THE IMPORTANCE of liturgy in the history of the Christian Church over the 2000 years cannot be underestimated. Some of the earliest hymns in the Church were chants or Scriptural truths read aloud in unison. To verbally proclaim in unison holy truths of God will have a great affect spiritually on the Assembly of believers to strengthen and unify them in the faith once delivered to the saints.1151
We are commended in the Scriptures to verbally proclaim our allegiance to the Son of God, confessing truths that we believe in our heart.1152 Though modern day evangelicalism is mostly non-liturgical this was not so in the early days of Christianity.
The New Testament suggests that Christian worship incorporated singing of hymns and psalms,1153 prayer,1154 vocal thanksgiving,1155 and instruction.1156 In the Gospel of Luke, 1 Timothy,1157 and Revelation1158 we see preserved hymns that may have been used in the worship of the early Church.
According to an old account of Christians, “On an appointed day they had been accustomed to meet before daybreak, and to recite a hymn antiphonally to Christ, as to a god.” Then they would take an oath (Latin. Sacramentum) “to abstain from theft, robbery, adultery, and breach of faith.”1159
In AD 200, Hippolytus compiled a document called the Apostolic Tradition which conveys many liturgical elements carrying over from the earliest days of the meetings of the Church. Liturgy was surrounded mostly by the celebration of the Lord’s Supper (Eucharist). One recommendation is for a gathering of believers to speak one or more of these readings aloud in unison—or individually—for thanksgiving and declarations of faith. This can build more unified faith and can grant a sanctity to the time together as the body of Christ and the breaking of the bread.1160
This practice of reading Scripture out-loud in an Assembly or unified singing and reading of liturgy is not something that the Catholic church or other groups invented but rather it was a practice of the early Church.1161 May God give us the grace to recapture this apostolic practice for the benefit of His body.