At the start of this century, I began to write on matters concerning the church. I first thought that nothing I wrote would be anything that someone else has not already addressed and done well. I realized that while many had taken the task, it did not fully represent what I believe about the church….
There are patterns in the New Testament but the leadership defined by conventional wisdom is surprisingly lacking in the New Testament. If leadership is defined as authority figures who make final decisions and delegate tasks to others, then we are very surprised by the lack of “leadership” among first-century saints. In Acts 15, we discover…
Today’s religious landscape is full of church buildings, like the synagogues, where God’s Word is opened and read. Yet, like the Jews of the first century who rejected Paul’s teaching, they continue to read but continue to reject its application. Our attendance in their gatherings is not giving acceptance to them any more than Paul’s…
For the first approximately two-hundred years of this new relationship in Christ (the ekklesia), there were no church buildings. Third-century apologist Minucius Felix wrote, “We have no temples and no altars.”[1] The people of God, though surrounded by pagan temples and Jewish synagogues, were the only people who did not erect sacred buildings for…
In this blog, we hope to show that the presence of saints was expected in certain households. The house was not only the place where brethren knew to be a place for prayer and fellowship, but it was also known by the enemies of Christ to be the expected location of gatherings in the name…
To read this blog in its proper context, I would advise reviewing the previous blog that explores the interaction of the saints in Jerusalem. The Bible emphasizes households of various saints and has repeatedly described them as the environment of fellowship among God’s people. Jonathan Reed, a professor of Religion at the University of LaVerne,…
Since the church did not meet in church buildings or temples, it is often assumed that the reason is only due to socio-economic stress or that they were restrained from outside pressures. As already noted earlier, there is no evidence for this conclusion and given the nature of the ekklesia, there is no reason to…
Acts 20 is thought to present evidence that counters the conclusion that the house was the center of activity among saints, saying that brethren met in an upper room (verse 8). First of all, those making the argument assume that the upper room is a rented public facility. As already pointed out, upper rooms were…