Teancum Posted July 19, 2022 Posted July 19, 2022 14 hours ago, RevTestament said: The way I look at it is that the Church began to lose cohesiveness when the apostles died or were translated. At that time there was one Church, but in the next century or two you do begin to see a difference of opinion or debate about certain issues like those that got argued at Nicea. How was Christ God or in the Godhead was certainly a topic with multiple views espoused in the literature. When the Church began to gain imperial support is where you see an attempt to enforce an "orthodox" view imho, and at that time it was mostly a "battle" between the Arians and what later became the "orthodox." The eastern churches had a lot of Arian support. But, in actuality who you had deciding this matter was bishops, who never held the apostolic keys. They started merely as judges for their respective congregations. The apostles and the seventy(only mentioned in the NT) were gone. You have to realize they were all Hebrews and were mostly killed in the 7 years war with Rome, or died far away from home. In my mind this does not mean the Church had become apostate just yet, but various sects did eventually change teachings. Interesting However, keep in mind there were factions and sects right out of the box. Paul's letters demonstrate this as they were typically course corrections that he felt needed to be made to the various churches he has established. Even the apostles were not totally on the same page. 1
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