The First-Century Church in the Twentieth

The First Century Church in the Twentieth The first century Church had tremendous power because Christians believed that when they were saved they received the power from the Holy Spirit, and thus could operate the nine manifestations of the spirit. Besides having such internal power, the early believers studied the Word of God and acted on it as being the will of God. The first century Church, as the record in the book of Acts indicates, made tremendous progress. It moved with an anointing such as we have never seen. The fact that they progressed beyond the point which the current Church has achieved cannot be accredited to God because God has not changed. When some people talk about God pouring out a special anointing in these last days, it simply is not true. The Word says He sent His gift on the day of Pentecost. His gift is here. The early Church obviously was more alive and dynamic, not because God was more powerful, but because it operated more effectively. The early Church, the Body, as recorded in the book of Acts and the Church Epistles, developed a pattern for its growth in various localities: 1. Each person was responsible to witness with boldness to the Word of God. When a person accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord, “older” Christians continued to nurture and shepherd him until the new Christian was grounded well enough to stand and walk alone on that Word. 2. Small supervised meetings, called churches, were held in private homes with a head elder or pastor overseeing each home unit. 3. Personal revisits and written communications were kept up with each group, each church, by apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. 4. Christians were not to be side-tracked by material possessions. Thus they sold their unneeded possessions in order to further the work of the ministry. The early Church was born into a society which was just as indoctrinated and hardened as any society has been at any time. The Romans were governmentally in control and paganis