Wow, there is alot here so let me respond in parts.
Yes, Christ did command his followers to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. Does that mean each one of us has to go into every country on the planet and preach the Gospel? You could read it that way, I suppose. Or you could read it that he meant you (as a group) go into all the world...some will go to one place and preach, some to another. I think you could read that verse literally both ways.
So what should you do here? Toss a coin?
Either way you read it you still have a responsibility to obey it. Are you obeying it? The Bible is your supreme authority you claim. Then you need to be obeying it, and, at the very least, witnessing not only to those in your community but having a responsibility to those in other nations as well.
Why not see what the early Christians did. Some were missionaries, some stayed in their home towns, but all preached the Gospel. You can see this even in the Book of Acts, but Church Father records further help you arrive at what these commands really meant.
The ECF are meaningless since they are a source of error and not truth.
What did the early churches do as recorded in the book of Acts and in the epistles.
Very early on we read:
Acts 8:1 And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem;
and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.
Acts 8:4 Therefore they that were scattered abroad
went every where preaching the word.
Everyone, but the apostles, went everywhere preaching the Word. They all obeyed the Great Commission. Persecution was the norm then, as Paul told Timothy that it would be, that is persecution would come for ALL who live Godly in Christ Jesus.
As far as "forsaking all others" this was said when Christ was testing a young man (before his crucifixion) to show that it is impossible to fulfill all of the law. Christ says nothing like this in the Great Commission which was during the New Covenant of grace.
There were far more passages directed to the disciples about "forsaking" then the one isolated incident with the rich young ruler that you are thinking of:
Luke 14:33 So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
--This command is given to all the disciples.
The Holy Spirit indwells all Christians. I do believe that God moves or leads Christians, but he does so by the Christian reading the Bible, God's Word, and praying, not listening to an inner voice or feeling. If you want to know what God wants you to do, read the Bible, don't wait for a FEELING that you assume is God "moving" you to do something. That kind of thinking is what led Joseph Smith to believe that God still speaks to Christians individually and now we've got millions of very nice people following a heresy.
I don't depend on my feelings. But the Lord has led me to the foreign mission field to serve in various nations for almost 30 years now. I have been in Islamic nations, third world nations, etc. The Lord has led me; not my feelings, but the Lord. I have been where very few people have ever been. But it has been the Lord that has led me. I don't live my life by my feelings. My final authority in my faith and in my practice is the Word of God.
Depend on the Bible! Don't depend on your feelings, your "movings", or your "leadings"! They may not be of God.
I trust the Word of God in all things, but that does not prohibit God from leading me.
Where is God leading to you?
The Great Commission has not been rescinded. It is still active for this day and age. In the light of the command to "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature," what are you doing?
Obedience to the Bible is not just lip work.
Lastly on the Church Fathers: there were heretics and false preachers in the early Church. That is why the Apostles called the first Church Council in Jerusalem. At this Church Council it was decided that those preaching that Gentile Christians had to be circumcised were teaching false doctrines. Paul chastized Peter for giving in to the Jewish Christians on this issue.
This was a decision made by the apostles. Such meetings were not to be duplicated. The apostles would never meet again.
In the future when decisions needed to be made they would be made by individual churches. For example, when a man committed fornication and discipline needed to be taken, Paul told the Corinthians that they themselves had to discipline the man out of their church. It was the Corinthian church's duty, not the duty of the apostles' or any other church. (1Cor.5:1-5).
That is how the church dealt with controversy and heresy in the Apostolic era and afterwards. They held church councils. The Church Council of Nicea condemned Arias as a heretic for teaching that Christ was the son of God but not God.
Early believers dealt with heresy through the Word of God on a church by church basis with the Word of God as their basis. Read the first epistle to the Corinthians. There was plenty of wrong-doing in the church, and no church council. There were some that even denied the resurrection (15th chapter). That local church took care of it with Paul's help. They didn't need church councils, and churches that have stood on the Word of God never have.
The false church of the RCC have relied on them.
Tertullian fell into the heresy of Montanism: wait until the last minute to be baptized because any sins committed after baptism are unforgiveable.
He was condemned for this belief in one of the subsequent Councils.
And yet Montanism itself was far closer to the truth then the RCC was. Just think; if you call Montanism heresy, then what would you call the RCC? a double-double heresy?? :laugh:
The apostles started the procedure for dealing with divisions in the church---the WHOLE church,
No they did not. There was no "whole church." They met at "the church which was at Jerusalem," where James was the pastor, and James made the final decision. It was not a model for future councils. It was a one time act made by the apostles, when Christianity was still new, to confirm that salvation was all of grace and not of works. Remember, they did not have all the NT written when that decision was made. We do have the entire Word of God, and thus do not need such councils.
not just individual congregations. It was by convening Church Councils. That is scripture, not tradition.
There were never any apostolic councils after that. The Bible teaches nothing more than a local church. There are no Biblical "church councils." Every local church is independent and responsible to God alone. No church has any authority over another.
Later in the first millenium AD the Bishop of Rome, due to being in the Imperial capital, started throwing his weight around, making up false doctrines such as that Peter only was given the keys to the Church, Peter was the first bishop of Rome, and therefore all subsequent bishops of Rome, held the keys to the Church. In time church councils no longer were the final arbiter of disagreement and heresy, it was one man in Rome. That is when all the false doctrines started infiltrating the Church.
Those false doctrines started at the end of the first century, when Paul, Peter, and John said they would.
1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would
no doubt have continued with us: but
they went out, that they might be made manifest that
they were not all of us.
