[fwdude]

The “ancient Church” was also a primitive Church, equipped by the Spirit of God with spiritual gifts and a complete theology to produce good works according to the will of God and to overcome sin, self and the world. It was completely devoid of the lavish rituals and mind-numbing, evolving protocol which epitomizes the Catholic Church in all its manifestations through the ages. This is my major beef with Catholicism - besides the overt Marianism, doctrines of purgatory, Papal infallibility, etc. If the early, primitive Church was complete and equipped with all it needed, all additions are superfluous dross. That goes for Protestant inventions as well as Catholic.

[Mad Dawg]

If the early, primitive Church was complete and equipped with all it needed, all additions are superfluous dross.

An acorn is complete and equipped with all it needs. And what an acorn does with all that "equipment" is grow into an oak "and birds nest in its branches".

I'm not pretending this is some devastating refutation. (I'm dumb, but not THAT dumb.) I'm suggesting a different understanding of "complete"

[Chaguito]

Thank you for your comment about the primitive church. I think it is a middle ground between sola scriptura and the extravagances of the Catholic Church. But, as you may know, striving to imitate the primitive church has produced a lot of strife and division, as well. As a guiding principle, though, I think it is a worthwhile effort to find the nucleus of faith and practice of the contemporaries of the Apostles.