Looking for the Early Church in the New Testament

 Early Christianity - World History Encyclopedia

According to the above article...

1. Early Christianity broke from Judaism when...

"At a meeting in Jerusalem (ca. 49 CE, The Apostolic Council), it was decided that pagans could join without becoming Jews."

2. The papacy evolved in...

"There was no central authority, such as the Vatican, to validate various beliefs and practices. Numerous and diverse groups existed throughout the Empire. Bishops communicated with each other and their letters demonstrate often rancorous debates."

"Christians adopted the Greek system of political assemblies (ecclesia in Greek, English 'church') and the Roman system of an overseer (bishop) of a section of a province (a diocese). "

"When Constantine moved the capital to Constantinople in 330 CE, this created a temporary void in leadership in the West. By the 5th century CE, the bishop of Rome absorbed secular leadership as well, now with the title of 'Pope.' In the Eastern Empire (Byzantium), the Emperor remained the head of the state as well as the head of the Church until the conquest of Constantinople (Istanbul) by the Turks in 1453 CE."

3. Jesus came to be seen as deified...

"With the belief that Jesus was now in heaven [see Paul's letters in NT, Gospel of John - so within first century AD], Christ became an object of worship. Paul claimed that Christ had been present at creation, and that “every knee show bow” before him (Phil. 2). In the fourth gospel of John, Christ was identified as the philosophical principle of the logos, or the rational principle of the universe that became flesh (the doctrine of the Incarnation)."

4. Worship in the early church...

"We have very little information on how early Christians worshipped Christ. Worship in the ancient world consisted of sacrifices. For Jews (and then Christians), this element was removed with the destruction of their Temple in 70 CE. At the same time, ex-pagan Christians ceased the traditional sacrifices of the native cults."

"In the Acts of the Apostles, we have stories of Peter and John healing people “in the name of Jesus.” There was an initiation rite of baptism, hymns and prayers to Christ, and a meal known as the Last Supper, a memorial of Jesus' last teaching. Christians addressed Jesus as 'Lord,' which was also a Jewish title for god."

5. First universal religion, available to all regardless of what one was "born into".

"Christianity taught that ancestry and bloodlines were no longer relevant. According to Paul, faith (pistis, 'loyalty') in Christ was all that was needed for salvation. This new idea resulted in a religious movement no longer confined to a geographic area or an ethnic group. Christianity became a portable religion available to all."

6. When did the concept of "orthodox belief" originate?

"The Church Fathers of the 2nd century CE developed an innovation with the concept of orthodoxy, or the idea that there was only one “correct belief.” This was matched by its polar opposite, heresy (Greek, airesis, or 'choice,' as in a choice of a particular philosophy)."

7. When did the Catholic church develop?

"Constantine was interested in both unifying the Empire as well as the Church. He adopted the teachings of the Church Fathers as the core of Christian belief."

"In 325 CE, Constantine invited bishops to attend a meeting in Nicaea to define the relationship between God and Christ. The result was the Nicene Creed, a list of tenets that all Christians were to avow."

SEE PAPACY #2: "When Constantine moved the capital to Constantinople in 330 CE, this created a temporary void in leadership in the West. By the 5th century CE, the bishop of Rome absorbed secular leadership as well, now with the title of 'Pope.' In the Eastern Empire (Byzantium), the Emperor remained the head of the state as well as the head of the Church until the conquest of Constantinople (Istanbul) by the Turks in 1453 CE."

8. The Trinity became dogma in 325 with the Nicene Creed.

"God and Christ were of the “same essence,” both participated in creation, and therefore monotheism was maintained; God was one, with three manifestations. With the Holy Spirit of God as the manifestation of divinity on earth, this doctrine became known as the Trinity."

9. The Bible came to be canonical Scripture in...

"How did the books of the New Testament become canonized? The 27-book New Testament was first formally canonized during the councils of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397) in North Africa. AD 115, and David Trobisch places Acts in the mid-to-late second century, contemporaneous with the publication of the first New Testament canon."

Which means that the first hundred or so years of the Early New Testament Church operated based primarily on oral tradition and Hebrew Scriptures.

There was Ancient Temple Judaism, there was Jesus, there was the Early Church of the New Testament, there was the development of Rabbinic Judaism, there was the transformation of Christ-followers from a persecuted sect among many in the Roman Empire to the Bishop of Rome taking over the role of both secular and church leadership in the Western Roman Empire once Constantine moved to Constantinople in 330 and becoming the Catholic Church.  

Meantime, the Orthodox Church developed from the Early Church of the New Testament in the East.  It did not espouse the idea of universal governance like the Western (Catholic) church did.  Because of this, Orthodox Christianity fossilized circa this time period.  It is more ancient than Catholicism, but still not the same as the Early New Testament Church.  

The Early New Testament Church did not have a creed and it did not articulate the nature of God as Trinitarian.  It did have a shared meal modeled on the Last Supper, hymns and prayers to Christ, and an initiation rite called baptism.  

If I want to find a modern church that most closely aligns itself with the Early New Testament Church, it would need to 1) have no top-down governance but rather local governance, 2) not insist on a creed, 3) not believe in the Trinity, 4) share a Last Supper meal, 5) sing hymns, 6) say prayers (to Christ), and 7) baptize initiates.

This eliminates Catholics, Orthodox, Evangelicals, and most other mainline Protestants. Possible contenders?  Christodelphians, Jehova's Witnesses, Mormons, Oneness Pentacostals, Swedenborgianism... But these are actually modern denominations that have done what I'm doing - researched the Bible for what the early church looked like, and then built their beliefs around what they believe was true back then.  They are out of context, not considering the oral tradition that was part and parcel of the early church, since it operated without the benefit of the canon of New Testament Scripture.