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I've recently discovered your lecture series at a time when I've been investigating the concept of house churches. Your lectures are eye opening and resonating profoundly with me. Thank you!

1 cor 14 Things said in church are to be for edification and the good of all, not for showing off what gifts you have. ch 12 parts of the body are meant to act in support of the whole body ch 13 If I speak in the tongues of ... but have not love it's wasted. Love is like ... ch 14 rather speak 5 words understood (and edify people) than thousands that don't get through

While I agree with some elements of your talk, some of it I find views that don't appear to reflect your own thorough research. Specifically, when you begin to talk about what is known as the great commission, and that it was exclusively spoken to the eleven. First of all, there were a hundred and twenty people gathered in the upper room at Pentecost. Based on luke's narrative, it is not clear that only the eleven remaining disciples were with jesus at the time of his departure from the earth and commissioning. In fact, it makes clear that the two men who were on the road to Emmaus with him were recounting their story. Further, in Acts chapter one, it talks about all of them returning to the location of "Olivet" and entering the upper room. The list includes numerous names, including women. Then it goes on to say that there were 120. Jesus said that the outpouring of the holy spirit was so that people would be his witnesses throughout the world. That is the empowering of the great commission given upon all who were in that room. It is a generally accepted, and historically affirmed, truth that the church grows by christians bringing the good news to non-believers. Secondly, if you do a little research on the word evangelist, specifically where paul exhorts timothy to do the work of an evangelist, you will find it simply means bearer of good news. I think you should cut down on saying that churches teach "if you don't do x, then you will go to hell." You don't need to say that to embellish. Upon your points or to establish that contemporary status quo is somehow that far off base. If any teach that of you don't evangelize you will go to hell, they are by far the minority because that minimizes the gospel of grace. Finally, the office of evangelists discussed in the book of ephesians is not the same as rank and file good news sharing by believers. Sharing the good news is a normal part of the christian walk. Evangelism is not, as you portrayed with the caricature, yelling at people about sin. Evangelism is as stated, bearing good news. Paul says we have all been given the ministry of reconciliation. That is that God isn't imputing anything against humans and humans need only to respond to him to enjoy the restoration of fellowship and the end of hostilities. That is part of the good news that we are all called to share whether through personal testimony or sharing from the scripture.

Great video. Do you plan invite more on this topic, like Frank Viola (pagan Christianity) or others?

Weekly music becomes rote. Everything is so robotic. Vain Repetition.

A very timely and gentle instruction preparing the Church for things to come..

I love this idea of edification

Sir May I get all the data that you have presented. I will be grateful to you.

I agree with everything you said. Lets say you have a huge room with about 75 people. About 6 elders, men who have been in the faith for decades. How would you suggest going about to making the gathering more traditional rather than modern, 1 man speaks. In other words, the flow from beginning to end.

What about Pastors, Preachers, etc... getting a salary?

Never listen to dirty protestants describe Catholic teachings or practices. They always intentionally present it falsely. The Eucharist is not our sacrifice to God. Rather it is a participation in Christ’s self offering to the Father. Our participation in the paschal mystery in the Eucharist fulfills Christ’s command to do gjis in memory of me. All of this teaching is present in the scripturs and early church fathers but tjis man has intentionally omitted the references. This man is a liar and false teacher who serves the Evil One.

Archaeology!!!

To say we have nothing to divide over is divisive. To be a pro-abortion or LGBQ accepting Evangelical is not an issue of Romans 14. Aligning with the world in evil is not like being Kosher or like getting your holy days from the Jewish calendar.

Been down the same road for years till the lord showed me what the worship is and new testament way of home church fellowship

@joannejolee Thomas, key to bear in mind that the CONTEXT of being fully persuaded in their own mind (i.e., of Romans 14:5), is a day of the week. It is not an umbrella statement to be used broadly. Hence, a pre-req of elderhood, is not that a man should be able to pat folk on the back who hold unsound or heretical views, and say "Mr/Mrs Smith, as long as your fully convinced...." No, a pre-req of elderhood is that he must know sound doctrine, and REFUTE (not pat) those who oppose it. So on the day issue, Paul goes easy (so to speak) - but not on bad teaching ,which poisons the flock, and can lead disciples back to a lake destiny.

Trying to find a House Church after years of visiting "churches" which had false doctrines, were 501c3 business lectures and committees, with a man in a suit doing a one-man show and wannabe rock n rollers .... the "church" is so off-the-mark. Thank you brother Tom for your excellent research. I pray this understanding goes global!!!

First of all the koine Greek combination word "ek-klesia" renders called-out in English. Madeup of two well language defined words one being called and the other out. If Jesus was to pronounce ek-klesia in English today he would have to pronounce it called-out. Tom is correct about worship but carries the theologian's line with him, like other reformation theologians, assigns the word "assembly" when assembly or gathering in Greek is not "ek-klesia". The ANF and Septuagint translations into English were done by 19th century theologians using the same translation scheme as the KJV.

I am convinced that Christian leaders confuse singing, praising, praying, jumping up and down, waving hands, etc. for worship. Worship is not looking up; if anything it is falling down.

They didn't sing in the meeting. That's a reformation religion advent

Worship music that does not acknowledge, honor and reverence God is not worship music. It's not worth it.

As one of. Jehovah's Witnesses we have two songs the rest is a talk and bible study . I find the Born again obsessed with music

It’s not church but ekklesia. I cannot fellowship with those who believe in murder so what democrat doesn’t?

7:43 shouldn’t call herself a layperson.

Music has always played a big part in heaven.Satan,some interpret before his fall was the minister of music and was in charge of the heavenly chiors King David played a harp before Saul and soothed Saul's spirit.Theres healing in music,but Satan with his God ordained skills ,corrupted music to use as his own weapon.

It seems to me the scripture used to say that there shouldn’t be division over political leaders was really about division over spiritual leaders-favoritism within the church. That being said, I’m not of the mind that believers should “judge” one another based on voting preference; however, if we were assembling and talking over political matters as believers did in the first century, it seems as though there might be discussion about issues of the day and how we might best vote to uphold Biblical/Godly standards. There is quite a lot of evidence for the weakness of the church and its leaders NOT upholding Godly standards or standing up for what was right in Nazi German, and one can’t help but wonder if there are parallels with the American church not speaking out about the atrocities being committed against innocent babies in the womb.

This is good teaching. We just have to remember that there are many Psalms (Songs) that encourage singing "Praises" to God in a group setting. Sister Sharine.

What a saved Christian would do to answer this question is very primary. Look in the bible and search for bible verses that include both words, WORSHIP and MUSICK. If you are a believer in the Jesus of the bible and you look these verses up in the bible, then the bible should be your guide. When I say bible what I mean is the AV1611. Now look up the verses and tell everybody who is worshipped with musick. Hint: there are only 4 verses.

Love this! My husband and I got fed up with the churches in our area. Started going to a house church. People would comment as though it wasn't legitimate "worship". So great to learn the true meaning of worship in the the Greek and Hebrew. Thanks for your hard work on this topic. The church desperately needs it!

I respectfully disagree. Liturgy can be very edifying, and if it is edifying, it is necessary. Imagine a Christian meeting that follows this order: Bible reading and meditation, prayer, praise, Lord's Supper, offerings. This is a structure, a liturgy that teaches valuable truths: First God speaks to his people through the Bible, and then we respond with prayers and music. First, Christ offered himself for our good (symbolized in the Lord's Supper) and so we offer for the good of one another. It's easy for us to act as if we have forgotten these truths. But participating in this liturgy over and over can shape us into people that love to hear God's Word and pray, and are generous to others because we constantly remember Jesus sacrifice for us.

My level of church fellowship did not decrease during the COVID pandemic. And if that sounds like a good thing, it isn't. I haven't experienced a level of true fellowship in church in many many years. COVID decreasing the number of gatherings per week had no impact on the level of authentic fellowship or discipleship for me. When we "attend church," I feel that we just go through the motions. It's mainly watching "the show" of a few. I don't think fellowship or edification could be described as a brief nod, a wave, a handshake, or a hello. At best, we engage in small talk. It's shallow. It certainly doesn't edify or go beyond the walls of the building. I crave biblical fellowship, discipleship, and a participatory gathering. But where to find such an assembly?

Excellent video! Thank you Tom!

They lived in completely different times. There were no automobiles, no heat, no A/C. No electricity, no sewer or water. No bibles! Without these things most Christians would not go anywhere.

The early church was under persecution so trying to find how they worshiped would be a problem, If you use sola scriptura to determine how early Christians worshiped then this is your conclusion but sola scriptura is false and was proven false by the Reformers themselves who invented it, sola scriptura is not sufficient you need tradition as well just like the Catholic Church has taught for centuries

Another great video in the series, Tom, looking forward to video 2. For a long time, I disliked services as I knew something was off with them, also, the wet soppy language around worship. I tried suggesting to a preacher I knew that we move more towards Bible studies, but was shot down. Very edifying content.

Important Teaching! Please stop allowing all the TH-cam commercials every 5 minutes. It distracts from the teaching.

There's no other way for me to put this. Basically, every Christian in every church in every country on this planet should listen to this and absorb its message and implications. End of story. Having been on a similar journey for almost 20 years, I think most believers would fight this tooth, fang and claw.....but in encouragement, I would point out that when Jesus came, Israel was in a similar state. Most of the population, if they cared at all {and many did}, thought they knew their scriptures, thought they understood them and had the correct interpretation. And Jesus showed them that they did not. And even after Jesus' ascension, even some of the apostles, but certainly many believers, thought they had a firm and correct handle on what God required and what he had shown them. And we see through such things as the choosing of Matthias, Peter and the net of animals, the council at Jerusalem, Paul's circumcision of Timothy and the letters to the churches in Revelation {among other matters all through the NT} that this was not so. There are always likely to be times when we're in need of refreshing and re-evaluating.

At 54, “things changed with Jesus.” Matthew 5:17 would bring that into question. Perhaps things changed with the destruction of the temple and the diaspora. But perhaps even more, things changed with the severe antisemitism of the Roman “church.” But Jesus prophesied that the day would come when men would think they were doing a service to God by killing true believers. The many massacres carried out against Torah observant believers in the following centuries certainly validate that prophecy. The Roman church simply replaced the heads of their gods with images said to be of the saints and apostles and put lots and lots of lipstick on their pigs. Following false beliefs places one squarely on the broad road, sad to say. You cannot be on both the narrow road and the broad road simultaneously. Most of Christendom has been on the broad road for a very long time. So long that the broad road seems like the right one for everyone.

Agree that worship implies prostrating oneself in most cases, but I’m pretty sure that “lifting up holy hands” and perhaps even dancing in the Spirit or Jewish hora’s (is that a word?) are worship also, much of the time. I think the word worship implies using the whole body as an offering of praise rather than bowing one’s head like a knot on a log and being very still. I was touring Israel about ten years ago and happened to be at the kotel on Friday evening. As a Gentile Messianic Believer I was pretty sure Jewish worship would fall far short of anything I was accustomed to. Well, I was mistaken, badly mistaken ! Thousands of men were gathering around tables all over the plaza set up for Torah study. And serious study it was. Definitely not like Sunday School- more like college just before an exam. Then after a good hour or so of this men began to gather in circles arm in arm, singing, dancing moving in the circle. An English speaking Gentile wearing the mandatory kippa was embraced as a brother into the circle. We danced and sang for about an hour before our 20 man group broke up. I have never felt closer to Messiah in all my life that with that group of total strangers. After that experience I have always longed for another like it, but I’ve never had another tour be in Jerusalem on Friday evening. So how can Jews who do not even believe in Messiah worship God in Spirit and in Truth? I do not know, but I do know that I am grafted into the Olive Tree and somehow all these lost people are my brothers. The problem with the “church” is that they insist on grafting Jews into Christianity (churchianity) or into the many heresies of Catholic and Protestant unbiblical belief and practice systems. Many people believe that syncretism is at worse a neutral thing to God, but God is emphatic: you shall NOT worship Me in that way! Thanks for this message, looking forward to #2. DrBob

Hi Tom, I learnt for myself quite early on that 'worship' was sort of a lie, that it should be submission or some form there of, but this video has really helped me understand far more clearly. I'll be watching the entire video series.

When polls show that the majority of people under forty are abandoning the church, obviously, getting the contemporary music they like isn’t enough. The church can conduct a weekly, Sunday morning Christian Rock concert and it’s not feeding their souls. The younger generation is voting with their feet alright; they aren’t opting for a contemporary worship experience, they are simply opting out.

Christianity 🤢🤮

I would rather be in my Sunday School class once than being in my worship service 10x. Vastly mote pleasing to me, but more importantly, I suspect, vastly more pleasing to God.

30:20 great comedy

Tom, I think you miss spoke the hebrew word חוה means Eve, the word they translate as worship is שחה. I am ejoying this series, I have been thiking about this subject for awhile, glad other people have seen this as well.

Churches that are a result of the American Restoration Movement are very interested in doing things in Bible ways and calling Bible things by their Bible name. Followers of the first century examples and teachings need to avoid a liturgical form of “worship” and recognize the assembly’s main purpose is edifying the church. IMHO

Amen Mega churches are antithetical to gatherings

Hi Tom, I really enjoyed your discussion with James Early tonight and you said that you had a video called "What do we do now?" or something like that...however, I can't find that one on your channel. I am so interested in that as I am in a small group of people who are looking deeply into how we re-imagine our church services. I also wasn't able to make an email go through on your website contact form. So I hope you read this. Thank you

Sharing this ! Thank you !

Thanks for your time Tom and Jason, I appreciate the perspective and your efforts. Just a few questions, how about the instances like in 1 Cor 5 to put away the immoral man 'among' you, or the list of widows in 1 Tim 5? Or the giving of account of elders in Hebrews 13? Is it safe to say that these imply a growing structure as the early Church progresses? I, like you, also attend a 'traditional' fairly-sized church and am also involved in small group meetings with our church members (or guests) for deeper study and discipleship.

Lots of words just to say house church. I frequently church with several guys at Panera. It doesn’t take a phd to experience this. There was an institutionalization of gathering in the second century.