The Early Church

The Early Church or the church of the 1st century was so important to God that He sent his only begotten Son to handpick the leadership of the church and personally tutored them regarding the word of God. The leadership that Jesus chose consisted of twelve apostles who were the pillars of the Early Church and produced a ministry and a people who would serve God to their fullest. The Early Church was at the zenith of divine order, operated entirely by the Holy Ghost, and was led by the inspiration of God. The church was clean because of the clean doctrine that was preached and their unwillingness to waver from what they had been taught. As a result, the church was able to perform miracles, signs and wonders, and produced thousands of people who overcame sin and obtained eternal life.

As long as the apostles were alive, they were able to keep the church on the foundation that Jesus laid in the hearts of these twelve men, as the scripture states, “And are built upon the foundation of the apostles…” (Ephesians 2:20). The apostles were able to defeat and prevail against false doctrine, false ministers, and/or false systems that arose against the church. The apostles kept the church in this condition for forty years, which was from A.D. 29 to A.D. 69. Following the preaching of the twelve apostles, Israel was judged in A.D. 70 when Titus of Rome overthrew Jerusalem and destroyed the temple of the Jews. Prior to this, the majority of the apostles had been martyred. Following their deaths, false ministers began to enter the church and attempt to take it in a different direction.

These men did not love the people of God or the truth set forth by the twelve apostles. As a result the church fell away or lost the strength that it once had. The church then went into what the bible refers to as the wilderness. The bible refers to the church being in the wilderness because in the wilderness it is hard to find someone or something. The wilderness is filled with beasts and animals that seek to fulfill their own desires. Therefore, the church in the wilderness represents a time of confusion in which the church was no longer a public church that everyone could locate. The church was now dwindling to a small remnant of people who were willing to hold on to the truth despite all of the religious groups, sects, and systems that were beginning to multiply in the earth. It is important to understand that the church was not the wilderness; but “in the wilderness”, or in a condition where they were no longer a public church, and were counted among the other false religious groups who were striving to build churches based on erroneous doctrines.

At the height of the wilderness condition, a world church was set up that lasted from A.D. 538 to A.D. 1798, which was a total of 1260 years. During this time, God’s church and many other churches received drastic persecution for not abiding by and believing what was being promoted by this world church of that time. It has been recorded that more than 50 million people lost their lives during this time period for not succumbing to the powers of false religion. Although the conditions of the world were very bleak, it is critical to understand that God had a group of people who held on to the truth and refused to deviate from the truth given to them by the twelve apostles.

Nevertheless, this was one of the darkest times that God’s church and the world has ever seen and is often referred to in history as the Dark Ages. In this time, many inventions and truth in all forms were limited due to that religious system. That system prevented any advancement from forming unless it was in harmony with their own doctrines and beliefs. Eventually, God began to bring a change to cause this “mighty church” to fall from its carnal, yet lofty place. It finally lost its power in the days of the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.