This would hardly be believable if not for Martin Luther's thesis, written and nailed to the church door in 1530. If the teachings of the Church could be that far off, for that long of a time, concerning works and faith concerning salvation, then it is reasonable to believe they are off center in other areas.
Early on, it appears that Church fathers decided the work of the Holy Spirit was too disruptive, both to the communities of unbelievers, but also to church services themselves. In Acts, the silversmiths were livid because so many people were turning to Christianity, their businesses were being threatened with bankruptcy. The Church at Corinth was very zealous of spiritual gifts and were abusing the gift of tongues. After Paul brought some clarification on the proper use of the gift of tongues, something that is sadly missing even from full gospel churches, he commanded them not to forbid any one from speaking in tongues. This indicates that even at this early stage, some church leaders were beginning to think that forbidding the use of tongues was a better plan than teaching.
I use the King James version of the Bible just because it is the translation I am most familiar with. You can say what you will about this translation, but it does accurately translate the commandment of Acts 1:4. The word Jesus used in Acts 1:4 is the strongest word, which means command, of the Greek language. As some people know, the Greek language has four words that when translated from Greek to English, are translated "love." These words denote differing levels of love. The same is true of the word command. The word Jesus uses is a word a general would use to command His troops. As Jesus stood in front of these first Christians, the charter members of His Church, He has just received a name that is above every other name. He has just been coronated as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He has been exalted as supreme Lord of all. His Father has just given all of His authority over into Jesus hands, the Holy Spirit has done the same. Yet some translations water down this word. This indicates how pervasive the thinking is that this is not really a commandment at all, more like a suggestion, or made to just eleven men and no others. In all my years associating with full gospel churches and people, I have never heard one sentence explaining the great commandment of the new covenant. Even those who embrace the baptism with the Spirit as a valid experience, fail to recognize the importance of the commandment and of its disobedience. This indicates how pervasive and complete the erasing of the command has been.
Amazingly, in Revelations 22:19, God promises to remove names from the book of life of people who remove from the words of the Bible. In order for names to have been written in the book of life, people must first be saved. With the severity of this kind of warning in the Bible, the fact that most church leaders remove the commandment of the new covenant from the scriptures through a process of interpretation is most regrettable. From the seminary professor, to the pastor/teacher who leads the church, to the lay leader who teaches the Sunday school class, to the individual church member/ attender, who puts a greater trust in the words of a gifted interpreter of God's Word than they do in God's Word itself, the commandment of Acts 1:4 has been effectually removed from the scripture, and it appears from Revelation 22:19 there will come a time when their names will be removed from the book of life. Many will have spent some years in heaven before this day. It breaks my heart to think of this.
While it is true that old covenant laws have no hold over new covenant believers, without question the only commandment issued by Jesus under the new covenant applies to new covenant believers. That old covenant laws do not apply to new covenant believers is easily shown, as according to old covenant law, only Jews could enter the old covenant. All Gentiles had to convert to Judaism first. The new covenant was not drafted with the Jews, it was drafted with the Gentiles. Any Jews who want to join the new covenant must first renounce the old covenant.