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To: RnMomof7; Dr. Eckleburg; metmom; Quix; caww; 1000 silverlings
Shoot and Move, Rn --> your post 10253 said The New testament church has no apostolic succession, no priesthood, no popes

let's hear from a real first Century Christian, pope Clement
"Through countryside and city [the apostles] preached, and they appointed their earliest converts, testing them by the Spirit, to be the bishops and deacons of future believers. Nor was this a novelty, for bishops and deacons had been written about a long time earlier. . . . Our apostles knew through our Lord Jesus Christ that there would be strife for the office of bishop. For this reason, therefore, having received perfect foreknowledge, they appointed those who have already been mentioned and afterwards added the further provision that, if they should die, other approved men should succeed to their ministry" (Letter to the Corinthians 42:4–5, 44:1–3 [A.D. 80]).
Or Ireneus, a disciple of the Apostle John
"It is possible, then, for everyone in every church, who may wish to know the truth, to contemplate the tradition of the apostles which has been made known to us throughout the whole world. And we are in a position to enumerate those who were instituted bishops by the apostles and their successors down to our own times, men who neither knew nor taught anything like what these heretics rave about" (Against Heresies 3:3:1 [A.D. 189]).

"The true knowledge is the doctrine of the apostles, and the ancient organization of the Church throughout the whole world, and the manifestation of the body of Christ according to the succession of bishops, by which succession the bishops have handed down the Church which is found everywhere" (ibid., 4:33:8).
your interpretation is wrong -- the first century Christians practised in a manner similar to what you see in any Catholic Church today. Read about the mass
Didache (a Syrian liturgical manual written around A.D. 70), which stated, "On the Lord’s Day . . . gather together, break bread and offer the Eucharist, after confessing your transgressions so that your sacrifice may be pure. Let no one who has a quarrel with his neighbor join you until he is reconciled, lest our sacrifice be defiled. For this is that which was proclaimed by the Lord: ‘In every place and time let there be offered to me a clean sacrifice. For I am a great king,’ says the Lord, ‘and my name is wonderful among the gentiles’ [cf. Mal. 1:11]" (14:1–3).
So, let's see -- Apostolic Succession, check, Mass, check, Eucharist, check, priesthood, check, episcopal nature, check, popes (bishops of Rome), check.

This looks like the Catholic Church to me -- and that is what the first century Church looked like -- AS DESCRIBED BY FIRST CENTURY CHRISTIANS!!!


And you think that, 2000 years later, you know better about how these people worshipped, better than they who lived it did??
11,198 posted on 10/14/2010 12:30:04 AM PDT by Cronos (Ojciec i Syn i Duch Swiety)
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To: Cronos

I think the Authorized Protestant View is that the history of the Church ended with the last sentences in Acts.


11,199 posted on 10/14/2010 12:32:28 AM PDT by D-fendr (Deus non alligatur sacramentis sed nos alligamur.)
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