HAVING before us the early and apostolic days, we will try to form an idea of the character of instruction a church of Christ then received, both from oral and written sources. Following the dates given in our New Testament as to the probable times in which the books of it were written, we observe that the first Epistle to the Thessalonians is the earliest, being written in the year of our Lord 54. This would be twenty-one years after Pentecost. So that for twenty-one years the inspired teaching the Church received was by word of mouth, excepting the Old Testament Scriptures, which were in every place where the Jews had synagogues (Acts 15:21)
The work of God amongst the Gentiles formally began in the period between the years 40 and 44; Cornelius, the Gentile, was admitted into the church; the great apostle of the Gentiles was called by Christ from heaven; the Gentiles at Antioch turned to the Lord (Read Acts 11:19-26); and at the end of 44, even barbarian Briton heard through the Christians among the Roman soldiers there something of Christ. At this time it was that the disciples began to be called Christians, and were thus distinguished from Jews and Jewish sects. We cannot doubt that the name was given in scorn by the pagans of Antioch to the disciples of Christ, who had been crucified, but whom His people worshipped, glorified, in heaven.
The earliest churches of Christ, being composed of Jewish believers, and being situated in or close to Jerusalem, had the advantage of the instruction and authority of the apostles themselves, and, for written authority, the writings of the Old Testament, in which Scriptures so many of their teachers were mighty. But with the entrance of the Gentiles into the church a fresh energy commenced according to the purposes of God, and the New Testament began to be written.
When the church was planted in Antioch it was immediately brought under authorized Christian instruction, for on the tidings of the conversion of these Gentiles coming to “the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem, they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch." Barnabas joined with him in his work Saul of Tarsus, and these two for “a whole year assembled themselves with the church and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch."
Here we have two apostles teaching the Christians, most of whom had been heathens and idolaters, and we are expressly told that Barnabas was “full of the Holy Ghost." A pure stream of sacred truth therefore flowed into that church for a whole year. Further, some two years afterwards, we are told of “certain prophets and teachers “ministering to the Lord in the church, and of Barnabas and Saul leaving Antioch for further work among the Gentiles.
After a missionary journey of about two years, Barnabas and Saul returned to Antioch, "from whence they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they had fulfilled. And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how He had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles. And there they abode a long time with the disciples" (ch. 14:26-28).
In several parts of heathendom, Christian churches had now arisen. Antioch was a great centre, and there liberty in Christian things prevailed, unknown in Jerusalem. This Christian liberty gave rise to certain men coming from Judea, and teaching legality. They are designated “false brethren," who came, not openly, but “unawares," with the object of entrapping the Galatian churches into legal bonds. They added ordinances to Christ's salvation, saying “Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved." In short, they wished to make Jews of the Christians. This perversion of the gospel of Christ unsettled souls, and so stirred up the church at Antioch, that it was determined that Paul, Barnabas, and others, should go up to Jerusalem and meet there with the apostles and elders (ch. 15:1, 2).
To this journey is due the first council of the church, and the first letter or writing to the Christian Gentiles, indeed the first writing of authority to a church of Christ in heathendom. It is a very simple letter, and one which we do well to consider in the light of the extraordinary intricacies of present church documents and judgments.
"The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren, which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia.
“Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law : to whom we gave no such commandment: it seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
“We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well" (ch. 15:23-29).
The difficulty being settled, mission labors amongst the Gentiles recommenced, which brings us up to A. D. 53, according to the dates of Our Bible, which is for us a memorable occasion, as it was in that year the gospel first entered Europe by apostolic power (ch. 16:9-12).
Philippi, Thessalonica, Corinth are familiar names as we open the Scriptures and read the epistles to the churches in these places, all of which were visited in the years 53, 54, while in Corinth St. Paul remained eighteen months, the Lord telling him He had much people there. In these years the first and second Epistles to the Thessalonians were written; others to different churches soon following.
St. Paul remained only a short time in Thessalonica, but there “of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few “believed, also "some" of the Jews of the synagogue (ch. 17:4). The Jews of Thessalonica were not of the noble character of the Bereans, who "searched the Scriptures daily," whether the things preached by Paul were so (ver. 11), but the church of Christ in Thessalonica, composed chiefly of Gentile converts, was most earnest and holy.
And when we bear in mind that the apostle had been among them for only some few weeks (ver. 2), we are amazed at the spiritual wisdom that prevailed amongst then; for none but such as had spiritual capability could comprehend the most gracious words of the first Epistle to the Thessalonians.
As the word of God prevailed amongst the heathen, the churches of Christ arose in the dark parts of paganism, away from the helping hands of apostles, so did God by His Spirit give His people inspired words in writing to be read in their own and in different localities. (Col. 4:16.)
The church in Thessalonica had the privilege of the apostle's presence but for a short time, but in the year of its foundation it received his epistle. And how that church would value this inspired word! It would be copied and, probably, committed to memory. Thus we trace back to within some twenty years after the ascension of our Lord the first New Testament writing, which, of all others, teaches us of His coming again.
Here is introduced a subject of deep significance. Between the receipt of the first and the second epistles—that is within the space of some twelve months—the Thessalonians were perplexed by the receipt of forged epistles, purporting to be written by the apostle Paul. (2 Thess. 2:2.) As teachers, teaching Judaism, had troubled the church at Antioch in its earliest days, while Christian teaching was oral; so did false teachers, by writing, endeavor to disturb the early faith of the church at Thessalonica, while the first inspired writing of the New Testament was in its hands. The struggle in the church between truth and error, between light and darkness, began almost as soon as the church was established.
During the lives of the apostles, special powers of the Holy Spirit were bestowed upon the churches. So was it with the handful of believers in Ephesus, who, on hearing of the Holy Ghost, and on the laying upon them of St. Paul's hands, spake with tongues and prophesied (Acts 19:1-7). In Ephesus the apostle remained for two years, and it became as Antioch, a great centre from which the truth spread abroad, " so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks" (ver. 10). We have only to peruse the epistle addressed to the Ephesians to feel what wonderful knowledge and grace they possessed who could understand such words!
The epistle to the churches of Galatia, warning them of their departure from the gospel, and that to the saints in Rome unfolding it, were written shortly after the period of time we have looked at, indeed, the record of the Acts ends in the year 64, and St. Paul's martyrdom occurred but a short time afterwards.
Another thirty years gave to the church the last labors of the surviving apostles, and the last holy writings God has given us; St. John's being the latest of the inspired penmen, his death occurring in the year 100.
In the brief space at our disposal, our sketches are of necessity meager, but we think we have said enough to show that in apostolic days, and almost to the end of the first century, there was instruction and guidance, and authority, also, in the church; and more, a manifestation of the power of God the Spirit; such as was never seen again. Yet the New Testament scriptures abundantly prove that in the church of these early days evils and heresies, and departure from the truth occurred even as they do in our own days. We have not teachers such as were the apostles or the elders of their appointment, far less have we apostolic authority existing now, but we have the truth of God—the Bible, and we have the Holy Spirit of God with us, and He will and does teach and guide every faithful Christian, and will continue so to do unto the end.