This summer we will take a look at the Church in the light of the early Christian's writings.  During July and August all adults are invited to learn more about how early Christians dealt with tough issues like baptism, Christians in war, and Christianity in politics. Our nine presenters will each give a talk over a few chapters from David Berecot's book entitled, "Will the Real Heretic Please Stand Up."  Extra copies are available for purchase in the church library for just $10.  Outline for each week's lesson is listed below.   Click here to read our church librarian's write-up of the book.

Class	Date	Chapters	Teacher	Subject
1	July 4	1	Matt Huddleston	Introduction and overview
2	July 11	2-3	Chris Corbin	The Early Christians - citizens of another kingdom
3	July 18	4-5	Grady Gettings	Is right or wrong based on culture? How early Christians succeeded, when we often fail
4	July 25	6-8	Chuck Donald	Salvation, Predestination, Free-will, and Baptism
5	Aug. 1	9-10	Larry Stafford	Prosperity and Morality
6	Aug. 8	11-12	Jim Dixon	Understanding the Apostles - were teachings deliberately altered?
7	Aug. 15	13-15	Dave Wittenborn	How the church crumbled
8	Aug. 22	16-17	Bill Mara	Reformation - did it go ALL the way back to the early church?
9	Aug. 29	18-19	Aaron Redelsperger	The vision of the Anabaptists, and what does all of this mean for us? Looking forward

 

  

  

Librarian Report

I have just finished reading Bercot's "Will the Real Heretics Please Stand Up." It's a very well-written book, challenging us to take a good look at ourselves as Christians in this 21st Century culture. I deliberately did not try to find anything about David Bercot before I read his book, so that I wouldn't have a bias about his religious background.

I liked his premise that the early second century Christian leaders were more likely to have a better knowledge about what early Christians believed and how they lived than the later writers after the Council of Nicea. I have not read the actual writings of these early writers, except as Eusebius quotes from them in his "History of the Church."

I was interested as I read Bercot's book, why he spent a chapter on the Anabaptists in contrast to his discussion of other reformist and restoration movements. So, it was enlightening to read Bercot's brief biography online. He is now an Anabaptist, which is a part of the Mennonite group, based primarily in Pennsylvania. He's had a rather checkered religious career. He grew up as a Jehovah's Witness, then became an Anglican priest, and is now an Anabaptist. His book, while it has a bias toward the Anabaptists, shows him to be an honest seeker for truth, willing to change his beliefs when the Scriptures and early writers convince him that his beliefs are wrong.

His book shows that the early Christians wrestled with the same age-old cultural influences that we experience today.  Church of Christ writers tackled these same issues throughout the 20th Century.  Writers, such as Earl West's, "Search for the Ancient Order;" James Bales on premillenialism and predestination; Thomas Warren on marriage and divorce, just to name a few, wrote powerful books on these age-old subjects.

The question of "Should Christians Go to War," has been a continuing discussion among churches of Christ during every war, particularly since the Civil War, when men were first drafted into service. Today, we don't hear much about this subject, as there is no draft in effect now.

The library has books by the writers mentioned above and Eusebius's history. I have ordered a copy of "A Translation of the Epistles of Clement of Rome, Polycarp, Ignatius, and of the First Apology of Justin Martyr," which seems to be the most comprehensive work available on their writings that I could find. Also, I am ordering Bercot's "A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs," a collection of 7,000 quotations from early Christian writers.

This should be a very interesting study about a largely unknown period of church history.

In Christian love,
Ellenor Howell

Cordova Church of Christ ~ CordovaChurch.com