Stand firm then.......do not be burdened by the yolk of the law

"Most early church fathers (i.e., 2nd-3rd century AD) didn't have a clue about grace, eternal security, the gospel. The church very quickly degenerated into basic legalism. It was not until Augustine that the church recovered some of this. But then it fell into the dark ages, waiting for a young monk from Germany to nail his protests on the door of the Wittenberg Church.

Dr. Ted Deibler (former chairman of Church History at Dallas Seminary) used to say, "the one thing we can be certain of learning from church history is that we learn nothing from church history." He meant by this that we are on very dangerous ground if we assume uniformly correct theology from the church fathers.Allegorical interpretation and eschatology: Origen and his school in particular promoted a view of scripture which was quite fanciful.

In sum, the argument for a single leader of each church is especially persuasive to Roman Catholics because it did occur throughout church history. Yet, such traditions can never replace the Word of God. In fact, with the birth of the Reformation came a renewed understanding of the priesthood of the believer which, in turn, moved away from the notion of a single leader at the top."


What is your point Craig? My point is this, if the leadership is not convinced of the message of grace, never wanting to mention it, refuting it...saying you are splitting hairs....stand firm....Gal 5:1....not that you want to cause disunity, never, but unity at the expense of truth is not unity but conformity....be gracious but stand firm....preach freedom in the grace of Christ!!