The Church of Allan - The Plain Truth About God.

A serialization of the book, The Plain Truth About God (Chapter 5 - Timelines)

Chapter 5 – TIMELINE
You cannot tell who, or where you are, unless you know how you got there!

** Life of Jesus of Nazareth
Just for old times sake we are going to use A.D. instead of the current C.E.
(Common Era)

36-65 A.D. - Oral period of Christianity between Jesus and Gospel of Mark. - Only about 120 initial believers, then quickly to 3000 and 5000. - Paul converts to “Apostle of the Gentiles” - Main activity of Christianity shifts from “Jewish-Christians” of Judea and Galilee to “Gentile - Christians” led by Paul and his Patroness Phoebe. - The stoning death of St. Stephen, who became the first Christian martyr.
31-37 A.D. - Saul of Tarsus, formerly a rabbi and enemy of early Christianity, converts and becomes St. Paul.
37-41 A.D. - Caligula rules Rome. - Early Gnostics.
58 A.D. - Ming-Ti, Chinese Emperor, introduces Buddhism to China.
60 A.D. - Paul was imprisoned in Rome for sedition, and martyred for treason in…
62 A.D... It was also during this time that nearly everyone connected with Jesus was executed by Rome. (In one way or another) - A hard way to start a faith!
62 A.D. - James, brother of Jesus, and some others, were brought before a group of judges and accused of transgressing the law. They were then stoned to death. - “Q” documents circulated and Dead Sea Scrolls hidden in various caves. - Gospel of Thomas, based on Q?
64 A.D. - Great fire of Rome. Nero fiddled and then accused the Christians of setting the fire. He suppressed them for a while, but like the fire, they were too far advanced to be put out.
66-73 A.D. - Roman-Jewish war, final destruction of Herod’s Temple.
70 A.D. - Gospel of Mark, ends at Mk 16:8; (New ending added in c400 CE.) - Signs Gospel, hypothetical Greek text later used in Gospel of John to prove Jesus is Messiah. - Center of Christianity shifts from Jerusalem to Antioch, Alexandria and Rome.
73 A.D. - Massada, stronghold of Jewish zealots’ falls to Roman assault.
79 A.D. - August 24th, Mount Vesuvius destroys Pompeii.
79-91 A.D. - Pope Anacletus. (Titus the Blameless?)
80- 90 A.D. - Gospel of Mathew, second Gospel and most popular of the early church, comprised of Mark and Q. - Gospel of Luke / Acts, based on Mark and Q.
91-101 A.D. - Pope Clement 1 - In two or three instances, he speaks of remembering “the words” of Christ, so it seems he had a written record in mind, but does not call it “gospel.” He knows several of Paul’s epistles, and values them highly for their content; the same can be said of the Epistle of the Hebrews, with which he is well acquainted.
Although these writings obviously possess for Clement 1 considerable significance, he never refers to them as authoritative “Scripture.” What he does is write a letter arguing that church leaders possess a Divine authority inherited from Christ and his Apostles. So here, less than a hundred years after Jesus, we already have the Church trying to supplant God!
91-150 A.D. - Secret Book of James. - Gospel of Mary Magdalene, - Early Gospels of Thomas and James. - Secret gospel of Mark.
105 A.D. - Ts’ai Lun of China invents paper.
110 A.D. - Ignatius, 3rd Bishop of Antioch, martyred in Rome, letters subjected to heavy Christian forgery.
100-125 A.D. - Justin Martyr, first apologist to offer a defense of Christianity. - Gospel of John composed!
c150 A.D. - “Western Reviser” Probably one of St. Paul’s companions, transcribed Luke’s book (Acts) after the authors death and inserted details of which had personal knowledge. He made other alterations in accordance with his own taste, on which he regarded himself as having authority equal to that of Luke!
c160 A.D. -Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, complained Christians were changing and faking his own letters just as they had changed the Gospels.
-School of Alexandria founded in Egypt. Becomes a major centre for both Christian theology and Greek philosophy.
c190 A.D. - Pope Victor 1: First Latin Pope. Called council in 190 to determine “official” new date of Easter but failed. - Excommunicated Eastern Churches that continued to observe Easter on old Biblical time. - New Testament cannon are fixed in currently known form.
235-284 A.D. - Germans, Goths, and Persians attack Rome. Ruin Athens, Sparta and Corinth. - While Rome and China slowly disintegrated under Barbarian invasions, India, secured from Nomadic attacks behind a revived Persian civilization, enters classical age under the Gupta kings.
286 A.D. - Emperor Diocletian divides Roman Empire in two, forming Modern Greece. (The Byzantine Empire) - Christians banned from Roman army. - Constantine defeats Maxentius to become the absolute ruler of Rome. - Converts to Christianity after a vision of a cross in the sky and the words: “In Hoc Signo Vinces” {“With this sign, (the cross) you shall conquer.”}
315 A.D. - Roman Empire split into Eastern (Byzantine) and West (Rome)
325 A.D. - First Ecumenical Council of Nicea convened by Emperor Constantine; establishes Nicene Creed as the fundamental statement of Christian doctrine.
Constantine offered to make the sect the official state religion if they would settle their differences.
By compiling a book of sacred writings that they could all agree on Constantine thought this would give authority to the new church.
Composed of about 300 religious leaders, this council was given the task of separating the divinely inspired writings from those of questionable origin.
The actual compilation of the Bible was an incredibly complicated project since it came three hundred years after the death of Jesus and involved churchmen of varying beliefs, in an atmosphere of dissension, jealousy, intolerance, and bigotry.
To add to the dissention, they were split into two groups that questioned the divinity of Jesus.
The purpose was to settle the dispute over the teachings of Arius, that Christ was not equal in divinity to God.
The council (in their wisdom) declared that Jesus WAS equal in divinity to God by a majority vote and declares Arianism a heresy.
(Dateline-Middle East Times - “Jesus declared equal by majority vote!” “Jesus relieved, would like to thank all his supporters.)”(Byzantine Empress Irene convened the second council of 787 CE the 7th ecumenical council. - It was called to refute “iconoclasm” and the council declared that images ought to be venerated - but not worshiped, and ordered them restored in the churches. It is the last council accepted by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Eastern Church as ecumenical.)
380 A.D. - Christianity becomes the official religion of the Roman Empire under the reign of Theodosius 1.
381 A.D. - First Council of Constantinople decides that the “Holy Spirit” has the same divinity as “The Son.” (Decided by the Council of Nicea 56 years earlier)
(GOD at first objected strenuously to having to share Divinity three ways, but eventually consented to a “Trinity!” ;-)
C.400 A.D. - Great library at Alexandria burned by Christian Zealots, destroying 750,000 works including most of the world’s historical pagan literature on religion!
405 A.D. - St. Jerome completes the Vulgate - a Latin translation of both the Old and New Testaments. This remains the Latin Bible of the Roman Catholic Church.
433-453 A.D. - Attila the Hun, known-world tour!
476 A.D. - The Western Roman Empire falls to barbarian armies, leaving the church as the primary authority in the West. - In the East, the Byzantine Empire, based in Constantinople, continues for the next 977 years.
500 A.D.-600 A.D. - The Talmud, a compilation of Jewish oral laws and traditions is put in its final form in Babylonia. - It consists of two parts: an oral law (Mishna) in Hebrew, and commentaries (Gemara) in Aramaic.
520-550 A.D. - Zen Buddhism evolves in China.
570 A.D. - Muhammad born in Mecca.


Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available at the web site http://www.god-101.com/

Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com