10 Facts You Never Knew About the Early Church

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This summer I’m not getting overly ambitious with the reading. I am only reading two books:

1.) I’m reading Story of the World Volume I with our kids. (I’m learning as much as they are!!) Yes, we read some of this three years ago, but we never finished, and none of us remember ANYTHING we read back then!!

2.) I’m ever so slowly reading through Tried by Fire by William J. Bennett.

I would be reading it faster, but I’ve also gotten this Jeopardy app addiction I’m dealing with..

I’ve learned so much about the early church through Bennett’s book, and unless you’re an expert theologian, you probably haven’t heard many of these stories either.

Here are 10 that I found interesting enough to underline. Oh, how I love to underline things!!

10 Facts About the Early Church You Never Knew

(Mostly from source 1:  Tried by Fire, by William J. Bennett  **I do collect advertising fees when you click on the Amazon link to that book.)**

#1.  We think of persecution being an early church thing, but did you know that global persecution of Christians is actually higher now than at any other time past?

Don’t believe me? For more on that, see these articles:

https://www.christianpost.com/news/pope-francis-deeply-concerned-about-christian-persecution-says-stronger-than-1st-century-church-121562/

According to this CNN article, 7100 Christians died in 2015 for their faith.

#2. James, the brother of Jesus, was thrown from the top of Solomon’s temple and then clubbed on the head, and died, in AD 62.

(source 1, page 13) These events were recorded by the historian Eusebius. In fact, you probably already know that all of the disciples were martyred, except John, who was exiled and penned the book of Revelation.

#3. In the first century, there was not yet any central church authority in Rome. Instead, each congregation was usually led by a council of elders.

(source 1, page 20) It took many years for the church to become more organized, and eventually being led by elders became uncommon. But remember, in the first century, many followers were actually eye witnesses of events surrounding Jesus and his disciples!

#4. The Didache , a document from the first century, gave these guidelines for Christians:

-Assemble on Sundays

-Say the Lord’s Prayer 3 times per day.

-Support ministers out of generosity

-Eucharist (Lord’s supper) forbidden for unbelievers or the unbaptized

#5. Early baptisms were done completely naked, but men were separated from the women.

Say…what??? (source 1, page 44) …Heh?

In fact, many ancient artworks illustrate this point. Hopefullybiblical.com also asserts that even Jesus was baptized nude.

#6. Under Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Christians were “barred from public buildings. Their homes were vandalized, and they were subject to mocking, beatings, draggings, robberies, stoning, imprisonment…”

(1, page 45) Let’s just say you had to REALLY believe it to own up to the charge of being a Christian!

#7. The Christian view of women was a welcome relief from the Roman treatment of women.

(1, page 56) Adultery was commonly accepted for men in Roman society, but the New Testament taught marital faithfulness.

Women were also offered positions of leadership in the church which was unheard of in Roman culture.

Plus, the scriptures teach caring for widows and opposes prostitution. Women aren’t property. We are people.

#8. The Council of Nicaea in AD 325 decided that Easter should be celebrated on the Sunday following the Passover.

This was also when theological traditions between East and West began to split, but they were still unified on “cardinal issues of faith.” (1-page 61) Eastern churches were honoring Easter on the Passover at sundown instead of on the Sunday following, and many of them continued to do so.

#9. Early Christians EXPECTED to be persecuted and they counted it an honor. The struggle was actually in what to do with the Christians who denied Christ when persecuted and then wanted to be let back into the church.

“The issue was whether purity or forgiving love should be the characteristic note of the church.” (The Story of Christianity, Vol. 1, Gonzalez, 90)

This was a fair and tough question. What do we do with people who say they are one of us but deny it when there are consequences? Is that genuine faith?

#10. Paul the Hermit became the first monk.

And no, I do not mean the Paul of the New Testament. This Paul lived 200 years later.

By the 300s, once persecution slowed down, the church attracted the zealous and the lukewarm believers alike. They no longer had to fear death for their faith, so anyone could be a Christian.

Some devout Christians couldn’t stand being with these lukewarm followers, so they took off to the wilderness to live in solitude and Bible study, becoming monks.

Paul the Hermit was the first recorded monk. He retreated to a cave in Egypt while the persecution was still going on, and hid there, around 250, according to the ancient historian Saint Jerome. He said that Paul the Hermit lived to be 113 years old and never left the cave.

The message and story of Christianity stays the same, but the way we interact with one another and the world seems to keep changing. If only we could always focus on the core tenets that unite us, rather than arguing over issues that divide us to the point of forgetting what it’s all about.

From the beginning it was all about redemption, love, mercy, hope. As a church, we so often get off track. We leave love behind to argue about predestination and how to baptize. Really, people???

There’s this song that puts it this way. The song is called Savin’ the World, by Clay Crosse:

“It all comes down to a man dying on a cross
Saving the world Rising from the dead
Doing what He said He would do
Loving everyone He saw
When it’s said and done it all
Comes down to a man dying on a cross
Saving the world….”

Want to know more about this history of Christianity? Here’s a link to the book, Tried By Fire:

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