[Iscool]

So now its speculation on how the “First” Christians would or would not recognize the Church? For the first 300 years we had the early Church fathers assemble the books of scripture base on the oral tradition, ritual, and revelation based on infallible Petrine authority

Plenty of people have posted from the writings of the early church fathers and most all claim 'scripture alone' authority...

[Steelfish]

You keep missing the point that the books in the Bible did not fall from the skies and self assemble themselves in the order you find them. For some 300 years they were put together by the early Church fathers. This authority was not plucked out of thin air to authenticate the very Word of God.It was under Petrine authority. Go read their writings like St. Irenaeus and others.

This is precisely one of the main reasons why preeminent Protestant theologians converted to Catholicism. Read all of Dr Anders’ soul searching story, if you haven’t done so. The Bible itself tells us that there were many things Christ said that if written down would not fill the whole world. This oral tradition was carried out by and under the authority of ONE Church. This authority did not collapse with the Reformation.