The Early Church

In the style of Jesus

For quite a while after the Crucifixion, Christians kept a pretty low profile – so much so that no significant written accounts have been discovered about the religion's first 300 years.

The notable exception is the writings of Pliny, a Roman influencer in the 2^nd century.

He was an enthusiastic blogger and his surviving scribbles give us the earliest and most useful information, albeit from a perspective of somebody who detested Christians and similar dangerous cults. (As Mark Twain said; "The very ink with which history is written, is merely fluid prejudice.")

In reporting their nefarious deeds to the emperor as justification for persecution, he gives us valuable information for today. These included the following points, and their associated assumed meanings. It describes a structured and organised religion for people with deep convictions: 

1. Christians would assemble on a specific day each week before dawn.

   It's not known whether the time of day was religiously significant, or whether it was just to keep the meeting secret from adversaries, or both.

2. Meetings were not held in a designated place, such as a temple.

   Again, we can only conjecture that it was either an important part of worship not to mimic existing practices of using 'holy' places, or whether it was to hide, or both.

3. They were Christians in the literal sense, in that they worshipped Christ as God.

   Not "a god".

4. When they assembled, they ate together (Agape feast).

   Perhaps this was for the same bonding purpose of communal meals at today's House Church fellowships.

5. The intensity of their worship was ascribed by Pliny to be ridiculous superstition, and they were intensely zealous in spreading the Gospel.

   In other words, following the examples set by Jesus; simple yet intense.

Christian Church recognition

Many of today's Church customs can be traced back to the 4^th century, when Constantine permitted the process of converting the official religion of the Roman Empire from Paganism to Christianity.

Note the word 'converting'. Changing the sign on the door is a lot easier, quicker and cheaper than changing the whole building. Christianity was modelled on many customs that were familiar and acceptable to Jews and Pagans at that time, when religion and belief were intertwined with superstition.

This contrasts with today's norm – at least in economically advanced countries – where people now have greater access to education and science, and base their religious beliefs on reasoning rather than superstition. (See also Isn't religion simply glorified superstition?)

However, the birth of Christianity wasn't merely a recycle job. There's little doubt that Early Christians adopted well-known customs to develop their religion and doctrine. To suggest otherwise is to say that the seeds sown by God for earlier faiths was a mistake.

By definition, God doesn't make mistakes.

The first followers of Christ borrowed Jewish terms to describe themselves, such as 'believers' and 'disciples' (but in Hebrew, of course). Two of the early missionaries, Paul and Barnabas, went to work spreading the Gospel in the pagan metropolis of Antioch, where the local pagans (Gentile polytheists) derisively called them 'Christians'. So even the word 'Christian' was coined by pagans! (See Acts 11:26 and Scriptural Appellations and Names assumed by Christian from Antiquities of the Christian Church by Rev. Lyman Coleman.)

Where did the liturgical mumbo jumbo come from?

Jesus must have been familiar with the Law of Moses, as were his disciples. It's not surprising therefore, that these form the basis of current Christian liturgy. As with the Jews, Christians were wary of tainting the formula by adopting Pagan rites.

But things began to change when Christianity became the state religion, which had formerly been strongly influenced by Paganism. We all know that our Dear Leaders, whether elected or heirs to thrones, believe they know better than the rest of us, and follow the dictums that "Change is good; change is progress; life isn't perfect at the moment, so let's change things." And it seems the development of Christianity was no exception.

Introducing a religious hierarchy was an opportunity for people in power to be even more dominant. For leaders who already had stunningly powerful control of society through civil laws, the opportunity to add divine authority was just too great to ignore.

In addition, a tenet of Christianity is that salvation is available for all people, irrespective of race. Consequently the religion became tailored to suit different nations and cultures to gain acceptance; ergo the Church today is spread over innumerable denominations.

But we shouldn't be too hasty to blame the kings and emperors for destroying the Church's foundation. Supremacism is an animal instinct and seen in all walks of life; politics, business, sport, military, science, education and religion. If the civil rulers hadn't corrupted the Early Church, then it's highly likely that today's religious cult leaders, televangelists, etc., would have done so by now.

Later Church - where we are now, and why

It's impossible for us here, in the 21st century, to know what life was like 1,700 years ago; indeed, it's extremely difficult to even imagine it.

Home
Today we (or rather, the lucky few of us) benefit from inventions such as electricity, clean water on tap and effective sanitation. We take them for granted, use them and control them as much as we wish. Our ancestors had nothing but the uncontrollable weather.

Contemporary building materials protect us in homes that can endure earthquake, wind, fire and flood, much better than dung and wattle huts. Shelter, or lack of it, has a profound effect on people's health and strength.

Transportation
Now there's a choice of different modes of efficient, safe and rapid transportation. Then, people with the same comparative wealth as ourselves had only mules.

Education
Knowledge expanded exponentially thanks to the printing press and more recently the instant communication of the internet. In the past, basic schooling was available only for boys of the most privileged families.

Health
Today's advanced medicine can detect and treat disease before symptoms even appear, replacing the dubious efficacy of herbs and sorcery.

Values
Our way of living has changed shape so much, we see things differently and we value things differently. It's of no surprise therefore, that many aspects of our religion have also changed.

Today's Christianity has evolved from the foundations laid by the Early Church. And those founders in turn were influenced by the religions they already knew; for example, Judaism.

And Jews also inherited many traits from the Paganism that had been followed by people for millennia.

What is most surprising is the unchanged central belief for the past 2,000 years that Salvation through Christ is the same today as it's ever been.