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Discussion Forum : Articles and Sermons : The Early Church did not use or depend on buildings called the Church

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 The Early Church did not use or depend on buildings called the Church


One of the things you do not find in the Book of Acts is the reliance on church buildings. Yet in almost every Christian circle and denomination, there is an emphasis upon building the church, not that “the body of Christ may be built up” but rather the building of an actual structure that we refer to commonly as the church. There is a great benefit at times in having a building where the Lord’s people can meet in and use for the ministry of the Gospel. Yet, when we look at the Book of Acts, we find no visible record that the Church built buildings. Though they met in some physical locations such as Solomon’s Colonnade and the hall of Tyrannus for even two years!

Yet, this was not the common practice of how saints met across the rest of God’s Churches. Even when looking carefully in Church history it is hard to find evidence of a building being used until 300 AD when pagan temples were being converted into churches under the reign of Constantine.

The clear indication is that the early Church met in believers’ homes and other venues such as caves, rivers and the catacombs in Rome, which were underground tunnels. When persecution came, as it did constantly in the record of the Acts of the Apostles, they were able to minimize the effects on the Church by relocating meetings to other secret locations in the city or towns and villages nearby. “The Church was always low-keyed, there were places where there were tens of thousands of believers, like Ephesus, and they had no building at all.”

Even as Church history progressed and an institutional system that became the Catholic church took the stage, many true believers in sects and groups met in homes. To be more concise, many met in caverns, caves, and beside river banks outside cities. Such were the meeting places of many who were severely opposed for the testimony of Jesus Christ which they held. The forbidding of believers meeting together has been the reality of the Church since its inception.

from: http://gospelfellowships.net/2013/06/13/the-early-church-did-not-use-or-depend-on-buildings-called-the-church/


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SI Moderator - Greg Gordon

 2013/6/13 10:38Profile





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