Those grafted in again

The apostle  Paul wrote about the dispersion, the dispersed House of Israel. They had been “without covenant“, but Paul was sent out to recover them. So they were “grafted in again“ (Romans 11/23). Or, Grafted back in“. If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been …

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Religion and believers #14 Church and state

Constantine wanted unity in his realm, and his call in 325 C.E. for a council of his bishops at Nicaea, located in the Eastern, Greek-speaking domain of his empire, across the Bosporus from the new city of Constantinople was in a certain way his goal to achieve some agreement by which many could live. Constantine …

Religion and believers #12 Ranking and days for days to holding worship in secret

Self-enhancing When the apostles had died there came a time when those in charge of teaching and going around telling about the gospel, started coming to see themselves as special people. Some even started to consider themselves as 'clergy of the highest order'. After a time the organisation of the church was given only to …

Religion and believers #11 Prospect of a life without end in a peaceful kingdom

A New Judaic movement The followers of Christ brought some new movement in action which spread quite naturally beyond the confines of Palestine. Their group found adherents among the Jews of the dispersion, and at an early day also among the Gentiles as well. Many of the latter had already come under the influence of …

Religion and believers #10 Infiltrating pagan teachings

In the previous posting we saw already how the pupils of the disciples from the apostles searched in other classic writings to add some flavour to their teaching and to gain more popularity because some Greek philosophers were very popular. Certain members of the community found themselves too weak to present strong teachings and therefore …