Revelation was certainly progressive from Adam onward: what Noah knew was less than what Moses knew, which was less than what the prophets knew, which was less than what the Apostles knew. At the death of the last surviving Apostle, General Revelation ended.
Now, understanding of what was revealed developed over time. All of what we now call the NT was written by the close of the century, but recognition of such as "Scripture" was by no means immediate, and the process of fixing the canon was not completed until about 380 C.E.
Similarly, the doctrine of the Trinity ("That in the unity the Godhead there are three distinct Persons, who are consubstantial, co-equal and co-eternal.") No NT writer comes close to explicitly articulating the Godhead as such, nor is such found explicitly in the earlier post-Apostolic writers. As Christological controversies arose in the 2nd to 5th centuries, the doctrine was developed and clarified.
But development of doctrine is distinct from progressive revelation.
Revelation was certainly progressive from Adam onward: what Noah knew was less than what Moses knew, which was less than what the prophets knew, which was less than what the Apostles knew. At the death of the last surviving Apostle, General Revelation ended.
On this I agree. At that point in the life of the church we had all we needed to know about salvation and how to be right with God through Christ.
Now, understanding of what was revealed developed over time. All of what we now call the NT was written by the close of the century, but recognition of such as "Scripture" was by no means immediate, and the process of fixing the canon was not completed until about 380 C.E.
Some might date the NT canon as being complete at 367, but for the most part we had a lot of the NT in place very early in the life of the church. Paul's writings were considered "canon" before the end of the 1st century. The four Gospels were also pretty much agreed upon by the end of the 1st century early 2nd century.
Similarly, the doctrine of the Trinity ("That in the unity the Godhead there are three distinct Persons, who are consubstantial, co-equal and co-eternal.") No NT writer comes close to explicitly articulating the Godhead as such, nor is such found explicitly in the earlier post-Apostolic writers. As Christological controversies arose in the 2nd to 5th centuries, the doctrine was developed and clarified.
An understanding of the Hebrew and Greek would have made this clear....In Genesis God said let Us.....who is the Us?
But development of doctrine is distinct from progressive revelation.
Ah, and there's the rub. Several key aspects of catholic "doctrine" have departed from Scripture. We've seen the numerous quotes from the ECFs on these topics and there is no universal agreement on the issues of the papacy, mary, and others....these two being the primary ones.
So your saying the apostles didn't teach it but the Catholic Church demands that people believe it?