Author name: Mark William Smith

Eusebius is recognized as the father of Christian Church history.  Living from about 260 – 339A.D he was the first to undertake the task of recording the growth of Christianity from a small Jewish sect in Jerusalem to a preeminent religion in the then known world.  As he is the only person whose writings have

The epistles of Ignatius, most probably written on his path to martyrdom, sound in a lot of ways like the epistles of Paul.  He opens with loving greetings, he gives praise to the believers he writes to.  He has a theme in his writings of calling for unity.  And this call for unity is centered

Martyrdom is not new when we come to Ignatius, but he brings an element heretofore unseen. First, there are numerous records of martyrs around the Bible.   In Acts chapter 7 we see Stephen as the first Christian martyr.  It is a glorious, inspiring record: Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the

Ignatius, a.d. 30-107, is a man who sat at the feet of the apostles. There is a claim that Ignatius as a very small child was held by Jesus and that is why he is named Theophorus which means “carried by God”.[1] Ignatius played an instrumental role both as the Bishop of Antioch, and a

A Pentecostal movement broke out from some Anabaptist groups as they strove to live the fullness of all that was available in the New Testament. (See XVI.2.5 Anabaptism had its own Pentecostal Movement.) However the Pentecostal aspect was short-lived. While at least some of the spiritual manifestations looked legitimate, there was clearly some error also,

I have met Christians who believe that the Pentecost revival on Azusa Street starting in 1906 was the first time there were spiritual signs and manifestations since the time of the Apostles. But it is erroneous to think that the Pentecostal movement of the early 20th century was the first time since the apostolic age

If the Anabaptists claimed that the reformers did not go far enough in restoring the Christian faith it can be just as well be argued that they made statements beyond what Scripture actually teaches also. Consider this teaching by Pilgram Marpeck (Marpeck was a very significant figure in the early development of the Anabaptists. A

Melchior Rinck, 1493 –1545, challenged the Christian authorities at Wartburg, “the fact that you bring against me and all who are of the same face murder, robbery, prison, fire, water, sword and similar lying arguments, proves by your own work that your baptism is an anti-baptism and that you are indeed the Anti-Christ, of whom

As persecution increased in Switzerland the brother and spread to the southeast, Arabia, and North and the South Germany. Dr Balthasar Hummeier, around Easter time, 1525, was a priest in the Waldshut area. “Upon accepting faith baptism as a visible sign of the restored Christian community, Hoffmeyer resigned as priest and immediately he was reelected

In The Anabaptist View of the Church Franklin Littell wrote: “The important point to emphasize is that the real issue here was not the act of baptism, but rather a bitter and irreducible struggle between two mutually exclusive concepts of the church. Zwingli was finally committed to the state church; and the continuance of the

Anyone who promotes Believer’s baptism, baptism by immersion involving someone who is mature enough to make a decision for Christ, is following, at least in part, the Anabaptist movement. The Anabaptists chose adult baptism as a central issue in their stand in the Christian faith. Historically speaking, as strong as some of the reforms in

Perhaps the most famous movement in the Christian Church is the Reformation. As powerful as it was, it is important to note that the emphasis of the Reformation movement was not to restore the church to the standards of the first century. Wordnet defines the reformation as “a religious movement of the 16th century that

The largest Christian church doesn’t use the word “Christian”, rather it uses the word “Catholic”; the Roman Catholic Church. Catholic means “universal” or “everywhere” and so the meaning is that the Catholic church is the only true church and it is everywhere. This article looks at the significance and meaning of Catholicism, a movement that

Jesus Christ was the most incredible man in history and the first movement of the Christian church has to start with him. Jesus was a man of impact, drawing crowds wherever he went. As the promised seed he walked with a plan which he declared was written in the book of Isaiah: The Spirit of

Clement of Rome is significant in Christian history in a number of ways. As we have seen in previous articles his epistle, 1 Clement, was almost included in the canon of scripture we use and was included in some bibles for centuries. His writing not being included in our canon, Clement becomes the first early