While I believe that your comment (Fatboyslim) is true, our Governing Body did not go far enough in trying to return to first century Christianity and as I mentioned in a past post, they became too heavily invested in the value of old Judaism.
However a deeper study of how early Christianity was practiced is still valuable. For I think that if God blessed the first century church, then what they believed and how they REALLY got on with their lives, could be useful to base our own faith upon.
For example, most never personally saw or heard more that a few letters from the Apostles, which is interesting to contemplate when we compare that fact with how much the GB bangs on about the essential nature of our 'spiritual food'.
Similar, all meetings were held in 'home churches' ... very much like our old Bookstudy groups, with most first century Christian never meeting others outside of that small circle. Which is again, in contrast to the message we get about our assemblies and conventions.
Finally (for the sake of brevity), there was no 'Organization' in the first century, which is quite contrary to the story we are told to support the legitimacy of the 'Faithful Slave' doctrine. And yet Christianity overcame hatred and REAL persecution, to spread throughout the known world, without one.
Yes, while things did became more dogmatic and rule based by the beginning of the third century, previous to that a person's individual conscious formed the basis of The Way ... a way of living, in stark contrast the violent and hedonist lifestyle of the average Roman citizen ...
