Mormon Cultist,
You point to the teaching of Saint Augustine as an authoritative defense supporting Mormon doctrine. For the moment put aside the issue of whether or not your view about his commentary on marriage is accurate.
If you appeal to Saint Augustine as an ancient authority acceptable to Mormons, because you believe he affirms it, if he is the authority acceptable to them, then it seems logical that Mormon apologists need to accept his authority in other various doctrinal matters as well.
The story of Saint Augustine’s life, his famous conversion and all of what he did and taught is very well historically documented. He is not an obscure figure of which little is known. We have his own works that accurately reveal all that he believed that have been widely read and commented on by all theologians since his time. They are part of the historical record.
He tells us in his story that he was a Manichee, that his mother Saint Monica prayed for him for many years, that he was influenced by the life of Saint Antony and the preaching of Saint Ambrose, the of Milan, both famous historical figures. He embraced the Christian faith as it was handed to him from others and went on to become the great theologian you quote.
If Augustine’s theology is acceptable to you, as it must be in light of the fact that you use him as an authority to support Mormon claims and doctrine, then the great apostacy Mormonism claims occurred must have happened some time after Augustine. He converted to the Catholic faith under the influence of Catholic luminaries whose beliefs were passed to them by earlier Catholic figures.
It does not seem reasonable that you would claim sources as valid authority to support your doctrine if you believed they were from an apostate church that held corrupted doctrines. If you hold up Augustine as a legitmate nonapostate authority it seems reasonable that you accept his teaching on other matters as well, and those from whom he received the doctrines he embraced. He did not make them up. He was taught and expounded on the faith he professed as it was handed to him.
He wrote very clearly on what he believed about the Eucharist for example, and the Catholic priesthood. His belief on these matters, and others, aligns with what those who came before him taught him and what he and the Church of his time professed and taught.
If you will not accept what he has to say about the Eucharist, the ordained ministry of his Church and other religious practices then you must say he received his doctrine from an already apostate church from which he learned false doctrine.
Again, if you quote Augustine’s doctrine as an affirmation of yours as true then the Church from which he learned it was not apostate. If the Church to which he belonged was apostate in its doctrines then Augustine was part of this false Church and his doctrines must be corrupt as well. It is one or the other.
Was Augustine an apostate churchman, part of a corrupt organization, or did the great apostacy come some time later? When you look at the entirety of what he wrote which is in agreement with that which the doctrines of the Church n his time and earlier, a Mormon must conclude this Church had already gone into apostacy, because Mormons reject it all.
If you want to say Mormonism is correct about A, because it agrees with Augistine, then you need to say Mormonism is wrong about B, because Augustine disagrees with him. You can say to yourself that Augustine was right about A and wrong about B, but when you use him as your support in a theological dispute then those who disagree with you can also claim his authoirty in other matters. If you accept some of his teaching and reject the rest then by your standard he is not a legitimate trustworthy authority to whom you can appeal. You make ypourself the authority who decides where he is right or wrong. He is of no use to you then, because by your own account he is unreliable.
It is impossible to find historical evidence that even suggests there was a time that the Church changed its doctrines, that an apostacy occurrred before or after Augustine. Therefore the only possibility for this to have happened according to the Mormon claim is if history has been entirely rewritten. There was a great apostacy and a great coverup. If there was a historical recreation then you have to reject the documents related to Augustine and all other historical Church figures as having any reliability. You can not appeal to them to support your claims if you say history was washed clean of the evidence of the apostacy. If on the other hand the history we have regarding Augustine and other has not be recreated to cover up an apostacy and there was an apostacy there should be some record not only of it, but also Mormon doctrines whould appear in the ancient historical record. History reveals all the doctrinal disputes of the early centuries in great detail, the people who were involved and how the Church dealt with them. There is no record of temple practices and a Moromon like priesthood, prohibition against drinking wine, etc.
If you appeal to Augustine and he believed what the Church of his time believed as revealed in his writing that is rejected by Mormonism, then he was either complicit in or deceived by this great apostacy. You have to say all the early history of the time and earlier that is passed on in countless documents and sources is deliberately falsified.
There was not only a coverup, but it was extremely succesful, because when you look at all the copies of the ancient documents that were dispersed to all corners they confirm their authenticity, because they are in accord with one another.
Whether the apostacy occurred before or after Augustine he can not be used by Mormons as an authority, because all of what he professed on all matters is Catholic.