K E E P I N G T H E F A I T H KEEPING T H E F A I T H The Early Church and the Apostolic Pattern John Engler Great Commission Illustrated Highlands Ranch, CO WWW: http://greatcommission.com Email: [email protected] KEEPING THE FAITH The Early Church and the Apostolic Pattern © Copyright 1997 by John Engler All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be duplicated, copied, translated, reproduced or stored mechanically or electronically without specific, written permission of the author. Published by Great Commission Illustrated Printed in the United States of America Fourth Printing, February 1999 ISBN 0-9653469-6-X Cover layout by William To Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture references are from the Holy Bible, New International Version, copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers. Scripture References marked NASB are from the New American Standard Bible, copyright The Lockman Foundation 1977. Used by permission Contents Foreword .........................................................9 Introduction.................................................15 1. The Earthly Ministry of Jesus.........19 2. The Apostolic Church.......................39 3. Failings in Life and Doctrine ..........49 4. Standing Firm......................................79 5. Leadership..........................................109 6. The Authoritative Voice..................131 7. Church Assembly..............................167 8. Baptism ...............................................213 9. Communion.........................................231 10. Factors Behind The Changes.........245 11. Warnings for Today ........................261 Appendix A: Word Studies.........................275 Appendix B: Exegesis..................................297 Bibliography ...............................................303 Acknowledgments Since this book addresses a topic very close to my heart, it is like a glimpse into my heart. Those who have influenced me as a disciple are the ones who have influenced this book. Sometimes the impact was through leadership, sometimes through deep love and caring, sometimes just being there at the right time and in the right way, and sometimes through “mere” friendship. Dan Rice has been a constant friend for nearly my entire adult life, spanning the multiple cities, churches, highs and lows I’ve experienced. Our early days in the faith and our bond in common struggles cemented a lifelong friendship. Drew Nitchoff was a great encouragement behind some of the greatest growth and victories I have ever experienced in the faith. There are many others who have had significant impact on me as well. These individuals have been there at just the right times in my life and have had an impact beyond their own recognition or realization. I have been fortunate to have great friends and fellow- workers in the kingdom. All have worked together to help shape my view of the kingdom of God. If I know you, you are a part of this group. I appreciate Jim Heese who encouraged me to finish this book nearly two years ago. Steve Staten and Doug Jacoby provided great input on the manuscripts and on the period of history under consideration. William To did the cover artwork and initial help was from Matt Brumley. Also thanks to Don Toland and Intessera for support. 8 KEEPING THE FAITH Rex Geissler has been there with great encouragement and advice in publishing this book. I also appreciate his vision in starting Great Commission Illustrated to provide an avenue of publication for works such as mine. Thanks should also go to Tad Wakefield of GCI for his editing work and Hector Acevedo for taking our photograph. I am profoundly thankful to those ancient writers whose writings are examined in this book, and with them all who have preserved, guarded, discovered and translated ancient texts through the ages, sometimes at great personal risk. I have had great computer tools and resources at my disposal in putting this book together, including various computers, software, and Internet resources. These have helped make this book a reality. Computers and software are certainly not people, but are made by people who deserve thanks as well. And finally thanks to my great wife Pat, for her love, constant support and input on the manuscripts, and our beautiful daughters Emily, Katie and Annie. Because of them I am constantly reminded of how much God loves me. Foreword It seems that from the time of the apostles to the present day there have been numerous attempts to resuscitate the original faith. It has always been a challenge to determine when and where the original faith was corrupted. It is essential that any kind of investigation treats the early church characters and literature accurately and fairly, since today it is in vogue in many circles to bash the early church. Nevertheless, there are important questions about the ancient faith that must be answered. One question relevant for today is, “How can churches prosper in faith, maintain apostolic doctrine, adjust to world changes, and avoid institutionalism?” If there was ever a need for an answer to this question, it is now. There were roughly only one hundred million people in the ancient civilized world when Jesus sent out the Eleven. Today, we are approaching six billion souls. I would hope that every professing believer, all one billion of them, could re-examine the roots of their faith—even learn of the Post-Apostolic church. In this respect, disciples within the modern day movement of God should be no different. Of the billion professed believers, only a few hundred million believe such cardinal doctrines as the deity of Jesus and the resurrection of Christ. Of the remainder, only a few truly understand the requirements of the Bible or have a deep understanding of the early church. Many are living out some latter-day vision of altar call Christianity (“Just accept Jesus into your heart and you will be okay”) or embrace some form of the medieval doctrine like the devotion and 10 KEEPING THE FAITH worship of Mary. To further divide believers, there are many sects that began in the 1800’s that believe in principles with no followers before that time. As for the rest of us in Christendom, we must consider that the possibility exists that we, too, may be under a delusion; our practices and commitment might not survive the scrutiny of biblical inspection and ancient comparison. I would hope that any Christian would welcome such an interrogation rather than avoid it since keeping the faith requires regular self-scrutiny. If I were asked, what does it mean to keep the original faith in a later time and context, I would say I must begin by identifying a paradigm to define original Christianity. I would avoid dated terms and strive for timeless criteria to define the Christian enterprise. I would begin with the nature of God, the nature of man and the answer from the former to the predicament of the latter. Christianity can be first surmised from the prophets, the gospels and teachings of Jesus, the sermons in Acts, and then doctrinal treatises in the epistles. But where would that lead us? Would I merely be looking for a set of beliefs and fail to see the passion required to follow Jesus? When we begin looking at the details leading to the eventual demise of Christendom, we should begin by taking the speck out of our own eye. Undoubtedly, we run into errors because early Christians were human before they were made into towering figures of history. Eusebius, an early church historian, implied that those who succeeded the apostles were inferior to them. He gave us this adjective to describe most second generations of movements. As this investigation will indicate, later generations continually imitated and amplified the lower elements of the great church. If someone could have figured out long ago how to stop this formula, we wouldn’t have so many stories in the Old Testament that sound like “king so and so did evil in the eyes of the Lord and was not like his father.” The generation after the apostles had an enormous challenge— keeping the original faith in the midst of a loss of apostolic leadership and no formal New Testament canon. It is with good reason that the period between 70-150 A.D. is sometimes called the Tunnel Period. On one side were apostles and on the other was an informal New Testament. After some eighty years of intense challenges, Christianity was being clarified forever. It was this generation who examined their landscape in pursuit of a New Testament. They tightened the reigns