1st Century Church

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Only if running water is not available. That is what is says.
So, what you’ve just accepted is that it is still a valid baptism.

What you are then looking at, once you’ve accepted that Baptism by pouring or dipping is valid, is that this is a discipline, not a dogma.

Think about it. Is the water magic? Or is it a sign of the Graces that God bestows. Once you understand that it is a sign, then the disciplines that a Church instills (one that has the authority to instill it) justify dipping and immersion and pouring.
 
So, archaeological proof is not proof anymore?

That’s interesting.

But you’re right. College professors have never used personal bias to refute real proof before. My bad.

And besides, I never mentioned artwork, I simply showed proof of inscriptions. When the artwork began, I could care less, for it’s got nothing to do with the point.
In the first century Rome’s Christians did not have their own cemeteries.If they owned land, they buried their relatives there, otherwise they resorted to common cemeteries, where pagans too were buried. That is how Saint Peter came to be buried in the great public “necropolis” (“city of the dead”) on Vatican Hill, available to everybody. Likewise Saint Paul was buried in a necropolis along the Via Ostiense.
In the first half of the second century, as a result of various grants and donations, the Christians started burying their dead underground. That is how the catacombs were founded. Many of them began and developed around family tombs, whose owners, newly converted Christians, did not reserve them to the members of the family, but opened them to their brethren in the faith.
catacombe.roma.it/en/storia.html

I am right.
 
Because arguing against someone else personal interpretation puts us on the same footing. It was a fair request.
I’m not questioning whether it was a “fair request”. I’m asking what difference it makes to your argument. Why not present your strongest rebuttal regardless?
 
Because arguing against someone else personal interpretation puts us on the same footing. It was a fair request.
No it wasn’t. I was merely pointing out that your interpretation was a personal opinion and not fact, and that you rejected the other views without proving that your view had any more basis than ours.
 
So, what you’ve just accepted is that it is still a valid baptism.

What you are then looking at, once you’ve accepted that Baptism by pouring or dipping is valid, is that this is a discipline, not a dogma.

Think about it. Is the water magic? Or is it a sign of the Graces that God bestows. Once you understand that it is a sign, then the disciplines that a Church instills (one that has the authority to instill it) justify dipping and immersion and pouring.
The Bible does not teach the difference between a…what did you call it…a discipline and a dogma.
 
No it wasn’t. I was merely pointing out that your interpretation was a personal opinion and not fact, and that you rejected the other views without proving that your view had any more basis than ours.
The entire section says that it went to the Apostles and elders. It says that over and over again. It never says it went to Peter to decide.
 
No, what you have shown is that the exclusively Christian Catacombs didn’t start until middle 2nd century. You cannot tell me that Christians were not buried with non-christians. The carbon dating and the rulers noted on the grave are either false, and you haven’t shown me proof that they are false, or they are true.

What your studies are so far proving is that artwork in the Christian Catacombs did not begin until the 3rd century and the predominately Christian Catacombs didn’t begin until the 2nd century.

Neither of those disproves my point.
 
The entire section says that it went to the Apostles and elders. It says that over and over again. It never says it went to Peter to decide.
An evasion of the point where I asked you to prove that the reason they were silent was because they were listening to Paul and not because Peter had spoken. Your claim was explicit in the rejection of the other view. Therefore I was asking for the proof of your claim.

Or are you going to admit that your view is merely your opinion?
 
The Bible does not teach the difference between a…what did you call it…a discipline and a dogma.
Oh really? What gave the Church the authority to remove James eating restrictions on Gentile Christians in Acts 15?

Disciplines, my friend.
 
The entire section says that it went to the Apostles and elders. It says that over and over again. It never says it went to Peter to decide.
And yet, Peter decided, as he did in numerous other instances, i.e. Gentiles’ inclusion in the Covenant.
 
Given that this is a site that is general knowledge, it is not a definitive work on the subject. It does not prove its claims.
Well tomorrow I can hit the library then. No problem. I MIGHT know a little about this subject…but I will prove it then.
 
And yet, Peter decided, as he did in numerous other instances, i.e. Gentiles’ inclusion in the Covenant.
No he did not. He made a general point and James specifically answered the question. What are you talking about? It never says Peter decided.
 
Well tomorrow I can hit the library then. No problem. I MIGHT know a little about this subject…but I will prove it then.
So you will prove then that no Christians were buried in any catecombs before the first half of the Second Century then?
 
That’s not the point of this thread.

I am merely stating that it’s absurd to ask me to prove something I don’t believe in existed from the beginning.

Whereas I am asking you to prove something you do believe in.

I am not asking you to disprove that which is false. I am asking you to prove that which you believe is true.

I am no longer going to respond to those who want to turn the tables and make this thread about Protestant beliefs or any other non-Catholic beliefs.

If you want to talk about proofs for Protestant doctrines start a new thread.

This thread is about whether or not there is any documentation from the 1st century for extra-biblical doctrines claimed by the Catholic Church.

Take your pick. Any doctrine that has been disputed as non-Scriptural by Protestants will do. You pick the topic within the limitations set for this thread.

I’m all ears.
"See that ye all follow the bishop, even as Christ Jesus does the Father, and the presbytery [priest] as ye would the apostles. Do ye also reverence the deacons, as those that carry out the appointment of God. Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the bishop. Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is [administered] either by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude also be; by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church." *Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Smyrneans, 8:2 (c. A.D. 110). *

This is from St. Ignatius of Antioch written around 110. He was an disciple of the Apostle John and obviously around IN the FIRST century.

Your whole premise is false. You want 1st century “dogmas” yet dogmas is a defining a theological truths not yet fully understood.

The Trinity is a divinely revealed truth that wasn’t completely defined until 325 AD yet as every learned person who studies theology 101 knows that it was a belief known of, before the fourth century yet not completely defined until the council of Nicea.
 
Oh really? What gave the Church the authority to remove James eating restrictions on Gentile Christians in Acts 15?

Disciplines, my friend.
I do not believe in disciplines. It is not a word I find in scripture. There were no restrictions on gentile Christians. The gentiles were not under the old covenant. Jewish Christians could not decide. So they met to decide. Peter had a direct visions from God earlier and then they also use scripture to help decide. What you are saying does not make sense.
 
So you will prove then that no Christians were buried in any catecombs before the first half of the Second Century then?
Sure, it may take a day, I have basketball practice tomorrow but I will try to make it tomorrow. Happy to.
 
I do not believe in disciplines. It is not a word I find in scripture. There were no restrictions on gentile Christians. The gentiles were not under the old covenant. Jewish Christians could not decide. So they met to decide. Peter had a direct visions from God earlier and then they also use scripture to help decide. What you are saying does not make sense.
James placed the Noahide eating restriction on the Gentile converts. Acts 15:19-20 -
It is my judgment, therefore, that we ought to stop troubling the Gentiles who turn to God, but tell them by letter to avoid pollution from idols, unlawful marriage, the meat of strangled animals, and blood.
These restrictions were later lifted, as evidenced in Pauls letters to the Galations (at least I think it was Galations).

That is what the Church calls Disciplines, rather than dogma. Disciplines can change according to societal influences. In this case, the eating of the meat of strangled animals is merely a sign of obedience. This ban was later lifted, because we both know that eating this type of meat is not inherantly evil.

This is opposed to something like Contraception, which God considers an abomination in any culture irregardless. That’s why it’s a dogma.
 
Ginger2,
The docetic heresy did arise aound the end of the first century and the beginning of the 2nd. The use a poor analogy it came at a time when the Chuch was shifting gears from the Apostlic Age to the post Apostolic Age. If we accept the historical traditions the only Apostle (one of the Twelve) still alive around this time was John.

But I would like to add something that I hope will tie into the “spirit” of this thread. If we we Acts and the Letters of the NT I think that we find the Church’s heirarchical structure was not as established as some might think and this structure was really beginning to take shape at the end of the 1st century as the letter of Clement to the Corithians and Didache shows.

However, I think it is important to stress that it would take almost 80 years after Christ’s earthly ministry and Paschal Mystery to take on a more formal structure, as Catholics we believe this evolution was guided at all times by the Holy Spirit.

That said, I think it is important to see that the Church during the time of the Apostles was more “charismatic” than heirarchical in its pronouncements and decision making process as evidenced by Acts 15. But as I hoped I explained before with the ending of the Apostlic Age the Chuch, guided by the Holy Spirit, became more structured in the sense that we can recognize today with the roles of Bishops, Presbyters and Deacons being more clearly defined. But as the heirarchical structure became more formal so did the Church’s pronouncements in the forms of Creeds and Doctrines. Also, if you read the writing of those in Authority so to did their proclamation that their teachings were rooted in the Apostolic Tradition.
 
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