Founded by Jesus Christ

The paper focuses on one of the only two mentions of the Church in the Gospels in Mt 18:17, and its immediate context in v. 20. It is argued that Jesus’ fundamental definition of the Church is found there: the Church is God’s renewed sanctuary, where Jesus’ personal presence is promised among the “two or three” of his disciples. This simple, basic form of the church is the foundation and vital force of any other church form, which is “Church” precisely as much as it relates to this fundamental reality. Sacramental, hierarchical, and evangelical-teaching church models are reviewed in this light. The Church is found to be an active, dynamic reality, not a passive object; it can be established anytime and anywhere. Finally, some answers to possible objections are provided.

THE CHURCH THAT JESUS BUILT, 1923

Dr. Mason was pastor of Buffalo Avenue Church for 29 years. During this time he edited the church paper which is called "Faith and Life," and for many years he preached over the largest chain of radios daily of any pastor in the country. Dr. Mason still conducts radio programs over five radio stations sponsored by Buffalo Avenue Baptist Church, some of these stations carry the program daily. "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."-Jesus

This is a presentation of Reformed ecclesiology considering the Biblical use of the term 'ecclesia' and references to the magisterial Reformers

The seeds for Michael Peppard's The World's Oldest Church were found in some images of the Dura-Europos house church that he had requested from the Yale University Art Gallery for use in teaching his very first university class. The images captured his interest, and his lectures developed into an article, a series of public lectures, more articles, and, eventually, the present volume. He had originally intended to spend time in Syria in order to see the site where the frescoes were found, but the tragic bombings at Aleppo University ensued at the exact time when he began his research. Fortunately, most of the artifacts from Dura-Europos were removed to museums decades ago, so that it was still possible for Peppard to study them firsthand. The book is dedicated to the people of Syria, which is so central to early Christian history.

Journal of Religion in Africa, 1999

Upublish, 2013

The Church is a communion of individual churches with different theological, spiritual, legal and historical backgrounds.

Abstract Church is the places where the Christians are generally make their prayers to holly Christ. According to the review of Dever, a church generally contains all the elect and the statements of the God. According to his review, “it consisted of a company and fellowship of faithful and holy people gathered together in the name of Christ Jesus, their only king, priest, and prophet, worshipping him aright, being peaceably and quietly governed by his officers and laws, keeping the unity of faith in the bond of peace and love unfeigned”.(Dever, nd) . The church is the backbone of the development of the Christian religion over the world. At the beginning there were lots of objection from the people who were the ruling authority of the society. But despite their objection the thought process started to gain popularity all across the globe. According to the analysis of Patheos Library (nd) , Christianity developed from the thought process of Judaism in the 1st Century C.E. The concept of Christian religion is entirely based on the life, teaching ideology death, and resurrection of the Jesus Christ. According to the review of the Patheos Library, there are several branches of the Christianity, each of the branches has variety in their beliefs and practices, but most importantly the basic principle was always the same. There are three major classes or branches available in the Christian religion; these are Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism. There are several sub-categories also in all these three branches. The tradition belief of the Christian community is there is one and only God in the world, they used to believe that the Jesus was the divine and he was send by the all mighty to save this world. Having faith in Christ is the basic thought process of the religion. The basic text where the entire concept and the thought process of Christ were noted is the Bible. It includes both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament. The Hebrew Scriptures is also known as the Old Testament. The basic concept of the Christian is mainly based on worship, fellowship, study of the God, and also by the engagement with rest of the world by different social activities. (Patheos Library, nd). There are lots of theories on the nature of Christian religion and culture, but the main concept is entirely based on life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and most importantly monotheistic in nature. According to their belief whatever is mentioned in the bible is the word of God (Kwintessential, nd) . According to the concept of Dever (nd), the Church plays an important part in the development of the Christian culture and religion. In his review he pointed out the fact that the principle adopted by the church is a vital factor of Christian truth. According to his opinion It is the most noticeable part of Christian theology as well, and it is vitally connected with every other part of the Christian culture. (Dever, nd) .In this paper, the main objective is to discuss about the initial stages of the development of Christian culture and religion. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the initial stages of the development of the Christian culture across the globe, how it able to spread all over and what are the impact of this concept and thought process in the society. A detail literature review on the role played by the seven Church will help to understand the role played by them in the development of the Christian religion in the early part, how they able to withstand the objection that was there in the society and also how they able to make it a religion which is now the largest one in the world. The concept of the old day’s church, their thought process , how they have the impact on the people as well as on the society also give a light on the research questions that this paper is focusing on. Here the role played by the Church in the past as well as in the present both can be critically analyzed. At the end, the conclusion part gives us the opportunity to point out the scope of farther research that can be figure out from the entire research paper. Jesus Christ said, "I will build my Church" (Matt.16:18). Was that Church foretold to always be UNITED, and of “one accord”? Was it to always be pristine and pure? What is the real meaning of the seven letters to the seven churches of Asia Minor in the book of Revelation? Do they describe different types of people in the Church? Do o they picture the Church down through the ages, in a a historical sense? What is their message of our age and generation, today?