HIS-101
Church History I: Apostles to Reformation
How the church moved from apostolic teaching through the councils, creeds, and the Reformers.
Topics: Apostolic fathers, Councils, Reformation
Suggested resource: Philip Schaff's public-domain History of the Christian Church, free in full online.
Week 1: The Apostolic and Early Church
Reading: 1 Clement 42; Ignatius's Letter to the Romans; Tertullian, Apology 50
The generation immediately after the apostles left behind real, datable letters worth reading directly rather than only summarizing. Clement of Rome, writing around 96 A.D., grounds church order directly in the apostles' own example: “The apostles have preached the gospel to us from the Lord Jesus Christ… preaching everywhere in country and town, they appointed their first-fruits… to be bishops and deacons” (1 Clement 42) — showing church leadership as a direct continuation of apostolic practice, not a later invention. Ignatius of Antioch, being marched to his execution in Rome around 110 A.D., wrote ahead to the Roman church begging them not to intervene to save him: “I am the wheat of God, and let me be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of Christ” — a real martyr's own words, not a legend written centuries later.
Persecution under successive Roman emperors, culminating under Diocletian in the early 4th century, tested and largely purified the church rather than destroying it. Tertullian, writing around 197 A.D. while defending Christians before Roman authorities, made the observation that has outlived every persecution that provoked it: “the blood of Christians is seed” — usually rendered “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” During these same centuries, the church also worked out which writings belonged in what we now call the New Testament canon, a process guided less by a top-down decree and more by which books were already widely recognized, used in worship, and traceable to apostolic authority across many congregations independently.
Key terms: 1 Clement 42 (apostolic succession), Ignatius's martyrdom letter (c. 110 A.D.), Tertullian's 'seed of the church' (c. 197 A.D.), Canon formation
Discussion Questions
- What surprises you most about reading Ignatius's own words, written on his way to execution, rather than a later summary of his story?
- Why do you think persecution strengthened the early church rather than destroying it?
Challenge: Find and read one short letter from an Apostolic Father (Polycarp's letter to the Philippians is a good, short, free option) and note anything that matches or differs from your own church's practice today.
Week 2: Councils, Creeds, and the Medieval Church
Reading: The Nicene Creed (325/381 A.D.), full text
As the church gained legal standing under Constantine in the 4th century, it had to settle a major dispute over the nature of Christ, provoked by Arius's teaching that the Son was a created being. The Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. responded with creedal language that later councils expanded: Christ is “the only-begotten Son of God… God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father.” The later, fuller Nicene Creed (381 A.D.) added the Holy Spirit as “the Lord and Giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified” — language many later Christians came to read as three eternally distinct, co-worshipped persons.
This history matters directly for the Oneness position: this formal, technical language of distinct, co-equal, co-eternal “persons” being simultaneously worshipped developed gradually, in Greek philosophical categories, over roughly three and a half centuries after the New Testament was completed — it is not language the apostles themselves used or would necessarily have recognized. This is part of why the Oneness position insists on returning to the plain language of Scripture itself, Deuteronomy 6:4 and Colossians 2:9 rather than later creedal formulas, however historically significant those formulas became. Over the following centuries, the church in the West also increasingly consolidated political and spiritual power, setting up conditions that would eventually provoke reform.
Key terms: The Council of Nicaea's actual creedal language (325/381), 'Being of one substance with the Father', Creedal development vs. apostolic-era language, Church-state power in the medieval era
Discussion Questions
- Reading the Nicene Creed's actual words, what specific phrases would a Oneness believer affirm, and which would need to be restated in more biblical language?
- Why does it matter, for the Oneness position, that this formal Trinitarian language developed gradually over centuries rather than appearing complete in the New Testament?
Challenge: Read the full text of the Nicene Creed (325 or 381 version) and mark each phrase as either directly biblical, a fair inference from Scripture, or later philosophical language.
Week 3: The Reformation
Reading: Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses (selections); Romans 1:17
By the early 1500s, widespread abuses in the medieval church, most visibly Johann Tetzel's sale of indulgences promising reduced time in purgatory for a payment, provoked Martin Luther to post his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517. Thesis 62 states his core objection plainly: “The true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God,” not a treasury of merit to be purchased. Luther's own account of his theological breakthrough centers on Romans 1:17, “the just shall live by faith” — realizing God's righteousness is a gift received by faith, not a standard achieved by human effort, which he said felt like being “born again and had gone through open doors into paradise itself.”
The Reformation's core principles — sola scriptura (Scripture alone as final authority), sola fide (faith alone for justification), and sola gratia (grace alone as its source) — reopened direct access to the Bible for ordinary believers, including translating Scripture into common languages so people could read Romans 1:17 for themselves rather than depending entirely on the institutional church to mediate it. This set a precedent that matters enormously for the Pentecostal restorationist impulse you'll study next: the conviction that the church could, and should, be continually reformed by returning again and again to the plain text of Scripture rather than settling permanently into any one era's tradition, creedal or otherwise.
Key terms: Luther's Ninety-Five Theses (1517), Thesis 62, Romans 1:17 and Luther's breakthrough, Sola scriptura, sola fide, sola gratia, Restorationism as an ongoing impulse
Discussion Questions
- How does the principle of sola scriptura connect to the Oneness position's insistence on returning to the biblical text over later creeds?
- What did Luther's own account of discovering Romans 1:17 teach you about the difference between inherited religious practice and personally grasping a biblical truth?
Challenge: Read at least ten of Luther's Ninety-Five Theses in full and write a short paragraph connecting sola scriptura to the founding conviction of your own Oneness Pentecostal tradition.
Course Exam
Five questions for review or self-testing.
Q: What did Tertullian mean by 'the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church'?
Reveal Answer
Persecution strengthened and grew the early church rather than destroying it.
Q: What did the Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.) primarily address?
Reveal Answer
The Arian controversy over the deity of Christ.
Q: What are the three 'solas' of the Reformation?
Reveal Answer
Sola scriptura (Scripture alone), sola fide (faith alone), sola gratia (grace alone).
Q: What triggered Luther's protest?
Reveal Answer
Widespread church abuses, especially the sale of indulgences.
Q: How did the New Testament canon come to be recognized?
Reveal Answer
Through which books were already widely used in worship and traceable to apostolic authority across many congregations, not a single top-down decree.