How the Earliest Christians Worshipped (In their own words)

from gaius plinius kaikilius secundus better known as pliny the younger governor of bithynia and pontus to the emperor trajan around 110 a.d

in the meanwhile the method i have observed towards those who have been denounced to me as christians is this i interrogated them whether they were christians

if they confessed it i repeated the question twice more adding the threat of capital punishment if they still persevered i ordered them to be executed

for whatever the nature of their creed might be i could at least feel no doubt that contimacy and inflexible obstinacy deserved chastisement

a placard was put up without any signature accusing a large number of persons by name those who denied they were or had ever

been christians who repeated after me an invocation to the gods and offered adoration with wine and frankincense to your image which i had ordered to be brought for

that purpose together with those of the gods and who finally cursed christ none of which acts it is said those who are really christians can be forced into

performing these i thought it proper to discharge they affirmed however the whole of their guilt or their error was

they were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to christ as to a god and bound

themselves by a solemn oath not to any wicked deeds but never to commit any fraud theft or adultery

never to falsify their word nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up after which it is their custom to separate and then reassemble to partake

of food but food of an ordinary and innocent kind i had forbidden political associations i judged it so much more than necessary

to extract the real truth with the assistance of torture from two female slaves who were styled deaconesses but i could discover nothing more than

depraved and excessive superstition for the matter seemed to me well worth referring to you especially considering the numbers endangered

persons of all ranks and ages and of both sexes are and will be involved in the prosecution for this contagious superstition is not

confined to the cities only but has spread through the villages and rural districts it seems possible however to check and cure it

as you can see being christian in the early days was not for the faint of heart it's been almost 2 000 years since the beginning of christianity contrary to popular claims there aren't

33 000 denominations the world christian encyclopedia reached that figure by applying the word denomination and as looser terms as possible that isn't to say the teachings of

christ haven't been interpreted in thousands of different ways throughout history though it's often wondered what if we could go back in time to see exactly how life functioned in the early

churches how the people acted on the teachings of jesus and his apostles how did they worship when they gathered together by reading the words of our ancestors we

can grow to understand how those who studied under the apostles believed scripture should be lived on earth oh boy this is going to be a long video

salweti amiki i'm patrickius and i'd like to talk about our heritage christians are adopted by god to be his children as jesus taught us we dare to

call god abba or father christ established his church on earth to guide people towards our salvation our home that is heaven christian history is long and

complicated a lot has happened in the past 2000 years factions emerged arguments broke out and at times wars were even fought between us

when jesus asked his apostles who do you say that i am simon replied you are the messiah the son of the living god

jesus said to him in reply blessed are you simon son of jonah for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my heavenly father

and i say to you you are petros and on this petra i will build my church and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it

i will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven

later on in matthew's gospel jesus says if your brother sins against you go and tell him his fault between you and him alone if he listens to you you have won over your brother

if he does not listen take two or three others along with you so that every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses if he refuses to listen to them

tell the church even in the original greek you'll notice that whenever jesus talks about the church he says the word singular ecclesian or ecclesia

they're both just different forms of the singular tense every time he says the church or my church ever churches how to interpret this in modern times

really depends on who you ask both catholic and orthodox churches claim to be the original church the structured invisible organized body that jesus himself established two

thousand years ago other denominations explanations are far more nuanced i've come across two main answers for this among non-catholic and non-orthodox

churches the first is that jesus established an invisible union of christians around the world not limited to one specific denomination but a coalition of

believers with no single authority on earth the other view can take on a few different forms many denominations emerging from the reformation or

sense claim that the original christian doctrines had been gradually corrupted by the catholic and orthodox as once united church they claimed they just wanted to get back to what the original christians

believed and how they worshipped branching off this are far less common ideas such as baptist successionism an idea put forward by some baptists

historically that their church dates back to the time of christ and that it was the true church that was supposedly suppressed by the catholic church repeatedly throughout history

those two main ideas of the church being invisible and of the gradual corruption of doctrine are both often held at once in discussions on which denomination is

closest to what christ intended people tend to want to look backwards and draw a connection to the early christians this is one of the claimed goals of the reformation a return to what the

original christians were like we see other claims made later by in new emerging groups such as seventh-day adventists jehovah's witnesses and others

on the other side catholic and orthodox churches will point to apostolic succession the claim that our bishops were ordained by bishops who were ordained by bishops

and so forth in an unbroken line that leads back to the first bishops the twelve apostles those who were chosen by jesus personally this video's purpose is not to condemn

churches that have more recently developed practices there are many devout people filled with the love of god across all the christian spectrum the problem arises in that many very

different churches have all claimed to be the closest to those christians in the very early days i want to take you back in time to let the writings of the earliest christians

tell us how they worshipped in their own words they had a lot of beliefs and i would not be able to do justice to all of them in just one video

so instead this will focus on what happened when the first christians those of the first 150 years a.d gathered

together along with some of the beliefs that were closely tied to these gatherings at another point in the future i hope to cover each of the main beliefs and

individual videos of their own but for now we'll stick to the main practices i'm not going to ask you to trust me i want the words of our spiritual ancestors to speak for themselves

there will be a link to each one of my sources in the description below so you can check them out yourself most of our focus will be on the various letters and writings that emerged in the

first 150 years a.d

a lot happened after that but the later we looked the more people could accuse these doctrines and letters of being corrupted the other reason is that saint polycarp

of smyrna died around 155 a.d

this was a person who two different ancient sources totaling and irenaeus both claim was a disciple of saint john the beloved apostle the last of the

twelve to move on to his heavenly home according to the martyrdom of polycarp the student of saint john was 86 years old when he was killed making them quite probably the last

person on earth to have known and studied under one of the 12 apostles after 155 a.d there was no longer anyone on earth who had been taught by those

who had been taught by jesus we're going back a very long time in the very early days there was a lot about the nature of christ that wasn't really understood yet

this was before the first complete bibles emerged the canon of scripture wasn't even settled yet some believed the book of enoch or second is drust be old testament

scripture which only a few smaller eastern churches do today some thought the epistle of barnabas or the shepherd of hermes were inspired new testament scripture

individual communities had access to different amounts of individual scriptural books this was before they'd been put into codex form the way pages and books are

compiled today scripture then was in the form of vast libraries of scrolls wealthier and better connected churches having access to more of these scrolls

than others the scrolls had to be copied by hand modern cheap paper wasn't available either so most either had to be written on parchment or papyri

both of which were very expensive to produce jimmy aiken using methodology developed by e randolph richards estimated that making a copy of just the gospel of mark

the shortest gospel in the first century would have cost about one 1 380 modern us dollars now an unskilled laborer at the time

earned about 60 modern us dollars a day in order for churches to have any access to scripture they needed either a lot of lower and middle class people to pull their resources or

since the roman empire was very unequal a very wealthy patron we take for granted how easy it is to access a bible today it wasn't that way

for the first christians try to imagine yourselves in their place persecution is believed to have occurred in waves sometimes it was localized in a province or city other times it was

widespread and other times and places christianity was tolerated early christians often had to meet in secret the oldest purpose-built

christian church we know about was still more than a century away the acaba church in jordan christians had to meet in secret most of

the time often in someone's house purpose-built churches understandably only became more common once christianity became much more tolerated by society

before we look at non-biblical sources we can gather some information from the new testament the acts of the apostles begins right after luke's gospel ends

one of the matters that's sorted in the first chapter is what happens to the 12 apostles now that judas is dead the 11 remaining apostles think back to

psalm 109 and believe that this verse was a prophecy and a guide appoint an evil one over him an accuser to stand at his right hand

that he may be judged and found guilty that his plea may be in vain may his days be few may another take his office

with us in mind saint peter says in acts 1 21 therefore it is necessary that one of the men who accompanied us the whole time the lord jesus came and went among

us beginning from the baptism of john until the day on which he was taken up from us become with us a witness to his

resurrection so they proposed to joseph called barsabas who is also known as justice and matthias

then they prayed you lord who know the hearts of all show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in his apostolic ministry from which judas turned away to

go to his own place then they gave lots to them and the lot fell upon matthias and he was counted with the eleven apostles this is an interesting situation

they could have left judas's place unfilled and no one would have questioned it yet saint peter believed that someone had to succeed the office he left vacant

the book of acts also gives a couple mentions of the presbyteroi we'll see these words coming up a lot episcopoi presbyteroy and diaconoy

put simply episcopas or episcopoi and plural is usually translated either as overseer or bishop presbyteros or presbyter roy

is usually translated either as elder presbyter or priest diaconos or diakonoi is usually translated either as servant or deacon

because modern translations tend to use any of these meanings depending on who's doing the translating for the sake of simplicity i'll stick to the greek for the most part

since the name of the role isn't as important as what their function was acts 15 talks about the council of jerusalem where the apostles and the other very

early christians gathered to discuss where the gentile converts had to be subject to parts of the mosaic law the apostles and the presbytery met

together to see about this matter then the apostles and presbyter roy in agreement with the whole church decided to choose representatives and to send

them to antioch with paul and barnabas the ones chosen were judas who was called basabas and silas leaders among the brothers

this is the letter delivered by them the apostles and the presbytery your brothers to the brothers in antioch syria

and silesia of gentile origin greetings there isn't much we can gather from this other than presbyterian mentioned for the first time we don't know much about them from just

this passage we don't really know who they are but they were distinct from the apostles later on in acts 20 we can learn the church in ephesus also had presbyteroy

and it's implied they had some sort of special role from militis he had the presbytery of the church at ephesus summoned

moving on to first corinthians we can read saint paul's pleas for christian unity i urge you brothers in the name of our lord jesus christ that all of you agree

in what you say and that there be no divisions among you but that you be united in the same mind and in the same purpose for it has been reported to me about you

my brothers by chloe's people that there are rivalries among you i mean that each of you is saying i belong to paul or i belong to apollos

or i belong to kephas or i belong to christ is christ divided was paul crucified for you or were you baptized in the name of paul

this is something that sadly only got worse over time now in regard to the matters about which you wrote it is a good thing for a man not to touch a woman

but because of cases of immorality every man should have his own wife and every woman her own husband this i say by way of concession however

not as a command indeed i wish everyone to be as i am but each has a particular gift from god

one of one kind and one of another now to the unmarried into widows i say it is a good thing for them to remain as they are as i do

but if they cannot exercise self-control they should marry for it is better to marry than to be on fire i should like you to be free of anxieties

an unmarried man is anxious about the things of the lord and how he may please the lord but a married man is anxious about the things of the world how he may please his wife

and he is divided an unmarried woman or a virgin is anxious about the things of the lord so that she may be holy in both body and spirit

a married woman on the other hand is anxious about the things of the world how she may please her husband a wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives

but if her husband dies she is free to be married to whomever she wishes provided that it be in the lord she is more blessed though in my opinion

if she remains as she is and i think that i too have the spirit of god celibacy was not required for priests at the time some of the apostles we know

were married or widowed saint paul however says celibacy is still a thing to be praised as it allows people to devote themselves entirely to god

this is the justification the catholic church has in requiring that priests not marry saint paul was celibate it wasn't a mandate at the time but he encouraged it

we can also see that the early church practiced the eucharist which is sometimes called communion or the lord's supper i am speaking as to sensible people

judge for yourselves what i am saying the cup of blessing that we bless is it not a participation in the blood of christ the bread we break is it not a

participation in the body of christ when you meet in one place then is it not to eat the lord's supper for an eating each one goes ahead with his own

supper and one goes hungry while another gets drunk for i received from the lord what i handed on to you that the lord jesus on the night he was

handed over took bread and after he had given thanks broke it and said this is my body that is for you do this in remembrance of me

in the same way also the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me

for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the death of the lord until he comes therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the lord unworthily

will have to answer for the body and blood of the lord a person should examine himself and so eat the bread and drink the cup

for anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself this final point is why the catholic

bishop of san francisco has recently banned nancy pelosi from receiving the eucharist because of her strong pro-abortion policies it's because that bishop takes these

words quite literally catholic and orthodox bishops believe this passage is evidence that the bread and wine becomes literally the body and blood of jesus

protestant views on this tend to vary quite considerably some being very close to catholic and orthodox understanding whereas others are on the other side of the spectrum seeing this is just a

symbol and there's also everything in between this is something we'll come back to moving on to saint paul's first letter to timothy he starts talking about

episcopoi and diaconoy this saying is trustworthy whoever aspires to the office of episcopal desires a noble task

therefore an episcopal must be irreproachable married only once temperate self-controlled decent

hospitable able to teach not a drunkard not aggressive but gentle not contentious not a lover of money

similarly diakonoi must be dignified not deceitful not addicted to drink not greedy for sordid gain holding fast to the mystery of the faith

with a clear conscience moreover they should be tested first if there is nothing against them let them serve as diakonoi there are people who say that early

christian churches were a chaotic mess with no clearly defined roles or leadership saint paul here would seem to disagree the office of episcopal was something

one had to aspire to there is more let no one have contempt for your youth but set an example for those who believe

in speech conduct love faith and purity timothy was young or at least younger than people expected he was yet he was an episcopal

suggesting at least some of the time it wasn't determined simply by who was oldest do not neglect the gift you have which was conferred on you through the

prophetic word with the imposition of the hands of the presbyterate timothy was ordained by the laying on of hands from presbyteroy laying on of hands is an ancient

practice of ordination the dedication of one to a role of spiritual leadership if we look back all the way to deuteronomy 34 we see the same thing

happening now joshua son of noon was filled with the spirit of wisdom since moses had laid hands upon him and so the israelites gave him their

obedience just as the lord commanded moses moses or dames joshua is his successor the new leader of the israelites

we see the same practice in the early church where saint peter was telling timothy or reminding him that he was made an episcopal after the laying on of hands

and the reception of the holy spirit from the presbytery this is important this is the way in the ancient days god wished the leaders of israel to be ordained

this practice is still going on in the apostolic churches only those ordained in this way can ordain others the apostles received their ordination from jesus directly

and they ordained new priests and new bishops as we see here the apostles original ordination from jesus is seen near the end of john's gospel

jesus said to them peace be with you as the father has sent me so i send you and when he had said this he breathed on them and said receive the holy spirit

whose sins you forgive are forgiven them and whose sins you retain are retained this is distinct from pentecost which was a general reception of the holy

spirit by all present here this was a special reception of the holy spirit that was just for the apostles was their commissioning and it was when they were given the ability to forgive

the sins of others we're also given our first indication of some of the functions of the presbytery in timothy's letter presbytery who preside well deserve

double honor especially those who toil in preaching and teaching for the scripture says you shall not muzzle an ox when it is threshing

and a worker deserves his pay i charge you before god and christ jesus and the elect angels to keep these rules without prejudice doing nothing out of

favoritism do not lay hands too readily upon anyone and do not share in another's sins keep yourself pure

timothy as an episcopal was ordained by presbyter roy by the laying on of hands now we see that he ordains new presbytery by laying hands on them

these presbyteria in a lower leadership role involved with teaching and preaching presbytery were priests priests ordained by episcopy

or by the apostles directly through the laying on of hands those apostles received their ordination directly from jesus in his letter to titus saint paul talks

again about good character traits this time though he also talks about those of presbyter roy for in this reason i left you in crete

that you might set right what remains to be done and appoint presbyters in every town as i directed you on condition that a man be blameless

married only once with believing children who are not accused of licentiousness or rebellious the fact that titus was there to discern

who to appoint is presbyteros indicates that despite literally translating his elder it was probably not just the oldest people in the congregation otherwise they would automatically be

made leaders on account of their age it suggests there was some discretion on titus's part as to who should be a presbyteros and who should not while many of them maybe even all of

them could have been elderly it suggests that elder was a title not a literal description and about bishops saint paul says to titus

a bishop as god steward must be blameless not arrogant not irritable not a drunkard not aggressive not greedy for sordid gain but

hospitable a lover of goodness temperate just holy and self-controlled moving on to the letter of james he tells us some of the other roles of

presbyteroy is anyone among you sick he should summon the presbytery of the church and they should pray over him and anoint him

with oil in the name of the lord and the prayer of faith will save the sick person and the lord will raise him up if he has

committed any sins he will be forgiven james also gives us something we haven't discussed yet therefore confess your sins to one

another and pray for one another that you may be healed the fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful this is very interesting

it's not easy to talk about one's own faults but it seems as though the ancient christians did not just confess their sins to god alone it's hard to know exactly what james

meant by this as it's a single verse is written more as a reminder than an explanation that's about all we can get out of the new testament letters on this question

but there is a lot more out there to get a better idea of how the first christians worshiped and organized themselves let's have a look at what those writing

just a few decades after saint paul said the first epistle of clement is an interesting letter it was written on behalf of the church of rome to the church in corinth

according to the text it was written to the same corinthian church that saint paul wrote to in the first in second corinthians this letter is a response to a previous

letter sent from the church in corinth there was an uprising among some of the members of the church who overthrew and ousted their leadership why the corinthians then wrote to rome

as a mystery as that letter is lost it's possible their new leadership was seeking legitimacy or perhaps some in the church didn't want to go along with the coup

and were asking for help we can only guess the church in rome wrote a scathing response which strongly condemned those involved in the coup

some have dated this letter to around 90 a.d but their reasons are quite weak

a.d but their reasons are quite weak those who propose this date take the author's claim of sudden and successive calamitous events to mean that they had to be referring to

domitian's persecution this is despite the fact that domitian is never mentioned and there's no detail given about what the sudden and successive calamitous events could be

they don't say anything about current persecutions in fact the only other evidence that is put forward for this date as the author clement

whom ancient historians consider to be the pope who reigned around 90 a.d

christian historians writing a few decades later attribute this letter to clement but the author of the text never identifies themselves other than saying they're writing on behalf of the church

in rome though there's nothing to indicate that anyone else might have written it instead its attribution to clement isn't the strongest the other possibility is that clement

might have written it before becoming the head bishop of rome all it says is that it was written on the roman church's behalf the more likely date based on

information within the text would seem to argue that it's written either just before 70 a.d or in the early part of 70 a.d

a.d this is because the author talks about the sacrifices offered in the temple in jerusalem in the present tense this was impossible after the romans

raised the city and destroyed the temple in 70 a.d

the author also mentions that two pillars of the church saints peter and paul were martyred by this point and the text implies that it happened quite recently

which would also seem to indicate some date of around 65 to 70 a.d

the author doesn't mention any notable figures having been martyred since then he also spends a lot of time going through old testament examples of the proud who refused to listen to god and

were cast down and destroyed despite all the time he spends on this he doesn't mention jerusalem being cast down and destroyed for rejecting jesus

arguments from silence are generally pretty weak and difficult to use there are often other possible explanations but it would seem like the destruction of jerusalem would have been something

he would have wanted to include if he knew about it christian writers after 70 a.d

did attribute jerusalem's destruction to them having rejected and killed christ though it's not possible to know for sure the evidence does seem to indicate

this letter was probably written either in 70 a.d or just before why did i just go on a big rant about the dating of this letter that'll be

important later the church of god which sojourneth in rome to the church of god which sojourneth in corinth to them that are called and sanctified

by the will of god through our lord jesus christ grace to you and peace from almighty god through jesus christ be multiplied

owing dear brethren to the sudden and successive calamitous events which have happened to ourselves we feel that we have been somewhat tardy in turning our attention

to the points respecting which you consulted us and especially to that shameful and detestable sedition utterly abhorrent to the elect of god

which a few rash and self-confident persons have kindled to such a pitch of frenzy that your venerable and illustrious name

worthy to be universally loved has suffered grievous injury for you did all things without respect of persons and walked in the commandments of god

being obedient to those who had rule over you and giving all fitting honour to the presbytery among you every kind of honor and happiness was

bestowed upon you and then was fulfilled that which was written my beloved ate and drank and was enlarged and became fat and kicked

hence flowed emulation and envy strife and sedition persecution and disorder war and captivity so the worthless rose up against the

honored those of no reputation against those as were renowned the foolish against the wise the young against those advanced in years

and cain said to abel his brother let us go out into the field and it came to pass while they were in the field that cain rose up against abel his brother and slew him

you see brethren her envy and jealousy led to the murder of a brother through envy also our father jacob fled from the face of esau his brother

envy made joseph be persecuted unto death and to come into bondage envy compelled moses to flee from the face of pharaoh king of egypt when he

heard those words from his fellow countrymen who made you judge and ruler over us will you kill me as you killed the egyptian yesterday

on account of envy aaron and miriam had to make their abode without the camp envy brought down dathan and abram alive to hades

through the sedition which they excited against god's servant moses through envy david not only underwent the hatred of foreigners but was

persecuted by saul king of israel interesting isn't it the authors compared the corinthian youth rising up against their leaders with kane's murder of abel

and these other old testament figures to which pride and envy led them to do other terrible things if as some suggest the early christian churches were

unstructured anarchy with no assigned roles then what is the author talking about condemning the corinthians for their envy of their leaders he then continues on comparing those

rebellious to those who killed saint peter and saint paul but not to dwell on upon ancient examples let us come to the most recent spiritual

heroes let us take the noble examples furnished in our own generation through envy and jealousy the greatest

and most righteous pillars of the church have been persecuted and put to death let us see before our eyes the illustrious apostles peter

through unrighteous envy endured not one or two but numerous labors and when he had at length suffered martyrdom departed to the place of glory

due to him owing to envy paul also obtained the reward of the patient endurance after being seven times thrown into captivity

if you're still not convinced the church was ordered he goes on to say let us then men and brethren with all energy act the part of soldiers

in accordance with his holy commandments let us consider those who serve under our generals with what order obedience and submissiveness they perform the

things which i commanded them all are not prefects nor commanders of a thousand nor a hundred nor fifty and the like

but each one in his own rank performs the things commanded by the king and the generals the great cannot subsist without the small

nor the small without the great then he goes on to compare the church leadership structure to the contemporary jewish priesthood he says those therefore who present their

offerings at the appointed times are accepted and blessed for inasmuch as they follow the laws of the lord they sin not for his own peculiar services are

assigned to the high priest and their own proper place is prescribed to the priests and their own special ministrations devolve on the levites the

layman is bound by the laws that pertain to laymen let every one of you brethren give thanks to god in his own order living in all good conscience with

becoming gravity and not going beyond the rule of the ministry prescribed to him not in every place brethren are the daily sacrifices offered or the peace

offerings or the sin offerings in the trespass offerings but in jerusalem only and even there they are not offered in any place but only at the altar before

the temple which is offered being first carefully examined by the high priest and the ministers already mentioned those therefore who do anything beyond

that which is agreeable to his will are punished with death you see brethren the greater the knowledge that has been vouchsafed to us the greater also is the danger to which

we are exposed that was the part talking about the jewish korba and sacrifice still as an ongoing thing which was impossible after the romans destroyed the second temple

in 70 a.d

bringing it back to christianity he says the apostles have preached the gospel to us from the lord jesus christ jesus christ from god christ therefore was sent by god and the

apostles by christ both these appointments then were made in an orderly way according to the will of god having therefore received their orders

and being fully assured by the resurrection of our lord jesus christ and established in the will of god with full assurance of the holy ghost they went forth proclaiming that the

kingdom of god was at hand and thus preaching through countries and cities they appointed the firstfruits of their labors having first proved them by the spirit

to be episcopoy and diaconoy of those who should afterwards believe nor was this any new thing since indeed many ages before it was written

concerning episcopoi and diaconoy for thus says the scripture in a certain place i will appoint their episcopalia in righteousness and their diaconoy in faith

the churches were not egalitarian communes with no defined roles they were ordered and structured with appointed leadership as the author writing on the behalf of the church of rome says

jesus chose the apostles the apostles went and chose the people to be bishops in the cities they visited as well as deacons again the author likens church leadership to the very structured jewish

priesthood for when rivalry arose concerning the priesthood and the tribes were contending among themselves as to which of them should be adorned with that

glorious title he commanded the twelve princes of the tribes to bring their rods each one being inscribed with the name of the tribe

and he took them and bound them and sealed them with the rings of the princes of the tribes and laid them up in the tabernacle of witness on the table of god

and having shut the doors on the tabernacle he sealed the keys as he had done with the rods and said to them men and brethren the tribe whose rod

shall blossom has god chosen to fulfill the office of the priesthood and to minister unto him and when the mourning had come he assembled all israel six hundred

thousand men and showed them the seals of the princes of the tribes and opened the tabernacle of witness and brought forth the rods

and the rod of aaron which found not only to have blossomed but to bear fruit upon it what thank you beloved did not moses

know beforehand that this would happen undoubtedly he knew but he acted thus that there might be no sedition in israel and that the name of the true and only

god might be glorified to him be glory forever and ever amen the next point is very interesting and has a lot of implications

our apostles also knew through our lord jesus christ that there would be strife on account of the office of the episcopate for this reason therefore

and as much as they had obtained a perfect foreknowledge of this they appointed those already mentioned and afterwards gave instructions that

when these should fall asleep other approved men should succeed them in their ministry we are of opinion therefore that those

appointed by them or afterwards by other eminent men with the consent of the whole church and who have blamelessly served the flock of christ in a humble peaceful

and disinterested spirit and have for a long time possessed the good opinion of all cannot be justly dismissed from their ministry

the author of this epistle believes in apostolic succession that the bishops were the successors of the bishops successors of bishops who were appointed by the apostles

themselves with those twelve appointed by jesus the people in the church of corinth broke that chain by overthrowing the bishops who were the legitimate ears to that office

the author considers it not simply a leadership change but turning away from those who inherited the office of the apostles thereby turning away from god

take up the epistle of the blessed apostle paul what did he write to you at the time when the gospel first began to be preached truly under the inspiration of the

spirit he wrote to you concerning himself and kephas and apollos because even then parties had formed among you for it is better that a man should

acknowledge his transgressions than that he should harden his heart as the hearts of those were hardened who stirred up sedition against moses the servant of god

and whose condemnation was made manifest for they went down alive into hades and death swallowed them up again comparing the bishops to the jewish priesthood he says that the

corinthian rebellion against their bishops was equivalent to the israelite rebellion against moses a rebellion which caused the ground to

open up and swallow the rebels whole you therefore who laid the foundation of the sedition submit yourselves to the presbytery and receive correction so as to repent

bending the knees of your hearts learn to be subject laying aside the proud and arrogant self-confidence of your tongue for it is better for you that you should

occupy a humble but honorable place and the flock of christ then that being highly exalted you should be cast down from the hope of his people

if however any shall disobey the words spoken by him through us let them know that they will involve themselves in transgression and serious danger

but we shall be innocent of this sin and instant in prayer and supplication shall desire that the creator of all preserve unbroken the computed number of

his elect in the whole world through his beloved son jesus christ joy and gladness will you afford us if you become obedient to the words

written by us and through the holy spirit root out the lawless wrath of your jealousy according to the intercession which we have made for peace and unity in this letter

pay attention to how authoritative this is the author writing on behalf of the church of rome is telling them to submit to their priests not asking them the church of rome is telling them to

lay aside their pride the church in rome is telling the corinthians that these words are written by them but from the holy spirit this is why the dating of this letter

becomes very interesting the church in rome is asserting themselves as one with authority over others and they were written to to sort out this matter by the corinthians

while at least one apostle was still alive in 70 a.d saint john the author of the gospel that bears his name was still alive either in ephesus or patmos

the exact year of his exile was not clear but he was alive he was far closer to corinth than rome was and yet those who in corinth who

wrote the initial letter chose to write to rome rather than to him it's not that saint john couldn't respond he was able to write the book of revelation either around this time or a

few decades later whether or not you accept the authority of the pope the first epistle of clement suggested the church in rome even in the

apostolic age held some authority over other churches next let's jump ahead in time a few decades to the letters of saint ignatius of antioch

these letters are traditionally dated to around 108 a.d though some scholars suggest it's a little bit later saint ignatius of antioch was an episcopase of

antioch while he was on his way to rome to be publicly executed he wrote seven letters six of them were addressed to churches along the way churches in modern day turkey and the

church in rome the final letter he wrote was to polycarp the same polycarp who was a disciple of saint john the apostle there are too many letters to spend much

time going into each of them they all have quite similar themes as well and most of them he greets people by name and talks about situations that are happening within their churches about

his upcoming martyrdom which he wasn't afraid of with a heart full of love of christ he looked forward to the day he could die on account of the name of jesus even

going so far as to ask people not to interfere with the roman authorities on this matter let's have a look at his letter to the ephesians first and you can start

to understand the common themes it is therefore be fitting that you should in every way glorify jesus christ who hath glorified you

that by a unanimous obedience ye may be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment and may all speak the same thing

concerning the same thing and that being subject to the episcopal and the presbytery you may in all respects be sanctified

but inasmuch as love suffers me not to be silent in regard to you i have therefore taken upon me first to exhort you that ye should all run

together in accordance with the will of god for even as jesus christ our inseparable life is the manifested will of the father

is also episcopoi settled everywhere to the utmost bounds of the earth are so by the will of jesus christ he too identifies episcopoi or bishops

as being the leadership of the church that needs to be held in loving obedience and the presbytery the priests in fact he takes being subject to the church's appointed leadership very

seriously let no man deceive himself if anyone not be within the altar he is deprived of the bread of god

for if the prayer of one or two possesses such power how much more that of the bishop and the whole church he therefore that does not assemble with

the church has even by this manifested his pride and condemned himself for it is written god resisteth the proud

let us be careful then not to set ourselves in opposition to the bishop in order that we may be subject to god again we see more evidence of the church as being very hierarchical and very

organized if everyone was obedient to the bishop he of course wouldn't have needed to say this but the fact that we now have two authors putting forward this belief

shows that it was the ideal they believed the will of god which is why he makes a rather shocking statement that he who sets himself in opposition to the bishop is an opposition to god

he also talks about the gatherings the presbyter roy and episcopal preside over so that ye obey the episcopal and the presbytery with an undivided mind

breaking one in the same bread which is the medicine of immortality and the antidote to prevent us from dying but that we should live forever in jesus

christ if they believed the eucharist or communion to be just a symbol he would not have called it the medicine of immortality or the antidote to prevent us from dying

he says it so uncontroversially as a matter of fact statement and a reminder rather than trying to convince them this alone shows that it was believed by christians at the time the eucharist was

a very real thing that the bread was the medicine of immortality not just a memory or a symbol of the new covenant his letter to the magnesians is fairly

similar he brings up one particular situation involving the magnesian church though which has caused some apprehension now it becomes you also not to treat

your episcopal too familiarly on account of his youth but to yield him all reverence having respect to the power of god the father

as i have known even holy presbyteroidus not judging rashly from the manifest youthful appearance of the episcopal but as being themselves prudent in god

submitting to him or rather not to him but to the father of jesus christ the episcopal of us all

it is fitting then not only to be called christians but to be so in reality as some indeed give one the title of

episcopas but do all things without him now such persons seem to me to be not possessed of a good conscience saying they are not steadfastly gathered

together according to the commandment i exhort you to study to do all these things with a divine harmony while your episcopal presides in

the place of god and your presbytery in the place of the assembly of the apostles along with your diaconoy who are most dear to me and are entrusted with the

ministry of jesus christ who was with the father before the beginning of time and in the end was revealed as therefore the lord did nothing

without the father being united to him neither by himself nor by the apostles so neither do ye anything without the

episcopas or presbyteroy neither endeavor that anything appear reasonable and proper to yourselves apart but being come together into the same

place let there be one prayer one supplication one mind one hope and love and enjoy undefiled

there is one jesus christ then whom nothing is more excellent do ye therefore all run together as into

one temple of god as to one altar as to one jesus christ who came forth from one father and is with and has gone to one

his final point is one which gives some indication as to which day christians mark it's only a hint from now but there'll be more on this a bit later if therefore those who were brought up

in the ancient order of things have come to the possession of a new hope no longer observing the sabbath but living an observance of the lord's day

in his letter to the traelians he makes the same points and just like clement compares the christian bishops and priesthood to the jewish priesthood he goes a bit further than clement did

though and like manna let all reverence the diakonoi as an appointment of jesus christ and the episcopal as jesus christ

who is the son of the father and the presbytery as the sanhedrin of god and assembly of the apostles

apart from these there is no church it was his view that if a group of christians did not have a bishop priests and deacons they did not have a church

in case anyone thinks that core christian doctrines didn't show up until much later he says stop your ears therefore when anyone speaks to you at variance with jesus

christ who was descended from david and was also of mary who was truly born and did eat and drink he was truly

persecuted under pontius pilate he was truly crucified and truly died in the sight of beings in heaven and on earth and under the earth

he was also truly raised from the dead his father quickening him even as after the same manner his father will so raise up us who believe in him

by christ jesus apart from whom we do not possess true life this was only 70 years after jesus crucifixion and the core beliefs are

laid out very simply the same as christians today do this also sinks that whole meme about britannic or germanic paganism inspiring christianity as it would be a good couple of

centuries before christianity would even reach britain or germany yet the core beliefs are here ignatius is hard on himself not just those receiving his letters

i entreat you in love to hear me that i may not by having written be a testimony against you and do ye also pray for me who have need

of your love along with the mercy of god that i may be worthy of the lot for which i am destined and that i may not be found reprobate

the lot for which he is destined he explains as his upcoming martyrdom he believed he was admonishing these churches in love the same way saint paul does in his letters

a modern example would be like a loving parent disciplining their children who insist on trying to play with electrical sockets his letter to the philadelphians is the

first one in which he doesn't address any in their church by name likely he was just less familiar with them after praising them for their purity and holiness he writes

keep yourselves from those evil plants which jesus christ does not tend because they are not the planting of the father not that i have found any division among

you but exceeding purity for as many as are of god and of jesus christ are also with the episcopals he then warns not to go into schism or

separation from from the authority do not ur my brethren if any man follows him that makes a schism in the church he shall not

inherit the kingdom of god then he says something very interesting take ye heed then to have but one

eucharist for there is one flesh of our lord jesus christ and one cup to show forth the unity of his blood one altar

as there is one episcopal along with the presbyter roy and diaconoy my fellow servants that so whatsoever ye do ye may do it

according to the will of god just before this he was talking about how some of them were led away into schism away from their bishop he is saying there is only one eucharist and that is the eucharist in union with

the bishop those who break away do not partake in the true eucharist the true flesh and blood of christ he then seeks to prove it's not just him

who speaks but the holy spirit who spoke these things through him for when i was among you i cried i spoke with a loud voice give ye heed to the

episcopal and to the presbytery and diaconoy now some suspected me of having spoken thus as knowing beforehand the division

caused among some of you but he is my witness for whose sake i am in bonds that i'm got no intelligence from any man but the spirit proclaimed

these words do nothing without the episcopal keep your bodies as the temples of god love unity avoid divisions be the

followers of jesus christ even as he is of his father in the letter to the smirnians one of the first things he writes is against those who think jesus was resurrected

just spiritually this is not a new heresy for i know that after his resurrection also he was still possessed of flesh and

i believe that here so now when for instance he came to those who were with peter he said to them lay hold handle me and see that i am not

an incorporeal spirit and immediately they touched him and believed being convinced by his flesh and spirit for this cause also they despised death

and were found its conquerors and after his resurrection he did eat and drink with them and being possessed of flesh although

spiritually he was united to the father then he provides a very interesting insight into the inner thoughts of a soon-to-be martyr

and why have i also surrendered myself to death to fire to the sword to the wild beasts but in fact he is near to the sword is

near to god he that is among the wild beasts is in company with god provided only he be so in the name of jesus christ

i undergo all these things that i may suffer together with him he who became a perfect man inwardly strengthening me again talking about the eucharist he

makes his most definitive statement yet talking about those who went into schizomes they abstain from the eucharist and from prayer because they confess not the

eucharist to be the flesh of our savior jesus christ who suffered for our sins and which the father of his goodness raised up again

those therefore who speak against this gift of god incurred death in the midst of their disputes but it were better for them to treat it with respect that they also may rise

again the idea that the eucharist was just a symbol or as just the body of jesus in a vague spiritual way didn't emerge until many

centuries later the early christians truly believed as the catholic and orthodox churches and some high protestant churches do now that the bread and wine truly become the

body and blood of christ he then reinforces the need for unity under the bishops saying let that be deemed a proper eucharist which is administered either by the

episcopal or by one to whom he has entrusted it wherever the episcopal shall appear there let the multitude of the people also be

wherever jesus christ is there is the catholic church it is not lawful without the episcopal either to baptize or to celebrate a love

feast but whatsoever he shall approve of that is also pleasing to god so that everything that is done may be secure and valid

it is well to reverence both god and the episcopals he who honors the episcopal has been honored by god he who does anything without the

knowledge of the episcopal does in reality serve the devil his letter to polycarp is interesting but it covers much of the same ground as other letters as well as a lot of things

that are outside the scope of this video i'd encourage you to read it though the most relevant points in this video he again states that christians need to

be obedient to their bishops my soul be for theirs that are submissive to the episcopal to the presbytery and to the diakonoi

and may my portion be along with them in god his final letter is to the church in rome the slate is very different pay attention to the massive change in

tone ignatius who is also called theophoros to the church which has obtained mercy through the majesty of the most high

father and jesus christ his only begotten son the church which is beloved and enlightened by the will of him that willeth all things which are according

to the love of jesus christ our god which also presides in the place of the report of the romans worthy of god worthy of honor

worthy of the highest happiness worthy of praise worthy of obtaining her every desire worthy of being deemed holy and which

presides over love is named from christ and from the father which i also salute in the name of jesus christ the son of the father

to those who are united both according to the flesh and spirit to every one of his commandments who are filled inseparably with the grace of god

and are purified from every strange taint i wish abundance of happiness unblameably in jesus christ our god this letter doesn't address anyone in

rome by name there's no mention of the role of episcopas or presbyteros either some have taken the anti-papacy view suggesting there was no bishop in rome

at this time given his previous statement that without bishop priests and deacons there is no church this would seem unlikely the far more likely explanation is the

simpler one he was on his way to rome to be killed for his faith if he started naming people or pointing out the leadership roles he would only make them targets as well

his tone is strangely flattering when he addresses them [Music] through prayer to god i have obtained the privilege of seeing your most worthy faces

and have even been granted more than i requested for i hope as a prisoner in christ jesus to salute you if indeed it be the will of god that i

be thought worthy of attaining unto the end rather than acting like saint paul admonishing the church in rome for their sins he begs them not to stop as

martyrdom for it is not my desire to act towards you as a man pleaser but as pleasing to god even as also ye please him

for neither shall i have such another opportunity of attaining to god nor will ye if ye shall now be silent ever be entitled to the honor of a

better work for a fear silent concerning me i shall become gods but if you show your love to my flesh i

shall again have to run my race pray then do not seek to confer any greater favor upon me than that i be sacrificed to god

while the altar is still prepared that being gathered together in love ye may sing praise to the father through

christ jesus that god has redeemed me the episcopal of syria worthy to be sent for from the east to the west

it is good to set the world unto god that i may rise again to him even furthering the strong deference to rome he says ye have never envied anyone

ye have taught others now i desire that those things may be confirmed by your conduct which in your instructions ye enjoin on others

i write to the churches and impress on them all that i shall die willingly for god unless you hinder me i beseech of you not to show

unseasonable goodwill towards me suffer me to become food for the wild beasts through whose instrumentality it will be

granted of me to attain to god i am the wheat of god and let me be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts that i may be found the pure bread of

christ i do not as peter and paul issue commandments unto you they were apostles i am but a condemned man

may i enjoy the wild beasts that are prepared for me i pray they may be found eager to rush upon me which i also i will entice to

devour me speedily and not deal with me as with some whom out of fear they have not touched but if they be unwilling to assail me i

will compel them to do so pardon me in this i know what is for my benefit now i begin to be a disciple

and let no one of things visible or invisible envy me that i should attain to christ let fire in the cross

let the crowds of wild beasts let tearings breakings and dislocations of bones let cutting off of members let shatterings of the whole body and let

all the dreadful torments of the devil come upon me only let me attain to jesus christ he was not going to his death gladly for

an ideology he was not trying to make himself spectacle to show his faith to an unbelieving crowd he was going to death in gladness for a person

the god whom he loved so there you have the letters of saint ignatius of antioch one who believed christians must be in union that division among christians are the

work of the devil that to be christian is to be loyal to the episcopalia that the eucharist is officiated by the

legitimate episcopalia or the presbytery they authorize is truly the flesh of jesus he who believes that to die on account

of christ is the greatest honor that anyone can attain now we move on to saint polycarp who i keep mentioning he is the friend and fellow bishop of saint ignatius

and the one that both tertullian and irenaeus claim studied directly under saint john the apostle he writes to the philippian church the same church that saint paul wrote his

new testament letter to this letter is the only writing of saint polycarp that survived to the present day polycarp and the presbyter roy with them

to the church of god sojourning at philippi mercy to you and peace from god almighty and from the lord jesus christ our

savior be multiplied your faith spoken of in days long gone by endures even unto now and brings forth fruit to our lord jesus christ

who for our sins suffered even unto death but whom god raised from the dead having loosed the bands of the grave

polycarp's letter makes numerous quotes and paraphrases from many of the new testament letters as well as from all four gospels

what we can gather from this is that it was widely known enough for polycarp bishop of smyrna writing around 105 to 110 a.d to quote and paraphrase

110 a.d to quote and paraphrase scripture to another church and he expected they would recognize their origin in describing the characteristics

deacons should have he says knowing then that god is not mocked we ought to walk worthy of his commandment and glory and like manner should the

diaconoy be blameless before the face of his righteousness as being servants of god in christ and not of men they must not be slanderers

double-tongued or lovers of money but temperate in all things compassionate industrious werking according to the truth of the lord who

was the servant of all he speaks along very similar lines to ignatius and like manna let the young men also be blameless in all things being especially

careful to preserve purity and keeping themselves in as with a bridle from every kind of evil for it as well that they should be cut

off from the lusts that are of the world since every lust was against the spirit and neither fornicators nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind

shall inherit the kingdom of god nor those who do things inconsistent and unbecoming wherefore it is needful to abstain from all these things being subject to the

presbytery and diaconoy is unto god and christ the virgins also must walk in a blameless and pure conscience

polycarp then quotes the deutero canonical book of tobit which was taken out of protestant bibles when you can do good defer it not

because arms delivers from death ethan laments a priest among the philippians who had gone astray from the faith i am greatly grieved for wallins

who was once the presbyteros among you because he so little understands the place that was given him in the church i exhort you therefore that you abstain

from covetousness that you be chaste and truthful finally he talks about receiving one of the letters from ignatius that we've gone through

both you and ignatius wrote to me that if anyone went from this into syria he should carry your letter with him which request i will attain to

if i find a fitting opportunity either personally or through some other acting for me that your desire may be fulfilled the epistles of ignatius written by him

to us and all the rest of his epistles which we have by us we have sent to you as you requested they are subjoined in this epistle and

by them you may be greatly profited for they treat of faith and patience all the things that tend to edification in our lord any more certain information you may

have obtained respecting both ignatius himself and those that were with him have the goodness to make known to us next we read from a saint who sadly only a few scraps of his writings have

survived this is saint papius of hieropolis hierapolis something like that not a lot is known about him but he died

sometime between 100 and 130 a.d

as only a few fragments of his writings have survived they do have some fairly big gaps in them but we can have a quick look at the parts that are relevant to this video first he sheds a fascinating light on

what it was like to be taught christianity before the written gospels were widespread enough at a time when christians had to rely exclusively on

preachers and on the old testament writings if then anyone who had attended on the presbytery came

i asked minutely after their sayings what andrew or peter said or what was said by philip or by thomas or by james or by john or by matthew

or by any other of the lord's disciples which things aristian and the presbyter ross john and the disciples of lord say

for i imagined that what was what to be got from books was not so profitable to me is what came from the living and abiding voice

while talking about different levels of reward for different people in heaven he also teaches apostolic succession the presbyter roy the disciples of the apostles

say that this is the gradation and arrangement of those who are saved we'll move on to the shepherd of hermes next it's an interesting piece

it's possible this is the same hermes who was mentioned in romans 16 14.

both were influential figures in the church in rome though some scholars believe this work was written quite a bit later dating ancient texts is quite hard though so i mean it could be it might

not be this work is very interesting because some of the early christians truly believed this was inspired scripture it was included in the new testament in

the codex sinaiticus one of the oldest complete bibles that has survived even early church figures like saint irenaeus of leon believed it to be

genuinely inspired scripture when the biblical canon of scripture was settled in the fourth century um in the council of rome except for the eastern churches he

didn't attend um it's lost its status as potentially scripture and just became a writing of an early christian about what he says

god revealed to him in a vision not every revelation god sends makes it into sacred scripture but at the same time many claimed revelations are not

genuinely supernatural either for the purposes of this video whether hermas perceive genuine visions or not is irrelevant because at the very least this work like the others we've gone

into gives some insight into what the author believed in what he was the people he was writing to likely believed hermes a former slave in italy

used the very well-established and ordered structure of the church to spread the message of the visions he claimed to have thou shalt therefore write two little

books and shalt send one to clement and one to grapte so clement shall send to the foreign cities for this is his duty while grapte shall instruct the widows

and the orphans but thou shalt read the book to the city along with the presbytery that preside over the church

now clement surfaces again interesting how clement the bishop of rome was asked to send this message to the foreign cities because it was his duty

after fasting often and entreating the lord to declare unto me the revelation which he promised to show me by the mouth of the aged woman the way he nonchalantly says he fasted

with no qualifiers or explanation suggests that fasting was a fairly common practice of the early church next he's shown a vision of a building

made of stone bricks and an angel begins explaining that this is a symbol for the church here now concerning the stones that go into the building

the stones that are squared and white and fit together in the joints these are the apostles and the episcopali and the teachers and diakonoi

who walked after the holiness of god and exercised their office of episcopal and teacher and diaconoy in purity and sanctity

for the elect of god some of them already fallen asleep while others still living and because they always agreed with one

another they both had peace among themselves and listened to one another the claim that bishops always agreed with one another is probably an exaggeration

hermes is quite clearly indicating his belief that being bishop teacher or deacon is an office a defined role in the early church

it was his belief that bishops are in close communion with each other so close as to indicate they would strongly disagree with the modern view that ancient churches were just a

disorganized coalition of people with roughly the same beliefs this is just a short look at this long text since there's not a lot else that's relevant to this video

next we'll move on to the epistle of barnabas this was another text that was included in the codex sinaiticus at least some early christians believed

that this as well was inspired scripture before the canon was settled some ancient christians believed it to be the same barnabas that was mentioned in the acts of the apostles

but the author never mentions themselves by name all we can say for sure is that the author was an early christian who had a great knowledge of and a desire to

preach to the jews and those christians that believed we still needed to follow the old mosaic law the date it was written is similarly difficult to say for sure

mentions of the destruction of the jerusalem temple indicates a head to be written after 70 a.d

and many scholars put the latest likely date around 130 a.d

giving a big 60-year window in which this could have been written in addressing the jews he quotes isaiah saying

nor though you bend your neck like a ring and put upon your sackcloth and ashes will you call it an acceptable fast

to us he says behold this is the fast that i have chosen says the lord that a man should humble his soul but that he should loose every band of

iniquity untie the fastenings of harsh agreements restore to liberty them that are bruised

tear in pieces every unjust engagement feed the hungry with your bread clothe the naked when you see him bring the homeless into your house

the author had quite a deep understanding of old testament scripture he seems to condemn fasting however it's suggested that he's referring to those

who fast out of tradition while continuing to live in sin the final stumbling block approaches concerning which it is written

as enoch says for this end the lord has cut short the times and the days that his beloved may hasten

and he will come to the inheritance and the prophet also speaks thus ten kingdoms shall reign upon the earth and a little king shall rise up after

them and shall subdue under one three of the kings he's interestingly quoting the book of enoch a book that was considered inspired scripture by some christians in the

early days but but today only the ethiopian in eritrean orthodox churches think they should be in the old testament after likening jesus's death on the

cross to abraham's almost offering his son isaac or the mosaic law of sacrifices of animals the author then goes on to talk about

baptism further what says he and there was a river flowing on the right and from it arose trees and whosoever shall eat of them shall

live forever this means that we indeed descend into the water full of sins and defilement but come up bearing fruit in our heart

having the fear of god and trust in jesus in our spirit this reference to the old testament he uses to show baptismal regeneration

the belief that the water of baptism washes away our sins he then goes on to disagree with claims that the early church worshipped on saturday saying

further he says to them your new moons and your sabbath i cannot endure you perceive how he speaks your present sabbaths are not acceptable to me

but that is which i have made namely this when giving rest to all things i shall make a beginning of the eighth day

that is a beginning of another world wherefore also we keep the eighth day with joyfulness the day also on which jesus rose from

the dead and when he had manifested himself he ascended into the heavens finally he ends with a pro-life message you shall love your neighbor more than

your own soul you shall not slay the child by procuring abortion nor again shall you destroy it after it is born

the next text we'll look at is the dedicate a very weirdly written word the word means the teaching in greek

the decay is an ancient catechism it details many of the ancient practices beliefs and is a guide to moral living in christianity

it frequently compares what it calls the way of life from the way of death that is sin so the decay has been dated to around 50

to 70 a.d

just let that sink in for a minute this is the two decades in which the gospels in the new testament letters have been written was out there around the same time

one of the first sections promotes fasting is a holy and pious action and of these sayings the teaching is this bless those who curse you

and pray for your enemies and fast for those who persecute you while strictly it tells people to avoid paganism

my child be not an observer of omens since it leads the way to idolatry neither an enchanter nor an astrologer nor a purifier

nor be willing to look at these things for out of all of these idolatry is engendered the dedicated pronounces the need for ongoing repentance

in the church you shall acknowledge your transgressions and you shall not come near for your prayer with an evil conscience acknowledging your transgressions in

church is interesting but it's not exactly clear in what form this is to take place just from reading this passage next we highlight a debate that was

ongoing during the era of the new testament letters whether it's okay or not to eat food that others had sacrificed to idols saint paul believed it was okay since

idols have no real power but others believed it was a way of supporting idolatry and shouldn't happen see that no one caused you to err from

this way of the teaching since apart from god it teaches you for if you are able to bear all the yoke of the lord you will be perfect but if

you are not able what you are able that do and concerning food bear what you are able but against that which is sacrificed to

idols be exceedingly on your guard for it is the service of dead gods and concerning baptism baptized this way

having first said all these things baptized into the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit in living water

but if you have not living water baptize into other water and if you cannot and cold and in warm

but if you have not either pour a water thrice upon the head into the name of the father and son and holy spirit

but before the baptism let the baptizer fast and the baptized and whatever others can

but you shall order the baptized to fast one or two days before the ancient christian church baptized under the trinitarian formula

as jesus commanded in the gospels the ancient church also allowed baptism by the pouring of water three times in the head though immersion was preferred it was

not seen as necessary but let not your fasts be with the hypocrites for they fast on the second and fifth day of the week

but fast on the fourth day and the preparation this here is evidence that the catholic and orthodox churches and traditional high protestant churches idea of penance

on fridays can be traced back to the early church the wednesday fast has largely been dropped and in many churches the friday fast is

now just abstaining from meat but you can see the practice itself of penance on friday goes all the way back to the very early church along with this

is an affirmation of jesus's command to pray the our father and to pray it frequently neither pray is the hypocrites but as the lord commanded in his gospel thus

pray our father who art in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done

as in heaven so on earth give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debt as we also forgive our debtors

and bring us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one for yours is the power and the glory forever

thrice in the day thus pray finally we get a description of what goes on during the christian sunday gatherings now concerning the thanksgiving

thus give thanks first concerning the cup we thank you our father for the holy vine of david your servant which you have made known to us through

jesus christ your servant to you be the glory forever and concerning the broken bread we thank you our father for the gift of life and

knowledge which you made known to us through jesus your servant to you be the glory forever even as this broken bread was scattered

over the hills and was thus gathered together and became one so let your church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into your kingdom

for yours is the glory and the power through jesus christ forever though the wording of the thanksgiving prayers before the consecration of bread

and wine have changed over the centuries the central message stays the same but let no one eat or drink of your eucharist but they who have been

baptized into the name of the lord for concerning this also the lord has said give not that which is holy to the dogs

but after you have filled thus give thanks we thank you holy father for your holy name which you caused to the tabernacle in our hearts

and for the knowledge and faith and immortality which you have made known to us through jesus your servant to you be the glory forever

you master almighty created all things for your name's sake you gave food and drink to men for enjoyment they that might give thanks to you

but to us you freely gave spiritual food and drink and life eternal through your servant tabernacle in our hearts is interesting

because that was the holy of holies the place where in the jerusalem temple they believed god dwelt by saying this he is saying that after

receiving the eucharist god dwells in your heart but every lord's day gather yourselves together and break bread and give

thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions that your sacrifice may be pure but let no one that is at variance with

his fellow come together with you until they be reconciled that your sacrifice may not be profaned for this is that which was spoken by the

lord in every place and time offer me a pure sacrifice for i am a great king says the lord

and my name is wonderful among the nations the mess is and always has been acknowledged as taking part and representing the sacrifice of jesus on

the cross to god the father the same as the orthodox liturgies the ancient christians believed the mass to be a sacrifice the ancient christians believed that to

receive the eucharist in the state of unrepentant sin was to profane that sacrifice the body and blood of jesus that was received in the bread and wine

something that the catholic and orthodox churches still teach the last writing we'll be looking at is that from saint justin martyr i'm sure

he can figure out how he got that name his first apology was written around 150 a.d

a.d it's the old meaning of apology that is a written defense this letter was written to the roman authorities defending christianity and

trying to convince them to stop their persecution of christians he writes to the emperor titus

ailus adriano santoninus pius augustus kaisar and to his son verisimos the philosopher and to lucious the philosopher the

natural son of kaisar and the adopted son of pius a lover of learning and to the sacred senate with the whole people of the romans

i justin son of priscus and grandson of barkias natives of flavia neapolis and palestine present this

address and petition on behalf of all nations who are unjustly hated and wantonly abused myself being one of them

he goes on to condemn paganism saying for the truth shall be spoken since of old these evil demons affecting apparitions of themselves both defiled

women and corrupted boys and showed such fearful sights to men that those who did not use their reason and judging of the actions that were

done were struck with terror and being carried away by fear and not knowing that these were demons they called them gods and gave to each a name

which each of the demons chose for himself hence we are called atheists and we confess that we are atheists

so far as gods of the sort are concerned but not with the respect to the most true god the father of righteousness

and temperance and the other virtues who is free from all impurity in explaining the christian need to practice chastity he says

concerning chastity he uttered such sentiments as these whosoever looks upon a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart

before god and if your right eye offend you cut it out for it is better to enter the kingdom of heaven with one eye then

having two eyes to be cast into everlasting fire and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced from another husband commits adultery

and there are some who have been made eunuchs of men and some who were born eunuchs and some who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of

heaven's sake but all cannot receive this saying saint justin spends a lot of time proving that jesus was a jewish messiah

by listing numerous old testament prophecies that were fulfilled by him an example of this is i have stretched out my hands to a

disobedient and gain-sang people to those who walk in a way that is not good and again i gave my back to the scourges and my cheeks to the buffetings

i turned not away my face from the shame of spittings and the lord was my helper therefore i was not confounded but i set my face as

a firm rock and i knew that i should not be ashamed for he is near that justifies me and again when he says

they cast lots upon my vesture and pierced my hands and my feet and i laid down and slept and rose again because the lord sustained me

and again when he says they spoke with their lips they wagged the head saying let him deliver himself he then goes on to explain some of the

practices of christians first clearly talking about the need for penance for our sins as many as are persuaded and believe

that what we teach and say is true and undertake to be able to live accordingly are instructed to pray and to entreat god with fasting for the

remission of their sins at a past we praying and fasting with them on baptism he says then they are brought by us where there

is water and are regenerated in the same manner in which we ourselves were regenerated for in the name of god the father and lord of the universe and of our savior

jesus christ and of the holy spirit they then receive the washing with water for christ also said

unless you be born again you shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven and in this he's clearly teaching that baptism regenerates us that it's done in

the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit and that it is the act of baptism by which we are born again

on this point he believes christian baptism was prophesied by isaiah now it is impossible for those who have been once been born to enter their

mother's wombs is manifest to all and those who have sinned and repent shall escape their sins as declared by isaiah the prophet

wash you make you clean put away the evil of your doing from your souls learn to do well judge the fatherless and plead for the widow

and come let us reason together says the lord and though your sins be scarlet i will make them white like wool and though they be as crimson i will

make them white as snow since at our birth we were born without our knowledge or choice by our parents coming together and brought up in bad

habits and wicked training in order that we not remain the children of necessity and of ignorance but may become the children of choice and knowledge and may obtain in the

water the remission of sins formally committed if you're going to argue that baptism is nothing but a symbol or a statement of faith with no washing away of sins

you have to explain why christians almost uniformly disagreed with you for more than 1 500 years and how even most of the major protestant churches that emerged in the

16th century still hold this view or some variation close to it back to saint justin he says there is pronounced over him who chooses

to be born again and has repented of his sins the name of god the father and lord of the universe he who leads the laver the person that

is to be washed calling him by this name alone again according to saint justin marty's very educated understanding of

mid-second century christianity being born again is baptism he then goes on to explain something very interesting

but we after we have thus washed him who has been convinced and has ascended to our teaching bring him to the place where those who

are called brethren are assembled in order that we may offer hearty prayers in common for ourselves and for the baptized person and for all others in every place

that way that we may be counted worthy now that we have learned the truth by our works also to be found good citizens and keepers of the commandments

so that we may be saved with an everlasting salvation having ended the prayers we salute one another with a kiss

there is then brought to the president just a side note the word he uses literally translates to the one who presides of the brethren

bread and a cup of wine mixed with water and he taken them gives praise and glory to god the father of the universe through the name of the son and of the

holy ghost and offers thanks at considerable length for our being counted worthy to receive these things at his hands and when he has concluded the prayers

and thanksgivings all the people present express their ascent by saying amen and when the presider has given thanks and all the people have expressed their

ascent those who are called by us diakonoi give to each of those present to partake of the bread and wine mixed with water

over which thanksgiving was pronounced and to those who are absent they carry away a portion and this food is called among us the eucharist

of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins

and unto regeneration and who is so living as christ has enjoined for not is common bread and common drink do we receive these

but in like manna as jesus christ our savior having been made flesh by the word of god had both flesh and blood for our salvation

so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of his word and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished

is the flesh and blood that jesus who has made flesh for the apostles and the memoirs composed by them which are called

gospels have thus delivered unto us what was enjoined upon them that jesus took bread and when he had given thanks said

this do in remembrance of me this is my body and after the same manner having taken the cup and given thanks he said

this is my blood and gave it to them alone and we afterwards continually remind each other of these things

and on the day called sunday all who live in the cities or in the country gather together to one place and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read as

long as time permits then when the reader has ceased the presider verbally instructs and exhorts to the imitation of these good things

then we all rise together and pray and as we before said when our prayer has ended bread and wine and water are brought in

and the presider and like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings according to his ability and the people ascend saying amen

and there is a distribution to each and the participation of that over which thanks have been given and to those who are absent a portion is

sent by the diaconoy and those who are well to do and willing give what each thinks that and what is collected is deposited with

the presider who suckers orphans and widows and those who through sickness or other cause are in want but sunday is the day on which we all

hold our common assembly because it is the first day on which god having wrought a change in the darkness and matter made the world and jesus

christ our savior on the same day rose from the dead for he was crucified on the day before that of saturn and on the day after that of saturn

which is the day of the sun having appeared to his apostles and disciples he taught them these things which we have submitted to you also for your consideration

so there you have it saint justin mata's account of exactly what goes on during the early christian gatherings he clearly and repeatedly demonstrated a

belief in baptismal regeneration that it's through baptism we're born again and that the eucharist is truly transformed into the body and blood of jesus

if you're catholic orthodox or high church protestant you'll quickly realize that saint justin mata was describing the mass the mass which in 150 a.d is identical

in structure to the mass today or the orthodox holy liturgy or the other names it goes by in the

1870 years since saint justin's time the means of christian worship among catholics orthodox and high church protestants hasn't changed this is a very basic overview and

forgive me if some of the details are incorrect or if i miss anything out but the point is to show that the structure hasn't changed you might have added in psalm readings or other

prayers but the core structure of what saint justin mata described around 150 a.d

is the same as it is today in high churches you may wonder as some do why justin never mentions presbyter roy or episcopoy

some have said this is evidence that there were no established roles or that there was no sacridotal priesthood but this would disagree with all the other accounts of the early christians

we've gone through the more likely explanation was simply that he was writing to the very people who were persecuting christians it would have been foolish beyond

imagining for him to point out that only presbyter roy or episcopoy could actually officiate over these ceremonies as it would mean that killing the

priests and the bishops would effectively put an end to christian gatherings instead he uses the vague term proestos

which simply means the one who presides or the president in my research for the making of this i've not come across another author used

the word proestos as a title that does seem to indicate that it was likely not an official title so much as it was just a description

again for the same reason that he was writing to the people who were directly persecuting them so what can we conclude from our ancient father's words

the early church was very structured with well-defined roles of episcopas presbyteros and diagonos further it was expected that laity would

hold those in authority with reverence and obedience as obeying the episcopal was seen as the same thing as obeying god the priesthood and the episcopacy of the

early church was often likened to the contemporary jewish priesthood but as a way of strengthening its legitimacy unity among christians was also seen as

the ideal state though it's something they struggled to achieve in practice it was seen as the will of christ that his body be united in will

the early church thought it extremely important to keep apostolic succession with the episcopalia being seen as the legitimate successes of the office of

the apostles only the legitimate episcopoi and those presbyteroi in communion with them could preside over the eucharist

the individual congregations of the early church were interconnected they often sent letters to one another they were aware of the goings-on in other churches and they would admonish

one another when they failed to live up to their christian morality the early church also paid a special homage to the church in rome though the extent of this is difficult

to tell from just these sources if you believe that christ established an invisible loose confederation style church okay you may be able to make an argument

for that from scripture but this isn't how the early church saw it they believed that christ established a visible organized body that those who broke away from their

bishops were thought to have broken away from christ the early church baptized in the name of the father son and holy spirit this baptism was how they became born

again they believed baptism regenerated their souls and washed away their sins it was preferred that baptism be by

immersion but it was permitted by pouring of water three times on the head the early christians did penance and they fasted at least some of them believed we should

fast on wednesdays and fridays the early christians had to repent of their sins and do penance before receiving the eucharist the early church celebrated the mass or

the divine liturgy they believed this was a sacrifice the offering of jesus's death on the cross just as the jewish corbyn sacrifice of animals was offered

and just with the jewish sacrifice the people of making the offering would eat of it they believed this eucharist to have truly been the body and blood of jesus

and that to receive the eucharist in a state of sin was to commit sacrilege against it they believed the eucharist was truly the body and blood of christ not a

symbol or in a vaguely spiritual way saint justin mata called it transmutation the conversion of one substance into another the real presence in the

eucharist was repeatedly affirmed the early church encouraged celibacy as a way to devote oneself entirely to god

but it wasn't mandated the day of worship was definitely sunday now if more modern church practices stir up love of god and people that's something

between them and god however if anyone claims to want to get back to what the early church did they have to consider that the early church was one in which jesus body and

blood were truly present in the eucharist consecrated by bishops and priests who were ordained by the laying on of hands who by their ordination inherited the

office of the apostles a church in which baptism was believed to wash away our previous sins this was a church that believed it was never the will of god for christians to

break away and that those that did break away no longer had a valid eucharist there was another running theme through most of these letters that i haven't

brought up yet the early christians had a very high opinion of scripture they believed it to be inspired but scripture alone was not their ultimate

authority the episcopalia were they believe christ gave ultimate authority to his twelve apostles and that the episcopalia being their

successors inherited that authority thus they believed when a few of the corinthian church led a coup or those ignatius was writing to who had

been in schism that their breaking away was breaking away from those that christ gave legitimate authority to thus they believed that those in schism

broke away from christ in the first verse in this video saint peter was given authority to bind and loose this old phrase meaning to forbid and to permit

later on again in matthew's gospel the same authority of binding and loosing is given to the other apostles as well amen i say to you

whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven

the early church believed the episcopal or the bishops had succeeded the office of the apostles and kept this authority now the question really is does the

early church continue today the catholic and orthodox churches meet all these criteria they maintain the same practices and the directly connected beliefs relating to

those practices as the early church traditional protestant churches like high anglican and lutheran can reasonably claim to meet a lot of the criteria

the main question really comes down to what does it take to lose apostolic succession it was the successes of the apostles that led the early church

many churches today claim the successes still lead them in an unbroken chain an example of this question of what it takes to lose apostolic succession being

asked was pope leo the 13th papal bull apostolicae curai back at the end of the 19th century and thus he claims anglican ordinations

going back to the 16th century have been invalid due to a change in the right of ordination at the time the anglican church of course doesn't agree with that more recent questions are asked

regarding the ordination of women in some of these apostolic churches whether they can validly inherit the office of the apostles which both the catholic and

orthodox churches don't believe they can the catholic church does recognize orthodox ordinations as apostolic succession but orthodox churches on catholic

ordinations and succession vary and they're less optimistic this is a very complex question for another time so

was the early church catholic or orthodox or a combination of both while the filioque was an issue as well as cultural divides that had been

growing for centuries between the greek and latin churches much of the conflict a thousand years ago is the same conflict today over who has the highest spiritual authority

on earth catholics say the pope is the successor of saint peter the leader of the apostles whereas orthodox tend to claim that the pope was one of the equal

patriarchs even today catholic and orthodox churches are very close and much closer than the catholic and orthodox churches are to all but the most traditional

protestant churches this is another question for another time though right at the end of john's gospel jesus prays for us that is us in the present

day and all who followed after his apostles i pray not only for them but also for those who believe in me through their word

so that they may all be one as you father are in me and i in you that they also may be in us that the world may believe that you send

me and i have given them the glory you gave me so that they may be one as we are one i in them and you and me

that they may be brought to perfection as one that the world may know that you sent me and that you loved them even as you loved me

father they are your gift to me i wish that where i am they also may be with me that they see my glory that you gave me because you loved them before the

foundation of the world righteous father the world also does not know you but i know you and they know that you send me

i made known to them your name and i will make it known that the love with which you loved me may be in them and i in them

jesus prayed that we would all be united as one and one will just as he and the father are united in one will but are we

whether you agree or disagree with the conclusions i've drawn from the study of our ancient fathers of the faith i hope this has at least been interesting i believe respectful dialogue about our

disagreements is essential in an age when arguments tend to devolve into shouting and hatred regardless thank you very much for watching and until next time hualette

amigi gloria patri at filio et spiritui sancto sakote era temprincipio

et nunc it's empere a tensecular secular amen