Uncovering Apostolic Christianity

What happened to true Christianity—the Christianity of Jesus and His Apostles? Do you realize that this type of Christianity has mainly disappeared from the earth? But now it is in the process of being uncovered and restored!

If Jesus of Nazareth were to return to planet earth today, would He recognize the religion that is using His name? Would He be shocked to find that people claiming to be His followers have been waging WAR against each other almost continually for the last 1,900 years? That His professed followers believe totally contrary doctrines to what He taught, observing different days of worship, different customs? And— most importantly—that they have a totally different concept of God and of His purpose than Jesus and the original Apostles did?

Jesus might wonder, why are they putting MY name on all this "stuff"?

Yet, most genuine religious scholars recognize that VAST changes have overshadowed professing Christianity—rendering it totally different from the Christianity of Jesus and the Apostles! Respected mainline Protestant scholar, Jesse Lyman Hurlbut called it an "age of shadows," further acknowledging:

For fifty years after St. Paul's life a curtain hangs over the church, through which we strive vainly to look; and when at last rises, about 120AD with the writings of the earliest church-fathers, we find a church in many aspects very different from that in the days of St. Peter and St. Paul. (Story of the Christian Church, p. 41)

If the leaders of the "age of shadows" to which Hurlbut referred were filled with and led by God's Spirit, then why would the church suddenly be "very different"? For the Bible tells us that Christ is "the SAME yesterday, today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8). Yet the professing Christian church today is NOT even remotely the same as the one Jesus founded.

Describing the time period after all the original apostles and their successors had died out, Hurlbut writes:

The services of worship increased in splendor, but were less spiritual and hearty than those of former times. The forms and ceremonies of paganism gradually crept into the worship. Some of the old heathen feasts became church festivals with change of name and of worship. About 405 A.D. images of saints and martyrs began to appear in the churches, at first as memorials, then in succession revered, adored, and worshiped. The adoration of the Virgin Mary was substituted for the worship of Venus and Diana; the Lord's supper became a sacrifice in place of a memorial; and the elder evolved from a preacher into a priest. (p. 79)

Notice Hurlbut's statement that "some of the old heathen feasts became church festivals." They "became" that way because God Himself had predicted that EVIL men and false leaders would take over most of the church! Remember this inspired warning the Apostle Paul gave the Ephesian elders: "For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears" (Acts 20:29–31).

When Paul realized the depth of the APOSTASY, which would cover most of the church, it hit him emotionally. He then "did not cease to WARN everyone night and day with tears"! Very few people today seem to be concerned enough to even begin to shed tears over this awesome change.

HOW Could This Happen?

This massive apostasy occurred because men and women back then, just like today, did not zealously PROVE to themselves where God's Truth was being taught. That is why the Living Christ corrected those Christians living near the end of the Apostolic Era: "Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place; unless you repent" (Revelation 2:4–5).

What about today? How can we account for the more than 400 different denominations and sects— all calling themselves "Christian"? All of them have different ideas, traditions and approaches, yet claim to follow the same Jesus Christ!

Part of the answer is the fact that EXTREMELY few professing Christians really study their Bibles! So they do not "PROVE" virtually anything they believe by carefully researching it in the Bible! They may enthusiastically study books and articles on health, on self-improvement or on investing and making more money, but somehow it does NOT occur to them to thoroughly study the most VITAL subjects of all: Is there a REAL God? If so, what is His purpose in creating us human beings? And how can we fulfill that purpose? Yet the Bible commands, "PROVE all things, hold fast that which is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21, KJV).

Haven't most of you just "accepted" the religion passed down through your family? Haven't you just "gone along" with the beliefs and the traditions you were taught as a child?

Los Angeles Times religion writer, Teresa Watanabe, reports:

According to one religious research firm, two-thirds of Americans don't regularly read the Bible or know the names of the Four Gospels. More than half of Americans surveyed can't name even five of the Ten Commandments. And the majority say they find the Good Book irrelevant…. "We still hold the Bible in high regard, but in terms of actually spending the time reading it, studying it and applying it—that is a thing of the past," said George Barna. The reasons cited range from changes in American culture to the intrinsic difficulty of the text itself. Now religious organizations are making a major effort to jazz up the ancient Scripture's doddering image. Bible publishers are producing a dizzying array of products, with translations and editions pitched to every conceivable niche market, to convince people that the book is neither arcane nor irrelevant. (Los Angeles Times, July 23, 1999).

Of course, the real underlying cause of this massive religious apostasy is that this is Satan's world and that he has totally DECEIVED the vast majority of humanity. In the comfortable surroundings of our western civilization, most Americans, Canadians and others fail to realize that the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of human beings have never believed in ANY form of "Christianity"—let alone the real Christianity of Christ and the Apostles!

If you will study and believe your own Bible, you will find that Satan the devil is described as the one "who deceives the WHOLE world" (Revelation 12:9). You will also find Satan referred to as "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience" (Ephesians 2:2). For Satan "broadcasts" a selfish, rebellious attitude throughout this earth. He is the one who is influencing deceived men into injecting ENORMOUS amounts of licentious sex, violence and a general spirit of disrespect and lawlessness into the so-called "entertainment" you and your children see or hear on television, at the movies, on the radio or when playing various kinds of perverted computer games which simulate almost indescribable acts of perversion or violence. Do you know who is really laughing at all this "fun stuff"? Satan is!

For by perverting mankind's normal interest in sex and excitement, and by cleverly injecting sick humor into so many "situation comedies," Satan is able to cleverly mislead humanity into abusing itself, degrading itself and ultimately DESTROYING itself if God does not intervene at the last minute to stop it (Matthew 24:21–22). Satan is truly the "god" of this present world! The Apostle Paul was inspired to write, "But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them" (2 Corinthians 4:3–4).

Most important of all, Satan has injected into mainstream "Christianity" a whole series of totally FALSE ideas about the origin and destiny of man, of what God is like, of what God's awesome PURPOSE is, and how we are to achieve that great purpose. Satan has "covered up" the truth. Additionally, Satan has confused people about prophecy so much that most professing Christians and even most professing Christian ministers and priests simply throw up their hands and almost totally neglect biblical prophecy. Yet our Creator devotes about one-fourth of the entire Bible to the "sure word of prophecy" (2 Peter 1:19, KJV).

Key Facts to Consider

The first issue to consider, then, is that mankind has been truly DECEIVED. We see that we have gone "way off the track" when we compare modern professing Christianity with the religion of Jesus and the apostles. As noted professor of religion, Rufus M. Jones, writes:

If by any chance Christ Himself had been taken by His later followers as the model and pattern of the new way, and a serious attempt had been made to set up His life and teaching as the standard and norm for the church, Christianity would have been something vastly different from what it became. Then "heresy" would have been, as it is not now, deviation from His way, His teaching, His spirit, His king- dom. (The Church's Debt to Heretics, pp. 15–16).

The truth is clear. Modern "Christianity" has become VASTLY DIFFERENT from the Christianity of Christ!

Some might say, "So what?" But this is no small matter we are talking about. Frankly, we're talking about the way to eternal LIFE on the one hand, or eternal DEATH on the other (Romans 6:23). And if you do not have the Christianity of Christ, you have no Christianity whatsoever!

Jesus Himself warned, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'" (Matthew 7:21–23). It is important to realize what Christ will say to those failing to do the "will" of the Father: "I NEVER knew you." In plain language, these deceived churchgoers will be told that they were, in fact, never acquainted with the Christ they claim to serve. They were never really converted. They were never really "Christian"!

Again, Jesus said, "Why call you Me 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do the things which I say?" (Luke 6:46). A "lord" or "master" is someone you OBEY. But most professing Christian ministers and their followers do NOT want to follow the clear teachings and examples of Jesus and the apostles. And most of them don't even bother to deeply study their Bibles to find what those teachings and examples are!

Restoring Apostolic Christianity

The key issue, then, is our desire and willingness to get back to the true Christian faith, "the faith which was ONCE FOR ALL delivered to the saints" (Jude 3). Are you willing to genuinely try to follow the Christianity of Christ? Or are you willing to "take a chance" in your relationship with God and in your quest for eternal life?

Frankly, the "little flock" (Luke 12:32), the true Church of God, has always understood the need to pattern itself after the teachings and examples of Christ and the apostles. Although very few have seriously attempted to follow this pattern, many scholars and religious historians have understood the concept of the "Jerusalem Church of God." This is a vital concept to understand if we are sincerely interested in contending "for the faith once delivered."

The Apostle Paul was inspired to write to the Thessalonians, "For you, brethren, became IMITATORS of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus" (1 Thessalonian 2:14). The book of Acts makes it clear that the earthly "headquarters" Church of God—for many decades—was the Jerusalem Church. It was here that the Holy Spirit was originally poured out on the true Christians (Acts 2). It was here where Peter, James and John carried on most of their ministry for many years (Acts 4:1; 8:1; 11:1–2, etc.). Later, it was to the leadership at Jerusalem that Paul and Barnabas came to settle the major question of circumcision for the Gentiles and related questions (Acts 15:4). As renowned historian Edward Gibbon wrote:

The first fifteen bishops of Jerusalem were all circumcised Jews; and the congregation over which they presided united the law of Moses with the doctrine of Christ. It was natural that the primitive tradition of a church which was founded only forty days after the death of Christ, and was governed almost as many years under the immediate inspection of his apostle, should be received as the standard of orthodoxy. The distant churches very frequently appealed to the authority of their venerable Parent (The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 15, section 1, p. 389).

As indicated above, the only major ministerial conference indicated in the New Testament was held at Jerusalem. Here lived the leading original Apostles. Here was the true "mother" Church—NOT Rome! And it was to Jerusalem Paul and Barnabas had come even earlier, lest, as Paul had put it, "I might run, or had run, in VAIN" (Galatians 2:1–2).

After the major Jerusalem conference, Paul and Silas traveled through Asia Minor visiting the churches: "And as they went through the cities, they delivered to them the decrees to keep, which were determined by the Apostles and elders AT JERUSALEM" (Acts 16:4).

Paul Looked to Jerusalem

Clearly the original Apostles and the Jerusalem Church of God set the inspired "pattern" for true Christianity—NOT just for that time—but for ALL time! Contrary to the heretical Protestant ideas that the Apostle Paul later was used by God to "reinvent" Christianity, the real Apostle Paul of the Bible—as we have seen—constantly showed deep respect for the original apostles and deferred to the leadership at Jerusalem in all major matters! And it was the Apostle Paul who wrote the primarily Gentile church at Corinth, "Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters" (1 Corinthians 7:19).

Noted Historian Carl Von Weiszäcker wrote in 1895:

Paul was far from confining his interest to the Gentile Christian Church which he had himself founded. His thoughts were much too lofty to leave Jewish Christianity to itself. He toiled not merely for his own work, but for the Church of God… the whole Church. He never forgot for a moment the true birthplace of the gospel. And for him the Christians in Jerusalem were always the [saints]…. He did not however merely entertain a grand policy of ecclesiastical union, but his first and constant thought was that the primitive Church was the foremost divine institution under the Gospel…. In the early Apostles he saw… the Apostles of the Lord. From them the testimony of the Resurrection emanated (1 Corinthians 15:1 ff.). They were ever the Apostles, whom God had placed at the head of His Church, the first of those divinely commissioned men who held the leading office in the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:28) [The Apostolic Age of the Christian Church, pp. 12–13].