Kenny Martin’s Blog

Mecca is the most holy city in Islam, because the founder of Islam, Mohammed, was born there about 570 A.D.. Mecca was at “… crossroads of trade routes.” History Book, page 148. Mohammed’s father was a merchant himself, so it seems natural he and his family would live at an intersection of trade. At the age of 40, Mohammed began to have strange visions. He claimed that they were visions from God, which led to the religion of Islam. But the merchants in Mecca were worried that Mohammed’s teaching would affect Mecca’s position of the religious center of Arabia, because of how he strongly disagreed with its polytheistic religion. So Mohammed fled from Mecca, to Yathrib, later called Medina.  There he gained religious and political power, and in 630 A.D. led his followers in the first jihad, holy war, on Mecca. Mecca was purified, which meant that only Muslims could enter the city, a law still in affect. Mecca is still important in the Islamic tradition, and is the direction Muslims face when they pray.

Kabba is a religious house in Mecca, Mohammed’s hometown, and muslims believe that it is the most sacred place. In Islam one capable of the task must do a Hajj, a pilgrimage, to Kabba. Kaaba is home to a meteorite called the Black Stone, and one of Hajj pilgrims try to kiss the meteorite, though they are not always able to. Kaaba still affects our world today, as two million muslims come to Kaaba every Hajj.

Gothic churches was a style of church build during the end of the Middle Ages. They had high walls and tall steeples. They also had tall windows, which often were stained glass. The Cathedral of Notre Dame is a perfect example of a Gothic church.

A new style of architecture was developed called Romanesque. It had thick walls and small rounded-arched windows. Some churches were built in this style and often resembled castles. They had towers, but they seldom had steeples, unlike Gothic churches.

Constantine was the Emperor of the Roman Empire. He tried combine Christianity and politics to stabilize the unstable Roman government. He did not know much about Christianity, which he demonstrated several times. For example, he thought that Arianism was only a small issue, while in fact it was a very serious issue. One important thing Constantine did, though it might not have been his place to do so, was calling the Council of Nicene together in 325 A.D. to decide if Jesus was divine (Arianism claimed that Jesus had been made by God, and therefore was not as divine). The council came to the conclusion that Jesus is divine, proving Arianism wrong, and put Arians under a curse.

Constantine’s plan to strengthen the Roman government by using Christianity as its base failed, and the empire split forever after 395 A.D., and the western part fell about one century later. Even the conclusion that he had the council come to was argued about and changed very often. I think that Constantine did affect the world while he was around because he did have the Council of Nicene come to the conclusion that Jesus is divine. The only problem is that what he did about that issue did not last very long, and neither did the Roman Empire after he tried to keep it together with religion.

Catholic does not necessarily have to do with the church. The original meaning of the word catholic is “universal.” But this word was used, in terms of the church, to mean “invisible,” referring to all of of the Christians being members of one church. But this meaning was changed to mean “visible,” that all the churches were physically one. But all of the churches needed people to give orders, and other people to take orders. This led to the supremacy of one church over all the others. This church was the Church of Rome. As the catholic church progressed, it began to distort Christianity. Soon, Christians were forced to agree with the Church of Rome, and the Pope, or bishop, became the ultimate connection between man and God. However, neither of those theories are biblical.

Apostolic authority is the belief that Jesus appointed the Apostles as special leaders in the church, above all other church leaders. Jesus told them to “… speak and act in His name.” History Book, page 137. They were eyewitnesses of Jesus, and were his disciples, and because of that Jesus gave them special authority.

The Doctrine of Original Sin is a Christian belief that states that man is guilty of sin the moment he, or she, is born, and is therefore under the penalty of sin until that person chooses to be redeemed by Jesus’ saving grace. In other words, this doctrine says that because of the first sin of mankind, eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, everyone is naturally born with the penalty of sin, Hell, at birth. It says that because God is just, he judges everyone at any age according to his laws. It goes on to say that God’s law is that any person who does not accept salvation is entitled to the punishment of their wrong: Hell. I think this doctrine is important in the church and affects the church greatly because by this some Christians find out the eternal destination of every man, Heaven or Hell.

The true head of the church, according to the Bible, is Jesus. Colossians 1:18 says, “And he [Jesus] is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.” There is no question that the Bible defines who the head of the church, and that person, of course, is Jesus.

Deacons, elders, priests, and bishops were all leaders in the Christian church. Bishops began to be called popes, and, thanks to Irenaeus and Apostolic succession, the pope became the supreme ruler of the church. This was not how the Bible indicated it to be, and the Bible became distorted, along with the leadership aspect of things. Popes had the most power of all the church leaders, even to the point of determining a person’s eternal destination. As the church became more distorted, so did most aspects of Christianity, and it wasn’t until true Christians like Martin Luther when the truth was revealed.