The following is one of the reasons I have not posted in a while, it is a subsection of a larger work on the History of Worship from the New Testament until Today. I am working on this for a class in Church History specifically the sections covering the New Testament and the Church Fathers. Let me know what you all think and maybe I will find time to publish the rest later.
The New Testament – Acts of the Apostles - 100A.D .
Many have debated over the centuries about when the Church
of Jesus Christ began. Some hold that the church began with the incarnation of Christ,
others hold that the church began with Christ’s declaration to Peter, and
others that the church started at the day of Pentecost, with many variations in
between. Regardless of what view you hold, we can
say that at the latest the church was in existence at the day of Pentecost, and
it is here that we will begin our historical look at how the Christian Church
has worshiped.
Old Testament Connections
To begin we
first must realize that, as Schaff explains, during the apostolic age
“Christianity here appears still in intimate union with the Old Testament
economy.[1] It
comes forth from the bosom of Judaism, and for a long time clothes itself in
the forms of that religion.”[2] Indeed,
upon viewing the roll of the apostolic church in Acts 2, we find that the
church is made up primarily of Jews, with the core group having followed Christ
during His earthly ministry. The book of Acts records that throughout the early
days of the church, beyond meeting in houses, the church would also meet at the
temple or synagogue.[3] There runs a risk of fallacy though if you
view Christianity as only a division of Judaism because Christianity from its
earliest days represented a paradigm shift from the Jewish center of the Temple
to Christianity is centered upon the eternal living center of Christ.[4]
Still Christianity maintains roots to its Jewish heritage such as the idea of
monotheism that was unique facet of Jewish belief and Christianity and would
not be found in any other religion until Muhammad founded Islam in approximately
622 A.D.
[1]
The disposition or regulation of the parts or functions of any organic whole;
an organized system or method. “Economy | Define Economy at
Dictionary.com”, n.d., http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/economy.
[2]
Philip Schaff, History of
the Apostolic Church: With a General Introduction to Church History (New
York: Scribner, 1854), 187.
[3]
An example is Acts 3 – 4.
[4]
See Schaff, History of the
Apostolic Church, 546.
One helpful resource that I read in Seminary many years ago, was Continuity and Discontinuity (essays from dispensational and reformed writers). This really helped me in pursuing a balance in some Ecclesiological themes, like the nature of the New Covenant church of God...However, so far it looks good! Schaff is essential in such a pursuit.
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