division instead of keeping the church more one. Even calvin and the other reformers left him and came up with new teachings concerning the scriptures.

It seems to me that foxes is solely bent on showing the wrongs of the roman church during the ages.

What I am looking for, is the writings of Christians in the first centuries. I am sure that if God saw fit to save the writings of the pagans and the history of the roman emperors, that He certainly would have the writings of Christian ministers and theologians of the time.

I guess I will do a search of early christian writings on the internet and see what pops up. I will report back to you. Thanks again.

godgivesall4us

[pointer]

I guess I will do a search of early christian writings on the internet and see what pops up.

How will you know what is Christian?

[Smalcald]

So the Church of Christ died, from ad100 through John Tyndale!! Please give me a break, that is simply twisted logic to fit your own version of history and theology, basically it is the problem the OP is talking about.

We have many great writings of the early church fathers who all wrote within the first three or four hundred years after the resurrection. They include the earliest writings by St. Ignatias, you would also want to look at Jerome, the first translator of the New Testament of Holy Scripture, and you would also want to look to St. Augustan in particular. If you were a non-Catholic I would then jump to the writings of Luther and Calvin. For me I stopped right there! But indeed there are further writings.

At the core of doctrine should be of course the bible, but how to summarize the agreed upon take of the bible? One of the best places is to simply look to the universal Christian Creeds, which were written as a summary of what we believe by the first Church and pretty much are agreed upon today. They contain the core of our theology, things like the bodily resurrection of Christ, the Trinity, the Creator, etc.

What we find is that many churches today that claim that they are "bible believing" are not, but indeed that term is totally meaningless as you have discovered. So yes start with reading scripture, then move to the early church fathers, then the later Reformers and of course the Creeds.

For a modern summary of proper Christian Doctrine I suggest reading CS Lewis's Mere Christianity.

I will tell you that you will not find one answer, but you will find a core of our eternal truths and I would simply find a congregation, which attempts to meet these. I would be very wary of any congregation that does not have a detailed statement of faith, a detailed view of exactly what they confess as true, one paragraph won't cut it. Also be very wary of preacher driven doctrine, or congregations, which have been created by one person who then tries to attract a following to his personal, take on doctrine. What you want to find is a solid doctrine, which has been confessed by a congregation consistently over a long period of time.

[Guest godgivesall4us]

how will I know what is Christian?

I will test it of course, just as i have been told to test anything according to the Spirit of God.

right? that seems to be the pat answer everyone keeps telling me, and they all have different answers for the same question. Their "testers" must be broken. lol

anyway, i went to wikipedia to see what it says about christianity. here is the first article.

[[[[[Christianity is a monotheistic[1] religion centered on Jesus of Nazareth, and on his life and teachings as presented in the New Testament.[2] Christians believe Jesus to be the Messiah and God incarnate and thus refer to him as Jesus Christ. With an estimated 2.1 billion adherents in 2001, Christianity is the world's largest religion.[3] It is the predominant religion in the Americas, Europe, Oceania, and large parts of Africa. It is also growing rapidly in Asia, particularly in China and South Korea, Northern Africa and the Middle East.[4]

Christianity began in the 1st century as a Jewish sect,[5] and shares many religious texts with Judaism, specifically the Hebrew Bible, known to Christians as Old Testament (see Judeo-Christian). Like Judaism and Islam, Christianity is classified as an Abrahamic religion because of the centrality of Abraham in their shared traditions.

According to the New Testament (Acts 11:26), "the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch." (Greek Χριστιανός and variant Χρηστιανός, Strong's G5546). The earliest recorded use of the term Christianity (Greek Χριστιανισμός) is by Ignatius of Antioch, such as in his Letter to the Magnesians 10 (68

[pointer]

So the Church of Christ died, from ad100 through John Tyndale!!

I'm so glad you agree. On the Last Day, I would tremble to be associated in any way with the vile crooks of those years who called themselves Christians.

[redeemed098]

Hi,

See how you go with these two links...I'm sure they will change your heart and your focus, to what really IS important. I hope they are a source of true encouragement for you...About what it really IS to be Christlike. Truly Christlike.

http://www.ccel.org/f/foxe/martyrs/home.html

http://www.williamtyndale.com/0reformersburned.htm

Take some time to soak it all in...Dont try to read too much in one sitting..Give it time to digest.

I hope you find these writings a blessing.

Regards,

Ben.

Ben, thank you for your thoughts and the books. I have read much of foxes book of martyrs, and the latter book seems to be history dating from the 1500s forward. I have read much of the reformers and it seems that Luther wrote about his frustrations in that what he had done caused more division instead of keeping the church more one. Even calvin and the other reformers left him and came up with new teachings concerning the scriptures.

It seems to me that foxes is solely bent on showing the wrongs of the roman church during the ages.

What I am looking for, is the writings of Christians in the first centuries. I am sure that if God saw fit to save the writings of the pagans and the history of the roman emperors, that He certainly would have the writings of Christian ministers and theologians of the time.

I guess I will do a search of early christian writings on the internet and see what pops up. I will report back to you. Thanks again.

godgivesall4us

Youre not alone in your frustration. What you say about the writings is true enough..It is centred on exposing the wrongs of the Roman church, but this is not the purpose of the intended exposure..That is why I guess it grieved Luther. The whole intent was to have one united church, but the reality of what he had exposed bought more division than unity...The protestants in a sense became just as harmful as the Roman Popery. However having said that, if Luther and the early fathers of the faith had not done what they did, we would not have own bibles today. We would all be being "read to" by the Popery..And trusting in their guidance...Instead of the Holy Spirit..And who knows, it would probably still be in Latin. I think what is key in the writings of the second Link I gave you, is the words he speaks regarding the state of the church and our need to NOT abandon her, no matter how poor the rigging or sails are..For so long as Christ is at the Helm, she still has hope of being restored to the Church that truly bares the name of Christ...(I hope you read that second Link I gave you. Its important. It helps you to focus, not so much on the state of what appears to be a sinking ship, but that with Christ at the Helm, no ship will sink. Dont look at the holes in the decking, dont look at the tears in the sails, dont look at the amount of water shes taking on....Look to Christ who is her restorer.

Regards,

Ben.

[Guest godgivesall4us]

here is what wikipedia says concerning ignatius.

Saint Ignatius of Antioch (martyred between AD 98 - AD 117) was the third Bishop or Patriarch of Antioch, after Saint Peter and Evodius, who died around AD 68. Eusebius, (Historia Ecclesiastica, II.iii.22) records that Ignatius succeeded Evodius. Making his apostolic succession even more immediate, Theodoret (Dial. Immutab., I, iv, 33a) reported that Peter himself appointed Ignatius to the see of Antioch.

Ignatius, who also called himself Theophorus ("bearer of God"), was most likely a disciple of both Apostles Peter and John.

Ignatius is generally considered to be one of the Apostolic Fathers (the earliest authoritative group of the Church Fathers) and a saint by both the Roman Catholics, who celebrate his feast day on October 17, and the Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches, who celebrate his feast day on December 20. Ignatius based his authority on living his life in imitation of Christ.

Ignatius was arrested by the Roman authorities and transported to Rome under trying conditions:

From Syria even to Rome I fight with wild beasts, by land and sea, by night and by day, being bound amidst ten leopards, even a company of soldiers, who only grow worse when they are kindly treated.