Generally a good article. The problem most Protestants need to deal with after Luther appeared on the scene is, Where was the Church of Christ before 1520 or thereabouts? It was there at the time of the Apostles, but did it then just vanish for a millennium and a half?
Anglicans and some others talk about the “Church Invisible,” but it’s a kind of a vague, mystical idea.
So, that pretty much makes it either the Orthodox Church or the Catholic Church. Which of them split off from the other? If you go by the numbers, then it was the Orthodox Church that split off in the Great Schism.
My conclusion, when I decided that the Anglican Church didn’t qualify as the one, true, universal Church of Christ, was that it was the Catholic Church that shows the obvious signs of having been the Church Universal since its founding by Christ.
Protestants should at least concede a point which Martin Luther, their religion’s founder, also conceded, namely, that the Catholic Church safeguarded and identified the Bible: "We are obliged to yield many things to the Catholics – (for example), that they possess the Word of God, which we received from them; otherwise, we should have known nothing at all about it." (21)
21. Commentary on John, chapter 16, as cited in Paul Stenhouse’s Catholic Answers to "Bible" Christians (Kensington: Chevalier Press, 1993), p. 31.
My belief based on my reading is that the East-West Schism was not a one-time event. It was a gradual development due to hard-headed and hard hearted people on both sides.
Intermittent communion between various Orthodox patriarchates and bishoprics continued all the way until 1729 when Pope Benedict XIII solidified the schism in the Patriarchate of Antioch.
I’m a Melkite, so I know a bit of this history.
The Greeks in Constantinople retaliated by decreeing that all Roman Catholic and Protestant baptisms were invalid.
It was there but being persecuted by Rome. True, Bible believing Christians were executed as heretics when found, which they were by the thousands. It certainly caused the Roman Church to seem like the only one around when often it was because those that opposed it were largely dead. Rome has a very bloody history.
Anglicans and some others talk about the “Church Invisible,” but it’s a kind of a vague, mystical idea.
The real church was those outside of your religion...Those who your religion persecuted and called heretics...Those who could not meet in public buildings for fear of your religion...
They were there, all over the place...