If any one shall teach that the house of God and the assemblies held therein are to be despised, let him be anathema.
Structures dedicated to worship meetings were increasingly common after Constantine made Christianity a legitimate, legal religion in the Roman empire. Building form and function were being settled. Eustathius had gone to the opposite extreme and set up separate meetings for his followers who were despising married elders and overseers. These rogue meetings were not to be condoned because they veered from the apostolic teaching.
As an unrelated aside, while the early church had no dedicated meeting place, the use of one was certainly not prohibited. The advantages of the house church far exceed a permanent, dedicated structure, but to impose that stricture on the local assembly as a spiritual mandate far exceeds the freedoms found in Christ as a group of his own worshiping together.
Structures dedicated to worship meetings were increasingly common after Constantine made Christianity a legitimate, legal religion in the Roman empire. Building form and function were being settled. Eustathius had gone to the opposite extreme and set up separate meetings for his followers who were despising married elders and overseers. These rogue meetings were not to be condoned because they veered from the apostolic teaching.
As an unrelated aside, while the early church had no dedicated meeting place, the use of one was certainly not prohibited. The advantages of the house church far exceed a permanent, dedicated structure, but to impose that stricture on the local assembly as a spiritual mandate far exceeds the freedoms found in Christ as a group of his own worshiping together.
1 comment:
Thanks for that aside. Too many in the home church movement condemn those who attend an assembly in a building as being "worldly."
Post a Comment