Podcasts about ante nicene fathers

This podcast episode introduces the Early Church Fathers, key figures who shaped Christian doctrine. It highlights their roles as theologians, bishops, and scholars who bridged the gap between the apostles and later ecumenical councils. The episode explores various groups, including the Apostolic Fathers, the Ante-Nicene Fathers, the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, and the Syriac Fathers, examining their unique contributions. It emphasizes the importance of these figures in defining orthodoxy, defending against heresies, and providing theological foundations. The podcast also touches upon the linguistic roots of the term "fathers of the faith" and their lasting impact on modern Christian practice. For more in depth teachings check our Academy. www.twinsbiblicalacademy.com

The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians is one of the earliest Christian writings outside of the New Testament. Let's discuss what it says! Eowyn's Recommendation: A Child's Introduction to Ballet (Revised and Updated): The Stories, Music, and Magic of Classical Dance Here is the edition that I read: The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, but I would suggest that you grab the full, massive set on Kindle for only $2.99. This new translation from Lexham also looks promising. In Relatione (relevant links)

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts Let's face it the New Testament probably calls Jesus God (or god) a couple of times and so do early Christian authors in the second century. However, no one offers much of an explanation for what they mean by the title. Did early Christians think Jesus was God because he represented Yahweh? Did they think he was God because he shared the same eternal being as the Father? Did they think he was a god because that's just what they would call any immortalized human who lived in heaven? In this presentation I focus on the question from the perspective of Greco-Roman theology. Drawing on the work of David Litwa, Andrew Perriman, Barry Blackburn, and tons of ancient sources I seek to show how Mediterranean converts to Christianity would have perceived Jesus based on their cultural and religious assumptions. This presentation is from the 3rd Unitarian Christian Alliance Conference on October 20, 2023 in Springfield, OH. Here is the original pdf of this paper. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5Z3QbQ7dHc —— Links —— See more scholarly articles by Sean Finnegan Get the transcript of this episode Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Introduction When early Christian authors called Jesus “god” (or “God”) what did they mean?[1] Modern apologists routinely point to pre-Nicene quotations in order to prove that early Christians always believed in the deity of Christ, by which they mean that he is of the same substance (homoousios) as the Father. However, most historians agree that Christians before the fourth century simply didn't have the cognitive categories available yet to think of Christ in Nicene or Chalcedonian ways. If this consensus is correct, it behooves us to consider other options for defining what early Christian authors meant. The obvious place to go to get an answer to our initial question is the New Testament. However, as is well known, the handful of instances in which authors unambiguously applied god (θεός) to Christ are fraught with textual uncertainty, grammatical ambiguity, and hermeneutical elasticity.[2]  What's more, granting that these contested texts[3] all call Jesus “god” provides little insight into what they might mean by that phrase. Turning to the second century, the earliest handful of texts that say Jesus is god are likewise textually uncertain or terse.[4] We must wait until the second half of the second century and beyond to have more helpful material to examine. We know that in the meanwhile some Christians were saying Jesus was god. What did they mean? One promising approach is to analyze biblical texts that call others gods. We find helpful parallels with the word god (אֱלֹהִים) applied to Moses (Exod 7.1; 4.16), judges (Exod 21.6; 22.8-9), kings (Is 9.6; Ps 45.6), the divine council (Ps 82.1, 6), and angels (Ps 8.6). These are texts in which God imbues his agents with his authority to represent him in some way. This rare though significant way of calling a representative “god,” continues in the NT with Jesus' clever defense to his accusers in John 10.34-36. Lexicons[5] have long recognized this “Hebraistic” usage and recent study tools such as the New English Translation (NET)[6] and the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary[7] also note this phenomenon. But, even if this agency perspective is the most natural reading of texts like Heb 1.8, later Christians, apart from one or two exceptions appear to be ignorant of this usage.[8] This interpretation was likely a casualty of the so-called parting of the ways whereby Christianity transitioned from a second-temple-Jewish movement to a Gentile-majority religion. As such, to grasp what early postapostolic Christians believed, we must turn our attention elsewhere. Michael Bird is right when he says, “Christian discourses about deity belong incontrovertibly in the Greco-Roman context because it provided the cultural encyclopedia that, in diverse ways, shaped the early church's Christological conceptuality and vocabulary.”[9] Learning Greco-Roman theology is not only important because that was the context in which early Christians wrote, but also because from the late first century onward, most of our Christian authors converted from that worldview. Rather than talking about the Hellenization of Christianity, we should begin by asking how Hellenists experienced Christianization. In other words, Greco-Roman beliefs about the gods were the default lens through which converts first saw Christ. In order to explore how Greco-Roman theology shaped what people believed about Jesus as god, we do well to begin by asking how they defined a god. Andrew Perriman offers a helpful starting point. “The gods,” he writes, “are mostly understood as corporeal beings, blessed with immortality, larger, more beautiful, and more powerful than their mortal analogues.”[10] Furthermore, there were lots of them! The sublunar realm was, in the words of Paula Fredriksen, “a god-congested place.”[11] What's more, “[S]harp lines and clearly demarcated boundaries between divinity and humanity were lacking."[12] Gods could appear as people and people could ascend to become gods. Comprehending what Greco-Roman people believed about gods coming down and humans going up will occupy the first part of this paper. Only once we've adjusted our thinking to their culture, will we walk through key moments in the life of Jesus of Nazareth to hear the story with ancient Mediterranean ears. Lastly, we'll consider the evidence from sources that think of Jesus in Greco-Roman categories. Bringing this all together we'll enumerate the primary ways to interpret the phrase “Jesus is god” available to Christians in the pre-Nicene period. Gods Coming Down and Humans Going Up The idea that a god would visit someone is not as unusual as it first sounds. We find plenty of examples of Yahweh himself or non-human representatives visiting people in the Hebrew Bible.[13] One psalmist even referred to angels or “heavenly beings” (ESV) as אֱלֹהִים (gods).[14] The Greco-Roman world too told stories about divine entities coming down to interact with people. Euripides tells about the time Zeus forced the god Apollo to become a human servant in the house of Admetus, performing menial labor as punishment for killing the Cyclopes (Alcestis 1). Baucis and Philemon offered hospitality to Jupiter and Mercury when they appeared in human form (Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.26-34). In Homer's Odyssey onlookers warn Antinous for flinging a stool against a stranger since “the gods do take on the look of strangers dropping in from abroad”[15] (17.534-9). Because they believed the boundary between the divine realm and the Earth was so permeable, Mediterranean people were always on guard for an encounter with a god in disguise. In addition to gods coming down, in special circumstances, humans could ascend and become gods too. Diodorus of Sicily demarcated two types of gods: those who are “eternal and imperishable, such as the sun and the moon” and “the other gods…terrestrial beings who attained to immortal honour”[16] (The Historical Library of Diodorus the Sicilian 6.1). By some accounts, even the Olympian gods, including Kronos and Uranus were once mortal men.[17] Among humans who could become divine, we find several distinguishable categories, including heroes, miracle workers, and rulers. We'll look at each briefly before considering how the story of Jesus would resonate with those holding a Greco-Roman worldview. Deified Heroes Cornutus the Stoic said, “[T]he ancients called heroes those who were so strong in body and soul that they seemed to be part of a divine race.” (Greek Theology 31)[18] At first this statement appears to be a mere simile, but he goes on to say of Heracles (Hercules), the Greek hero par excellence, “his services had earned him apotheosis” (ibid.). Apotheosis (or deification) is the process by which a human ascends into the divine realm. Beyond Heracles and his feats of strength, other exceptional individuals became deified for various reasons. Amphiarus was a seer who died in the battle at Thebes. After opening a chasm in the earth to swallow him in battle, “Zeus made him immortal”[19] (Apollodorus, Library of Greek Mythology 3.6). Pausanias says the custom of the inhabitants of Oropos was to drop coins into Amphiarus' spring “because this is where they say Amphiarus rose up as a god”[20] (Guide to Greece 1.34). Likewise, Strabo speaks about a shrine for Calchas, a deceased diviner from the Trojan war (Homer, Illiad 1.79-84), “where those consulting the oracle sacrifice a black ram to the dead and sleep in its hide”[21] (Strabo, Geography 6.3.9). Though the great majority of the dead were locked away in the lower world of Hades, leading a shadowy pitiful existence, the exceptional few could visit or speak from beyond the grave. Lastly, there was Zoroaster the Persian prophet who, according to Dio Chrysostom, was enveloped by fire while he meditated upon a mountain. He was unharmed and gave advice on how to properly make offerings to the gods (Dio Chrysostom, Discourses 36.40). The Psuedo-Clementine Homilies include a story about a lightning bolt striking and killing Zoroaster. After his devotees buried his body, they built a temple on the site, thinking that “his soul had been sent for by lightning” and they “worshipped him as a god”[22] (Homily 9.5.2). Thus, a hero could have extraordinary strength, foresight, or closeness to the gods resulting in apotheosis and ongoing worship and communication. Deified Miracle Workers Beyond heroes, Greco-Roman people loved to tell stories about deified miracle workers. Twice Orpheus rescued a ship from a storm by praying to the gods (Diodorus of Sicily 4.43.1f; 48.5f). After his death, surviving inscriptions indicate that he both received worship and was regarded as a god in several cities.[23] Epimenides “fell asleep in a cave for fifty-seven years”[24] (Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 1.109). He also predicted a ten-year period of reprieve from Persian attack in Athens (Plato Laws 1.642D-E). Plato called him a divine man (θεῖος ἀνήρ) (ibid.) and Diogenes talked of Cretans sacrificing to him as a god (Diogenes, Lives 1.114). Iamblichus said Pythagoras was the son of Apollo and a mortal woman (Life of Pythagoras 2). Nonetheless, the soul of Pythagoras enjoyed multiple lives, having originally been “sent to mankind from the empire of Apollo”[25] (Life 2). Diogenes and Lucian enumerate the lives the pre-existent Pythagoras led, including Aethalides, Euphorbus, Hermotimus, and Pyrrhus (Diogenes, Life of Pythagoras 4; Lucian, The Cock 16-20). Hermes had granted Pythagoras the gift of “perpetual transmigration of his soul”[26] so he could remember his lives while living or dead (Diogenes, Life 4). Ancient sources are replete with Pythagorean miracle stories.[27] Porphyry mentions several, including taming a bear, persuading an ox to stop eating beans, and accurately predicting a catch of fish (Life of Pythagoras 23-25). Porphyry said Pythagoras accurately predicted earthquakes and “chased away a pestilence, suppressed violent winds and hail, [and] calmed storms on rivers and on seas” (Life 29).[28] Such miracles, argued the Pythagoreans made Pythagoras “a being superior to man, and not to a mere man” (Iamblichus, Life 28).[29] Iamblichus lays out the views of Pythagoras' followers, including that he was a god, a philanthropic daemon, the Pythian, the Hyperborean Apollo, a Paeon, a daemon inhabiting the moon, or an Olympian god (Life 6). Another pre-Socratic philosopher was Empedocles who studied under Pythagoras. To him sources attribute several miracles, including stopping a damaging wind, restoring the wind, bringing dry weather, causing it to rain, and even bringing someone back from Hades (Diogenes, Lives 8.59).[30] Diogenes records an incident in which Empedocles put a woman into a trance for thirty days before sending her away alive (8.61). He also includes a poem in which Empedocles says, “I am a deathless god, no longer mortal, I go among you honored by all, as is right”[31] (8.62). Asclepius was a son of the god Apollo and a human woman (Cornutus, Greek Theology 33). He was known for healing people from diseases and injuries (Pindar, Pythian 3.47-50). “[H]e invented any medicine he wished for the sick, and raised up the dead”[32] (Pausanias, Guide to Greece 2.26.4). However, as Diodorus relates, Hades complained to Zeus on account of Asclepius' diminishing his realm, which resulted in Zeus zapping Asclepius with a thunderbolt, killing him (4.71.2-3). Nevertheless, Asclepius later ascended into heaven to become a god (Hyginus, Fables 224; Cicero, Nature of the Gods 2.62).[33] Apollonius of Tyana was a famous first century miracle worker. According to Philostratus' account, the locals of Tyana regard Apollonius to be the son of Zeus (Life 1.6). Apollonius predicted many events, interpreted dreams, and knew private facts about people. He rebuked and ridiculed a demon, causing it to flee, shrieking as it went (Life 2.4).[34] He even once stopped a funeral procession and raised the deceased to life (Life 4.45). What's more he knew every human language (Life 1.19) and could understand what sparrows chirped to each other (Life 4.3). Once he instantaneously transported himself from Smyrna to Ephesus (Life 4.10). He claimed knowledge of his previous incarnation as the captain of an Egyptian ship (Life 3.23) and, in the end, Apollonius entered the temple of Athena and vanished, ascending from earth into heaven to the sound of a choir singing (Life 8.30). We have plenty of literary evidence that contemporaries and those who lived later regarded him as a divine man (Letters 48.3)[35] or godlike (ἰσόθεος) (Letters 44.1) or even just a god (θεός) (Life 5.24). Deified Rulers Our last category of deified humans to consider before seeing how this all relates to Jesus is rulers. Egyptians, as indicated from the hieroglyphs left in the pyramids, believed their deceased kings to enjoy afterlives as gods. They could become star gods or even hunt and consume other gods to absorb their powers.[36] The famous Macedonian conqueror, Alexander the Great, carried himself as a god towards the Persians though Plutarch opines, “[he] was not at all vain or deluded but rather used belief in his divinity to enslave others”[37] (Life of Alexander 28). This worship continued after his death, especially in Alexandria where Ptolemy built a tomb and established a priesthood to conduct religious honors to the deified ruler. Even the emperor Trajan offered a sacrifice to the spirit of Alexander (Cassius Dio, Roman History 68.30). Another interesting example is Antiochus I of Comagene who called himself “Antiochus the just [and] manifest god, friend of the Romans [and] friend of the Greeks.”[38] His tomb boasted four colossal figures seated on thrones: Zeus, Heracles, Apollo, and himself. The message was clear: Antiochus I wanted his subjects to recognize his place among the gods after death. Of course, the most relevant rulers for the Christian era were the Roman emperors. The first official Roman emperor Augustus deified his predecessor, Julius Caesar, celebrating his apotheosis with games (Suetonius, Life of Julius Caesar 88). Only five years after Augustus died, eastern inhabitants of the Roman Empire at Priene happily declared “the birthday of the god Augustus” (ἡ γενέθλιος ἡμέρα τοῦ θεοῦ)[39] to be the start of their provincial year. By the time of Tacitus, a century after Augustus died, the wealthy in Rome had statues of the first emperor in their gardens for worship (Annals 1.73). The Roman historian Appian explained that the Romans regularly deify emperors at death “provided he has not been a despot or a disgrace”[40] (The Civil Wars 2.148).  In other words, deification was the default setting for deceased emperors. Pliny the Younger lays it on pretty thick when he describes the process. He says Nero deified Claudius to expose him; Titus deified Vespasian and Domitian so he could be the son and brother of gods. However, Trajan deified Nerva because he genuinely believed him to be more than a human (Panegyric 11). In our little survey, we've seen three main categories of deified humans: heroes, miracle workers, and good rulers. These “conceptions of deity,” writes David Litwa, “were part of the “preunderstanding” of Hellenistic culture.”[41] He continues: If actual cases of deification were rare, traditions of deification were not. They were the stuff of heroic epic, lyric song, ancient mythology, cultic hymns, Hellenistic novels, and popular plays all over the first-century Mediterranean world. Such discourses were part of mainstream, urban culture to which most early Christians belonged. If Christians were socialized in predominantly Greco-Roman environments, it is no surprise that they employed and adapted common traits of deities and deified men to exalt their lord to divine status.[42] Now that we've attuned our thinking to Mediterranean sensibilities about gods coming down in the shape of humans and humans experiencing apotheosis to permanently dwell as gods in the divine realm, our ears are attuned to hear the story of Jesus with Greco-Roman ears. Hearing the Story of Jesus with Greco-Roman Ears How would second or third century inhabitants of the Roman empire have categorized Jesus? Taking my cue from Litwa's treatment in Iesus Deus, I'll briefly work through Jesus' conception, transfiguration, miracles, resurrection, and ascension. Miraculous Conception Although set within the context of Jewish messianism, Christ's miraculous birth would have resonated differently with Greco-Roman people. Stories of gods coming down and having intercourse with women are common in classical literature. That these stories made sense of why certain individuals were so exceptional is obvious. For example, Origen related a story about Apollo impregnating Amphictione who then gave birth to Plato (Against Celsus 1.37). Though Mary's conception did not come about through intercourse with a divine visitor, the fact that Jesus had no human father would call to mind divine sonship like Pythagoras or Asclepius. Celsus pointed out that the ancients “attributed a divine origin to Perseus, and Amphion, and Aeacus, and Minos” (Origen, Against Celsus 1.67). Philostratus records a story of the Egyptian god Proteus saying to Apollonius' mother that she would give birth to himself (Life of Apollonius of Tyana 1.4). Since people were primed to connect miraculous origins with divinity, typical hearers of the birth narratives of Matthew or Luke would likely think that this baby might be either be a descended god or a man destined to ascend to become a god. Miracles and Healing As we've seen, Jesus' miracles would not have sounded unbelievable or even unprecedent to Mediterranean people. Like Jesus, Orpheus and Empedocles calmed storms, rescuing ships. Though Jesus provided miraculous guidance on how to catch fish, Pythagoras foretold the number of fish in a great catch. After the fishermen painstakingly counted them all, they were astounded that when they threw them back in, they were still alive (Porphyry, Life 23-25). Jesus' ability to foretell the future, know people's thoughts, and cast out demons all find parallels in Apollonius of Tyana. As for resurrecting the dead, we have the stories of Empedocles, Asclepius, and Apollonius. The last of which even stopped a funeral procession to raise the dead, calling to mind Jesus' deeds in Luke 7.11-17. When Lycaonians witnessed Paul's healing of a man crippled from birth, they cried out, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men” (Acts 14.11). Another time when no harm befell Paul after a poisonous snake bit him on Malta, Gentile onlookers concluded “he was a god” (Acts 28.6). Barry Blackburn makes the following observation: [I]n view of the tendency, most clearly seen in the Epimenidean, Pythagorean, and Apollonian traditions, to correlate impressive miracle-working with divine status, one may justifiably conclude that the evangelical miracle traditions would have helped numerous gentile Christians to arrive at and maintain belief in Jesus' divine status.[43] Transfiguration Ancient Mediterranean inhabitants believed that the gods occasionally came down disguised as people. Only when gods revealed their inner brilliant natures could people know that they weren't mere humans. After his ship grounded on the sands of Krisa, Apollo leaped from the ship emitting flashes of fire “like a star in the middle of day…his radiance shot to heaven”[44] (Homeric Hymns, Hymn to Apollo 440). Likewise, Aphrodite appeared in shining garments, brighter than a fire and shimmering like the moon (Hymn to Aphrodite 85-89). When Demeter appeared to Metaneira, she initially looked like an old woman, but she transformed herself before her. “Casting old age away…a delightful perfume spread…a radiance shone out far from the goddess' immortal flesh…and the solid-made house was filled with a light like the lightning-flash”[45] (Hymn to Demeter 275-280). Homer wrote about Odysseus' transformation at the golden wand of Athena in which his clothes became clean, he became taller, and his skin looked younger. His son, Telemachus cried out, “Surely you are some god who rules the vaulting skies”[46] (Odyssey 16.206). Each time the observers conclude the transfigured person is a god. Resurrection & Ascension In defending the resurrection of Jesus, Theophilus of Antioch said, “[Y]ou believe that Hercules, who burned himself, lives; and that Aesculapius [Asclepius], who was struck with lightning, was raised”[47] (Autolycus 1.13). Although Hercules' physical body burnt, his transformed pneumatic body continued on as the poet Callimachus said, “under a Phrygian oak his limbs had been deified”[48] (Callimachus, Hymn to Artemis 159). Others thought Hercules ascended to heaven in his burnt body, which Asclepius subsequently healed (Lucian, Dialogue of the Gods 13). After his ascent, Diodorus relates how the people first sacrificed to him “as to a hero” then in Athens they began to honor him “with sacrifices like as to a god”[49] (The Historical Library 4.39). As for Asclepius, his ascension resulted in his deification as Cyprian said, “Aesculapius is struck by lightning, that he may rise into a god”[50] (On the Vanity of Idols 2). Romulus too “was torn to pieces by the hands of a hundred senators”[51] and after death ascended into heaven and received worship (Arnobius, Against the Heathen 1.41). Livy tells of how Romulus was “carried up on high by a whirlwind” and that immediately afterward “every man present hailed him as a god and son of a god”[52] (The Early History of Rome 1.16). As we can see from these three cases—Hercules, Asclepius, and Romulus—ascent into heaven was a common way of talking about deification. For Cicero, this was an obvious fact. People “who conferred outstanding benefits were translated to heaven through their fame and our gratitude”[53] (Nature 2.62). Consequently, Jesus' own resurrection and ascension would have triggered Gentiles to intuit his divinity. Commenting on the appearance of the immortalized Christ to the eleven in Galilee, Wendy Cotter said, “It is fair to say that the scene found in [Mat] 28:16-20 would be understood by a Greco-Roman audience, Jew or Gentile, as an apotheosis of Jesus.”[54] Although I beg to differ with Cotter's whole cloth inclusion of Jews here, it's hard to see how else non-Jews would have regarded the risen Christ. Litwa adds Rev 1.13-16 “[W]here he [Jesus] appears with all the accoutrements of the divine: a shining face, an overwhelming voice, luminescent clothing, and so on.”[55] In this brief survey we've seen that several key events in the story of Jesus told in the Gospels would have caused Greco-Roman hearers to intuit deity, including his divine conception, miracles, healing ministry, transfiguration, resurrection, and ascension. In their original context of second temple Judaism, these very same incidents would have resonated quite differently. His divine conception authenticated Jesus as the second Adam (Luke 3.38; Rom 5.14; 1 Cor 15.45) and God's Davidic son (2 Sam 7.14; Ps 2.7; Lk 1.32, 35). If Matthew or Luke wanted readers to understand that Jesus was divine based on his conception and birth, they failed to make such intentions explicit in the text. Rather, the birth narratives appear to have a much more modest aim—to persuade readers that Jesus had a credible claim to be Israel's messiah. His miracles show that “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power…for God was with him” (Acts 10.38; cf. Jn 3.2; 10.32, 38). Rather than concluding Jesus to be a god, Jewish witnesses to his healing of a paralyzed man “glorified God, who had given such authority to men” (Mat 9.8). Over and over, especially in the Gospel of John, Jesus directs people's attention to his Father who was doing the works in and through him (Jn 5.19, 30; 8.28; 12.49; 14.10). Seeing Jesus raise someone from the dead suggested to his original Jewish audience that “a great prophet has arisen among us” (Lk 7.16). The transfiguration, in its original setting, is an eschatological vision not a divine epiphany. Placement in the synoptic Gospels just after Jesus' promise that some there would not die before seeing the kingdom come sets the hermeneutical frame. “The transfiguration,” says William Lane, “was a momentary, but real (and witnessed) manifestation of Jesus' sovereign power which pointed beyond itself to the Parousia, when he will come ‘with power and glory.'”[56] If eschatology is the foreground, the background for the transfiguration was Moses' ascent of Sinai when he also encountered God and became radiant.[57] Viewed from the lenses of Moses' ascent and the eschaton, the transfiguration of Jesus is about his identity as God's definitive chosen ruler, not about any kind of innate divinity. Lastly, the resurrection and ascension validated Jesus' messianic claims to be the ruler of the age to come (Acts 17.31; Rom 1.4). Rather than concluding Jesus was deity, early Jewish Christians concluded these events showed that “God has made him both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2.36). The interpretative backgrounds for Jesus' ascension were not stories about Heracles, Asclepius, or Romulus. No, the key oracle that framed the Israelite understanding was the messianic psalm in which Yahweh told David's Lord to “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool” (Psalm 110.1). The idea is of a temporary sojourn in heaven until exercising the authority of his scepter to rule over earth from Zion. Once again, the biblical texts remain completely silent about deification. But even if the original meanings of Jesus' birth, ministry, transfiguration, resurrection, and ascension have messianic overtones when interpreted within the Jewish milieu, these same stories began to communicate various ideas of deity to Gentile converts in the generations that followed. We find little snippets from historical sources beginning in the second century and growing with time. Evidence of Belief in Jesus' as a Greco-Roman Deity To begin with, we have two non-Christian instances where Romans regarded Jesus as a deity within typical Greco-Roman categories. The first comes to us from Tertullian and Eusebius who mention an intriguing story about Tiberius' request to the Roman senate to deify Christ. Convinced by “intelligence from Palestine of events which had clearly shown the truth of Christ's divinity”[58] Tiberius proposed the matter to the senate (Apology 5). Eusebius adds that Tiberius learned that “many believed him to be a god in rising from the dead”[59] (Church History 2.2). As expected, the senate rejected the proposal. I mention this story, not because I can establish its historicity, but because it portrays how Tiberius would have thought about Jesus if he had heard about his miracles and resurrection. Another important incident is from one of the governor Pliny the Younger's letters to the emperor Trajan. Having investigated some people accused of Christianity, he found “they had met regularly before dawn on a fixed day to chant verses alternately amongst themselves in honour of Christ as if to a god”[60] (Letter 96). To an outside imperial observer like Pliny, the Christians believed in a man who had performed miracles, defeated death, and now lived in heaven. Calling him a god was just the natural way of talking about such a person. Pliny would not have thought Jesus was superior to the deified Roman emperors much less Zeus or the Olympic gods. If he believed in Jesus at all, he would have regarded him as another Mediterranean prophet who escaped Hades to enjoy apotheosis. Another interesting text to consider is the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. This apocryphal text tells the story of Jesus' childhood between the ages of five and twelve. Jesus is impetuous, powerful, and brilliant. Unsure to conclude that Jesus was “either god or angel,”[61] his teacher remands him to Joseph's custody (7). Later, a crowd of onlookers ponders whether the child is a god or a heavenly messenger after he raises an infant from the dead (17). A year later Jesus raised a construction man who had fallen to his death back to life (18). Once again, the crowd asked if the child was from heaven. Although some historians are quick to assume the lofty conceptions of Justin and his successors about the logos were commonplace in the early Christianity, Litwa points out, “The spell of the Logos could only bewitch a very small circle of Christian elites… In IGT, we find a Jesus who is divine according to different canons, the canons of popular Mediterranean theology.”[62] Another important though often overlooked scholarly group of Christians in the second century was led by a certain Theodotus of Byzantium.[63] Typically referred to by their heresiological label “Theodotians,” these dynamic monarchians lived in Rome and claimed that they held to the original Christology before it had been corrupted under Bishop Zephyrinus (Eusebius, Church History 5.28). Theodotus believed in the virgin birth, but not in his pre-existence or that he was god/God (Pseudo-Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies 7.35.1-2; 10.23.1-2). He thought that Jesus was not able to perform any miracles until his baptism when he received the Christ/Spirit. Pseudo-Hippolytus goes on to say, “But they do not want him to have become a god when the Spirit descended. Others say that he became a god after he rose from the dead.”[64] This last tantalizing remark implies that the Theodotians could affirm Jesus as a god after his resurrection though they denied his pre-existence. Although strict unitarians, they could regard Jesus as a god in that he was an ascended immortalized being who lived in heaven—not equal to the Father, but far superior to all humans on earth. Justin Martyr presents another interesting case to consider. Thoroughly acquainted with Greco-Roman literature and especially the philosophy of Plato, Justin sees Christ as a god whom the Father begot before all other creatures. He calls him “son, or wisdom, or angel, or god, or lord, or word”[65] (Dialogue with Trypho 61).  For Justin Christ is “at the same time angel and god and lord and man”[66] (59). Jesus was “of old the Word, appearing at one time in the form of fire, at another under the guise of incorporeal beings, but now, at the will of God, after becoming man for mankind”[67] (First Apology 63). In fact, Justin is quite comfortable to compare Christ to deified heroes and emperors. He says, “[W]e propose nothing new or different from that which you say about the so-called sons of Jupiter [Zeus] by your respected writers… And what about the emperors who die among you, whom you think worthy to be deified?”[68] (21). He readily accepts the parallels with Mercury, Perseus, Asclepius, Bacchus, and Hercules, but argues that Jesus is superior to them (22).[69] Nevertheless, he considered Jesus to be in “a place second to the unchanging and eternal God”[70] (13). The Father is “the Most True God” whereas the Son is he “who came forth from Him”[71] (6). Even as lates as Origen, Greco-Roman concepts of deity persist. In responding to Celsus' claim that no god or son of God has ever come down, Origen responds by stating such a statement would overthrow the stories of Pythian Apollo, Asclepius, and the other gods who descended (Against Celsus 5.2). My point here is not to say Origen believed in all the old myths, but to show how Origen reached for these stories as analogies to explain the incarnation of the logos. When Celsus argued that he would rather believe in the deity of Asclepius, Dionysus, and Hercules than Christ, Origen responded with a moral rather than ontological argument (3.42). He asks how these gods have improved the characters of anyone. Origen admits Celsus' argument “which places the forenamed individuals upon an equality with Jesus” might have force, however in light of the disreputable behavior of these gods, “how could you any longer say, with any show of reason, that these men, on putting aside their mortal body, became gods rather than Jesus?”[72] (3.42). Origen's Christology is far too broad and complicated to cover here. Undoubtedly, his work on eternal generation laid the foundation on which fourth century Christians could build homoousion Christology. Nevertheless, he retained some of the earlier subordinationist impulses of his forebearers. In his book On Prayer, he rebukes praying to Jesus as a crude error, instead advocating prayer to God alone (10). In his Commentary on John he repeatedly asserts that the Father is greater than his logos (1.40; 2.6; 6.23). Thus, Origen is a theologian on the seam of the times. He's both a subordinationist and a believer in the Son's eternal and divine ontology. Now, I want to be careful here. I'm not saying that all early Christians believed Jesus was a deified man like Asclepius or a descended god like Apollo or a reincarnated soul like Pythagoras. More often than not, thinking Christians whose works survive until today tended to eschew the parallels, simultaneously elevating Christ as high as possible while demoting the gods to mere demons. Still, Litwa is inciteful when he writes: It seems likely that early Christians shared the widespread cultural assumption that a resurrected, immortalized being was worthy of worship and thus divine. …Nonetheless there is a difference…Jesus, it appears, was never honored as an independent deity. Rather, he was always worshiped as Yahweh's subordinate. Naturally Heracles and Asclepius were Zeus' subordinates, but they were also members of a larger divine family. Jesus does not enter a pantheon but assumes a distinctive status as God's chief agent and plenipotentiary. It is this status that, to Christian insiders, placed Jesus in a category far above the likes of Heracles, Romulus, and Asclepius who were in turn demoted to the rank of δαίμονες [daimons].[73] Conclusion I began by asking the question, "What did early Christians mean by saying Jesus is god?" We noted that the ancient idea of agency (Jesus is God/god because he represents Yahweh), though present in Hebrew and Christian scripture, didn't play much of a role in how Gentile Christians thought about Jesus. Or if it did, those texts did not survive. By the time we enter the postapostolic era, a majority of Christianity was Gentile and little communication occurred with the Jewish Christians that survived in the East. As such, we turned our attention to Greco-Roman theology to tune our ears to hear the story of Jesus the way they would have. We learned about their multifaceted array of divinities. We saw that gods can come down and take the form of humans and humans can go up and take the form of gods. We found evidence for this kind of thinking in both non-Christian and Christian sources in the second and third centuries. Now it is time to return to the question I began with: “When early Christian authors called Jesus “god” what did they mean?” We saw that the idea of a deified man was present in the non-Christian witnesses of Tiberius and Pliny but made scant appearance in our Christian literature except for the Theodotians. As for the idea that a god came down to become a man, we found evidence in The Infancy Gospel of Thomas, Justin, and Origen.[74] Of course, we find a spectrum within this view, from Justin's designation of Jesus as a second god to Origen's more philosophically nuanced understanding. Still, it's worth noting as R. P. C. Hanson observed that, “With the exception of Athanasius virtually every theologian, East and West, accepted some form of subordinationism at least up to the year 355.”[75] Whether any Christians before Alexander and Athanasius of Alexandria held to the sophisticated idea of consubstantiality depends on showing evidence of the belief that the Son was coequal, coeternal, and coessential with the Father prior to Nicea. (Readers interested in the case for this view should consult Michael Bird's Jesus among the Gods in which he attempted the extraordinary feat of finding proto-Nicene Christology in the first two centuries, a task typically associated with maverick apologists not peer-reviewed historians.) In conclusion, the answer to our driving question about the meaning of “Jesus as god” is that the answer depends on whom we ask. If we ask the Theodotians, Jesus is a god because that's just what one calls an immortalized man who lives in heaven.[76] If we ask those holding a docetic Christology, the answer is that a god came down in appearance as a man. If we ask a logos subordinationist, they'll tell us that Jesus existed as the god through whom the supreme God created the universe before he became a human being. If we ask Tertullian, Jesus is god because he derives his substance from the Father, though he has a lesser portion of divinity.[77] If we ask Athanasius, he'll wax eloquent about how Jesus is of the same substance as the Father equal in status and eternality. The bottom line is that there was not one answer to this question prior to the fourth century. Answers depend on whom we ask and when they lived. Still, we can't help but wonder about the more tantalizing question of development. Which Christology was first and which ones evolved under social, intellectual, and political pressures? In the quest to specify the various stages of development in the Christologies of the ante-Nicene period, this Greco-Roman perspective may just provide the missing link between the reserved and limited way that the NT applies theos to Jesus in the first century and the homoousian view that eventually garnered imperial support in the fourth century. How easy would it have been for fresh converts from the Greco-Roman world to unintentionally mishear the story of Jesus? How easy would it have been for them to fit Jesus into their own categories of descended gods and ascended humans? With the unmooring of Gentile Christianity from its Jewish heritage, is it any wonder that Christologies began to drift out to sea? Now I'm not suggesting that all Christians went through a steady development from a human Jesus to a pre-existent Christ, to an eternal God the Son, to the Chalcedonian hypostatic union. As I mentioned above, plenty of other options were around and every church had its conservatives in addition to its innovators. The story is messy and uneven with competing views spread across huge geographic distances. Furthermore, many Christians probably were content to leave such theological nuances fuzzy, rather than seeking doctrinal precision on Christ's relation to his God and Father. Whatever the case may be, we dare not ignore the influence of Greco-Roman theology in our accounts of Christological development in the Mediterranean world of the first three centuries.    Bibliography The Homeric Hymns. Translated by Michael Crudden. New York, NY: Oxford, 2008. Antioch, Theophilus of. To Autolycus. Translated by Marcus Dods. Vol. 2. Ante-Nicene Fathers. Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001. Aphrahat. The Demonstrations. Translated by Ellen Muehlberger. Vol. 3. The Cambridge Edition of Early Christian Writings. 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Greek Theology, Fragments, and Testimonia. Atlanta, GA: SBL, 2018. Cotter, Wendy. "Greco-Roman Apotheosis Traditions and the Resurrection Appearances in Matthew." In The Gospel of Matthew in Current Study. Edited by David E. Aune. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001. Cyprian. Treatise 6: On the Vanity of Idols. Translated by Ernest Wallis. Vol. 5. Ante-Nicene Fathers. Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995. Dittenberger, W. Orientis Graecae Inscriptiones Selectae. Vol. 2. Hildesheim: Olms, 1960. Eusebius. The Church History. Translated by Paul L. Maier. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2007. Fredriksen, Paula. "How High Can Early High Christology Be?" In Monotheism and Christology in Greco-Roman Antiquity. Edited by Matthew V. Novenson. Vol. 180.vol. Supplements to Novum Testamentum. Leiden: Brill, 2020. Hanson, R. P. C. Search for a Christian Doctrine of God. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007. Hart, George. The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses. 2nd ed. Oxford, UK: Routledge, 2005. Homer. The Odyssey. Translated by Robert Fagles. New York, NY: Penguin, 1997. Iamblichus. Life of Pythagoras. Translated by Thomas Taylor. Iamblichus' Life of Pythagoras. Delhi, IN: Zinc Read, 2023. Justin Martyr. Dialogue with Trypho. Translated by Thomas B. Falls. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2003. Laertius, Diogenes. Life of Pythagoras. Translated by Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie. The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library. Edited by David R. Fideler. Grand Rapids, MI: Phanes Press, 1988. Laertius, Diogenes. Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Translated by Pamela Mensch. Edited by James Miller. New York, NY: Oxford, 2020. Lane, William L. The Gospel of Mark. Nicnt, edited by F. F. Bruce Ned B. Stonehouse, and Gordon D. Fee. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1974. Litwa, M. David. Iesus Deus. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014. Livy. The Early History of Rome. 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End Notes [1] For the remainder of this paper, I will use the lower case “god” for all references to deity outside of Yahweh, the Father of Christ. I do this because all our ancient texts lack capitalization and our modern capitalization rules imply a theology that is anachronistic and unhelpful for the present inquiry. [2] Christopher Kaiser wrote, “Explicit references to Jesus as ‘God' in the New Testament are very few, and even those few are generally plagued with uncertainties of either text or interpretation.” Christopher B. Kaiser, The Doctrine of God: A Historical Survey (London: Marshall Morgan & Scott, 1982), 29. Other scholars such as Raymond Brown (Jesus: God and Man), Jason David BeDuhn (Truth in Translation), and Brian Wright (“Jesus as θεός: A Textual Examination” in Revisiting the Corruption of the New Testament) have expressed similar sentiments. [3] John 20.28; Hebrews 1.8; Titus 2.13; 2 Peter 1.1; Romans 9.5; and 1 John 5.20. [4] See Polycarp's Epistle to the Philippians 12.2 where a manuscript difference determines whether or not Polycarp called Jesus god or lord. Textual corruption is most acute in Igantius' corpus. Although it's been common to dismiss the long recension as an “Arian” corruption, claiming the middle recension to be as pure and uncontaminated as freshly fallen snow upon which a foot has never trodden, such an uncritical view is beginning to give way to more honest analysis. See Paul Gilliam III's Ignatius of Antioch and the Arian Controversy (Leiden: Brill, 2017) for a recent treatment of Christological corruption in the middle recension. [5] See the entries for  אֱלֹהִיםand θεός in the Hebrew Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (HALOT), the Brown Driver Briggs Lexicon (BDB), Eerdmans Dictionary, Kohlenberger/Mounce Concise Hebrew-Aramaic Dictionary of the Old Testament, the Bauer Danker Arndt Gingrich Lexicon (BDAG), Friberg Greek Lexicon, and Thayer's Greek Lexicon. [6] See notes on Is 9.6 and Ps 45.6. [7] ZIBBC: “In what sense can the king be called “god”? By virtue of his divine appointment, the king in the ancient Near East stood before his subjects as a representative of the divine realm. …In fact, the term “gods“ (ʾelōhı̂m) is used of priests who functioned as judges in the Israelite temple judicial system (Ex. 21:6; 22:8-9; see comments on 58:1; 82:6-7).” John W. Hilber, “Psalms,” in The Minor Prophets, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, vol. 5 of Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Old Testament. ed. John H. Walton (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009), 358. [8] Around a.d. 340, Aphrahat of Persia advised his fellow Christians to reply to Jewish critics who questioned why “You call a human being ‘God'” (Demonstrations 17.1). He said, “For the honored name of the divinity is granted event ot rightoues human beings, when they are worthy of being called by it…[W]hen he chose Moses, his friend and his beloved…he called him “god.” …We call him God, just as he named Moses with his own name…The name of the divinity was granted for great honor in the world. To whom he wishes, God appoints it” (17.3, 4, 5). Aphrahat, The Demonstrations, trans., Ellen Muehlberger, vol. 3, The Cambridge Edition of Early Christian Writings (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge, 2022), 213-15. In the Clementine Recognitions we find a brief mention of the concept:  “Therefore the name God is applied in three ways: either because he to whom it is given is truly God, or because he is the servant of him who is truly; and for the honour of the sender, that his authority may be full, he that is sent is called by the name of him who sends, as is often done in respect of angels: for when they appear to a man, if he is a wise and intelligent man, he asks the name of him who appears to him, that he may acknowledge at once the honour of the sent, and the authority of the sender” (2.42). Pseudo-Clement, Recognitions, trans., Thomas Smith, vol. 8, Ante Nicene Fathers (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003). [9] Michael F. Bird, Jesus among the Gods (Waco, TX: Baylor, 2022), 13. [10] Andrew Perriman, In the Form of a God, Studies in Early Christology, ed. David Capes Michael Bird, and Scott Harrower (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2022), 130. [11] Paula Fredriksen, "How High Can Early High Christology Be?," in Monotheism and Christology in Greco-Roman Antiquity, ed. Matthew V. Novenson, vol. 180 (Leiden: Brill, 2020), 296, 99. [12] ibid. [13] See Gen 18.1; Ex 3.2; 24.11; Is 6.1; Ezk 1.28. [14] Compare the Masoretic Text of Psalm 8.6 to the Septuagint and Hebrews 2.7. [15] Homer, The Odyssey, trans., Robert Fagles (New York, NY: Penguin, 1997), 370. [16] Diodorus Siculus, The Historical Library, trans., Charles Henry Oldfather, vol. 1 (Sophron Editor, 2017), 340. [17] Uranus met death at the brutal hands of his own son, Kronos who emasculated him and let bleed out, resulting in his deification (Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel 1.10). Later on, after suffering a fatal disease, Kronos himself experienced deification, becoming the planet Saturn (ibid.). Zeus married Hera and they produced Osiris (Dionysus), Isis (Demeter), Typhon, Apollo, and Aphrodite (ibid. 2.1). [18] Lucius Annaeus Cornutus, Greek Theology, trans., George Boys-Stones, Greek Theology, Fragments, and Testimonia (Atlanta, GA: SBL, 2018), 123. [19] Apollodorus, The Library of Greek Mythology, trans., Robin Hard (Oxford, UK: Oxford, 1998), 111. [20] Pausanias, Guide to Greece, trans., Peter Levi (London, UK: Penguin, 1979), 98. [21] Strabo, The Geography, trans., Duane W. Roller (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge, 2020), 281. [22] Psuedo-Clement, Homilies, trans., Peter Peterson, vol. 8, Ante-Nicene Fathers (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1897). Greek: “αὐτὸν δὲ ὡς θεὸν ἐθρήσκευσαν” from Jacques Paul Migne, Patrologia Graeca, taken from Accordance (PSCLEMH-T), OakTree Software, Inc., 2018, Version 1.1. [23] See Barry Blackburn, Theios Aner and the Markan Miracle Traditions (Tübingen, Germany: J. C. B. Mohr, 1991), 32. [24] Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, trans., Pamela Mensch (New York, NY: Oxford, 2020), 39. [25] Iamblichus, Life of Pythagoras, trans., Thomas Taylor, Iamblichus' Life of Pythagoras (Delhi, IN: Zinc Read, 2023), 2. [26] Diogenes Laertius, Life of Pythagoras, trans., Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie, The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Phanes Press, 1988), 142. [27] See the list in Blackburn, 39. He corroborates miracle stories from Diogenus Laertius, Iamblichus, Apollonius, Nicomachus, and Philostratus. [28] Porphyry, Life of Pythagoras, trans., Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie, The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Phanes Press, 1988), 128-9. [29] Iamblichus,  68. [30] What I call “resurrection” refers to the phrase, “Thou shalt bring back from Hades a dead man's strength.” Diogenes Laertius 8.2.59, trans. R. D. Hicks. [31] Laertius, "Lives of the Eminent Philosophers," 306. Two stories of his deification survive: in one Empedocles disappears in the middle of the night after hearing an extremely loud voice calling his name. After this the people concluded that they should sacrifice to him since he had become a god (8.68). In the other account, Empedocles climbs Etna and leaps into the fiery volcanic crater “to strengthen the rumor that he had become a god” (8.69). [32] Pausanias,  192. Sextus Empiricus says Asclepius raised up people who had died at Thebes as well as raising up the dead body of Tyndaros (Against the Professors 1.261). [33] Cicero adds that the Arcadians worship Asclepius (Nature 3.57). [34] In another instance, he confronted and cast out a demon from a licentious young man (Life 4.20). [35] The phrase is “περὶ ἐμοῦ καὶ θεοῖς εἴρηται ὡς περὶ θείου ἀνδρὸς.” Philostratus, Letters of Apollonius, vol. 458, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard, 2006). [36] See George Hart, The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, 2nd ed. (Oxford, UK: Routledge, 2005), 3. [37] Plutarch, Life of Alexander, trans., Ian Scott-Kilvert and Timothy E. Duff, The Age of Alexander (London, UK: Penguin, 2011), 311. Arrian includes a story about Anaxarchus advocating paying divine honors to Alexander through prostration. The Macedonians refused but the Persian members of his entourage “rose from their seats and one by one grovelled on the floor before the King.” Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander, trans., Aubrey De Sélincourt (London, UK: Penguin, 1971), 222. [38] Translation my own from “Ἀντίοχος ὁ Θεὸς Δίκαιος Ἐπιφανὴς Φιλορωμαῖος Φιλέλλην.” Inscription at Nemrut Dağ, accessible at https://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/mithras/display.php?page=cimrm32. See also https://zeugma.packhum.org/pdfs/v1ch09.pdf. [39] Greek taken from W. Dittenberger, Orientis Graecae Inscriptiones Selectae, vol. 2 (Hildesheim: Olms, 1960), 48-60. Of particular note is the definite article before θεός. They didn't celebrate the birthday of a god, but the birthday of the god. [40] Appian, The Civil Wars, trans., John Carter (London, UK: Penguin, 1996), 149. [41] M. David Litwa, Iesus Deus (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014), 20. [42] ibid. [43] Blackburn, 92-3. [44] The Homeric Hymns, trans., Michael Crudden (New York, NY: Oxford, 2008), 38. [45] "The Homeric Hymns," 14. [46] Homer,  344. [47] Theophilus of Antioch, To Autolycus, trans., Marcus Dods, vol. 2, Ante-Nicene Fathers (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001). [48] Callimachus, Hymn to Artemis, trans., Susan A. Stephens, Callimachus: The Hymns (New York, NY: Oxford, 2015), 119. [49] Siculus,  234. [50] Cyprian, Treatise 6: On the Vanity of Idols, trans., Ernest Wallis, vol. 5, Ante-Nicene Fathers (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995). [51] Arnobius, Against the Heathen, trans., Hamilton Bryce and Hugh Campbell, vol. 6, Ante-Nicene Fathers (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995). [52] Livy, The Early History of Rome, trans., Aubrey De Sélincourt (London, UK: Penguin, 2002), 49. [53] Cicero, The Nature of the Gods, trans., Patrick Gerard Walsh (Oxford, UK: Oxford, 2008), 69. [54] Wendy Cotter, "Greco-Roman Apotheosis Traditions and the Resurrection Appearances in Matthew," in The Gospel of Matthew in Current Study, ed. David E. Aune (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001), 149. [55] Litwa, 170. [56] William L. Lane, The Gospel of Mark, Nicnt, ed. F. F. Bruce Ned B. Stonehouse, and Gordon D. Fee (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1974). [57] “Recent commentators have stressed that the best background for understanding the Markan transfiguration is the story of Moses' ascent up Mount Sinai (Exod. 24 and 34).” Litwa, 123. [58] Tertullian, Apology, trans. S. Thelwall, vol. 3, Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003). [59] Eusebius, The Church History, trans. Paul L. Maier (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2007), 54. [60] Pliny the Younger, The Letters of the Younger Pliny, trans., Betty Radice (London: Penguin, 1969), 294. [61] Pseudo-Thomas, Infancy Gospel of Thomas, trans., James Orr (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1903), 25. [62] Litwa, 83. [63] For sources on Theodotus, see Pseduo-Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies 7.35.1-2; 10.23.1-2; Pseudo-Tertullian, Against All Heresies 8.2; Eusebius, Church History 5.28. [64] Pseudo-Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies, trans., David Litwa (Atlanta, GA: SBL, 2016), 571. [65] I took the liberty to decapitalize these appellatives. Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, trans. Thomas B. Falls (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2003), 244. [66] Justin Martyr, 241. (Altered, see previous footnote.) [67] Justin Martyr, 102. [68] Justin Martyr, 56-7. [69] Arnobius makes a similar argument in Against the Heathen 1.38-39 “Is he not worthy to be called a god by us and felt to be a god on account of the favor or such great benefits? For if you have enrolled Liber among the gods because he discovered the use of wine, and Ceres the use of bread, Aesculapius the use of medicines, Minerva the use of oil, Triptolemus plowing, and Hercules because he conquered and restrained beasts, thieves, and the many-headed hydra…So then, ought we not to consider Christ a god, and to bestow upon him all the worship due to his divinity?” Translation from Litwa, 105. [70] Justin Martyr, 46. [71] Justin Martyr, 39. [72] Origen, Against Celsus, trans. Frederick Crombie, vol. 4, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003). [73] Litwa, 173. [74] I could easily multiply examples of this by looking at Irenaeus, Tertullian, Hippolytus, and many others. [75] The obvious exception to Hanson's statement were thinkers like Sabellius and Praxeas who believed that the Father himself came down as a human being. R. P. C. Hanson, Search for a Christian Doctrine of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007), xix. [76] Interestingly, even some of the biblical unitarians of the period were comfortable with calling Jesus god, though they limited his divinity to his post-resurrection life. [77] Tertullian writes, “[T]he Father is not the same as the Son, since they differ one from the other in the mode of their being. For the Father is the entire substance, but the Son is a derivation and portion of the whole, as He Himself acknowledges: “My Father is greater than I.” In the Psalm His inferiority is described as being “a little lower than the angels.” Thus the Father is distinct from the Son, being greater than the Son” (Against Praxeas 9). Tertullian, Against Praxeas, trans., Holmes, vol. 3, Ante Nice Fathers (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003).

#0121 How Anti-Semitism Crept Into The Church -Further Every Day With all of the riots in the West, and even supposed Evangelical Christians championing the demise of Israel, the question rises: How did anti-semitism creep into the Church and the Western Psyche? First off, what is Anti-Semitism: “Hatred of and hostility toward the Jews, at times including the belief that they pose a threat to society and should be eliminated. The term was coined in 1879 by the German anti-Jewish writer Wilhelm Marr to refer specifically to “scientific” rather than “religious” opposition to Jews, but it is generally applied to all manifestations of hatred of the Jewish people. Over its long history, it has taken different forms in different cultural contexts. This has led to debate about what precisely constitutes antisemitism and whether it is unique or merely the specific expression of the kind of inter-group hostility that is found in most societies. The Jewish experience of antisemitism over the centuries, especially under the Nazis, plays a significant role in contemporary Jewish self-understanding and communal life....” -Oxfordhttps://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780199730049.001.0001/acref-9780199730049-e-0207 We are seeing pro-Hamas protests across the US and Europe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fmahzTQppw How did we get here? Well let's set up a rough timeline: Timeline of Events: Early Christian Period (A.D. 160-180): Marcion launches a theological crusade against perceived Jewish Influence (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, p. 493). Later, many of these same anti-Judaic sentiments found their way into the thinking (and writings) of the Early Church fathers. Irenaeus (c. 180), for instance, wrote, “The Jews have rejected the Son of God and cast Him out of the vineyard when they slew Him. Therefore, God has justly rejected them and has given to the Gentiles outside the vineyard the fruits of its cultivation” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, [1885-1887], Volume 1, p. 493). 7th Century (A.D. 680-687): Jewish converts to Christianity must renounce their Jewish heritage before baptism (Professions of Faith Extracted from Jews on Baptism, compiled by Professor Paul Halsall of Fordham University). Development of Theological Views: Chiliasm (premillennialism) prominent in Early Church despite later shift to amillennialism (History of the Christian Church, Vol. 2, p. 614). Augustine's symbolic interpretation of Israel's prophecies contributes to amillennialism (City of God, Books 15 to 19). Martin Luther and Anti-Semitism: Luther, a supersessionist, advocates burning synagogues, expelling Jews, influencing Nazi policies (On the Jews and Their Lies, Luther's Works, pp. 268-271). Luther's ideas inspired Nazi leaders Goering, Himmler, and Hitler to commit the atrocities Luther prescribed against Jewish people (The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, p. 236). https://youtu.be/RW-bx3-aO5E?feature=shared https://youtu.be/B-7OiA-G3hA?feature=shared So what does the Bible say about the Jewish People and their Covenant with God? Paul asserts God has not permanently rejected Israel (Romans 11:1-2, 11-12, 15). Foresees a future restoration of Israel, a time of "fullness" and recognition of Yeshua as Messiah (Romans 11:26). David is promised an eternal heir in 2 Samuel 7:12-13 And of course the Abrahamic Covenant: https://www.gotquestions.org/Abrahamic-covenant.html Closing Question to each chair: So how should we as Christians look upon the Jewish People? Final Question: What Old Testament Era Figure has inspired you the most in life?

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 Sources The Didache (100)[1] Apostolic Tradition (215) (Hippolytus?)[2] Didascalia Apostolorum (230)[3] Apostolic Church Order (300)[4] Apostolic Constitutions (380)[5] quotes from others like Justin, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Cyprian, etc. 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) qualifications in 1 Timothy 3.1-7; Titus 1.7-9 extraordinary honor as God's representative 50 years old (if possible) learned (if possible) and skillful with words preach, administer communion, baptize, rebuke sin, restore repentant, visit the sick supported financially, but live moderately coordinate burying believers Presbyters (Elders) qualifications in Titus 1.6-9 functions in 1 Timothy 5.17; James 5.14; 1 Peter 5.1-4 (shepherd, anoint sick, teach) Tertullian: “The tried men of our elders preside over us, obtaining that honour not by purchase, but by established character. There is no buying and selling of any sort in the things of God.”[7] Deacons/Deaconesses (Servants) qualifications in 1 Timothy 3.8-13; Acts 6.3-6 take care of the poor, elderly, sick they “go everywhere night and day” (Apostolic Church Order 22) bring communion to people's homes encourage giving and handle distribution prior to communion a deacon “calls out in a loud voice: ‘Is there anyone who maintains anger with his neighbour?'” (Didascalia 11[2.54]) serve as ushers “[I]f anyone is found sitting in a place which is not his, the deacon within should warn him and make him stand up and seat him in the place which is his own, as is right” (Didascalia 12.7) “And the deacon should also observe that nobody is whispering or going to sleep or laughing or gesticulating, for it is fitting that they should be watching in the church respectfully and attentively, with ears alert to the word of the Lord.” (Didascalia 12.10-11) Acolytes (Subdeacons) acolytes were subdeacons they assisted the deacons helped with food distribution Virgins committed to celibacy served the congregation supported by the church growing significance in the fourth and fifth centuries return to them when we get to Jerome Widows qualifications in 1 Timothy 5.3-16 typically 60+ years old though Didascalia set the age at 50+ younger widows should get remarried widows could remarry once, but “after this she is a harlot” (Didascalia 14.2 [3.2]) office of a widow is one who committed to not getting remarried served the congregation especially in prayer supported by the church financially Apostolic Church Order 21“Three widows should be appointed. Two are to continue in prayer for all who are in temptation and for revelations concerning whatever is necessary. One is to assist women who are being troubled by sickness. She is to be a good minister, discreet in communicating what is necessary to the elders…” Exorcists cast out demons Readers Apostolic Church Order 19 “A reader should be appointed after careful testing. He should not be a babbler, or a drunkard, or a jester. He should be of upstanding life, submissive, well-intentioned, taking the lead in the assemblies on the Lord's days, who is good to listen to and is able to construct a narrative, aware that he labours in the place of an evangelist.” Doorkeepers presumably took care of maintenance needs Laity from Greek word for people regular members of the church the great majority submit to leadership Authority Structures local bishop decisions made by council of bishops pentarchy of patriarchs bishop of Rome emperor Christian Practices conversion communion prayer church discipline giving and welfare church service Day of Meeting Didache mentions gathering “the Lord's own day” but doesn't link it to the Sabbath (14.1) Justin says “Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly” (1 Apology 67) Epistle of Barnabas says they meet on the 8th day b/c that's when Jesus arose form the dead (15.8-9) Also met other days frequently (Didache 16.2) Order of Service Justin Martyr: “And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons.”[8] pre-service screening reading of scripture teaching (men only, cf. Didascalia 15.6 [3.6]) dismissal of catechumens prayer of the faithful kiss of peace communion Recommended Reading Worship in the Early Church by Justo and Catherine Gonzalez Review Several church orders have survived, which provide snapshots into how early Christians organized and worshiped Three main divisions: insiders, outsiders hoping to become insiders, and outsiders Roles within the church: apostles, prophets, bishops, elders, deacons, acolytes, virgins, widows, exorcists, readers, and doorkeepers Conversion was a lengthy process that involved years of instruction, regular attendance, exorcism, anointing, and baptism Catechumenates and the penitent had to leave prior to the prayer of the faithful, kiss of peace, and communion Leaders took church discipline seriously and both expelled people and welcomed the repentant back Christians voluntarily contributed to support their leaders and to care for those in need Meeting on Sundays, the church service included a screening, reading of scripture, a teaching, prayer of the faithful, kiss of peace, and communion. [1] Michael Holmes, The Apostolic Fathers (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2007). [2] The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus of Rome, trans. Kevin P. Edgecomb, accessed Feb 13, 2023, http://www.bombaxo.com/hippolytus-the-apostolic-tradition/. [3] The Didascalia Apostolorum, trans. Alistair Stewart-Sykes (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2009). [4] The Apostolic Church Order, trans. Alistair C. Stewart (Macquarie Centre, Australia: SCD Press, 2021). [5] the only version I have is in the ANF vol 7, but I did not use it in this lecture [6] Joseph H. Lynch, Early Christianity, (New York: Oxford, 2010), 105. [7] Tertullian, Apology 39, trans. S. Thelwall, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol 3, p. 46. [8] Justin Martyr, First Apology 67, ANF, vol 1, p. 186.

The Ante-Nicene Fathers covers the period between the beginning of Christianity until the promulgation of the Nicene Creed at the First Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325. In this episode Phil brings his experience and expertise to bear on whether or not the early Church Fathers believed in a Pre-Trib Rapture.philsbaker.com

In Episode 122, I sat down with my good friend, BDK of Omega Frequency, to talk about how the early Christian writings have shaped his worldview. We also discuss a few things we each would've done differently after beginning to study the Ante Nicene Fathers.  BDK - www.omegafrequency.com Faithful Witness: The Early Church's Theology of Martyrdom         Phil's Website – https://philsbaker.com Patreon Page - patreon.com/philsbaker Apple Podcasts Channel - Reclaiming the Faith Contact me – emailphilsbaker@gmail.com The Ante-Nicene Writings - https://www.scrollpublishing.com/store/more-CD-ANF.html

Today, another installment in the ongoing Christian Vegetarian Series. Did you know that Saint Jerome, Latin name: Eusebius Hieronymus, translator of the Vulgate Bible, was a vegetarian? Also we explore vegan & vegetarian views found in the Ebionite Book of Acts, also known as the Clementine Homilies and Recognitions, the largest surviving pro-vegetarian Christian scripture of antiquity. It's preserved in a treasure-trove of literature known as the Ante-Nicene Fathers composed before 325 AD. Happy Veganuary!

When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. (Hosea 11:1) 12 As our Scriptures, this morning, take us back into the Old Testament, to base our thinking for the next few minutes on a historical event. And we know that history repeats itself every so often. And in my study now, I'm studying the Ante-Nicene Fathers, and can see through the Scriptures, how that we are repeating again the age that has passed by. 13 “And all Scripture is given by inspiration.” And our blessed Lord said, that, “The Scriptures cannot be broken. All the Scriptures must be fulfilled.” What a consolation that is, to give to we the people that read those Scriptures, knowing that what we have read cannot be broken. It gives us the most solid foundation to rest our faith on. And every Scripture must be fulfilled. 14 Then we find, that in the fulfilling of the Scriptures, the Word is so great till many times it has dual fulfillings, and most all of It repeats at least once. 15 For instance, in the Bible, in Matthew the 2nd chapter, It—It reads, to where It said, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.” If you'll read that Scripture, and run the reference, you'll find it back over, that God called His son, Jacob, out of Israel…out of Egypt. And then it also is fulfilled again when He called His Son, Jesus, out of Egypt. And It just keeps repeating itself, because It's inspired. 16 If I wrote you a letter, you would perhaps appreciate that letter. And if you wrote me one, I'm sure I would appreciate it. But my letter would just be to you. Therefore, after you read it once, you know all the meaning, and the letter would be insufficient anymore, anybody else. It was just designated to you; or yours to me. 17 But it's not so with God's Eternal Word. It's inspired. Therefore, it's to all peoples, in all ages, and to meet all conditions. That's what makes It keep repeating Itself. As history swings around, It swings with the history. And It never looses Its value, because It is the Eternal Word of the Eternal God. It cannot loose Its value. 58-0309m - "The Handwriting On The Wall" Rev. William Marrion Branham ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Order your own copy of the Family Altar at http://store.bibleway.org Appreciate what we do? Consider supporting us: https://anchor.fm/ten-thousand-worlds/support --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/ten-thousand-worlds/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/ten-thousand-worlds/support

*****SCRIPTURES AND REFERENCES IN THIS EPISODE*****https://thedoctrineofchristseries.com/seasons-scripture-references/****DOC Links****DOC Email: thedoctrineofchristseries@gmail.comDOC Website: http://thedoctrineofchristseries.com*****Support This Channel*****Paypal: https://paypal.me/jimivision?locale.x=en_USMonthly Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/JimivisionCash App: https://cash.app/$JimivisionVenmo: www.venmo.com/Jimmy-Cooper-17Mail To:Jimmy Cooper11205 Lebanon Rd #16Mount Juliet, TN 37122*****Links to Podcast Networks*****Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-doctrine-of-christ/id1499184324Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0mFiTMRND9DWJIL5Z02Yi8Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/jimivision/the-doctrine-of-christ*****Youtube Playlist Links*****https://thedoctrineofchristseries.com/seasons/****Follow Jimivision****Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClUvYf3rZHvqQloMEoEFtlw? ****Follow FOJC Radio****YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0RmdJ0nhShuDLp8Q41BlwgFollowers of Jesus Christ Web Site:http://www.fojcradio.com  or http://www.ritualabusefree.orgBrighteon: https://www.brighteon.com/channels/overcomerBrighteon The Vault: https://www.brighteon.com/channels/fojcvaultTo receive notices for Friday night Remnant Gathering messages or other programs we are on, send an email to lastdayschurch@cs.com with: “Sign Up” in the Subject line.RADIO PAGE at http://www.fojcradio.com/RADIO.htm#fojc radioWe Are *on Air LIVE *** Every Friday for Remnant Gathering@ 6 PM Central TimePlease Join the Chat Room with other Listeners where Scriptures & Comments are postedor, Listen to the 24/7 Auto DJ with Teachings, Music, and other Audios.CONTACT INFORMATION: David and Donna Carrico Followers of Jesus ChristP. O. BOX 671Tell City, IN 47586Phone -812-836-2288 Email - lastdayschurch@cs.com

Modalism, also called Sabellianism, is the unorthodox belief that God is one person who has revealed himself in three forms or modes in contrast to the Trinitarian doctrine where God is one being eternally existing in three persons. According to Modalism, during the incarnation, Jesus was simply God acting in one mode or role, and the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was God acting in a different mode. Thus, God does not exist as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at the same time. Rather, He is one person and has merely manifested himself in these three modes at various times. Modalism thus denies the basic distinctiveness and coexistence of the three persons of the Trinity. Modalism was condemned by Tertullian (c. 213, Tertullian Against Praxeas 1, in Ante Nicene Fathers, vol. 3). Also known as Sabellianism, it was condemned as heresy by Dionysius, bishop of Rome (c. 262).

Modalism, also called Sabellianism, is the unorthodox belief that God is one person who has revealed himself in three forms or modes in contrast to the Trinitarian doctrine where God is one being eternally existing in three persons. According to Modalism, during the incarnation, Jesus was simply God acting in one mode or role, and the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was God acting in a different mode. Thus, God does not exist as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at the same time. Rather, He is one person and has merely manifested himself in these three modes at various times. Modalism thus denies the basic distinctiveness and coexistence of the three persons of the Trinity. Modalism was condemned by Tertullian (c. 213, Tertullian Against Praxeas 1, in Ante Nicene Fathers, vol. 3). Also known as Sabellianism, it was condemned as heresy by Dionysius, bishop of Rome (c. 262).

BIBLIOGRAPHYDavies, W. D., and Dale C. Allison Jr. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to Saint Matthew. Vol. 2. International Critical Commentary. London; New York: T&T Clark International, 2004.Hahn, Scott, ed. Catholic Bible Dictionary. New York; London; Toronto; Sydney; Auckland: Doubleday, 2009.Keener, Craig S. The Gospel of Matthew: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI;  Cambridge, U.K.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2009.Mitch, Curtis, and Edward Sri. The Gospel of Matthew. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2010.Roberts, Alexander, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, eds. “The Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus.” In The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, Vol. 1. The Ante-Nicene Fathers. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885.REFERENCESDaniel 3:88 - "Bless the Lord, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, sing praise to him and highly exalt him for ever; for he has rescued us from Hades and saved us from the hand of death, and delivered us from the midst of the burning fiery furnace."Daniel 4:10-12, 17 - "The visions of my head as I lay in bed were these: I saw, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth; and its height was great. The tree grew and became strong, and its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth. Its leaves were fair and its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the air dwelt in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it. 17 The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men, and gives it to whom he will, and sets over it the lowliest of men."Ezekiel 18:22-24 - "Thus says the Lord GOD: 'I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar, and will set it out; I will break off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I myself will plant it upon a high and lofty mountain; on the mountain height of Israel will I plant it, that it may bring forth boughs and bear fruit, and become a noble cedar; and under it will dwell all kinds of beasts; in the shade of its branches birds of every sort will nest. And all the trees of the field shall know that I the LORD bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it.'”

The Daily Devocast brings you daily encouragement. Today’s devotional message Demons are Overcome by the Name of Jesus comes from chapter 85 of the dialog of Justin with Trypho, a Jew, which can be found in volume I of the Ante-Nicene Fathers.   Our theme for the month of February is encountering the supernatural with the early church fathers.   Daily Devocast is part of the Destiny Image Podcast Network.

The Daily Devocast brings you daily encouragement. Today’s devotional message The Gift of Prophecy and the Gift of Tongues in the Early Church comes from Book V, Chapter VI of Irenæus against Heresies, which can be found in volume I of the Ante-Nicene Fathers.   Our theme for the month of February is encountering the supernatural with the early church fathers.   Daily Devocast is part of the Destiny Image Podcast Network.

The Daily Devocast brings you daily encouragement. Today’s devotional message The Power to Drive Out Demons comes from Justin Martyr’s Second Apology, which can be found in volume I of the Ante-Nicene Fathers.   Our theme for the month of February is encountering the supernatural with the early church fathers.   Daily Devocast is part of the Destiny Image Podcast Network.

The Daily Devocast brings you daily encouragement. Today’s devotional message Deliverance, Prophecy, Healing, and Resurrection in the Early Church comes from Chapter XXXII of Irenæus Against Heresies Book II, which can be found in volume I of the Ante-Nicene Fathers.   Our theme for the month of February is encountering the supernatural with the early church fathers.   Daily Devocast is part of the Destiny Image Podcast Network.

The Daily Devocast brings you daily encouragement. Today’s devotional message The Worldwide Impact of the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit comes from volume VI of the Ante-Nicene Fathers.   Our theme for the month of February is encountering the supernatural with the early church fathers.   Daily Devocast is part of the Destiny Image Podcast Network.

In Episode 63, I had the privilege to interview some of the men behind the documentary Higher Entities. My co-host, BDK, and I led a round table discussion about the subject of aliens with our guests, Justen Faull, Wes Faull, Darrin Geisinger and Chad Riley. Please listen to this amazing conversation to find out why, now more than ever, it is so important for Christians to possess a strong biblical framework concerning this topic.  My website – https://philsbaker.com My Patreon - patreon.com/philsbaker My iTunes Channel - Reclaiming the Faith My book New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ BDK - www.omegafrequency.com Fourth Watch Films - https://www.fourthwatchfilms.com Darrin Geisinger - https://darringeisinger.com Deception Detection Radio - https://www.spreaker.com/user/deceptiondetection The Faithful Podcast - https://faithfulpodcast.podbean.com Contact me – emailphilsbaker@gmail.com The CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers 

In Episode 54, I’m getting back into my series on the Beatitudes. Here, I discuss what it means to hunger and thirst for righteousness, using examples from the Gospel of John to help illustrate this mindset of a citizen of heaven.  My Patreon - patreon.com/philsbaker New EP - The Love & War EP  My website – https://philsbaker.com My iTunes Channel - Reclaiming the Faith My book New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ The Faithful Podcast - https://faithfulpodcast.podbean.com Contact me – emailphilsbaker@gmail.com Justen Faull’s 4th Watch Radio Network  BDK’s Omega Frequency The CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers 

In Episode 53, I take a break from my series on the Beatitudes to give an audio version of chapter 12 of my book, New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ. The title of chapter 12 is ‘A Person of Influence’, and it looks at several ways that we can affect the influence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  New EP - The Love & War EP  My website – https://philsbaker.com My iTunes Channel - Reclaiming the Faith My book New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ The Faithful Podcast - https://faithfulpodcast.podbean.com Contact me – emailphilsbaker@gmail.com Justen Faull’s 4th Watch Radio Network  BDK’s Omega Frequency The CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers 

In episode 50, I’m beginning a 9-part series on the Beatitudes. To understand what it means to be poor in spirit, I’ll examine stories from both the Old and New Testaments and demonstrate how Jesus is the ultimate example of this Beatitude.  My website – https://philsbaker.com New Single - War  My iTunes Channel - Reclaiming the Faith My book New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ The Faithful Podcast - https://faithfulpodcast.podbean.com Contact me – emailphilsbaker@gmail.com Justen Faull’s 4th Watch Radio Network  BDK’s Omega Frequency The CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers 

Episode 51 contains Part 2 of my series on the Beatitudes. Here, we look at the blessings that come from mourning, and how King David, the Apostle Paul and the Lord Jesus modeled the truth of this Beatitude.  New Single - War  My website – https://philsbaker.com My iTunes Channel - Reclaiming the Faith My book New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ The Faithful Podcast - https://faithfulpodcast.podbean.com Contact me – emailphilsbaker@gmail.com Justen Faull’s 4th Watch Radio Network  BDK’s Omega Frequency The CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers 

Meekness is not the same as weakness. In Episode 52, I demonstrate the interconnectedness of the first three Beatitudes through the 6th chapter of Isaiah. Also, I demonstrate how no one models the godly characteristic of meekness like King Jesus. New Single - War  My website – https://philsbaker.com My iTunes Channel - Reclaiming the Faith My book New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ The Faithful Podcast - https://faithfulpodcast.podbean.com Contact me – emailphilsbaker@gmail.com Justen Faull’s 4th Watch Radio Network  BDK’s Omega Frequency The CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers 

In episode 49, I will be giving an audio version of chapter 11 of my book, “New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ.” This chapter is entitled, “Giving Keys to Thieves,” and discusses several reasons that people can be demonized. It also details the power of repentance in gaining victory over the powers of darkness.  My book New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ My website – https://philsbaker.com My iTunes Channel - Reclaiming the Faith The Faithful Podcast - https://faithfulpodcast.podbean.com Contact me – emailphilsbaker@gmail.com Justen Faull’s 4th Watch Radio Network  BDK’s Omega Frequency The CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers 

In the last podcast, I gave an overview of what a typical early Christian gathering would look like. Today, I want to provide for you a profile of a typical early Christian. How did they view the commands of Christ? What affect did their view on Judgment Day have on their daily lives? How did they view their responsibility to the world? All these questions and more will be answered on today’s show. My website – https://philsbaker.com My iTunes Channel - Reclaiming the Faith The Faithful Podcast - https://faithfulpodcast.podbean.com My book New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ Contact me – emailphilsbaker@gmail.com Justen Faull’s 4th Watch Radio Network  BDK’s Omega Frequency The CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers 

Today in episode 47, we’re going to look at what an early Christian worship service looked like. We’ll also discuss some core reasons why their services had such a drastically different approach as modern services. Finally, we’ll look at why the early Christians were so effective at reaching the world for Christ without having the material resources that we rely on today.  My website – https://philsbaker.com My iTunes Channel - Reclaiming the Faith The Faithful Podcast - https://faithfulpodcast.podbean.com My book New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ Contact me – emailphilsbaker@gmail.com Justen Faull’s 4th Watch Radio Network  BDK’s Omega Frequency The CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers 

In Episode 46, we’re going to be looking at how Matthew 24 corresponds to the books of 1 & 2 Maccabees. In Matthew 24, Jesus opens the disciples’ eyes to what things will look like in the last days. However, did you know that many phrases He uses in Matthew 24 can be directly tied to 1 & 2 Maccabees? Therefore, is it possible that what happened in those days is a shadow of what is coming upon the earth?  My website – https://philsbaker.com My iTunes Channel - Reclaiming the Faith The Faithful Podcast - https://faithfulpodcast.podbean.com My book New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ Contact me – emailphilsbaker@gmail.com Justen Faull’s 4th Watch Radio Network  BDK’s Omega Frequency The CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers 

In Episode 45, I’ll be giving you an audio version of chapter 10 of my book, New Wineskins and the Simple words of Christ. Chapter 10 is entitled Trailers for the Main Attraction, and it deals with the issue of spiritual gifts. I’ll answer questions such as: What are the gifts of the Holy Spirit? What is the nature of the gifts? What are the purposes of the gifts? What is the duration of the gifts? Can people only have one gift? And, how can we discover our gifts?  My website – https://philsbaker.com My book New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ My iTunes Channel - Reclaiming the Faith The Faithful Podcast - https://faithfulpodcast.podbean.com Contact me – emailphilsbaker@gmail.com Justen Faull’s 4th Watch Radio Network  BDK’s Omega Frequency The CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers 

Episode 44 is part 3 of my interview with BDK of Omega Frequency on 21st century Pharisaism. This final chapter exposes how pride and Machiavellianism have almost been normalized in the modern American Church, and what Church leaders can do to help remedy this tragic trend in Christendom. BDK’s Omega Frequency My website – https://philsbaker.com My iTunes Channel - Reclaiming the Faith The Faithful Podcast - https://faithfulpodcast.podbean.com  My book New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ Contact me – emailphilsbaker@gmail.com Justen Faull’s 4thWatch Radio Network The CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers  

In episode 43, we delve into part 2 of my interview with BDK of Omega Frequency on 21st century Pharisaism. This challenging episode will explore the connection between the way discipleship is being approached by the modern American Church, and the traditions the Church has developed in its relationship earthly governments. BDK’s Omega Frequency My website – https://philsbaker.com My iTunes Channel - Reclaiming the Faith The Faithful Podcast - https://faithfulpodcast.podbean.com My book New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ Contact me – emailphilsbaker@gmail.com Justen Faull’s 4thWatch Radio Network The CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers

I am blessed to be joined by BDK of Omega Frequency for a three part episode on 21stCentury Pharisaism. Here in episode 42, we begin part 1 of this eye-opening interview by looking at the human traditions surrounding discipleship, and how these miss the mark of what Jesus calls His followers to in the Great Commission. BDK’s Omega Frequency My website – https://philsbaker.com My iTunes Channel - Reclaiming the Faith The Faithful Podcast - https://faithfulpodcast.podbean.com My book New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ Contact me – emailphilsbaker@gmail.com Justen Faull’s 4thWatch Radio Network The CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers

Today we’re jumping into chapter 9 of my book ‘New Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ’. When we become born again into Jesus’s kingdom, it can feel like He is turning our worldview upside down. However, it’s crucial to remember we all enter life with an inverted perspective of reality. Jesus is actually helping to set everything right side up again. Here in Chapter 9, we look at how adopting Jesus’ worldview helps us to live with better spiritual eyesight and be more effective in fighting the spiritual battles we all face. My book New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ My iTunes Channel - Reclaiming the Faith The Faithful Podcast - https://faithfulpodcast.podbean.com My website – https://philsbaker.com Contact me – emailphilsbaker@gmail.com Justen Faull’s 4thWatch Radio Network BDK’s Omega Frequency The CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers

In Episode 40, we’re looking at the theme of conspiracy, and tracing that idea from Genesis to Revelation, the Ante Nicene era to modern times. We’ll also look at how we as 21st century humans have been conditioned to dismiss conspiracies outright. This is definitely a show you don’t want to miss, but the powers that be would love for you to scoff at. https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-23/1967-he-cia-created-phrase-conspiracy-theorists-and-ways-attack-anyone-who-challenge https://www.charismanews.com/us/55135-lawsuit-pastor-paid-woman-to-keep-quiet-about-affair The Faithful Podcast - https://faithfulpodcast.podbean.com My website – https://philsbaker.com My book New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ My iTunes Channel - Reclaiming the Faith Contact me – emailphilsbaker@gmail.com Justen Faull’s 4thWatch Radio Network BDK’s Omega Frequency The CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers  

Today we’re jumping into chapter 8 of my book ‘New Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ’. This chapter begins the second part my book, where I look at the subjects of the Holy Spirit and spiritual warfare. Chapter 8 discusses what the doctrine of the Holy Spirit teaches us about how we are to live. My book New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ My iTunes Channel - Reclaiming the Faith The Faithful Podcast - https://faithfulpodcast.podbean.com My website – https://philsbaker.com Contact me – emailphilsbaker@gmail.com Justen Faull’s 4thWatch Radio Network BDK’s Omega Frequency The CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers

This is part two of my interview with Dr. Michael Bennet, aka Dr. Future. In this episode, Dr. Future takes us back in time as we look at some unfortunate aspects of Church history. This is sure to be a challenging listen, so we definitely want to encourage you to hold nothing but Jesus above critique. A major storm hit my neck of the woods during the last couple of minutes of the interview, so I want to apologize for the minor technical difficulties that can be heard in that section. Dr. Future was host of the tremendously influential FutureQuake radio show, and is the author of both The Two Spies Report blog and the soon-to-be-published Holy War Chronicles: A Spiritual View of the War on Terror. Two Spies Report https://twospiesreport.wordpress.com/ FutureQuakehttp://futurequake.com Faithful Podcast http://faithfulpodcast.podbean.com My iTunes Channel - Reclaiming the Faith My GoFundMe Campaign My book New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ My website – reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com Contact me – emailphilsbaker@gmail.com Justen Faull’s 4thWatch Radio Network BDK’s Omega Frequency The CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers

It was my honor to interview Dr. Michael Bennet, aka Dr. Future. He was host of the tremendously influential FutureQuake radio show, and is the author of both The Two Spies Report blog and the soon-to-be-published Holy War Chronicles: A Spiritual View of the War on Terror. This two-part interview will give you a transparent view into the life of Dr. Future, and will challenge you to hold nothing but Jesus above critique.  Two Spies Report https://twospiesreport.wordpress.com/ FutureQuakehttp://futurequake.com Faithful Podcast http://faithfulpodcast.podbean.com My iTunes Channel - Reclaiming the Faith My GoFundMeCampaign My book New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ My website – reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com Contact me – emailphilsbaker@gmail.com Justen Faull’s 4thWatch Radio Network BDK’s Omega Frequency The CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers

In Episode 36 we come to the conclusion of my interview with Dan Enright on Jesus Unveiled in the Gospels. This week, we demonstrate how the Gospel of John, like the previous three, clearly teaches that Jesus is God. This interview will not only strengthen your faith, but will also serve as a tremendous evangelistic tool in spreading the Gospel.   Faithful Podcast http://faithfulpodcast.podbean.com My iTunes Channel - Reclaiming the Faith My GoFundMeCampaign My book New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ  My website – reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com Contact me – emailphilsbaker@gmail.com Justen Faull’s 4thWatch Radio Network BDK’s Omega Frequency  The CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers

Episode 35 finds us in Part 3 of my interview with Dan Enright on Jesus Unveiled in the Gospels. This week, we demonstrate how the Gospel of Luke clearly teaches that Jesus is God. This interview will not only strengthen your faith, but will also serve as a tremendous evangelistic tool in spreading the Gospel.   Faithful Podcast http://faithfulpodcast.podbean.com My iTunes Channel - Reclaiming the Faith My GoFundMeCampaign My book New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ My website – reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com Contact me – emailphilsbaker@gmail.com Justen Faull’s 4thWatch Radio Network  BDK’s Omega Frequency The CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers

In episode 34, my good friend, Dan Enright, is back for part 2 of our series Jesus Unveiled in the Gospels. This week we demonstrate how the Gospel of Mark clearly teaches that Jesus is God. This interview will not only strengthen your faith, but will also serve as a tremendous evangelistic tool in spreading the Gospel.   Faithful Podcast http://faithfulpodcast.podbean.com My iTunes Channel - Reclaiming the Faith My GoFundMeCampaign My book New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ My website – reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com Contact me – emailphilsbaker@gmail.com Justen Faull’s 4thWatch Radio Network BDK’s Omega Frequency The CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers

Have you ever been told that the Gospels don’t teach that Jesus is God? In episode 33, I begin a four-part interview with returning guest, Dan Enright, where we demonstrate how all four Gospel writers clearly teach that Jesus is God. This interview will not only strengthen your faith, but will also serve as a tremendous evangelistic tool in spreading the Gospel. My iTunes Channel - Reclaiming the Faith My GoFundMeCampaign My book New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ My website – reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com Contact me – emailphilsbaker@gmail.com Justen Faull’s 4thWatch Radio Network BDK’s Omega Frequency The CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers

In Amos chapter 7, God gives the prophet Amos a vision of a plumb line, which He will use to judge Israel and Judah. What connection is there between the plumb line of Amos 5-7 and the standard by which God will judge the world at the return of Jesus? Find out in episode 32. My iTunes Channel - Reclaiming the Faith My GoFundMeCampaign My book New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ My website – reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com Contact me – emailphilsbaker@gmail.com Justen Faull’s 4thWatch Radio Network BDK’s Omega Frequency The CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers  

Unfortunately, it is quite common for many of us to see God the Father through the lens of our relationship with our earthly fathers. In this audio version of Chapter 7 of my book, New Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ, I demonstrate how the Scriptures call us to see God the Father through the lens of His Son, Jesus Christ, and how doing so has been transformational in my faith journey. My iTunes Channel - Reclaiming the Faith My GoFundMe Campaign My book New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ My website – reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com Contact me – emailphilsbaker@gmail.com Justen Faull’s 4thWatch Radio Network BDK’s Omega Frequency The CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers

Frequently said in churches throughout the United States are prayers giving thanks to God for a safe place to worship. But when was worship ever designed to be safe? Today we will be looking at the subject of worship and the correlating action of sacrifice demonstrated in the Scriptures. There is a cost to worshipping the Father in Spirit and in truth, and sacrifice is never comfortable. My GoFundMe Campaign My book New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ My iTunes Channel - Reclaiming the Faith My website – reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com Contact me – emailphilsbaker@gmail.com  Justen Faull’s 4thWatch Radio Network BDK’s Omega Frequency The CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers  

Proverbs 18:13 says, “He who gives an answer before he hears, it is folly and shame to him.” Particularly with episode 29, I want to encourage you to put this verse into practice. Today we will be looking at the subject of Biblical giving. How does the Bible define tithing? Did the early Christians teach tithing? What does giving God’s way actually look like? All these questions and more will be covered in this episode. My GoFundMeCampaign My book New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ My iTunes Channel - Reclaiming the Faith My website – reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com Contact me – emailphilsbaker@gmail.com Justen Faull’s 4thWatch Radio Network BDK’s Omega Frequency The CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers

In Episode 27, we will discuss the amazing subject of grace. Just like the love of God can be both over-emphasized and under-emphasized, so too the grace of God is often both over and under-simplified. Today, I will be discussing the various ways the Koine Greek word charis (grace) is used in Scripture, and highlight a few ways the early Christians used charis in their writings. By way of housekeeping, at the end of every episode of RTF, I include an original song. I pray those have been a blessing to you. A few months ago I began recording a 7 song EP of original songs I’ve written over the last 5 years. This can be quite a costly endeavor, so to help cover the cost of production, I’ve created a GoFundMe Campaign. For those who contribute $20, you will receive a hard copy of the 7 song EP, plus a demo CD of acoustic versions of 5 additional songs. For those who contribute $30 or more, in addition to the EP and demo, I will include a copy of my book, New Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ.  If you’re blessed by this episode, I’d really appreciate it if you’d leave an honest review on my iTunes channel, Reclaiming the Faith. Also, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at my website, reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com. Or email me at emailphilsbaker@gmail.com. My book New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christcan be found on Amazon, and if it’s a blessing to you, please leave an honest review there. I’m blessed to be a part of Justen Faull’s 4thWatch Radio Networkalong with BDK of Omega Frequency, who I do a monthly Q&A show with called Ready with an answer. You can contact BDK and at Omegafrequency.com, and you can send in questions for that Q&A show there. In addition to our own channels, you can find each of our podcasts at fouthwatchradio.com or on the 4thwatch radio podcast. Finally, the early Christian quotes I use can be found on the CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. You can purchase your copy for $5 on the Scroll Publishing website.

This week we’re wrapping up my 4-part interview with Dan Enright about how Christians evangelized in the first century. In Episode 26, we discover how the early Christians used the Prophets, and particularly the book of Isaiah, to demonstrate the truth that Jesus is the Christ, the prophesied Messiah. Dan is a professor at The Bible Seminaryin Houston, TX, and is also the Community Groups Pastor at my church. This is an inspirational and educational interview that you don’t want to miss! If you’re blessed by this episode, I’d really appreciate it if you’d leave an honest review on my iTunes channel, Reclaiming the Faith. Also, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at my website, reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com. Or email me at emailphilsbaker@gmail.com. In 2016 I wrote a book called New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ. You can find this book on Amazon, and if it’s a blessing to you, please leave an honest review there. My GoFundMe Campaign. I’m blessed to be a part of Justen Faull’s 4thWatch Radio Networkalong with BDK of Omega Frequency, who I do a monthly Q&A show with called Ready with an answer. You can contact BDK and at Omegafrequency.com, and you can send in questions for that Q&A show there. In addition to our own channels, you can find each of our podcasts at fouthwatchradio.com or on the 4thwatch radio podcast. Finally, the early Christian quotes I use can be found on the CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. You can purchase your copy for $5 on the Scroll Publishing website.

This week we’re diving into part 3 of my 4-part interview with Dan Enright about how Christians evangelized in the first century. In Episode 25, we discover how the early Christians used the Psalms to reason to demonstrate the truth that Jesus is the Christ, the prophesied Messiah. Dan is a professor at The Bible Seminary in Houston, TX, and is also the Community Groups Pastor at my church. This is an inspirational and educational interview that you don’t want to miss!  If you’re blessed by this episode, I’d really appreciate it if you’d leave an honest review on my iTunes channel, Reclaiming the Faith. Also, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at my website, reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com. Or email me at emailphilsbaker@gmail.com. In 2016 I wrote a book called New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ. You can find this book on Amazon, and if it’s a blessing to you, please leave an honest review there.  I’m blessed to be a part of Justen Faull’s 4thWatch Radio Networkalong with BDK of Omega Frequency, who I do a monthly Q&A show with called Ready with an answer. You can contact BDK and at Omegafrequency.com, and you can send in questions for that Q&A show there. In addition to our own channels, you can find each of our podcasts at fouthwatchradio.com or on the 4thwatch radio podcast. Finally, the early Christian quotes I use can be found on the CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. You can purchase your copy for $5 on the Scroll Publishing website.

This week we’re diving into part 2 of my 4-part interview with Dan Enright about how Christians evangelized in the first century. In Episode 24, we go back to the beginning to demonstrate how we see Christ in Genesis through Deuteronomy, which is referred to as the Torah or Pentateuch. Dan is a professor at The Bible Seminaryin Houston, TX, and is also the Community Groups Pastor at my church. This is an inspirational and educational interview that you don’t want to miss! If you’re blessed by this episode, I’d really appreciate it if you’d leave an honest review on my iTunes channel, Reclaiming the Faith. Also, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at my website, reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com. Or email me at emailphilsbaker@gmail.com. In 2016 I wrote a book called New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ. You can find this book on Amazon, and if it’s a blessing to you, please leave an honest review there. I’m blessed to be a part of Justen Faull’s 4thWatch Radio Networkalong with BDK of Omega Frequency, who I do a monthly Q&A show with called Ready with an answer. You can contact BDK and at Omegafrequency.com, and you can send in questions for that Q&A show there. In addition to our own channels, you can find each of our podcasts at fouthwatchradio.com or on the 4thwatch radio podcast. Finally, the early Christian quotes I use can be found on the CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. You can purchase your copy for $5 on the Scroll Publishing website.

I recently had the honor to conduct a 4-part interview with Dan Enright about how Christians evangelized in the first century, with episode 23 being part one of this eye-opening series. Dan is a professor at The Bible Seminaryin Houston, TX, and is also the Community Groups Pastor at my church. This is an inspirational and educational interview that you don’t want to miss! If you’re blessed by this episode, I’d really appreciate it if you’d leave an honest review on my iTunes channel, Reclaiming the Faith. Also, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at my website, reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com. Or email me at emailphilsbaker@gmail.com. In 2016 I wrote a book called New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ. You can find this book on Amazon, and if it’s a blessing to you, please leave an honest review there. I’m blessed to be a part of Justen Faull’s 4thWatch Radio Networkalong with BDK of Omega Frequency, who I do a monthly Q&A show with called Ready with an answer. You can contact BDK and at Omegafrequency.com, and you can send in questions for that Q&A show there. In addition to our own channels, you can find each of our podcasts at fouthwatchradio.com or on the 4thwatch radio podcast. Finally, the early Christian quotes I use can be found on the CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. You can purchase your copy for $5 on the Scroll Publishing website.

In Episode 22, A Call to Arms, I’ll be discussing how Christians, who are called priests of God in 1 Peter 2, are commanded to fight according to 1 Peter 4. This message will undoubtedly challenge many American traditions, so I want to ask you to prayerfully value the words of God above all other words you’ve ever heard. I want to be clear that this is not an anti-gun message, but rather, it is a call to be a Pro-Life priest of the kingdom of God.   If you’re blessed by this episode, I’d really appreciate it if you’d leave an honest review on my iTunes channel, Reclaiming the Faith. Also, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at my website, reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com. Or email me at emailphilsbaker@gmail.com. In 2016 I wrote a book called New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ. You can find this book on Amazon, and if it’s a blessing to you, please leave an honest review there. I’m blessed to be a part of Justen Faull’s 4thWatch Radio Networkalong with BDK of Omega Frequency, who I do a monthly Q&A show with called Ready with an answer. You can contact BDK and at Omegafrequency.com, and you can send in questions for that Q&A show there. In addition to our own channels, you can find each of our podcasts at fouthwatchradio.com or on the 4thwatch radio podcast. Finally, the early Christian quotes I use can be found on the CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. You can purchase your copy for $5 on the Scroll Publishing website.

In Episode 21 I’ll be covering the Great Deception that the Apostle Paul says God is going to bring upon certain people in the last days. We will not only look at who those people are, but we will also cover several current distortions to the Gospel that are deceiving the Church today. And finally, I’ll address a simple, yet challenging step you can begin to take today that will help you feel secure when God’s great deception finally comes upon the world.  If you’re blessed by this episode, I’d really appreciate it if you’d leave an honest review on my iTunes channel, Reclaiming the Faith. Also, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at my website, reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com. Or email me at emailphilsbaker@gmail.com. In 2016 I wrote a book called New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ. You can find this book on Amazon, and if it’s a blessing to you, please leave an honest review there. I’m blessed to be a part of Justen Faull’s 4thWatch Radio Networkalong with BDK of Omega Frequency, who I do a monthly Q&A show with called Ready with an answer. You can contact BDK and at Omegafrequency.com, and you can send in questions for that Q&A show there. In addition to our own channels, you can find each of our podcasts at fouthwatchradio.com or on the 4thwatch radio podcast.  Finally, the early Christian quotes I use can be found on the CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. You can purchase your copy for $5 on the Scroll Publishing website.

In Episode 20 I’m going to be getting back into my book, New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ. As with chapters 1-4, I’ll be giving you an audio version of Chapter 5, which is called Judas & Jesus. And here in chapter 5, I discuss how if it was prophesied that Judas would betray Jesus, did he really have a shot at having faith in Jesus and receiving eternal life? If not, what does that say about God, who supposedly so loves the world? You will discover that the early Christians’ view on the issues of God’s sovereignty and mankind’s free will are neither Calvinistic nor Arminian, yet they are absolutely biblical. You can find this book on Amazon, and if it’s a blessing to you, please leave an honest review there. Similarly, if you’re blessed by this episode, I’d really appreciate it if you’d leave an honest review on my iTunes channel, Reclaiming the Faith. Also, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at my website, reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com. Or email me at emailphilsbaker@gmail.com. I’m blessed to be a part of Justen Faull’s 4thWatch Radio Networkalong with BDK of Omega Frequency, who I do a monthly Q&A show with called Ready with an answer. In addition to our own channels, you can find each of our podcasts at http://www.fourthwatchradio.comor on the 4thwatch radio podcast. Finally, the early Christian quotes I use can be found on the CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. You can purchase your copy for $5 on the Scroll Publishing website. Chapter 5 Bibliography This is a modified version of an illustration given by David Bercot in “What the Early Christians Believed About Predestination and Free Will,” Scroll Publishing, accessed May 25, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXbXadet10k. Ignatius, cited in Maxwell Staniforth, Early Christian Writings (New York: Dorset Press, 1986), p. 103. Irenaeus, cited in David Bercot, ed., A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1998), p. 629. Clement of Alexandria, Ibid., p. 629. Origen, Ibid., p. 631. Cyprian, Ibid., p. 631. Ignatius, Ibid., p. 295. Justin Martyr, Ibid., p. 285. Irenaeus, Ibid., p. 286. Hippolytus, Ibid., p. 288. Origen, Ibid., p. 290. Methodius, Ibid., p. 292. Perhaps the best example of a non-Christian being able to perform good works by God’s grace is found in the story of Cornelius in Acts 10, particularly in verses 1-4 where unregenerate Cornelius is told by an angel from God that his prayers and gifts to the poor have ascended as a memorial before God. These good deeds were clearly pleasing to God, yet Cornelius’s righteous acts could not save him. Randy L. Maddox, Responsible Grace: John Wesley’s Practical Theology (Nashville, TN: Kingswood Books, 1994), p. 74. Maddox describes the Eastern view of the effects of the Fall: “The true significance of the Fall was our loss of the Spirit’s immediate Presence, resulting in the introduction of mortality into human life. This mortality weakened our human faculties and effaced our moral Likeness of God. Thus, the Fall did render us prone to sin, but not incapable of co-operating with God’s offer of healing. As a result, we only become guilty when we reject the offered grace of God, like Adam and Eve did.” Bible Hub, δουλεύοντες, accessed March 2, 2015, http://biblehub.com/greek/douleuontes_1398.htm. Bible Hub, douleuó, accessed March 2, 2015, http://biblehub.com/greek/1398.htm. David Bercot, “What the Early Christians Believed About Imputed Righteousness,” Scroll Publishing, accessed May 25, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58p0iLmUrDE. To see what I believe is Paul’s own testimony of this processes taking place in his life as a child, read Romans 7:7-12. C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (New York: Collier Books, 1970). Bercot, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs, p. 295. Origen, cited in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 2, 756-757 [CD ROM (Henderson, TX: Scroll Publishing). The Epistle of Barnabas, cited in Staniforth, Early Christian Writings, p. 220.

In Episode 19 I discuss recent reports that Pope Francis denied the existence of hell, and how the media has tried to spin his remarks. I also examine the doctrine of hell from a New Testament perspective, and highlight what the early Christians believed about it.   https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2018/03/there-is-no-hell-new-francis-revelation.html https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/michael-w-chapman/pope-francis-there-no-hell https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2018-03/pope-francis-article-repubblica-press-release.html https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/michael-w-chapman/cardinal-burke-popes-no-hell-comments-beyond-tolerable-profound-scandal https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/pope-to-teen-girl-proselytism-is-the-strongest-poison-against-the-ecumenica http://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2014/in-latest-interview-pope-francis-reveals-top-10-secrets-to-happiness.cfm https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2013/05/29/187009384/Pope-Francis-Even-Atheists-Can-Be-Redeemed If you’re blessed by this episode, I’d really appreciate it if you’d leave an honest review on my iTunes channel, Reclaiming the Faith. Also, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at my website, reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com. Or email me at emailphilsbaker@gmail.com. In 2016 I wrote a book called New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ. You can find this book on Amazon, and if it’s a blessing to you, please leave an honest review there. I’m blessed to be a part of Justen Faull’s 4thWatch Radio Networkalong with BDK of Omega Frequency, who I do a monthly Q&A show with called Ready with an answer. You can contact BDK and at Omegafrequency.com, and you can send in questions for that Q&A show there. In addition to our own channels, you can find each of our podcasts at the 4thwatch radio website (fourthwatchradio.com) or on the 4thwatch radio podcast. Finally, the early Christian quotes I use can be found on the CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. You can purchase your copy for $5 on the Scroll Publishing website.

Episode 18 is the fourth and final installment of my series on genuine, historic revivals, where I interview my podcasting partner, BDK, of Omega Frequency. In part 4, we ask the question: If a revival happens amongst a body of believers, how does it maintain itself? Also, what are a few things that can quench revival? These are the books BDK cites: The Ten Greatest Revivals Ever – by Elmer L. Towns Handbook of Revivals – by Henry Clay Fish The Great Revival in Wales – by SB Shaw If you’re blessed by this episode, I’d really appreciate it if you’d leave an honest review on my iTunes channel, Reclaiming the Faith. Also, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at my website, reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com. Or email me at emailphilsbaker@gmail.com. In 2016 I wrote a book called New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ. You can find this book on Amazon, and if it’s a blessing to you, please leave an honest review there. I’m blessed to be a part of Justen Faull’s 4th Watch Radio Network along with BDK of Omega Frequency, who I do a monthly Q&A show with called Ready with an answer. You can contact BDK and at Omegafrequency.com, and you can send in questions for that Q&A show there. In addition to our own channels, you can find each of our podcasts at the 4th watch radio website or on the 4th watch radio podcast. Finally, the early Christian quotes I use can be found on the CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. You can purchase your copy for $5 on the Scroll Publishing website.

Episode 17 is the third installment of my four-part series on genuine, historic revivals, where I interview my podcasting partner, BDK, of Omega Frequency. In part three, we discuss various hallmarks of true, biblical revival. This is an awesome episode that you may want to listen to a few times to make sure you really soak up all that is discussed. These are the books BDK cites: The Ten Greatest Revivals Ever – by Elmer L. Towns Handbook of Revivals – by Henry Clay Fish The Great Revival in Wales – by SB Shaw If you’re blessed by this episode, I’d really appreciate it if you’d leave an honest review on my iTunes channel, Reclaiming the Faith. Also, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at my website, reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com. Or email me at emailphilsbaker@gmail.com. In 2016 I wrote a book called New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ. You can find this book on Amazon, and if it’s a blessing to you, please leave an honest review there. I’m blessed to be a part of Justen Faull’s 4th Watch Radio Network along with BDK of Omega Frequency, who I do a monthly Q&A show with called Ready with an answer. You can contact BDK and at Omegafrequency.com, and you can send in questions for that Q&A show there. In addition to our own channels, you can find each of our podcasts at the 4th watch radio website or on the 4th watch radio podcast. Finally, the early Christian quotes I use can be found on the CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. You can purchase your copy for $5 on the Scroll Publishing website.

Episode 16 is the second installment of my eye-opening, four-part series on genuine, historic revivals with my podcasting partner, BDK, of Omega Frequency. In part two, we look at both Scripture and history to determine a few key things that precede revival. This is an awesome episode that you may want to listen to a few times to make sure you really soak up all that is discussed. These are the books BDK cites: The Ten Greatest Revivals Ever – by Elmer L. Towns Handbook of Revivals – by Henry Clay Fish The Great Revival in Wales – by SB Shaw If you’re blessed by this episode, I’d really appreciate it if you’d leave an honest review on my iTunes channel, Reclaiming the Faith. Also, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at my website, reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com. Or email me at emailphilsbaker@gmail.com. In 2016 I wrote a book called New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ. You can find this book on Amazon, and if it’s a blessing to you, please leave an honest review there. I’m blessed to be a part of Justen Faull’s 4th Watch Radio Network along with BDK of Omega Frequency, who I do a monthly Q&A show with called Ready with an answer. You can contact BDK and at Omegafrequency.com, and you can send in questions for that Q&A show there. In addition to our own channels, you can find each of our podcasts at the 4th watch radio website or on the 4th watch radio podcast. Finally, the early Christian quotes I use can be found on the CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. You can purchase your copy for $5 on the Scroll Publishing website.

Episode 15 is the first of an awesome, four-part series on genuine, historic revival with my podcasting partner, BDK, of Omega Frequency. In part one, we explore the question: What is Revival? The word ‘revival’ means so many different things to so many people, so we take the time to nail down what a genuine revival looks like from a historic perspective.  These are the books BDK cites: The Ten Greatest Revivals Ever – by Elmer L. Towns Handbook of Revivals – by Henry Clay Fish The Great Revival in Wales – by SB Shaw If you’re blessed by this episode, I’d really appreciate it if you’d leave an honest review on my iTunes channel, Reclaiming the Faith. Also, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at my website, reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com. Or email me at emailphilsbaker@gmail.com.  In 2016 I wrote a book called New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ. You can find this book on Amazon, and if it’s a blessing to you, please leave an honest review there. I’m blessed to be a part of Justen Faull’s 4th Watch Radio Network along with BDK of Omega Frequency, who I do a monthly Q&A show with called Ready with an answer. You can contact BDK and at Omegafrequency.com, and you can send in questions for that Q&A show there. In addition to our own channels, you can find each of our podcasts at the 4th watch radio website or on the 4th watch radio podcast.   Finally, the early Christian quotes I use can be found on the CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. You can purchase your copy for $5 on the Scroll Publishing website.

In Episode 14 I’m blessed to be joined by Chad Meadows to have a conversation about worship. Chad is a worship leader, song writer, and the creator of Falling Forward. In conjunction with the issue of worship, we’ll discuss a new single Chad has written and video for that song called, I’ll Rise, which hits on powerful truths about the gospel and what a right response to the good news looks like. You can check out this song, video and more info about Falling Forward at fallingforwardmusic.com If you’re blessed by this episode, I’d really appreciate it if you’d leave an honest review on my iTunes channel, Reclaiming the Faith. Also, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at my website, reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com. Or email me at emailphilsbaker@gmail.com. In 2016 I wrote a book called New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ. You can find this book on Amazon, and if it’s a blessing to you, please leave an honest review there. I’m blessed to be a part of Justen Faull’s 4th Watch Radio Network along with BDK of Omega Frequency, who I do a monthly Q&A show with called Ready with an answer. In addition to our own channels, you can find each of our podcasts at the 4th watch radio website or on the 4th watch radio podcast. Finally, the early Christian quotes I use can be found on the CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. You can purchase your copy for $5 on the Scroll Publishing website.

In Episode 13 I’m diving back into my book, New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ. This is an audio version of Chapter 4, which is called Hyperbolic Jesus. In the previous chapter, I began to discuss how the earliest Christians took Jesus’ words very simply and seriously, even when it came to loving their enemies. Now in chapter 4, I continue to examine that approach to reading the Bible, specifically as it pertains to Jesus’ command to cut off our hands and pluck out our eyes if they cause us to sin. You can find this book on Amazon, and if it’s a blessing to you, please leave an honest review there. Similarly, if you’re blessed by this episode, I’d really appreciate it if you’d leave an honest review on my iTunes channel, Reclaiming the Faith. Also, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at my website, reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com. Or email me at emailphilsbaker@gmail.com. I’m blessed to be a part of Justen Faull’s 4th Watch Radio Network along with BDK of Omega Frequency, who I do a monthly Q&A show with called Ready with an answer. In addition to our own channels, you can find each of our podcasts at the 4th watch radio website or on the 4th watch radio podcast. Finally, the early Christian quotes I use can be found on the CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. You can purchase your copy for $5 on the Scroll Publishing website.

In Episode 12 I’m going to be discussing what the Apostle Peter meant in chapter 2:12 of his first letter when he commanded us to keep our behavior excellent among the gentiles. I’ll also be hitting on the influence Jesus had on Peter making that statement, and shedding some light on the way the early Christians behaved in the world. Much emphasis is given on being attractional in today’s Western Church, but what would attractional Christianity look like to Peter? If you’re blessed by this episode, I’d really appreciate it if you’d leave an honest review on my iTunes channel, Reclaiming the Faith. Also, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at my website, reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com. Or email me at emailphilsbaker@gmail.com. I’m blessed to be a part of Justen Faull’s 4th Watch Radio Network along with BDK of Omega Frequency, who I do a monthly Q&A show with called Ready with an answer. In addition to our own channels, you can find each of our podcasts at the 4th watch radio website or on the 4th watch radio podcast. Finally, the early Christian quotes I use can be found on the CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. You can purchase your copy for $5 on the Scroll Publishing website.  

Episode 11 is a special episode, where I’m give the listener an audio version of chapter three of my book, New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ. The title of this chapter is: John Wayne and Jesus, where I examine the way our various traditions and preferences that filter our view of Jesus and His teachings affect the way we approach Jesus’ command to love our enemies. I also discuss how using the game of Telephone backwards can help us determine what the orthodox position of the Church actually was concerning this command of our Christ. If you’re blessed by this episode, I’d really appreciate it if you’d leave an honest review on my iTunes channel, Reclaiming the Faith. Also, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at my website, reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com. Or email me at emailphilsbaker@gmail.com. I’m blessed to be a part of Justen Faull’s 4th Watch Radio Network along with BDK of Omega Frequency, who I do a monthly Q&A show with called Ready with an answer. In addition to our own channels, you can find each of our podcasts at the 4th watch radio website or on the 4th watch radio podcast. Finally, the early Christian quotes I use can be found on the CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. You can purchase your copy for $5 on the Scroll Publishing website.

In Episode 10, I’m going to be discussing the vital need for Christians to believe in the power of regeneration. It’s one thing to say we’re born again, but what does that mean for us in a practical day-to-day sense. I’ll also touch on the subject of homosexuality and Jesus’ interaction with a disabled man in John 5.  If you’re blessed by this episode, I’d really appreciate it if you’d leave an honest review on my iTunes channel, Reclaiming the Faith. Also, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at my website, reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com. Or email me at emailphilsbaker@gmail.com.  I’m blessed to be a part of Justen Faull’s 4th Watch Radio Network along with BDK of Omega Frequency, who I do a monthly Q&A show with called Ready with an answer. In addition to our own channels, you can find each of our podcasts at the 4th watch radio website or on the 4th watch radio podcast.  In 2016 I wrote a book called, New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ. If you’d like to get a copy, you can purchase it on Amazon, and again, if it’s a blessing to you, please leave me an honest review there. Finally, the early Christian quotes I use can be found on the CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. You can purchase your copy for $5 on the Scroll Publishing website.   http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2016/06/10/gay-christian-rock-star-accepts-that-coming-out-as-gay-after-20-years-might-damage-his-career/ http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2014/08/14/christian-rock-star-vicky-beeching-comes-out-as-gay-god-loves-me-just-the-way-i-am/  

In Episode 9, I’m joined by one of my best friends, Adam Hawks, to have a discussion about evangelism, discipleship, and our calling to imitate Jesus Christ. Adam is currently the Student minister at Sugar Land First United Methodist Church and has a Masters in Youth Ministry from Asbury Theological Seminary.  If you’re blessed by this episode, I’d really appreciate it if you’d leave an honest review on my iTunes channel, Reclaiming the Faith. Also, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at my website, reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com. Or email me at emailphilsbaker@gmail.com. I’m blessed to be a part of Justen Faull’s 4th Watch Radio Network along with BDK of Omega Frequency, who I do a monthly Q&A show with called Ready with an answer. In addition to our own channels, you can find each of our podcasts at the 4th watch radio website or on the 4th watch radio podcast. In 2016 I wrote a book called, New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ. If you’d like to get a copy, you can purchase it on Amazon, and again, if it’s a blessing to you, please leave me an honest review there. Finally, the early Christian quotes I use can be found on the CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. You can purchase your copy for $5 on the Scroll Publishing website.

Episode 8 is a special episode, where I give the listener an audio version of chapter two of my book, New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ. The title of this chapter is: Sepia Jesus because I believe that every Christian comes to faith in Jesus with various traditions and preferences that filter his or her view of Jesus and His teachings. Jesus, however, calls us to make Him the lens by which we view everything else. If you’re blessed by this episode, I’d really appreciate it if you’d leave an honest review on my iTunes channel, Reclaiming the Faith. Also, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at my website, reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com. Or email me at emailphilsbaker@gmail.com. I’m blessed to be a part of Justen Faull’s 4th Watch Radio Network along with BDK of Omega Frequency, who I do a monthly Q&A show with called Ready with an answer. In addition to our own channels, you can find each of our podcasts at the 4th watch radio website or on the 4th watch radio podcast. Finally, the early Christian quotes I use can be found on the CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. You can purchase your copy for $5 on the Scroll Publishing website.

In Episode 7, I’m going to be discussing a heartbreaking, fate-based, false dilemma that I believe musician Derek Webb is currently walking through. Many of you will recognize Derek from his outstanding solo albums, as well as the many years he spent as a cofounder of the Christian band, Caedmon’s Call. If you’re blessed by this episode, I’d really appreciate it if you’d leave an honest review on my iTunes channel, Reclaiming the Faith. Also, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at my website, reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com. Or email me at emailphilsbaker@gmail.com.  I’m blessed to be a part of Justen Faull’s 4th Watch Radio Network along with BDK of Omega Frequency, who I do a monthly Q&A show with called Ready with an answer. In addition to our own channels, you can find each of our podcasts at the 4th watch radio website or on the 4th watch radio podcast. In 2016 I wrote a book called, New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ. If you’d like to get a copy, you can purchase it on Amazon, and again, if it’s a blessing to you, please leave me an honest review there. Finally, the early Christian quotes I use can be found on the CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. You can purchase your copy for $5 on the Scroll Publishing website.

In Episode 6, I’m going to be joined by my beautiful wife, Stephanie Baker, to have a discussion about adoption. Three years ago, Stephanie and I adopted two siblings that were ages 10 and 5 at the time. Stephanie is the author of the blog, Adopting His Heart, which you can find at adoptinghisheart.blogspot.com. Generally, the early Christian quotes I use can be found on the CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. You can purchase your copy for $5 on the Scroll Publishing website. If you’re blessed by this episode, I’d really appreciate it if you’d leave an honest review on my iTunes channel, Reclaiming the Faith. Also, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at my website, reclaimingthefaith.podbean.com. Or email me at emailphilsbaker@gmail.com.  I’m blessed to be a part of Justen Faull’s 4th Watch Radio Network along with BDK of Omega Frequency, who I do a monthly Q&A show with called Ready with an answer. In addition to our own channels, you can find each of our podcasts at the 4th watch radio website or on the 4th watch radio podcast. Finally, in 2016 I wrote a book called, New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ. If you’d like to get a copy, you can purchase it on Amazon, and again, if it’s a blessing to you, please leave me an honest review there.

1 Clement, chapters 1-11. This is a reading of the American edition of the Edinburgh edition of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, 1867, and is not bound by any copyright. This recording is property of Pressing On Podcast, and may not be used or distributed, in part or in whole, without express written consent by Pressing On Podcast.

In this episode Jason addresses the egregious errors in the publication entitled “Should you believe in the Trinity”. He goes into what the Ante-Nicene Fathers believed about the doctrine of

Saturday 4/16/16 1pm ET/12pm CNTL/11am MTN/10am Pac Call in and listen, share comments or ask questions at 1-347-934-0379 or online at: http://tobtr/8652279 You can also listen via Six Screens telenetwork dial in via your telephone (712)432-8710 When prompted dial 9925. also see us in the video suite live at: http://www.sixscreensofthewatchtower.com/telenetwork/telenetwork-directions.php Former 3rd generation Jehovah's Witness Agustin "Gus" Astacio discusses with callers and shares his insights on the Jehovah's Witnesses reasons and rhymes of inventing a 2nd century apostasy and why it fails what history reveals. Who are the early church leaders known as the Apostolic or Ante-Nicene Fathers? Why are they important to the formation of the bible? What were their beliefs about Who God is and Who Jesus? Are they an authority on early Christian teachings or apostates of early Christianity? Read their writings here: http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/churchfathers.html  Agustin's note on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/notes/agustin-astacio/the-watchtower-society-references-to-the-apostolic-fathers-as-christians-notewor/10151048039980678       

This episode is a bit different from our usual fare in that it's devoted to the subject of art in Church History. It's in no way intended to be a comprehensive review of religious art. We'll take just a cursory look at the development of art in the early centuries.Much has been written about the philosophy of art. And as anyone who's taken an art history course in college knows, much debate has ensued over what defines art. It's not our aim here to enter that fray, but instead of step back and simply chart the development of artistic expression in the First Centuries.It's to be expected the followers of Jesus would get around to using art as an expression of their faith quickly in Church History. Man is, after all, an emotional being and art is often the product of that emotion. People who would convert from headlong hedonism to an austere asceticism didn't usually do so simply based on cold intellectualism. Strong emotions were involved. Those emotions often found their output in artistic expression.Thus, we have Christian art. Emotions & the imagination are as much in need of redemption and capable of sanctification, as the reason and will. We'd better hope so, at least, or we're all doomed to a grotesquely lopsided spiritual life. How sad it would be if the call to love God with all our heart, soul & mind didn't extend to our creative faculty and art.Indeed, the Christian believes the work of the Holy Spirit after her/his conversion, is to conform the believer into the very image of Christ. And since God is The Creator, it's reasonable to assume the Spirit would bend humanity's penchant for artifice to serve the glory of God and the enjoyment of man.Scripture even says we are to worship God “in the beauty of holiness.” A review of the instructions for the making of the tabernacle make it clear God's intention was that it be a thing of astounding beauty. And looked at from what we'd call a classical perspective, nearly all art aims to simply duplicate the beauty God as First Artist made when He spoke and the universe leapt into existence.Historians tend to divide Early Church History into two large blocks using The First Council of Nicaea in 325 as the dividing line. The Ante-Nicaean Era runs from the time of the Apostles, the Apostolic Age, to Nicaea. Then the Post-Nicaean Era runs from the Council to The Medieval Era. This was the time of the first what are called 7 Ecumenical Councils; the last of which, is conveniently called the 2nd Nicaean Council, held in 787. So the Ante-Nicaean Era lasted only a couple hundred yrs while the Post-Nicaean Age was 500.It would be nice if Art Historians would sync up their timelines to this plan, but they divide the history of Church Art differently. They refer to Pre-Constantinian Art, while From the 4th thru 7th Cs is called Early Christian Art.The beginnings of identifiable Christian art are located in the last decades of the 2nd C. Now, it's not difficult to imagine there'd been some artistic expression connected to believers before this; it's just that we have no enduring record of it. Why is easy to surmise. Christians were a persecuted group and apart from some notable exceptions, were for the most part comprised of the lower classes. Christians simply didn't want to draw attention to themselves on one hand, and on the other, there wasn't a source of patronage base for art in service of the Gospel.Another reason there wasn't much art imagery generated before the 2nd C is because early generations of believers were mostly Jewish with a long-standing prohibition of making graven images, lest they violate the Commandments against idolatry. By the mid 2nd C, the Church had shifted to a primarily Gentile body. Gentiles had little cultural opposition to the use of images. Indeed, their prior paganism encouraged it. They quickly learned they were not to make idols, but had no reluctance to use images a symbols and representations to communicate the Gospel and express their faith.The style of this early art is drawn from Roman motifs of the Late Classical style and is found in association with the burial of believers. While pagans generally practiced cremation, the followers of Jesus shifted to burial as an expression of their hope in the Resurrection. So outside Rome's walls near major roadways, numerous catacombs were excavated where Christians both met when the heat of persecution was up, and where their dead were interred. Some of the oldest of Christian imagery is a simple outline of a ship or an anchor scratched into the wall of a crypt. Both were symbols of the Church. The anchor is drawn from the NT Book of Hebrews which refers to the hope of the believer as an anchor or the soul. The ship was an apt picture for the Church. A vessel which is IN the Sea, but mustn't have the sea in it, just as the Church is to be in the World, but the World is not to be in the Church. Another symbol used to make the resting place of Christians was the ubiquitous fish. As burial in the catacombs became de rigeur , families carved out entire rooms for the burial of their members. Bodies were placed in marble sarcophagi which over time were decorated with religious imagery; symbols and scenes drawn from Scripture.Missing from the art crafted by Christians at this time are the scenes that will later become common. There're few Nativity motifs, fewer crosses, and nothing depicting the resurrection. That's not to say Christians in this early era didn't regard the cross & resurrection as central to their faith. The writings of Ante-Nicene Fathers make it clear they did. It's just that they hadn't made their way into artistic expression yet. Rather than pointing DIRECTLY at Christ's crucifixion & resurrection, artists instead used OT stories that foreshadowed the Gospel. Images of Abraham sacrificing Isaac, Jonah & the fish, Daniel in the lion's den, Shadrach, Meshach, & Abed-Nego in the fiery furnace, as well as Moses striking the rock are all depicted in frescoes and tomb paintings.The few images of Jesus from the Pre-Constantinian art we see him presented as The Good Shepherd, surrounded either by figures who likely represent the apostles, and symbols from nature, like peacocks, vines, doves and so on.Nothing happened in the way of distinctly Christian architecture until Constantine for obvious reasons. Christians simply could not build their own places. When you're trying to avoid attention due to persecution, engaging a construction project's just not wise. But once The Faith was removed from the banned list, and the Rulers of Rome showed the emergent Faith favor, Christians began to shape their meeting places in a manner that maximized their utility, while also adorning them with imagery identifying them as dedicated to The Gospel. The discreet and out of the way places they'd met in before no longer served as suitable meeting places for the rapidly growing movement.After Christianity was allowed to own property, it raised local churches across the Roman empire. There may have been more of this kind of building in the 4th C than there has been since, excepting during the 19th C in the United States. Constantine and his mother Helena led the way. The Emperor adorned not only his new city of Constantinople, but also embarked on a campaign to secure the assumed holy Places in the Middle East. Basilicas Churches were erected using funds from his personal account, as well as State funds. His successors, with the exception of Julian, called The Apostate, as well as bishops and wealthy laymen, vied with each other in building, beautifying, and enriching churches. The Faith that had not long before been a cause of great persecution, became a game to compete in; as the wealthy hoped to earn a higher place in heaven by the churches they raised. Churches became a venue for bragging rights. The Church Father Chrysostom lamented that the poor were being forgotten in favor of buildings, and recommended it wasn't altars, but souls, God wanted. Jerome rebuked those who trampled over the needy to build a house of stone.It might be assumed Christians would adopt the form for their buildings they were used to as pagans – a temple. Interestingly, they didn't! Most pagan temples were relatively small affairs intended to hold little more than the idol of the god or goddess they were dedicated to. When pagans worshipped, they did so outdoors, often in a courtyard next to the temple. It wasn't until the 7th C that believers began to re-purpose some of the larger now abandoned pagan temples for their own use. Even during Constantine's time, Christians began to use layout of the secular basilica, the formal hall where a king or ruler would hold court.The floor plan of one of these basilicas had a central rectangular hall, called a nave, with two side aisles. The main door was on one of the short sides of the nave, and on the opposite wall was the apse where a raised platform was built for the altar where the minister led the service.During the 4th C saw Rome saw over 40 lrg churches built. In the New Rome of Constantinople, the Church of the Apostles and the Church of St. Sophia, originally built by Constantine, towered in majestic beauty. In the 5th C both were dramatically enlarged by Justinian.As I said earlier, in the 7th C, the now abandoned pagan temples were turned over to Christians. Emperor Phocas gave the famous Pantheon to Roman's bishop Boniface IV.Anyone who's been on a tour of Israel ought to be familiar with the term “Byzantine.” Because a good many of the ruins Christian tourists visit are labeled as Byzantine in architecture and era. The Byzantine style originated in the 6th C. and in the East continues to this day. It's akin to the influence the French Classicism of Louis XIV had on Western architecture.The main feature of the Byzantine style is a dome spanning the center of a floorplan that is cruciform. Let me see if I can help you picture this. Imagine a classic cross laid on the earth. The long bean is the central nave with the cross piece are the transverse sides used as side chapels. Suspended over the intersection of main & cross beams is a dome, decorated with frescoes of Biblically rich imagery.Previous basilicas tended to be flat, blocky affairs; earthbound in their ponderance. The Byzantine basilica lifted the roof and drew the eye to that dome which seemed to pierce heaven itself. The eye was drawn upward. That idea will be perfected centuries later in the soaring ceilings and arches of Europe's Gothic cathedrals.The most perfect execution of the Byzantine style is found in the Hagia Sophia, the Church of Holy Wisdom in Istanbul. It was built by the Emperor Justinian in the 6th C on the plans of Anthemius & Isidore. It's 220' wide, 252' long; with a 180' diameter dome supported by four gigantic columns, rising 169' over the central altar. The dome is so constructed that the court biographer Procopius describes it as being suspended form heaven by golden chains.The cross, which today stands as the universal symbol for Christianity, wasn't used in artifice until at least the late 4th C. The historical record suggest Christians made the sign of the cross on their foreheads, over their eyes, mouths, & hearts as early as the 2nd C. But they didn't make permanent images of it till later. And then we find some church father urging Christians not to make magical talisman of them.Julian accused Christians of worshipping the cross. Chrysostom wrote, “The sign of universal detestation, the sign of extreme penalty, has become an object of desire and love. We see it everywhere; on houses, roofs, walls, in cities and villages, in markets, along roads, in deserts, on mountains & in valleys, on the sea, ships, books, weapons, garments, in honeymoon chambers, at banquets, on gold & silver vessels, engraved on pearls, in paintings, on beds, the bodies of sick animals, & the possessed, at dances of the merry, and in the brotherhoods of monks.”It isn't till the 5th C that we find the use of the crucifix; that is a cross that isn't bare. It now holds the figure of the impaled Christ.