Keeping the Faith - The Early Church and the Apostolic Pattern

308 Pages·2002·0.64 MB·English

K E E P I N G
T H E
F A I T H

KEEPING
T H E
F A I T H

The Early Church and the Apostolic Pattern

John Engler

Great Commission Illustrated
Highlands Ranch, CO

WWW: http://greatcommission.com
Email: [email protected]
KEEPING
THE
FAITH

The Early Church and the Apostolic Pattern

© Copyright 1997 by John Engler

All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be duplicated,
copied, translated, reproduced or stored mechanically or electronically
without specific, written permission of the author.

Published by Great Commission Illustrated

Printed in the United States of America

Fourth Printing, February 1999

ISBN 0-9653469-6-X

Cover layout by William To

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture references are from the Holy Bible, New
International Version, copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society.
Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.
Scripture References marked NASB are from the New American Standard Bible,
copyright The Lockman Foundation 1977. Used by permission
Contents
Foreword .........................................................9
Introduction.................................................15
1. The Earthly Ministry of Jesus.........19
2. The Apostolic Church.......................39
3. Failings in Life and Doctrine ..........49
4. Standing Firm......................................79
5. Leadership..........................................109
6. The Authoritative Voice..................131
7. Church Assembly..............................167
8. Baptism ...............................................213
9. Communion.........................................231
10. Factors Behind The Changes.........245
11. Warnings for Today ........................261
Appendix A: Word Studies.........................275
Appendix B: Exegesis..................................297
Bibliography ...............................................303

Acknowledgments
Since this book addresses a topic very close to my heart, it is like
a glimpse into my heart. Those who have influenced me as a disciple
are the ones who have influenced this book.
Sometimes the impact was through leadership, sometimes
through deep love and caring, sometimes just being there at the right
time and in the right way, and sometimes through “mere” friendship.
Dan Rice has been a constant friend for nearly my entire adult
life, spanning the multiple cities, churches, highs and lows I’ve
experienced. Our early days in the faith and our bond in common
struggles cemented a lifelong friendship. Drew Nitchoff was a great
encouragement behind some of the greatest growth and victories I
have ever experienced in the faith.
There are many others who have had significant impact on me as
well. These individuals have been there at just the right times in my
life and have had an impact beyond their own recognition or
realization. I have been fortunate to have great friends and fellow-
workers in the kingdom. All have worked together to help shape my
view of the kingdom of God. If I know you, you are a part of this
group.
I appreciate Jim Heese who encouraged me to finish this book
nearly two years ago. Steve Staten and Doug Jacoby provided great
input on the manuscripts and on the period of history under
consideration. William To did the cover artwork and initial help was
from Matt Brumley. Also thanks to Don Toland and Intessera for
support.
8 KEEPING THE FAITH

Rex Geissler has been there with great encouragement and
advice in publishing this book. I also appreciate his vision in starting
Great Commission Illustrated to provide an avenue of publication for
works such as mine. Thanks should also go to Tad Wakefield of GCI
for his editing work and Hector Acevedo for taking our photograph.
I am profoundly thankful to those ancient writers whose writings
are examined in this book, and with them all who have preserved,
guarded, discovered and translated ancient texts through the ages,
sometimes at great personal risk.
I have had great computer tools and resources at my disposal in
putting this book together, including various computers, software, and
Internet resources. These have helped make this book a reality.
Computers and software are certainly not people, but are made by
people who deserve thanks as well.
And finally thanks to my great wife Pat, for her love, constant
support and input on the manuscripts, and our beautiful daughters
Emily, Katie and Annie. Because of them I am constantly reminded of
how much God loves me.
Foreword
It seems that from the time of the apostles to the present day
there have been numerous attempts to resuscitate the original faith. It
has always been a challenge to determine when and where the
original faith was corrupted. It is essential that any kind of
investigation treats the early church characters and literature
accurately and fairly, since today it is in vogue in many circles to bash
the early church. Nevertheless, there are important questions about
the ancient faith that must be answered.
One question relevant for today is, “How can churches prosper in
faith, maintain apostolic doctrine, adjust to world changes, and avoid
institutionalism?” If there was ever a need for an answer to this
question, it is now. There were roughly only one hundred million
people in the ancient civilized world when Jesus sent out the Eleven.
Today, we are approaching six billion souls. I would hope that every
professing believer, all one billion of them, could re-examine the roots
of their faith—even learn of the Post-Apostolic church. In this
respect, disciples within the modern day movement of God should be
no different.
Of the billion professed believers, only a few hundred million
believe such cardinal doctrines as the deity of Jesus and the
resurrection of Christ. Of the remainder, only a few truly understand
the requirements of the Bible or have a deep understanding of the
early church. Many are living out some latter-day vision of altar call
Christianity (“Just accept Jesus into your heart and you will be okay”)
or embrace some form of the medieval doctrine like the devotion and
10 KEEPING THE FAITH

worship of Mary. To further divide believers, there are many sects
that began in the 1800’s that believe in principles with no followers
before that time. As for the rest of us in Christendom, we must
consider that the possibility exists that we, too, may be under a
delusion; our practices and commitment might not survive the scrutiny
of biblical inspection and ancient comparison. I would hope that any
Christian would welcome such an interrogation rather than avoid it
since keeping the faith requires regular self-scrutiny.
If I were asked, what does it mean to keep the original faith in a
later time and context, I would say I must begin by identifying a
paradigm to define original Christianity. I would avoid dated terms and
strive for timeless criteria to define the Christian enterprise. I would
begin with the nature of God, the nature of man and the answer from
the former to the predicament of the latter. Christianity can be first
surmised from the prophets, the gospels and teachings of Jesus, the
sermons in Acts, and then doctrinal treatises in the epistles. But where
would that lead us? Would I merely be looking for a set of beliefs and
fail to see the passion required to follow Jesus?
When we begin looking at the details leading to the eventual
demise of Christendom, we should begin by taking the speck out of
our own eye. Undoubtedly, we run into errors because early
Christians were human before they were made into towering figures
of history. Eusebius, an early church historian, implied that those who
succeeded the apostles were inferior to them. He gave us this
adjective to describe most second generations of movements. As this
investigation will indicate, later generations continually imitated and
amplified the lower elements of the great church. If someone could
have figured out long ago how to stop this formula, we wouldn’t have
so many stories in the Old Testament that sound like “king so and so
did evil in the eyes of the Lord and was not like his father.”
The generation after the apostles had an enormous challenge—
keeping the original faith in the midst of a loss of apostolic leadership
and no formal New Testament canon. It is with good reason that the
period between 70-150 A.D. is sometimes called the Tunnel Period.
On one side were apostles and on the other was an informal New
Testament. After some eighty years of intense challenges, Christianity
was being clarified forever. It was this generation who examined their
landscape in pursuit of a New Testament. They tightened the reigns