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To: NYer
How interesting that it's the gang of mortal venerators who label Protestants as "heretics." (And if angels repeatedly told men "don't do it" when men were tempted to bow down & worship them, then saints aren't more "saintly" than perfect moral entitities like angels).

But as for the content put forth:

The doctrine of private judgment has resulted in an enormous number of different denominations. According to The Christian Sourcebook, there are approximately 20-30,000 denominations, with 270 new ones being formed each year. Virtually all of these are Protestant.

Let's go back to the early NT church, shall we?
Did the early NT church meet in glass-stained set-aside huge buildings? (No)
Did it meet largely in homes (even caves)? (Yes)
Were plural leaders of the church recognized, like James, Peter, and Paul? (Yes)
Were churches arranged more by communities/cities? (Yes)

The truly Protestant "denominations" of today (most of them, anyway) are like the community based churches of old. In those churches of old, you would find distinctives, but more would unite them than would set them apart.

As for 270 "new ones" each year, some of those are cults. Some are independents that won't survive over the long run. As for the rest:

Imagine that you are a local church "patriarch" of a community-based church right after Christ has ascended. (Remember this is Christ's church & there is no such thing at this point as a Rome-based worldwide church).

You have 9 kids, who each have 9 kids, and you tell them to each move into a new community to start a new mission church. Once they all reach young adulthood, that's 90 "new ones formed." As soon as each of your grandkids has 2 per family who have reached young adulthood and have moved into a new community to start a new church, that's 270 new mission churches in the early church. (So, what? the early pre-Rome, home-based, community-based church was a "heresy," too?)

Now if you each of those churches had some flexibility of worship according to customized cultural distinctives, they would not going to be carbon copies of each other, giving the partial appearance of a different "denomination." As for the "Patriarch," in reality, for Rome the Patriarch is a man, the Pope. In Protestantism, our "Patriarch" is God the Father and "the Pope" is our Living Prophet, Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:1-2). Paul said the "Head of the Body" was Jesus Christ, not Peter. Peter was a pillar, a foundational servant of the Church.

26 posted on 05/20/2008 8:28:14 AM PDT by Colofornian
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To: Colofornian

Great post, Colofornian. I’m proud of ya. That one’s a keeper.


160 posted on 05/20/2008 10:21:20 PM PDT by Marysecretary (.GOD IS STILL IN CONTROL)
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