Non Denominational bible study?

[whm]

First of all this is “family life” forum, not apologetics.

According to the Book of Acts, among the requirements to be an apostle,one must have been witness to the ministry of Jesus Christ.

Your words. I noticed how you left half of the passage out to support your argument. If you had used the whole verse it would defeat your argument by excluding Paul who wrote most of the non gospel new testament.

Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection." Acts 1:21-22

All that Acts 1 21:22 shows is that is how they came up with the two choices to replace Judas. Makes prefect sense that if there are several available that had been with Jesus the entire time that one of them would be the best choice to replace Judas. Remember Saul had not been with Jesus during that time, so he already fails one of your tests for being apostle.

 

[royal_archer]

According to the Book of Acts, among the requirements to be an apostle,one must have been witness to the ministry of Jesus Christ.

Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection." Acts 1:21-22

Apostolic succession died with the last apostle. There is no way around it

You have made a false interpretation. The bible does not say that only those who were contemporaries of the apostles could become apostles. It merely says that these were the most qualified. Even today apostles are only chosen from those who have dedicated their lives to God and have served and studied. You have missed a few key words including “become” a witness. Hence it is possible to become a witness even if not being present at the original events.

You have also missed another nuance. In that no one else was among them for the “whole time” if you were to interpret it as being a literal physical presence for those specific dates. No other humans were with them the entire time from baptism through the death on the cross. Those who did not believe in the Eucharist left in John 6.66 leaving only the 12. Therefore no one outside of the original 12 could be considered to have been among them the whole time. To further prove this point, the 12 were not assembled at the time of Jesus’ baptism. Being that this can not be a literal threshold of qualification we are left with the intent that they wanted to choose from the most qualified among them.

 

[4EverHis]

There were many churches (plural) in the New Testament, Corinth… Galatia…Thessolonica… Philippi, Rome Colossae, Ephesus… etc. Seven Churches are mentioned in the Book of Revelation. Yes, there is one Body of Christ and that is his church indeed.

I’m sorry but this shows ignorance of church history…

there was only one Church and it didn’t have “denominations”… and there was only one set of official doctrines. (it was the heretics who disagreed, not other Christians)

the Church also always had Bishops and the Pope…from the very early days. We can see that in the ECFs… and in the Didache, we can see the Church was liturgical, had the Mass, the Eucharist, etc…

it was a lot like the Catholic Church today, not like Protestant churches.

the early Church IS the Catholic Church. The CC started at Pentecost.