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Christian church, early

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From Urantia Wiki, the encyclopedia of The Urantia Book

Also: first Christian church, early Christian church, Pauline Christianity, early leaders of Christianity, paganization of Christianity, paganized Christianity, Paul’s Christianity, Paul’s Christian church, early Christianity, Paul’s institutionalized church, Hellenization of Christianity, Paul’s Christian cult, Paul’s rising cult of Christianity, early Christian cult, Hellenized Christianity, Paul’s cult of Christianity, Early Christianity.

The results of Peter’s preaching on the day of Pentecost were such as to decide the efforts to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom. Peter was the real founder of the Christian church; Paul carried the Christian message to the gentiles, and the Greek believers carried it to the whole Roman Empire. 195

For some time the believers in Jesus were a sect within Judaism. 194:1.5 194:4.10

In the Urantia Book

The fast triumph

  • there were three paramount factors in rapid spread of early Christianity: 132:0.5-8
  • # The choosing and holding of Simon Peter as an apostle.
  • # The conversion of Saul of Tarsus
  • # The preliminary preparation of thirty Romans inadvertently by Jesus
  • The triumph of Christianity over the philosophic religions and the mystery cults was due to: 195:0.5-18 195:1.2-4
  • # The organization
  • # Hellenization
  • # The ideal of the life of Jesus
  • # Compromises to Mithracism
  • # Compromises with paganism

Abner and Babylonian church

Paul and Hellenic church

  • Pauline church had its headquartered at Antioch 171:1.6 196:2.6
  • In Antioch Paul’s disciples were first called “Christians.” 121:2.5 194:4.13
  • Very soon the believers at Antioch were taking up a collection to keep their fellow believers at Jerusalem from starving. 194:4.7
  • Each Jewish synagogue tolerated a fringe of gentile believers, “devout” or “God-fearing” men, and it was among this fringe of proselytes that Paul made the bulk of his early converts to Christianity. 121:2.5
  • first Roman church had been previously the chief Mithraic temple 132:0.5
  • Greek writings determined the drift of Paul’s Christian cult toward the West instead of toward the East. 121:6.2
  • The moral backbone of the early Christian church consisted of Christianized Greek proselytes to Judaism. 121:3.4 195:3.6
  • Mithraism was for a time contemporary with, and a competitor of, Paul’s rising cult of Christianity 121:5.8
  • During the III century A.D., Mithraic and Christian churches were very similar both in appearance and in the character of their ritual. 98:6.3
  • The one great difference between Mithraism and Christianity, aside from the characters of Mithras and Jesus, was that the one encouraged militarism while the other was ultrapacific. 98:6.4
  • The Christians accepted the empire; the empire adopted Christianity. 195:3

Peter and the church of Jerusalem

  • Jerusalem was to become the cradle of the early gospel movement 176:1.3
  • The early Christian church was largely composed of the lower classes and these slaves. 121:3.7
  • the church at Jerusalem organized under the leadership of Peter, and James the brother of Jesus had been installed as its titular head. Matadormus was treasurer, that rich man who initially refused to be part of the group of seventy evangelists 92:6.18 163:2.7 194:4.12
  • fierce persecution against believers in Jerusalem scattered believers to the ends of the earth 143:6.6
  • persecutions againt Christians very much resulted from the use of the term “kingdom” 170:2.24-25

Rituals evolution

Failings

  • * Paul’s Christianity made sure of the adoration of the divine Christ, but it almost wholly lost sight of the struggling and valiant human Jesus of Galilee 196:2.4-5
  • * Paul maintained the belief in the doctrine of atonement for sins through the “shedding of blood” 63:6.4
  • * changed the gospel of the kingdom—sonship with God and brotherhood with man—into the proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus 192:4.7 194:0.3-7 194:4.4-6
  • * Christianity preached God as Father of Lord Jesus Christ, believer-fellowship with risen Christ 5:4.8 194:0.4
  • * Christ thus became the head of the church rather than the elder brother of each individual believer in the Father’s family of the kingdom. 170:5.17-18 194:4.4-6
  • * Christian church was built around:
  • ** the concept of glorified Christ 5:4.9
  • ** the fact of Christ’s death 143:5.11 143:6.3
  • ** the miraculous concepts and the glorified memories of Jesus’ divine-human personality (98:7.2,8) 166:0.2 170:2.10 (196:2.1,4,6)
  • * It was not loyal to the simple spiritual appeal, such as Jesus had presented to the souls of men; it early struck a decided attitude on religious rituals, education and other mores 195:0.3
  • * elevated the rituals and doctrines of self-abnegation, asceticism, fasting, deprivation, sanctification through sorrow, suffering, and the mortification of the flesh. 89:3.3 89:4.1
  • * the great mistakes of early Christianity were incorporation of Persian and Greek thought, connection to Judaism, atonement, and overemphasis on person of Jesus 149:2.2-5
  • * Paul and his successors partly transferred the issues of eternal life from the individual to the church. 170:5.17-18
  • * it was the general belief that Jesus was the Eternal Son 161:1.6
  • * The Christian concept of the Trinity, which began to gain recognition near the close of the first century after Christ, was comprised of the Universal Father, the Creator Son of Nebadon, and the Divine Minister of Salvington—Mother Spirit of the local universe and creative consort of the Creator Son. Though the Christian concept of the Trinity erred in fact, it was practically true with respect to spiritual relationships. 104:1.11-13 161:1.6 194:4.9
  • * it lacked the moral courage to follow the noble example of Jesus in its subsequent attitude toward women 149:2.9 167:6.4
  • * the idea of having all possessions held in common, that led to disaster (194:4.2,7)
  • * the second coming of Jesus was deemed as near at hand, and when did not happen, began to teach that the kingdom was in reality to appear at the culmination of the Christian age (170:2.1,10) 170:5.14-15 (194:4.5,7) 196:2.5 | Jesus:second coming
  • * Paul’s institutionalized church became a virtual substitute for the kingdom of heaven which Jesus had proclaimed. 170:2.8-10 170:5.7-15
  • * teachers were much unyielding and uncompromising at Lake Urmia 134:6.15-16

Influences

Strengths

  • * conquered Roman Empire. By the end of the second century, practically all the great minds of the Greco-Roman world had become Christian. 195:2.5 195:3.10 195:10.18
  • * Abiding faith in the resurrection of Jesus was the cardinal feature of the faith of all branches of the early gospel teaching. 190:0.4
  • * Christian teachers, were the first to proclaim that the poor could have salvation on equal terms with the rich. 69:9.4
  • * Early Christianity was entirely free from all civil entanglements, social commitments, and economic alliances. 99:3.1
  • * imposed more stringent sex obligations upon men 84:5.6
  • * Christianity was in no sense an economic movement having for its purpose the amelioration of the miseries of the depressed classes. 121:3.9
  • * The early Christian cult was the most effective, appealing, and enduring of any ritual ever conceived or devised 87:7.4
  • * it has built up one of the most progressive human societies which has ever existed on Urantia 170:5.16 195:0.3
  • * That which gave greatest power to Christianity was the way its believers lived lives of service and even the way they died for their faith during the earlier times of drastic persecution. 194:4.6 195:3.4
  • * Christian teachings were vastly superior to existing religions 121:5.6
  • * the deciding factor of Christianity was the admission of women into the full fellowship of the Christian faith. 98:6.4 150:1.3

Bible parallels

Passages that the paragraphs cited above parallel, quote or reinterpret, from Duane Faw’s Paramony cross-references. Hover a reference to read it.

Where it appears

Christian church, early is linked in 33 paragraphs of the text.

5:4.1487:7.498:0.199:3.1121:3.4121:5.8121:6.2121:7.7130:2.3130:8.2132:0.5132:1.1133:3.2139:1.9139:6.9149:2.2150:1.3156:4.2166:5.2170:0.2170:1.16170:2.25170:5.7171:1.6194:4.12195:0.1195:1.1195:2.3195:3.6195:8.2195:9.10195:10.9196:2.1

See also

AngamonAntiochAthensBaptismCaesareaChristianityChurchesCorinthCultsDeaconessesGreeksJames (brother of Jesus)JeremiahJerusalemJesusLibertyMartyrsMelkarth templeMithraismNew TestamentPaulPhariseesReligionRoman Catholic ChurchRoman EmpireSalem teachingsScienceSimon PeterSlaverySlavesSocial classesSocratesSpiritual unityStoicism (religion)StoningsSyracuseTotalitarianismTyreUnknown
Categories: Religions and movements