An investigation into the phenomena and practices of spiritual ...

church, the cultural differences were evidenced in the people who started the early placesof worship as the church began in different places such as Ephesus, Antioch and Rome.From the beginning, as indeed the writings of Paul indicate, the church was beset bycontroversy and division and from around 95 AD the life of the early church began to showdivision. Wand (1963) compiled a list that shows over twenty instances of significantcontroversy. The result of these controversies led to sects following their owninterpretation, convictions and ideas about understanding of Christ‟s incarnation, the natureof the Trinity and the origins of sin.The institutional forms of the Christian church as we know it today, however, did not,according to Crossman (1999), come into being until the early second century after theexecution of Christ. As in all cultural communities Christians had to devise a method ofhow to apply the rules and regulations that guided the people in their everyday life. Paulset the scene by writing and sending guidelines to the church at Ephesus, Corinth, hisspiritual son Timothy and others (Muddiman 2002). The Christian community has adoptedmany of these guidelines, some of which may have been adjusted to suit different culturalgroups.After Constantine adopted Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire asuccession of state sponsored churches have institutionalised the variations in Christianpractice. This succession of official state churches have in turn provoked various nonstate,anti-state, or even insurrectionary varieties of Christianity. A number of Synods andChurch Councils tried to sort things out within the official religion of the Roman Empire inan attempt to minimize the corporate damage. There were four large as well as smaller102