DO NOT GIVE UP Meeting Together

"Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing," say the Scriptures, "but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching."  (Hebrews 10:25 New International Version) Clearly, true worshipers are to come together at a place of worship to "consider one another to incite to love and fine works." -Hebrews 10:24.

WHEN the apostle Paul penned the foregoing words in the first century of our Common Era, an impressive temple in Jerusalem served as a place of worship for the Jews.  There were also synagogues.  Jesus had "taught in a synagogue and in the temple, where all the Jews [came] together." -John 18:20.

What time of meeting place did Paul have in mind when he admonished Christians to come together to encourage one another?  Do the religious edifices of Christendom find any precedent in the temple arrangement in Jerusalem?  When were massive religious structures introduced to professed Christians? 

Next time: DO NOT GIVE UP Meeting Together -'A House to God's Name'

The Watchtower, 2002