About early christianity: Good link!

by Hellrider 43 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Hellrider

  I found a good text online, about early christianity:

  http://www.muslimhope.com/BibleAnswers/EarlyChurch.htm

  ...the text has nothing to do with islam at all, but it is published on a web-page that tries to reach out to moslems...(never mind that, it`s not important). In short, it`s an outline of early christianity, what the early church fathers believed and taught, and the text is also a defense for "traditional" christianity against all the modern adventist-offspring cults (jehovahs witnesses, mormons etc). Much of it deals with the early churchs view on christ, and the trinity. I think it`s very good, but I have no idea who wrote it. Check it out, it`s an interesting read, but a little long.
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  Qcmbr

  'tis a good page. Coincidentally I'm just Re-reading Lost Christianities by B Ehrman which is the same sort of thing.
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  Butters

  This is a horrible link. It promotes the Trinity. Tertullian didn't adress nearly half the scriptures that prove God cannot be tempted and that Jesus was tempted. Hebrews 4:15 makes it quite clear that Messiah (the human) was David's son, a man tempted like us. The Platonism that Tertullian believed came LATER. All of the early "church fathers" were influenced by pagan Greek philosophy. Specifically Xenocrates.

  I am sad to say that this is a big misleading article. For some real truth, try:

  http://www.creatorgod.org

  http://www.godfellas.org

  Butters
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  Butters

  You cannot put three billiard balls on one spot.

  Butters
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  Qcmbr

  Just for the fun of it: Three billiard balls on one spot ... You can if you use time as a dimension.
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  gumby

  Table of Contents

  Tertullian ~145-185-220/240 A.D.

  Novatian ~210-280 A.D.

  Ignatius ?-12/20 107 or 116 A.D.

  Papias and Polycarp 65-110-155/156 A.D.

  The dates that are considered in your link is a time when corruption had already taken place in which insistence on scriptural understanding was being imposed........so, to quote or believe a church fathers understanding of the scriptures isn't a firm ground to base ones beliefs upon in modern times. You might as well believe in what the Governing Body in Brooklyn has decided as to what is the correct understanding.

  As far as the very early church believing in a Trinity, the proof doesn't exist.

  Gumby
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  FlyingHighNow

  Maybe not three billiard balls, but how about three poker chips? I personally don't believe the trinity has to mean all three are the same person. I think more along the lines of them being united as a married couple is one flesh.
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  barry

  I think its a very good link the fact is the time period in question the scriptures hadnt been decided on Hebrews to Revelation. These books were decided on by the end of the fourth century.

  Flying high no one beleives all three are the one person that is only a straw man .
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  Leolaia

  The Platonism that Tertullian believed came LATER.

  Platonism was all throughout Hellenistic Judaism, which is more than apparent if you read Wisdom (first century BC), Pseudo-Phocylides (first century BC), Philo of Alexandria (first century AD), Josephus (first century AD), and other writings from the period. Although there are minor points of contact with Platonism and Stoicism in the NT (such as the terminology in 2 Corinthians and 2 Peter), it is in Hebrews where there are robust parallels to Alexandrian philosophy, similar to that found in Barnabas. The second century apologists and gnostics were certainly innovative in the great extent to which they explored and exploited concepts drawn from Greek philosophy, but it's not the case that first-century Christianity had a virginal innocence from philosophical notions that already permeated much of Judaism itself.
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  FlyingHighNow

  I've spoken with people who believe all three are one person. They believe God came to earth and was Jesus and I don't know how they fit the holy spirit in there.

  The associate priest at our Episcopal Church, who used to be a cradle Catholic, explained it to me this way: the Catholic church teaches that God existed alone. He spoke Jesus' name and he came to exist and Jesus spoke to God the father and the Holy Spirit came into existence. I don't know how this is supposed to mean they are one, except in the sense of being a united body as in a marriage or family or organization.