Liturgy
The Christian community was well-disciplined and organized from the bottom up with a system of charity rather than forced taxes. While the Roman system of political control and its usurious economy was breaking down, those who followed Christ were excluded from the dainties of those civic tables. In about AD 150, Justin Martyr, hoping to clear the misconceptions and prejudices surrounding Christianity, wrote the Emperor Antoninus Pius in defense of the Christian faith and allegiance to Christ:
- “And the wealthy among us help the needy ... and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need.” Justin Martyr to Emperor Antoninus Pius (Ch. 65-67) explaining the Daily ministration of the Church which exemplifies the Christian conflict with Rome.
Justin would not trade his faith in Christ for the benefits of Rome because he knew that what they offered for his welfare was truly a snare of recompense. Christians “had fallen into such a folly that they would not obey the institutes of antiquity.”[1]
These were the official temples of Rome which had been established by the government for the welfare of the people.
As with ministers like Stephen, we also see the Didache stating: [2]
- “Therefore, elect for yourselves bishops and deacons worthy of the Lord, men who are meek and not lovers of money, true and approved, for they also perform for you the ministry of the prophets and teachers.” 15:1
The nature of these appointments would remain the same for centuries. In the 10th century, drastic reforms were enforced to “unify the liturgy” of the Church. This authoritarian call for unity under a centralized Church had been creeping into some Church thinking from the beginning, and now it became a rebellion against the gospels.
Liturgy is defined as “a prescribed form or set of forms for public religious worship.”[3]
It is from the Greek word leitourgi and leitourgos, meaning “public service” and “public servant” respectively. Liturgy was not about singing and vestments and the smoke and mirrors of modern Christendom. It was about the public servants of the Kingdom of God operating under the perfect law of liberty in true worship of God[4] by service to the people. Liturgy was the common procedures of God’s kingdom in congregations composed of, by, and for the people.
The free systems of tens, hundreds, and thousands, bound together only by brotherhood and love, had been the predominant form of successful voluntary government throughout man’s history. Similar cell patterns were evident in the persecuted Church immediately following Christ. This was the prophecy and plan of God for his called out Church and throughout Europe during the first Millennium until the rise of kings crowned by an apostate church which murdered millions of true Christians.
The crucial ingredient to their success was the implementation of the Ten codes of God’s law summarized in the virtuous application of Christ’s two commandments. Love God and His ways with all that you think and do, and actively love your neighbor's rights to his property and family, his life and liberty as much, if not more, than you love your own. The Church that comes together according to these ancient patterns and righteousness can overcome all tyrants, despots, and enemies of freedom and liberty under God. They may be sustained by their love in famine and blight. They may exit bondage and prosper in the wilderness. They can weather the greatest storms and cataclysms of history, both past or future. They can and will inherit the earth with the humility of their love in daily sacrifice, which is the communion of Christ. [see Chapter 4 of Thy Kingdom Comes.]
- “And in that day seven women [churches] shall take hold of one man [Christ], saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.” Isaiah 4:1
Disconnectedness to do your own thing goes contrary to the communion of Christ. The seven women have a liturgy in selfishness. The women admit reproach, but they do not seek the righteous way of repentance. Their aim is to do the same as they did in their former life-situation. It appears they would compel that one man to serve them and to hide their sin.
God’s ministers and all those people who seek His kingdom, who minister one to another, do not exercise authority nor compel the service and labor of their neighbor; they act in accordance with the manner and means of the liturgy of Jesus Christ, and they must not forsake the coming together for the assistance of the congregations of the People and the Church. They are to worship and pay homage to the God of us all, and to our King, Jesus the Messiah, through an active network of faith, hope, and charity, which is love.
Eucharist is the Greek word for being thankful for the opportunity of giving, which is the Communion of Christ in us.
Our bread is shared; it is cast upon the waters. Justin explained this food to 'help the needy' is called the 'eucharist'. Thankful givers supplied the food when they assembled together on Sunday. This was the welfare assistance in God's kingdom, and thankful needy ones receive it. The needy ones did not pray to Rome for assistance. They sought the communion of Christ, which was nutrients flowing to the portion of the body of Christ that had need.
This interacting and nurturing by the eucharist, which for the sake of liberty was of and for and by the people, was the liturgy, and this is worship of God.
Certain men crept in unawares
- Jude 1:4 “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.”
When the people depended upon the offerings of charity of the Church rather than the compelled contributions of Egypt, Rome, Judea or Babylon, etc, they found they must change. They have a new master they pray to. That master operates a system based on love, not force. John the Baptist and Jesus offered a different way than the world at that time.[5] It is a different way than the world at this time. It is The Way of Christ.
Over the ages, the actual corporeal and incorporeal service of the church to the people became little more than superstitious religious ceremonies designed to give the people a feeling of being justified in the delusion that they were worshiping God. In truth they were actually sacrificing upon the altars of the Nicolaitans.[6] This is the error of Balaam and the antithesis of Christ.
In the early centuries, the people were dependent upon the network of the Church to sustain them in the hard times of Roman and Judaic collapse. Today, many Churches preach tithing, but they send the people to benefactors who exercise authority one over the other, contrary to the precepts of Christ.
His Holy Church has no authority to dictate a ‘unified liturgy’. That is to say, we cannot compel the manner of public service, like other governments do, nor can we exercise authority over the choice and liberty of each other.
The church does have an obligation to care for the needs of the flock of Christ, the people hearing His voice, and the ones seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness. It has a mission to serve the people so that they need not pray to the benefactors of the world. What we write is about that network used by Abraham, Moses, and Jesus Christ to edify the Kingdom of God which is within our reach.
Every man and woman must strive to follow the precepts of Christ in protecting one another as God’s altars of living earth. The ministers of the Church---who set aside some of their personal liberty to serve God by serving His people---are the living stones of His altar, performing an important function of representation. His Church must preach the kingdom of love and liberty. It is to facilitate the communion of the people in faith, hope, and charity, so that they learn and live the gospel of the kingdom as free souls under God. We must all unlearn the ways and the practices of the world that are contrary to the ways of Christ and His Holy first century Church. Worldly ways have crept into our thinking over the last two millennia.[7]
We must examine the meaning of phrases like worship services, kingdom of God, first century Church, congregations of the people, and pure religion. We must look at the particular directives of Christ and show true faith in the whole gospel of the Kingdom.
We are told that we should not be like The governments of the world who call themselves benefactors and public servants but who rule over the manner and means of the sacrifices of the people by ruling over the people and the people ruling over their neighbor, exercising authority in the provision of their own welfare. Such welfare has always been a snare and a stumbling block for the people, from David[8] to Paul[9] and even down unto this very day. Through covetousness, such systems make the people little more than human resources,[10] slaves to serve the will of despots and tyrants.
The leaders of the Church are the antithesis of such institutions of men which exercise authority one over the other. They show their faith in Christ by their provision of good service.[11]
The people who seek the righteousness of Christ and His kingdom care for the welfare of each other through the bonds of love, in a network of charity ministered to by those living stones of God’s altar of their choosing. Through a process of forgiveness and a communion of thanksgiving, the Holy Spirit shall write the liturgy of God on the minds and hearts of the whole body of Christ, providing salvation in this world and the next.
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Footnotes
- ↑ Edict of Tolerance at Nicomedia, Emperor Galerius’ April 30, 311.
- ↑ The Didache is mentioned by Eusebius (c. 324) as the Teachings of the Apostles following the books recognized as canonical (Historia Ecclesiastica III, 25): ...
- ↑ The American Heritage ® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition,
- ↑ See Appendix 3 of Thy Kingdom Comes. What is worship.
- ↑ Matthew 11:12 “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.”
- ↑ Nicolaitans are the “conquered people” who have lost access to some God endowed right of choice.
- ↑ Galatians 2:4 “And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage:”
- ↑ Psalms 69:22 “Let their table become a snare before them: and [that which should have been] for [their] welfare, [let it become] a trap.”
- ↑ Romans 11:9 “And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them:”
- ↑ 2 Peter 2:3 “And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not”.
- ↑ Luke 22:26-29 “But ye [shall] not [be] so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. For whether [is] greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? [is] not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth. Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations. And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me;”
- Luke 12:37 “Blessed [are] those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.”
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