Intro and Inception of Church History

Question 1

What are the 2 limitations of church history?

Answer 1

1. Church history is not the word of God

2. Ecclesiological models of the past are rooted in their own historical contexts

Question 2

What are the 3 basic suppositions about history?

Answer 2

1. History is linear and purposeful
2. Linear history is the unfolding of God’s story over time
3. The Bible is a genuine historical account

Question 3

What are the 5 crucial moments in the story of God?

Answer 3

1. Creation
2. Fall
3. Promise
4. Redemption
5. Consummation

Question 4

Define church history

Answer 4

The study of past convictions of professing believers in Christ relating to both doctrine and church practice

Question 5

Define social history

Answer 5

The history of Christian practice

Question 6

Define historical theology

Answer 6

The history of Christian thought

Question 7

What are the four key periods of church history?

Answer 7

1. Patristric (100-500)
2. Medieval (500-1500)
3. Reformation (1500-1650)
4. Modern (1650-Present)

Question 8

The Roman Empire brought 5 things that directly impacted the early church and Christianity, what are they?

Answer 8

1. Political unity and peace
2. A shrinking world
3. A social class system
4. An antagonistic religious establishment
5. Diversity between urban and rural settings

Question 9

Define the Senatorial class

Answer 9

Wealthy landowners who also held high positions in the civil affairs of Rome

Question 10

Define Equestrian class

Answer 10

Wealthy landowners who worked mostly in military posts or in the financial world of Rome

Question 11

Define Aristocrats

Answer 11

Smaller, less significant landowners, mostly living and working in more local, smaller positions

Question 12

Define Freedmen

Answer 12

The vast majority of the population made up of both freed slaves and their children and who enjoyed full citizenship; merchants and tradesmen

Question 13

Define slaves

Answer 13

Second largest group and not citizens

Question 14

What are 3 truths regarding early Christianity in the context of Judaism?

Answer 14

1. The earliest manifestations of mission and evangelism took place within and towards Judaism
2. Rome initially perceived of Christianity as a sect within Judaism
3. Staunch Jews reacted by drawing a line of delineation between the two

Question 15

What were the two early apostolic understandings of the kingdom of God?

Answer 15

1. The kingdom was understood in salvific terms

2. The kingdom was still yet to come

Question 16

What was the first major question the church was forced to consider?

Answer 16

The integration of the Gentile

Question 17

What were the 3 events that caused a definitive break from Judaism?

Answer 17

1. Gentile Pentecost
2. Jerusalem Council
3. Destruction of the Temple

Question 18

What two factors led to the waning of an eschatological perception of the kingdom?

Answer 18

Missions and evangelism

Question 19

As Christianity began to develop its own identity, 2 things began to be lost?

Answer 19

1. Kingdom as community

2. Kingdom as coming

Question 20

What is the oldest surviving Christian document outside of the NT?

Answer 20

1 Clement

Question 21

Clement of Rome argued for two church offices, what are they?

Answer 21

1. Bishops/elders (plurality)

2. Deacons

Question 22

Who said, “Christianity is greatest when it is hated by the world.”

Answer 22

Ignatius of Antioch

Question 23

Who referred to the Lord’s Supper as “the medicine of immortality”?

Answer 23

Ignatius of Antioch

Question 24

What two areas of ministerial recommendations did the early church take very seriously?

Answer 24

1. Evangelism and missions

2. Benevolence

Question 25

On what two fronts was evangelism conducted in the early church?

Answer 25

1. Public preaching

2. Relational evangelism

Question 26

What can we learn from church history?

5 pedagogical components

Answer 26

1. Thematic
2. Hermeneutical
3. Cultural
4. Exhortative
5. Lineage