Historical evidence shows that the early Christians didn’t use crosses in their worship! The New Catholic Encyclopedia says: “The representation of Christ’s redemptive death on Golgotha does not occur in the symbolic art of the first Christian centuries. The early Christians, influenced by the Old Testament prohibition of graven images, were reluctant to depict the even the instrument of the Lord’s Passion.” Concerning first century Christians, the book History of the Christian Church states: “There was no use of the crucifix and no material representation of the cross.” Regarding the sign of the cross, The Catholic Encyclopedia says: “From the earliest period it has been employed in all exorcisms and conjugations as a weapon against the spirits of darkness.” Early Christians would never make a sign of the cross!
Thank you Dr. Needham, for this lecture and for your wonderful history textbook series; and thank you WPTS, for making this available!
Excelente saludos desde Venezuela
Historical evidence shows that the early Christians didn’t use crosses in their worship! The New Catholic Encyclopedia says: “The representation of Christ’s redemptive death on Golgotha does not occur in the symbolic art of the first Christian centuries. The early Christians, influenced by the Old Testament prohibition of graven images, were reluctant to depict the even the instrument of the Lord’s Passion.”
Concerning first century Christians, the book History of the Christian Church states: “There was no use of the crucifix and no material representation of the cross.”
Regarding the sign of the cross, The Catholic Encyclopedia says: “From the earliest period it has been employed in all exorcisms and conjugations as a weapon against the spirits of darkness.”
Early Christians would never make a sign of the cross!