Keller forgot some points about the Early Church, but interestingly only picked the ones that sound relevant for today’s church. That’s not fidelity to Scriprure but to culture.

So I’ll share some of my own: https://twitter.com/timkellernyc/status/1305152774523572224

The Early Church grew in spite of both Roman indifference and Jewish hatred.

The Early Church was majority poor, so the poor personally caring for the poor was not an outrageous concept. They didn’t expect/demand that the Roman government legislate caring for the poor or to pass laws for protection for themselves or to gain equality or equity.

They definitely didn’t collude with the Roman government to feed the poor and overall didn’t rely on federal programs to do social justice work.

Overall, they were majority less formally educated, in general, except for those former Jews who studied the Torah extensively.

Slavery was an engrained part of life in Roman culture, which the early Christians didn’t attempt to change on a mass public scale.

There were no mega churches in cities and they probably met in homes, meaning they were not running church like a business.

Because they met in homes, they were able to personally meet the needs of those in their immediate context.

The Early Church was not a “social project” but an unique entity protected by God.

The Early Church was not multi-racial since the term race was not yet being used as a divisive category. It WAS multiethnic BUT there were only 2 important and major categories of believers, Jews and Gentiles.

They used Biblical categories to describe themselves because that’s what the apostles used to differentiate the members of the church. Ethnicity was secondary and almost a mute point.

When it came to spreading a false gospel, they were told to watch out for the wolves, dogs & evildoers that spread a gospel contrary to the Gospel they heard. They were warned to watch out for those who cause divisions & create obstacles contrary to the doctrine they were taught

The Early Church, admonished by Paul, were meant to be strongly opposed to all forms of sexual immorality and for those who committed sexually immoral acts but called themselves believers inside the church, they were told to avoid them and not even eat with them.

To pit certain issues against other issues is unique to THIS political culture. It’s quite exhausting seeing celebrity pastors passively aggressive wading into the pool of politics. The Early Church is NOTHING like today’s church that cherry picks issues to support or defend.

Sadly, because of the issues Keller highlights here, the church HAS become a handmade for both parties and the contemporary missionary culture encounter is already tainted.

The good news is that God is still saving, justifying, redeeming, transforming AND sanctifying the lives of those he predestined before the foundations of the earth.

Regardless of how off center the public church seems to have gone, it’s the right circumstances for God’s providence to be magnified in the lives of those He loves, in spite of what happens on the political scene/public square. God’s will is never thwarted. And THAT is good news.