I’ve heard explained before that the early Christians had lots of hope because they though Jesus was only on vacation in heaven for a few years. He was coming back on the clouds any day to rescue them from Nero if they could just hold on tight.
Things had to institutionalize after it became apparent he was going to be (bodily) gone for quite some time, right?
One might come to this conclusion from just reading the bible (not much is said) and using a bit of imagination. However, when we look at other early church writings, it turns out this really wasn’t the case. The hope of Christianity was (still is) in the RESURRECTION of Jesus, not his second coming.
This passage from Wright is enlightening:
The usual scholarly construct, in which the early church waited for Jesus’ return, lived only for the future and without thought for anything past (such as memories of Jesus himself), only to be grievously disapointed and to take up history-writing as a displacement activity, a failure of nerve – this picture is without historical basis.
The church expected certain events to happen within a generation, and happen they did, though there must have been moments between AD 30 and 70 when some wondered if they would, and in consequence took up the Jesish language of delay [‘how long, O Lord, how long?].
Jerusalem fell; the good news of Jesus, and the kingdom of Israel’s god, was anounced in Rome, as well as in Jerusalem and Athens. But there is no sign of dismay, in any of the literature that has come down to us from the period after AD 70, at the fact that Jesus himself had still not returned.
Clement looks forward to the return of Jesus without any comment on its timing.
Ignatius is worried about many things, but not that.
Justin Martyr, in the middle of the second century, is as emphatic as anyone that the event willhappen. He does not know when; but then, the key passages in the New Testament always said that it would be a surprise.
Tertullian, at the end of the second century, looks forward to Jesus’ return as the greates show on earth, outstripping anything one might see at the stadium or theatre.
As far as the early Christians were concerned, the most important event – the resurrection of Jesus – had already happened.
-N.T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God, p.463