Recommended: Analysis of the book of acts
His Apostles were individuals known as; Paul, Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John. The illustrated map, shows Paul the Apostle traveling and hearing stories of Jesus criticizing those who truly believed in him however, it was until Paul met Jesus resurrected that changed his life. He then traveled throughout the eastern Mediterranean world for the next thirty years “spreading Jesus’s teachings” (Doc F). This parable shows that the spread of the Gospel could possibly change the minds of people who don’t believe until you show them otherwise. In the Roman Empire, there was a difference in beliefs of how to rule.
Throughout history, aspects of Christianity shaped the culture of western civilization, with its art, music, and philosophy. Western civilization did not always accept Christians, however; it took centuries for small details of the Christian lifestyle to influence Europe. Ultimately, the spread of Christianity was only possible through the environment of western Europe. Jesus’ word spread to Jewish communities across the empire of Rome. The apostles helped the spread because of their energetic attitude.
The Gospel of Luke was intended for Theophilus, it has been debated who Theophilus was, whether a man, most likely a Gentile, or that the name was a general one, applied to every Christian as the name means “one who loves God”. Readers are not given much insight into this but what we do know is that the Gospel of Luke was written not just for one man but to a representative of readers to help and strengthen their faith. (Berkhof, 2004) From the style of writing and His Other features of the Gospel of Luke is that it is continued in the book of Acts, though once again the author does not identify themselves the style and language of the books is very similar and both are addressed to Theophilus.
Chapter eight of Engaging the Christians Scriptures goes into detail the General Letters of the New Testament such as The First Letter of Peter, the Letter of Jude, and Johannine Letters, the chapter also goes into detail over Revelations. The chapter goes into the book of 1st Peter is a General Epistle. It was written to all believers in general. The author is Peter who wrote it about 60 A.D. The key personalities are the Apostle Peter, Silas, and Mark.
In the book of Acts chapter sixteen the author introduces the reader to Lydia, a purple dying, God-fearing woman of a household. Lydia is the first person Paul talks with, baptizes and converts in Europe. However, before one claims this a triumph for women liberation and leadership in the early church, one must dissect the details of this narrative. Furthermore, reading two verses further exposes a complete reversal of Paul’s treatment of women.
The New Testament highlights several Scripture reading concerning false practicing and beliefs in certain religions such as: (Matt.7:15-16, 24:11, Matt. 24:5; 24; Mark 13:22, 2 Cor.11:4, 2 Cor.11:13-15, Ga.1:8, EVS). These Scriptures are much valued, because God did not want His people deceived theologically and academically concerning His promise for His people. Therefore, the author Ron Rhodes writes, The viewpoint of those who hold to historic, evangelical Christianity, a “cult is any religious movement that claims to be derived from the Bible and/or the Christian faith, and that advocates beliefs that differ so significant with major Christian doctrines that two consequences follow: (1) The movement cannot legitimately be considered a
Blueprint For Christianity The Early Christian Movement took place in the first four hundred years. The Apostolic Age is considered the first period of this movement. This age was during the lifetimes of the twelve apostles and during this time they were said to have dispersed from Jerusalem, the city where it all began, to spread Christianity throughout the world and beyond the Roman Empire.
Today, the largest and most followed religion in the world is Christianity. It is the most popular religion in many countries, including the United States, and Great Britain. According to Regents’ Prep, Christianity is the dominant religion in North America, South America, Europe and Russia. With the help of the disciples of Jesus, Christianity spread in many areas of the world. It originated in Judea (present day Israel) around 30 C.E, and was founded by Yeshua of Nazareth.
The Book of Acts in the New Testament is a unique work from the author Luke. It gives an unprejudiced history of the early church, providing a natural transition with the first three gospels, which deal with Jesus and his teachings and information about the development of early Christianity after Jesus’ death. Luke had several historical and religious purposes for writing, including being committed to achieving for Christianity the status of a legal religion and to promoting an image of harmony between both Jewish and Gentile factions of early Christianity. And generally spreading Christianity from Jerusalem to Rome and from Jews to Gentiles by the apostles, who are under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Earle Cairns in his book "Christianity Through the Centuries" claims that the dethronement of the gods of the peoples defeated by the Roman armies created a spiritual emptiness that was filled by the arrival of the Christian faith. With the Christian invasion around the world, the gods of the Greco-Roman pantheon fell into disrepute, what has been called by historians “the twilight of the gods” (Götterdämmerung). With the advent of the church, the gods of various tribes and nations of the Roman empire collapsed and ceased being worshipped. The historian Will Durant describes that the weathered paganism sought to syncretize itself to Christianity through the worship of pagan gods disguised as Catholic saints, and by means of thought and Greek
“God said: 'Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness,'” (Gen 1:26) after which He created Adam and Eve and all of humanity. Sadly, this divine image, as we know, was defaced in man when they committed original sin by disobeying God at the beginning of human history. We recognize this story as the Fall of humanity. Yes, it seems that we had it all in the beginning, and lost it all because of original sin.
When I first came across the Gospel of Matthew, I was immediately drawn to Matthew 5:16: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” I liked the verse because it seemed to imply that, everyone was capable of shining bright. At that point in time, I was very much still discovering my role in the world and experimenting with different interests. I would often wonder about when I would have the opportunity to share the light in my soul to the community around me.
Throughout Luke’s Gospel, a reversal of worldly fortune characterizes the entrance, or exclusion of life's and teachings of Jesus were discussed. For instance, the parables of the Rich man and Lazarus shows the eternal cost of ignoring the poor and helpless while enjoying the good things in life. Or to love your enemies, and to simply do good by them. “To Luke, Jesus provides the model of compassionate behavior, (Harris 2015, p. 76)”. Jesus wants us to help people without expecting to be repaid.
Along with the writing of the Gospels and the New Testament, the evangelists and early church fathers, namely, Paul, Peter, James, Timothy and the other 12 disciples travelled throughout Asia Minor and in some cases to Northern Africa to spread the Good News with everyone. This also created ripple effects because as they spread the word, the new believers continued to do the same and Christianity began to have an exponential growth rate. During the fall of the Roman Empire, Christianity played an influential role. One we can consider is the conflict between Christian monotheism and Roman polytheism; the Romans considered their emperor a god, but Christian monotheism challenged this (perhaps why emperor Nero pinned the Great Fire of Rome in A.D. 64 on Christians). Another is the Roman persecution of Christians from the first to the third century due to Christianity’s popularity amongst the poor and the revolts it could cause against the Roman emperor weakening his authority (for reasons previously mentioned).
The book of Luke is much more biographical, while the Acts of the Apostles is more historiographical. Acts tells a story. The story Luke tells is out of the research that he has done. Luke is persuaded that God has a plan and that nothing is accidental or coincidental. Luke
