Explore the practice of the early Church and compare it to modern Christianity. Studying church life shortly after the last apostle died will strengthen your faith and provide a clearer picture of authentic Christian community.

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Course Content

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Baptism
Communion
Church Discipline
Church Government
Early Christian Worship
Sabbath
Tithing and Fasting
Holidays
Spirit of Early Christianity
Survey: Church Life: AD 150
Additional Readings: Church Life: AD 150
Free Course Guide

What This Free Course Covers

Church Life: AD 150 explores how Christians shortly after the apostolic age understood and practiced church life, then compares those patterns with common assumptions in modern Christianity. David Bercot works through subjects such as baptism, communion, church discipline, church government, worship, Sabbath questions, giving, fasting, holidays, and the broader spirit of early Christianity.

The lessons repeatedly compare New Testament passages with early Christian writings, asking how the early church read Scripture and how their practices developed over time. Students will hear careful distinctions throughout: baptism is connected with repentance and faith rather than treated as automatic; communion is more than a bare symbol without becoming a speculative explanation; discipline is necessary but must be applied in love and order.

The course is especially useful for students who want to understand early Christian practice as a connected way of life rather than as isolated historical facts.

Early Christian practice New Testament interpretation Baptism and new birth Communion and Eucharist Church discipline Plural church leadership Sunday worship Sabbath and the law Giving and fasting Kingdom Christianity

What You Will Study

  • How early Christians connected baptism with forgiveness, new birth, and entrance into Christ’s church while rejecting an automatic or mechanical view
  • How the early church understood communion as participation with the body and blood of Christ and as spiritual food and drink
  • How church discipline was practiced through different levels of correction, exclusion from communion, and separation from false teachers
  • How early Christian congregations were led by local elders, bishops, and deacons, and how leaders were trained, chosen, and supported
  • What early Christian worship gatherings included, such as Sunday assembly, Scripture reading, preaching, prayer, singing, communion, and the love feast
  • How early Christians distinguished the Lord’s Day from the Jewish Sabbath and understood the Mosaic law after Christ
  • How the course treats tithing, voluntary giving, alms, fasting, and spiritual seriousness in daily Christian life
  • How early Christian and later church holidays are examined through primary-source questions rather than popular claims alone

Questions This Course Helps Answer

  • What did early Christians believe happened in baptism?
  • Did the early church treat baptism as automatic, or did it require repentance and faith?
  • How did early Christians understand Jesus’ words, “This is my body” and “This is my blood”?
  • Why did communion become a major point of disagreement in later Christian history?
  • What levels of church discipline does Bercot identify from Scripture and early Christian practice?
  • How were early Christian leaders chosen, trained, and materially supported?
  • What did a Sunday worship gathering look like in the early church?
  • Did early Christians meet on Saturday, Sunday, or both?
  • Did the early church believe Christians were required to keep the Sabbath?
  • Did early Christians teach tithing as a binding law or emphasize voluntary giving?
  • How did fasting fit into early Christian spiritual life?
  • Which holiday claims does the course examine through primary sources?

Lesson-by-Lesson Guide

Baptism

This lesson explains that early Christians connected baptism with the washing away of prior sins, new birth through water and the Spirit, and becoming part of Christ’s church. Bercot also stresses that baptism was not viewed as automatic: it required repentance, genuine faith, and commitment to Jesus Christ.

  • How did early Christians connect baptism with salvation?
  • What did they believe was washed away in baptism?
  • Why does Bercot reject a merely mechanical view of baptism?
  • What did the early church allow regarding different modes of baptism?

Communion

This lesson compares New Testament passages on communion with early Christian testimony. Bercot argues that early Christians took Christ’s words about his body and blood seriously, saw communion as spiritual food and drink, and did not reduce it to a bare symbol.

  • How did early Christians read Jesus’ words at the Last Supper?
  • What does it mean to say communion is spiritual food and drink?
  • How does the lesson discuss John 6 in relation to communion?
  • Why did later abuses lead some Christians to react against earlier views?

Church Discipline

This lesson presents church discipline as a normal part of biblical church life, not as a theoretical subject. Bercot describes different levels of discipline, including private correction, exclusion from communion, social separation in serious cases, and the strongest response to false teachers.

  • What did early Christians do when a brother or sister persisted in sin?
  • How did exclusion from communion function in discipline?
  • What is the difference between not eating with someone and refusing any greeting?
  • How can discipline be practiced in love and order?

Church Government

This lesson surveys early Christian leadership, including bishops or overseers, elders, and deacons. It discusses plurality of leadership, local training, ways leaders were chosen, material support for leaders, and Bercot’s call to recover apostolic principles of servanthood and freedom to teach the New Testament.

  • What forms of church leadership appear in the New Testament and early church?
  • How were elders, bishops, and deacons trained?
  • What methods were used to choose leaders?
  • How were early Christian leaders materially supported?

Early Christian Worship

This lesson describes early Christian worship gatherings, including Sunday assembly, Scripture reading, preaching, prayer, singing, communion, and the love feast. Bercot also discusses meeting places and customs such as standing to pray on Sunday, praying toward the east, and ordered seating.

  • On what day did early Christians gather for worship?
  • What happened in the morning and evening Sunday gatherings?
  • Where did early Christians meet before large church buildings became common?
  • Which early worship customs does Bercot describe?

Sabbath

This lesson examines whether early Christians worshiped on Saturday or Sunday and whether they believed Christians were obligated to keep the Sabbath. Bercot distinguishes the Lord’s Day from the Jewish Sabbath and discusses how Jewish Christians could continue certain Jewish practices without making them requirements for salvation.

  • Did early Christians meet on the Jewish Sabbath or on Sunday?
  • What did they mean by the Lord’s Day?
  • Did early Christians believe the Sabbath law was binding on Christians?
  • How did the lesson distinguish Jewish Christian practice from Gentile Christian obligation?

Tithing and Fasting

This lesson contrasts compulsory tithing with voluntary Christian giving and alms, especially care for the poor. It also presents fasting as a meaningful part of spiritual life while warning against empty or hypocritical forms of fasting.

  • Did early Christians teach tithing as a binding ten-percent law?
  • How did Bercot describe voluntary giving and alms?
  • What role did care for widows, orphans, and the poor have in giving?
  • How should fasting differ from outward religious display?

Holidays

This lesson examines holidays that were treated as Christian holy days and others with pagan or later cultural connections. Bercot focuses especially on Easter or Pascha and Christmas, while also addressing claims about Valentine’s Day and Thanksgiving through questions of primary-source evidence.

  • Which holidays does the lesson treat as genuinely Christian or later Christianized?
  • What does Bercot say about popular claims regarding the origin of Easter?
  • How does the lesson use primary sources to test holiday claims?
  • What distinctions are made between Christian, pagan, and secular commemorations?

Spirit of Early Christianity

This lesson steps back from individual practices to consider the broader ethos of early Christianity. Bercot emphasizes that the goal is not merely to recreate early church forms, but to share the early Christians’ obedient love-faith relationship with Jesus Christ and their focus on the kingdom of God.

  • What gave early Christianity its distinctive spirit?
  • Why does Bercot warn against making recreation of the early church the primary goal?
  • How were early Christians shaped by the kingdom of God?
  • How could the early church be disciplined and yet still imperfect?

Survey: Church Life: AD 150

This item appears to be a course survey. No transcript or content sample was supplied, so its specific questions or teaching content cannot be summarized from the provided source.

  • What is included in the course survey?
  • How does this survey relate to the completed lessons?

Additional Readings: Church Life: AD 150

This item appears to provide additional readings connected with the course. No transcript or reading list was supplied, so the specific readings and their topics require editorial review.

  • What additional readings are provided for this course?
  • How do the readings connect with the course lessons?

What students are saying

4.89 out of 5 — 27 reviews
Verified Student May 26, 2025
★★★★★
I love how brother David summarizes his lessons at the end.
Verified Student Jan 28, 2024
★★★★☆
Food for thought. Interesting information necessary for right living in Christ.
Verified Student Jun 26, 2023
★★★★★
We can gain valuable lessons from those who have gone before us.
Verified Student Aug 13, 2022
★★★★★
Greatly blessed. David Bercot is a good teacher and his knowledge of the beliefs and practices of the early churches and leaders is truly enlightening. Thank you so much.
Verified Student Jul 13, 2022
★★★★★
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Church Life: AD 150

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Course Includes

  • 11 Lessons
  • 9 Quizzes
  • Course Certificate