10.22.2008

What is the family tree of churches?

On Oct. 19 we listed some of the main events in sequence, although precise dates were hazy (maybe a homework assignment - divide up the events and ask volunteers to track down dates and any related interesting tidbits they found along the way?)

  • Jewish roots and the O.T. go back I think to 4-5,000 B.C. (Mt. Ararat/Noah)
  • OT line of prophets
  • Egyptian captivity (dates?), exodus and exile in Babylon (lasted 70 years?)
  • Roman empire reaching Zion and beyond (from 100 B.C.?)
  • Birth of Jesus; his final 2.5 years (public ministry); death and resurrection
  • Gospel approximate dates (?resurrection +30 years Mark, +50 years Matthew&Luke, +60 years John)
  • Insurrection by Jews/zealots and Roman destruction of The Temple in AD 70; Masada seiged by Romans
  • Early house churches; persecutions (Roman collesium); missionaries to England, Ireland (St. Patrick AD 500)
  • Constantine officially adopts Christianity in ?310 AD
  • Split between Rome (West) and Constantinople/Istanbul (Eastern Orthodox: Greek/Russian versions)
  • Mohammad's message/Qu'ran (AD 632?)
  • Monasteries and network of libraries, medicine and science; church held in Latin everywhere
  • Printing press, later also the vulgates (vernacular, non-Latin editions)
  • Martin Luther, John Zwingli, John Calvin and others: Protestant Reformation
  • Henry the 8th; decree of Church of England & its head (not The Pope); seize lands; persecute Catholics & "non-conformist" denominations
  • Puritan movement; persecution; plans hatched from Scrooby (Yorkshire); via Leiden to N. America 1620
  • Congregational roots: create seminaries (Harvard, Yale, ?Dartmouth, etc)
  • Congregational distribution: NE, Midwest, California (also South Pacific, sub-Saharan Africa, S. India)

    Upshot: so many bodies of believers worshipping the same God: Christian denominations, Jews, Muslims

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