THE CHURCH, THE BEGINNINGS

1. 1. Jesus is the Founder of the Church: His Ministry started in the 1st century Roman province of Judea. , and Resurrection followed by the Ascension to Heaven and Pentecost.

2. 2.The early Christian Church began in Jerusalem and the surrounding area and grew out of the Jewish tradition. Jesus and his disciples were all Jews. Earliest Roman Christians would include Jewish inhabitants of Rome who were exposed to Christianity.

3. 9. GREATER PERSECUTION under the rule of Emperor Nero who hated Christians. Nero enjoyed capturing Christians and setting them on fire to provide light for his gardens at night. The apostle Paul wrote the Book of Romans during the early reign of Nero, when Christian persecution was just beginning. Persecution became worse under Emperor Domitian. at the end, Saint Paul is arrested for preaching Jesus and is executed in Rome •

4. 10. The temple of Jerusalem is destroyed and with the Council of Jamnia, ~90A.D , Christians are no longer allowed to be Jews DIVISION

5. 11. The Edict of Serdica, also called Edict of Toleration by Galerius, was issued in 311 in Serdica (today Sofia, Bulgaria) by the Roman emperor Galerius, officially ending the Diocletianic persecution of Christianity in the East. It was the first edict legalizing Christianity, preceding the Edict of Milan by two years.

6. 12.Edict of Milan, proclamation that permanently established religious toleration for Christianity within the Roman Empire. It was the outcome of a political agreement concluded in Mediolanum (modern Milan) between the Roman emperors Constantine I and Licinius in February 313

7. 3.The Church Begins With the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost The apostles and disciples of Jesus received the power of the Holy Spirit and started preaching the Word of the God with boldness and grace. They went forth into the world to accomplish what Jesus asked of them. This moment is considered the birth of the Church.

8. 8. PERSECUTION. Both Christians and Jews proclaimed the unpopular doctrine that there is only one God refused to worship the emperor or acknowledge him as any kind of deity. For these reasons, Christians and Jews began to experience intense persecution. For example, the Roman Emperor Claudius banished all Jews from the city of Rome in 49 A.D. This decree lasted until Claudius's death 5 years later.

9. 6. James the Great, brother of John was the first of the 12 apostles to be martyred. He was killed with the sword on order of King Herod Agrippa I of Judea, about 44 A.D., in a general persecution of the early church.

10. 7.Peter and Paul both were both martyred in Rome about 66 AD, during the persecution under Emperor Nero. Paul was beheaded. Peter was crucified, upside down at his request.

11. 5. CONVERSION OF PAUL. Paul was traveling on the road from Jerusalem to Damascus on a mission to "arrest them and bring them back to Jerusalem" when the ascended Jesus appeared to him in a great light. He was struck blind, but after three days his sight was restored by Ananias of Damascus and Paul began to preach that Jesus of Nazareth is the Jewish Messiah and the Son of God.[Acts 9:20–21] Approximately half of the book of Acts deals with Paul's life and works

12. 4.THE MARTYR OF STEPHEN. Stephen (c. AD 5 – c. AD 34) is the first martyr of Christianity. He was, according to the Acts of the Apostles a deacon in the early church at Jerusalem who aroused the enmity of members of various synagogues by his teachings. Accused of blasphemy at his trial, he made a speech denouncing the Jewish authorities who were sitting in judgment on him and was then stoned to death. His martyrdom was witnessed by Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee who would later become a follower of Jesus and known as Paul the Apostle.