1st Century AD

Funny, cos I checked the site and got a lot of garbage about tv interviews..............

Cheers,

Jim

 

The library on the campus of Southern Seminary has about 1 million works, all detailing the issues you seek in one form or another.

I suspect that you are trying to figure out if or where the "church" strayed from what it was that God wanted, and are looking to do some research to confirm whether or not this actually happened. That would be in line with a current line of reasoning picked up and pushed forward on unsuspecting people by places like the History Channel and Dan Brown's novels. What I can say with some assurance after reading somewhere over 3000 books on these and other subjects related is that both the HC and Dan Brown are WRONG.

If you are on another quest, forgive me, and we can talk further.

As to good works to read, I highly recommend Tom Schreiner's book on Paul:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0830828257/?tag=baptis04-20
He will clear up a lot of issues that you raise.

As for the non-canonical books, there are multiple web sites that host copies of those free for the reading. Beware that the non-canonical books are that way for a reason. It was not as some have said, that the church rejected alliterative versions of Christianity, but rather that the alternative versions of Christianity were not Christian at all.

Another good read about the influence of Greek writings in the early church is Ron Nash, The Gospel and the Greeks.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0875525598/?tag=baptis04-20

I knew Dr. Nash and he has some really good views that are well researched.

What of James and the Jerusalem Church of the 1st century? They drifted to a heretical stance and literally blew up, like many liberal churches still do today. The influence of the Judiazers and Pharisees won out until there was no church left. Earlier, God broke up the church in Jerusalem and sent the people packing all over the region, and while they were still orthodox, they carried the gospel all over Asia Minor. You can read about that in Acts and from some of the comments in Paul's epistles.

If you wish to read the actual writings of the earliest Fathers of the Church, you can find there on-line also. Here is a link to the Anti-Nicene Church Fathers series. Don't be thrown off by the title, it, like a lot of theological issues does not mean what it sounds like it means. It is just the Fathers of the church before Nicea.

http://www.ccel.org/fathers.html

I highly commend the study of the Church Fathers to all who are interested. From them, one will find almost every verse of the NT cited -- long before the entire NT was codified into a single canon we call The Bible. Also, one finds a great description of how those discipled by the original 11 and Paul saw the church, God, Jesus, and the continued actions of Christianity.

 

Coast to Coast AM has frequent programs on alternative history. see list of past programs on www.coasttocoastam.com

 

Some CtoC are nuts. But they were talking about Gulf War syndrome many years before your favorite government admitted it existed.

 

I would guess that you may have ran across a book called "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" or "The Jesus Papers" by Micahel Baigent. Both books were sort of the core material for Dan Brown's "DaVinci Code". Note that none of what was presented in either book had any basis in fact. Brown's novel was admittedly fictional, but he presented it as if it were fact. Virtually every line of text that Brown wrote concerning anything to do with the church was either an outright lie or (with a little grace) at best a distortion of actual history. Baigent was as bad or worse, and more, he believes that he has written factual works.

He has since been exposed as a fraud, and his work discredited. He used the old trick of citing a person who cited a person who cited a person, etc., but there was never a real source document for any of what he wrote.

I find that technique used often -- especially in areas that are now politically sensitive, global warming, population control, secular takes on religion, Dawkin's new book on Atheism, etc.

Kudos to you for wanting to dig into this subject to discern what really happened.

Start with just about any book featured on this Amazon page...

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1592761011/?tag=baptis04-20

 

If you want a very simple and easy read with regard to the early church and church fathers I would recommend the following:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0898708478/?tag=baptis04-20

I found it to be quite informative and enjoyable and written in such a way the author almost makes you feel as though you were there.

 

quantumfaith...

Thanks for the suggestion.

...Bob

 

But be forewarned, I believe, if my memory serves me correctly, the author is catholic, however, there is little if any in the way of commentary on Catholic doctrine. It is primarily a history book of early church fathers.

 

Caroline, try Eusebius' Church History as a starting point for answers to many of your questions.

 

Free link for Eusebius:
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.toc.html

Direct to the actual writing of Eusebius (skips the introductory material from the translator, etc.)
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iii.vi.i.html