Pope Leo XIV met with ‘Churches of the East’–what did 1st century Christians believe?

Logo of the Chaldean Catholic Patriarche
(Via Wikipedia)

Pope Leo XIV met with leaders from the ‘Churches of the East’ this week:

Eastern church leaders welcome election of Pope Leo XIV

May 16, 2025

Church leaders in the Christian East welcomed the election of Pope Leo XIV on May 8, noting his first words to the crowd in St. Peter’s Square were about peace.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople was at an event in his honor in Athens when he learned of the election, according to a report in The Orthodox Times. …

The ecumenical patriarch, who had hoped to visit Iznik, Turkey, with Francis in May to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, said he hoped Leo would “combine a visit to Nicaea with an official visit to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, on the occasion of our feast of St. Andrew on Nov. 30.” https://www.ncronline.org/news/eastern-church-leaders-welcome-election-pope-leo-xiv

It was the Council of Nicea that declared that certain aspects of original Christianity be officially changed. This was not a proper Christian things to do. Nor is it to celebrate that. True Christians, according to the Bible are to diligently contend for the original faith:

1 JUDE, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to the Gentiles who have been called and are beloved by God the Father and are protected by Jesus Christ: 2 Mercy and peace, with love, be multiplied to you. 3 My beloved, I write to you with all diligence concerning our common salvation, and it is needful that I should write and exhort you also to contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered to the saints. (Jude 1-3, Lamsa Bible)

3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write to you about our common life, it was necessary for me to write to you, as I am to persuade you to compete for the faith, which was once delivered to The Holy Ones. (Jude 3, Aramaic Bible in Plain English)

3 My dear friends, at a time when I was eagerly looking forward to writing to you about the salvation that we all share, I felt that I must write to you encouraging you to fight hard for the faith which has been once and for all entrusted to God’s holy people. (Jude New Jerusalem Bible)

Note the three above are used by various “Churches of the East” (including the first group which is NOT in communion with the Church of Rome) with the last one a Roman Catholic translation.

Anyway, those at Nicea agreed to changes that were NOT part of the “faith once delivered to the saints.”

That said, here is more related to Pope Leo XIV’s visits with leaders from the ‘Churches of the East’ (bolding in source):

May 15, 2025

Pope Leo XIV welcomed Eastern Catholics to the Vatican with the traditional Easter greeting, “Christ is risen! He is truly risen!”

Addressing the faithful from the 23 sui iuris Churches in full communion with Rome, … “The Church needs you!” Pope Leo said. “The contribution that the Christian East can offer us today is immense,” … “It is vital then, that you preserve your traditions without attenuating them,” he said. …

“Who better than you,” he asked, “can sing a song of hope even amid the abyss of violence.” …

He went on to thank God for all those who are “sowing peace,” …

“Today more than ever,” concluded Pope Leo XIV, “the splendour of the Christian East demands freedom from all worldly attachments, and from every tendency contrary to communion, in order to remain faithful in obedience and in evangelical witness.” https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-05/pope-leo-xiv-to-eastern-catholics-the-church-needs-you.html

May 14, 2025

On the morning of Wednesday, May 14, the Pope received in a special audience in the Paul VI Hall of the Vatican City Catholics from various Eastern rites, accompanied by their Patriarchs, Major Archbishops, and clergy. … We now offer the English translation of the Pope’s words.

I would also like to mention Pope Leo XIII, the first Pope to devote a specific document to the dignity of your Churches, inspired above all by the fact that, in his words, “the work of human redemption began in the East” (cf. Apostolic Letter Orientalium Dignitas, 30 November 1894). Truly, you have “a unique and privileged role as the original setting where the Church was born” (SAINT JOHN PAUL II, Orientale Lumen, 5). It is significant that several of your liturgies – which you are now solemnly celebrating in Rome in accordance with your various traditions – continue to use the language of the Lord Jesus. … Over a century ago, Leo XIII pointed out that “preserving the Eastern rites is more important than is generally realized”. (Pope asks to define principles, norms, and guidelines for Latin rite priests accompanying Eastern rite Catholics arriving in the West. ZENIT, May 14, 2025 https://zenit.org/2025/05/14/pope-asks-to-define-principles-norms-and-guidelines-for-latin-rite-priests-accompanying-eastern-rite-catholics-arriving-in-the-west/)

Yes, the Church of Rome needs to return to the original beliefs–that would help more than immensely. We have an e-book that would assist the Vatican: Beliefs of the Original Catholic Church: Could a remnant group have continuing apostolic succession?

Who better than those who hold to the beliefs of the original catholic church, those of us who have remained pacifists, can sing a song of hope even amid the abyss of violence? That would be us of the Continuing Church of God! See also Military Service and the Churches of God: Do Real Christians Participate in Carnal Warfare or Encourage Violence? We are sowing peace, not attached to politics of this world, and faithfully looking for the coming Kingdom of God. But telling the Eastern Churches not to attenuate, it seems like Pope Leo XIV is unknowingly advocating for Jude 3.

Note that while the ORIGINAL eastern rite practices should be retained, what is happening in those eastern churches in communion with the Church of Rome is NOT that. Nor do they speak quite the same language as Jesus did (Was the New Testament Written in Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic?)–they speak Syriac Aramaic, whereas Jesus spoke Palestinian Aramaic.

But we in the CCOG do hold to the liturgy and rites of the ORIGINAL CHURCH OF THE EAST.

Regarding what else could be called the Church of the East, the 17th century historian and Sunday-keeper William Cave reported that the early Christians, both Jews and those in the east, kept the Sabbath:

… the Sabbath or Saturday (for so the word sabbatum is constantly used in the writings of the fathers, when speaking of it as it relates to Christians) was held by them in great veneration, and especially in the Eastern parts honoured with all the public solemnities of religion. For which we are to know, that the gospel in those parts mainly prevailing amongst the Jews, they being generally the first converts to the Christian faith, they still retained a mighty reverence for the Mosaic institutions, and especially for the sabbath, as that which had been appointed by God himself, (as the memorial of his rest from the week of creation,) settled by their great master Moses, and celebrated by their ancestors for so many ages, as the solemn day of their public worship, and were therefore very loth that it should be wholly antiquated and laid aside. … they assembled on Saturdays, not that they were infected with Judaism, but only to worship Jesus Christ, the Lord of the sabbath. …

Thus stood the case in the Eastern Church; (Cave William, D.D. Primitive Christianity: or the Religion of the Ancient Christians in the First Ages of the Gospel. 1840 edition revised by H. Cary. Oxford, London, pp. 83-85)

Notice also the following 19th century report:

There has been no period since the time of Christ when there were not Sabbath-keeping Christians in the church … 302 A.D. From that time until English missionaries entered Armenia early in the present century, Sabbath keeping continued without interruption. The … Chaldean Christians have also continued their original practice of Sabbath keeping through the present century. (Sanford EB. A Concise Cyclopedia of Religious Knowledge: Biblical, Biographical, Geographical, Historical, Practical and Theological. S.S. Scranton, 1890, pp. 853,854)

Commenting on that 19th century report, then evangelist in the Worldwide Church of God Dean Blackwell wrote, “They were the ancestors” (Blackwell D. A HANDBOOK OF CHURCH HISTORY: A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Ambassador College Graduate School of Theology. April 1973, p. 182)–meaning they were the spiritual ancestors of certain later faithful Sabbatarian Christians.

That said, it should be pointed out that the Chaldean Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic Church which is in full communion with the Pope in Rome. Like other Greco-Roman Catholic churches, it observes Sunday as the day of worship.

Roman Catholic priest Malachi Martin lived and worked in Vatican City for years. He was deeply involved in researching and writing about Church history, theology, and the inner workings of the Roman Catholic Church. He wrote:

Jewish Christians … occupied the oldest Christian churches in the Middle East and whose leaders were always from the family of Jesus himself. … their first bishop was James, first cousin of Jesus. …

Jewish Christians had composed the only church ever in Jerusalem until the year 135. … Jewish Christian churches were set up all over Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia … observe the Torah … (Martin M. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Church. Bantam edition, 1983, pp. 30-31).

The original Church of God in Jerusalem, throughout the entire first century of it existence, held to Church of God doctrines.

Without going through all the different doctrines and practices, there is basically NO DOUBT AMONG SCHOLARS THAT IN THE FIRST CENTURY CHURCH OF THE EAST:

They kept the biblical holy days (see the free e-book Should You Keep God’s Holy Days or Demonic Holidays?).
Did not celebrate the date of Jesus’ birth (see What Does the Roman Catholic Church Teach About Christmas and the Holy Days?).
Did not teach the immortality of the soul (see Did Early Christians Believe that Humans Possessed Immortality?).
Did not eat biblically unclean animals (see The New Testament Church, History, and Unclean Meats).
Did not have icons in their church buildings (see What Did the Early Church Teach About Idols and Icons?).
Kept the Sabbath on Saturday (see The Sabbath in the Early Church and Abroad).
Kept Passover on the 14th (see Passover and the Early Church).
Did not support Christians being in the military (see Military Service and the Churches of God: Do Real Christians Participate in Carnal Warfare or Encourage Violence?).
Did not have mass or church service like the Roman Catholic Church and those in communion with it now do (see What was the Liturgy of the Early Church?).
Did not teach the Trinity as defined by the 381 Council of Constantinople (see the free e-book Mysteries of God. What is God?).
Did not have special dress for the clergy (see Were the Early Duties of Elders/Pastors Mainly Sacramental? What was their Dress?).
Taught the Kingdom of God would begin with Jesus’ return (see the free e-book The Gospel of the Kingdom of God).

We in the Continuing Church of God hold to the original faith of the mother church on the east to this day. We still hold not only to so-called Jewish practices that were original, but also to non-violence and beliefs about the coming Kingdom of God.

Throughout the church age, the faithful have often had to move, and that impacted people in the east.

But the beliefs and practices of the original church of the east are still taught by the Continuing Church of God which still contends earnestly for them. Since Pope Leo XIV alluded to that, perhaps he and others associated with him will look more into the truth about what the original beliefs were.

More details on history, beliefs, and original practices can be found in the free ebook: Beliefs of the Original Catholic Church: Could a remnant group have continuing apostolic succession?

Some items of related interest may include:

Early Christianity in Edessa and the Church of the East Could there have been Christian leaders there? Might Judas of Jerusalem went there? Could Macarius have been a faithful Christian?

Beliefs of the Original Catholic Church: Could a remnant group have continuing apostolic succession? Did the original “catholic church” have doctrines held by the Continuing Church of God? Did Church of God leaders uses the term “catholic church” to ever describe the church they were part of? Here are links to related sermons: Original Catholic Church of God?, Original Catholic Doctrine: Creed, Liturgy, Baptism, Passover, What Type of Catholic was Polycarp of Smyrna?, Tradition, Holy Days, Salvation, Dress, & Celibacy, Early Heresies and Heretics, Doctrines: 3 Days, Abortion, Ecumenism, Meats, Tithes, Crosses, Destiny, and more, Saturday or Sunday?, The Godhead, Apostolic Laying on of Hands Succession, Church in the Wilderness Apostolic Succession List, Holy Mother Church and Heresies, and Lying Wonders and Original Beliefs. Here is a link to that book in the Spanish language: Creencias de la iglesia Católica original.

The Malachy Prophecies and “Peter the Roman” An Irish bishop allegedly predicted something about 112 popes in the 12th century. Pope Benedict XVI was number 111. Francis could be number 112–if he counted. What about Pope Leo XIV? Could he reign until Rome is destroyed. May he be an antipope/final Antichrist? Here is a link to a related sermon: Pope Leo XIV & Antichrist Prophecies.