Early Christian Writings

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MisterCheez Apr 23, 2008

Recently, I've encountered a slew teachings which present somewhat unorthodox viewpoints regarding a number of doctrines (hell, giving, rapture, assembly). The commonality between all of these teachings is that they claim to be restoring a view which traditions of men, or (usually) the Roman Empire corrupted. By this reasoning, their view was really the early church's view.

Making centuries of time and the Roman Empire our whipping boy may be convenient, but there has to be some checks and balances here. A popular cult uses similar reasoning to claim to be restoring original truth.

All that said...

Can you kind folks suggest any resources (websites, books, articles, etc) which actually contain the views of the early church? Anywhere in the 1st to 4th century would be a great way to start.

Looking to stand on the shoulders of some giants...

Brian

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HomeFree89 Apr 23, 2008

Hi,

David Bercot has some realy good books on this topic. You can find them at the link below.

~~[url=http://www.scrollpublishing.com/store/books-early-christianity.html]~~Books on Early Christianity[/url]

I highly recommend the book, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs that Mr. bercot compiled from the writings of the early church fathers. You can view that ~~[url=http://www.scrollpublishing.com/store/more-dictionary.html]~~here[/url]

Jordan

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PreachParsly Apr 23, 2008

You can read translations of the "church fathers" here.

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

But you have to remember, there was false teaching and "slightly off" teaching in that time just like there is today.

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HomeFree89 Apr 23, 2008

PreachParsly wrote:

But you have to remember, there was false teaching and "slightly off" teaching in that time just like there is today.

No kidding. Like guys can't shave their face. :-) :lol:

sermonindex Apr 24, 2008

The best guide book for the history of the early church and the way it was meant to be conducted is the BIBLE. The book of Acts and the Epistles is the best source. Many other books can expound on church history but it always has need to be verified from the ultimate truth source. Not trying to be difficult but that is my take.

sermonindex Apr 24, 2008

The best guide book for the history of the early church and the way it was meant to be conducted is the BIBLE. The book of Acts and the Epistles is the best source. Many other books can expound on church hisory but it always has need to be verified from the ultimate truth source. Not trying to be difficult but that is my take.

I believe the early church writings that are the earliest are very inline with the practices and manners of the christians of the early church. They were much more "religious" and set apart then most would want to believe. A great help is the "early church dictionary" by David Bercot.

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BrianPaul Apr 24, 2008

I also recommend picking up "A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs". This book is basically a concordance of a collection of Anti-Nicene fathers writings. The book is broken down by topic so you can get a plethora of different early church writers and the way they wrote about and understood certain doctrine and theology. Great resource for this type of a thing.

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MisterCheez Apr 24, 2008

Well I have had my eye on that dictionary for some time now and will definitely pick it up. Guess the only reason I hadn't was because (and this is not a good reason) I had heard that much of the book quoted individuals who were heavily influenced by gnosticism and pagan philosophy.

But this kind of negative buzz usually isn't very well informed. We couldn't read anything or listen to anyone if we obeyed all the ill-informed warnings and slanderings out there.

Thanks for the resources.

CCEL.org looks neat too!

Brian