How the Earliest Christians Worshipped (In their own words) 

As a Assyrian Christian Orthodox, my ancestors died for their faith during the "Armenian" genocide in Adana, Turkey. My great grandfather was a holy man who prayed on a hill alone everyday. He was also the towns healer. I am grateful for all our ancestors who always remained faithful in the face of evil. God bless all.

*I was Muslim and converted to being a follower of our lLord Jesus Christ..I prayed to God one time with all my heart and asked him to show me if he’s real then Jesus came into my life. The holly spirit is guiding me and I will start preaching in God’s name one day to bring this gift of true love and happiness to less fortunate and lost souls.Amen ❤❤❤❤🙏😇*

Early Christians openly confessed to being followers of Christ…even when they knew they would be killed.

I am always amazed how faithful the early Christians were, especially those who suffered martyrdom. There are so many stories of the early Saints that show their strength and belief in the face of persecution.

Just listening, it's a miracle in itself that we are able to read and listen to the Bible and all things Christian today. So much was overcome to get to today. Thank you Lord Jesus, and every single Christian that got us here and beyond.

I would like to say a prayer to my orthodox brothers and sisters in the east being persecuted : Lord I pray that you protect not just your children but all human beings being persecuted. Fill them with your strength to keep their faith and stay strong in your name. You are great and just and we know you will deliver us. In Jesus's name we pray, Amen.

What an incredible and detailed information. I was raised Catholic in Spain, and not much information about other denominations and there existence were given. Is when I moved to the United States; and stoped practicing, that I learned about it, and with heavy heart saw accusations, insults and sometimes vitriolic hate between Christians from different denominations; specially for Catholics (or so it seemed to me). After years of lost faith and practice, I decided to study and learn as much as I could; hoping to find answers to many of the questions I had when young that never got answer and that probably made me abandon my faith. With all respect for any other denomination, I came back to Catholicism. This great talk has serve to explain many parts of my church's tradition. Thanks again for a great work.

🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:15 🕊️ Early Christians were referred to as "Christians," and they faced interrogation and persecution for their beliefs in the early days. 01:20 🙏 Early Christians met on a fixed day to sing hymns to Christ, took solemn oaths to lead righteous lives, and shared ordinary and innocent meals. 02:54 🌍 The early Christian faith spread not only in cities but also in villages and rural areas, affecting people of all ranks, ages, and both sexes. 03:09 📖 Christianity has seen various interpretations and denominations over time, but understanding the early Christian practices and beliefs can help usconnect with our heritage. 03:51 🏛️ The early Christians met in secret, and purpose-built churches didn't emerge until much later due to persecution. 05:41 🏛️ Early Christian churches had defined roles such as episcopoi (bishops), presbyteroi (elders or priests), and diaconoi (deacons). 06:47 🙌 Early Christian practices were subject to variations and interpretations, leading to differences in how denominations view their connection to the early church. 08:55 📚 Early Christian communities had limited access to scripture, which was in the form of scrolls, and there was no standardized Bible as we have today. 10:17 💒 The practice of ordination through the laying on of hands was a significant aspect of early Christian leadership, and it continues in apostolic churches. 19:06 🍞🍷 The early Christians practiced the Eucharist, and different denominations have varying interpretations of its significance, ranging from a symbol to a literal transformation. 25:26 📜 The early Christian Church had structured leadership, with bishops (episcopoi) and priests (presbytery) appointed to lead and guide the community. 28:42 🙏 Early Christians practiced confessing their sins to one another and believed in the power of communal prayer and confession for healing. 31:05 📅 The dating of the First Epistle of Clement is debated, but it suggests that the Church in Rome asserted some authority over other churches, even in the apostolic age. 44:30 ⛪ The First Epistle of Clement indicates that there was a chain of apostolic succession, with bishops succeeding other bishops appointed by the apostles themselves. 49:53 👥 Saint Ignatius of Antioch emphasized the importance of unity and obedience within the Church, recognizing the authority of bishops (episcopoi) and presbyters. 51:15 📜 Ignatius emphasizes the importance of unity among Christians and obedience to the bishop. 51:46 🏛️ The early Christian church was hierarchical and organized, with the bishop as a central figure. 52:14 🍞🍷 Ignatius refers to the Eucharist as the "medicine of immortality," highlighting the real presence belief. 54:35 ✝️ Ignatius reaffirms core Christian beliefs, including the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. 55:31 🌅 Some early Christians observed the Lord's Day (Sunday) instead of the Sabbath, indicating a shift in worship day. 56:13 🙏 Ignatius stresses the importance of obeying thebishop and presbytery for a proper Christian assembly. 01:05:05 📝 Ignatius writes a unique letter to the Church in Rome, addressing their greatness and avoiding naming individuals to protect them. 01:10:32 🦁 Ignatius eagerly anticipates martyrdom for his faith, emphasizing his willingness to die for Christ. 01:12:47 📖 Polycarp quotes and paraphrases scripture, indicating the widespread recognition of Christian texts. 01:14:20 🚫 Polycarp warns against lust, covetousness, and unseemly behavior and calls for obedience to presbyters. 01:15:45 ✉️ Polycarp mentions Ignatius' letters and the request to send them to other churches for their benefit. 01:16:00 📜 Saint Papius sheds light on the early teaching of Christianity before written Gospels, and he mentions receiving Ignatius' epistles. 01:17:29 📜 Early Christians believed that teachings coming directly from the living voice were more valuable than written texts, providing insights into their faith. 01:19:10 📖 The Shepherd of Hermas, once considered inspired scripture, offered a unique perspective on early Christian beliefs, later losing its scriptural status. 01:20:59 🧔 Hermes, an early Christian and former slave, spread the message of his visions within the structured church, emphasizing the roles of bishops, teachers, and deacons. 01:27:06 📜 The Didache, an early catechism (c. 50-70 AD), outlined ancient Christian practices and moral living guidelines, stressing the way of life over the way of death. 01:35:20 🙏 The Didache describes early Christian gatherings on the Lord's Day, focusing on the Eucharist and the sanctity of reconciliation among believers. 01:39:56 💧 Justin Martyr's First Apology (c. 150 AD) defends Christianity and addresses key elements of the faith, including baptism and the prophetic fulfillment by Jesus. 01:42:10 💧 Baptism in the early church was considered a means of regeneration, linked to the forgiveness of sins and administered in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 01:43:21 🕊️ The early Christian understanding in the mid-second century emphasized that being born again is closely associated with baptism. 01:44:04 🙏 After baptism, there was a common gathering where prayers were offered for the baptized, themselves, and others in different places. The aim was to live according to Christ's teachings for salvation. 01:45:28 🥖🍷 The Eucharist, the Christian practice of taking bread and wine, was believed to be truly transformed into the body and blood of Jesus, a belief held by early Christians. 01:46:50 📖 On Sundays, early Christiansgathered for communal worship, reading the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets. This practice continues today in various Christian traditions. 01:57:08 💒 The early church structure included the roles of episcopas (bishops), presbyteros (priests), and diakonoi (deacons), and they believed in the importance of apostolic succession.

Imagine being put to death for pledging to not steal or lie or cheat or be a bad person.

After all my research and asking the Lord where he wants me and not what i want, the Holy Spirit has guided me to the Catholic Church. It is the most beautiful action i have ever done. I still struggle with sin and take my first communion march 31st of 2024, im so excited to receive the body of Christ. Aside from that, I encourage everyone to ask the Holy Spirit to guide them, to come to him without an hardened heart because its not about our will, its about Gods will.

This is pure gold. Thank you for taking the time to narrate this for all of us. God bless and keep you.

The earliest Christians were so pure And straight in their warship No line no adultery No to all things bad They died for the love of Christ Jesus And all mighty father

Very interesting work! Thanks! It’s interesting to also consider that St. Paul could barely plant a fellowship before it careened off the rails (c.f. the letter to the Galatians) - Christians have always struggled with balancing grace and holiness. We seem to pitch between legalism/formalism on the one hand and licentiousness/cheap grace on the other. And neither is the truly “costly” grace of God in Christ. One generation thinks the things they do assist them in getting to Heaven; the next think they can live like hell and still get to Heaven. Thanks to God for the Holy Spirit who has been keeping His people going in spite of our best efforts to torpedo the whole thing!

Please pray for my family to be saved. They are very hard to talk to.. they’ve had ministers in their life and haven’t believed in Jesus yet. I can’t have a relationship with them because of trauma in my family. It’s very difficult at times even to be alone and think about them. Please pray for peace of mind for me, and also for my family to be saved and have a revelation from Jesus Christ.

Thank you very much for this work. I appreciated the calm, peaceful reading, which helped me focus on the concepts. This is a very instructive video for those who listen (and read) all the way through. May the Holy Spirit enlighten all people with the Truth.

What an insightful study. Thank you for bringing this study to us. The “church” in America is in trouble, the flock led in so many directions so far from the pure Gospel of Christ. I thank you many times over for sharing the deep commitment of the early servants of Christ.

This one is humble. Thank you for your time brother.

Thank you. A fascinating journey, which I need to further reflect upon. I look forward to more presentations.

Thanks for this video, well done. For the last ~6 years I've been studying the early (Ante-Nicene) church, both formally at seminary and on my own. One other thread almost all of these sources mention that you didn't get to was that miracles and spiritual gifts (charismata) were common and expected. Exorcism/deliverance, prophecy, healing, signs, xeno-glossolalia (speaking in previously unknown languages) are attested in the Didache, Polycarp, Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Athanasius ... And the list goes on! The ancient church was certainly sacramental, biblical, and charismatic!

Thank you for all your efforts! This must have been an arduous undertaking. Very informative.

Awesome resource. Thank you for posting.

This channel will be blessed. People need this.

This is a MOUNTAIN of information about the early church. This had to have been difficult to compile!

Very enlightening and humbling!!! Every time I was getting ready to maybe "move along" bc of the slower pace, something very interesting came up!! Bless you!!

Very good teaching brother. I enjoyed it much and it has restored my faith before pasca.

This was an AMAZING lecture. You have got to make more content, your writing, organization, and presentation is very well done.

Amen for sharing this brother

Very well done on making this video, very informative and must've taken you some time to put it together. God bless!

Thanks for putting your efforts into this.

The level of detail you brought to this topic is amazing, a great lecture indeed. Thank you for sharing this. Greetings from Argentina!

Just found you're channel. Thank you for all the work and long hours you've put in to educate us about this very intriguing subject. This was so fascinating to watch.

What a fantastic lecture on the structure of the early Christian Church. I found it very insightful. It answered many questions I have had about the operations of the church from its beginnings. Bravo.

I am listening. (24 minutes in.) Thank you for the video! Savoring it.

This is the best summary of early Christian faith and practice that I have ever seen. Excellent work! It has given me much food for thought. I have read some of the documents you referenced but I think I need to go back and read them again.

How have you gone under my radar for so long?!? God bless!

I cannot wait to watch and pick this apart. Thank you for the effort!

Keep it comin' Brother, thank you for this in Jesus mighty name 🙏

You know an even better record of how the earliest Christians worshipped? The New Testament. It’s all there. The early Christians prayed, sang, read or recited scripture, preached, took the Lord’s supper and took a collection for the saints. They did that on the first day of every week; the significance being the day of resurrection. They had evangelists (preachers), and appointed deacons and elders (or bishops/shepherds). They did all of these things on the instruction of the inspired apostles, by the authority of the Holy Spirit who Jesus told them would “guide them into all truth.” (John 16:13).

Fantastic job! This is exactly the information I've been looking to share with others.

This was a great pleasure. But I wept over Ignatius. Great information and a meaningful reading. Thank you, Sir.

Wow man. This video blew up out of nowhere. Awesome work with it! Watched this 3 times now and it’s such a great resource. God be with you

40 minutes in this is excellent. I bought on kindle the writings of the early church fathers which was very cheap and it's an impressive resource better to use as a reference as it's too much to wade through. Thankyou for your efforts in producing this

A superb distillation of early Church belief about the Eucharist and the Mass. Many thanks and God bless.

On my second or third listen. It was a great idea to put all of this information in one video. Thank you and God bless.

Thanks for this upload 🙏🏼

Awesome work I’m still 4 mins in 😂 I feel this is going to be great thanks for putting together the history 🎉🎉 🙏🏾

I have to listen this in job on earphones... 2 hours! Good job, brother! Especially that letter was very signifant. I subscribed. I will take a llok closer later what you present here. So far, God Bless You!

It’s great to be able to hear and read this. I have a hard time just reading without getting lost and having to start over. This helps so much. Thank you for reading this.

I appreciate the effort go into this.

This video has been immensely helpful to me. I have listened to it multiple times.

I appreciate this study, Ever since l became a believer in Vietnam at the age of 19, it began a deep hunger and search for me which continues to this day , l believe we have not yet scratched the surface of the real truth of the Gospel and the early Christians, we still lack their power and integrity, they were really like him , their Master, meaning the the nature of the Messiah Christ Jesus

This is fantastic. I was also stunned by the first century document the Didache.

I appreciate the effort made to make this video.

I would offer this. There are millions of denominations. For true Christianity is a personal relationship with Jesus. So each believer has their own unique denomination. God’s love never quits. Glory.

Thank you for your hard work in putting this together, I learned a LOT. God bless and keep you.

This was an excellent video, very informative. I hope that you will create others. Thank you.

Thank you for your hard work, very edifying 🙂👌

I'm twenty one minutes in, and I need to pause briefly to thank you for sharing this with us. I see you've put much effort into this presentation.

Nice, I am currently taking a course on the Early Church Fathers. You are spot on, praise be Jesus Christ!

I sure hope this guy keeps making videos. I like everything about them. Thank you for these!

Wow I listened to the full video with great interest and I love the presentation. As a seminarian I also studied the church Fathers , the early writtings etc . I wish I had listened to this when I started theology. Not withstanding I agree with you in all and I need more videos like this one to nourish my hungry soul

Thank you for your hard work !Very informative !

This is outstanding. I appreciate the objectivity, too.

Beautifully done. Merry Christmas.

Very edifying a lot to meditate on.

Thank you for this fam, god bless. I am in awe brother of your research and brought to tears.

Amazing thanks for putting it all together. 🎉🎉❤

With this info, you've given us a gift. ( and alot to think about) Thank you, my brother.

Good job mate, keep up the good work

This was very good. Thank you!

THANKS for your obvious hard work on this may JESUS bless all your days

This is really good teaching Pls keep it coming brother ! 🙏🏻

Thanks brother, this was just what I needed !

Great research It's long hours but we must listen to these realities from Unbiased searching. I sincerely thank you. 👆🙏✌️

Thank you for explaining all that. I bid you peace. You have done a great job.

Fantastic work! Thank you so much

This was an excellent presentation. Thank you and our Thrice-Holy God bless you for your hard work and for making this available to the public free of charge.

Astounding piece of work. I am blessed after watching your video. Please make more videos!

I have been on a journey and after coming to know the Lord I am finding much help by studying the early church and reading their writings! I especially like the Didache, and several of the others you mention in this video! I still have a lot to learn, but it has helped me greatly to not only experience love of God from brothers & sisters in Christ, but to also see and understand more fully how a life of faith was originally lived out in the early church among those taught by the apostles, and their descendants. I just wanted to let everyone know that I have found a good selection of Early Church books, CDs, collections and biographies etc. from Scroll Publishing company, and I highly recommend them. Blessings to you all!

Above 70-90% of history is lost, but biblical history hasn't been lost but prevailed. It's truly incredible.

Thanks a lot for the valuable spiritual resources you recommended and I downloaded most of them immediately. It helps me for blessings from God and more knowledge about ancient Church and its doctrines. God bless you and all viewers of this presentation.

Would love to have this in podcast form if ever that were possible. Not a re-do or anything, just the audio pulled from it. Thanks so much for putting it together. either way!

This is an amazing lecture! Thank you for the teaching!

Bro, thank you my guy 🤙🏾 I’ve taken several notes. Appreciate you

This is an excellent concise discussion of the beliefs and practices of the early Church fathers. Great job making these extremely important works more accessible to people!

Well done! God bless you and thank you.

This is a very good and in depth Explanation. I appreciate how this brother explains it clearly. This solidifies the truth Of the church. God bless you Stavros

God bless you. An EXCELLENT presentation!

Thank you for this exhaustive history of the early church. I have been wanting to learn the early church history and didn't know where to go. It seems this is a good start!

This video was incredible, and informative. There were times where difficult questions ive had were coming into focus for me. I was dramatically born again in 2021, and I am a protestant... but as you might be able to tell by my presence here.. I am questioning that very heavily right now.

Thank you for this wonderful presentation! It has been most helpful to me.

This was very good mate thank you

Excellent overview of critical early church works and very insightful commentary and observation while letting the writings speak for themselves. As an Evangelical Protestant pastor I’ve grown aware over the years of just how far “low church” Protestantism has strayed from the early church model and work to share the understanding among Evangelical oriented Protestants that some of the teachings they oppose in the ancient traditions actually are valid teachings. And that we need to learn more about how to keep the baby from the ancient church while not keeping the bath water, so to speak (there was some bath water too). This is a great overview of early church works that every serious Christian should know something of. Many thanks!

This is excellent, thank you!

Thank you so much for this thoughtful teaching about the early church fathers and how “church” was conducted. Very informative.

Thank you for posting this

Thank you for upholding the teachings of Jesus Christ from the early church fathers. May Jesus Christ bless you and keep you close to His Merciful Heart.

Thank you! How informative the video is. I hope you continue to make videos about the Bible.

This was an excellent teaching!! It must've been such hard work & research, but thank you so much for sharing this!¡¡! May God bless you brother 👍😊

If your video is 5h long i will watch it. God Bless You and good work you do.