The Early Church Writers promoted a lot of ideas that might not be as popular today as they were in the first few centuries.

1. FASTING

MANY of the early writers talk about fasting as a common tool of the faith, and promoted fasting twice a week, a tradition that started in Judaism and carried into the early Christians.  I've never heard a modern preacher even encourage his congregation to fast once a week, let alone twice, but twice was the standard goal of the early Church.

2. OTHER ASCETICISMS

Fasting sleep or comfort was another concept widely practiced.  Many early believers would refuse themselves one night's sleep a week.  Origen refused to use a bed, preferring the hard floor for the sake of the discipline he felt it helped build in him.  Comfort was viewed as the enemy, not a goal, because it tempted you to make bad choices for the kingdom.

3. MEAT OFFERED TO IDOLS

Accounts are plenty of early believers practicing this.  Many people think they don't have to face this in our mdoern times, right?  Do you eat holloween candy?

4. BOYCOTTING THE OLYMPICS

Most early Christians refused to participate in or watch the Olympics, because it was meat dedicated to an idol - OK - less than that.  The games were dedicated to Greek gods.  And if MEAT dedicated to an idol is wrong when one needs food to live, then certainly a sport dedicated to an idol is wrong since I don't need sports to live.  Thus the Olympics were shunned.

To this day, the Olympics are STILL dedicated to the Greek gods.  That hasn't changed.  There is a ceremony doing such at the start of every Olympic games every 4 years.  It is why I don't watch them.

5. MARTYDOM

Many early Church writers talk about what a great honor it would be to die a martyr's death.  Why don't we see much of that in today's society?  Maybe it is because not much of 1-4 goes on.  When you pursue a life of comfort and shun the actions that build the kind of discipline that makes accepting the teaching on martyrdom palatable, you won't get a lot of that.  Fasting isn't popular but obesity is.  Talk about asceticism and you're likely to get a lecture on, "let's not get into that tradition stuff - you're in bondage to tradition when you talk about that stuff!"  However the reality is that actions that help you deny your flesh are intended to free you from the bondage that comfort and the temptation that comes with enslaves your mind to.  Many Christians don't recognize the bondage that their "freedom" and "comfort" have enslaved them to, because they can't even take a step towards the right direction of denying their flesh so they can build their character.

 

Shalom,

Joe