The Paper, The Test, and The Shift to Christianity

Today in class, we turned in our papers. This paper was to be written about the Pax Romana and how Caesar Augustus had made changes in government and introduced reforms. My partner for this project was Kate and we had worked on it all weekend. When we finally finished, we had come to a total of 2,325 words on 8 pages. I know, crazy, right?! Anyway, after everyone turned in the paper, Mr. Schick began looking through them and got hilariously outraged when he found out that almost everyone had the same title that he told he told us not to use. It was crazy! Luckily, Kate and I came up with a different title for our paper. After that, Mr. Schick asked us if we were ready for his test. Everyone was shocked. He had never told us we had a test--well, he didn't tell us in person that is. But same thing. Everyone was really outraged and began to think that we shouldn't have a test but we still had it anyway. And actually, it wasn't that bad. Once we finished the test, everyone got on his blog and saw that we were starting a new lesson and it was on Christianity in the Era of the Roman Peace, or LO-2 for short.

CHRISTIANITY IN THE ERA OF THE ROMAN PEACE:

- In the first two hundred years of Christianity, it acquired many features over its beliefs and practices.

- The development of this new found religion involved Christians, Jews, the Gentiles, and the Roman Empire, through which it was spread.

JESUS

- During the period of Jewish conflict and dispute leading up the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D.  was when Jesus lived and taught.

- What we know about him was found from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, which were written about forty to seventy year after he died.

- The authors didn't particularly shed details on Jesus's life, they mainly discussed his birth, the years he spent wandering as a preacher in Judaea, and the aftermath after his death.

-This was necessary to show Jesus in two roles: as a teacher, explaining God's purposes, and as a Messiah sent by God.

THE TEACHER

- The gospels portray Jesus as an outright opponent of the other Jewish groups.

- Jesus obeyed the Law, visited the Temple, and called acceptance of Roman rulle, while standing apart from the Temple priests.

- Jesus taught that even the faithful righteousness according the Law fell far short of what was necessary to please God. He said, in short terms, "be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

- Jesus's biggest difference with the Pharisees was that he proclaimed that "the kingdom of God has come near" when in fact, with himself, it has already arrived.

THE MESSIAH

- Apostles : Jesus's followers and messengers of his teachings.

- The apostles were Jesus's followers and were sent out by him to fulfill his command--"Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.

PAUL

-Predestination - the doctrine that God determines in advances who will be saved and who will be damned.