The Unbroken Chain
whole," not "according to the novel." The churches guarded the didaché by maintaining connection to the other churches and to the apostolic norm.
Fifth, by anchoring the heart in grace. Strange teachings often appeal to the flesh, promising special knowledge, special holiness, or special favor through regulations. The remedy is to be "strengthened by grace, not by foods" (Heb 13:9). The didaché centers the heart on the completed work of Christ. It kills legalism and license alike. False doctrine always ultimately bypasses Christ. The apostolic didaché always returns to Him.
The stakes of this safeguarding are eternal. Paul warns that some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons (1 Tim 4:1). Doctrine is not a debate for specialists. It is a matter of salvation. To get the didaché wrong is to get Christ wrong, and to get
Christ wrong is to perish. This is why the apostles wrote with such urgency and why the early church contended so earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.
The Unbroken Chain From Pentecost onward, the history of the church is the history of the transmission of the apostles' didaché . It began in Jerusalem when three thousand souls devoted themselves to that teaching. It spread to Judea,
Samaria, and the ends of the earth as that teaching was proclaimed, believed, and preserved. It crossed cultures and centuries not because it was adapted but because it was adhered to. The proconsul of Cyprus was astonished at the teaching of the Lord (Acts 13:12). The philosophers of Athens debated it as new teaching (Acts 17:19). The believers in Rome obeyed it from the heart as the standard to which they were committed
(Rom 6:17). The elders in Crete were to hold it firm and use it to instruct and rebuke (Titus 1:9). Timothy was to preach it, in season and out (2 Tim
4:2), and continue in it, knowing from whom he had learned it (2 Tim 3:14).
The transmission did not end with the death of the last apostle. It was embedded in the Scriptures which they wrote. The New Testament itself is the codified didaché . To hold to Scripture is to hold to the apostles' teaching. To preach Scripture is to transmit the didaché . The unbroken chain runs from Christ, to the apostles, to the Scriptures, to the church.