| Church History Timeline |
| 551-479 B.C. - Confucius. |
| 560-480 B.C. - Buddha. |
| 5-3 B.C. - Birth of Jesus Christ. |
| 33 - Jesus Death, burial, and resurrection. |
| 37-97 - Flavius Josephus. Jewish Pharisee and Historian during the Apostolic era whose writings greatly assisted Christian Apologetics. |
| 44 - James The Great. Son of Zebedee, the elder brother of John, and a relative of Jesus; for his mother Salome was cousin-german to the Virgin Mary. James was beheaded. |
| 50-107 - Ignatius of Antioch. One of the Apostolic Fathers (the earliest authoritative group of the Church Fathers), was the third Bishop and Patriarch of Antioch, and along with friend Polycarp, may have been a student of John the Apostle. Tradition claims he was martyred in the Colosseum, in Rome, eaten by lions. |
| 50 - The Jerusalem Council (See Acts 15). |
| 55-120 - Cornelius Tacitus. Roman historian. |
| 60 - Matthew, the tax collector and writer of the Book of Matthew. Born in Nazareth. He wrote his gospel in Hebrew, which was afterwards translated into Greek by James the Less. Martyred with a sword in the city of Nadabah, A.D. 60. |
| 67 - Peter and Paul executed in Rome. Peter crucified. Paul beheaded. |
| 69-155 - Polycarp. Apostolic Father and bishop at Smyrna. Polycarp was martyred at Smyrna, at the age of 86, according to Christian martyr and theologian Irenaeus, who was his pupil. Polycarp was burned at the stake for refusing to burn incense to the Roman Emperor. |
| 70 - The destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. |
| 72 - Jude, the brother of James, Joses, and Jesus, was commonly called Thaddeus. He was crucified at Edessa, A.D. 72. |
| 90 - Clement of Rome writes to Corinth. |
| 94 - Polycarp writes to Philippi. |
| 100-165 - Justin Martyr. One of the earliest Christian apologist for Christianity. Opened a school of Christian philosophy at Rome where he was later martyred under Prefect Rusticus by beheading, after refusing to obey the Emperor Emperor Marcus Aurelius to sacrifice to the Roman Gods. |
| 105 - Ignatius writes his seven epistles. |
| 120 - The Apostle John dies and is buried in Ephesus. |
| 140-202 - Irenaeus. Early Church Father. Was converted under Polycarp, Polycarp a disciple of John The Apostle. |
| 150 - Justin Martyr writes in defense of Christianity. |
| 150-203 - Clement of Alexandria. Greek theologian, Christian convert, early Church Father, and teacher of Origen. |
| 160-220 - Tertullian. Roman Catholic theologian converted 197 a.d. Left Catholicism in 213. |
| 185-254 - Origen (Origines Adamantius). Christian philosopher, pupil of Clement of Alexandria-taught in Alexandria for 28 years. |
| 200 - Gnostic gospels written (double predestinationism). |
| 256-336 - Arius. Alexandrian priest who taught the heresy that Jesus was a supernatural being, not quite human, not quite divine, and who was created by God. Arianism was condemned at the first council of Nicea (325). The conflict continued as several bishops and emperors sided with Arius. The Catholic tenets of Rome and Athanasius finally triumphed, and the first council of Constantinople (381) upheld the decrees of Nicea. Athanasius' formulated the "homoousian" doctrine (from scripture), according to which the Son of God is of the same essence, or substance, as the Father. |
| 260-340 - Eusebius of Caesarea. Third century historian. Leader of the semi-Arians. Eusebius held that the nature of the Father, and the nature of Jesus Christ, were of similiar substance rather than the same substance. At the council of Nicea in 325 he accepted the Athanasian position, but leaned toward Arianism at the Synod's of Antioch (324), and Tyre (335). |
| 293-373 - Athanasius - Given the epithet "Father of Orthodoxy." Christian theologian who championed the cause for orthodoxy in the 4th-century struggle against Arianism. At the Council of Nicea in 325, Athanasius opposed Arius, the Alexandrian priest, who advanced the doctrine of Arianism which maintained that the Son was of a different substance from that of the Father and was merely a creature, much more perfect than any other creature, who was used by God in subsequent works of creation. Tradition holds that 318 Bishops attended the council where Arianism was condemned and the Trinity was completely codified in the creeds. Athanasius formulated the "homoousian" doctrine, according to which the Son of God is of the same essence, or substance, as the Father. Arianism continued its attempt to alter Christian doctrine, but the Catholic tenets of Rome, and Athanasius finally triumphed for good as the First Council of Constantinople (a.d. 381) upheld the decrees of Nicea. The author of the Athanasius Creed is unknown but was named for Athanasius because it codifies the orthodox beliefs of Athanasius and the early Church, and their work done at the First Council of Nicea. |
| 300 - Prayers for the dead and 'sign of the cross' brought into the church at Rome. |
| 325 - The Council of Nicea, St. Nicholas, Athanasius. |
| 325 - Eusibius of Cesseria writes the "Ecclesiastical History" of the Church. |
| 340-397 - Ambrose. Bishop of Milan from 374 to 397. Church Father and Doctor of the Church, and fitly chosen, together with Augustine, John Chrysostom, and Athanasius. Close friend with Augustine's mother. |
| 347-419 - Jerome. Biblical scholar. Produced the Latin Vulgate Bible. |
| 354-430 - Augustine. Named 'The Father of Theology. Augustine was Bishop of Hippo near modern Algeria. Church Father and one of the 8 doctors of the church. Famous quote used today in apologetics: " In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, and in all things charity". Augustine, one of the only early apologists to consider the apocrypha as scripture, ultimately admitted that the apocrypha had secondary status to the rest of the old testament. Baptised in 387a.d. Popularized the phrase "His-story" describing God's sovereignty in the affairs of men throughout history. This was also a part of Augustine's Theisic mindset which harmonizes with Calvin, Anselm, Aquinas and Geisler. |
| 375 - Veneration and praying to angels, Mary, and dead saints, and use of images started by Roman Catholicism. |
| 390 - Jovinians teach celibacy is no better than being married, a person baptized with the Spirit as well as with water cannot sin; all sins are equal; and denied the perpetual virginity Mary. |
| 394 - Roman Catholic daily mass (current form) started. |
| 395 - Vigilantians condemned the veneration of images and relics, invocation of the Saints, celibacy of the clergy; and monasticism: and held it useless to pray for the dead. |
| 431 - Council of Ephesus named Mary, "Theotokos, Mother of God". Many Church Fathers used the title Theotokos for Mary, at least since the third century. Often Origen (died 254 C.E.) is cited as the earliest author to use the title Theotokos for Mary, but the text upon which this assertion is based is not genuine (Socrates, Ecclesiastical History 7.32 citing Origen's Commentary on Romans). Dionysios of Alexandria used the term in about 250, in an epistle to Paul of Samosata. Athanasius of Alexandria in 330, Gregory the Theologian in 370, John Chrysostom in 400, and Augustine all used the term Theotokos. Theodoret wrote in 436 that calling Virgin Mary Theotokos was an apostolic tradition. |
| 487 - New Year's Day became a holy day in the Christian church. |
| 570-632 - Muhammad. Birth of Islam, 600 a.d. |
| 593 - Doctrine of purgatory introduced by Pope Gregory I. |
| 600 - Prayers to the Virgin, Queen of Heaven. |
| 610 - Title of "pope", or universal bishop, was first given to Boniface III by emperor Phocas. |
| 649 - Pope Martin I declares the “Perpetual Virginity of Mary”, stating she was virginal all of her life , before, during, and after the birth of Jesus Christ. |
| 657 - Paulicians teach a plurality of Gods, all matter is evil; rejected the Old Testament; denied the Incarnation; Christ was an angel, saved by faith in Christ alone, transmigration of souls; denied the sacraments; and refused to honor the Cross since they believed that Christ had not been crucified. |
| 788 - Worship of images, relics, and the cross in Roman Catholicism. |
| 900 - The first wave of Gypsies migrate from Southern India. |
| 962 - The Holy Roman Empire was formed. The Holy Roman Empire was a union of territories in Central Europe during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period under a Holy Roman Emperor. The first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire was Otto I, crowned in 962. The last was Francis II, who abdicated and dissolved the Empire in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. In a decree following the 1512 Diet of Cologne, the name was officially changed to Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. |
| 998 - Observance of Lent and Good Friday began. |
| 1033-1109 - Anselm. Born of a well-to-do family at Aosta, in England. Anselm was a Christian Theologian and a Classical Apologist. Influenced by Plato philosophically and Augustine theologically. In his study of the nature of God, Anselem originated Theistic philosophy which later became known as the ontological argument. Anselm also elaborated on many forms of the cosmological argument prior to presenting his ontological argument for God. |
| 1050 - Mass made a sacrifice of Christ in Roman Catholicism (transubstantiation). Doctrine fully established in 1215. |
| 1054 - The Schism. Separation of the Eastern Orthodox Church from the Roman Catholic. |
| 1079 - Celibacy of priesthood and nuns by Pope Gregory VII in Roman Catholicism. |
| 1090 - Rosary introduced in Roman Catholicism by Peter the Hermit. |
| 1119 - The creation of the Templars. |
| 1173 - Waldensians oppose purgatory, indulgences, prayers for the dead, war, capital punishment and oaths. |
| 1190 - Selling of indulgences began by Roman Catholic Church. |
| 1209 - The Albigensian Crusade. (Cathari teach Gnosticism and Doseticism, survivors flee to Austria). |
| 1215 - Roman Catholicism began confession of sins to human priest. |
| 1215 - II Latern Council, Condemned the Cathari and the Waldenses, formed the Inquisition, and defined transubstantiation under Pope Innocent III. |
| 1220 - Dominican order was founded. |
| 1224-1274 - Thomas Aquinas. Theologian, philosoper, and consumate Theistic apologist of the medieval church. Born in Italy. Famous for his teleological and cosmological arguments in Christian Theism. |
| 1229 - Roman Catholicism declares interpretation of Bible forbidden to laity. Bible placed on the Index of Forbidden Books by the Council of Valencia. |
| 1307 - The destruction of the Templars. (survivors flee to Scotland). |
| 1380 - John Wycliffe translated the bible into English, attacked transubstantiation, Indulgences, Auricular Confession, Extreme Unction and Holy Orders. He taught Sola Scriptura, and that the Church was composed only of the predestined. Prayer and sacraments benefited only the predestined, and sins could not harm them. No temporal or ecclesiastical superior had authority when he was in a state of mortal sin; Wycliffe's followers, called Lollards, formed Cells. |
| 1381 - John Wycliffe publishes Confession, denying that the "substance" of bread and wine are miraculously changed during the Eucharist. Wycliffe withdraws from the public to Lutterworth. |
| 1414 - Council of Constance, Condemned Hussites (John Huss taught the same as Wycliffe except he affirmed transubstantiation.) |
| 1415 - Council of Constance condemned Wycliffe of 267 counts of heresy demanding that John Hus recant. Huss, a follower of Wycliffe, refused and was burned at the stake with Wycliffe's books used as kindling for the fire. |
| 1415 - The Roman Papacy held The Council of Constance declaring John Wycliffe (on 4 May 1415) a stiff-necked heretic and under the ban of the Church. It was decreed that his books be burned and his remains be exhumed. The exhumation was carried out in 1428 when, at the command of Pope Martin V, his remains were dug up, burned, and the ashes cast into the River Swift. |
| 1431 - Joan of Arc, burn at the stake, accused of being a witch. |
| 1438 - Purgatory proclaimed as a dogma by the Council of Florence. |
| 1439 - Council of Florence, Temporary reunion of East and West. |
| 1439 - Doctrine of Seven sacraments affirmed by Roman Catholicism. |
| 1473 - Copernicus born. |
| 1478 - The Spanish Inquisition was a tribunal established in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the medieval inquisition which was under papal control. The Inquisition worked in large part to ensure the orthodoxy of recent converts, especially Jews, Muslims and others. The new body was under the direct control of the Spanish monarchy and was abolished in 1833, during the reign of Isabella II. |
| 1483-1546 - Martin Luther. Augustine monk. German leader of the protestant reformation. Luther quoted "I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against concience is neither right nor safe. Here i stand, i can do no other, so help me God. Amen." In 1517 Luther nailed his 95 theses to the Wittenberg church door. |
| 1500 - The Tarot appears. Not used in divination until the late 18th century. |
| 1501 - Roman Catholic Papacy commands the burning of any books questioning church authority. |
| 1512 - Copernicus publishes that the earth actually revolves around the sun. |
| 1517 - Martin Luther posts 95 theses in protest against saleable indulgences.. |
|
1509-1564 - John Calvin. Born in France and influenced with the writings
of Augustine, Anselm, and Thomas Aquinas focusing on the sovereignty of
God. The acronmym t-u-l-i-p was formulated at the Synod of Dort in 1618-1619.
T - Total Depravity U - Unlimited Election L - Limited Atonement I - Irresistable Grace P - Perserverance of the Saints. |
| 1520 - Roman Catholic Papacy gives Luther 60 days to recant or be excommunicated for questioning Papal infallibility and other Catholic doctrines. |
| 1521 - Martin Luther is excommunicated by Papal order "Decet Romanum Pontificem", at Diet of Worms. He refuses to recant his writings, and is condemned as a heretic and outlaw. Luther is kidnapped and hidden at Wartburg Castle, and begins translating the New Testament into German. |
| 1526 - Tyndale completes the first printing of the New Testament into English from the Greek. Smuggled copies of his New Testaments are soon circulated throughout England. |
| 1527 - Bishop Tunstall orders the purchase and burning of all the testaments. |
| 1536 - October 06, 1536, William Tyndale was arrested at Antwerp where he was strangled and burnt because of his work on translating the Bible into English. |
| 1540 - Jesuit order was founded. |
| 1545 - The Council of Trent. |
| 1545 - Apocryphal books added to Roman Catholic Bible. |
| 1545 - Roman Catholicism declares tradition as infallible. |
| 1548 - Theodore Beza added the concept of God predestining the fall, and double predestination to Calvinism. |
| 1560 - John Knox using Calvinism started the Presbyterian Church in Scotland. |
| 1619 - Synod of Dordt rejects Armenianism and affirms Calvinism. (Jacob Armenius was a student of Beza). |
| 1623-1662 - Blaise Pascal. Mathematical prodigy, physicist, and Christian Apologist. Founded the modern theory of probability, discovered the properties of the cycloid, and contributed to the advance of differential calculus. His experimentation led to the invention of the hydralic press. Father of modern computer programming languages. Pascal invented the adding machine and the calculator. "Pascal's Wager" If a man trusts in Christ as Savior, dies, and then discovers that Jesus was not the Christ then that man would have lost nothing. However if the man does not trust in Christ as Savior, dies, and then discovers that Jesus was the Christ; that man will have lost EVERYTHING! I will bet on God! |
| 1633 - Trial of Galileo. Roman Catholic Papacy condemned, forbade, imprisoned, and forced Galileo to recant his support of the teachings of Copernicus' heliocentrism, which taught, that the sun, rather than the earth, was the center of the universe. The Roman Papacy accused Galileo of heresy for teaching doctrines that were suupposedly opposed to the Bible. |
| 1703-1758 - Jonathan Edwards. Supported Calvinism. Primary leader of the Great Awakening which swept the American colonies in the mid 18th. Century (1734). |
| 1703-1791 - John Wesley. Founder of the Methodist church. Named so because of his "methodical" approach to the bible. Famous quote, " My ground is the bible. Yea I am a bible bigot. I follow it in all things both great and small." |
| 1717 - Parliament controls Britain, The Anglican Church is formed. (Birth of the Masonic Lodge). |
| 1738 - John Wesley begins preaching Entire Sanctification. (Later Jovinian perfection was added to the doctrine). |
| 1743-1805 - William Paley. British theologian and utilitarian philosopher. Paley's watchmaker theory, "If you were walking in a field and discovered a watch lying on the ground, you would not believe that the watch evolved out of the field. You would rather believe that the watch had an intelligent designer who made watches. Likewise when we look at the irreducible complexity and the fine-tuned design of our Earth and Universe, we can know it did not just evolve from nothing. Something never comes from nothing. Rather an Intelligent Designer made and fashioned the earth on which we live. |
| 962-1806 - The Holy Roman Empire abolished. The (second) medieval revival of the Western Roman Empire was referred to as The Holy Roman Empire which lasted from 962 AD to 1806. By the year 1250, much of its power had vanished and by 1650 the empire had lost virtually all power. Nevertheless, the Empire endured until 1806, when it was abolished by Emperor Francis II. |
| 1830 - Mormonism founded in The United States by Joseph smith. |
| 1834-1892 - Charles Haddon Spurgeon. "Tragedy is not in dying young, but in living long and never using your life for what is of eternal significance." Known as "The Prince of Preachers." |
| 1840's - Seventh-Day Adventism founded in the 1840's in New England |
| 1854 - Immaculate conception doctrine, The Virgin Mary declared without original sin by Pope Pius IX of the Roman Catholic Church. |
| 1864 - Syllabus of Errors, proclaimed by Pope Pius IX, and ratified by the Vatican Council; condemned freedom of religion, conscience, speech, press, and scientific discoveries which are disapproved by the Roman Church; asserted the Pope's temporal authority over all civil rulers. |
| 1869 - I Vatican - Declares Papal Infallibility. |
| 1859 - November 24, Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species? |
| 1879 - Christian Science founded in Boston. |
| 1880 - Spiritism and ouija boards, KKK, Mormonism, Christian Science. |
| 1884 - Jehovah"s Witness was founded. Originally they were called "Zion's Watch Tower and Tract Society", (originally the Zion's Watch Tower in 1879). They officially adopted the name of Jehovah's Witnesses in 1931, under Charles Taze Russell (1852-1916). |
| 1900 - Golden Dawn and Alistar Crowley appear. |
| 1906 - Pentecostal movement began. |
| 1930 - Public Schools condemned by Pope Pius XI. |
| 1939-45 - Nazi Movement. (Protocols of the Elders of Zion). |
| 1945 - The Nag Hammadi Library discovered in Egypt (Gnostic). |
| 1948 - Discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the birth of the state Israel. |
| 1950 - Assumption of the Virgin Mary doctrine, introduced by Pope Pius XII and Roman Catholicism. |
| 1960 - Charismatic Movement began. |
| 1965 - II Vatican. |
| 1967 - Israel takes back the Temple Mount. |
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