What happened to the simplicity of the early church?

by Pahpa 24 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Slappy

  For the discussion of what is greater concerning the kingdom or Christ, I have one question. What is more important, knowing that someplace exists and wanting to go there, or actually knowing how to get there? Christ preached the kingdom, but he also said that there is only one way to get there; through Himself.

  Also, back to the original topic. I grew up in a non-denominational 'religion' that followed, more or less, the grounds that Darby and his fellows gathered on. I too have seen divisions as occured in Darby's day. Each division was the cause of the proud actions of one individual who thought he knew better than everybody else. Witnessing that made me realize just how dead-on Jesus was when He urges us all to be meek and humble. For if we were all meek and humble (what do we have to be proud of anyway?) as He was, things would be so much better. The 'body' (church) of Christ would be so much more together and as 'one' that it would be astounding. I can't even imagine what it would be like. However, we know that Satan seeks to do all he can to hinder such interaction among such, for the fragments are not nearly as strong as the whole. However, it's ironic how God will use even Satan's 'successes' for glory. Just look at the scattering of the believers after Stephen was stoned and the blessing that followed. That being said, I know that it is His desire that we were all as one spreading His Word than as several thousand fragments spreading His Word.

  Sorry, I digressed more than a little, but at times I tend to type out whatever my thoughts lead me to, and not necessarily what I had in mind.

  bk
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  Deputy Dog

  Slappy

  For the discussion of what is greater concerning the kingdom or Christ, I have one question. What is more important, knowing that someplace exists and wanting to go there, or actually knowing how to get there? Christ preached the kingdom, but he also said that there is only one way to get there; through Himself.

  I agree 100%! Knowing that wonderful place exists and not being able to get there, isn't really "Gospel/Good News" at all. Knowing that "Christ crucified" is the price, and that "Christ resurrected" is the conformation that I'm going to the wonderful place, is very "Good News"
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  kool aid man06

  This is a nice topic to discuss and so timely. Pahpa had some really nice points, as well as others. It is one of the reasons why we started our house church, to help former Jehovah's Witnesses as well as others who just want to get together and discuss simple Christianity. We meet every other Sunday and after a Bible sermon where everyone is encouraged to comment, we get together and have coffee and refreshments. Check out our website at www.upperroomministriesnewengland.com
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  Satanus

  It appears that, as soon as the true church grows, it reaches an effective critical point, where simplicity cannot prevail, and it iether breaks up or go corrupt. A huge, worldwide true church seems an impossibility. There seems to be a built in failure mechanism that goes off at some size in the growth.
  
  S
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  greendawn

  Pahpa, I still think the idea that the church went corrupt at the end of the first century is over simplistic. I see corruption in many high ranking officials of the church who became overwhelmed with pride over their rank but I believe the church was quite strong spiritually as a whole until the pagan masses inundated it after Constantine.
  
  To be sure there were problems but it did quite well in upholding the truth. Don't forget at the time there were many books circulating as gospels or apostolic writings and no one quite knew what was what. The Bible as we know it wasn't put together until the 4th century and there were no high tech information technology to quickly research things out at the time.
  
  As for Greek philosophy being bad that shouldn't be generalised, though formulated by pagans some of it was in agreement with christianity some other was not. In fact it was not indsicriminately taken on board by the then christian thinkers, much of it was rejected.
  
  Recall also that the gentile church had to deal with the jewish christians who never abandoned the Mosaic law and never really liked gentile christians and with heretical groups like the agnostics who totally butchered the gospel truth. And it dealt with them correctly that's why we don't have now a judaic or gnostic christianity in fact they vanished long ago.
  
  You need to read more into the subject of the early church, you seem to be over influenced by the JW ideas on the matter. Early christians valued highly virtue and purity and often engaged in charitable work to help their own needy and even at times pagans.