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Church

From CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science

A church is often defined as a place of worship or a building to house a religious service, though in the Bible it is defined as the body of Christ. Originating from the pre-Christian Germanic kirika, the term church soon after began to replace the Greek political term ekklesia (a word meaning "gathering of the called out ones") and Basilicae (originally used to describe a Roman public building) within Christendom, c300 AD. [1]

1 History of the Church
2 Modern Church
- 2.1 Denominations
3 Gallery
4 References

History of the Church

Main Article: History of Christianity

The original Church came into being upon the Holy Spirit descending on believers in Christ on the day of Pentecost after Christ’s resurrection. The event (Acts 2 ) was marked by the believers being heard by the people present in their home languages. After this point, the Church spread through the evangelization of the Apostles as well as through the efforts of local believers. The New Testament writers referred to the Church as one body of Christ, and it was officially only subdivided along geographical lines. For example, in the First Letter to the Corinthians Paul identified the believers there as “the church of God in Corinth” (1Corinthians 1:2 ). The first members of the Church were Jewish, but Acts 10 describes how Peter was told in a vision that the Gospel was to be given to Jews and Gentiles alike. The Apostles spread the story of Christ at least as far as the city of Rome. Saint Thomas Christians in India claim that their church was founded in the first century by the Apostle Thomas.

The origins of the church structure as known today primarily began in the early European world. In 313, after much persecution of the Church, Constantine I (a self professed Christian) and Licinius passed the Edict of Milan, which decreed toleration of Christianity. In 391, Theodosius I made Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire. Upon the collapse of the empire, the Roman Catholic (universal) Church maintained its influence into the era popularly known as the "dark age." The Catholic Church remained the primary form of Christianity in Europe until the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century. It was after this point, when scores of Europeans were breaking from the Roman Church, that Christianity branched off into numerous independant denominations on a massive scale.