Grade 5 - Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States

Sunday School Curriculum Grade 5
2. Evangelism
To the Jews:
The first time when St. Peter addressed the crowd after the Pentecost (Acts 2:14-47).
―Then those who gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were
added unto them about three thousand souls‖ (Acts:2:41).
―Praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church
daily such as should be saved‖ (Acts 2:47).
―And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women‖
(Acts 5:14).
―For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith: and much people was
added unto the Lord‖ (Acts 11:24).
The Ethiopian who was baptized by Philip (Acts 26-40).
To the Gentiles:
Cornellius was the first that St. Peter visited and baptized him and his family (Acts 10:
23-48).
3. Persecution
We all know the story about Saul and his conversion (Acts 9) and the killing of James by
Herod.
The Jews inflected the early church with many affectations, it was considered as a sect:
―For we have found this man a plague, a creator of dissension among all the Jews
throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes‖ (Acts 24:5) and ―But
we desire to hear from you what you think; for concerning this sect, we know that it is
spoken against everywhere‖ (Acts 28:22). The attack on Christianity started by attacking
Christ Himself (John 8:48, Matthew 9:34, 12, 24, Luke 11:15). This led them to falsely
accuse Christ and crucify Him. After the destruction of Jerusalem they organized attacks
on Christians led by a Rabbi named Tarpho who said ―the gospels deserve to be burned‖,
he also labeled Christians as dangers to Judaism for they know the truth and disobey it
intentionally. They put restrictions for dealing with Christians. Gamilian the second (the
end of the 1 st century) established punishments for those who convert to Christianity. We
read about the persecution in El-Hameer country (Yemen now) and how thousands of
Christians were martyred at the hands of the Jewish King Zonowas in 523 AD. On the
other hand many of their philosophers were amazed with Christ and His teaching; among
them were the French Barouch Sbinwoz and Henry Bergson.
Christianity was also persecuted from the Romans. This started right after Christianity
was declared as a religion separate from Judaism (98 – 117 AD). It is said that Emperor
Tragan considered Christianity to be a bunch of hallucinations and magic and rights to
live as a Christian were denied. The attacks were physical and verbal; their philosophers
wrote many books and letters disputing the Christian faith. Celcus wrote a book named
―The True Letter‖ in it he attacked Christianity with harsh criticism, which lead the
Christian teacher Origen to write the book ―Anti-Celcus‖ to refute his accusations. Many
others like Lucian and Philostratus were encouraged to write against Christianity by Julia
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