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| Before Jesus' death and resurrection, Peter denied Jesus three times, while the other disciples abandoned him. All this changed on the day of Pentecost, when Peter and 119 other disciples were filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to testify boldly of Jesus Christ, baptizing those that believed on His name.
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| The first love of the Church was Jesus Christ, whom Peter and the other disciples did not fully know until they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Pentecost was not the only time that the Holy Spirit fell on the believers, and this phenomenon continued throughout the New Testament and beyond. The early Church did everything in the Name of the Lord Jesus - teaching, praying, baptizing, believing - and the Lord confirmed his followers with supernatural signs - raising the dead, healing the sick, prophecy, and righteous living.
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| *Preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the Mediterranean coasts, Africa, and Asia;
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| *Supernatural signs and wonders;
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| *The authorship and compilation of the Christian New Testament,
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| *Love under persecution, and grace in the face of death
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| These early Christians were rich in their knowledge of the teachings of Jesus Christ, having many witnesses of Jesus’ ministry among them, including the twelve apostles and Mary, Jesus’ mother. By writing these memories down, the disciples started writing the New Testament. These stories were soon complimented by the doctrinal teachings of the Apostle Paul, as he received revelation and understanding of Jesus Christ. These writings established the whole essence of Christianity and its doctrines:
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| *Salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God;
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| *Baptism in the Name of Jesus Christ;
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| *The Custom of the Passover/Eucharist;
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| Polycarp
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| The Christian churches in the second century were persecuted, but vibrant:
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| *Various Churches had been established with a succession of Bishops tracing back to the Apostles,
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| *Mighty men continued in the missionary tradition of the Apostles,
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| *Supernatural signs continued to follow the Christian believers
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| *The complete New Testament had been written and compiled.
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| *Christian doctrine had been fully established.
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| *The churches continued to fight against heresies, and experienced persecutions.
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| [[Irenaeus]] provides evidence of this wealth in his writings:
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| *He quotes from all of the New Testament books except Philemon, 3 John and Jude,
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| *He testifies of healings and miracles in his own ministry (while noting that these signs are absent from the heretic's ministries),
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| *He became a missionary (and then Bishop) in the French city of Lyons, having been raised in Smyrna in Polycarp's Church.
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| *He wrote in length against heresies, and on the correct doctrine of the nature of Christ.
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| ::''All the other expressions, likewise, bring out the title of one, and the same being, the Lord of Power, the Lord, the Father of All, God Almighty, Most High, Creator, Maker and such like, these are not the names and the titles of a succession of different beings, but of one and the same''. (Irenaeus, Volume 1, page 412 of the Ante Nicene Fathers, )
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| *He confirms that a number of churches continued to exist that were established by the Apostles (including, but not limited to the Church at Rome).
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| ==Ecumenical Councils==
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| #First Council of Nicaea (325): repudiated Arianism and Quartodecimanism (Easter on the 14th of Nissan), adopted the Nicene Creed (in support of the Trinity), exceptional authority acknowledged for the patriarchs of Alexandria and Rome, for their respective regions;
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| #First Council of Constantinople (381): revised the Nicene Creed into present form, and prohibited any further alteration of the Creed without the assent of an Ecumenical Council.
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| #Council of Ephesus (431): repudiated Nestorianism, proclaimed the Virgin Mary as the Theotokos (Greek Η Θεοτόκος, "God-bearer" or more commonly "Mother of God").
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| #Council of Chalcedon (451): repudiated the monophysite doctrine, established that Christ had two natures, human and divine; adopted the Chalcedonian Creed.
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| #Second Council of Constantinople (553): reaffirmed doctrines explicated by previous Councils, condemned new Arian, Nestorian, and Monophysite writings.
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