The following is my comment on a blog about the Early Christian church from a former Baptist pastor who became Roman Catholic and a former Wesleyan who also became Roman Catholic. They critiqued that they researched the closest denominational belief to the early church and turned Roman Catholic. What they missed, John Wesley found...that our belief system should be based SOLELY on the Ante-Nicene Christians belief and practice and NOT on the succeeding Ecumenical Councils
I agree that the early church is very remote from reformed Protestantism. However, I think the ante-Nicene faith reflects the best version of the New Testament spirit.
Some like Polycarp of Smyrna, Ignatius of Antioch, Clement of Rome were even directly mentored or even "ordained" by the Apostles. These are people who were born with a Koine Greek tongue, they spoke the language, they taught in that language, their Old Testament was the LXX and not the Masoretic text. Bottom line is if we are different from their belief and practice, most probably we are wrong. In fact, Augustine, who developed so many modern doctrines including predestination, did not even know Greek. He was confined to Latin. He did disagree with Jerome in the use of the Masoretic text for the Latin Vulgate.
The writings of the early Apostolic fathers contradict or even condemn some of the resolutions from the Seven Ecumenical Councils, resolutions which have little or nothing to do or even contradict the New Testament declarations. So I stopped depending on the Seven Councils and stuck with pre Nicene belief and practice. I side with John Wesley who taught Scripture based on his studies of the Ante-Nicene church fathers. He belonged to a the Hyper-Calvinist Anglican church but almost rejected their peripheral and even cardinal doctrines entirely. He even called the doctrine of predestination detestable (a really good call!). It is unfortunate that American Nazarenes today are more American than Wesleyan, most even do not know their roots. I am sure that is due to the corruption of time and culture. American Methodism, for example, was more Wesleyan than American when it started, but unfortunately the majority of congregants today are also more American than Wesleyan.
The Greek Orthodox and the Roman Catholic practices highlight more of the Seven Ecumenical councils and the Roman Catholic church has even more councils which yielded even more unilateral resolutions most of them the opposite of the beliefs and teaching of the ante-Nicene fathers.
Take for example the religious use of images and icons which the 7th Ecumenical Council approved and therefore practiced by both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, let's read what the early Apostolic fathers had to say ( I chose the tamer ones, there are others that are more insulting)
It is with a different kind of spell that art deludes you. . . . It leads you to pay religious honor and worship to images and pictures. Clement of Alexandria (c. 195, E), 2.188.
We are not to draw the faces of idols, for we are prohibited to cling to them. Clement of Alexandria (c. 195, E), 2.286.
The Law itself exhibits justice. It teaches wisdom by abstinence from visible images and by inviting us to the Maker and Father of the universe. Clement of Alexandria (c. 195, E), 2.365.
Ages before, Moses expressly commanded that neither a carved, nor molten, nor molded, nor painted likeness should be made. This was so that we would not cling to things of sense, but pass to spiritual objects. For familiarity with the sense of sight disparages the reverence of what is divine. Clement of Alexandria (c. 195, E), 2.451.
Works of art cannot be sacred and divine. Clement of Alexandria (c. 195, E), 2.530.
In a word, if we refuse our homage to statues and frigid images, . . . does it not merit praise instead of penalty that we have rejected what we have come to see is error? Tertullian (c. 197, W), 3.28.
We know that the names of the dead are nothing, as are their images. But when images are set up, we know well enough, too, who carry on their wicked work under these names. We know who exult in the homage rendered to the images. We know who pretend to be divine. It is none other than accursed spirits. Tertullian (c. 197, W), 3.84.
Demons have their abode in the images of the dead. Tertullian (c. 197, W), 3.85.
“Not that an idol is anything,” as the apostle says, but that the homage they render to it is to demons. These are the real occupants of these consecrated images—whether of dead men or (as they think) of gods. Tertullian (c. 197, W), 3.85.
Pompey the Great, after conquering the Jews and capturing Jerusalem, entered the temple. But he found nothing in the shape of an image, even though he examined the place carefully. Tertullian (c. 197, W), 3.121.
Paul says it concisely "WE LIVE BY FAITH AND NOT BY SIGHT". Those who live by sight have a huge problem with their faith as they contradict the spirit of the whole Bible!
Now, about the Post-Nicene invention of the perpetual virginity of Mary, did the early church believe that or did they contradict it?
James, the brother of Christ according to the flesh . . . [was] appointed bishop of Jerusalem by the Lord Himself and the apostles. Apostolic Constitutions (compiled c. 390, E), 7.496.
Jude, who wrote the catholic Epistle, was the brother of the sons of Joseph. And he was very religious. Although experiencing the near relationship of the Lord, yet he did not say that he himself was His brother. But what did he say? “Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ”—of Him as Lord; but “the brother of James.” For this was true. Jude was his brother, through Joseph. Clement of Alexandria (c. 195, E),
There still survived some of the kindred of the Lord. These were the grandsons of Jude, who according to the flesh was called His brother. These were informed against, as belonging to the family of David, and Evocatus brought them before Domitian Caesar. For that emperor dreaded the advent of Christ, as Herod had done. Hegesippus (c. 170), 8.763.
I also found out that we do not need any new exegesis of the New Testament after the ante-Nicene fathers. They have already thoroughly explained the meaning of the Apostle's writings, lived it out with exemplary lives, and died for it. They even had diverse beliefs about the Trinity, some articulations even later declared as heresy by the succeeding councils! In their culture, they did not care about theology but looked at the heart and life transformation of the believer to discern his faith. Wesley did teach that true faith is about the condition of the heart, and out of the heart will result good works or evil works. Today, we honor a person with "right theology" even if he is living in sin! History proves that, There were popes that were homosexual, popes that condemned each other, some even post-humous....just ridiculous. The early faith of turning the other cheek and loving your neighbor and enemies, pursuing holiness "without which no one will see the Lord", being blatantly violated. James did declare, "Show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith BY MY WORKS".
The bottom line about true salvation from the writings of the Apostolic fathers is that we are saved by grace through faith (PAST tense), we are being saved by our works of holy love (PRESENT tense) and we will all be saved and judged by our works when Christ returns (FUTURE tense).[NONE of the tenses are optional. They are ALL REQUIRED or you lose your salvation] NO New Testament passage can contradict that early church belief. WE ARE NEITHER SAVED NOR JUDGED BY OUR THEOLOGY nor a set of prescribed rituals or recitations. A tree is known by its fruit. Not all who call me Lord will be saved but only those who DO THE WILL of the Father , and THE WILL OF THE FATHER WOULD MOST PROBABLY BE THE FAITH ONCE AND FOR ALL DELIVERED TO THE SAINTS OF THE APOSTOLIC TIMEFRAME who fortunately understood and exegeted it to us. Any new belief or practice would be a pollution (and NOT an improvement!) of that faith "once and for all delivered to the saints".
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