• Two thousand years ago:
    • WHO STARTED THE MOVEMENT?
    • A Jew named Jesus kicked it off.  He said that everybody could become a Christian, regardless of class, race, or gender.  Forgiveness of sins and life after death was the offer on the table. This offer took the Greco-Roman world by storm.  This was followed by converting the entire Roman empire itself  (a few bumps in the road along the way).
    • Before they got started, their leader checked out by dying, got buried, and checked back in again, all over a weekend.  He left a few weeks later, with the promise that He’d be back, one more time again.  He instructed them to spread the word far and wide.  They made no small plans and got to work.
    • Eleven apostles were starting (the 12th one had exited the scene).
    • They then rolled it out to most of the Eastern hemisphere within the first thousand years.  They had to wait for the Western hemisphere to be discovered before they annexed that real estate also.  They made no small plans.  Christianity was the name, and conquest was the game.  There were some trials and tribulations along the way.
    •   CHRISTIANITY FIRST 500 YEARS:
    Use the map below to answer the following question: To which area had Christianity spread by 325 - Brainly.com
  •  SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY BY 1050 AD:
    • 2000 YEARS LATER:  SOME OF THE ORIGINAL COUNTRIES HAVE CONVERTED TO ISLAM OR JUST SLIPPED AWAY.
    Where is Christianity dominant and how many people follow? Cool Map Shows the Spread of Islam - IlmFeed
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    • coming soon
    • They were selling a compassionate God who had provided forgiveness of sins pathway so that you could get back to where you once belonged.  They called their story “GOOD NEWS” has just come to town.   People liked what they heard.   Help showed up after Saul became Paul on the road to Damascus, out on highway 61.
    THE SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY BY 1050 AD: Two thousand years ago, Christianity kicked off with a dozen Galilean illiterates who mainly spoke Aramaic.  Their movement is relatively short order took over the Roman Empire, and eventually, the world. They were selling a compassionate God who had provided forgiveness of sins pathway so that you could get back to where you once belonged.  They called their story “GOOD NEWS” has just come to town.   People liked what they heard.  What started as a movement in 35 AD with a dozen ragtag Galilean fishers who grew it into an empire-wide operation within a few centuries. Before they got started, their leader checked out by dying, got buried, and checked back in, all over a weekend.  He left a few weeks later, with the promise that He’d be back, one more time again.  He instructed them to spread the word far and wide.  They made no small plans and got to work.
  •  Saul, the Pharisee, started killing their initial converts big time.  Saul was on his way to Damascus, out on Highway 61, when God showed up.  Damascus was a target-rich city because many Christians had fled to Syria beyond the Roman and Jewish reach.
  • After the divine intervention, Saul decided to stop the killing and become a Christian named Paul.  Paul was a highly educated Jew.  He was a Roman citizen who wrote and spoke Greek. The disciples were suspicious of Saul’s conversion to become Paul.  This was significant because it caused Paul to evangelize throughout the eastern Mediterranean. ..
  • Paul’s first missionary trip had mixed results.  He discovered that many Jewish communities were resistant to his Jesus save the message. However, many Gentiles were receptive.  Paul welcomed Gentile recruits without requiring them to adopt the 613 Jewish commandments.
  • On Paul’s second journey, Barnabas returned to Cyprus, and Paul returned to Asia Minor, visiting the churches that he had established and opening others.  Paul then crossed the Aegean Sea to start churches in Greece.  Luke joined Paul’s group; they then found churches in Philippi,        Thessalonica, and Athens.
  • Jesus’ teachings continued to spread like wildfire throughout the area.    He liked to write.  He converted some Jews along the way, but his focus was to convert all gentiles.  The Jewish Old Testament was still in with its ten commandments, but the Jewish 613 commandments from the Torah and circumcision were out.  Paul was off and running.
  • Paul started crafting a New Testament with a Good News message baked in it.  Sixty-six books became the Christian bible.  (Vague beginning, weird ending, with a strong statement in the middle).  He started out establishing seven churches in what is Turkey today.  He wrote letters (epistles)  to them to help them along.  Each letter became a book in the New Testament.
  • THE EVOLUTION OF CHRISTIANITY:
    • e period of early Christianity during the lifetime of the apostles is called the  Apostolic Age.
    • During the first century AD, the apostles were established throughout the territories of the Roman Empire.  Additionally, churches throughout the Middle East, Africa, and India.
    • Jesus initially sends the apostles out in pairs.
    • Their initial instructions were to heal the sick and to drive out demons.
    • Later, they were commissioned to preach the gospel to all nations, both Jew and Gentile.
    • The original material on Paul can be found in the Book of Acts and the Pauline epistles.
    • Paul went on three great mission campaigns.  (see the maps below).
    • The household of God was built on apostles and prophets, with Jesus being the cornerstone.
    • Paul accomplished the conversion of the Gentile world.
    • Simon, Andrew, James, and John were recruited by Jesus shortly after Jesus returned from being tempted by the devil.
    • Peter (Simon) and Andrew had been disciples of John the Baptist.
    • Jesus also recruited the two brothers, James and John.  Both were fishermen.
    • He then added Matthew, Mark, and Judas, son of James.
    • Followed by Bartholomew, Thomas, and Judas Iscariot.  (who became a traitor.)
    • Matthias replaced Judas Iscariot.
    • Matthias was chosen, by lot. Between the ascension of Christ and Pentecost.
    • Christ commissioned Paul ( a Jew named Saul of Tarsus) on the road to Damascus.  He was called by the resurrected Jesus, who converted Saul on the spot.
    • Along with his mentor Barnabas and his doctor Luke, Paul set out to convert the Gentiles andany Jews.
    • Christian tradition, handed down, states that all by John were martyred.
    • However, the early church believed that only Paul, Peter, and James were the only martyred ones.
    The seventy disciples in Eastern Christian traditions were the early emissaries of Jesus.  They were mentioned in Luke.
    •   
      •    
    • When morning came, he called his disciples to him. He chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot.
    •  A modern-day Apostle in the tradition of the Apostolic-Prophetic movement is “called and sent by Christ to have the spiritual authority, character, gifts, and abilities to successfully reach and establish people in Kingdom truth and order, especially through founding and overseeing local churches.”
    • While a disciple is a student who learns from a teacher, an apostle is sent to deliver those teachings to others. “Apostle” means messenger, he who is sent. An apostle is sent to provide or spread those teachings to others. … We can say that all apostles were disciples, but all disciples are not apostles.
    • All cities visited by Apostle Paul Map
    • TRAVELS OF PAUL AND THE APOSTLES.
    • map
    • ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
    •  
  • The canonized books of the  New Testament are 27 books written by 14 or 15 authors.  All were written between 40 AD to 100 AD.  All books were written in Greek.  Jews living in Palestine spoke Aramaic.   There are four groupings of books in the New Testament:  The four Gospels, Acts, 21 Epistles, and Revelations. 25 to 35  other books were not canonized.  The Gospel of John is different; the other three are synoptic. The four Gospels are the GOOD NEWS saga.  The Gospels are passionate (to suffer) narratives with a point of view (good news).  The Good News is the message of Jesus, the Christ or Messiah — God’s ruler promised by the Scriptures — specifically, the coming Kingdom of God, his death on the cross and resurrection to restore people’s relationship with God, the descent of the Holy Spirit on believers as the helper.
  • Why is God so different in the Old Testament than He is in the New Testament? | GotQuestions.org
  •   All four gospels were written in the third person.  The authors of the gospels were highly educated, Greek-speaking Christians of a later generation.  (This would exclude the apostles, who were peasants from Galilee who spoke Aramaic and couldn’t read or write). The Gospels were written from oral traditions. All of the miracles are in the gospel of John. The other three do not contain miracles.  Study each of the gospels on their own.  They are different accounts of Jesus, with different perspectives.
  • Good News missionaries converted a family or two, then that family converted others, decade after decade.  The good news message sold well, with a word of the mouth marketing plan.
  •  Repent, and belief were the requirements.   The Word was God.  I am that I am.
  • Pauline epistles:  Most scholars agree that Paul wrote seven of the Pauline epistles, but four of the epistles in Paul’s name are pseudepigraphy (Ephesians, First Timothy, Second Timothy, and Titus) and that two other epistles are of questionable authorship (Second Thessalonians and Colossians).
    When Jesus was on earth, He was a Jew promoting the Jewish religion.  Paul changed it to Jesus the Christ, the Savior who was crucified, died, and rose again.  Paul converted Gentiles. Those Jews who expected a Messiah’s kingdom on earth were disappointed.  The road to Damascus’s conversion of Saul to Paul changed everything.  The book of Acts traces the spread of the good news.  Of the 21 epistles, Paul wrote 14 of them  (or maybe less), and others wrote the remaining 7 (or maybe more).  Paul focused on what today is Turkey and Greece.  Paul’s epistles were written. First, the rest followed.
  • Paul had been a Pharisee; they believed that the end was near. They  were members of a party that believed in resurrection and following legal traditions that were ascribed not to the Bible but to “the fathers’ traditions.” Like the scribes, they were also well-known legal experts: hence the partial overlap of membership of the two groups.   Paul thought that Jesus would be back before he was dead.  Paul’s message was that you don’t have to be a Jew to be saved. The word rapture isn’t even in the New Testament.  Paul’s epistles were written to the churches that he had started; their purpose was to fix things.  Copies of his letters were kept and passed around. Knock-off letters were also circulated. The purpose of these re-writes was to get the author’s point of view out there.  Written forgeries were rampant during the first century.  Second Peter was the last New Testament book to be written.  Paul took three significant trips to Asia Minor.  Faith in Christ superseding Jewish law simplified things.
  • The Timothy and Titus writings were pastoral letters that Paul did not write; there were just written in the Pauline style. The spiritually gifted ran the churches. The church gatherings were held in houses.
  • There was no structure nor leadership.  In Paul’s churches, women participated, in some of the other churches, not so much.
  • Pharisees and Sadducees - YouTube
  • The Dead Sea scrolls contain no Christian writings. The Essenes wrote them; they were a Jewish sect. Their first followers were the Pharisees.  The group’s second followers were the Sadducees.   The third set of the sect’s followers were called Essenes.  The Essene sect adhered to a stringent set of disciplines. All members were Jews by birth. The Sadducees were the party of high priests, aristocratic families, and merchants from the wealthier elements of the population. They came under the influence of Hellenism, tended to have good relations with the Roman rulers of Palestine, and generally represented the conservative view within Judaism. They seem to have a greater affection for each other than the other sects had. The scrolls range from small fragments to a complete scroll of the prophet Isaiah and every Hebrew Bible book except Esther and Nehemiah. When they fled, they stored their scrolls in desert caves.  The desert’s dry air preserved the scrolls, for the most part.
  • Sanhedrin Zealots Sadducees Jewish Pharisees Christians Scribes - ppt video online download
  • Israel, aerial view of Qumran from the east, the Essene settlement
  • Gnostics
  • Gnostics were dualists and worshiped two (or more) gods; Christians were monists who worshiped one God. Gnostics focused on the eradication of ignorance; Christian concern was the eradication of sin.  Gnosticism says that humans are divine souls trapped in the ordinary physical (or material) world. They say that an imperfect spirit made the world. The inferior spirit is thought to be the same as the God of Abraham. Some Gnostic groups saw Jesus as sent by the supreme being to bring gnosis to the Earth.
  • Evil is now; good is later.  (After good comes around).  Visions usually end with the victory of interest.
  • Revelations update:  John the Revelator had the first century AD in mind when he wrote Revelations.  The whore of Babylon was Rome.
  • The antichrist and the beast were also Rome. The seven heads7 mountains (Rome)
  • 666 Was Nero.
  • Today, there are 5,500 separate versions of the Bible in existence, and no two are alike.
    • Christian values are still relevant today for a third of the world’s population; seventy percent of America’s population are Christian believers.  Church attendance is slip-sliding away, but that is due to the decline of the culture, ethics, and the crumbling of the family unit.  The Christian ideal has served as a moral compass for 2,000 years, but the culture is also damaging.  The culture is causing some of the Christian moral compass precepts to lose focus also.  Christian faith has always been foundational to Western cultures; it is becoming less so.
  • Is there a difference between the Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire? - Quora
  • From Roman to Holy Roman Empire:  The difference is the Roman Government oversaw the Roman Empire. The Holy Roman Empire was governed by the Holy Roman Emperor (the secular ruler) under the Vatican in Rome. The Roman Empire collapsed in 476 AD when the Goths sacked Rome.  Holy Roman Empire, German the varying complex of lands in western and central Europe ruled over first by Frankish and then by German kings for ten centuries (800–1806).  
  • The Holy Roman Empire was a union of territories in Central Europe during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern … | Holy roman empire, European history, Roman empire
  • The Holy Roman Empire was a feudal monarchy that encompassed present-day Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech and Slovak Republics, and parts of eastern France, northern Italy, Slovenia, and western Poland at the start of the early modern centuries.
  • Holy Roman Empire - Charlemagne's successors | Britannica
  • As heirs to the ancient Greeks and the Roman state, the Byzantines thought of themselves as Romans, though they knew they were ethnically Greeks.
  • Today, although the Byzantine Empire is long gone, Constantinople (now called Istanbul) flourishes and is still regarded as a crossroads, both literally and metaphorically, between Europe and Asia.
  • Latin dominates the Greek language.  Cultural disruptions abound throughout the empire.   After Rome fell, the Western territories disintegrated.  Migrations were rampant in the Western regions.  Persia and Islam split up the Western Holy Empire.  The Franks, a Germanic tribe, took over much of Europe.
  • ISLAM STARTED 600 YEARS AFTER CHRISTIANITY:  
  • Cool Map Shows the Spread of Islam - IlmFeed
  • The birth and rise of Islam.
  • Muhammad was born in 570 AD and died in 632 AD.  He was a caravan trader from Mecca.  He married a wealthy widow, but he didn’t like her tribe’s primitive idolatry religion.  He went to a cave to meditate, and then Grabrail showed up and dictated the Quran to him.  Now that he was a prophet, Muhammad went back to Mecca to start preaching there.  It was tough going because of fierce opposition from the pagan tribes living there.  He then moved his operation to Medina.  By 630 AD, all of Arabia was unified under the Islamic banner.  In 631 AD, he made a pilgrimage from Medina to Mecca.  He died in June 632 AD.  He died without naming a successor.  This resulted in a power struggle between the Mecca and Medina groups (The Shiites vs. The Sunnis).
  • . In 632 AD, the Mecca faction prevailed.  The Islamic conquests of Persia and Byzantine conquests were next.  Twenty years after Muhammad’s death, the Islamic empire stretched across North Africa to Iran.  Then, from Morocco, Islamic armies invaded Visigoth Spain and pushed into Frankish Gaul.  The king of the Franks, Charles Martel, defeated the Islamic armies at the battle of Poitiers in France.  Then, Charlemagne drove the Muslims back into Spain.  Charlemagne then took over France and parts of Germany.  In 800 AD, Pope Leo crowned him Holy Roman Emperor.  He now ruled Western Europe.
  • The Franks from Clovis to Charlemagne - TomRichey.net
  • Clovis I  was king of the Franks and ruler of much of Gaul from 481 to 511, a critical period during the transformation of the Roman Empire into Europe. His dynasty, the Merovingians, survived for more than 200 years. Though he was not the first Frankish king, he was the kingdom’s political and religious founder.  Clovis I (465-511) founded the Merovingian kingdom of Gaul, the most successful of the barbarian states of the 5th century. He is widely regarded as the originator of the French nation; he converted the country to Christianity.
  • The Franks from Clovis to Charlemagne - TomRichey.net
  • Charlemagne (c. 742-814), also known as Karl and Charles the Great, was a medieval emperor who ruled much of Western Europe from 768 to 814. In 771, Charlemagne became king of the Franks, a Germanic tribe in present-day Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and western Germany.  He embarked on a mission to unite all Germanic peoples into one kingdom and convert his subjects to Christianity.
The Byzantine Empire | Saint John Chrysostom Albanian Orthodox Church
  • The longest-lasting empires, governments, or nations:
  • The Pandya Empire 1850 years. This society of Southern India is the longest-lasting empire in history.  Byzantine Empire,1123 years.
  • Silla 992 years. Ethiopian Empire (837 years) Roman Empire 499 years.
  • Three Kingdoms of Korea | Young Pioneer ToursContest] Ethiopian Colonial Empire : imaginarymaps
  • Ancient Indian History - Pandya Dynasty - Tutorialspoint
  •  
  • THE GREATEST BOOK EVER WRITTEN Jesus in the New Testament | Christ the TruthThe Hellenistic culture of the Jews read the Torah.  It was for the conservatives and the Sadducees. The Septuagint is the Greek version of the Torah.   The Hebrew Bible’s Greek translation is the  Septuagint because 70 or 72 Jewish scholars took part in the translation process.  Aramaic is a dialect of Hebrew.  The Essenes were the pure ones; they lived in the desert.  The Jews were divided by which version they followed.  The New Testament was written in the seventy years following the death and resurrection of Jesus.  The Christians used the Septuagint as their Old Testament.  Note:  Every translation loses and gains some of its nuances each time.  Translations make differences in meaning. IS THE OLD TESTAMENT RELEVANT FOR TODAY'S CHRISTIAN? - Baptist & ReflectorAt first, the new Testament writings were scattered. Later, they were codified. From 100 Ad to 300 AD, the Roman Emperors tried to kill all Christians.  The First Punic War between Carthage and the Romans was a decisive naval victory against the Carthaginians at the Aegate Islands. The win gave Rome complete control of Sicily and Corsica. The end of the First Punic War saw the beginning of the Roman expansion beyond the Italian peninsula. In one of the most decisive battles in history, a large Roman army under Valens, the Roman emperor of the East, is defeated by the Visigoths at the Battle of Adrianople in present-day Turkey. Two-thirds of the Roman army, including Emperor Valens himself, were overrun and slaughtered by the mounted barbarians. InFirst United Methodist Church of Arroyo Grande, CaliforniaIn 330 Ad, Constantine moved the capital to Constanaple (formally, Istanbul).  In 1452 (after 1,100 years), the Romans were defeated by the forces of Islam. During the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (AD 306–337), Christianity began to transition to the dominant religion of the Roman Empire. Constantine ruled the Roman Empire as the sole emperor for much of his reign.  It was now the Jew’s time to be persecuted. Late in the fifth century, the Bible went from Imperial sponsorship to Royal Scripture. In the 1500s, moveable type showed up, and the wide distribution of the Bible happened.   The new testament included the gentiles twenty years after Jesus was gone.  They didn’t need to be circumcised nor follow the 613 commands of the Torah.  The New Testament writings emerged from community experiences generated from assemblies of the faithful.  Perspectives are all over the place; some are self-evident, while others are self-validating.  The poor and the oppressed are usually the core audience.  What to leave in and what to leave out is decided along the way.  Preaching a point of view is a slippery slope.    The Jews were diverse and divided.  The scattered Jews mostly spoke Greek. Gabriel allegedly shows up to Mohamed and recites a monologue, and Islam is born. The Christians used the Septuagint as their Old Testament.  In the New Testament, the Word was conveyed orally.  Then the letters of Paul were added.  The message that Jesus is the Lord/God was the overriding good news. The first Gospel is Mark (not Matthew), written around 70. Revelation is not last, but almost in the middle, registered in the 90s.In one fell swoop, Jesus had gone from an outcast, a failed messiah,  hung on a cross,  to the Son of God.  Gentiles now had salvation, also. Biblical inerrancy is an innovation of the last few centuries, becoming widespread in American Protestantism, beginning only a hundred years ago. It is affirmed primarily on “independent” Protestant churches, not part of “mainline” Protestant denominations. Catholics have never proclaimed the inerrancy or infallibility of the Bible.  The books of the canon of the New Testament were written before 120 AD. For the Orthodox, the recognition of these writings as authoritative was formalized in the Second Council of Trillian of 692. Rabbinic Judaism recognizes the twenty-four books of the Masoretic Text, commonly called the Tanakh (Hebrew) or Hebrew Bible.[7] Evidence suggests that the process of canonization occurred between 200 BC and 200 AD. A popular position is that the Torah has canonized c. 400 BC, the Prophets c. 200 BC, and the Writings c. 100 AD[8]. In contrast, the priestly Sadducees taught that the written Torah was the only source of revelation; the Pharisees admitted the principle of evolution in the law: humans must use their reason to interpret the Torah and apply it to contemporary problems. The Jerusalem Talmud, also known as the Palestinian Talmud[1][2] or Talmud de-Eretz Yisrael (Talmud of the Land of Israel), is a collection of Rabbinic notes on the second-century Jewish oral tradition known as the Mishnah. The Talmud is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (halakha) and Jewish theology.[1][2] Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewish cultural life. It was foundational to all Jewish thought and aspirations, serving as “the guide for the daily life” of Jews. Gnostics considered the principal element of salvation to be direct knowledge of the supreme divinity in the form of mystical or esoteric insight. Gnostic texts deal not in concepts of sin and repentance but with illusion and enlightenment; Gnosticism says humans are divine souls trapped in the ordinary physical (or material) world. They say that an imperfect spirit made the world. The inferior nature is thought to be the same as the God of Abraham. Some Gnostic groups saw Jesus as sent by the supreme being to bring gnosis to the Earth. The Zealots were a political movement in 1st-century Second Temple Judaism that sought to incite the people of Judea Province to rebel against the Roman Empire and expel it from the Holy Land by force of arms during the First Jewish–Roman War (66–70). Jerusalem has been destroyed twice during its long history, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times. Egypt and Syria started aesthetic monasteries around 400 AD.  In the West, everyday life in a community mode monasteries was started up.  For a thousand years, they churned out biblical and secular manuscripts.  The monostatic life of work and prayer did the job of God.  Concurrently, the Jews were marginalized in the West.  They couldn’t own land, and they were rebuked and scorned.
        •   HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS OF CHRISTIANITY Spread of Christianity & Islam in Africa - ppt download The Spread of Christianity - My Middle Ages Portfolio
          • The Roman Empire and the Bible combined.  Constantine stood out because he became a Christian and unabashedly made Jesus the patron of his army. By 313, just two contenders remained Constantine and Lucinids. The two jointly issued the Edict of Milan, which made Christianity a legal religion and officially ended the persecution.  The Jews have no homeland and no temple.
          • Early Christianity was a diverse phenomenon. This diversity also appears within the New Testament.  Apocalyptic literature appears in both early Judaism and early Christianity. It was one manifestation of the typical eschatological trends of the time and the expectation of a crisis in world history.
          • Many apocalypses were written in the name of and from the perspective of a significant religious figure of the past: MosesElijahEnoch, or some other figure “foresees” in the fictitious time of composition the real-time of writing.
          • The Old Testament prophesied, and the New Testament fulfilled the prophesies. The holy book of the first Christians was the collection of Jewish writings that Christians call the Old Testament. In particular, the Greek translation of the Old Testament – the Septuagint – achieved a strong position among Christians.
          • The New Testament is a collection of early Christian literature, which together with the Old Testament forms the Holy Scriptures of the Christian churches. The origin of the New Testament was a multi-stage process.  At the end of the second century, it began to be evident which of these writings would be accepted as part of the New Testament and which would remain outside it. There was still some controversy in the West over the Letter to the Hebrews and in the East over the status of the Revelation of John. In addition, the fate of the so-called catholic epistles, that is, the letters of Peter, John, James, and Jude, was thoroughly considered in the 3rd and 4th centuries. It was finally decided to include them.
          • In its present form, the NT comprises 27 books, the central part of which contains the four Gospels, which tell of the life and teaching of Jesus, and several letters and epistolary writings. In addition, the NT includes a book called The Acts of the Apostles, which tells the story of the first Christians, and the apocalyptic work The Revelation of John.
          • The books of the NT were written in Greek, and they date from c.50-150 A.D.   in Christian circles and on the fringes of the church, there were interpretations of Christianity which the mainline church ultimately rejected. It also dismissed the literature that promoted such ideas. One such tendency was Gnosticism.
          • Bibles of Constantine were in the original Greek language commissioned in 331 by Constantine.
          • We have known of the existence of the Gospel of Thomas from ancient writers. Still, it was only after discovering the Nag Hammadi Codices that the actual text became available. The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of sayings, or logia, that sometimes seem similar, perhaps more primitive than sayings found in the canonical Gospels. Sometimes, however, the phrases seem better explained as reflecting a “Gnostic” understanding of the world. This involves rejecting the material world and a desire for gnosis, secret knowledge, escaping the world, and returning to the divine being.
      • Luke and Acts, a two-volume work, are structured very carefully by the author to outline the ministry of Jesus and the spread of the Gospel to the gentiles. The Gospel of Luke emphasizes the themes of Jesus’ Jewish piety, his role as a rejected prophet, and the reversal of earthly status. The Gospel ends in Jerusalem, and the Acts of the Apostles begins there and then follows the spread of the Gospel, both conceptually and geographically, to Samaria and the gentiles. By closely analyzing the Gospel and Acts, we see that the author was not concerned with historicity or chronological order. Instead, he writes his “orderly account” to illustrate the rejection of the Gospel by the Jews and its consequent spread to the gentiles.
      • Spiritually, the purpose of Luke’s Gospel seems to be to show that God was fully human, along with fully God. For example, Luke traces Jesus’ genealogy back to Adam, the first man.  The book of Luke documents how Jesus expands God’s covenant and Kingdom. Jesus describes a new family of God that includes the poor, outcasts, and others to whom Jesus brings restoration and reverses their life circumstances.
      • In short, through Luke, God teaches us how He is in charge of world history. Besides the reconciliation through Jesus’ death, Jesus also won for us the Holy Spirit, who teaches us to witness to Him and follow Him. In Jesus’ Kingdom, God looks for the marginalized and brings them together in his kingdom.
      • Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther kicked off the Protestant Reformation, which contributed to the birth of our modern age. In this one-hour special — filmed on location in Europe — Rick Steves tells the story of a humble monk who lived a dramatic life. Rick visits key sites relating to the Reformation (including Erfurt, Wittenberg, and Rome) and explores the complicated political world of 16th-century Europe — from indulgences to iconoclasts and from the printing press to the Counter-Reformation. It’s a story of power, rebellion, and faith that you’ll never forget.
      • IT’S ALL ABOUT THE CODE THAT YOU START  WITH.
      • THE DESIGNER/CREATOR’S PROCESS : (recap).
      • 1ST: Write the code for the upcoming big bang that will create another universe.  (One universe does not an infinity make.)
      • 2nd:  Write the code for the design and descent for all intended results as the event unfolds. ( One event does not an eternity make).
      • 3rd:  Set the event in motion. All things are triune, with binary interactives.
      • 4th:  Monitor, fine-tune, adjust, and select out on-going.
      • 5th: Use DESIGN AND DECENT as the process.  Write a separately coded blueprint for the consciousness of the known thought reposers.
      • 6th: It’s not the people; it’s the event.
      • 7th:  Harvesting new crops of known thought reposers was the intended result.
      John Wycliffe – Morning Star of the Reformation, lived over 600 years ago, yet his legacy lives. Translator of the Bible, defender of national sovereignty, and trainer of missionary preachers – his impact was tremendous and paved the way for those who would come after him. 
      • On October 31, 1517, legend had it that the priest and scholar Martin Luther approaches the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, and nails a piece of paper containing the 95 revolutionary opinions that would begin the Protestant Reformation.
      • In his theses, Luther condemned the excesses and corruption of the Roman Catholic Church, especially the papal practice of asking for payment—called “indulgences”—for the forgiveness of sins. At the time, a Dominican priest named Johann Tetzel, commissioned by the Archbishop of Mainz and Pope Leo X, was in the midst of a significant fundraising campaign in Germany to finance St. Peter’s Basilica renovation in Rome. Though Prince Frederick III the Wise had banned indulgences in Wittenberg, many church members traveled to purchase them. When they returned, they showed the pardons they had bought to Luther, claiming they no longer had to repent for their sins.
    •  Martin Luther Might Not Have Nailed His 95 Theses to the Church Door
      • Luther’s frustration with this practice led him to write the 95 Theses, which were quickly snapped up, translated from Latin into German, and distributed widely. A copy made its way to Rome, and efforts began to convince Luther to change his tune. However, he refused to keep silent, and in 1521 Pope Leo X formally excommunicated Luther from the Catholic Church. That same year, Luther again refused to recant his writings before the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V of Germany, who issued the famous Edict of Worms declaring Luther an outlaw and a heretic and giving permission for anyone to kill him without consequence. Protected by Prince Frederick, Luther began working on a German translation of the Bible, a task that took ten years to complete.
      • The term “Protestant” first appeared in 1529, when Charles V revoked a provision that allowed the ruler of each German state to choose whether they would enforce the Edict of Worms. Several princes and other Lutheran supporters issued a protest, declaring that their allegiance to God trumped their commitment to the emperor. They became known to their opponents as Protestants; gradually, this name came to apply to all who believed the Church should be reformed, even outside Germany. By the time Luther died, of natural causes, in 1546, his revolutionary beliefs had formed the basis for the Protestant Reformation, which would cover the next three centuries to revolutionize Western civilization.
        Every symmetry of physics laws leads to a conservation law, and every conservation law arises from a balance in the laws of physics. Symmetry is the simple structure built into the creation module.  The creation module has a two-way arrow of time that is built into it.  All current information is always passed back into the versatile storage unit.  These informational totals can’t be changed or deleted.