[TheGeezer]

Just curious: how far will liberal ECUSA bishops have to go until it becomes evident that a single authority - e.g., papal - inherited from St. Peter and his successors - is necessary for true preservation from error?

Regards.

[Leroy S. Mort]

Ahhh..I thought that's where you were heading, Sorry, but I'm not interested in playing.

God Bless....

[ahadams2]

I'm not Leroy, but since you asked "evident that a single authority - e.g., papal - inherited from St. Peter and his successors - is necessary for true preservation from error?"

er, well the Anglican Communion exists because of abuses of papal authority in establishing errors... Besides remember that the episcopal church not only does NOT accurately reflect Anglican theology, but also has been largely cut off from the rest of the Anglican Communion as more and more Provinces (that's what we call our geographic area defined portions of the Anglican Communion) have been and are continuing to distance themselves, even at significant cost to themselves.

[PetroniusMaximus]

***a single authority - e.g., papal - inherited from St. Peter and his successors - is necessary for true preservation from error?***

Good question, but consider this...

Why did the Jewish Christian church in Jerusalem disappear, (the o­ne James headed as alluded to in Acts 15, Gal.1&2 and Eusebius)?

The HQ of the Church was in Jerusalem. But that changed. Probably for prophetic reasons (Jerusalem was to be destroyed), the Holy Spirit ended that geographic work and started a new thing (in Antioch and Alexandria).

The point is - a geographic church tradition can end, it may fade out into apathetic formalism or it may drift into error. The Lord may then decide to cut that church (used in the wide geographic sense) off. An example of Jesus threatening this very thing is in Rev 2: 4-6.

Paul also warns that such a thing can happen in Rom. 11:17-24

From my point of view, it is a mistake is to assume that o­ne can be preserved from error by holding allegiance to a bishop of a specific geographic location (bishop of Rome). As we have seen above, there were churches which were threatened with being "cut off" or having their candle removed from the heavenly menorah.

Jesus was speaking to a church. Paul was speaking to a church (Rome in it's infancy) So the Roman church was warned of the danger of being cut off. They wouldn't be warned of the danger of something if it was an impossibility.

And as a side point. The ECUSA is apostacising because they have rejected the authority of the Bible.

PS What is the RC position o­n the apostolic status of the Eastern Orthodox church?