• Jude 1:3-4
    Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
     
  • Revelation 2:2-6
    "I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent. But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
     
  • Hebrews 2:1-3
    Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him,
     
  • Acts 1:6-11
    Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And He said to them, 'It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.'
     
  • Ephesians 4:14
    that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,
     
  • 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3
    Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,
     
  • 1 John 2:18-19
    Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.
     
For more scripture references, please see Bible verses for Church, First Century


Resources

Back to the First Century

Commentary by John W. Ritenbaugh (1932-2023)

Having no central leadership, we have entered an era of seemingly organizational disarray, a crucial time in which we should adjust to what God has done.


Lessons From First-Century Christianity

Sermon by David C. Grabbe

Even though the believers of the first century experienced extraordinary events, because of entropy, their zeal atrophied after the shockwaves dissipated.


Is There a True Church?

'Personal' from John W. Ritenbaugh

Many 'church of God' organizations claim to be part of—or even the only—church of God. The Bible reveals specific characteristics of God's church.


First Love (Part One)

Bible Study by Martin G. Collins

A Christian's foremost responsibility is to love God wholeheartedly. A decline similar to the Ephesians' loss of their first love affected the first-century church.


Letters to Seven Churches (Part Ten): The Church

Sermon by Richard T. Ritenbaugh

Ups and downs, blessings and trials, have characterized every era of the church. God's people are always battling something negative between the brief highs.


The Seven Churches (Part Three): Ephesus

Bible Study by Richard T. Ritenbaugh

Christ's letter to the Ephesians focuses on a people who succeeded in fighting heresy and apostates but, in the process, had left their first love.


Jesus Christ: First Savior, Second High Priest, Third King

Sermon by John W. Ritenbaugh

The book of Hebrews teaches that our relationship to Christ as our Savior, High Priest, and King is the key to salvation. He shows us the way to the Father.


Is There a True Church?

Sermon/Bible Study by John W. Ritenbaugh

God's true church cannot be found without revelation nor can one join the organization; God calls and places each member in its appropriate place in the Body.



For more resources, please see the library topic for Church, First Century