Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 35

Essay Example These early Christians beliefs are at par with the present day beliefs on the existence, holiness, faithfulness and the power of God. The views of the early Christian teachings on evil, the devil and sin based on the teachings of the three saints are obsolete. In religion, the problem lies with explaining the cause and proof of these ideologies. The saints attribute all evil and sin to the devil. St. Anthony states that he envies all what he considered good and holy (Porter and Prince Danforth, 472). He referred to him as the ‘opponent or the enemy’ who was associated with sins including fornication. They believed that the devil was the cause of all temptations and he targeted those who were staunch believers. According to the early teachings, discipleship was interpreted as living one’s life based on the teachings of Jesus Christ. The disciples were bestowed with the duty of preaching the gospel to many people in accordance to the teachings of Jesus and converting them to Christians through baptism. Discipleship required a lifestyle of selflessness, continuous hardships and in the case of St. Anthony he experienced physical torture (Russel and Amy, 51). These conditions for discipleship are harsh and not legalistic. In the 21st century there are diverse religious beliefs and early principles including discipleship, brotherhood and sisterhood are slowly fading away. The saints viewed the world as full of evil and attributed this to the devil. The saints were not successful in their mission to convert the world. The saints were not irresponsible by trying to withdraw from the world. They were trying to take responsibility for all the evil in the world by taking up the burden of fighting against the ‘enemy’ alone (Kelly, 146). They were just attempting to reinforce the already existing Christian values and not creating an alternative model. Though they managed to convert a few individuals through their discipleship