Les Feldick Bible Study

Does the church have a prescribed hour of prayer?

No. The church is not given a prescribed hour when all believers must bow down and pray. Peter and John went to the temple at the ninth hour because they were still participating in temple worship, which had that fixed prayer time. Judaism observed such an hour, but the church has no comparable instruction.

Les explains from Acts 3 that just after Acts 2 and Peter's Pentecostal sermon, Peter and John went up to the temple at "the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour." They did not go to a church on the corner; they went to the temple because no one had told them to stop temple worship. They were still involved in it. The question this raises is: if this is the beginning of the church, why are Peter and John going to the temple at a prescribed hour of prayer, when the church does not have any of that? Judaism did have such a prescribed hour, and Muslims do too, but the church has no instruction that at a certain hour everyone must bow down and pray.

Acts 3:1

Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.

More Questions

Does the church have a set time of prayer like first-century Judaism did?

The church does not have any prescribed hour at which everyone is to bow down and pray, unlike the Jewish hour of prayer Peter and John were following.