Hi largely,
Thinking about the early church, the Apostles started churches from all the converts they were getting, and then started the process of organizing/instructing them.
Acts 2:41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.
Acts 2:47 The believers praised God and were respected by all the people. More and more people were being saved every day, and the Lord was adding them to their group.
Acts 4:4 However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.
But when you think about the parable of the sower and the seed... of all those believing/converts that were being taught by the Apostles probably only a 'few' would remain 'faithful' to these teachings. So how long did the early true believers remain, in those organized churches started by the Apostles? Not long I would think, the very first generation would have left (came out of her) and began meeting in private homes, but they still would refer to themselves as "the church of God." And even those were persecuted and scattered.
Acts 11:19 Now those who were scattered after the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to no one but the Jews only.
It just seems that people cannot group together without the human nature causing a host of problems, so God separated His people even at the very beginning. But then there also had to be the start of "Babylon the Great," and they can boost that their origins is from the very Apostles themselves. So the Great false church gets it start and separates from Judaism at the very same as the Apostles are trying to organize the early believers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split_of_early_Christianity_and_Judaism -----
Most historians agree that Jesus or his followers established a new Jewish sect, one that attracted both Jewish and Gentile converts. Historians continue to debate the precise moment when Christianity established itself as a new religion, apart and distinct from Judaism. Some scholars view Christians as much as Pharisees as being competing movements within Judaism that decisively broke only after the Bar Kokhba's revolt, when the successors of the Pharisees claimed hegemony (domination) over all Judaism, and – at least from the Jewish perspective – Christianity emerged as a new religion. Some Christians were still part of the Jewish community up until the time of the Bar Kochba revolt in the 130s.
According to historian Shaye J. D. Cohen,
The separation of Christianity from Judaism was a process, not an event. The essential part of this process was that the church was becoming more and more gentile, and less and less Jewish, but the separation manifested itself in different ways in each local community where Jews and Christians dwelt together. In some places, the Jews expelled the Christians; in other, the Christians left of their own accord.
According to Cohen, this process ended in 70 CE, after the great revolt, when various Jewish sects disappeared and Pharisaic Judaism evolved into Rabbinic Judaism, and Christianity emerged as a distinct religion.
http://bible-truths.com/lake11.html -------------------------------------------
THE CHURCH OF GOD IN PRIVATE HOUSES
There was a transition period where the disciples still went up to the temple, but God’s intimate dealings would now be found in more humble surroundings. When the Holy Spirit was poured out on the first Saints of Jesus, it was not in a synagogue, but in a house:
"And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all THE HOUSE where they were sitting" (Acts 2:1-2).
Church services were held in houses:
"Likewise greet the church that is in their house" (Rom. 16:5).
"The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house" (I Cor. 16:19).
"Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church which is in his house� (Col., 4:15).
"Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy our brother, unto Philemon our dearly beloved, and fellowlabourer, and to our beloved Apphia, and Archippus our fellowsoldier, and to the church in your house" (Philemon 1-2).
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mercy, peace and love
Kat