Nail, meet hammer. Reminds me of how Elijah mocked the prophets of Baal when they could not invoke him to their sacrifice. (Maybe he fell asleep. Maybe he's in the bathroom.")
Blithe dismissal of the first 1500 years after our Lord walked this earth must accept that God was stymied by men in carrying out His program.
And, why He promised to send the Holy Spirit (to lead into all truth) instead of a book; which promise was fulfilled fifty days after His Ascension.
But, none are as blind as those who refuse to look.
MRD: Nail, meet hammer. Reminds me of how Elijah mocked the prophets of Baal when they could not invoke him to their sacrifice. (Maybe he fell asleep. Maybe he's in the bathroom.")
Blithe dismissal of the first 1500 years after our Lord walked this earth must accept that God was stymied by men in carrying out His program.
And, why He promised to send the Holy Spirit (to lead into all truth) instead of a book; which promise was fulfilled fifty days after His Ascension.
But, none are as blind as those who refuse to look.
We haven't refused to look, and we are not "blithely dismissing" anything, but have such a different view of what the Ecclesia IS, that we cannot help but to view the history of it in an entirely different way than you do. That is not dismissal. That is acceptance of the teaching of Jesus. We make a different set of assumptions about the scope and nature of the Ecclesia BECAUSE Jesus invites us to look not at superficialities like geography or outward appearances, but inwardly, to the spirit, and to truth, as the grounds of proper worship of God. As a result, we understand that our parochial views of history do not validate Scripture, but Scripture validates (or fails to validate) those views of history. As the Scripture says, let God be true, and every man a liar. There are many human institutions which claim divine authority, and give formal assent to many things that are true, and yet they are not the Ecclesia. This is the threshold we look to, the single, narrow passage into the spiritual building, the true Ecclesia, to which we seek admittance: "Ye must be born again."
Peace,
SR
True...
Acts 17:10-11 (KJV)
And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.
These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.