THE FOUR DEFINITE ARTICLES OF THE EARLY CHURCH

   

When the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Day of Pentecost three thousand souls received the word of God through Peter's preaching (Acts 2). Those who gladly received the word were baptized and added to the church (Acts 2:41). Then we read of four things these believers in Jesus were radically committed to: "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in prayers." (Acts 2:42 KJV) Many well-meaning Bible believing Christians have endeavored to re-create the early church by applying this verse, and its four imperatives to their own group of Jesus-followers. 

    A very important fact needs to be pointed out about these four imperatives which provided a framework for "the church to be the church." For it is a fact that these four imperatives are four definite articles of the early church and are the very articles that the Church has been framed around since Pentecost!

    The Greek New Testament gives us insight into exactly how the early church lived out its new life in the Spirit. Each of these four imperatives, in the Greek, are preceded by the definite article "the".  Acts 2:42 should read, "And they continued steadfastly in THE apostles' doctrine and THE fellowship, and in THE breaking of bread and THE prayers." There are four definite articles that make up the superstructure of the Pentecostal Church, which is another way of saying the One True Church of Christ, the Church which was born on the Day of Pentecost.
    The first imperative: The Jesus-followers were to be devoted to growing in the knowledge of those teachings that the Apostles were articulating, which they had received from Jesus and the Holy Spirit. All other teachings must be scrutinized in the light of THE Apostles' doctrine. There was a definite body of truth, that is, Apostolic teaching, that the new believers were catechized in. The second imperative: These Pentecostal Christians were to continually be devoted to THE fellowship (koinonia, Greek), that is the communal life of the body of Christ, the Church. This would include most especially the gathering together for worship and extend to having all things in common so that not one member would be without their needs met. The third imperative: These early Christians were to be steadfastly participating in THE 'breaking of bread', that is partaking of the Holy Eucharist. Breaking of bread is a New Testament idiom for the Eucharist. They were to never "forsake the assembling of themselves together" to commune with God via the bread and the cup of blessing (Hebrews 10:25; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17). The fourth imperative: These faithful disciples were to be wholly devoted to THE prayers. Not just a spontaneous prayer meeting where folks take turns praying extemporaneously but entering into THE prayers of the Church which had come to them from the synagogues and the temple. The very earliest Christians practiced these four imperatives in what could be called a Christian synagogue. They would offer the same prayers, sing the same Psalms, and read the same scriptures as their Jewish brothers, but with a Christified understanding of the "law of Moses, and the prophets, and the Psalms."
    These four definite articles should be the framework of each and every local church so that each church is truly complete, not lacking anything.