I’m trying to learn more about Church history from James Hitchcock’s one volume work. The historian gathered some quick points about early Christian doctrine that night be interesting to you.
Angels and Devils
Jews and Christians believed in angels. Three angels are known by name: Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. There are angels assigned to nations and individuals.
Satan appeared in the Old Testament to accuse men of sin and test their fidelity. He was even permitted by God to test Jesus. Christians thought it was the serpent in the Garden who tempted Adam and Eve. The name Lucifer also referred to Satan. The Book of Revelation says that Satan originally was responsible for earth, but rebelled out of resentment because he foresaw the Incarnation of Christ. Satan didn’t like a human overthrowing his angelic authority.
Both angels and devils fight over the souls of men. We still have free will and can’t be coerced by spiritual powers, but struggle to follow the light given our broken nature (concupiscence).
The Kingdom
Christians expanded the Jewish idea that God is the Lord of history. God acts through human events and history is really an unfolding of God’s Kingdom.
The ways of the Kingdom are… the reverse of those of human society—triumph emerges only from defeat, suffering is the necessary prerequisite to glory, he who would save his life must lose it, the humble will be exalted, to give is better than to receive. (Page 24)
Continuity with Judaism
The Christians saw fundamental continuity between their own faith and that of the Jews, because Jesus revealed the one true God—the God of the Jews—to the entire world. Beginning on Pentecost, the followers of Jesus proclaimed that He alone fulfilled the promises of the Jewish prophets. Thus the sacred books of the two religions fit together harmoniously. Christians insisted that the Old Testament could be ultimately understood only in the light of the New, although most Jews did not recognize that unity. (Page 24)
Paul and the Law
[Paul] made a subtle and profound analysis of human nature as enslaved to the inherited sin of Adam, a slavery which the Law exposes but which in itself it is powerless to overcome. Christ conferred freedom, but it is a paradoxical freedom—not self-will but the conquest of self-will, which is the very instrument of bondage. (Page 25)
The New Adam
Jesus was the New Adam who destroyed the sinful inheritance of the Old. When they accepted baptism, therefore, Christians did not merely join a community but through that mystical action were “baptized into Christ’s death” and thereby enabled to participate in His Resurrection, overcoming the slavery of sin. Men had to crucify their own natures and die to sin in order to become the adopted children of God. (Page 25)
The Mystical Body
The reality of Christ’s one body is difficult to see not because it is supernatural, but because, I think, of the divisions we see in the Church. I’m not just referring to our Protestant brothers and sisters, but also to the divisions within the Catholic Church. The Church is nothing less than Christ’s own body! “All believers are members, organically linked to one another and to Christ as their Head.”