Quotes About Christianity

Burning in the ardor of their new faith to convert the pagan masses, the early fathers of the Christian Church strove to emphasize the differences between their religion and its theological predecessor by forcing upon the Jews a kind of spiritual apartheid. The Emperor Theodosius II gave those aspirations legal force in his code, condemning Judaism and, for the first time, legally branding the Jews a people apart.

I wasn't sure if, upon laying eyes on me, they wouldn't know (by parent telepathy or something) that, far from behaving as a Christian young man should, I had spent the evening using illegal narcotics and engaging in sodomy.

Trying to follow all the best practices of all best Christians won't make you a better Christian. It might make you a nervous wreck.

We're no longer trying to impose our will on non-Christians. We're trying to keep non-Christians from imposing their will on us—and our churches. If you haven't noticed, the culture wars are over. We lost.

Everything we do is aimed at helping the Christians we already have grow stronger in Christ. But everything is done in such a way that their non-Christian friends will understand all that we're saying and doing. Bottom line: We've tried to create a perfect storm for come-and-see evangelism while velcroing newcomers for long-term spiritual growth.

But Christianity did not become successful through Constantine giving it imperial approval. Instead, Constantine adopted Christianity likely because it had already become so successful despite earlier efforts to destroy the movement.

unusual in the Roman period.2 In the eyes of many of that time, early Christianity was odd, bizarre, in some ways even dangerous. For one thing, it did not fit what "religion" was for people then. Indicative of this, Roman-era critics designated it as a perverse "superstition." Yet the very features of early Christianity that made it odd and objectionable in the ancient Roman setting have become now unquestioned assumptions about religion in much of the modern world.

short, the Christian practice of addressing "God" as "Father" originates as a profoundly christological statement.

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you.

It is remarkable that the intense Jesus-devotion reflected in Paul's letters, which constitute our earliest extant Christian writings, is more presupposed than expounded

that there is simply a far greater place of the Spirit in the religious discourse in the NT texts, obviously reflected in the far greater frequency of references to the Spirit.

where Paul first refers to "the Spirit of holiness" as involved in Jesus' resurrection (v. 4), and then to serving God "with my spirit [in] the gospel of his Son" (v. 9 NRSV).

I have referred to a "binitarian" devotional pattern, a "mutation" in the devotional pattern and beliefs dominant in the Jewish matrix of earliest Christianity.27

must underscore the importance of taking account of early Christian worship practice as highly significant evidence that the NT reflects major religious developments, including particularly developments in how "God" is understood.

efforts to develop and defend his faith were convictions and devotional practices such as those already reflected in the NT.16

contend that the major factor was the inclusion of Jesus as a distinguishable figure along with "God" in early Christian devotion, producing the question of how to combine this with an exclusivist "monotheistic" stance.

Paul's understanding of God was functionally Trinitarian."20 Indeed,

Earliest Christians believed that they were experiencing the fulfillment of biblical prophecies of an eschatological outpouring of "God's" Spirit (e.g., Acts 2:14-33). So it is little wonder that in their religious discourse reference to the Spirit of "God" features prominently.

the oftused grace benediction in 2 Corinthians 13:13, which refers to "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit" (NRSV).

It is those who live "according to the Spirit" and in whom the Spirit now dwells who are thereby enabled to fulfill "the just requirement of the law" (8:4 NRSV).

and no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor 12:3 NRSV). The basic thrust of the statement is that the divine Spirit

Jesus is Lord," which seems to be the earliest extant creedal formulation, reflected in Rom 10:9-10; 1 Cor 12:3; Phil 2:9-11 (in this last passage the slightly fuller form, "Jesus Christ is Lord").

Jesus is central in NT references to early Christian ritual/devotional practices.

Paul identifies "those who belong to Christ" as summoned and enabled now to live and be guided by the Spirit (Gal 5:24-25).