Christian Publishing House Blog
Apologetic Defense of the faith, the Bible, and Christianity
The first 400 years of Christianity's history are crucial because they saw the development of the foundational doctrines and practices of the faith. During this period, the Christian church faced persecution, struggled with internal disagreements, and developed a coherent theology.
“Medieval Catholic theologian whose synthesis of Christian theology and Aristotelian philosophy became the classical system of Catholic theology for several centuries. He is especially noted for his fivefold proof of the existence of God.”—Millard J. Erickson
“A medieval monk and theologian who had a strong influence upon Christian thought. He followed Augustine in using Platonic philosophy to construct theology. His major contributions included his view of faith and reason, his ontological argument for the existence of God, and his interpretation of the atonement.”—Millard J. Erickson
The argument often given by those within Catholicism is that the Catholic Church goes clear back to the apostle Peter as the first pope. Apostolic succession is the method whereby the ministry of the Christian Church is held to be derived from the apostles by a continuous succession, which has usually been associated with a claim that the succession is through a series of bishops. They would also say that many early Christian writers used Catholicism. We will see that Catholicism goes back to Jesus, Christ, Peter, and Paul in the first century. However, not in the way that the Catholic Churchmen might want to accept, but it is nevertheless true. And having an understanding of what the word Catholicism means will help us understand why early Christian writers used it and why many Protestant authors have used it.
Monasticism in Christianity, which provides the origins of the words “monk” and “monastery”, comprises several diverse forms of religious living. Is monasticism biblical? You need not read the entirety of the article, but the first eight paragraphs are significant if you want to know what the Bible really says.
Church history or ecclesiastical history as an academic discipline studies the history of Christianity and the way the Christian Church has developed since its inception.
Christianity transforms the whole moral life of individuals, and of nations; breathes into morality its true life, love to God; and ceases not till all sin is banished from the earth, and holiness, which is essential to the idea of the church, is fully realized in the life of redeemed humanity.
The object of this General Introduction is, to obtain a clear view of the nature and purpose of Church History, and thus to gain the proper position for the contemplation of its details.
known also in ecclesiastical history as Valdenses, and sometimes as Vaudois. Two theories have been broached to account for the origin of the name-the one that it is derived from Peter Waldo, the Lyonnese reformer; and the other that it is derived from “vallis,” a valley, the Valdenses or Waldenses being inhabitants of the valleys of Piedmont.
An evangelical Church that flourished before the Reformation of the 16th century, and which was overthrown at the beginning of the Thirty-Years’ War of Germany.