How do protestants explain the 1500 year gap.

[ragsbinwashed]

Can we agree that the blblical evidence indicates that the Apostles were all in unity with each other?

Can we agree that the Apostles appointed successors?

Can we agree that the of the successors Apostles were Bishops?

Unity, yes
Appointed successors, yes
Successors Apostles were Bishops, I don’t see the word bishop in the bible, could be wrong.

Not by itself, no, but prayer meetings are certainly part of what it is to be “church”.

Why do you assume that these are prayer meetings? It says nothing about prayer.

You are certainly free to extract any doctrines you like from any text you feel is relevant. This is what it means to have freedom of religion. You can recieve a holy book from an angel, and extract doctrine from that too, if you want.

I’m aware of all this guanophore , but it doesn’t answer my question. Do you think that we should take our doctrine from, The Word of God, The Bible, or not?

Yes, I do. I just don’t see that it is the only passage that does so.

You do? Wow, I’m so happy!:extrahappy: Ya, I never said that this is the only text that talks of church. There are many.

The successors of the Apostles and those in unity with them.

Ok, It’s just that I would say that they are in unity with God in that they keep the commandments and have the testimony of Jesus.

All I can go on is what I have read in your posts. So far, it is centered around remnant theology that is rooted in these apocalyptic verses.

Yes of coarse, but what I was posting on was a very particular thread “How do protestants explain the 1500 year gap” and I was using a very particular verse to answer this question. I’m sure you can see this. So, why in the world would you say that this is my “whole identity of doctrine” when by your own admission “All I can go on is what I have read in your posts.” That being a very particular verse to answer a very particular question.

Indeed He has. He inspired Catholics to write infallibly, so that the product would be in inerrant and inspired collection of texts. It was copied, protected, promulgated and eventually canonized by Catholics.

I agree with none of this.

It was never meant to be separated from the Catholic faith that produced it. Once it is separated, the many aspects of the meaning of what is writen is lost.

What do you mean separated? Catholics don’t have bibles?

rags

 

[ragsbinwashed]

Does that mean you don’t recognize as Christian those who disagree with how you interpret the Bible?

I’m at a loss to understand how you can get this from my answer.

An accurate interpretation of Scripture will be consistent with the rest of the Scriptures.

An accurate interpretation will be consistent with what the successors of the Apostles understood it to mean.

So, by the laws of logic “what the successors of the Apostles understood it to mean” will be
“consistent with the rest of the Scriptures.” Couldn’t agree more, but how does that answer my question?

“So, what are you saying bob, that we discount what it says in Matt. 18 and if we do that what do you propose that we replace it with?”

rags

 

[estesbob]

See bob that’s just it they don’t disagree with one another, because they come together in the name of Christ.

So, what are you saying bob, that we discount what it says in Matt. 18 and if we do that what do you propose that we replace it with?

rags

So you believe Mormons and Baptists have come together in the name of Christ?

Obviously we disagree with the interpretation of Matthew 18 also.How do we resolve that?

 

[KjetilK]

Successors Apostles were Bishops, I don’t see the word bishop in the bible, could be wrong.

That’s because the Bible wasn’t originally written in English. Bishop is the english translation of ἐπίσκοπος (episkopos), and the office of bishop is ἐπισκοπή (episkope). It means one who is an overseer, one who is in charge, from ἐπί (epi, ‘over’) + σκοπός (skopos, ‘watcher’).

The word ‘bishop’ is in the Bible. Bishop derives from the vulgar Latin word biscopus, which evolved from the classical Latin episcopus, which again comes from the Greek ἐπίσκοπος.

In Latin we have a similar word, superintendent, which is still in use in the US today. A ‘super’ or a ‘superintendent’ is often the janitor who is in charge. Building managers are often called ‘supers’ or ‘superintendents.’