What We Could Learn From the Early Christians-But Don't

One of the most tragic events in the history of Christianity is that during the early Middle Ages, church leaders decided that they knew more about what the New Testament means than did the Christians who lived immediately after the apostles. As a result, an enormous amount of New Testament knowledge was lost. We are going to first discuss what we could learn from the early Christians. Then, we’ll talk about why most Christians don’t learn from the early Christians.
But perhaps I should begin by explaining what I mean by the term “early Christians.” When I use that term, I’m referring to the Christians who lived from the time of Christ up to the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325. The main reason I use A.D. 325 as the cut-off date is that at the conclusion of the Council of Nicaea, the bishops decided that they had new revelation that was not available to Christians before them. So that is when church leaders first began to imagine that they knew more than the Christians who preceded them. It began as a small thing—initially involving only the relationship of the Father and the Son. Then it spread to the Trinity, then Mary, and on and on until it fully flowered in the early Middle Ages—the period often referred to as the Dark Ages.
Now, you may be wondering how we can learn from the early Christians. After all, they died over seventeen hundred years ago. We can’t talk with them. But, thanks to God’s providence, we have their writings—volumes and volumes of them. So we have a fairly complete picture of how they lived, how they worshipped, and how they understood the New Testament.
So what can we learn from them? To begin with, since they lived so close to the time of the apostles, their writing are our best aid to help us understand the Scriptures the same way the New Testament Christians understood them. In fact, some of the early Christian writers actually knew the apostles and had been personally discipled by them.
But why do we need an aid at all? Can’t we go by the Bible alone? Of course we can. I’m going to be sharing with you six things we can learn from the early Christians. And none of these things involve adding anything to your Bible. In fact, it’s just the opposite. The early Christian writings can help us realize what humans have already added to the Bible—so you can let the Bible itself speak.