Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 1
The speaker calls modern believers “chronological snobs” who assume we understand the apostles better than those taught near their time; what specific attitudes or arguments have you heard (or used) that match his examples about early Christians “not understanding Greek” or “already leaving the faith,” and what does that reveal about how we view God’s ability to preserve and teach His church?
Another way to ask: What are some ways you’ve heard people dismiss early Christians (like saying they didn’t know Greek or quickly fell away)? What does that show about how much we trust God to protect and teach His church over time?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
Based on the speaker’s teaching, “chronological snobbery” shows up when we assume later Christians automatically understand Scripture better than those closest to the apostles, or when we dismiss the early churches as already ruined—so we don’t have to learn from them.
- He says this attitude is “almost universal” across “evangelical…Anabaptist…Pentecostal.”
- He repeatedly hears: the early Christians “didn’t understand” the apostles—“they didn’t understand Greek, even though that was their native tongue.”
- Another argument he hears: “Look at the New Testament Christians. They were already leaving the faith before the New Testament was over.”
- He calls this posture “snobbery” and says people act like “we don’t need to learn from anyone else because we’ve got it all.”
- He frames it as a refusal to believe we can “learn from them” in how they “understand the New Testament.”