Early Church

Introduce your middle and high school students to the bold believers who helped shape the foundation of the Christian faith. Early Church Fathers, part of the inspiring Legends of Faith series by homeschool author Marilyn Boyer, brings Christian history to life through captivating stories of real men who stood firm for Christ in the face of persecution, heresy, and cultural opposition.

Based on Pope Benedict XVI's weekly teaching on the relationship between Christ and the Church, this book tells the drama of Jesus' first disciples—his Apostles and their associates—and how they spread Jesus' message throughout the ancient world. Far from distorting the truth about Jesus of Nazareth, insists Pope Benedict, the early disciples remained faithful to it, even at the cost of their lives.

This classic text gives a broad overview of the early Christian church, how it was formed, and how it dealt with the Roman empire, which was at first hostile to Christianity, and then under Constantine the Great how it came to embrace the new faith. The author, George Hodges, also examines the many heresies that beset the church from within, and the various figures that would defend the correct definition of the faith.

While many histories of Christian worship exist, this project undertakes a task both more focused and more urgent. Rather than survey the whole history of the Christian church, it focuses on the formative period between the first and fifth centuries CE, when so many of the understandings and patterns of Christian worship came to be. And rather than include such developments as the monastic hours of prayer and the history of ordination, the authors deal primarily with those aspects of worship that recur on a weekly or regular basis: preaching, Eucharist, and baptism. 

Dr. James Papandrea introduces you to all the major theologians, philosophers, and martyrs of the early Christian church and explains the theological principles that guided the Church from the New Testament era through the apologists, and, ultimately, to the development of the major doctrines. He uniquely situates the teachings of the early Church Fathers against the social and cultural context of the Roman Empire and its relationship to the Church.

From the early church fathers, three foundational texts of faith and practice endure: the Didache, the Didascalia Apostolorum, and the Apostolic Tradition. Written to guide believers in worship, morality, and community life, these manuals reveal how the early Church understood the sacraments, prayer, charity, episcopal authority, and more. In these pages, Dear Reader, you will encounter the living heartbeat of apostolic Christianity—simple, disciplined, and aflame with reverence.

The early Church faced persecution. Some endured. Others denied Christ. What happened next—and what does it mean for us today? Early Church Witness — Book 9: The Lapsed is a Scripture-first, historically grounded examination of how early Christians dealt with believers who denied Christ under threat of imprisonment, torture, or death.

Every generation has an uncanny tendency to view themselves as more enlightened than those that have gone before. The Church certainly has made mistakes all through history - and yet, no insights which we possess would be possible without the efforts, and even some of the mistakes, of our ancestors. The first volume of 2,000 Years of Christ's Power covers the period from the 1st Century AD to the start of the Middle Ages.

In the middle of the third century CE, one North African bishop wrote a treatise for the women of his church, exhorting them to resist such culturally normalized yet immodest behaviors in their cosmopolitan Roman city as mixed public bathing in the nude, and wearing excessive amounts of jewelry...

Athanasius rightly knew that upon one’s view of Christ hung one’s eternal destiny. As he wrote to the bishops of Egypt in 356: “as therefore the struggle that is now set before us concerns all that we are, either to reject or to keep the faith, let us be zealous and resolve to guard what we have received, bearing in mind the confession that was written down at Nicaea.” And, by God’s grace, his victory in that struggle has been of enormous blessing to the church ever since.

From the bestselling author of The Lamb's Supper and Signs of Life comes an illuminating work that unlocks the many mysteries of the Catholic sacrament of the Eucharist. Long before the New Testament was a document, it was a sacrament. Jesus called the Eucharist by the name Christians...

What was the early Church like? Contrary to popular belief, Rod Bennett shows there is a reliable way to know. Four ancient Christian writers - four witnesses to early Christianity - left us an extensive body of documentation on this vital subject, and this book brings their fascinating testimony to life for modern believers. With all the power and drama of a gripping novel, this book is a journey of discovery of ancient and beautiful truths through the lives of four great saints of the early Church Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, and Irenaeus of Lyons.

For centuries, believers have assumed that the teachings of the Reformers faithfully restored the message of the Bible. Yet when we examine the writings of the earliest Christians—the disciples of the apostles and the generations immediately after them—a very different picture emerges. The Deformation invites listeners to take a fresh and honest look at several foundational teachings of the Reformation—such as total depravity, penal substitutionary atonement, the meaning of “works of the law,” the role of free will, and the interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount.

Women were there. For centuries, discussions of early Christianity have focused on male leaders in the church. But there is ample evidence right in the New Testament that women were actively involved in ministry, at the frontier of the gospel mission, and as respected leaders. Nijay Gupta calls us to bring these women out of the shadows by shining light on their many inspiring contributions to the planting, growth, and health of the first Christian churches.

Long before modern prophecy systems, rapture theories, or theological shortcuts existed, the early Church read the Scriptures plainly. They believed the saints would face the Antichrist, endure persecution, remain faithful unto death, and be delivered at the appearing of Jesus Christ. This book documents that forgotten consensus.

In The Early Church on the Antichrist, Glenn Langohr brings together Scripture—especially the prophecies of Daniel—with direct quotations from early Christian writers to show that the historic Church did not expect an escape before tribulation, but endurance through it.

By AD 100, all the original disciples had died and a new generation of preachers, teachers, and scholars had taken on the responsibility to preach, teach, and interpret the Scriptures. These men have become known as the church fathers. But who were they? When and where did they live? And, most importantly, what did they teach about how to read and understand the Bible?

Ancient Faith has produced a fresh update and redesign of a book cherished by a generation of seekers. Written in an accessible manner for the average lay person, Orthodox Worship offers insights into the Orthodox liturgy. Early Christians preserved a continuity of worship from the Old Covenant to the New, employing elements from the Jewish Temple liturgy, the synagogue liturgy, and the rituals of the Jewish home.

Early Church Witness—Volume 3: Endurance, Apostasy, and the Crown of Life confronts false assurance by returning to the direct words of Jesus Christ, the apostles, and the earliest Christian witnesses. Drawing from the King James Scriptures and early Church testimony, this volume shows that endurance is required, apostasy is real, and the promised reward belongs to those who overcome.

The prayers in this audiobook have been collected from many old books of prayers and devotional materials. The editor is deeply indebted to all those who have ploughed the field before. They have labored, and we have entered into their labors. It has been a joy to search out the material, to arrange the prayers, to put them in order, and to index them under so many subjects.