The easiest way to track the initial progress of the church is; of course to study the New Testament between Acts and Revelation.
The true church is to be under the assumption of true doctrine as Christ's physical resurrection and belief in His atonement being a baseline to determine saving faith. As I stated in the first introduction posting on this subject even the greatest theologians had besetting sins; if Paul could say that he was the "chief of sinners" ( 1 Tim. 1:15) certainly no one else can be absolved from criticism for transgressions. Those who would try to lift up Peter; for instance indicating he was the first in the line of papacy are hesitant to mention his glaring issue of denying Christ; trying to stop him from going to his death in the famous "get behind me Satan" verse in Matthew 16:23; as well as his hypocritical stance with the Jews on avoiding unclean foods that Paul had to publically rebuke him for (Galatians I think).
Doctrinal error and general apostacy was predicted to occur as Peter and Paul's last writings before martyrdom indicated (also see James). The fact it existed before the end of the first century is clear from the admonitions to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3. In terms of the history of the church and or various types of churches throughout history, the seven churches clearly show that the Laodicean type is prominent today by far.
Going into the first few centuries; we can clearly see the errant influences that became the genesis for spurious doctrines of many denominations today which influenced Catholicism; Eastern Orthodox churches and Coptic ones where men were made saints then later taken from that auspicious category; and a lack of belief of Christ being God in the flesh; denial of the "Trinity" or better put Godhead in 3 persons; etc. There were gnostic influences and many other cultural assimilations that took over particularly in European circles.
The easiest way to track the initial progress of the church is; of course to study the New Testament between Acts and Revelation.
The true church is to be under the assumption of true doctrine as Christ's physical resurrection and belief in His atonement being a baseline to determine saving faith. As I stated in the first introduction posting on this subject even the greatest theologians had besetting sins; if Paul could say that he was the "chief of sinners" ( 1 Tim. 1:15) certainly no one else can be absolved from criticism for transgressions. Those who would try to lift up Peter; for instance indicating he was the first in the line of papacy are hesitant to mention his glaring issue of denying Christ; trying to stop him from going to his death in the famous "get behind me Satan" verse in Matthew 16:23; as well as his hypocritical stance with the Jews on avoiding unclean foods that Paul had to publically rebuke him for (Galatians I think).
Doctrinal error and general apostacy was predicted to occur as Peter and Paul's last writings before martyrdom indicated (also see James). The fact it existed before the end of the first century is clear from the admonitions to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3. In terms of the history of the church and or various types of churches throughout history, the seven churches clearly show that the Laodicean type is prominent today by far.
Going into the first few centuries; we can clearly see the errant influences that became the genesis for spurious doctrines of many denominations today which influenced Catholicism; Eastern Orthodox churches and Coptic ones where men were made saints then later taken from that auspicious category; and a lack of belief of Christ being God in the flesh; denial of the "Trinity" or better put Godhead in 3 persons; etc. There were gnostic influences and many other cultural assimilations that took over particularly in European circles.
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