The Organization of the Early
The Organization of the Early Church. According to The Acts of the Apostles, the church began on the day of the first Pentecost, but the need for the development of the church is presented well before it's actual creation. The gospels of Matthew and John reveal the apostles preparation by Jesus' for the coming of the Holy Spirit, which is the Pentecost itself. The organization and development of the early church, is clearly outlined in The Acts of the Apostles, 1 Timothy, Titus, 2 Timothy and 1 Corinthians. Through these scriptures the author presents the events of the birth of the church, the requirements for the organization of the church and it's members, and the necessary attributes for both the hierarchy of the church and those of which should be taught to its followers. Although the outlined events are written in the sense of fact, it must be taken into consideration that these Scriptures are based upon the interpretation, thus creating problems in the area of historical reliability. In the book of Matthew, the apostles receive foreknowledge from Jesus of the building of the church, as revealed to Peter, but they were not yet told of whom it would be compromised or how it would function. Jesus declared, "And I tell you
And there appeared to them tongues of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. if a man does not manage his own household, how can he care for God's church?" (1 Tim 3:5) Much of the same characteristics are expected of the position of a deacon in which they must be, "serious, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for gain, they must hold the mystery of faith with a clear conscience," (1 Tim 3:8-9). The beginning of the church is discussed to have occurred on the day of the first Pentecost in The book of Acts, yet in both the Gospel of John and Matthew, Jesus foretells the coming of the Holy Spirit resulting in the creation of the church before his death. The chosen twelve apostles were "together in one place" (Acts 2:1), when the arrival of the Holy Spirit descended upon them in a "rush of mighty wind" (Acts 2:2) to empower them with the Holy Spirit and train them to do Gods work. In parallel to the teachings of 1 Timothy, Paul's letter to Titus tells of the required attributes for the title of Bishop, to portray themselves to be a "model of good deeds" (Titus 2:7), whose teachings should embody "integrity, gravity and sound speech that cannot be censured" (Titus 2:8) Paul goes further in this letter to include the areas in which the churches followers were to be instructed and the attributes of the members themselves. Jesus states that the church was to become a mass congregation of many and through baptism of the spirit, the Jews and Gentiles would become one and together create the church. , you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church" (Matthew16:18), in which "my church" is Greek for "the calling", in reference to the Holy Spirit. Such a person who desires to seek the "noble task" (1 Tim 3:1) of this leadership position must be married to but one woman, practice moderation in speech, action and drink, be an intelligible teacher and he must manage his household well as it would reflect poorly upon his management of the church, ". Through The Acts of the Apostles, 1 Timothy, Titus, 2 Timothy and 1 Corinthians, the spiritual beginnings of the church, the organization of its leadership and membership and the attributes and teachings necessary to achieve the church are uncovered. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave the utterance. In another instance, most of the historical narratives of the Scripture were written down after a comparative period of oral transmission, in which there is the possibility that the recollection of the actual event may have been altered, not necessarily on purpose but without written documentation the validity of the event cannot be trust upon one's ability to remember. Christianity is not based on a historical truth; rather, it offers us a (historical) narrative and thus should not be taken as an exact literal account of the events that occurred. And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of the bread and the prayers.
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