That was the Catholic Church with Peter as the Pope.
What was the name of your church again?
So you ignore Peter and the authority that Jesus gave him and his successors? So if you reject Peter, you reject Christ. (Another statement by Jesus)
A heretic of gnostic church?
The first Christians had no doubts about how to determine which was the true Church and which doctrines the true teachings of Christ. The test was simple: Just trace the apostolic succession of the claimants.
Apostolic succession is the line of bishops stretching back to the apostles. All over the world, all Catholic bishops are part of a lineage that goes back to the time of the apostles, something that is impossible in Protestant denominations (most of which do not even claim to have bishops).
The role of apostolic succession in preserving true doctrine is illustrated in the Bible. To make sure that the apostles’ teachings would be passed down after the deaths of the apostles, Paul told Timothy, “[W]hat you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:2). In this passage he refers to the first three generations of apostolic succession—his own generation, Timothy’s generation, and the generation Timothy will teach.
The Church Fathers, who were links in that chain of succession, regularly appealed to apostolic succession as a test for whether Catholics or heretics had correct doctrine. This was necessary because heretics simply put their own interpretations, even bizarre ones, on Scripture. Clearly, something other than Scripture had to be used as an ultimate test of doctrine in these cases.
Thus the early Church historian J. N. D. Kelly, a Protestant, writes, “[W]here in practice was [the] apostolic testimony or tradition to be found? . . . The most obvious answer was that the apostles had committed it orally to the Church, where it had been handed down from generation to generation. . . . Unlike the alleged secret tradition of the Gnostics, it was entirely public and open, having been entrusted by the apostles to their successors, and by these in turn to those who followed them, and was visible in the Church for all who cared to look for it” (Early Christian Doctrines, 37).
So if you reject Peter, you reject Christ.
Total and unadulterated nonsense.
(Another statement by Jesus)
Chapter and verse?
The first Christians had no doubts about how to determine which was the true Church and which doctrines the true teachings of Christ. The test was simple: Just trace the apostolic succession of the claimants.
Chapter and verse?
Apostolic succession is the line of bishops stretching back to the apostles. All over the world, all Catholic bishops are part of a lineage that goes back to the time of the apostles, something that is impossible in Protestant denominations (most of which do not even claim to have bishops).
Show me where the term *apostolic succession appears in Scripture.
We have Scripture. We don't need the *church fathers* to tell us what it says or means because we can read it ourselves to see what it says and the Holy Spirit tells us what it means.
And the vast majority of Scripture is not so complicated that it needs all those church leaders to tell us what it means.
One could spend a lifetime working on simply the stuff that's clear cut and obvious without even touching the stuff that Paul wrote that is hard to understand.
The only reasons Catholics find it hard to understand is that they don't lean on the Holy Spirit for understanding and the Catholic church has made salvation so stinking complicated, that they can then justify the hordes of *church leaders* to *correctly interpret* it for them.
Great job security. Create a system so ridiculously complicated that they create a need that they end up filling.
God made salvation easy.
Romans 10:9-13 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
86% of the churches recorded in Revelation were in error. Which one are you referring to?
Sorry, but once again the scriptures blow your Catholic doctrine right out of the water...
It is sad that your religion has to pervert the scriptures to justify its false doctrines...
2Ti 2:2 And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.
Of me, NOT from me...
Paul was telling Timothy to choose men like Paul to lead the ministry...Full of zeal for God...Integrity...Humble...And all the other things Paul was...Has nothing to do with what Paul taught...
But yet you'll use this perversion of scripture to con Catholics into believing apostolic succession is viable...