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To: Salvation
And just think of it. Most of them knew the apostles, knew the Blessed Virgin Mary, knew the disciples — maybe they even were some of the first disciples. And some people doubt them?

Without getting into the "most, many, some, few" debate I'd like to point out a slight distinction that I and most/many/some/a few other Fundamentalists see.

While we don't outright doubt the early Church Fathers, we also don't extend the idea of infallibility to them either. Only the Apostles have that cloak, and then only in matters where the Holy Spirit was guiding them. We actually have an example of an Apostle acting outside of the Holy Spirit's guiding in Galatians 2:11 where Peter and Barnabas were guided by peer pressure from the Jewish converts to shun Gentile believers.

Now that's not to say that the Holy Spirit couldn't and didn't work through the early Church Fathers, since it was by His guidance that we were given the Canon of Scripture, but discernment becomes of the utmost importance due to their lack of a first hand knowledge of the events surrounding Christ's life, crucifixion, burial and resurrection.

Simply put, we hold to the idea that Reagan put so succinctly as "Trust, but Verify". I personally find it very enlightening and rewarding to read what some of the early Church Fathers have written, as it gives a great insight to what they went through to help spread the Gospel in those early years.

29 posted on 06/15/2011 7:33:34 AM PDT by paladin1_dcs (Voting for the lesser of two evils is still voting for evil.)
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To: paladin1_dcs

**While we don’t outright doubt the early Church Fathers, we also don’t extend the idea of infallibility to them either.**

This is a new area for me, but I believe the Early Church Fathers did NOT agree on everything.


33 posted on 06/15/2011 9:55:39 AM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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