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Why is the Christian church not as closely-knit, with like-minded individuals, as the believers that are mentioned in the book of Acts?
I was talking to my husband about this last night, and we came up with the following reasons why the church of today is so different than the Early Christian Church:
1. It’s been about two thousand years since Christ came, died on the cross, and the early Christian church was formed. That’s a long time ago and during that time, our faith has been weakened and watered down. As a whole, our faith is simply not as strong as the faith of the Early Christians.
2. We are no longer one body. The Early Christian Church was one body of like-minded individuals. During the passage of time, over two thousand years, we’re no longer one body, but several bodies. We have so many denominations and sects (and some of those denominations and sects will claim that the other sects and denominations are unsaved, causing arguments and fallout) that we’re no longer united and that’s just another factor that weakens the faith of the Christian church.
3. The Early Christians existed right after Jesus’s death. They had direct contact with Jesus’s apostles – they were more closely connected to Jesus and that extremely strong connection was grounds for a stronger church, a stronger faith, and more astounding miracles.
I’d like to top off this blog post with an interesting thought…wouldn’t it be great if the Christian church could revert back to the way it used to be back in the early days? Wouldn’t it be nice if we were one, united, body of believers?
Why do you think the Christian church is no longer as strong as the church in the Book of Acts? Leave a comment.
Very interesting, I’ve learned a lot about the modern day churches vs. the Early Christians. Thanx.
Hey, Tea. Glad you stopped by today. I encourage you to read the Book of Acts to get a general feel (or reminder) about the life of the Early Christians. There’s some really awesome happenings in that book!
Cecelia,
Interesting thoughts. I feel we were advised throughout the New Testament that there would be the ‘falling away’ and ‘turbulent times’ for those Christians who were to come. Fortunately, my husband and I were talking about how much closer and stronger our faith is becoming now because of what we are witnessing happening around us.
Thanks again for your insight.
Cordially,
Peggy
Thanks for commenting Peggy. Also, I appreciate your insight, too.
I think we sometimes romanticize what the early Christians were like making them the “model” of what the church is supposed to be like today. When we take a closer look, I think you will find that they were not quite as united as we would like to believe.
First of all, there were divisions between the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians. Remember they had that controversy about circumcision in Acts 15? Jewish Christians thought that they needed to continue the circumcision practice and that in order for a male gentile to become a Christian, he must become “Jewish”first. There were controversies on whether or not they needed to keep the dietary laws and some Jewish Christians looked down on Gentile Christians and still believed that they were eating “unclean” foods.
Also keep in mind how the Apostle Paul had to basically send Timothy over to the various churches to “kick butt” so to speak because of the misbehavior going on in the various churches. There were ALL KINDS of problems with the early church. Gnosticism was also a problem and false doctrines were seeping into the Christian church all the time. That’s why Paul warned about false teachers so often….it was a big problem.
The truth is, they really didn’t know how to run the church. There were no rules on church “governance”.
I do believe that those who were witnesses to the resurrection and other miracles had the kind of faith that no one else could really understand. We have never been exposed to those kind of miracles so sometimes I think we lose sight of those miracles.
Cynthia
Great points, Cynthia. Gives me something to think about.
Hi Cecelia:
I think the church is not as strong in their faith as the early Christian church because of the miracles the early Christian church witnessed.
I love the Book of Acts because it identifies the duty or what should be happening in the Church.
The main theme for the church is to preached the gospel of Jesus Christ. Those in the early church done this very well because they witness the things of Jesus first handed and they were strong in their faith because of it.
We as Christians are supposed to do the same exact thing…to witness to Jesus, preached the gospel, to encourage people to denounce their sins and get baptised.
This is the true church today. The church that is steadfast in the word of God and His word is prevalent in service.
It is just that simple. The only way to be strong and build up in the faith is continue to be under his word.
Teresa
Thanks for your insightful response, Teresa.
Thought-provoking posts on the early church, Cecelia. It’s been a while since I studied this in depth. I always thought perhaps we are too weighed down with our toys and the “cares of this world” to be as sold out as the early Christians. If we can get back to the place where we can put that stuff down and follow after Him with our whole hearts–that’s really what it’s all about. Thanks for bringing these things to remembrance for me.
Betty, thanks for commenting. I’m going to continue blogging about this because the subject matter is so amazing to me.