Church History | ReformedChildren x PolledHistory

 Hello! This is a summary of church history from Jesus until now, and this will be a fusion post of both history and religion.

So Church History begins with Jesus' death and ascension by circa 33 AD. His apostles during the Pentecost gain the abillity to speak in foreign languages and they are called to preach and spread Jesus to the world.

They begin doing this and they go to all directions to spread the Gospel. Some went to Egypt, some to Armenia, some to Asia Minor (Turkey), some to Assyria and Persia, and some even as far as India. The most influential direction of gospel spread was to Europe, Greece and Turkey.

John, Philip, Andrew, Paul and Peter all went this direction. In Paul's journeys, he went to Greece (the cities of Philippi, Colossae, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth, Ephesus) and to Italy (Rome). The first European to hear and convert was Lydia. Paul then was beheaded.

Peter's journey started in Jerusalem, north to Antioch, then Ephesus and Corinth, then to Rome, and he was also killed there by upside down crucifixion. John was the last apostle to die, and he did in the island of Patmos, where he was revealed of the future, specifically Judgement Day, in a vision. John died naturally.

Christian persecution at the time was very harsh, as the Romans and Jews had constantly persecuted them. After the deaths of the apostles, the next generation of Christians, who did not see Jesus but saw His apostles, watched over the church, and they were more fragile to misconception and heresy because of their attributes being second-generation.

Clement of Rome, who was an early Church Father, became the fourth pope and sent epistles to Corinth (1 Clement), though his books are not included in the Bible. He was ordained by Peter. Polycarp was another bishop by this time, and he, who was a disciple of John, one of the apostles, and he was bishop over the Church of Smyrna.

Christianity grew by the centuries but was still persecuted. They had to worship and bury bodies in underground catacombs. In the 200s AD, the notable Decian Persecution ordered by the Roman emperor Decius, because he tried to combat Christianity, which he saw a threat. This was the first empirewide persecution of Christians.

However, just a year after the order was signed to persecute Christians, Decius was killed fighting against enemies. The persecution only lasted eighteen months, as his sucessors ended the persecution. In 285 AD, Emperor Diocletian of the Roman Empire, who hated the Christians, began an even more severe persecution of Christians. It was the last time the Christians were physically persecuted by the Romans.

It began when a Christian protested against the emperor when he was offering sacrifices to his god. Still, many believers persevered. Meanwhile, in Armenia, Christianity had finally been adopted. Now, Constantine I, the son of Constantius, who Diocletian set up as one of the tetrarchs over the empire (for Diocletian divided the empire into four shares), was fighting against the more powerful Maxentius, who had more soldiers. 

Constantine the night before battle dreamt of a cross in the sky and a voice "By this sign you shall conquer". So he painted his soldiers' shields with the chi rho symbol - a symbol of Jesus and that battle he crushed his enemies at the Battle of Milvian Bridge.

Then, he signed the Edict of Milan , ending all persecution against Christians. He called for a ecunemical council at Nicaea to destroy the Arian controversy - that is the heresy believing Jesus wasn't fully divine. The bishops involved in Nicaea also made the Nicene Creed.

Still, Arianism was widespread. St Athanasius addressed these problems. Later on, Augustine of Hippo lived. He was an influential theologian and philosopher and he wrote his thoughts and theology. Also during this time came more ecunemical councils (Chalcedon, Constantinople, Ephesus) that addressed other problems. 

Theodosius I, a Roman emperor made Christianity dominant over the empire by making a persecution against paganism (pagan religions are simple, polytheistic and idolistic religions). A heretic named Nestorius lived, and he made the false belief that Jesus' human and divine natures are separate entities.

Cyril of Alexandria combatted this heresy with his works, and Nestorius was exiled, yet he established his own church. After the Western half of Rome fell in 476 AD, Christianity continued and the Papacy, the pope and his power, continued. In the surviving eastern half of Rome, Christianity too continued, slowly turning into Eastern Orthodoxy.

These times (476-1054 AD) was a time of not much significant events for the Church. In 1054 AD, a great ordeal happened known as the Great Schism. The church leaders of the East and West disagreed in matters, one of which was the Western church leaders wanting to add to the Nicene Creed, (the matter was if the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father and Son). The Western leaders wanted to add this but the eastern church leaders disagreed. This was the first major separation of the church, and from this the Western, Roman Catholic church under the Pope was distinguished from the Eastern Orthodox church. 

Also around this time (circa 1100 AD), the Catholic church under the Pope called for the European Nations to gather an army and try to retake Jerusalem in a religious war called the Crusades. However, it mostly changed politics rather than actual theology.

The Catholic Church was around this time more of a political entity than a church, and also around this time the Church began to sell indulgences, basically selling "heaven tickets". They also were involved in many scandals and other of their actions conflicting with the Bible.

Jan Hus, a theologian from Czechia, disliked these actions and he criticized them. The Catholics quickly executed him. His last words, however, predicted the coming of a person in a hundred years whose reforms could not be stopped. Though he died, his criticisms was a shadow of what was to come. 

One hundred years after Hus' death, ex-catholic German Priest Martin Luther too began to criticize the Catholic Church, initiating a religious movement, the Reformation, starting by nailing the 95 Theses, a list of the theological statements on the door of a church. The kings and princes of Germany (in the Holy Roman Empire at the time) followed his theology to be free of the influence from the pope in Rome.

There were many Protestant (Protestant is the church referring to the belief of the reformers) mottos, usually in Latin, such as "Sola Scriptura" (only the Scripture), "Sola Fide" (only the Faith"), among others.

Meanwhile, in England, King Henry VIII heard of the latest reformation in mainland Europe. At first, he did not budge and followed the Catholic Church, but when the pope forbid him to marry again, he got mad and formed the Anglican Protestant church. 

In Switzerland, the reformer Zwingli wrote his own beliefs and initiated the Reformation in Switzerland. When he met with Luther, they disagreed on a matter about the Sacraments, specifically the Bread and Body of Christ. This separated the Protestant Church. 

Then, John Calvin, a French theologian and reformer, (1509-1564), wrote his theologies and founded and preached in many churches and institutes in France and Switzerland. He created the Protestant denomination of Calvinism. Other reformers were also very significant during this time.

The Catholic Church didn't like this movement and organized a council, the Council of Trent, to address matters. The Reformation, though meant to be only a theological movement, reached politically and violent terms with many Wars of Religion.

The Reformation, however, wasn't the forming of a new church or denomination, but it was meant to restore the Church to its supposed state and ways. After the Reformation, Christianity was distinguished into many different views or "denominations".

In the 1600s and the Age of Colonialism, Christianity spread outside just Europe to the Americas and Africa. Protestantism branched out and many more lesser known denominations began. In the 16, 17, and 18 hundreds, the Enlightenment, a scientific revolution and growth in scientific knowledge, began.

Some of the Enlightenment scientific theories and beliefs opposed religion and the Church. This was the advent of atheism, deism, and later agnosticism, which before the Enlightenment were nonexistent. Still, the church and Christianity continued to grow.

Modern Christianity (1800-present) is marked with the rise of newer denominations, some of which are controversial and contradictive with the Scriptures. Liberalist Christianity rose, which often slowly shifted from the Scripture and conflicted it during this time.

And here we are today!