This is part 13 of the Early Church History class.

Between the year 325 and 381 titanic shifts occurred that changed Christianity forever. Rather than ending conflict and ushering in a golden era of lasting peace, Constantine's Council of Nicea ignited a theological civil war within Christianity that raged for six more decades. In today's episode you'll learn about the struggle over Christology that eventually ended with the emperor Theodosius endorsing the trinitarian creed of Constantinople in 381. Rather than sugarcoating this tumultuous period, my hope is to relentlessly tell the truth in hopes that you can draw your own conclusions.

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZXXcufcuis

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325 Council of Nicaea

Decades of Controversy

Three Main Parties

Athanasius of Alexandria (296-373)

Anomoeans

Homoians

This is part 12 of the Early Church History class.

Today we begin a two part series on the Christological controversies of the fourth century. Our focus for this episode is the conflict between Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, and his presbyter, Arius. You may be surprised to learn that Arius was not some youthful outsider spouting off obvious heresy. Rather than depending on what modern historians and biased apologists say, we'll depend on ancient historians and the surviving letters from Arius, Alexander, and Constantine to reconstruct what really happened. You may be surprised what we find.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BFihtpvP2o&list=PLN9jFDsS3QV2lk3B0I7Pa77hfwKJm1SRI&index=12

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

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Bishop Alexander of Alexandria (bishop from 313-326)

Arius of Libya (260-336)

Investigation

Letter Wars

Arius’ Theology

This is part 11 of the Early Church History class.

Have you heard of the Roman emperor Constantine? He had a massive impact on Christianity. Not only did he end the brutal persecutions of his predecessors, but he also used the Roman government to actively support the Church. However, his involvement also resulted in significant changes that eventually led to the merger between Church and State called Christendom. In this episode you'll learn about the good and the bad effects of Constantine's involvement in Christianity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQDFaIh2SsY&list=PLN9jFDsS3QV2lk3B0I7Pa77hfwKJm1SRI&index=11

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

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Today, we’re looking at one of the most influential people in church history: Constantine (272-337).

Constantine’s “Edict of Milan”[1]

Constantine’s Favoring of Christianity

Constantine and Churches

Constantine’s Government

This is part two of a two part series refuting the opening statement of a debate on the question "Is Jesus Yahweh?"

This week Brand Duke and I are going to critique Samuel Nesan's opening statement in his recent debate over the question, "Is Jesus Yahweh?" Nesan has a Master of Christian Studies at Seminari Theoloji Malaysia and another Masters of Theology from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is currently pursuing a PhD at Southwestern. He's served as a pastor, speaker, and apologist. He's the co-founder of Explain International, a ministry seeking to equip the church to accurately articulate and defend the Christian faith. In our episode today, we'll play out sections of Nesan's opening statement and respond.

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSPU45IWErA

—— Links ——

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

This is part one of a two part series refuting the opening statement of a debate on the question “Is Jesus Yahweh?”

This week and next week we are taking a little break from our Early Church History class to do discuss a recent debate about Christ’s identity. So, if you’re not interested in that, just skip ahead two episodes and you can pick up on the class. But, since this debate just happened, I wanted to take a couple of episodes to respond while it’s still fresh in people’s memories.

If you haven’t listened it yet, you can watch it on YouTube or listen on Spotify. Just search “Is Jesus Yahweh debate.” You’ll find the Gospel Truth channel on YouTube or the Biblical Unitarian podcast episode 271 in your podcast app. But, even if you haven’t yet listened to this debate, we are going to play out the audio and respond, so you should be able to follow along fine.

Now this was a two on two debate between Dr. Dustin Smith and Pastor William Barlow who took the negative position “Jesus is not Yahweh” vs. Dr. Kyle Essary and Apologist Samuel Nesan who took the affirmative position that “Jesus is Yahweh.” In this episode Brandon Duke of TruthBorn and I are going to perform a postmortem critique of the debate. We’ll play out Dr. Essary’s opening statement and respond to it. Of course Dr. Smith and Pastor Will responded to several of these points in the debate, but I thought it would be helpful to take a little more time with them. Then in our next episode we’ll take on Samuel Nesan’s opening statement.

Before jumping into my conversation with Brandon Duke, I first want to formally introduce Kyle Essary. He’s a scholar of the Old Testament with a PhD in biblical studies. He is currently a lecturer at the Malaysia Baptist Theological Seminary where he also serves as the interim dean. He is originally from Dallas, USA, but has lived in China, the Middle East, and Malaysia for most of the past decade. And I hasten to add to this little bio, that he also seems like a genuinely kind man. Maybe that’s just his southern accent, but he came across as fair minded and respectful.

Well, that’s enough of an introduction. Here now is episode 491 Refuting Kyle Essary’s case that Jesus is Yahweh with Brandon Duke.

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This is part 10 of the Early Church History class.

The Roman government persecuted Christians for the first three centuries. In this episode, you'll learn about various persecutions that flared up during the reigns of Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, Decius, Valerian, and Diocletian. We'll also cover why Romans both despised and feared Christianity. Learning about the martyrs among our spiritual ancestors helps us to put in perspective our own situation as well as provide us with inspiring examples of how to face dire situations courageously.

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl4dHYePy8g&list=PLN9jFDsS3QV2lk3B0I7Pa77hfwKJm1SRI&index=10

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Disclaimer: In order to do this subject justice, I need to describe some actions that are inappropriate for children. So, if there are little ones in ear shot, you should probably wait until later. To be honest, this material is traumatizing for all ages. Still, I think we need to know our own history.

Pliny the Younger (61-113)

Criticisms of Christianity

Rumors

Persecutions

We Survived

This is part 9 of the Early Church History class.

How did Christians organize themselves in the first few centuries? We're taking a break from theology and switching to focus on practical matters of church offices, church governance, church discipline, conversion, and charity. As it turns out we have a surprising amount of information about how early Christians did church not only from scattered quotes, but from a series of church manuals that have survived. In some ways these church orders sound eerily familiar to modern ears and in other ways, utterly foreign. See what you think.

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7tCjuTbHx8&list=PLN9jFDsS3QV2lk3B0I7Pa77hfwKJm1SRI&index=9&t=1892s

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Sources

Church Orders are notoriously hard to date (composite documents). They don’t necessarily reflect the whole church and sometimes disagree with each other. They simply represent a snapshot of what Christians were doing in a particular time and place.

Joseph Lynch: “In the innermost circle were the people who were full members, the baptized faithful. Two groups were in the second circle: the unbaptized catechumens (“those under instruction”) who were seeking entry to the inner circle and the baptized penitents who had been expelled from the inner circle and were trying to get back in. The huge third circle held the non-believers (pagans and Jews), the former Christians (apostates), and the unacceptable Christians (heretics).”[6]

Bishops (Overseers)

Presbyters (Elders)

This is part 8 of the Early Church History class.

Origen of Alexandria is the man behind the curtain. Although few Christians today would recognize his name, most denominations are still on a trajectory he initiated eighteen hundred years ago. His influences in theology, christology, eschatology, apologetics, textual criticism, asceticism, hermeneutics, and Christian philosophy are astonishing. Understanding Origen's life and ideas is a major key to comprehending the history of ideas within Christianity's most creative and speculative period. With the knowledge you've gained from our previous two episodes, you'll be able to see how Origen drew on Philo and Clement and also moved beyond them to synthesize a doctrinal package in response to pressures and criticisms from the Gnostics, Valentinians, pagans, philosophers, and Jews.

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg_Hz1TDjg0&list=PLN9jFDsS3QV2lk3B0I7Pa77hfwKJm1SRI&index=8

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“Origen was the most important Christian thinker between Paul in the first century and Augustine in the fifth century.” –Joseph Lynch

Life (186 - 253)

Scripture

Books

This is part 7 of the Early Church History class.

Philo of Alexandria was the most well-known representative of Hellenistic Judaism in the first century. His many books combine Platonism with scripture via allegory--a daring project that had a massive influence on Christian thinkers. Clement of Alexandria followed in Philo's footsteps a century later, doing for the Christian scriptures what Philo had done for the Jewish bible. In addition to covering these two we'll take a couple of detours to learn about the city of Alexandria as well as a few of Plato's important ideas. Although overlooked today in most discussions of the history of Christology, Philo and Clement lay the foundations upon which Origen, the Cappodocians, and Augustine would build generations later.

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WijYP1cGJlI&list=PLN9jFDsS3QV2lk3B0I7Pa77hfwKJm1SRI&index=7

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Alexandria (founded 331BC)

Philo of Alexandria (20 BC – AD 50)

Clement of Alexandria (AD 150 – 215)

This is part 6 of the Early Church History class.

In the latter half of the second century, two kinds of Christians arose to defend the faith. On the one hand, apologists wrote defenses of Christianity directed at the Roman government. They responded to rumors, arguing that Christians were decent people who should be shown toleration. On the other hand, heresy hunters (or heresiologists) began to combat Christian groups that diverged significantly from apostolic Christianity, such as the Gnostics, Valentinians, and Marcionites. Today we'll briefly overview this fascinating period of Christianity when persuasion not coercion was the means to defeat one's opponents.

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43mIuUVqCK0&list=PLN9jFDsS3QV2lk3B0I7Pa77hfwKJm1SRI&index=6

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Apologists (Defenders) of the 2nd C.

- Quadratus (130?)- Aristo of Pella (c. 140?)- Aristides (c. 145)- Miltiades (c. 160-180?)- Justin Martyr (d. 165)- Athenagoras (c. 170-180)- Melito of Sardis (c. 170-180?)- Appolinaris of Hierapolis (170-180)- Tatian (d. 180?)- Theophilus of Antioch (c. 180-185)- Epistle of Diognetus (150-225)

Quadratus of Athens (130)

- addressed book to Hadrian (r. 117-138)- claimed to know people healed by Jesus

Epistle of Diognetus (150-225)

- author ideas: Hippolytus, Aristides, Pantaenus- common criticisms are that Christians are incestuous b/c we call each other brother and sister, cannibals b/c we eat body and blood of Jesus, atheists b/c we didn’t believe in the gods, politically subversive b/c we didn’t honor the emperor by offering incense to his statue- Diog. 5.1-17 provides an excellent example of an effective apologist

Justin Martyr (100-165)

- Stoic -> Peripatetic -> Pythagorean -> Platonist -> Christian- founded a school in Rome- claimed Greek philosophers accessed truth of the Logos, thus Christianity is not a novel religion- Justin addressed his case to the Roman emperor and his sons and the senate and the Roman people (First Apology 1.1-2)- Dialogue with Trypho employed the idea of heresy as defined by a key belief—resurrection (see chapter 80)

Heresy Hunters

- Justin (140-160)- Irenaeus (180-199)- Tertullian (200-213)- Hippolytus (200-230)- Eusebius (324)- Epiphanius (374-377)- Theodoret (452-453)

Standard Arguments

- too complicated- trace beliefs to heresiarch- unnatural interpretation of scripture- can’t trace beliefs back to the apostles- perverted truth leads to pe