The First Christian Churches Series
Intro
In past times, I have been part of various online and real life groups that have questioned some of the traditional assumptions of Christianity. This presentation I’ve made in the past in rebuttal to claims made by the audience described in “WHAT DO I NEED TO GO TO CHURCH FOR? I AM THE CHURCH!” Such people have been described as Postmodern and “Emergent Church” Evangelicals, who seemed to question the value of attending a local church. Many of these people were influenced by works like Frank Viola’s “Pagan Christianity” (A work that falsely claims most of Christianity’s traditional of large scale worship surface comes from pagan origins.). The basic outline of this post came from a Coptic Church history lecture given at a Wednesday Church service in lieu of the traditional homily.
Upper Rooms were the 1st churches, part 1
Well I'll try to keep this simple and easy. One of the problems with folks that idealize the old house churches scene in the Bible and see that as an ideal for today, is those "churches" are much different than most people's domestic prayer meetings and Bible studies.
Part of the problem is culture. If you are an American or at least a Westerner chances are your house or apartment is loaded up with a whole lot of bulky, yet comfortable furniture. This limits how many people your average American will invite over to his house fellowship group.
The houses of ancient times were very different than those of today.
The upper room mentioned in the New Testament was much more the norm. The ancient house often was essentially a 1st floor apartment, with a large multipurpose room above, That room was made for a variety of things including having large dinners and other gatherings. At such gatherings many people could be seated at multiple tables using bench seating.
Besides this the culture was a bit different than ours. It kind of reminds me of some movies like "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". On average the people of ancient times were a bit more in to entertaining large groups of people than your average American.
This sort of insight is important because I think people can easily see the ancient house churches as a bit of a coffee clutch, when the meetings were much more geared to group worship and fellowship than what modern people are use to. In other words, the seating and square footage of a house church was much more in keeping with that of a small parish church or chapel than your modern American living room can handle.
The first churches part 2. The First churches came from free will offerings, much like what we see in the Book of Acts. Acts 2:44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they shared with anyone who was in need.
Rather than ponying up their real-estate to be sold to meet the needs of poor and apostles, the believers surrendered properties to the head of the local church so there would be an official permanent place for local believers to meet.
When Jesus first sent out the disciples on their first missionary journey he gave them the advice “to not move around from house to house” but rather to settle in one house where they were welcome. (Luke 10:7) There is a lot of practical and spiritual reasons for this but the most obvious is it prevents confusion and uncertainty for people to always know where the church meeting is going to be held. And this certainty and stability is good for the health and growth of the church, much like the scripture says of “tree planted by streams of water that yields it fruit in season”.
Unity in worship (The first church’s series)
One of the things the early churches had was the idea of unity in worship. They saw themselves as being part of the same family and same “body of Christ”. They met together as a way of expressing that unity and in worshipping God.
This is an important point not just in theology and Church history but when dealing with some false claims “That large Cathedrals are pagan” etc. 1st of all that isn’t even true when you look at the history of Israel. Israel had a large scale worship in the worship that took place at the tabernacle and also the temple. 2nd if you are governed by a principle that wants all believers in a city or area to unite in worship that means you will eventually need large buildings when the size of believers increases from evangelism and population growth.
John 17:
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
Acts 2
The Fellowship of the Believers
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
1 John 2
18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.
Ignatius to Polycarp (Ignatius of Antioch born AD 50 died 97-117)
CHAPTER 6
6:1 Give ye heed to the bishop, that God also may
give heed to you. I am devoted to those who are
subject to the bishop, the presbyters, the deacons.
May it be granted me to have my portion with them in
the presence of God. Toil together one with another,
struggle together, run together, suffer together, lie
down together, rise up together, as God's stewards and
assessors and ministers.
The Multiplication of Houses of Worship (The First Christian churches series)
Well I’m going to wrap things up, but will do one last post aimed at how Houses of Worship multiplied in the early days of Christianity. There were really two reasons that caused churches (church buildings that is) in a given region to multiply.
1) I previously mentioned that the Church of a given area tried to worship together much like what we see in the early book of Acts. However, as the Church grows it needs to keep moving into bigger and bigger building or areas.
2) But there was also another factor at work. That of the Church retaining some Jewish ideas about holiness.
(Quote from Jewishencylopedia.com)
All things become "holy" that are excluded from common or profane use ("ḥol"; I Sam. xxi. 5) by being connected with the worship of God: (1) The places in which God is supposed to dwell or where He appeared (Ex. iii. 5; Josh. v. 15; Deut. xxiii. 15; II Chron. viii. 11); hence, every sanctuary ("miḳdash," Ex. xxv. 8, or "ḳodesh," Ex. xxviii. 29; Ezek. xlii. 20), and every part of the sanctuary, and every vessel used therein (Ex. xxvi. 33; I Sam. xxi. 6; Ezek. xlii. 13; Num. iii. 31). Such a place with its site was marked off as holy (Ex. xix. 23; Ezek. xlv. 1). The hill of the Temple (Isa. xi. 9 and elsewhere) became "the holy hill"; Jerusalem, "the holy city" (Ps. xlvi. 5; Zeph. iii. 11; Isa. xlviii. 2); and Palestine, "the holy land" (Zech. ii. 16; comp. Hosea ix. 3-4). God's heavenly habitation, "the seat of His holiness," is holy, because of His unapproachable (fiery) majesty (Micah i. 2; Hab. ii. 20; and elsewhere); so, likewise, is "the throne of His holiness" (Ps. xlvii. 9; comp. Ezek. xxviii. 14: "the fiery mountain of the [heathen] gods").
Commentary
Things that are Holy stay consecrated and kept in the service of God. In other words they are not supposed to be taken back and used for everyday common use. So even though the main congregation moved on these areas were still kept as local holy places.
So what this meant for the young Church, as the local Church of a given area grew into being able to have Cathedral sized congregations there would be a number of smaller sanctuaries available in the city or region. Which was good because it probably didn’t take long to for a Church of a given city or region to reach its capacity where there was more people attending than what they seat or that could here the message preached (before modern speaker sound systems). So eventually all those smaller structures became necessary to be local parishes, chapels, and shrines.
Many Thanks to Father Salib Girgis
Most stuff I talk about comes from my own research but abouna is to be accredited for most of the Early Church series. And I will add this is hard topic to research (not many write about it). But thankfully one of the Coptic Bishops studied it and passed it on to Father Salib and I likewise pass it on to you. This actually is the Christian way.
Corinthians 11:2
Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you.
2 Thessalonians 2:15 ►
So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter. (the word teaching, or tradition is "paradosis" in the Greek and literally refers to something that is entrusted to a person that is to be passed on to another.
