Yes, I do realize this, but since I am not living during this time - I do not. What is the point of this response?
Growing up I had no learnings of the catholic church good or bad, so I studied MY Faith. The Faith I grew up in. Being here I have contrasted MY Faith to yours and still find that I am on the path I believe God put me on. Could that change, of course! If God wants me somewhere I will go there. Why do I sense a certain attitude in your response?
Are you one of those who think that protestants are idiots?
No, I haven’t really studied where the bible came from except to know it came from God and was protected BY HIM, His Holy Word. Really, that is all I need to know. Humans cannot take credit for the bible and what it contains for it was God who told them what to write. All Glory be to Him!
But being here I have gained more information than before and I am grateful.
The point of the response, is that everything and everyone in the church, were catholic previous to the 16th century.
I was once protestant, i do not think you or anyone is an idiot. To be ignorant of scripture is to be ignorant of Christ, and I do not think you are ignorant of scripture. Church history on the other hand, which reveals what the earliest christians were handed by the apostles is a whole other story. After 18 denominations of bible churches, i was tired of schizophrenic teachings among protestant churches, almost all believing different interpretations of the same doctrines. I went to the writings of the church in the first four centuries, and I only found Catholic teaching. Christ commanded them to be one, with no divisions among them, of one mind, one heart one flock, one shepherd, one Faith one Lord one Baptism one God and Father of all, and to avoid dissenters.
the church was virtually a monolith(one) for the first 1500 years of Christendom. The Church was catholic in belief.
How did God protect the Bible? Did you know that every Bible previous to the 16th centurya.d. had 73 books? martin luther, a rebel priest took out 7 OT books and tried taking out revelation, ruth and James, but philip melanchton would not let him. he took away from the Word of God.
by the way, the catholic church decided whch books belonged in scripture and were inspired and which did not belong and were not inspired. this took the most part of the first 4 centuries of the Church, and it was finally canonized in 382ad under pope damasus. Where was the Word of God in the first 4 centuries, and how did people know the Truth for almost 400 years without it? The Catholic Church preached to them.
It (canon of scripture)was ratified again under augustine in 393 and 397 at the councils of hippo and carthage in north africa.
It was not challenged until 1546 when Luther took out the 7 books from the OT.
if His Holy Word is all you need to know, then you had better go and read the 7 books of His Word that Martin luther took out, and then go look IN scripture, where scripture states that His Word is only written in scripture. it doesn’t. but it does say to hold fast to the Traditions which i have handed down to you, both by word of mouth and written epistle.
2thess 2:15
