To: Free Baptist
No, not till the Council of Nicea did there come into being a system that we know now as the Roman Catholic Church. Typical Baptist fantasy history. How exactly did the bishops of a Church which didn't exist come to be gathered into a council anyway? How'd they get to be bishops in the first place?
SD
To: SoothingDave
Bishops (pastors) associate for fellowship, and sometimes for political cooperation. It hpeens today...it happened then. Some fellowships become associations. Some associations proceed to become denominations. Some denominations proceed to want to take over the world, and have city states, and little ecclesiastical kings who become quite influencial, and use spiritual threats and sometimes even force of arms to control other monarchs. Some, like the bishops did at Nicea form links with empires creating a "Holy ___________ Empire" on the side.
That's basically how it happened. Constantine called for these bishops, but that was only the beginning of the formal system that we know today as the RCC. And you are welcome to your system. But biblically, it is wholly unnecessary to be be involved with it for us to have a walk with God.
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