More from the Brickman article linked by chasjohn:
""The New Testament is absolutely clear that a major apostasy was already underway at that time, and was to culminate after the passing of the apostles. Paul told the Ephesian elders, "For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them."14 Paul chastised the Galatian Christians for turning away "unto another gospel,"15 and warned the Corinthians against “false Apostles” who were among them.16 Just prior to the end of his life, he complained to Timothy that "all they which are in Asia be turned away from me.“17 The seriousness of the situation can only be appreciated when one realizes that Asia Minor was where most of the Christian converts had been made during this early period.18"”
I’m not going to bother with picking through the Biblical citations. Here’s why: First, I am not a Biblical scholar, and therefore I do not engage in Biblical arguments, because if I did, I’d make too many mistakes. Second, it isn’t necessary. The writer here is trying to prove from the Bible that a UNIVERSAL apostasy was already underway during Apostolic times. The arguments seem pretty good, on the surface. However, I’ve seen them disproved before by other people more knowledgable about Bible than I am. Rather, I go on the historical evidence, some of which I’ve presented earlier. We know from history that it was the Catholic Church which preserved learning and civilization as the Roman Empire collapsed. It was the Catholic Church which converted the barbarians and other pagan invaders. It was the Catholic Church which rebuilt Rome and established Christendom, which within a very short time encompassed all of Europe, beat back the Moslems, reclaimed Spain from the Moors (that took about 700 years, so it was no easy task). Speaking of Spain, even under Moslem political and religious domination, the Catholic Church did not die. It lived underground and prospered, and in 1492 consummated the reconquest of Spain under devout Catholic monarchs. And, speaking of 1492, in that year a devout Catholic seaman, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, named Columbus, financed by those devout Catholic Spanish monarchs, discovered the Americas, which began the conversion of the American natives to Christianity.
The many great Popes, Bishops, theologians, men and women of God, all Catholics, some heretics, are far too numerous to mention here even in passing. But, suffice to say that they lived, they were Catholic, they were devout, we know who they were from what they wrote and the effects they wrought upon European and human history. Again, when a man renounces his belief, whatever it may be, whether communism, nazism, Mormonism, Catholicism, etc, he will not die for that thing. The Christians that these Mormons accuse of apostasy put their entire lives on the line for Jesus, for the Catholic Church. To accuse them of apostasy is a flagrant lie, an insult, a spit in their faces, and calls for a denunciation of those who make such accusations.
