One of the first PowerPoints that I made when teaching theology. It is crazy. It has animations, links to further slides, and terrible graphics. But it is fun share and does give an accurate view of the history of Christianity. (Although the animations and links don't work in this slideshare.)

1. History of
Theology
Putting it all into Perspective

2. Outline
I. Reason for the Study
II. Theology
III. Christology
IV. Doctrine of the Atonement
V. Ecclesiology
VI. Bibliology

3. I. Reason for the
Study
• To appreciate and respect our orthodox heritage
knowing that we learn in a community.
• To benefit from the giftedness of the entire body
of Christ (Church Universal/Invisible).
• To understand that doctrine was developed
progressively.
• To gain greater confidence in our faith.
• To realize that while truth is unchangeable, our
understanding of truth is not.

4. II. Theology

5. Early Church Theology
Council of Nicea
325
381
Council of Constantinople
ca. 400
Athanasian Creed
311
Peace
265
Council of
Antioch
Gnosticism
Ebionism
Modalism Arianism
1 BC 500 BC

8. Definition of God
One God who in three persons,the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit, all of which are fully
God, all of which are equal.

9. Modern Church
Theology
1. Mormons (10 million +)
• Christ is the product of a sexual relationship
between the Father and a goddess. Satan is his
brother.
2. Jehovah’s Witnesses
• Jesus (also known as Michael the archangel) is
a creation and the Holy Spirit is a force.
3. Muslims
• There is one God, Allah. Christ was a great
prophet.

10. Modern Church
Theology
4. Oneness Pentecostals
– Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one
person who reveals Himself in three
different forms.

11. Questions/Comme
nts

12. A Christological
Christmas

13. “Many people
have sought
to be God, but
only one God
has sought to

14. Christiological Heresy
Nestorius
Apollinarianism
390 400 430
Eutychianism
451
Creed of
Chalcedon

15. The God-Man
• The Incarnation: The third Person of the
Trinity took on an additional nature.
• Hypostatic Union: Christ is fully God and
fully man (“very God, and very man).
• Two natures, one person.
• Theanthropos: The God-man.

16. Why is it so
important that
Christ be both fully
God and fully man?

17. What did Christ mean
when He said in the
garden, Father, if“
You are willing,
remove this cup
from Me; yet not My
will, but Yours be
done. ? (Luke 22:42)“

18. What did Christ mean
on the Cross when
He said, My God My“
God, why have you
forsaken me? ?“
(Matt 27:46)

19. Questions/Comme
nts

20. IV. Doctrine of the
Atonement (The Work
of Christ)

21. What does it mean
that Christ died for
us?
(Mark 10:45)

22. Defining For“ ”
Ransom to
Satan
100 1200
Recapitulation
500
Substitutionary
Penal,
Substitution

23. False Definitions of
the Atonement
• Ransom to Satan (Origen, 250)
– Satan is the one who we were held in bondage
by.
– In truth, we were held in bondage to Satan by
God.
• Moral influence (Abelard, 1100)
– Christ’s death did not pay for sins, but it softens
sinners hearts to repent as they see him on the
Cross.

24. False Definitions of
the Atonement
• Example (Socinus, 1600)
– Christ’s death was an example of obedience,
not a substitution.
• Governmental, (Grotius 1600)
– Christ fulfilled God’s governmental Law
thereby enabling God to forgive.

25. Penal Substitution
• Penal
– Legal satisfaction of God’s righteousness
• Substitutionary
– Christ died in our place. He took our
punishment.

26. What passage in the
Bible teaches penal
substitution more
than any other?

27. Isaiah 53: 4-11
“Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows
He carried; . . . But He was pierced through for our
transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The
chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by
His scourging we are healed. . . . the LORD has
caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. . . He was
cut off out of the land of the living for the
transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was
due? . . . By His knowledge the Righteous One, My
Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their
iniquities. . . . Yet He Himself bore the sin of many,
And interceded for the transgressors.”

28. Atonement Question
• If Christ was our exact substitution (and He
was), does that mean that we were destined
to die on the Cross?
• Why isn’t Christ still in Hell paying for the
countless millions of believer’s sins?

29. Questions/Comme
nts

30. V. Ecclesiology

31. Alexandria
Rome
Constantinople
(The New Rome)
Antioch
Jerusalem
History of the ChurchHippo

32. Alexandria
Rome
Constantinople
(The New Rome)
Antioch
Jerusalem
Hippo
Invasion of Islam

33. Rome
Constantinople
(The New Rome)
History of the Church
Iconoclasm
Folique
Fight for SupremecySplit
1054
Eastern Orthodox
Catholic

34. Rome
History of the Church

35. 100 AD 1200 1500500
Corruption
Greek Orthodox
1059
Loss of Gospel
Protestant
Roman Catholic

36. Questions/Comme
nts

37. VI. Bibliology

38. 90
O.T.
Council of Jamnia
150
Marcion
303
Diocletian
All sacred
books
destroyed
397
Council of
Cathage accepts 27
books of OT Vulgate
400 1645
Council
of Trent
Canonicity

39. Churches view of
Inspiration
100 AD 1979
Tradition
Reformation
1517 1800
Liberalism
Evangelicalism
Chicago Statement of
Biblical Inerrancy
Church
Fathers

40. Questions/Comme
nts

41. Application
• Learn from the great historians of the past.
• Doctrine was developed by Spirit led men
of God who were continually reworking
their theology.
– We also must be willing to advance in our
theological understanding.
• Just as doctrine was developed only when
trouble came, so it is with the Christian life.

42. Questions/Comme
nts

43. Possible tests for
canonicity
1. Apostilicity: was it written by an Apostle
or a close associate of an apostle
2. Acceptance by the Church: did the early
Chruch (Clement, Ignatius, etc.) accept it.
3. Doctrine: was it orthodox.
4. Was it inspired: did it evidence the work
of the Holy Spirit.

44. Vulgate
• Translation done by St. Jerome of the LXX
into Latin.
• Became the official Bible of the Church.

45. Deuderocanonical
Books
• Also called the Apocrypha
• Lit. “Second Canon”
• Placed in the Vulgate against the will of
Jerome.
• Disputed for the next 1200 years.

46. Apollinarianism (c. 310-
c. 390)
Human /SpiritMind
Human Body
Divine Logos
Human Soul

47. Apollinarianism (c. 310-
c. 390)
Condemned at the council of Constantinople 381

48. Apollinarianism (c. 310-
c. 390)
“He assumes that man who came down
from above is without a mind, not that the
Godhead of the Only-begotten fulfills the
function of mind, and is the third part of his
human composite, inasmuch as soul and
body are in it on its human side, but not
mind, the place of which is taken by God
the Word.”—Gregory of Nazianzus (329/30-389/90)

49. Nestorius (b. after
351- d. after 451)
Human Person Divine Person
Separate

50. Nestorius (b. after
351- d. after 451)
• Denied the term Theotokos
• Affirmed the term Christotokos
• Condemned at the council of Ephesus 431

51. Eutychianism (c. 378-
c. 454)
Human
Divine
Humine

52. Eutychianism (c. 378-
c. 454)
• Did not deny they humanity of Christ.
• Did not separate the natures.
• Mixed the two natures.
• Condemned at the Council of Chalcedon
451

53. Creed of Chalcedon
“Therefore, following the holy fathers, we all with
one accord teach men to acknowledge one and the
same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete
in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God
and truly man, consisting also of a reasonable soul
and body; of one substance with the Father as
regards his Godhead, and at the same time of one
substance with us as regards his manhood; like us
in all respects, apart from sin; as regards his
Godhead, begotten of the Father before the ages,
but yet as regards his manhood begotten, for us
men and for our salvation, of Mary the Virgin, the
God-bearer;

54. one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-
begotten, recognized in two natures, without
confusion, without change, without division,
without separation; the distinction of natures
being in no way annulled by the union, but
rather the characteristics of each nature being
preserved and coming together to form one
person and subsistence, not as parted or
separated into two persons, but one and the same
Son and Only-begotten God the Word, Lord
Jesus Christ; even as the prophets from earliest
times spoke of him, and our Lord Jesus Christ
himself taught us, and the creed of the fathers has
handed down to us.

55. Nicene Creed
We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.

56. Through him all things were made. For us
and for our salvation he came down from
heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he
became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man. For our sake he was
crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered
death and was buried. On the third day he
rose again in accordance with the
Scriptures;he ascended into heaven and is
seated at the right hand of the Father.

57. He will come again in glory to judge the
living and the dead,and his kingdom will
have no end. We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds
from the Father and the Son. With the
Father and the Son he is worshipped and
glorified. He has spoken through the
Prophets. We believe in one holy catholic
and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one
baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look
for the resurrection of the dead, and the life
of the world to come. Amen.

58. Filioque
• Phrase added to the Niceno-
Constantinoplan creed in 589A,D at the 3rd
council of Toledo. Lit., “and the Son.”
Added to clarify the procession of the Holy
Spirit, He proceeds from the Father and the
Son. The Eastern Church saw this as a
compromise of the Spirit’s equality with the
Son.

59. Definitions
1. Ebionism: Early Jewish belief that Jesus was a prophet
who came to aid the poor.
2. Modalism: There is one God who displays Himself in three
different ways/modes/manifestations (not persons).
3. Gnosticism: Dualists who believed that Christ was the
greatest in a series of emanations from God.
5. Arianism: Promoted in the 4th
century by a monk named
Arius. Believed that since Christ was begotten then, “There
was a time when Christ was not.” Christ is the first created
being.
6. Council of Nicea: First ecumenical (universal church)
council. Convened in 325. Condemned the teachings of Arius.
First official statement on the Trinity.

60. Timeline of Doctrinal
Development
Theology
(200-400)
Bibliology
(150-400)
Christology
(300-451)
Doctrine of
the
Atonement
(ca. 1100)
Soteriology
(15th
Century)
Eschatology
(19th
-20th
Century)