[Claud]

They wanted to gather into the flock pagans who had grown up in idolatry and who would therefore have a very difficult time appreciating the nakedness of faith that the New Testament strongly emphasizes.

That's an interesting perspective right there.

The Apostles didn't carry over any of the liturgical ethos they had drunk up like mother's milk from Judaism? The Jewish liturgical year? The readings, the rituals, the cycles of prayer, the sacramentals, the symbols, the hymnody, the liturgical language, the set formulas for recitation?

That was all pagan-inspired, was it?

[Claud]

I realize that the author is narrowing his criticism of pagan influence to iconography, and not liturgy in general.

But there are inklings that the Judaism of the New Testament period was not as anti-iconography as some would have us believe:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dura-Europos_synagogue

[Uri’el-2012]

With regard to the importance of biblical authority, Orthodox and Catholic Christians do not seem to understand very well that at the close of the first century, when the apostle John wrote the book of Revelation to the spiritual hub of Christianity centered in Ephesus, five out of the seven churches were not doing very well. Only one, the church of Philadelphia, was truly pleasing to the Lord. In other words, the church was already corrupted by the close of the first century.

There seems to be a mis-understanding of the seven churches
in Revelation. Many see it as a chronological metaphor.

I believe the wheels came off in Nicea in 325 CE.

shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach

[Uri’el-2012]

They wanted to gather into the flock pagans who had grown up in idolatry and who would therefore have a very difficult time appreciating the nakedness of faith that the New Testament strongly emphasizes.

This impugns the sovereignty of YHvH.

shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach