A History of Christianity - The First 3000 Years

A History of Christianity – The First Three Thousand Years
DVD 6 Part Documentary from BBC

For those of you that know me, know how much I love history and anything that pertains to it. I was so fortunate to be provided with a complimentary DVD by B & B Media Group to review the first episode of this amazing DVD series. The DVD is titled “The First Christianity”.

A History of Christianity, a six-part series presented by Diarmaid MacCulloch, an Oxford history professor whose books about Cranmer and the Reformation have been acllaimed as masterpieces. A History of Christianity will reveal the true origins of Christianity and delve into what it means to be a Christian. Intelligent, thought-provoking and magisterial in its scope the series will reveal how a small Jewish sect that preached humility became the biggest religion in the world.

In Episode 1 – The First Christianity, Professor MacCulloch goes in search across of Christianity’s forgotten origins. He overturns the familiar story that it all began when the apostle Paul took Christianity from Jerusalem to Rome. Instead, he shows that the true origins of Christianity lie east, and that at one point it was poised to triumph in Asia, maybe even in China. The headquarters of Christianity may well have been in Baghdad not Rome. And if that had happened Western Christianity would have been very different.

In viewing this 60 minute DVD I kept an open mind to the information that Professor MacCulloch details. He takes you from where Paul left off when he carried Jesus’ message to Rome and instead followed the growth of Christianity into the east to see if it did in fact exist. What he found there was pretty amazing. He shows evidence of Christianity in Syria, Baghdad and even China before most of the religious wars had taken place.

One of the most interesting arguments in this DVD from Christians is the explanation of Jesus. Was He God? Was He just a man? Or was He as we, believe both? If so, how can a perfect being like God, create a human to dwell among us and still be part God?

The best explanation I have heard is simply this. Take a glass and call the glass Jesus.
Add water which represent his Divine Godly nature to the glass. Add some oil which is the part of Jesus that is now a human. This explains it. Jesus as both God and Man but still Jesus.

Some like it seen another way in which you take the glass and call it Jesus. Add water which represents his Divine Nature but this time also add wine to it. This represent Jesus as a human. Now mix them together. You can no longer see them as separate but we know that both the water and wine are together, just like the divine nature was combined with the human flesh known as Jesus.

If you are interested in more information about the DVD series or even where to purchase it, please click on the link below:

A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years 6 DVD Set presented by Diarmaid MacCulloch
March 2010
www.ambrosevideo.com