Bob Thiel of COGwriter and the Continuing Church of God claims to be an expert on the early history of the Church, but his writings on the subject are extremely biased and ignore a great deal of evidence. In short, Pastor Thiel is not going to win any awards for historical scholarship!
In his booklet Continuing History of the Church of God, he makes a number of statements which are simply NOT supported by the available evidence, and he writes a number of things which are demonstrably FALSE. At the beginning of his booklet, Thiel asked: "Was there an early, original form of Christianity that was so persecuted and so maligned, yet continued from c. 31 A.D.? Even today would it be overlooked by most who profess Christ?" The questions imply that what most of us recognize as Christianity is far different from the original version of the faith. What about that? Is Bob asking the right questions? More importantly, is he providing the right answers to his questions?
First, Pastor Thiel boldly proclaimed that "The Church of God has the Right Name and the Right Size." His proof? A number of Scriptural passages from the King James Version of the New Testament which refer to Christ's disciples as the "Church(es) of God." Never mind that the original Greek word, ekklesia, which is translated into English as "Church" means "an assembly of people called together." Hence, literally, the various passages which he quoted in his remarks refer to an assembly of people called together by God! In other words, the ekklesia of God describes what the Church IS - it is NOT a proper name. In the same way, the "Continuing Church of God" describes a group of people who belong to the organization which Bob Thiel founded!
As we have already noted, Pastor Thiel believes that the "true" ekklesia of God will be "the right size" (meaning that the Church would be small in numbers). His proof? He quotes a number of passages from the New Testament which refer to a "little flock" and talk about intense persecution. Now, to be sure, the early Church was very small in numbers. Indeed, the Church remained focused on Jerusalem for the first decade of its existence! Nevertheless, what Bob forgets or ignores is that Christ had predicted that his gospel would be preached throughout the world before the end, and that he commanded his disciples to "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." (Matthew 28:19-20) In other words, Christ never intended for his ekklesia to remain a small and insular group of folks centered locally in Judaea!
Pastor Thiel went on to point out that the early Church continued to observe Torah. He even quoted theologian JJL Ratton: "The early Church at Jerusalem, retained most of the distinctive customs of the Jews, such as circumcision, kosher meats, the Jewish Sabbath, the Jewish rites, and worship of the Temple. Our Lord, Himself, lived the exterior life of a Jew, even so far as the observance of Jewish religious customs was concerned. The early Church of Jerusalem followed His example. The Jews looked upon the Hebrew Christians in Jerusalem simply as a Jewish sect, which they called the sect of the Nazarenes." Of course, Thiel fails to mention that Jesus was a Jew, and that he HAD to fulfill the provisions of Torah! Likewise, Thiel fails to mention that Christ's disciples, and the members of the early Church, were entirely JEWISH. In other words, we would expect to find Jews observing the provisions of Torah! However, it is also clear that most Gentiles were completely unfamiliar with the Jewish Scriptures and had no tradition(s) of observing the commandments therein!
Moreover, Pastor Thiel fails to acknowledge the significance of the great Council of Jerusalem which was called to settle the matter of a Gentile Christian's obligation(s) with regard to the commandments of Torah (see Acts 15). Indeed, when we read this Scriptural account of that Council, we see that the "Jewish" apostles decided to exempt Gentiles from any obligation to become Jews or to observe the tenets of Torah!
Bob went on to underscore the importance of the failure of the second Jewish rebellion against the Romans in 135 CE, but he ignores the traumatic events of 70 CE - when the Romans destroyed Herod's Temple and Jerusalem and ended Jewish self-rule. Why was this such an egregious omission? Because, from that day forward, it was NO LONGER POSSIBLE to observe the commandments of Torah in the manner prescribed in those first five books of the Hebrew Bible! This was true for both Jews and Jewish Christians.
Mr. Thiel also authored an article titled "History of Early Christianity in which he makes a number of statements which are clearly untrue! In that article, he listed a number of doctrinal positions which he attributed to the early Church. Among those, he cited: Baptism, both Testaments, Binitarianism, Hierarchical Church government, the "true" Gospel, tithes and offerings used to support the ministry, etc. Of course, to anyone with even a passing acquaintance with the history of First Century Christianity, a number of problems with Bob's assertions about the teachings of the early Church will be immediately apparent!
Baptism was a ritual which pointed to the burial of the old self and the resurrection of the new person in Christ. The ONLY Scriptures available to First Century Christians were the ones found in the Hebrew Bible - the same one which we now refer to as the Old Testament! While some of the epistles and Gospel accounts were available to some congregations during the latter half of the First Century, it is a well-established fact that the canon of the New Testament took a couple of centuries to come together in the form that we now enjoy. Likewise, there are a number of Scriptural passages which make reference to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (and I would defy anyone to say that the Holy Spirit is not God)! Moreover, Jesus did NOT teach an authoritarian or hierarchical form of church governance. Christ taught SERVANT leadership, and his early disciples practiced that in their individual congregations. After the fall of Jerusalem, there wasn't any "headquarter" Church! According to the Hebrew Bible, tithes were owed by the Israelites to support the Temple, Levites, priests, poor, and to celebrate the commanded festivals at the central sanctuary. In short, in almost every instance, Bob's assertions fail both the Scriptural and historical accounts available to us!
Like many of the followers of Herbert Armstrong, Bob ignores the Didache, epistles of Ignatius of Antioch, writings of Justin Martyr, epistle of Barnabas, etc. and the evidence which they supply about early Christian beliefs and practices. He ignores both the Scriptural and historical evidence which points to the fact that Christians began celebrating Sunday in the First Century - in the time of the apostles. He also ignores the clear evidence that the "Gospel" or "Good News" was all about Jesus Christ and salvation through him - that his purpose was to save all of humanity! No, I'm afraid that Bob Thiel is NOT an expert on early Christianity. His narrative is like the fairy tales of old - it pleases the children of Herbert W Armstrong, but it bears little resemblance to what actually happened!
