Quote:
Originally Posted by Barb
Pela, I thought I had the answers until folks shot my 'evidence' to pieces, An Apostolic History Outline by Bro. Marvin Arnold, citing it's inaccuracies.
However, my lack of hard, in your face evidence does not cause me to doubt.
I cannot believe that the Church began with repentance, baptism in the Name, and Spirit infilling, ceased to exist through the so-called Dark Ages of history, only to return in the 20th century.
Call me delusional, but I just believe it continued through the ages of time...  |
Israel had her times of revival and apostacy. So has the church. I believe that that church has had almost 2000 years of apostacy. There may have been individuals here and there who may have even called themselves Trinitarian who truly understood the truth. For example John Calvin claims to believe in the Trinity but denounced the papacy and it's interpretation of it. Calvin was reaching into the light. Many Catholic "mystics" and Methodists experienced "ecstacy" that when described sound like Holy Ghost experiences. God still reached individuals and maybe a small number here and there...but for the large part the Church was in apostacy.
Then the Revivals came,
Lutheran Church - AD 1517: Saw - Justification by faith...
Presbyterian Church - Ad 1536: Saw - Communion as a Memorial...
Congregational Church - AD 1580: Saw - Separation of Church and State...
Baptist Church - AD 1609: Saw - Water Baptism by Immersion...
Methodist Church - AD 1739: Saw - Personal Holiness...
Christian Church - AD 1820: Saw - Baptism for Remission of Sins...
Trinitarian Pentecostalism - AD 1900: Saw - Baptism of the Holy Ghost - Evidence: Speaking with Tongues as in Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost...
AD 1914 Invasion of Apostles Doctrine from 33 A.D.!
The revelation of God in Christ (ONENESS), and the truth of baptism in the Name of Jesus Christ by immersion for the remission of sins brought the fire of Apostolic Christianity into full focus again to the Church Father Christians and the Reformation Christians!
It was a Restoration of the Church. This is perfect in timing because considering today's population explosion there are more people alive now than have ever lived in all human history. More people have the opportunity to hear the full gospel of Jesus Christian than ever before.
There are two schools. One teaches that the Apostolic truth existed in complete form consistantly down through the ages. They claim that spurious heretical groups were "Apostolic"....even though a number of them were polygamous, believed in Egyptology, etc. The second school is known as Restorationism. It teaches that shortly after the generation of the Apostles wolves entered into the flock and Satan invaded the church. From that day forward Satan attempted to destroy every glimmer of revival that began to appear with great persecutions. Eventually with the advent of the printing press God began to move and restore His Church to it's first century Apostolic glory. It sees a consistant building of revelation and understanding down through the persecutions and reformations culminating in the Apostolic Church of today.
Personally, I lean Restorationist simply because I'd rather trace my heritage through Reformers like Tyndale, Wycliffe, Whitefield, Knox, Wesley, etc. than these obscure cultic groups that may or may not have been Apostolic. An interesting note: When Tyndale was translating the Bible into English, there were a group of priests who he met with regularly who were searching the Scriptures and finding errors in Catholic Doctrine. Interestingly enough these men, though they didn't have full truth, called themselves the Apostolic Brethren.
We are the Church the Reformers were striving for....a Church based entirely on Scripture alone. We are the product of the Reformation! Don't fear the Reformers...thank God for them.
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