Remaining 4 weeks after today ( - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Remaining 4 weeks after today (Wk 11)

Tribal religions

upside down

journals (1 x 1), quiz, scrapbooks

1

st

week of presentations

2

nd

week of presentationsSlide2

Christianity

A

Historical originsB Impetus in the heartC Major Doctrines

ARHU 301

Slide3

A “historical religion” - i.e., not abstract but based in concrete events

One out of every three persons on earth

2000 years - great diversity: Roman CatholicismEastern OrthodoxProtestantismSlide4

“By the Spirit of God I Cast Out Demons”

The Jews already accepted w/o question the supremacy of Spirit over nature.Slide5

Palestine:

People were in servitude: enormous taxes

under

Roman

control (63 BCE)

before that

Greek

control (300s BCE)

4 factions:

Sadducees

– priestly class; well-off. appeasement toward the Roman rulersPharisees – scribes & teachers of Mosaic Law; toleration toward Roman rulers. Sought to revitalize Judaism through strict obedience to Mosaic law. Jesus closest to THIS faction.Zealots – Popular movement; openly resisted the Romans. Essenes –A separatists, gathered in the desert; anti-Roman and anti-Sadduceean policies. Dropped out.Jesus will introduce a 5th: He stressed Jahweh’scompassion.

Slide6

Life & Ministry of Jesus of Nazareth

Early 1

st CE

Baptized by John the Baptist (HUGE prophet)

Began an itinerant ministry at age +/- 30 in Galilee –

Taught, prophesized, healed.

12 major disciples

Audience: many social classes, but esp. poor & disenfranchised

A healer and an exorcist

Conflict with the

Pharisees

over interpretation of the LawConflict with the Sadducees over the role of the TemplePilgrimage to Jerusalem at Passover

Betrayal by Judas Iscariot – A kiss for the arresting soldiers

then delivered to Pontius Pilate (all for a bribe)

Tried by the Sanhedrin and the Romans

Crucified by Pontius Pilate

The story of Jesus’ life is told in the 4

Gospels

:

Written in Greek. Slide7

Jesus,

a charismatic wonder-worker

in the tradition of the Prophets

His

ASPIRATION

was not just to heal individuals but to heal humanity, beginning with his own people, the Jews.

Oriented to the spirit-world

Deployed his spirit-derived

powers to the alleviation

of human suffering



JOY  SPIRIT  EXHILERATION CONTAGIEOUS ELECTRIFYINGSlide8

“

The Spirit of the Lord is Upon Me

.”No understanding Jesus without understanding

the spirit

in his life and work.

The Spirit typically pictured as being ABOVE the earth – e.g., a dove. Many images of ladders to Heaven –that means distinct from and superior to the mundane world.

REMINDER, from the Jews: God walked in the garden of Eden (says Genesis) “the whole earth is full of God’s glory.”

AND, NOW …. With God come on down … Humans could become empowered. Human beings could take the initiative in contacting it. The entire world could change.

“The whole earth is full of God’s glory.”

RadianceSlide9

COMPASSION

SOCIAL barriers were an affront to compassion

A holiness code was needed

So what did people see Jesus

DO

, what did they hear Jesus

SAY

, and what did they sense him to

BE

?Slide10

The Christ of Faith: God in human form

DO

: “He went about doing good.” Ordinary people, social misfits, counselling, helping out of despairSAY: The clarity: “Never spoke man thus.” … characters go around with timbers protruding from their eyes, looking for tiny specks in the eyes of others. Spoke in parables. See things differently (next slide gives examples)

BE

: This is a man in whom the human ego disappeared. … as they looked at Jesus they were looking at something resembling God in human formSlide11

SAY

:

page 326

We are told we are not to resist evil but to turn the other cheek.

The world assumes that evil must be resisted by every means available.

We are told to love our enemies and bless those who would curse us.

The world assumes that friends are to be loved and enemies hated

.

We are told that the sun rises on the just and the unjust alike.

The world considers this undiscriminating: it would like to see clouds over evil people and is offended when they go unpunished. We are told that outcasts and harlots enter the kingdom of God before many who are perfunctorily righteous. Again unfair, the world thinks; respectable people should lead the procession. … We are told to be as carefree as birds and flowers. The world counsels prudence. We are told that it is more difficult for the right to enter the Kingdom than for a camel to pass through a needle’s eye. The world admires wealth. We are told that they happy people are those who are meek, who weep, who are merciful and pure in heart. The world assumes that it is the rich, the powerful, and the wellborn who are happy ….Either there was something about this man, or our hearts are still too small for his message.Slide12

Miracles

http://aboutbibleprophecy.com/miracles.htm

1. Born to a virgin - .

2. Changing water into wine - .

3. Healing of the royal official's son –

4. Healing of the Capernaum demoniac

5. Healing of Peter's mother-in-law

6. Healing the sick during the evening - .

7. Catching a large number of fish - .

8. Healing a leper - .

9. Healing a centurion's servant - .

10. Healing a paralyzed man - .11. Healing a withered hand - .

12. Raising a widow's son - .

13. Calming the storm - .

14. Healing the

Gerasene man possessed by demons - .

15. Healing a woman with internal bleeding - .16. Raising

Jairus

' daughter - .

17. Healing two blind men - .

18. Healing a mute demon-possessed man

19. Healing a 38 year invalid - .

20. Feeding 5000 men and their families - .

21. Walking on water - .

22. Miraculous healing of many people in

Gennesaret

23. Healing a girl possessed by a demon - .

24. Healing a deaf man with a speech impediment - .

25. Feeding the 4,000 men and their families - .

26. Healing a blind man - .

27. Healing a man born blind - .

28. Healing a demon-possessed boy - .

29. Catching a fish with a coin in its mouth

30. Healing a blind and mute man who was

demon-possessed

- .

31. Healing a woman with an 18-year infirmity - .

32. Healing a man with dropsy - .

33. Healing 10 lepers - .

34. Raising of Lazarus - .

35. Healing

Bartimaeus

of blindness - .

36. Jesus curses the fig tree with no fruit - .

37. Restoring a severed ear - .

38. The resurrection of Jesus - .

39. Catching 153 fish - .

40. The ascension of Jesus - Slide13

That

God

is HERE is what is so startlingNot remote, thoughtless, involved in their own “play” like the Greek Gods

Not fatalistic like poly-gods

Not so

AWEful

and huge and “out there” like the Jewish Jawah

A simple man . . . Right here . . . Among us

Got into hearer’s hearts.

PLACED THE “PROOF” INSIDE US: Your own hearts attest to the truth!

This is proof about God’s overwhelming love of humanity

and the need for people to accept that love and let it flow through them to others.We do not experience the constant unstinted love that flows from God to us.But … here it is! We have seen the Glory!Slide14

The passion & resurrection

as

intercession

SALVATION:

The solution to the problem of “Sin”

“Sin” separates us from God

The only way to bridge the gap between humans and God is

for God to forgive human sins

The Suffering & Death (Crucifixion) are seen as

effective

to atone for the sins of humanity.

“Who for us & for our salvation came down from heaven, & was incarnate … crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried;And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures;

And ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father…”

resurrection is a

sign of God’s victory over sin and promise for our eternal reunion with God. Slide15

The end was the beginning: the Resurrection

“Grave where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?”

The power of belief: it did not concern the fate ofone worthy man. Death was simply an entry into another mode of being.THE STATUS OF GOODNESS IN THE UNIVERSE: all powerful.

Jesus’ goodness, rather than being fragile, was powerful. Slide16

The Good News – The Gospel, translated literally

Innocuous doodle?

No! A signal! They saw that lives had been transformedThey saw everything as transformed

Men and women who were ordinary in every way

but who seemed

to have found the

secret of living.

2 qualities abounded:

A mutual regard: they loved one another

Total absence of social barriers: Equal in the sight of God

“that my joy may be in you”

3 things occurred to each and provided INNER PEACELoss of fearLoss of guiltLoss of EgoTHEY KNEW – JUST KNEW – THEY WERE LOVED BY GODSlide17

The Mystical Body of Christ: Alchemy!

Christ-

ians (literally the Messiah-folk)Began to call themselves an ekklesia (Greek for “called out” or “called apart”)There seemed to be a new spiritual substance: Mystical Body means supernatural and mysterious but not unreal.: a double aspect.Slide18

Pentecost…

the day on which the church was started

. Then …a few weeks after Jesus’ death and resurrection the coming of the Holy Spirit onto the followers of Jesus.… they were all together in one place [in Jerusalem]. Suddenly a sound came

from heaven

like the rush of a

mighty wind

, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them

tongues as of fire

, distributed and

resting on each one

of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to

speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. …[these were] Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. … at this sound … they were bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. And they were amazed …”Slide19

Incarnation Atonement Trinity

These were “the mind of the Church” … showed God was concerned about humanity.

Discussion … and conflict. And all the while … persecution for 300 years

Father

Son

Spirit

IS NOT

IS NOT

IS NOT

IS

IS

IS

GODSlide20

Huge Controversy – Alexandrian Priest, Arias

Arias wanted precise, sophisticated language

to explain Christianity

Jesus is as an intermediary who

connects

Humans and God; Christ CANNOT

be “of the same substance” as God or “co-eternal” with God

God the Father has Sovereignty

What is Eternal and Perfect

cannot

become united w/ what is mortal & imperfect (human body)

If God sent the Son into the world at some time in history, then there was a time when the Son didn’t exist, so he can’t be co-eternal with the father and therefore not the same essence!Greek: “essence of a thing” – ousiaArian position: Father & Son are homoi-ousia – “of similar substance,” but not the same. Slide21

Arian controversy

Most Bishops: pray to and baptize in the name of “Father, Son, & Holy Spirit” – so, we’d better hope that these are all the same God. If not, we’re not monotheists! The Son could not have redeemed humanity if he was a creation (“Creature”) of God; only God can do that

FACTIONS

Arian

“Proto-Nicene”

Major

Players

Arius of Alexandria (priest)

Alexander

of Alexandria (Bishop) Athanasius of Alexandria (Deacon)

Theological

Positions

Homoiousios

“Of

similar

substance

”

Homoousios

“Of the

same

substance”

Allies

Eusebius of Caesarea (bishop)

Most

other Bishops

Result



Anathematized

Affirmed & Enforced

Slide22

The Creed of Nicaea, 325 CE

We believe in one God, the 

Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord 

Jesus Christ

, the Son of God, begotten of the Father the only-begotten; that is, of the essence of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of

one

substance

(

ὁμοούσιον

) with the Father; by whom all things were made both in heaven & on earth; who for us men, & for our salvation, came down & was incarnate & was made man; he suffered, & the third day he rose again, ascended into heaven; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.And in the Holy Ghost. the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets. In one holy Catholic and apostolic Church; we acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.[others are condemned by the holy Catholic and apostolic Church.]Slide23

If the Son & the Father are Homoousios

...

God has revealed God’s self as Father, Son, & Holy Spirit – our thinking cannot grasp the HOW. All is speculation.

FULL

Trinitarianism

:

God is “Three Hypostases in ONE

ousia

” – Three Persons - One Substance

The Son’s divinity was

completely unified

with his physical nature. NOT: God “had a body.” God “was a body!”“Divinity became human so that humans might become Divine.”Slide24

MORE CONTROVERSIES; MORE DEFINITIONS

Imperial

Powers

Church

Factions

Theological

Issues: nature of Christ

Result

Ephesus 431

Theodosius II, Empress

Eudokia

,Pulcheria Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople Vs. Cyril of Alexandria & Celestine of RomeDid Mary give birth to God? Or the Christ?

Christotokos or Theotokos?

Nestorius Exiled

“Robber Synod” 449

Theodosius II Flavian of Constantinople & Leo of Rome

vs. Dioscorus of Alexandria & Abbot EutychesOne, blended, human-divine nature (monophysite)? Or 2: human & divine (duophysite

)?

Alexandrians wins,

Flavian exiled.

Chalcedon

451

Pulcheria

Anatolius

of Constantinople & Leo of Rome

vs.

Dioscorus

of Alexandria

Two

Natures

of Christ (Again)

Two

separate natures of Christ upheld; Synod of 449 overturned; Constantinople raised in status; Copts reject Chalcedon Slide25

300 YEARS OF Persecution – THEN TOLERATION

Becomes

Roman State Religion to enforce unity thru the empirePERSECUTION:Christian scriptures and meeting places burned

Christian civil servants deposed

Important citizens & gov’t employees sacrificed priests in their provinces

TOLERATION: Religion too important to the state to leave in

pvt.

hands

Insist on religious conformity on ALL levels of society: Christians

must

be brought into line

Christians seen as united by scriptures; so, destroy scriptures = destroy the community311 –Edict of Toleration – end the persecution of Christians 313 – Edict of Milan – (Constantine in the West, Licinius in the East)Slide26

Why

does Constantine

(242AD)

need the Bishops?

He wants Christians as his

clients

–

Bishops represent these Christians

Bishops are responsible for the social order of a growing demographicSlide27

Theodosius the Great

(r. 379-395)

Officially declared Christianity the Religion of the EmpireSlide28

Legalization of Christianity

“And thus

by this wholesome counsel and most upright

provision

we thought to arrange that

no one whatsoever should be denied the opportunity to give his heart

to the observance of the Christian religion,

or that religion which he should think best

for himself,

so that the Supreme Deity,

to whose worship we freely yield our hearts,

may show in all things His usual favor and benevolence ....

we have also conceded to other religions the right of open and free observance of their worship

for the sake of the peace of our times, that

each one may have the

free opportunity to worship as he pleases;

....

Moreover, in the case of the Christians especially

we esteemed it best to order that

if it happens anyone heretofore has bought from our treasury from anyone whatsoever,

those places where they were previously accustomed to assemble ...

shall be restored to the Christians without payment or any claim of recompense

and without any kind of fraud or deception.

Those, moreover, who have obtained the same by gift, are likewise to return them at once to the Christians.” Slide29

Gospels

: Dramatic stories(Matt, Mk, Luke, John) following the life of the teacher Jesus to communicate

more than the outline of his life“Acts” of the Apostles: Accounts written about series of events to explain conditions and theological positions.

Letters

: correspondence between two apostles.

(Letter to the Philippians, Letter to the Romans, etc.)

Apocalypse

: “revealed things.” Text of a visionary experience with a supernatural figure, concerning the Divine nature, Divine Plan,

or Eschatology (“the end things”)

(The Revelation to John—or was it John?!)

The Christian Cannons

remember the “Tanakh” : Torah – Law; Nevlim – Prophets; Ketuvim - writingsSlide30

Who are Christians After the Persecutions? Slide31

West vs. East

LATIN WEST

GREEK EAST

Jireček

LineSlide32

Orthodoxy after 5

th

c.

Decisions at the

Ecumenical Councils

are made by

bishops;

they hear all points of view then determine which position is correct. Decisions are enforced

Roman Catholicism: Pope CAN make mistakes, but not big ones: The Holy Spirit protects him!

The Roman Catholic Church as

Teaching authority

Sacramental Agent: sacraments are channels whereby supernatural grace is made availableSlide33

Eastern Orthodoxy

No pope

Corporate view: lay people much more decision makersRoman Catholicism holds that the Trinity dwells in every Christian soul, but its presence is not normally felt. By a life of prayer and penance, it is possible to dispose oneself for a special gift by which the Trinity discloses its presence and the seeker is lifted to a state of mystical ecstasy. But human beings have no

right

to such states, the states being wholly in the nature of free gifts of grace,

the Roman Church neither encourages or discourages

.

The Eastern Church encourages the mystical life more actively.Slide34

Trouble Late Medieval Europe

The Doctrine of Purgatory emerged in the Middle Ages to handle issues created by the Sacrament of Penance:

If someone is unable to complete the required amount of penance to atone for their sins before they die, do they go to Heaven or Hell?Purgatory: a “waiting place” where people can do penance even after death

in order to atone for sins which prevent them from unity with God

The

Sale

of Indulgences

A way to do penance is to

donate to the Church

The Church standardized a donation-as-penance system; people could know how much penance their donations were “worth”

Abuse of this practice led to Indulgences as a money-making scheme for clergy and for the Church (building projects)Slide35

Luther’s Criticism

Bible says salvation is a YES or NO: either we are acceptable to God or not. The

condition for being “acceptable to God” is belief

(John 11, “He that believes in me” & nothing else. )

Belief

in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection makes one a Christian and therefore saved

Being a Christian is a

doing

(service, love) not believing in a set of definitions

Penance, austerities, indulgences, and ecclesiastical approval are

not required

for salvation.Ok, people no longer worshipped wood and stone – but some now worshipped dogma100+ kinds of Protestantism, but 85% are within 12 kinds.Slide36

The church’s sources vs. Luther’s Sources

Sola Scriptura

Sola Fide Sola Gratia

LUTHER

“

Only

Scripture”

“

Only

Faith”

“Only Grace” CATHOLIC & ORTHODOX CHURCHESSCRIPTURETRADITIONREASONLuther, when asked where he would stand if the Church excommunicated him, is said to have said, “Under the sky.”