{"id":137,"date":"2007-09-24T03:48:09","date_gmt":"2007-09-24T11:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/church-history\/what-did-the-second-century-church-believe\/"},"modified":"2007-09-24T04:03:18","modified_gmt":"2007-09-24T12:03:18","slug":"what-did-the-second-century-church-believe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/church-history\/what-did-the-second-century-church-believe\/","title":{"rendered":"What Did the Second Century Church Believe?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"History<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

By COGwriter<\/a><\/p>\n

The Apostle John<\/a> is believed to have lived until around 100 A.D., the end of the first century.\u00a0 Since he was the last of the original apostles to die, what were the beliefs of those faithful leaders shortly after he died?<\/p>\n

In other words, what were the beliefs of the true Christians in the second century?<\/p>\n

You may be surprised to learn that they are very different in many key areas to the beliefs of the majority of people in the 21st century who profess Christ.<\/p>\n

Here is a brief listing of some of their beliefs as well as links to detailed articles documenting those beliefs:<\/p>\n

Baptism<\/a> was by immersion and did not include infants.
\nThe complete Bible<\/a> with the proper Old Testament<\/a> and New Testament<\/a> was relied on by the true Church in Asia Minor.
\nA Binitarian<\/a> view was held by the apostolic and post-apostolic true Christian leaders.
\nBirthdays <\/a>were not celebrated by early Christians.
\nBorn-Again <\/a>meant being born at the resurrection, not at the time of conversion.
\nCelibacy for Bishops\/Presbyters\/Elders<\/a> was not a requirement.
\nChristmas<\/a> was not observed by any professing Christ prior to the third century, or ever by those holding to early teachings.
\nDuties of Elders\/Pastors<\/a> were pastoral and theological, not predominantly sacramental.
\nEaster<\/a> was not observed by the apostolic church.
\nThe Fall Holy Days<\/a> were observed by true early Christians.
\nThe Father <\/a>was considered to be God by all early professing Christians.
\nHoly Spirit <\/a>was not referred to as God or as a person by any early true Christians.
\nHymns<\/a> were mainly psalms, not praises to Christ.
\nIdols<\/a> were taught against, including the use of the cross.
\nImmortality<\/a> of the soul or humans was not taught.
\nJesus<\/a> was considered to be God by the true Christians.
\nThe Kingdom of God <\/a>was preached.
\nLent<\/a> was not observed by the primitive church.<\/font>
\nMilitary Service<\/a> was not allowed for true early Christians.
\nMillenarianism<\/a> (a literal thousand year reign of Christ on Earth, often called the millennium) was taught by the early Christians.
\nMonasticism<\/a> was unheard of in the early Christian church.
\nPassover<\/a> was kept on the 14th of Nisan by apostolic and second century Christians in Asia Minor.
\nPentecost<\/a> was kept on the same day that the Jews observed it by all professing Christians.
\nThe Resurrection<\/a> of the dead was taught by all early Christians
\nThe Sabbath<\/a> was observed on Saturday by the apostolic and post-apostolic Church.
\nSalvation<\/a> was believed to be offered to the chosen now by the early Church, with others being called later, though not all that taught that (or other doctrines) practiced “the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).
\nSunday<\/a> was not observed by the apostolic and true post-apostolic Christians.
\nThe Ten Commandments<\/a> were observed by the apostolic and true post-apostolic Christians–and in the order that the Living Church of God<\/a> claims they are in.
\nTradition<\/a> had some impact on the second century Christians, but was never supposed to supercede the Bible.
\nThe Trinity<\/a> was not a word used to describe the Godhead by the apostolic or second century Christians.
\nUnclean Meats<\/a> were eaten by the early allegorists, but not by true Christians.
\nThe Virgin Birth<\/a> was acknowledged by all true ante-Nicene Christians.<\/p>\n

More information about what happened to the true Church can be found in the article <\/em>The History of Early Christianity<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 By COGwriter The Apostle John is believed to have lived until around 100 A.D., the end of the first century.\u00a0 Since he was the last of the original apostles to die, what were the beliefs of those faithful leaders shortly after he died? In other words, what were the beliefs of the true Christians […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-history"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}