Q&A: Veritas 2020 #15 Early Church History (3 of 3)

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Questions only

  1. Why did the fake history of Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code cause many Christians to question the New Testament? 
    1. (they didn’t know much about church history in the first 3 centuries)
  2. What is the significance of God choosing to allow John to live to be a very old man? 
    1. (gave him opportunity to disciple men like Polycarp and Ignatius with his eyewitness testimony)
  3. Who was Ignatius? 
    1. (early 2nd century pastor of Antioch. Martyred in Roman arena by wild beasts)
  4. What happened to Ignatius? When? 
    1. (Martyred in Roman Arena ~108-110 AD)
  5. Who was Marcion? 
    1. (heretic of 2nd century. Introduced some gnostic ideas.)
  6. What did he believe? 
    1. (Salvation by knowledge, not faith. Jesus not a man, a divine spirit. Rejected much of the NT)
  7. Who was Justin Martyr? 
    1. (2nd century Christian leader. Beheaded in 165 AD. repudiated gnosticism)
  8. What happened to Polycarp? When? 
    1. (burned at stake, then stabbed) 155AD
  9. Who were the gnostics? 
    1. (heretics from 2nd and 3rd centuries. Salvation through esoteric knowledge. “Spirit Christ” came on man Jesus at Baptism, left him before crucifixion. 
  10. When did the gnostics write their so-called gospels? 
    1. (2nd and 3rd centuries)
  11. How did they try to deceive people about when their gospels and letters were written? 
    1. (gave them names of people from the NT)
  12. What did the early Christian leaders say about the gnostics? 
    1. (they were not from God. they were heretics. They were teaching a false gospel)
  13. Who was Origen? When did he write? 
    1. (Brilliant, but unorthodox, student of the Bible from the early 3rd century.)
  14. Why is Origen important to the church? 
    1. (recognized the same scriptures we use today. Wrote commentaries. 
  15. What important Old Testament document did Origen produce? 
    1. (hexapla)
  16. Who was Eusebius?  When did he write? 
    1. (brilliant Christian scholar late 200s and early 300s AD.)
  17. What is he most famous for? 
    1. (writing a history of the church)
  18. Who was Arius? What did he teach? 
    1. (heretic of early 300s. Denied that Jesus was God, that Jesus was created by God)
  19. Who was Athanasius? 
    1. (Pastor at Alexandria. Resisted Arius)
  20. When was the Council of Nicea? What did it affirm? 
    1. (325 AD. The Deity of Christ, used same Scriptures that we use)
  21. What service did Eusebius do for the church regarding Gnostic documents? 
    1. (listed the false, rejected Gnostic gospels, wrote early church history)
  22. What does 1 Peter 1:24-25 teach us? 
    1. (God’s Word lasts forever)