God's Story: A Student Guide to Church History Read Online Free PDF Page A

Ambrose would also later baptize Augustine in 387. His mother’s prayers came to fruition!
    Augustine wrote many well-known and influential books, including Confessions (the first autobiography of its kind), The City of God (the first philosophy of history), On the Trinity (a classic text on the doctrine of the Trinity), and On Christian Doctrine (a guide to biblical interpretation).
    He also engaged in a number of highly publicized debates, most notably against Pelagius. Pelagius (c.390-418) taught that original sin did not affect human nature and, therefore, the human will can choose good or evil apart from God’s grace or assistance. In response, Augustine rebuked Pelagianism—showing from Scripture that humans are dead in sin and carry the curse of the Fall of Adam (cf. Eph. 2; Gen. 3; Rom. 5). God has decreed the end from the beginning (Isa. 46), chosen a people as his own (Eph. 1), and preserves them to the end (Phil. 1). It is only by grace that anybody is saved (Eph. 2). A thousand years after Augustine breathed his last, his teachings would have a profound impact on the Protestant Reformation.
    Jerome (c.345-420)
    A biblical scholar, monk, historian, and theologian, Jerome became proficient in the original languages of the Bible, Hebrew and Greek. His most important achievement was the Vulgate , a translation from the original languages of the Bible into Latin. The Vulgate became the standard Bible of the Roman Catholic Church for the next 1,000 years! Latin had already taken the mantle as the “official” language of the church, in part, because it was the only language “unstained” by the injustice and treatment of Jesus (sealed on the sign above his head). The Jews (who spoke Hebrew) put him up for crucifixion and the Romans (who spoke Greek) did the deed. Latin, then, was the pure tongue of the church. Jerome also wrote many other works, making him the second -most voluminous writer of the period, the first being Augustine!
    The history of the church between a.d. 100-500 centers on the official state sanctioning of Christianity in the fourth century and the development of the theology of the person and natures of Jesus, the Son of God. This latter point can be seen through a variety of ecumenical councils, all of which affirmed the full deity and humanity of Christ. We, today, often take for granted the doctrine of the Trinity as it is so nicely defined and articulated (e.g. Nicene Creed). But this came at a price—the defense of biblical doctrine against a raging set of heretical views. We stand on the shoulders of these men who have given the church a rich heritage of theology, faith, and passion for truth.

Why do people write creeds or confessions of
faith?
What modern-day cults downgrade Jesus to a
lower being than God the Father?
In line with St. Augustine, if a person is born
“dead in sin,” how can he or she be saved?
Can we, of our own accord, choose salvation
apart from God’s gracious initiative? Why or
why not?
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    1 X (chi) and P (rho) are the first two letters in the word, “Christ,” in Greek.
    2 The Greek word for knowledge is gnosis , which is the root of Gnosticism.
    3 This last phrase was added later.

O n a chilly October morning in 2003, I went caving in a large cave in eastern Tennessee with several friends. So we wouldn’t get lost, we carved arrows into the sticky mud that blanketed the floor of the cave and set out candles along the way. After about an hour of squeezing through small cracks and crawling through small underground streams, we looked back through the stalactites and realized that we were completely lost. “Don't panic,” I thought to myself.
    One reality of caving is that, if you turn off your flashlight, it is pitch black. You can’t even see your hand in front of your face! In that cold, dark, and damp hole beneath seventy feet of solid rock, I suddenly wanted to get out; the darkness was too much. And so, after several wrong turns, we eventually made