What Kind of Christianity Are We Practising? (1)

WE WERE born into the world to see people worshipping God through Jesus Christ. We learnt that they were practising Christianity. The Bible is the main book used to guide them.

This means the Bible shows how the early Christians worshipped God and practised Christianity. In other words, people had practised Christianity earlier and how they practised it is contained in the Bible.

It is, therefore, expected that today’s Christians follow the footsteps of the early Christians, learn from how they practised it, how they worshipped God thereby building on the foundation the early Christians laid.

The early Christians or church mainly followed the teachings of Christ Jesus and the leadings of the Holy Spirit.

But you agree with me that the early Christians, whether Jews or Gentiles, never practised most of the things today’s Christians practise.

What kind of Christianity are we practising? Are we really practising the Christianity the early Church practised? Are we not practising neo-Christianity?

You see, the early Church never celebrated festivals such as Christmas or Easter. They understood that they celebrated the birth and resurrection of Christ Jesus any time the gospel was preached. To them, they celebrated Christ every day as they preached about Christ Jesus everyday thereby making Him known.

The early Church also never addressed ministers as Reverend, Archbishop, Pope, Cardinal, Primate, Vicar, Lord Bishop and other so-called hierarchical ecclesiastical titles. How could Peter and Paul, bond servants,  use titles Christ Jesus, their Master, did not give them.

Moreover, the early preachers of the Gospel never wore clerical collar, never wore any special priestly garments, pectoral crosses (chains) & rings to make them first class Christians called clergy and others second class Christians called laity.

Also, they never held vigil for the dead because they didn’t believe in purgatory and they never conducted different ordination services with their accompanying rituals that are observed  today.

The Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, who called the ministers, having given them gifts never charged them to do any of the things aforementioned. So they never did those things.

That is why these things are not mentioned in the Bible, because the early Christians did not practice or use them.

This calls for concern, self-examination and genuine repentance; it calls for a return to the Bible and follow the footsteps of the early Church.

To be continued…

By James Quansah