Study Set... Chapter 3

Give one reason why Christians were persecuted in the Roman Empire.

Christians refused to believe in the Roman gods. The emperor's hated the fact that the Christians believed in God and not theirs.

Who was the Roman emperor who ordered an empire-wide persecution of the Christians?

Decius

What emperor brought an end to the "Long Peace"

Diocletian

Marcionism

Early Christian dualist

What was it about the persecuted Christians that drew more people into the Church?

Many did not want to worship the emperor. Christians had no excuse for denying the emperor.

The emperors persecuted Christians to make sure there would be fewer of them, but Tertullian said, "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." Why did persecution increase the number of Christians?

The Emperor Domitian, ordered persecution of Christians, because the Christians refused to worship the Roman gods. The Christians refused to worship Domitian as well.

What early group taught that the material world is evil and only the spirit is good?

The Gnostics.

What was the "Long Peace"?

The end of World War 11

What do we call a teaching that emphasizes part of the received Faith and ignores or denies the rest of the received tradition?

We call this a false teaching. Back then, they always used to exaggerate many things, that weren't at all true.

Atheist

a person who disbelieves or lacks belief in the existence of God or gods.

Edict of Milian

a proclamation that permanently established religious toleration for Christianity within the Roman Empire

Gnosticism

a prominent heretical movement of the 2nd-century Christian Church

Currency

a system of money in general use in a particular country.

Edict

an official order or proclamation issued by a person in authority.

Heresy

belief or opinion

Ascetic

characterized by or suggesting the practice of severe self-discipline and abstention from all forms of indulgence, typically for religious reasons

Toleration

he practice of tolerating something, in particular differences of opinion or behavior

Logos

the Word of God, or principle of divine reason and creative order, identified in the Gospel of John with the second person of the Trinity incarnate in Jesus Christ.

Rhetoric

the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques.

Montanism

the tenets of a heretical millenarian and ascetic Christian sect that set great store by prophecy, founded in Phrygia by the priest Montanus in the middle of the 2nd century.