TOPIC: ROMAN RELIGIOUS CULTS WITH CHRISTIANITY

Roman religious cults with Christianity



Roman religious cults with Christianity

Introduction

For the first thousand years of Christianity there was no "Roman Catholicism" as we know it today, easily because there was no to the east Orthodoxy or Protestantism to differentiate it. There was only the "one, holy, church member place of worship" affirmed by the early creeds, which was the body of Christian believers all over the world, united by widespread traditions, beliefs, church structure and worship (catholic easily means "universal"). Thus, all through the Middle Ages, if you were a Christian, you belonged to the Catholic Church. Any Christianity other than the church member Church was a heresy, not a denomination.

Roman religious cults vs. with Christianity

The imperial cult was an significant unifying component in the enormously undergoverned Roman Empire. It was mutually beneficial for both Rome and its subjects. Most significantly, it was a focal issue for commitment to Rome and the emperor. For the provincial elites it also provided new possibilities for communal advancement. Yet, despite its political significance, the imperial cult should not be simply dismissed as a political tool. In polytheistic Greece, it furthermore did devout implication, since success was treated as commensurate with divine favour and patronage.

The term 'cult of Christianity' is utilised of a group, church or organization whose centered teachings and/or practices are claimed to be biblical or agent of biblical Christianity, but which are in fact unbiblical and un-Christian.

To realise the functions performed by the imperial cult, it is instructive to focus on the Augustan age, since this is the time span when it was presented and took on new dimensions. In the east, the cults and respects for Augustus were mostly spontaneous, and only seldom did Augustus himself or members of his around take the initiative. Indeed, soon after his triumph at Actium, the Greek residents of Bithynia and Asia requested consent to establish his cult . Augustus himself was at first reluctant to accept such honours, possibly because he did not desire to alienate the Roman aristocracy. Later, he came to glimpse its political worth and sanctioned the continuance of the leader cult in the east by a sequence of ad hoc directives, and encouraged it, albeit warily, in the west, where ruler cults had no precedence.

The term can furthermore be applied to assemblies, associations or churches whose statement of belief may sound orthodox, but who add aberrant, heterodox, sub-orthodox and/or heretical teachings to such an extend that the absolutely vital doctrines of the Christian belief are contrary affected.

The significance of the expression "Christian belief" is not like a wax nose, which can be rotated to signify whatever the speaker wants it to mean.

The Christian belief is a decisive system of convictions with decisive content (Jude 3)

Certain Christian doctrines constitute the core of the faith. Central doctrines encompass the Trinity, the deity of Christ, the bodily resurrection, the atoning work of Christ on the cross, and salvation by grace through ...