How Was The Early Church Structured? - Part I

Today I wanted to continue looking at various aspects of the early Christian Church.  Specifically, let’s examine two interrelated questions: 

1) What means did Jesus establish for the conveyance of the Christian faith? 

2) How was the early Church structured?

We’ll begin by looking at the Biblical data.



How Will They Believe?

In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he proposes a hypothetical about how people become believers:

“How then will they call on Him in Whom they have not believed?  And how are they to believe in Him of Whom they have never heard?  And how are they to hear without someone preaching?  And how are they to preach unless they are sent?” – Romans 10:14-15 

Notice that Paul says they must “hear”.  This is important because at the time Paul was writing, the Bible – as we know it today – did not exist.  And those texts which did exist were fabulously expensive and few people could read them.  So he rightly observes that people come to know the Christian faith through ministers who are “sent”.

But… buy whom?


The First Branches:

Well, at the conclusion of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus takes the Apostles aside and says:

"All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age." – Matthew 28:19-20

In other words, the method Jesus established for the transmission of the Christian faith was originally through the preaching of the Twelve (well… eleven) Apostles.  In addition to teaching, they were also given the authority to govern the Church in the name of Christ.  Jesus bestowed this authority upon them when He said:

“Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” - Matthew 18:15-18

And not long after that, Jesus said that after He ascended to Heaven, the Twelve would have positions of judging and ruling:

“You who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the seat of his majesty, you also shall sit on twelve seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” – Matthew 19:28

Sprouting New Branches:

But if that’s all there was, we’d would be confronted by two problems.  First, the entire Christian world is a too large an area for the Apostles to govern and teach.  Second, they are mortal – so the system dies when they do.

Both of these problems are solved by the Apostles ordaining other authorized ministers to teach and govern.  We see the first mention of this in Acts 1:15-16, when they replace Judas after his suicide.  But we also see it in Paul’s writings, such as his letter to Titus:

“For this reason I left you in Crete so that you might set right what remains to be done and appoint presbyters in every town, as I directed you.” – Titus 1:5

In that one line we can see four generations of succession from the Apostles:  Peter received Paul as an Apostle (Gal 2:9), Paul appointed Titus, and Titus is ordaining further men.

Together, this formed an organic lineage of authorized teachers who would spread the message of Jesus out into the world.  And it was by this sign that people would know they are hearing the true Gospel. 

That is why Paul vociferously defended his status as an Apostle in his letter to the Galatians, and it is why John said:

“We are of God.  Whoever knows God listens to us, and he who is not of God does not listen to us.” - 1 John 4:6

So, as it turns out, the Kingdom of God ends up being much like a mustard tree (Mk 4:30).  It branches out, with each leaf tracing itself back to a branch, down the trunk, and into the roots.


My Bias, Again:
Again, this could all just be an exercise in me cherry picking passages which suit my preferences.  A Missouri Synod Lutheran would tell me that succession from the Apostles has nothing to do with who ordained you, but whether you preach the Apostolic faith. 

A person from the Evangelical Free Church would say he doesn’t owe deference to anyone as long as he has the Bible and the ability to read it… and that’s the way God intended it.

Well… next time we’ll see what the witnesses from the early church say.

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