We gave out this invitation on our last Deep Dive.
Many of our present doctrines and practices today are actually foreign or even "ridiculous" to the early Christians (those who lived from the time of Jesus and the Apostles until just before Constantine allowed Christianity freedom of religion).
It would be great to be able to ask Peter or John or Paul or any of the Apostles what the New Testament Scriptures really mean, right? Well, there is good news! We have the writings of the early church and the first, second and third generations of the the disciples of the Apostles. Surely, people like Polycarp (disciple of John), Clement of Rome (disciple of Paul), Clement of Alexandria (disciple of Mark who wrote the gospel of Mark), Ignatius of Antioch (contemporary of Paul who often visited the Antioch church), Irenaeus of Lyons (disciple of Polycarp), Justin Martyr, Origen, Tertullian and a few others had that privilege or even luxury which we don't have.
Not only that, Greek was their language and the New Testament was written in Greek. Therefore, they understood the New Testament better than any of us do. Furthermore, their beliefs and practices have VERY SOLID support from Scripture. Therefore, they would have the BEST commentaries on the Scripture.
They also condemned IN WRITING any innovations or "new doctrine" aside from the "faith delivered ONCE AND FOR ALL to the saints (Jude 3)". Many will be surprised that much of what we believe today are actually "new doctrine" which could be a matter of eternal life or eternal death to us. This Sunday, we talk about what the early Christians believed about Salvation. We should be able to know for sure from Scripture THE WAY THE FIRST CHRISTIANS UNDERSTOOD it if we are truly saved or not.
Stay tuned.
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