When Christianity was New –

A Synopsis of the Early Church

How you ever wondered about what early Christians were like? One person told me they thought that what they believed was totally different. Others think they are pretty much identical with modern evangelicals. Both of these views are far from the truth. Much was the same, but much was different. Let’s have a very brief “taste” of what early Christians were like.

Imagine going back to a time machine to a house church in 80 A.D. and you could speak New Testament Greek. You ask them to turn to the gospel of John, and except for one guy, they don’t want to because they won’t know what you are talking about. Besides the fact that only the rich could afford books, the Christians had never heard of the Gospel of John. Then you ask why the one guy seemed agreeable, and he says, “I thought what you said sounded like a good idea; I am the John, the apostle.” So, let’s explore their world, and then to keep things straight in our minds, let’s see a timeline.

Exploring the world of the Early Church

Wouldn’t it be exciting to live during the times of the early church? Imagine a time where many of the major Christian leaders and writers were martyred within a few years of each other. Other so-called “Christian” groups, such as the Hermetic Gnostics, taught that Christ was from God, as were Hercules and Hermes. Imagine trying to share the gospel, where people know they will be killed if they believe it.

The early church suffered severe attacks without and problems within. Externally Satan attacked with ten major Roman persecutions, and other lesser persecutions. There were at least 30 different Gnostic and 2 Ebionite spiritual counterfeits. Internally there were three schisms. There was a very influential and strange teacher Origen, who while orthodox in most areas, over-allegorized scripture and believed in eventual salvation for all, even demons.

Yet the Christians got their doctrine right. They were faithful under torture and death. And they shared the gospel with their culture, and carried it abroad.

A Timeline of Pre-Nicene Christianity

See if you can figure out what the colors mean.

Year AD	Pre-Nicene Timeline (before 325 A.D.)
40-62	Paul wrote his epistles
64-68	1st Roman persecution of Nero
50-70	First three gospels were written
50-90	apostles go to Persia, India, Russia, Ethiopia
70	Romans destroy Jerusalem after revolting
70-	spurious writings, Gospel of Mary, etc.
85-95	John wrote his gospel
95-96	2nd persecution under Domitian
96-98	Clement of Rome wrote
100	An estimated half million Christians
95-110	Papias, disciple of John wrote 5 volumes
100-117	Ignatius, disciple of John wrote his epistles
107-117	3rd persecution under Trajan
118&134	4th: Hadrian kills Christians/Jews
135	Bar Cochba persecutes Christians
138-150	Bible mss, John, Phm, 70% Paul & Heb
150?	9 verses of Revelation
96-155	Apostolic fathers: 11 writers, 67.5 pages
168-220	first 3 of 19 authors writing on the Trinity
c.172	Tatian’s Diatessaron Gospel harmony
182-188	Irenaeus describes 19 spiritual counterfeits
188-	Ebionite heretical writings.
170–300	Marcion and 30 Gnostic heretic writings
125-175	p66 Bodmer II papyrus has 92% of John
162-180	5th: Marcus Aurelius kills Christians
189	Pantaenus of Alexandria travels to India
200	2 million Christians. Roman pop. 70 million
202	6th: Septimus Severus kills Christians
209	First martyrs killed in England
200-222	Sabellian heretic bishops in Rome
190-217	Muratorian canon lists 23 of 27 NT books
175-225	p75 + p45 have most of gospels & Acts
222-236	Hippolytus lists ~ 70 groups, including Plato, Egyptians, Pharisees, & Brahmans
200-240-	Montanists including Tertullian
235-238	Maximus Thrax kills Christian clergy
250-450	Novatian schism: those who denied the faith have no hope of ever being forgiven
250-	first Christian monks and hermits
225-253	Origen, very influential but strange teacher
250-253	7th: Decius & Gallus heavy persecution
257-260	8th: Valerian persecutes Christians
270	9th: Aurelian persecutes Christians
287-300	Gregory the Illuminator goes to Armenia
300	David of Basra, Persian missionary to India
300	an estimated 5 million Christians
c.300	Christian vs. Gnostic & Bardasene debate
314	Council of Arles 1st mention a Roman pope
284-305	10th Diocletian most severe persecution
96-318	88 writers wrote 5,500 pages
315-323	Licinius kills Christians in the east
313-326	Lactantius & Alexander of Alex.: 317 pages
318-325	Eusebius of Caesarea wrote ~1,055 pages
96-325	92 writers >= 9,272 NT quotes. 65% of NT
96-325	Manuscripts < 325 A.D. have 57% of NT
50-325	estimated 40,000 to 70,000 martyred
325	Council of Nicea excommunicates Arians

How similar were early Christians to us?

There are at least 1,101 teachings in the Bible that Christians believe today, and four or more early Christians taught, and none denied. This includes 150 on Scripture, 157 on Jesus, 41 on the Holy Spirit, 79 other ones on God, 23 on prayer, 43 on the church, 20 on the family, and 101 on evangelism and apologetics. There were also 98 not in the Bible.

If you put a typical early Christian in a room with a typical eastern Orthodox, Nestorian, Copt, and evangelical, the early Christian would be closer to each of them than they would be to each other. A Roman Catholic would be a bit farther from the early Christians than the others. In fact, Catholics would have people believing like early Christians burned at the stake during the Middle Ages for at times questioning and rejecting the bishop of Rome, refusing to bow, venerate, or pray to any images or statues, or reading the Bible on their own.

How they differ from some believers today

Early Christians were generally very brave; being persecuted or killed for their faith was neither a surprise nor a tragedy. A martyr going home to glory was a cause for rejoicing. They spoke freely of predestination, free will, election, God’s grace, and a worthiness related to salvation. They were closer to the views of Arminianism than to the views of Calvinism. The earliest ones, like Papias and Justin Martyr were pre-Millennialists, while later ones from Clement of Alexandria on were amillennialists.

Easter was a big celebration for them, but “quarto-decimian” Christians disagreed with others on when to celebrate it. Early Christians differed among themselves on the apocrypha, though most thought those were scripture. Montanists had prophecy and spoke in tongues, but we have no evidence that the other groups: proto-orthodox, Novatianists, and Donatists, ever did so. They preferred immersion for baptism, but if there was little water, then they would use three cups of water.

They had different concerns: any apologist worth their salt would know how to talk with a stoic, vs. a cynic vs. an Epicurean vs. a Cyrenaic. They would know the contradictory stories of Zeus and of Athena. But they preached the same gospel we preach today.

Gleaning wisdom from our “elder siblings”

They highly valued the authority of the holy scriptures, and they would envy our easy access to them. But they would be disappointed in the lukewarmness in many churches. They would be shocked at all the statues and images that were venerated in Catholic and Orthodox churches. When they would hear that some venerate Mary as a co-mediator and co-redeemer along with Christ, it is unclear if they would consider those people as Christians at all. On the other hand, they probably would not be too surprised at the cults and liberal Christians; after all heretics have been fixing Christ with other things since their time.

As all Christian should be, they were strongly against mixing Christianity with other religions, and against immorality, homosexuality, abortion, and astrology.

What we can learn from their mistakes

When speaking authoritatively on things outside the Bible, Christian writers did not do so well. They understood the Greek concept of atoms, and agreed it was preposterous. They believed in a Phoenix bird in Arabia, which lives for a thousand years, then sets itself on fire, and is reborn. They thought God created that fabulous bird as a type of Christ’s resurrection.

Where they were beginning to go wrong

The early Church was in general very faithful to the teachings of the Bible. But from an evangelical perspective, they had a couple of bad tendencies, which would not seem all that serious at the time, but progressed to be very ugly in subsequent centuries. Some over-emphasized obedience to the bishop without giving much thought to what if the bishop taught wrong. Some allegorizes scripture, which lead to trying to make scripture say anything you want.

Verses to remember them by

1 Tim 6:11-12 “But you, man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you confessed the good confession in the sight of many witnesses.” (World English Bible)