a When Did the Church Get Started?	3Back to Home

4 Navigation --------------- Homepage St. Matthew St. Matthew 2 St. Mark St. Luke St. Luke 2 St. John St. John 2 Acts of Apostles Acts of Apostles 2 --------------- The Letters --- Romans --- 1. Corinthias --- 2. Corinthias --- Galatians --- Ephesians --- Philippians --- Colossians --- 1. Thessalonians --- 2. Thessalonians --- 1. Timothy --- 2. Timothy --- Titus --- Philemon --- Hebrews --- James --- 1. Peter --- 2. Peter --- 1. John --- 2. John --- 3. John --- Jude --------------- The Apocalypse

Before we let the critics have the last word, let us turn to the Bible and find out something about this maligned institution. First of all, when did the Church get started? The conventional answer goes:  Q. What is the birthday of the Church?    A. Pentecost.    Q. Very good. Next question . . .   Even when you look up "Pentecost" in the dictionary and find that it refers to the occasion when the disciples were empowered by the Holy Spirit (Acts, ch. 2), you must refuse to be completely satisfied. For who were these disciples? Before the cross and resurrection, they were a community united by their common commitment to Jesus of Nazareth. Do not the real roots of the church lie here? Yes and no, for this, in its turn, was not a brand-new community. All these men, Jesus included, belonged to various synagogue communities scattered across Palestine; they were already members of the worshiping community of the Jewish nation. So the beginning of the Church must be pushed back through the history of that Jewish nation, back to Old Testament times, to the formation of the "covenant relationship" (we'll get to that in a minute) between Israel and God, when the Jewish people became "the people of God." Their beginning lies on the very edge of recorded history, when Abraham, responding to the call of God, migrated from Ur to Canaan. Here is the beginning of "the people of God." The Christian community, the church, has its roots way back in the earliest history of the Jewish people. God conquers death God gives us the power to conquer The Only Real "Answer" A Question You Can't Avoid Some Current Answers -- a Dime a Dozen The First Part of the Biblical Answer What Is the "Image of God"? Some Consequences The Second Part of the Biblical Answer What Sin Is Supplying Some Documentation What Sin Is Not Getting Straightened Out How Can I Be Changed? The Third Part of the Biblical Answer The First Step After the First Step The Heart of the Matter Not Once and for All Some Hints for Growing -- Tried and Tested A Final Warning Why Isn't "Individual Religion" Enough? The Case Against the Church -a Bagful of Objections When Did the Church Get Started? Just What Is a "Covenant"? The "New Covenant" Becomes a Possibility Those Words of Jesus to Peter Those "Upsetters of the World" A Rebuttal of the Case Against the Church Why the Church? Last Judgment? Second Coming? What Do They Mean? The Inescapability of Eschatology The Point of Biblical Eschatology: History Is Going Somewhere The Dangers of Literalism Exploring New Testament Eschatology The Kingdom of God A Few Bits of Help The Gift of God Schatology and "What I Do Today" What Happens When I Die? Sheol -- Where God Is Not Present The Community of the Resurrection Paul's Attempt to Describe the Christian Fact A "Spiritual Body" The Facts of the Case I Try to Live a Good Life. Why Isn't That Enough? The "Micah" Variation The "Worship and Action" Variation The "Therefore" Variation The Biblical faith that God is the Creator