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Could someone belong to Christ before Christ was born?
When we picture the beginning of Christianity, we naturally think of Jesus calling his disciples, teaching in Galilee, dying under Pontius Pilate, and rising from the dead. Those events stand at the center of the…
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Always Something Better Ahead
What should Christians expect when they die? We often answer that question by moving immediately to heaven, resurrection, or final judgment. Each belongs to the Christian hope, but moving too quickly can cause us to…
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One Faith Across the Ancient World
What did Christians understand the heart of their faith to be before the great councils of the fourth century? What should that shared faith mean for us now? That is not merely a historical question.…
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Something Divine Among Them: The Letter to Diognetus and the Life of the First Christians
The Epistle to Diognetus does not begin with a creed, a miracle story, a martyrdom account, or a formal list of Christian doctrines. It begins with the questions of an outsider. That beginning is important…
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Ambrose of Milan: The Bishop Who Taught Emperors to Repent
Ambrose of Milan did not begin as a monk in the desert, a bishop’s son raised for the altar, or a young theologian slowly climbing the steps of church office. He began in the world…
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Gregory of Nyssa: The Theologian Who Made Slavery Look Absurd
Gregory of Nyssa was not the most famous Cappadocian in his own lifetime. His older brother Basil was the public force: bishop of Caesarea, organizer of monastic life, builder of the Basileias, defender of Nicene…
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Macrina the Younger: The Sister Who Made Saints
Macrina the Younger was not remembered because she held an office, ruled a city, or presided at a council. She was remembered because she formed people who later became some of the most important Christian…
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Anthony: The Man Who Walked Away From the World
In the fourth century, Christianity entered a world it had never known before. The church that had once lived under the shadow of persecution now found itself increasingly visible, increasingly protected, and increasingly entangled with…
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Is Christianity Safe When Favored by Government? A Divide in the Early Church
If you had asked a Christian in AD 300 what they wanted most from the Roman government, the answer would have been simple. Leave us alone. Stop imprisoning our leaders. Stop burning our Scriptures. Stop…
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Not Ours to Take: Why the Early Christians Rejected Suicide While Longing for Heaven
The early Christians spoke about heaven with remarkable clarity and intensity. They believed it was real, near, and better than anything in this present life. They wrote of resurrection, rest, reunion, light, and the presence…
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Maximus the Confessor and the Enlargement of the Human Soul
Maximus the Confessor (c. AD 580–662) stands at the end of the patristic era as one of its final and most formidable theological minds. A former imperial official under Emperor Heraclius, he left public office…
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Plague, Persecution, and the Strength of the Early Church: From Decius to Valerian
In AD 249, the Roman emperor Decius looked across an empire in decline and believed he saw the cause clearly. Rome had forgotten the gods. Old discipline had collapsed. Armies rebelled, frontiers failed, provinces grew…
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Suffering, Fairness, and the Humility of Faith
The question of suffering and fairness is the single greatest obstacle to belief in God for millions of people. It is the question that keeps many away from faith and pushes many more into unbelief,…
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Multiplying by Mission: Session 9 at Mission Lake
40% Growth Then, 5% Growth Now — What We Must Learn Anew Our goal in this session is to present the essence of the Christian faith as seen through the earliest and most significant pieces…
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Teenage Emperors and the Triumph of Christian Purity
1. Introduction After Macrinus’ fall, the empire turned to Elagabalus (AD 218–222), a teenage priest from Syria whose reign shocked Rome with depravity and religious upheaval. Ancient historians describe him as one of the most…
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Multiplying by Mission: Session 5 at Mission Lake
40% Growth Then, 5% Growth Now — What We Must Learn Anew When Tiberius died in AD 37, the Roman people rejoiced at the promise of change. Into power stepped Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus (r.…
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Multiplying by Mission: Session 3 at Mission Lake
40% Growth Then, 5% Growth Now — What We Must Learn Anew In our last session, we looked closely at the seven undisputed letters of Paul and asked whether we can trust the words we…
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Multiplying by Mission: Session 2 at Mission Lake
40% Growth Then, 5% Growth Now — What We Must Learn Anew 1. Review from Session 1 Last week we saw that even atheist and skeptical scholars agree on seven undisputed letters of Paul. These…
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Christianity’s Unstoppable Growth in the First 300 Years
When people think of the first centuries of the Roman Empire, they imagine a crowded religious marketplace: temples to Jupiter, processions for Isis, secret gatherings of Mithraists, ecstatic festivals for Cybele. Against this backdrop, Christianity…
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