newtestamentchristianity

                                                                      I. Introduction To Augustine of Hippo, man's greatest temptation since the fall, was not the desire of murder, but the struggle against the sin of lust (which has often resulted in murder). Augustine, who long struggled with the lust of women in his youth, expressed penitence over his sin multiple times throughout his work, The Confessions , in which he prays to God through writing. Thus, while lust had once defined the bishop of Hippo, he had learned that the love of God was a greater pursuit than the satisfaction of lust. Augustine believed that the will is most free when it is obedient to God. The renowned theologian actually believed that sin enslaves us from the Creator. He was aware of not only God's condemnation of sins, but the judgement, whether in this life or in the next, we all face from it. Certainly, the bishop of Hippo longed that his readers understand the seriousness of sin   There are many t

                                                                                                                                 I. Introduction In this brief post, I wish to demonstrate that the life of every true Christian will entail some sort of persecution. Contrary to what many Americans have been taught, salvation does not begin and end with a one time prayer and confession of faith in Christ. For all Christian history before the Enlightenment, Christians in the Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox traditions understood that Christianity is not part of the life of a Christian, but is the very life of a Christian.                                 II. The Early Church Understood that Christians will be Persecuted  In the first four centuries of Christians, Christians universally received some sort of persecution. Many of them were crucified, raped, eaten by wild beasts in the Colosseums, sentenced to the swords of the Roman soldiers, etc. The majority of them were slave