Posted on 10/08/2008 9:32:21 AM PDT by topcat54
In the history given to us in Scripture, and in the history prophesied following the time of the apostles, we see the same pattern over and over. Paul warns the elders at Ephesus -- "For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock" (Acts 20:29). Truth must be preserved within the Church before it can be effectively proclaimed to the world. The primary battle with heretics and false teachers has always been within the Church. This was not done as effectively as it should have been during this period. The issue is faithfulness to the Word over generations, and sadly this time represented a serious decline.
Luther estimated that the church had given way to corruption by the 8th century. This was a gradual downhill slide, and not a cliff-edge drop -- but you can get as low either way. What were some of the key corruptions? The first was the papacy -- Jesus had warned that ecclesiastical power was not to be wielded in a certain way.
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This was indeed a millennium of decline and hope both. When a classical Protestant is asked, "Where was your Church before the Reformation?" he should reply with another question -- where was your face before you washed it? Throughout this entire period, the dirt was clearly there . . . but so was the face, clear and recognizable.
(Excerpt) Read more at dougwils.com ...
S.M. Houghton commented on the influence of Wyclif from this period. "The hatred of the Roman Church for John Wycliff is perhaps best shown by an event which took place about forty years after his death. By order of the Council of Constance (1415) the reformer's bones were to be dug up from their grave and refused reburial. This was carried out in 1428 when the Bishop of London burned the remains, and scattered the ashes upon the waters of the River Swift which runs through Lutterworth. It has been well said that, as the ashes were carried by the Swift to the Avon, by the Avon to the Severn, by the Severn to the "narrow seas," and by the "narrow seas" to the ocean, so the reformer's teachings and message reached out into all England, and from England into far-distant lands."
GRPL Ping
This reminds me of a question I have had. What is the difference between a cult and a heretical church? Where do you draw the line? DO we look at it like a giant bulls eye with some asosciations closer to the truth than others? Thats the direction I have been leaning. Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutehrans closest to the truth while RC and SDA on the fringe? What do you think?
He was wrong.
Segments of Christianity began going off the tracks when they embraced state sponsorship and later became a part of the state. It was a spiritual revolution that Jesus brought us not a physical restructuring of our govts.
It's easy to understand why Christians embraced the new state sponsorship, especially when you take into account all the persecutions, but the unintended consequences included aristocratic families assuming leadership and bending the new gso (govt. sponsored organization) to their ends.
particular Churches, ... are more or less pure, according as the doctrine of the Gospel is taught and embraced, ordinances administered, and public worship performed more or less purely in them...The purest Churches under heaven are subject both to mixture and error; and some have so degenerated, as to become no Churches of Christ, but synagogues of Satan.
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