The Early Church
 

The early church began in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit fell on the disciples and the church in Jerusalem was born with three thousand new converts. (Acts 2) These new believers held all things common and continued daily meeting in the temple and in their homes. (Acts 2.41-47) They continued in the apostle’s doctrine and fellowship. The scriptures the believers were taught came out of the Old Testament--there was, as yet, no New Testament. The N.T. did not become complete until sometime after the Apostle John’s death around 100 AD.
The church grew in Jerusalem and consisted mostly of Jews from around the world. They worshipped on the Sabbath (Saturday) and fellowshipped the rest of the week in individual homes or meeting places. They were taught from the Hebrew scriptures--this is how Christ was revealed to early believers. (Acts 8.26-38) During this time Paul began to persecute the believers (Acts 9) and then he was converted.

The first Gentile convert was Cornelius the Centurion. (Acts 10) Peter was told to go to his home, something Jews did not do, and preach Christ to him and his house. Cornelius’s whole house accepted the Lord. In Acts 8.2 Cornelius is called a “devout man.” He was a proselyte of the Jewish religion.

Proselyte’s were of two orders, ‘Proselytes of Righteousness” and “Proselytes of the Gate.” The former were obliged to undergo the rites of circumcision and baptism, undertook to obey all the observations of the Jewish law, and received all the privileges of a born Jew (Ex 12.43-49; Num 15.14-16). The other proselyte (of the Gate) had a much looser, yet none the less vital attachment to the Jewish community. They were not circumcised and were not bound by the ceremonial observances of the law, but worshipped regularly in the synagogue. They were also bound by the moral precepts of the law, which the Jews regarded as binding on all mankind.

This was the reality of the early church. In addition, Rome recognized the Jewish religion as a legitimate religion. In other words it was a religion that was legal to adhere to in the empire, even though it did not recognize the many Roman gods. Many Romans found Judaism to be the true religion and were proselytes. They found it much more real than the pantheon of gods the Roman’s worshipped.

After Peter converted Cornelius’ household Herod began to persecute the church in Jerusalem. (Acts 12.1-4) At this time the church was growing in Antioch and Paul and Barnabas were teaching gentiles. In Acts 15 we see the Jerusalem Conference that decided the Gentile converts did not need to be circumcised. God was circumcising their hearts. (Ezek 11.19-21) From this time on circumcision would be an issue of conflict for Paul as he taught the Gentiles. Many Jews who had converted insisted on new converts being circumcised. The Jerusalem Conference established the fact that gentiles did not have to be physically circumcised to be of the commonwealth of Israel. (Ephesians 2.12; Galatians 5.1-3)

Paul always began his preaching by entering the synagogue and using the Old Testament scrolls to prove that Jesus was the Messiah. Many Jews would believe and then the remaining Jews would rebel kicking Paul and the new believers out of the synagogue. There is no evidence, that once kicked out of the synagogue, these new believers stopped worshipping on the Sabbath. The Sabbath was still the day of worship for believers. (Acts 13.42-44; Acts 17.2-3, 10-12; Acts 18.11, 27-28; 19.8-10; Acts 20.20-21)

At some point the Jewish people would not tolerate any talk of Christ in the synagogues. They refused Christian access. In Acts 18 Jewish opposition mounted and an appeal was made to Gallio pro-consul of Achaia, bringing a charge against Paul of preaching a religion that was not authorized by Roman law. This was a serious charge that could have resulted in Christianity being outlawed by Rome at that time. Gallio ruled that the dispute was purely an internal matter affecting Jews alone and drove those who brought the charge from the judgment seat. (Acts 18.12-17) At his time Christianity was still considered a “sect” of Judaism and not an unlawful religion.

From this time on Jews would work hard to distinguish Judaism from Christianity. They persecuted Christians and sought to prove to the Romans that Christianity was not a part of Judaism. As Christians lost favor throughout the Roman Empire, due to the fact they worshipped another king, and not the emperor, Jews insisted they were separate from the Christians. At some point in time the empire recognized the Christians as a separate, and therefore illegal religion, and the full scale persecution by Rome ensued. The Jews had achieved their purpose of separatness of religion.

When the emperor Constantine made Christianity the state religion of Rome, circa 325 AD, the tables turned on the Jews. The Roman Christian Church now began persecuting the Jews as the murderers of Jesus. Jews were considered to be the most vile of people and they were severely persecuted. The church wanted nothing to do with the Jews. This was the beginning of “replacement theology” in the church and the persecution of Jews by the church for hundreds of years. This would prove to be a fatal error by the church. They forgot that they were 'grafted into" Israel.

Prior to Constantine, the church had been gradually moving to worshipping on Sunday in order to distance themselves from the Jews. At the Councils of Nicea and Laodicea the move became official. The day of worship was changed to Sunday (The Lord’s Day) and reliance on the Jewish calendar officially ceased. Anyone who worshipped on Saturday or celebrated the Jewish feasts was considered to be a heretic. The penalty was death. Throughout the next 1300 years many “heretics” would be put to death for these and other reasons.

During these church councils the “Jewish” feasts (Lev 23.2, the feasts of the Lord) were outlawed. The church would distance itself from these feasts by embracing pagan feast days and turning them into the official church holidays. Instead of being celebrated at Passover, Jesus’ resurrection was moved to be observed during “Ishtar” a pagan fertility rite day.

It was determined that “Easter” would be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon of the spring equinox and never before March 22^nd. Christmas, the celebration of the Lord’s birth, would be set around the time of the Yule or winter equinox. At this time that was a high pagan winter feast. Even today practicing witches and Wicca followers celebrate the Yule at this time. They actually consider the Christians to have "stolen" their day. (see: Witches Voice website for confirmation.)

It should also be of interest that our calendar is based on the sun. It was first established by Julius Caesar and later amended by Pope Gregory in approximately 1584 AD. God’s calendar is based on the moon and sun. This calendar is maintained by the Judaism today.

God‘s day begins at sundown, whereas the Roman day begins at midnight. God's months revolve around the moon revolving around the earth, the Roman month with the earth revolving around the sun. (Gen 1.1-5, 7.11; 8.3-4) These are significant facts which we will explore in another study.

In conclusion, we see that the times and seasons (Dan 7.25) have already been changed! The church no long understands God’s times and feasts. Understanding our Hebraic roots helps us to to fully understand the scriptures and where God wants to take us in this day.

Next: Sabbaths, Feasts, and Commandments