How did the earliest Christians differ from us.

They were the first Catholics. They were taught via word of mouth. They didnt have a million and one interpretations of scripture thrown at them. Sola Scriptura hadnt been invented then!

(1) Evidence seems to show that divorce and remarriage was much less common back then than it is today. Hence, in this one point, all four Christians groups differ from the early Christians.

(2) The Catholic Encyclopedia acknowledges that there was little, if any, support for the death penalty in the Early Church. Hence, this is a major difference from the majority of today's Protestants. Due to Pope Francis' change in the Catechism regarding capital punishment, the Catholic Church now appears to be closer on this issue than most Protestants to the Early Church. I will leave it up to the EO and OO posters to address this issue.

(3) History shows little support for Christians going to war prior to Constantine. However, we cannot be certain whether such was because of their opposition to war itself or for the required worship of the Emperor and/or Roman gods or perhaps both. Obviously, all Christians groups today support the concept of war, save the traditional peace groups: the Quakers, the Mennonites and the Church of the Brethren.

(4) Most Protestants would appear to have deviated from the Early Church belief in the literal body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist.

(5) The Early Christians believed that Jesus would return soon, probably within their lifetime. Such a belief is no longer all that prevalent.

(6) The Early Jewish Christians certainly kept the Saturday Jewish Sabbath, in addition to celebrating Sunday as the Lord's Day. The Seventh Day Adventists are now the only Christians who consider Saturday as the Sabbath.

(7) Many, perhaps most Christians were only allowed to commit one mortal/grave sin after Baptism and still be reconciled to the Church. Obviously, all four Christians groups no longer put a limit on the number of times a person can commit a mortal/grave sin and still be forgiven.

Lost4words said:

They were the first Catholics. They were taught via word of mouth. They didnt have a million and one interpretations of scripture thrown at them. Sola Scriptura hadnt been invented then!

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They were also the first Orthodox and the first Protestants. Even within the lifetime of Paul Christianity was already fragmenting.

Tyler52 said:

How did they differ from Protestants
How did they differ from Catholics
How did they differ from Eastern Orthodox
How did they differ from Oriental Orthodox
Thank you and God bless

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The early Christians kept it simple.

Acts 2:42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43A sense of awe came over everyone, and the apostles performed many wonders and signs. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they shared with anyone who was in need. 46With one accord they continued to meet daily in the temple courts and to break bread from house to house, sharing their meals with gladness and sincerity of heart, 47praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

There was no emphasis on an individual apostle. Sorry Roman Catholics, Peter was not the first pope.

There was less emphasis on Mary than there is among many Catholics today. Bernard of Clairveaux is credited with/blamed for taking devotion to Mary to the next level.

Tyler52 said:

How did they differ from Protestants
How did they differ from Catholics
How did they differ from Eastern Orthodox
How did they differ from Oriental Orthodox
Thank you and God bless

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No internet.

I rather envy the earliest Christians in that they did not have to contend with the various doctrines that were later to divide Christians causing them to kill each other.

Sketcher said:

There was less emphasis on Mary than there is among many Catholics today. Bernard of Clairveaux is credited with/blamed for taking devotion to Mary to the next level.

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I was going to include this in my long list, but decided against it. There is little doubt but what the veneration of Mary has evolved over time. While I am sure that there were roots of it in the Early Church, the belief that she was sinless does not seem to be prevalent in the early centuries.

Tyler52 said:

How did they differ from Protestants
How did they differ from Catholics
How did they differ from Eastern Orthodox
How did they differ from Oriental Orthodox
Thank you and God bless

Click to expand...

If you look at the commonalities between Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and the Oriental Orthodox churches you will find early Christianity. They met on Sunday before dawn for the liturgy and the Eucharist. Pliny, an ancient Roman governor, wrote a letter to the emperor Trajan describing the customs of the Christians of his time. In it he said:

"That they were wont, on a stated day, to meet together before it was light, and to sing a hymn to Christ, as to a god, alternately; and to oblige themselves by a sacrament [or oath], not to do anything that was ill: but that they would commit no theft, or pilfering, or adultery; that they would not break their promises, or deny what was deposited with them, when it was required back again; after which it was their custom to depart, and to meet again at a common but innocent meal..."

Notice that the hymn was sung "alternately". That is the responsive singing of the liturgy. What Pliny described as an "innocent meal" was the bread and wine of the Eucharist.

Outsiders of the time spread wild rumors about Christian worship. The Christians of the time had adopted the mother and child artistic motif to identify Jesus as a king, and they consumed his flesh and blood during the Eucharist. That led to the accusation that during their assemblies they would sacrifice a child and eat its flesh and drink its blood. Pliny points out that the meal was in fact innocent, meaning he found no evidence to suggest the rumors of cannibalism were true.

In any event, the original Apostolic Churches still meet on Sunday and still participate in the liturgy.

JackRT said:

I rather envy the earliest Christians in that they did not have to contend with the various doctrines that were later to divide Christians causing them to kill each other.

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Cause the early church didnt have to deal with these heresies?
http://www.sundayschoolcourses.com/heresy/heresy.pdf

[QUOTE="Basil the Great, post: 74597187, member: 240502

(6) The Early Jewish Christians certainly kept the Saturday Jewish Sabbath, in addition to celebrating Sunday as the Lord's Day. The Seventh Day Adventists are now the only Christians who consider Saturday as the Sabbath. [/QUOTE]

That is not true, The Eastern Orthodox consider the 7th day as The Sabbath

It is extraordinary difficult to wrap one's mind around how the earliest Christians differ from us because we can only see the continuum of historical development from our own end. They knew nothing of "protestants" vs. "Catholics" because those words weren't categories that they used to do their thinking with. This book is a very good introduction to begin trying to understand how the earliest Christians understood themselves within the context of their Graeco-Roman environment.

Lost4words said:

They were the first Catholics. They were taught via word of mouth. They didnt have a million and one interpretations of scripture thrown at them. Sola Scriptura hadnt been invented then!

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Arius used word of mouth to almost tank the entire church into full blown heresy. Allowing fallible (and often corrupt) people to serve as a intermediaries between God and the church was certainly not something the early church fathers had in mind.

Christ established the scriptures and the authority of the scriptures long before the reformers were able to extract them from the church tradition and release them to the people in their own languages.

GaveMeJoy said:

Arius used word of mouth to almost tank the entire church into full blown heresy. Allowing fallible (and often corrupt) people to serve as a intermediaries between God and the church was certainly not something the early church fathers had in mind.

Christ established the scriptures and the authority of the scriptures long before the reformers were able to extract them from the church tradition and release them to the people in their own languages.

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Thus, today, through Apostolic succession, we have the church of Christ, guiding the flock.

The early Christians confessed their sins publicly, before the whole congregation. The Church today practices private confession to avoid weaker Christians being scandalised by the sins of others.

The early Christians had the bare bones of a liturgical calendar, taking the framework from the Jewish liturgical calendar. Over time the Church built up the liturgical calendar to commemorate Christ's fulfillment of the feasts and fasts of the Jewish calendar, and also to commemorate the lives of Christians who proved themselves worthy examples, either through their martyrdom, their defense of the faith against severe persecution or through their personal struggle against the passions.

The early Christians were persecuted, first by the Jews and later by the Roman authorities, so were unable to build dedicated temples for God's worship, meeting instead in homes that had been converted. A good example is the Church unearthed in Dura-Europos in Syria. After the persecution ended the Christians followed the pattern of the temple and synagogues, building temples specifically for gathering to worship God in the Divine Liturgy, such as the Church discovered near Megiddo in Israel

They also didn't have 'Sola Scriptura'

We see in Acts and read in other early church writings that they "held all things in commons". This is not to be confused with what we think of today as Communism as that is centralized, where as this was more like small communes of families.
They also took a different view than many Christians at least in America do of Romans 13. They did not believe that the power of government was absolute and in fact opposed Rome all the time. They didn't launch insurrections against Rome but they didn't follow their orders either, that is part of the reason they were martyred so often. Prior to Constantine, the church fathers were unanimous in their Opposition to fighting in wars although perhaps for different reasons.
Of course the early Christians didn't agree on everything and that is why they would have councils. So while they didn't have denominational differences like we understand them today, they did not always agree on every point of doctrine and constantly had to fight against heresy. In that way they may have been more vigilant.

Tyler52 said:

How did they differ from Protestants
How did they differ from Catholics
How did they differ from Eastern Orthodox
How did they differ from Oriental Orthodox
Thank you and God bless

Click to expand...

The earliest Christians followed the Old Testament laws of God, but had just seen the Lord! They were pure, obeyed God, and would REFUSE to deny His existence because He WAS God and so many people knew it! They were true Martyrs, and would die with pride saying " Jesus Christ is my Lord, I will bow before no one but He." and they died gruesome deaths in the name of Islam, Communism, denying Pharaohs and Emperors . They dressed more like Amish or in a Habib, and were modest without Egyptian makeup or jewelry. They made their hearts the most beautiful thing about themselves, as outward adornments are seen as an insult to the Lord who believes you are perfect as He made you. He sees Vanity as trashy and filthy. So that is a far cry from what we see today..

Tyler52 said:

How did they differ from Protestants
How did they differ from Catholics
How did they differ from Eastern Orthodox
How did they differ from Oriental Orthodox
Thank you and God bless

Click to expand...

their worship of the beast was less obvious ...