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• cult - can be caught up in the performance of
MODULE 1:
CHRIST TO THE APOSTOLIC
COMMUNITY
• The image of the Church for some people today is
like an old, wrinkled grandmother or lola, who needs
a facelift and some makeup to be attractive in our
modern world.
• Some authors ➔ negative side of the present-day
Church ➔ Church a dysfunctional organization
• In the history of the Church, the Church faced
problems of credibility because of undemocratic
leadership, financial mismanagement, sex
scandals, and others. If these problems will be
covered up or not face them, the situation can only
become worse.
• The first and crucial step to help our Church is to
have a critical diagnosis of its problems.
A. CRITICISMS OF THE CHURCH
1. All religions have a creed, a code, and a cult
- The 3c’s can prevent us from arriving at the
core of religion:
→ experience of being in contact with,
carried by, and encompassed by the
Divine, the Sacred, God.
• Creed - can degenerate into the
reproduction of formulae, which are not
understood, yet are repeated ad infinitu or
without end.
• Code - can lead to legalism, or insisting on a
law, without a heart.
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01/04/2022
rites that seem to work as magic, yet do not
address real life issues.
2. The Church seems to be led by a fearsome
group of men who are dressed in clerical
garb and who have some sort of absolute and
sacred power.
• Lay people, especially women, are at the
receiving end only.
• Clerics preach, perform sacraments and rule
over the flock, while the laity listen, receive
sacraments, or pray and pay, and obey
whatever the patriarchs say.
3. The church appears to be a rich and powerful
organization
• Some priests and religious live a
comfortable middle-class life and do not seem
to be disturbed by the poverty of so many of
our people.
4. The Church is an imported entity, within our
Filipino culture.
• Spanish colonization was led by the friars. In
the neo-colonial period, new Church
leaders were imported. They took the side of
the American neo-colonial power.
• present-day Church dependent ➔ Rome
and on the Western world. It is not yet rooted
in the Filipino experience and culture.
• Tangkilikin and sariling atin does not apply to
the Philippine Church.
No Church is perfect. But our Church must be open to
the challenge of the figure of Jesus of Nazareth and
his Good News.
B. POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN THE CHURCH
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1. We have experienced a number of changes in
the way the creed, code, and cult of our Church
are presented.
• The Philippine Church has produced its own
Catechism for Filipino Catholics (CFC).
• The Ten Commandments no longer serve as
the only framework to discuss Christian living.
• Some efforts are made to develop a more
participatory and experiential liturgy.
2. Efforts have been made to democratize the
Church and to invite lay people to fully
participate in the life of the parish.
• In some parishes, Basic Ecclesial
Communities (BEC) - started and are
sustained by an active laity.
• The Bible - main source for their Christian
lives and for nurturing the community.
3. The Church has made an option to be present
in the world of the poor and to transform itself
into a Church, not only for the poor, but also of
the poor.
• Some religious are present among the poorest
of the poor.
4. The process of inculturation was introduced
after the Second Vatican Council.
• Some theologians - re-root theology, starting
from the Filipino experience.
• Efforts were made to arrive at an authentic
Filipino liturgy, among them the Misa ng
Bayang Filipino.
C. THE DREAM CHURCH OF POPE JOHN XXIII
We need to realize that our Church is, at the same
time, holy and sinful. Peter, who was congratulated for
his faith by his master, was also scolded and called
Satan (Mark 8:31-33).
‖ BSN 2B ‖ 1st Semester | Mr. Reynald Velardo
01/04/2022
• Throughout history, we find praises, as well as
harsh criticisms addressed to the Church, by
popes, bishops, and theologians.
Pope John XXIII dreamt of a:
“Church, always living and always young, which feels
the rhythm of the times and which in every century
beautifies herself with new splendor, radiates new
light, achieves new conquests, while remaining
identical in herself, faithful to the divine image
impressed on her countenance by her spouse, who
loves her and protects her, Christ Jesus.”
• This is a very beautiful image of the Church
that we can admire.
• It does inspire us in such a way that we truly
want to be part of it.
• In the quote, the pope touches the 2 nerve
centers of all Christian reflection on the
Church.
→ First, we are to be a Church “which
feels the rhythm of the times”, and
second
→ we are to be faithful to its origin in
Christ Jesus.
MODULE 1.2 JESUS AND THE CHURCH
the original simplicity and purity of the Church at her
birth which is one of the main parts of the dream
Church of Pope John XXIII.
“JESUS INSTITUTED THE CHURCH”. IS THIS
TRUE OR FALSE?
“institute” - we mean Jesus consciously planning or
establishing a religious organization with a set of
leaders (a pope and bishops), teachings, rules, and
regulations, seven sacraments, and so on.
2 contrasting positions on the Church regarding
its truth value.
→ First, classical doctrine which holds that
Jesus really instituted the Church.
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→ Second, critical-historical exegesis
approach which holds that Jesus didn’t really
institute the Church.
A. THE CLASSICAL DOCTRINE: “JESUS
INSTITUTED THE CHURCH”
Traditional Catholic textbooks of ecclesiology use
the doctrine concerning the beginning of the Church
that was developed during the Counter-Reformation.
• Catholicism during the Council of Trent (1545-
63) responded to Luther’s Protestant.
Reformation by stressing the institutional
elements and linking them up with the life and
ministry of Jesus of Nazareth.
• After Trent, the Catholic Church ➔
catechism, which contained the classical
doctrine concerning the beginning of the
Church.
• In this perspective, Jesus is both the founder
and foundation of the Church.
ACCORDING TO THE CLASSICAL DOCTRINE,
JESUS “INSTITUTED” THE CHURCH BY TAKING
THE FOLLOWING STEPS:
1. Jesus established the papacy when he
appointed Peter as the first leader of the
Church, with the words, “You are Peter (or
Rock) and on this rock I will build my Church…”
(Mt.16:18)
2. Jesus chose 12 apostles at the beginning of
his ministry (Mt 16:18par). He called them
and trained them to participate in his ministry.
They had to carry on the leadership in the
Church, together with Peter as their head, after
Jesus’ death, as the just bishops of the Church.
3. Jesus inaugurated the Kingdom of God on
earth. The task of continuing the building of
the Kingdom was entrusted to his Church.
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01/04/2022
Because the Church continues to carry on this
task, it is God’s kingdom on earth.
B. THE CRITICAL-HISTORICAL EXEGESIS: JESUS
“DID NOT INSTITUTE” THE CHURCH
a century ago, a group of Catholic exegetes already
made a distinction between Jesus’ preaching and the
beginning of the Church.
• It took another fifty years before this approach
was fully accepted by the Church.
• In this perspective, Jesus is not the founder of
the Church but he is the foundation of the
Church.
1. The Matthean texts in Chapter 16:18 and
18:17 are the only synoptic passages where the
word Church is used.
• Mt 16:18 is to be interpreted, as a Matthean
creation, to honor one of the founders of the
Antiochean Church. It follows Peter’s confession
of faith (Mt.16:16-17). Hence, the image of rock
clearly wants to praise Peter’s faith. Peter was a
rock of faith in the early Church. The
community of Antioch was built on faith.
• In Mt 16:19, Peter also receives the function “to
bind and to lose.” This “power” is obviously not
his sole privilege because in Mt 18:18, the whole
community of faith, the Church, possesses
this same power.
• The Matthean Peter text (Mt 16:18), together with
some other texts (Lk 22:32 and Jn 21:15-17),
shows the importance of the role of Peter in
the early Churches. Catholic theologians,
however, have stretched the meaning of these
texts and made them into proofs of the primacy of
Peter and the institution of the papacy.
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2. The appointment of the Twelve (Mk 3:13-
19par) has also been misunderstood.
• The key symbol is “twelve.” Jesus made a
choice of twelve men to signify his mission.
He was called to gather the twelve tribes of
Israel or the whole of Israel, in order to recreate
the nation by bringing it back to Yahweh. This
historical event, of Jesus’ prophetic act of
choosing the Twelve, signifies his mission to the
whole of Israel.
3. The New Testament never identifies the
Church with the Kingdom.
• The Church can only attempt to be a sign of it,
as one of the many expressions of the salvific
action of God, which somehow encompasses
the whole of creation.
• Kingdom of God was the master symbol of
Jesus’ preaching. It is Jesus’ way of
expressing God’s historical acts of salvation for
Israel which, in Jesus’ own experience, were
manifested in his ministry.
It is justified to see Jesus as the ultimate foundation
of the Church. Whatever our stand regarding the 2
positions on the truth value of the statement “Jesus
instituted the Church,” there are evidences that
Jesus intended the movement that he founded to
be an ongoing event.
First, Jesus did gather disciples around him.
They participated in Jesus’ mission to proclaim the
Good News, to bring healing and deliverance. As a
spirit man, Jesus also gave his disciples the power to
cast out demons and to heal the sick. These spirit-filled
experiences were to be continued after his death.
Second, another important feature of the Jesus
movement was table fellowship.
Sharing a meal in the Jewish culture meant a bond
of unity, even a sharing of one’s life. Jesus took
meals with those who were unclean and unworthy in
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01/04/2022
his society. By doing so, he made a statement about
God inviting everyone at His table. During his last meal
with his disciples, the perspective of continuing this
table fellowship was very prominent (Lk 22:14-19).
“Do this is remembrance of me” was continued in
the communities after Jesus’ death and remained a
prominent feature among them.
END OF MODULE 1 SECTION 1.2
MODULE 2: THE MEANING AND BIRTH
OF THE CHURCH
A. THE EXPERIENCE OF JESUS’ SPIRIT (ACTS
2:1-12 “THE PENTECOST EXPERIENCE”)
The moment when Jesus died, the member of
Jesus’ community scattered, in fear and in shame.
And yet, sometime later (God cannot wait longer than
“three days” to act), the community gathered again and
proclaimed, “No, this is not the end. Jesus is alive!
God raised him from the dead. The Kingdom has,
indeed, come; we received definitive salvation from
God in Jesus.”
This experience of Jesus’ Spirit, which made them
proclaim that he is alive, was a second and
definitive step in the birth of the Church.
• John makes it happen now of Jesus’ death.
Jesus passes on his spirit. Mary, the symbol
of Israel, is then entrusted to the new people
of God, symbolized by the beloved apostle
John.
• In Mark, the Spirit is communicated at a later
stage, during the appearances of the Risen
Lord.
• Matthew - symbolizes it in the ascension
story.
• Luke extends this salvation historical
scheme:
→ Resurrection
→ Appearance
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→ Ascension
communication of the Spirit. His symbol, which
became normative in our Christian story to confess the
communication of the Spirit and the birth of the
Church, is Pentecost (Acts 2:1-13). You read Acts 2:1-
13.
- A violent wind came down from heaven. There
were tongues of fire and all the twelve disciples,
with Mary, all the New Israel, were filled with
the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other
languages.
- Pentecost, for Luke, is the starting point of
the history of the Holy Spirit, which is also
the history of the early Christian churches.
B. THE 7 GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPI RIT
1. GIFT OF WISDOM
helps us to see the world in its true light and to value
more the things of heaven.
2. GIFT OF UNDERSTANDING
helps us to grasp better the truths of our Catholic
faith.
3. GIFT OF COUNSEL
helps us to see and pick what is most for God’s
glory and best for our salvation.
4. GIFT OF KNOWLEDGE
points us the path to follow and the dangers to
avoid.
5.GIFT OF FORTITUDE
gives us courage and strength to combat obstacles
and difficulties.
6.GIFT OF PIETY
helps us to embrace all that is a part of God’s
service because of our confidence in Him.
‖ BSN 2B ‖ 1st Semester | Mr. Reynald Velardo
01/04/2022
7. GIFT OF FEAR
the Lord helps us to understand that to offend God is
the greatest of all evils.
C. THE 2 ELEMENTS IN SPEAKING OF A
“CHURCH”
The community called ekklesia was born first
because people participated in a community
experience of Jesus, and second, because that
experience was continued and is continuously nurtured
through the presence of Jesus’ Spirit. The Church is
founded on Jesus and the Spirit.
• The Catholic ecclesiology of the past had
stressed only one element: the gathering of a
community around Jesus. The community then
received institutional structures, which had to be
preserved. Christians need to reproduce an
institution.
→ This is a rather easy task. All what we need to
be Church is an institution, with a catechism,
laws, rites, a pope, and bishops.
→ But, faith in the presence of the Spirit of Jesus
means a very different challenge.
→ Jesus’ Spirit cannot be controlled in an
institution. His Spirit tells us that what we
need, in order to be Church, is to be
disciples of Jesus. We are to continue living as
disciples within a community, which responds
in a creative way to the challenges of its own
time and society.
• In the New Testament vision, discipleship is
primarily what makes a group of people
Church. It originates from the basic faith
conviction that; indeed, the Kingdom has come in
Jesus; we received final, definitive salvation from
God in Jesus: Jesus is alive and present through
his Spirit.
→ Such a faith conviction has to be seen in the
lives of the “resurrection people.” It is not
enough to shout, “The Lord isrisen! Praise
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the Lord!” Resurrection faith must be seen
in the lives of the “resurrection people.”
→ It must be seen in the way they try to walk
in the footsteps of Jesus and in their
witnessing to Jesus’ healing power, his
concern for forgiveness, his compassion, his
freedom, his willingness to relativize the Law
and to dare to be different, his attempt to
share himself with others in his table
fellowship.
END OF MODULE 2 SECTION 2.2
MODULE 3: THE NATURE OF THE
CHURCH
In our incarnation of discipleship, five dimensions are
particularly important for the birth and growth of a
community.
• Together with the core dimension of the faith in
the Risen Lord, they form the structural skeleton
around which the Church, as a local community
and worldwide Church, can be built.
• The New Testament describes communities that
1. had a strong sense of fellowship
2. were nourished by the Word of God,
3. were celebrating their communion with God
and one another in prayer and the celebration
of the sacraments (Baptism and Eucharist),
4. developed a plurality of ministries, among
them the ministry of leadership, and
5. continued Jesus’ mission of proclaiming
the Kingdom.
We need these six dimensions to be able to
speak of “Church”:
1. confession of faith
2. fellowship
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01/04/2022
3. the word of God
4. prayer and sacraments
5. ministries
6. mission
The concrete realization or incarnation of these
dimensions will depend on the creativity of the
community, which, guided by Jesus’ Spirit, has to
respond in new ways to the challenges of a particular
historical and cultural situation.
In the ongoing life of the Churches, we find very
different shapes of being Church. The 6 dimensions
should be present, but the focus may be on one
particular dimension, while other aspects of Church life
are neglected or pushed into the background.
• The Church needs a confession of faith. It
took four centuries of debate to arrive at a
generally accepted Creed. This Creed
developed in the Greek-Roman culture, and
may need a reformulation.
• Scripture which was a source of
nourishment in the early Churches, ended
up in the background during the Middle Ages.
Luther made the Scripture central again.
• Catholicism followed suit at the time of the
Second Vatican Council.
• The 7 sacramental rites that we celebrate
today were only decided upon during the
Council of Trent (1545-63). The Medieval
Churches had between two to thirty
sacraments, since medieval theology did not
make a clear distinction between sacraments
and sacramentals.
• The forms of fellowship also underwent
many changes. From small communities at its
birth, the Church developed into a strongly
organized and centralized entity. Today, we
rediscover the need to stress the community
dimension.
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• The many ministries that we read about in
the New Testament got centralized in the
figure of the bishop and priest. In the
charismatic renewal of today’s Churches, we
try to develop again a plurality of ministries.
• The mission became a specialized job of
the monks and the missionary religious
institutes. But, the Second Vatican Council
refocused the missionary task by stressing
that all Christians should participate in it.
Life comes first, then, interpretation follows.
Two important events led them to separate from
Judaism where they came from:
1. The missionary work among the Gentiles that
was spearheaded by the apostle Paul.
2. The destruction of the Temple, which was the
center of Judaism, in 70 CE, by the Romans.
The Easter experiences of the disciples did not imply
that they instantly grasped the full meaning of their
experiences.
• It was a slow and painful process to realize
that the gift of salvation, which they had
received in Jesus, went beyond the
boundaries of Israel.
• The Christian communities needed some
new experiences and a former persecutor,
Paul, to bring their message to the Gentiles.
The Council of Jerusalem finally recognized
that “God, who can read hearts, put himself on
their (Gentiles) side by giving the Holy Spirit to
them just as he did to us… We believe,
indeed, that we are saved through the grace of
the Lord Jesus, just as they are” (Acts 15:6-
11).
‖ BSN 2B ‖ 1st Semester | Mr. Reynald Velardo
01/04/2022
The Letters of Paul are our oldest sources in the New
Testament, to reconstruct how the early Christians
defined their identity as Church. Two of the three
images of the Church that we find in them, People of
God, and Temple of the Spirit, are basically
Jewish. A third image, the image of body, belongs to
the Greek world.
THE 3 IMAGES OF THE CHURCH ACCORDING
TO THE LETTERS OF PAUL
1. People of God
• In the Exodus experience, God made them into a
people, into a nation in which “God reigns” (the
Hebrew Israel), into an assembly of God (the
Hebrew Kahal Yahweh, Greek ekklesia).
• It is quite remarkable that the first Jewish
Christians dared to apply the image of People of
God to their own community. They believed that
their community gathered, not only on the basis
of their Exodus experience, but now based on
the faith conviction that they had received
final definitive salvation-from-God- in-Jesus.
• In his letter to the Galatians and to the Romans,
Paul explains that even without the law,
Christians, even of Gentile descent, are true
children of Abraham and they belong to the true
people of God.
2. Temple of the Spirit
• Christians no longer have the need for a
Temple made of stone because God has made
their community into a living temple, into a
“sanctuary of God’s presence.”
• The Lord now dwells within the community: “Do
you not know that you are God’s temple, and that
God’s Spirit abides within you? God’s temple in
holy, and you are this temple” (1 Cor 3:16-17).
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• Paul sees, first of all, each Christian as a Temple
of the Spirit, by virtue of the new life, and freedom
that they received from God in baptism (1 Cor
6:19).
3. Body of Christ
• This is Paul’s original creation. He did this by
borrowing a notion of Greek political life. Body
expressed a group of persons, who embraced
common political ideals or followed a particular
political figure.
• By adopting this image, Paul wished to highlight
the Church’s unique relationship to Christ and
the special relationship of the members to one
another.
• In baptism, although we were many, we were
made into the one body of Christ. “All of us,
whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, have
been baptized in one Spirit to form one body and
all of us have been given to drink from the one
Spirit” (1 Cor 12:12-13).
Once Paul applied the term of body to the Church, new
horizons of meaning became available.
• He referred to the physical structure of a human
body and made it into an image of talents and
responsibilities within the Christian community (1
Cor 12:14-27).
• Since no single organ can claim itself to be the
body, no individual or group within the Church
is entitled to the singular dignity of being
Church.
• We are only one Church, when we have a diversity
of responsibilities and ministries that all together
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01/04/2022
build up the body. The different ministries have to
care for one another. All of them are encompassed
by the greatest gift, the gift of love (1 Cor 13).
THE CHURCH, PEOPLE OF GOD TODAY (A
REFLECTION BY HANS KUNG)
summary of the reflection of Hans Kung on the
relevance of St. Paul’s images of the Church for
today’s Church.
1. We are a Church “of God, of the Spirit, of
Christ” (no exclusivism)
• We are part of the Church because of God’s call,
te presence of Christ, the initiative of the Spirit.
• We are not the builders of the Church. So, we
are not to attempt to make the Church private and
exclusive.
• We create among us a basic
misunderstanding, if we view the Church as a
collection of individuals, who at a certain point
decide to gather as Church.
• Church begins, not with the decision of pious
individuals, but with God who makes us into a
people.
• No group of individuals has the privilege to
determine who has the right to be part of the
Church or not. God calls everyone
2. We are “people, temple, body.” (no
clericalization)
• All the faithful belong to the People of God.
Thus, there is to be no clericalization of the
Church.
• It would be a misconception to identify the clergy
with the Church, while the laity would stand for
uneducated masses.
• There are different charisms, services, tasks or
functions in the Church. But, they are secondary to
the idea of fundamental equality.
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3. We are the People of God, through our human
decision in history. (no sacralization)
• We are not to treat the Church as a supra-
historical phenomenon that exists undisturbed by
earthly space and historical time.
• We affirmed that the Church is a result of God’s
call. It is God’s doing. And yet, in a paradoxical
way, God’s grace works within human free acts
and decisions.
• The decisions of human beings are ambiguous
and revocable. We are the Church – not God,
not Christ, not the Spirit.
• The Church must be constantly aware that it is
a people on a journey. It is constantly in need of
conversion in order to become more faithful to the
Spirit.
• The statement that “the Church has constantly
to be reformed” (ecclesia semper reformanda) is
not just a slogan of our time, but is God’s everyday
command to His people.
END OF MODULE 3
MODULE 4: CHURCH HISTORY “THE
APOSTOLIC CHURCH”
PART 1: THE PENTECOSTAL CHURCH
(From the Ascension of Christ, 30 CE, to the Preaching of
Stephen, 35 CE)
I. ACTS 1:15/ACTS 2:1-4
“During those days Peter stood up in the midst of the
brothers (there was a group of about 120 persons in
the one place).”
“When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were
all in one place together. And suddenly there came
from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it
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01/04/2022
filled the entire house in which they were. Then there
appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and
came to rest on each one of them. And they were all
filled with the holy spirit and began to speak in
different tongues as the Spirit enabled them to
proclaim.”
II. THE THREE-FOLD EFFECTS OF THE
EXPERIENCE OF PENTECOST
1. Illuminating
the kingdom of God is not a political empire but a
spiritual realm.
2. Empowering
every member was given a fervor of spirit and a power
of utterance which made their testimony convincing.
3. Abiding
the divine spirit has dwelt in the church from that day
as the personal, individual possession of every true
believer.
III. THE LOCALITY AND THE MEMBERS HIP
The church began in the city of Jerusalem, and
apparently was limited to that city and its immediate
surroundings during the earliest years of its history.
All the members of the Pentecostal Church were
Jews. The Jews of that age were of three classes.
They were the:
1. Hebrews
were those whose ancestors for generations had dwelt
in Palestine, and were of pure Israelite race.
2. Grecian Jews or Hellenists
were Jews descended from “the diaspora or
dispersion,” that is Jews, whose home or whose
ancestry was in foreign lands.
3. Proselytes
were people of foreign blood who had renounced
heathenism, embraced the Jewish law, and entered
the Jewish Church by receiving the rite of circumcision.
IV. THE LEADERS OF THE EARLY CHURCH
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A reading of the first six chapters in the Book of Acts
will show that during the early period the apostle
Simon Peter was the leader of the church.
• On every occasion, Peter comes to the front as the
planner, the preacher, the wonder-worker and the
defender of the church.
By the side of Peter the practical we see John the
contemplative and the spiritual, rarely speaking yet
ever held in high honor by the believers.
V. THE GOVERNMENT OF THE EARLY CHURCH
In a church of comparatively small numbers, all in one
city, all of one race, all obedient to the will of their
ascended Lord, and all in fellowship with the Spirit of
God, little government was needed; but that little
was given by the twelve apostles as a body, Peter
being their spokesman.
VI. THE THEOLOGY OF THE EARLY CHU RCH
At first, the church had simple theology or body of
belief which can be seen in the discourses of Peter (3
doctrines):
1. Jesus the Messiah
that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, the Christ,
long expected by Israel, and now reigning over his
kingdom though invisible in the heavens; to whom
each member of the church was expected to give
personal loyalty, reverence, and obedience.
2. The Resurrection of Jesus
that he had been crucified, had risen from the dead,
and was now living, the head of the church, to die no
more.
3. The Return of Jesus
that he who had ascended to heaven was in due time
to come back to earth and reign over his church.
VII. THE WEAPON OF THE EARLY CHURCH
The weapon of the church through which the world
was to be won, was the testimony of its members.
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01/04/2022
• A close reading of the history shows that all the
apostles, and all the church gave their testimony to
the gospel not only Peter. (all became preachers
of the Word)
• As the numbers were multiplied, the witnesses
multiplied, for every member spoke as a
messenger of Christ, there being no distinction
between clergy and laity.
• Toward the close of the period, we find Stephen
rising to such eminence as a preacher, that even
the apostles are less prominent.
• This universal testimony was a potent influence in
the rapid increase of the church.\
VIII. THE SPIRIT OF BROTHERHOOD IN THE
EARLY CHURCH (ACTS 2:42 -47) (ACTS 4:32-
37)
They sell their possessions and give the money to the
Apostle and they distribute them according to each
one’s needs.
• They pray for one another even the emperor’s
welfare.
• Teaching and practicing the faith
• Comforting one another in suffering.
• One in mind and heart.
“The LOVE they practiced drew the attention of the
world.”
IX. A GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE EARL Y
CHURCH
In almost every aspect, the church of the first days was
faultless. It was strong in faith and testimony, pure in
character, and abundant in love. But its one defect
was its lack of missionary zeal. It stayed at home,
when it should have gone abroad with the gospel to
other lands and other peoples. It needed the stimulus
of sharp persecution to send forth on its world-wide
mission, and that stimulus it soon received.
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PART 2: THE EXPANDING CHURCH
(From the Preaching of Stephen, 35 CE, to the Council at
Jerusalem, ca. 48 CE)
I. STEPHEN’S PREACHING
Stephen was a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.
• He was the first in the church to have the vision
of a world-wide gospel; and it was that which
caused him to become the first Christian
martyr.
Among those who heard Stephen, and were aroused
to anger by his utterances, was a young man from
Tarsus named Saul.
• Saul took part in the slaying of Stephen and,
immediately after his death, became the leader
in a persecution of the disciples of Christ,
seizing, binding, and scourging both men and
women.
*** The fiery hate of Saul proved an aid to the
expansion of the church.
II. SAUL’S CONVERSION (ACTS 9:1 -22)
Saul, the persecutor, was arrested on his way to
Damascus by a vision of the ascended Jesus, and
he who had been the most dreaded antagonist of the
gospel now became its most powerful advocate.
• When converted, Saul at once adopted
Stephen’s views, and was a greater than
Stephen in carrying onward the movement for a
church open to all men, whether Jews or
Gentiles.
• In all the history of Christianity, no single
conversion to Christ carried with it such
momentous results to the whole world, as that
of Saul the persecutor, afterward Paul the
apostle.
‖ BSN 2B ‖ 1st Semester | Mr. Reynald Velardo
01/04/2022
III. THE PROBLEM IN THE COUNCIL AT
JERUSALEM, C A. 48 CE (ACTS 15)
The ultra Jewish element in the church held that
there could be no salvation outside Israel; hence, that
all the Gentile disciples must receive circumcision and
observe Jewish regulations.
On the other hand, the progressive teachers led by
Paul and Barnabas declared that the gospel was for
Jews and Gentiles upon the same terms of faith in
Christ without regard to the Jewish law.
*** Between these 2 parties a great controversy arose,
threatening a division in the church.
IV. THE COUNCIL AT JERUSALEM, CA. 48 CE
(ACTS 15)
It is noteworthy that in this council not only the
apostles, but the elders, and “the whole church,” were
represented.
Paul and Barnabas, with Peter and James, the Lord’s
brother, took part in the debate; and the conclusion
was reached that the law was binding upon Jews
only, and not upon Gentile believers in Christ.
*** With this decision, the period of transition from a
Jewish Christian Church to a church for people of
every race and land, was completed, and the gospel
could now go forward on its ever-widening way.
PART 3: THE CHURCH AMONG THE GENTILES
(From the Council at Jerusalem, ca. 48 CE, to the Martyrdom
of St. Paul, 68 CE)
By the decision of the Council at Jerusalem, the
church was free to enter upon a larger work for the
bringing of all people, of every race, and in every land
under the realm of Jesus Christ.
In this epoch, the field of the church is now the entire
Roman Empire. Its membership we shall find
increasingly Gentile and decreasingly Jewish.
I. THE LEADERS IN THE CHURCH DURING THIS
TIME
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1. St. Paul But before the close of this period, 68 CE, a large part
of the New Testament was in circulation, including
the tireless traveler, the indomitable worker, the the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, the epistles of
church-founder and theologian. St. Paul and James, I Peter and perhaps II Peter.

2. St. Peter
PART 4: THE AGE OF SHADOWS
whose name scarcely appears upon the record, but
(From the Martyrdom of St. Paul, 68 CE,
who was recognized by St. Paul as one of the “pillars.”
to the Death of St. John, 100 CE)
3. St. James
a younger brother of our Lord, and head of the church I. THE FALL OF JERUSALEM
in Jerusalem. • The fall of Jerusalem in the year 70 CE made a
great change in the relation of Christians and
II. THE FIRST IMPERIAL PERSECUTION (65 -68
Jews.
CE)
• The great effect upon the church of this
In the year 64 CE, a large part of the city of Rome was
destroyed in a great conflagration. destruction was that it put an end forever to all
relation between Judaism and Christianity.
• It has been said that the fire was started by Nero,
worst of all the Roman emperors, but this is
II. THE SECOND IMPERIAL PERSECUTION (90
disputed. CE)
• It is certain that Nero was charged with the crime About the year 90 CE, the cruel emperor Domitian
by common report. began a second imperial persecution of the Christians.
• In order to clear himself, Nero declared that the
• Thousands of the believers were slain,
Christians had set fire to the city, and began a
especially in Rome and Italy; for this persecution,
terrible persecution.
like that of Nero, was spasmodic and local, not
• Thousands were tortured and put to death,
extending throughout the empire.
among them St. Peter by crucifixion, in the
• At this time St. John, the last of the apostles,
year 67 CE; and St. Paul by being beheaded,
who had been living in Ephesus, was imprisoned
in the year 68 CE.
on the isle of Patmos, in the Aegean Sea, and

It is one of “the revenges of history,” that the there received the Revelation contained in the
gardens of Nero, where multitudes of Christians were last book of the New Testament.
burned as “living torches,” while the emperor drove his
• It is probable that St. John died at Ephesus about
chariot among them, are now the seat of the Vatican
palace, the home of the Roman Catholic pontiff, 100 CE.
and of St. Peter’s Church, the largest edifice of the
Christian faith.
END OF MODULE 4

III. LITERATURE OF THE PERIOD

At the time of the Council of Jerusalem, 50 CE, none
of the New Testament books had been written, and the
church was dependent for its knowledge of the
Savior’s life and teachings upon the memory of the
earlier disciples.

‖ BSN 2B ‖ 1st Semester | Mr. Reynald Velardo 12