Protestants: Recognizable church

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Yes, they did, but that doesn’t mean that they were having casual tea parties. The Liturgy was in place right from the start.

When it became permitted for them to raise up buildings for worship, not only did they do so right away and without any delay, they actually designed the buildings around the Liturgy. 🙂
Are you saying that caffeinated drinks were not permissible in the early church? That’s a debate between you and our Mormon friends.
 
Are you saying that caffeinated drinks were not permissible in the early church? That’s a debate between you and our Mormon friends.
:confused:

I have no idea how you got that out of what I wrote.

I simply meant that they were having formal Masses in their homes, with a Bishop presiding, and in the form given by Christ - they were not having the sort of home meetings that we are familiar with today, with people serving tea and cookies or whatever.
 
Are you saying that caffeinated drinks were not permissible in the early church? That’s a debate between you and our Mormon friends.
:confused:

I have no idea how you got that out of what I wrote.

I simply meant that they were having formal Masses in their homes, with a Bishop presiding, and in the form given by Christ - they were not having the sort of home meetings that we are familiar with today, with people serving tea and cookies or whatever.
jmcrae: I thought the same thing, when I read 2nd Adam’s Post.

Anna
 
That’s pretty good. If we take the book of Acts as a picture of the 1st century Church, I don’t think the Apostles and first century christians would recogonize Protestant churches, Catholic churches, Orhtodox churches, and Anglican churches. They are way too instutionalized and wordly. The first century Christians met in homes, and other obscure places.
My church does actually meet in a home. 😛 The priest and his family are converting their home into the church. They’ll find a new home to live once the parish is more stable. 👍 But, you have to remember, they met in homes (and catacombs) because it was illegal to meet in public places for services. It would not make sense today to do that, unless out of necessity just to “imitate an Acts 2 church” as many are wont to do in America these days.

So, in other words you don’t think the Apostles and martyrs of the Church, before it was legal in the Roman Empire wouldn’t recognize chanting, readings from Scripture, standing during the church service, clergy (deacons, priests and bishops), and an altar where the bread and wine were offered?

Interesting…

In Christ,
Andrew
 
From what I understand, the Liturgies originally took literally all day. That is why St. Paul mentions the class/economic differences and how some poeple brought food and didn’t share it. The poor would sit there and go hungry. Things haven’t changed much in 2,000 years. Now, we have cliques based on other criteria.

Adam 2, I would agree with you that the early Church would find the modern Church and all its branches far too worldly. I have no doubt they would be concerned for our salvation in light of it.

Yankee Doodle, I believe Scott Hahn was quite versed in extraneous material, but, did not allow the other ideas to trump Holy Scripture. Catholics compare their readings to the Scriptures, Tradition, and teachings of the Church. It has been tested, ad infinitum, and found to be sound in its reasoning.
 
Churches come in all shapes and sizes. Some big, some small, some made of brick and some made of wood, some are beautiful and some are down right ugly. These are just buildings, they are places we worship in. See a church is not confined to 4 walls, a church is not confined to a building. The church of Jesus Christ, the Church of God’s is People, his people of every race and nation, who love Christ and are committed to serving him. Thats what a church is, its not a buillding, its people, people like you and me, people of every walk of life who believe in the word of God and all that is stands for.So the answer to you question is yes. See the church is not what you call it, ie Protestant, Catholic, Baptist, non-denominatonal and so on. The church is people, not a title, but of people. You can call it what you want but we, all Christians, are the church. The church lives in all of us. So once again yes they would recognize them.
 
Churches come in all shapes and sizes. Some big, some small, some made of brick and some made of wood, some are beautiful and some are down right ugly. These are just buildings, they are places we worship in. See a church is not confined to 4 walls, a church is not confined to a building. The church of Jesus Christ, the Church of God’s is People, his people of every race and nation, who love Christ and are committed to serving him. Thats what a church is, its not a building,
I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to read through the thread, but it has been made clear that the original post was not about the appearances of the buildings (after all, in the Catholic Church, we have a wide variety of architectures, from the simple outdoor chapels of Africa with little more than a baldaccino over the priest’s head while he is saying Mass to keep off the sun and the rain, to the elaborate Gothic cathedrals of Europe, and everything in between.

Rather, he was talking about the liturgy (Order of Service) - if the Apostles were to attend your service, would they find a Rite of Penance at the beginning, followed by the readings from “the memoirs” as St. Justin called them in 140 AD, which we today refer to as the Scriptures, followed by the preparations for Holy Communion, with Holy Communion itself, and then the Rite of Dismissal (from which we get the word “Mass”) at the end.
its people, people like you and me, people of every walk of life who believe in the word of God and all that is stands for.So the answer to you question is yes. See the church is not what you call it, ie Protestant, Catholic, Baptist, non-denominatonal and so on. The church is people, not a title, but of people. You can call it what you want but we, all Christians, are the church. The church lives in all of us. So once again yes they would recognize them.
Not all of the people who call themselves Christians are heirs to the organization that the Apostles established (which is headed by Peter’s successor, the Bishop of Rome), nor to the Liturgy of the Mass that they established.

Being spiritually united with Christ is a good thing, of course - no one could be a Christian without that aspect of it, and if it’s all you have, it’s certainly a good starting place - but in 50 AD, or in 120 AD, it was assumed that, in addition to that, people were also members of the Catholic Church - and in fact, we know that, because the enemies of the Church focused on the membership classes, and tried to kill everyone in the membership classes, to prevent them from becoming Christians in the first place - but if a person could become a Christian simply by a private act of the will, without any external signs of having done so, then why would the Early Church have been bothering with membership classes? 🤷 🙂
 
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