We Don’t Need To Go Back To The Early Church- by J.A. Medders

Found here. My comments in bold.
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You’ve heard people say, “We just need to go back to the early church.” We need to be more like the raw, organic, on-the-go church we see in the New Testament.

I disagree.

Now, I don’t totally disagree. Obviously, there are elements of the early church we should imitate. Fellowship, sacrifice, mission, unity, endurance in persecution, and more. But let’s not pretend that the early church didn’t have their problems. (Non sequitur. No one is pretending the early church was perfect.)

When we talk about the New Testament church we can fall prey to the chronological snobbery C.S. Lewis cautions us against. Oldness doesn’t constitute betterness. Nor does newness.

People often over-celebrate the early church in a veiled attack on the present church. “The church today is lame, too organized, not free-wheeling enough.” They look back on the early church and crave those early days. But Solomon tells us not to do such a thing. “Don’t say, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’” (Ecclesiastes 7:10). (Oh my. Perhaps if the author actually read Ecclesiastes he would discover that Solomon was explaining contentment, and admonishing us to not long for another time when things were better in our lives.

This has nothing at all to do with the state of the church today or 2000 years ago. We look in vain for any precept or Bible verse that tells us that wanting to improve today's church is a bad thing.)

So, you who want to go back to the early church, let me ask you a question:

Which early church do you want to be like?

(Having already admitted that people look back at the early church for certain specified reasons [Raw and organic..." "Fellowship, sacrifice, mission, unity, endurance in persecution, and more."], the author now diverts to a non sequitur. The problems of the early church are not what people want to go back to!

Unfortunately, the author is using Leftist rhetorical techniques. For example, if a conservative wants intact two parent families, the Leftist responds, "Oh yeah? You want to go back to the fifties when blacks were discriminated against?" These are dishonest manipulations, and beneath the author.)

The church at Corinth? They were rejecting the apostle Paul, falling in love with impostor Apostles, abusing the Lord’s Supper, and were proud of the fact that one of their members was sleeping with his step-mom.

The church in Galatia? They were on the verge of denying the gospel and going wholesale into legalism. Denying the apostle Paul and denying the nature of radical grace.

The church in Ephesus? They seem pretty solid. Though, it appears they may have some struggles with unity, magic, family dynamics, and spiritual warfare.

The church at Philippi? Serious division. It was bad enough that Paul had to call out two women, Euodia and Syntyche, pleading for them reconcile. Drama.

The church at Colossae? They were in a fiery battle over the deity of Christ. Does Jesus have a human body? Is Jesus fully God? Paul wrote to help them stay true to Christ and not give in to the false teachers.

The Thessalonians? They are knotted up over the End Times—the return of Christ, the resurrection to come, and wondering if they’ve been left behind.

So, tell me again which early church you want to go back to? (Persisting in his manipulation, the author now wants us to choose which dysfunction we want. Well, we don't want the dysfunction, we want the good parts.)

Immorality, persecution, division, theological confusion, legalism, and attacking the apostle Paul is what’s on the menu.

We don’t need to go back to the early church, but we do need to go back somewhere. (The author has just ceded his argument. We do need to go back...)

Where We Must Go Back

The only perfect church, filled with non-problematic people is in Heaven. (Having created a strawman scenario, that people are looking for a perfect church, he now imputes that position to those who want to improve the church.)

Be faithful in the present without wishing for the past.

We must always go back to the teachings of the early church,  the New Testament, but the church itself was a mess. (Again, he cedes his argument. We do indeed need to go back, he tells us. But apparently our only choices are the teachings, or the mess of the early church. This is a false binary choice.)

Much like today. (Now he admits the present day church is a mess, so apparently he agrees with those who want to improve the church.)

We are a mess too, so we go back to the teachings that went to our messy brothers and sisters. We learn from them and the teachings—not to be them, but to be faithful to our risen Lord.

We go back to the apostolic teaching. We go back to the Bible. We go back to Christ. A church that does that, is who we should want to be.