TRS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

TRS - Essay Example Luke wrote about the early Christian leadership development in the first seven chapters of Acts of the Apostles. The focus is majorly on Jesus’ teachings, the spread of the Gospel, and the events that were experienced in Galilee and Judea. As church leaders and more so the Apostles spread the gospel, they experienced hardships such as persecutions, incorporation of foreigners, maintaining distant followers, and issues of church leadership and policies. 2. Controversies about Gentile Christians The great controversy in the early church was about whether or not Christianity had to be simply another division of Judaism. The focus was on the missionary expansion of Gentiles from Antioch. The issue was basically the basis on which Gentiles were to be admitted to the church and the whole issue of human salvation, whether Gentiles or Jews were at stake. The opinion to resolve this controversy was for people to acknowledge the grace of God in Christ as the sole basis for faith and sal vation as the only necessity from the human side. It was also suggested that gentiles respect the attitudes of their brethrens in Christ. At the end of all these, the Church was freed from being a sect in Judaism, and could expand freely as a unit throughout Europe (Saward 67). 3. Arius belief about Jesus and the controversy around this Arius believed that God and Jesus were not really of the same substance. His belief was in the ontological and the eternal functional subordination of Jesus to God; that the son was lower than the father and that he was created before time. At first, the early church was not sure of how to respond to Aryanism. Athanasius responded by claiming that Jesus was eternally begotten from God and thus they have the same essence. Bishop Alexander left the controversy to go on until he finally came to perceive that it was endangering peaceful co-existence in the church. A local council of Bishops was called upon to resolve the controversy, who decided against these teachings as well as depositing Arius from office and excommunicating his followers. In 325 AD, Constantine took a step to form a council inclusive of church prelates from the Roman Empire to solve the controversy. With Constantine’s influence, most of the bishops settled on the Nicene Creed that had the term homoousios; referring to â€Å"one in essence,† with the meaning contrary to that of Arius. The Nicene Creed circular was distributed in churches to make Christians aware. 4. Effects of the sacrament of baptism to the baptized, according to the early Christians According to Saward (104), in the 3rd and 4th centuries, the early church baptized using the immersion method. They believed that this sacrament forgave sins. To them, in the name of the Father, the son, and the holy Spirit, their sins were washed away by water. Baptism also made one a believer, and whoever refused the sacrament was condemned as an unbeliever. Moreover, baptism was a sign that people were destined to repent and could receive remission of sins, were regenerated, get born again, and were blessed by God. 5. Rabbi Abraham Heschel’s theological understanding of the Sabbath Rabbi Abraham Heschel Viewed the Sabbath as not a healthy rest period aimed at preventing burn-out and a way to carry out productive chores; neither is it equivalent to sleep. On this day, the nature of time is disclosed as