Lin

“Especially in a congregation, all the influences of the environment and the setting reinforce this for the unsuspecting, earnest, trusting follower sitting in the pew. ”

Cindy, this really resonated with me. In 1 Corin, Paul talks about several speaking when they meet and then others would judge. Can’t we see how this would lead us to scripture when we meet and help keep out error?

A few years ago, I decided to study scripture with only the thought of looking at what the early church was like. I found little that looked similar to what we do now.

Normally, I am not a big fan of Barna but I bought his book, Pagan Christianity, written by him and Frank Viola. It is a look at the history of church. He tracks all the things we do now in church, even our buildings and tells us where this ‘tradition’ came from. Some of it I had already researched with the conversion of Constantine. It is quite shocking what we have added. And what we have added speaks to your comment above. The ‘environment’ is perfect for thought reform through a captive ‘audience’ and perceived authorities we should not disagree with publicly.

Just as an example, Barna/Viola track the single ‘sermon’ by one person with a ‘pulpit’ and people sitting in rows facing the speaker to listen…… to Greek Orators who came into the church. It was a tradition in the Greek world to listen to ‘orators’ and it was a big deal to be an ‘interesting’ and well spoken orator. Does this sound familiar?

But Paul makes it clear that he did not come with good speech or fancy words but with truth.

There was also very little ‘overhead’ in the early church as they met in homes, etc., sitting around listening, taking turns in praise, singing, teaching, etc. I try as hard as I can to imagine Lydia not saying a word in her own home or not even sharing a testimony in this setting for fear of teaching men. Did they just use her place or was having the Body meet in her home a serious commitment to her?  Or even Phoebe coming back from visiting Paul and not sharing the wonderful truths she learned from Paul while there and teaching it to others in the Body at Cenchurea. (sp?)

It just makes no sense. We love our traditions too much.