Must we return to the first century church?

[RNRobert]

Thanks for a couple of well thought-out posts.

I also would throw into the mix Jude and other letters of John.

I don’t think Jesus is overjoyed with Christian society in general, but there have been some bright spots in the past 2000 years.

You’re welcome.:tiphat:

On a couple threads recently, there was a non-Catholic forum member named JesusforMadrid who criticized the present day Catholic Church since it wasn’t identical to the first century church (at least in his eyes), and this thread was intended to be a response. As Paul Thigpen writes in Surprised by Truth:

Erasmus and Newman taught me that the Church is a maturing organism who life span stretches across the centuries- not an archeological expedition always searching for fossils to recover a primitive campsite. They challenged me to defend the Protestant notion that we should desire the embryo over the mature organism; and having studied church history, I found such a defense impossible.

 

[teachccd]

The doctrines are derived directly from the teaching of scripture and no other source! The comparison to late marian doctrine and other non scriptural novelties is hardly the same.

The Trinity is indeed a direct teaching of Scripture BUT have you heard of the Arian heresy? It was the Church that fought and brought us the creeds and eventually snuffed out Arianism. The Jehovah’s Witnesses still do not find the Trinitarian doctrine in their bibles. So then, what do we see here? Is it the Bible that stayed true to the Trinitarian doctrine or the Church that acknowedged it in the first place and acknowledged the canon of Scripture?

The “late marian” doctrine is no different than all of the other definitive doctrines that many protestants adhere to including the canon of the New Testament. God Bless