The Real Story of the First One Hundred Years of the Church

 The Real Story of the First One Hundred Years of the Church

Lonnie Hendrix

Shortly after Herbert Armstrong became affiliated with the Church of God, Seventh-Day in Oregon, two of his associates collaborated in writing A History of the True Religion From 33 A.D. to Date. Andrew Dugger and Clarence Dodd published their work almost one hundred years ago, and it has largely remained the way that these Sabbatarians recount the history of their organizations since it was published. Unlike other Sabbath-keeping Christians (e.g. Seventh-Day Baptists and Seventh-Day Adventists), these folks have insisted on claiming that there has always been a group of Christians who kept the Sabbath – from the Church’s foundation up to the present time. The premise is that those Sabbath-keeping folks constituted the “true” Church down through history, and that all Sunday-keeping Christians represent a “false” brand of the faith.

In Dugger’s and Dodd’s words: 

A history of the true Church of God could not be written without taking into consideration the lives and work of the outstanding leaders of the Gospel Age, that is, the apostles Paul, Peter and John; for by, or under their direction, most of the New Testament Scriptures were written, and the fortunes of the church advanced during the first century, and fashioned for future centuries. 

While there is nothing wrong with this statement, Dugger and Dodd used it to wipe out a great deal of real Church history. After going through a brief summary of the work of those three men, they wrote: 

It has already been shown that the New Testament name for the true church organized by Jesus Christ was the ‘Church of God,’ and as we leave the New Testament writings and launch out into secular history, which we must do, as the New Testament narrative only carries us to about 96 A.D., we will find the same name brought to view down through the Gospel Age. These people, however, have always been called, by their enemies, by other names. The name ‘Nazarenes,’ applied to them by the world, during the first period following the days of the apostles, will be considered first.

Did you catch that? They want to start their history in 96 A.D. – assuming that the writings of those three men support their position, and that nothing else happened between 33 A.D. and that year to contradict their narrative!

Similarly, in his booklet Where is the True Church? (1984), Herbert Armstrong wrote: 

So it was, that before A.D. 50 (the Church had been founded in A.D. 31) a fierce controversy arose as to whether the gospel to be proclaimed was the gospel OF Christ, or a gospel ABOUT Christ. Soon the curtain was wrung down on historic records of the Church. It evidenced the fact that a vigorous cooperative and systematic effort was made to destroy historic records of church happenings of the next hundred years. It was the ‘LOST CENTURY’ in church history. When the curtain of history is raised about A.D. 150, it reveals a church calling itself ‘Christian,’ but one totally different from the Church Jesus founded through his apostles in A.D. 31. 

Now, once again, the reader will notice that Armstrong ignores a century of Church history and doesn’t support any of his statements with any sources or evidence!

Even so, Mr. Armstrong’s successors among the Armstrong Churches of God have adopted a similar narrative about the origins of their organizations. In his Where Is the True Church? and Its Incredible History! (June 2026), David Pack wrote: 

John’s death, in about AD 100, ended the apostolic era and what constituted most of what is considered the Ephesian Era. We have covered some of the details of where the apostles served and aspects of their work. Polycarp introduces the Smyrna Era, but we need to backtrack and summarize certain events of the Ephesian Era, and consider their implications.

Like his mentor before him, Pack believes that the seven churches of the book of Revelation represent seven church eras. In fairness to Dave, he does go back and mention the great fire in Rome (64 CE), and Nero’s persecution of Roman Christians. Likewise, he does also mention the Roman war against the Jews, but he minimizes its impact on the Church. He went on to write: 

The majority of the Church, who were so willing to give up the truth they once embraced, proceeded to shun and condemn those who held fast to what they had all formerly believed. Those ‘Nazarenes’ who chose to remain loyal to the teaching of the apostles were accused of being divisive—deemed guilty of creating ‘schisms.’ We will see that this pattern reappears much later, near the book’s conclusion.

Once again, for Pack, these Nazarenes constituted the “true” Christians – everyone else was an apostate!

Next, we will take a brief look at the self-proclaimed Armstrong Church of God expert on the early history of the Church, Bob Thiel. In his History of Early Christianity, Thiel wrote: 

According to the New Testament, true Christianity was practiced throughout many areas of Asia Minor in the first century (this area is now in the country of Turkey). Most (between 14-20) of the 27 books of New Testament were written to or from church leaders in Asia Minor. (Even Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox leaders recognized that Asia Minor had early "apostolic succession"; essentially what they refer to as the early "apostolic see of Ephesus.") 

What scripture clearly shows, is that although there were Christians in various areas, the focus for the New Testament writers were the churches in Asia Minor. And interestingly, the last book of the Bible is specifically addressed to the churches of Asia Minor (Revelation 1:4,11). The last of the original apostles to die, John, died in Asia Minor and his disciple Polycarp of Smyrna was a major leader there. Those there also taught the true gospel of the kingdom and opposed others who promoted a different gospel. There were actually two major groups that claimed Christianity in the late second century that claimed succession from the apostles, and only one of them has remained faithful--for some further details, please see Early Church History: Who Were the Two Major Groups Professed Christ in the Second and Third Centuries?” Later, in the same article, he wrote: “While scholars have a variety of opinions, this page itself will simply mention the following beliefs held by true Christians in the second century, with links to highly documented articles on each subject (which are primarily based on the Bible and early historical writings). Amazingly, a leading Protestant scholar (H. Brown) has admitted: It is impossible to document what we now call orthodoxy in the first two centuries of Christianity (Brown HOJ. Heresies: Heresy and Orthodoxy in the History of the Church. Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody (MA), 1988, p. 5). In other words, much of what now passes for ‘orthodox Christianity’ did not exist in the first two centuries after Jesus was crucified and resurrected. This is basically because while there was only one original church, another major group emerged in the second century who changed certain original Christian practices and became what most now seem to feel represent ‘orthodoxy’ (for details, please see Early Church History: Who Were the Two Major Groups Professed Christ in the Second and Third Centuries?)” 

OK, I gave Bob a little more space just because he claims to be an expert!

Unfortunately, all of this Church “history” from Dugger and Dodd to Bob Thiel is inaccurate and misleading – and I’m being generous! Instead of historically accurate accounts of Church history, these men have carefully crafted historical fiction and propaganda to support their narrative that they alone represent the “TRUE” Church. By the way, a good rule of thumb: history written with an agenda or to prove a thesis never turns out to be historically accurate. The folks who write this kind of “history” are looking for evidence which supports their beliefs, and they ignore any and all evidence which contradicts their narrative!

For those of you who may be interested in the real story of what happened during the first one hundred years of the Church, I’d like to invite you to read my twelve-part series on my own blog. My narrative is evidence-based. It presents an extensive exploration of Scripture and looks at the other sources available to us from that period (e.g. the epistle of Barnabas, epistle of Clement, epistles of Ignatius, epistle of Polycarp, The Didache, The Shepherd of Hermas, Josephus, etc.) This evidence-based perspective concludes: 1) that First Century Christians were familiar with most of the writings which became our canon of the New Testament, 2) that the vast majority of Gentile Christians NEVER kept the Sabbath, Holy Days, or clean and unclean meats, 3) that Jewish Christianity was largely destroyed by the events of 70 A.D., 4) that most Christians, Jewish and Gentile, gathered on the Lord’s Day (Sunday) to fellowship and worship, 5) that pagan influences on the early Church were minimal at best. Don’t believe that my summary is accurate? I invite you to take a look at the evidence and decide for yourself.

The First One Hundred Years of the Church (Part 1)

The First One Hundred Years of the Church (Part 2)

The First One Hundred Years of the Church (Part 3)

The First One Hundred Years of the Church (Part 4)

The First One Hundred Years of the Church (Part 5)

The First One Hundred Years of the Church (Part 6)

The First One Hundred Years of the Church (Part 7)

The First One Hundred Years of the Church (Part 8)

The First One Hundred Years of the Church (Part 9)

The First One Hundred Years of the Church (Part 10)

The First One Hundred Years of the Church (Part 11)

The First One Hundred Years of the Church (Part 12)