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To: annalex; wmfights
Papacy as we know it today developed as heresies began to develop ....In the West we need a strong papacy. Less so in the East. ...The original dispute with WmFights was whether the early Church was hierarchical, and both historical and scriptural evidence for that is plentiful.

Do you understand how contradictory your statement is? If the Papacy began to developed as a result of heresy, then the early Church originally was not hierarchical as wmfights has correctly pointed out. Certainly the Orthodox have a completely different structure. Perhaps you should become Orthodox if you feel they have more control over their flock.

BTW-The Pope was on the scene well before the Protestant Reformation. That didn't stop us heretics from leaving.

3,447 posted on 01/02/2007 2:01:35 PM PST by HarleyD (Col 3:15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body;)
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To: HarleyD; wmfights
understand how contradictory your statement is?

The Early Church had a strong hierachy from the bishop down. It did not have a strong papacy, but the See of Rome always had primacy. Papacy got stronger over time, especially in the politically fractured early medieval West. There is no contradiction.

The Pope was on the scene well before the Protestant Reformation. That didn't stop us heretics from leaving

Before the Reformed heresies there were sundry christological heresies, Gnosticism and Arianism chief among them. The papacy preserved the deposit of faith in that environment, and it preserved it against the Reformers centuries later, and thank God for that. It was never the intention of any pope to prevent anyone from leaving, then or now.

3,450 posted on 01/02/2007 2:17:13 PM PST by annalex
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