Help with finding info on first century cong.

3dogs1husband

Hi I am trying to find some links and or info please help! I need to keep my computer "clean" trying to fade and not get df'd. So I dont save or make files of things i read ect.

I am currenty needing to help my niece who is struggling witht the WT idea that the first century congregations are the model of how the our org today is run. I know that I have read some great article on this and diffrent ways of interpitation.

I have been looking all night and cant find what i am think of.

Please help!

Nice_Dream

Hopefully some on here can help you out with some links soon.

I was interested in this as well and read books on early Chrisitianity and church history and I couldn't find any info on a "governing body" or anything like that.

BluesBrother

I have tried to find plausible information as well It seems that the WTS assume a lot in their parallels with First Century Christians because their is not much to go on bar the Scriptures themselves

One area that I researched was the estimated numbers at that time. After all, The WTS say that the entire First Century Congregation, and the few down the Centuries, and all the modern day remnant since the 1870's are less that 144000......That does not seem reasonable .

This thread was useful.

http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/130793/1/How-many-Christians-were-there-in-the-1st-century

3dogs1husband

Thanks Blues Brother great disscusion thread.

Ding

As someone pointed out on another thread, ask her when in the NT you find POs, COs, DOs, assemblies, time cards, Theocratic Ministry school, Watchtower book studies, Memorials where no one partakes, etc., etc., etc.

fulltimestudent

First post, and right off I run into a procedural problem - cutting and pasting, so I'll have to post freehand until I get the hand of it.

This is a topic that can take a lot of study, and you may even find precedents for many things that happen in JW congregations today, for example, the much disliked expulsion of sinners and the hated shunning procedure.

In universities there are scholars that spend a life time sifting the available evidence, so I'm not sure your'e going to pick this up in one or two nights exploring the internet.

I'd collected a few websites, but cannot cut and posted them either. Do a search for, Judaism and Christianity in First Century Rome. Its (at least partly) on googlebooks.

And perhaps you may find something in the Biblical Archeological Review.

fulltimestudent

In the linked earlier post on the number of early Christians in the Roman Empire. Its rather certain that the numbers will remain guesswork, no-one in the first century seems to have worked out that you needed statistics to please God. The figures mentioned are likely biased as they are focussed on Roman provinces.

However, there were many Christians outside the Roman Empire. One calculation suggests that for the first few centuries, there were more Christians in Persia than in the west. (England J.C. 1996, The Hidden History of Christianity in Asia. Churches of the East before 1500. Delhi: ISPCK)

3dogs1husband

Thanks full time student!

Learning takes a while

Scott77

The best book to start with is to read the Crisis of Conscience by Franz . Standard apostate book for you. Its strongly recommended as it ws written by a former JW GB member.

Scott77

Help with finding info on first century cong.

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