The Religion of the Apostles: Orthodox Christianity in the First Century. Stephen De Young works hard to explode all parts of this myth, explaining that the beliefs and worship of the first Christians were essentially identical to those written down some years later, and were not new at all.

submitted by Chipit from theworthyhouse.com

sorted by:
top (suggested)
newinsightfulfun
you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

I think it is Catholicism because only it claims to have binding authority. Even Orthodox Christians admit papal primacy. Because there is no pope in the Orthodox Church, since the great schism there have been problems calling an ecumenical council, which wasn’t a problem before the schism. Finally, if all bishops were equals, we would run into a practical dilemna:

Let us say the average layman is a peasant with no knowledge of theology and all bishops petitioned into 2 teams, each claiming to excommunicate bishops of the other team. If all bishops are equal, where is the Church? Do we just submit to the faction the king supports, or did God give us a way to decide even if we are stupid and poor?

Having said that this Francis fellow doesn’t fit the requirements for a pope. It is probably the other guy dressed in white and signing with his papal name. The pope can only be one of them, and it doesn’t look like Francis' who seems more like the false prophet who will create the counterfeit church, the whore of Babylon. I don’t think Protestants would have imagined that the false prophet is an antipope and not a legitimate pope.

[–]asterias 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Even Orthodox Christians admit papal primacy.

No, they don't. The prophecy clearly states: "Curse the Pope for he will be the cause".

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

They say the pope is the first among equals because some of the earliest writings of Christians show special respect to his authority among all bishops. Read some of the Church Fathers.

[–]asterias 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

Orthodox Christians view Pope as a heretic. There's no way they would admit papal primacy, which is something only Catholics do.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I think you mean papal supremacy or papal infallibility. When studying doctrine the Orthodox think that papal primacy has lead too far.

But to explain why the early Christians gave so much respect to the Church of Rome, they said the bishop of Rome was the first among equals, not that he was superior to other bishops.

This man everyone calls the pope is a heretic, in this sense I agree with them. He is probably an antipope.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_primacy