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The New Testament Period: Historical Friday

Today marks the beginning of a long series over viewing the history of Christianity. With all the things we've been discussing, I feel that it is important that we all have a basic framework to reference. Today's section, the New Testament period, is one most already are pretty familiar with. Since that is the case, allow me to briefly describe how this will work.

Each time period will have three sections; a brief overarching history, important events, and important people. From time to time we will take a break from the usual big picture pieces in order to focus on particular events or people that are very important. Overall these may be a little longer than normal since there is so much ground to cover.

So today we begin with the New Testament period. This is basically the first century AD; the time of Christ and the Apostles. This blog will be shorter than most since we are familiar with this period from the New Testament.

Brief History

The story of Christianity really begins with the Ascension of Jesus Christ and the day of Pentecost. This is when the first disciples of Christ began to spread the word of Jesus' resurrection and begin converting people specifically to Jesus. 

From the day of Pentecost going forward, Christianity spread like wildfire throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. At first the Roman government considered it a new branch of Judaism, which was legal in the Empire. After a while they began to realize that this was something new altogether and began to specifically target Christians. 

Important Events

I am going to list a few of the big ones, but if you read your New Testament you will find a lot more.

The Day of Pentecost - when the Holy Spirit filled the believers and gave them the courage and ability to spread the message of Jesus.

Paul's Missionary Journeys - this spread Christianity to much of the Roman world.

The Death of Peter and Paul - this was significant since both of these men were looked up to as leaders in the church. They both died in Rome around the same time.

John's Vision on Patmos - what was recorded as the book of Revelation. This is the last book of the Bible to be written.

Important People

Again I will list a few, but read the New Testament to learn more.

Jesus - this goes without saying. None of this would have happened without Jesus. He is the king and ruler of all things. 

Peter - the main preacher at Pentecost, Apostle to the Jews, and the first to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles.

Paul - the Apostle to the Gentiles and author of most of the New Testament.

Nero - the first Roman Emperor to legalize persecution of Christians.

John - the last Apostle living. Wrote the Gospel of John, the letters of John, and Revelation.

Conclusion

This is all pretty much laid out for us in the New Testament. We typically know this history pretty well, but we don't always know what comes after. This is the format I will be using. Future blogs will have more detail. This one, again, we already know these people and events relatively well.

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