The text examines early Christianity, including its foundational doctrines, teachings of Jesus, impacts of Greek philosophy, and historical conflicts leading to divisions within the Church.
Turning Away from God: The Dangers of Apostasy
CHURCH HISTORY: The Origin, Persecutions, and Doctrines of the Waldenses
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.
THE WALDENSES: From the Catholic Church to Heresy to Protestantism?
The Waldensian movement was started partly in response to the schisms that had consumed the Catholic church in the 12th century and advocated a return to the vows of poverty and preaching of the Gospel as advocated by Jesus and his disciples in the New Testament.
THE WALDENSES: Unorthodox or Searchers of Truth?
The Catholic Church would love everyone to forget the seeds of discontent that were present in her midst many years before Peter Waldo. For example, there was Bishop Agobard of Lyons, France (779-840 C.E.), who had come out strongly against image worship, churches dedicated to saints, and church liturgy, which was not in agreement with the Word of God, the Bible.
