Although I am not what you might call a believer, I have always found church story to be pretty fascinating. I first studied the story of the Church not discover of intellectual curiosity, but discover of spiritual need. You see, I was having trouble with the belief that I was brought up in. My parents were extremely religious people, but I felt that the belief was hypocritical. They preached the love of God, and yet they believed that every sinners would go to hell. They talked about the forgiveness of God, but they thought that he actually had it in his heart to torture people indefinitely for committing restricted sins in this lifetime. To me, this didn't make any sense. I didn't want to believe in a cruel God who would doom people to eternal suffering. I have researched the story of Christianity to find discover how this belief has come about.

It turns discover that church story is more complicated than people tend to present it as. There are every kinds of story of the Christian Church books discover there, but most of them are cursive with a portion agenda. Either they are cursive to bring people back into the fold, or they are cursive to denounce the church. I didn't really want either. I wanted to read some church story that was cursive from a fair and balanced perspective that gave every side its equal chance. I was interested in truth, not ideology. I leave ideology for the believers.

When you study early church history, you find discover how political everything was. It turns discover that one of the most important agendas for the early church was to consolidate belief. To this end, they inhibited anyone who believed things different than the mainstream churches. The Gnostics and other heretics were oppressed for their ideas. Church story is about early Christians coming up with one news to share with every the believers. They emphasized Heaven and Hell because it would cause greater obedience. Had they been interested in diversity of thought instead of in creating a homogenous code of belief, things might have been rattling different.

In the end, reading church story did not return me to my faith, but it did give me spiritual benefits. Because of my Christian story readings, I have decided to formulate my own beliefs independent of any religious doctrine. It has made me feel such happier than before.