“The early church was universal but it was not “roman “catholic.. The church as they knew it was much closer to what would be a protestant service than a catholic one.. /
Do you actually have anything to back up this claim or is it just something you WANT to be true?”
Maybe.
Priests? Taking confession? Assigning penance? The Apostles were rather quiet about them, if it existed.
The Eucharist in the early church is discussed by a Protestant scholar (Philip Schaff) here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2379242/posts
However, it probably wasn’t much like the normal modern Protestant service, either...the article by Schaff points that out as well.
I suspect the truth is that neither Catholic nor Protestant worship service is all that close the what was found in 100-200 AD, nor should it be. At least in America, we aren’t being hunted down and killed, we have scripture complete, we have a different environment for evangelism, etc.
The evolution of doctrine is more disturbing to me than the evolution of our services.
Exactly...what we do know is they preached and broke bread..
Scripture gives all the answers we need to this issue.
The Biblical model is independent churches united by a common faith. Acts 9:31, 15:41, 16:5; Roms. 16:4, 16:16; ICor. 7:17, 11:16, 14:33, 14:34, 16:1, 16:19; 2Cor. 8:1, 8:18, 8:19, 8:23, 8:24; 2Cor. 11:8, 11:28, 12:13; Gal. 1:22; 1Th.2:14; 2Th.1:4: Rev.1:4, 1:11, 2:7, 2:11, 2:17, 2:23, 2:29, 3:6, 3:13, 3:22.
Local leadership Acts 14:23, 20:17-35, 1Pet.5:1-5.
Pastors leading the early church, no "supreme Bishop" 1Pet.5:1-5, James 5:14-15
Apostles put their authority behind local church leaders 1Cor.16:15-16
Local leadership of churches should be determined by the Holy Spirit 1Cor.12:28, Rom.12:8
What Scripture tells us is we are united by a common faith, directed by the Holy Spirit, our elders come from us and no one church is in control.