Thinkingstuff said:
Do you think that is true? The Earliest church fathers would disagree with you. Independent of each other? What about James making his proclimation during the first church council in Acts? Seems that these issues about gentiles were made to be universally accepted by all the churches. What need was there for Paul to ask for funds for the Church at Jerusalem and berating them for not giving? Though I am sure that the little details of the church were different from church to church there were some startling common practices. In fact the early church fathers used Catholic (universal) a lot. I'm not advocating for the Catholic church in Rome. I think the Early church Fathers meant (like in accounting GAAP) Generally Accepted Christian Principles which became very important due to the gnostic attacks on the church. They were unified in these principles. Do we have that kind of cohesion today? I wonder.
I don't put a lot of stock in the ECF. Many of the heresies of the RCC have arisen out of them. And some of them were outright heretics like Origen, considered a heretic even by the RCC.
The local church at Jerusalem was the first church to be established. That is where Pentecost was, and 3000 were saved that first day. It grew very quickly. When Saul was persecuting believers, Acts 8 tells us that the believers went everywhere spreading the word but the Apostles remained in Jerusalem. The common believer looked to the Apostles for leadership. Although the Apostles were in Jerusalem, it was James that was the pastor. It was James that made the final decision. He heard Paul, Peter, and some others. And it was "Pastor James's decision that they all abided by.
Acts 15:13 And after they had held their peace,
James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me:
Acts 15:19
Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God:
This decision was a decision regarding the Judaizers, those that believed circumcision and the keeping of the law were also essential to salvation. They were the ones that troubled Paul everywhere he went. Now a clear sentence had been made coming from the authority of the Apostles themselves that ought to put an end to these Jews that were troubling the Gentiles by adding to the gospel the works of the law. There was no "council" as such.
Acts 15:1-2 And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about
this question.
Paul wrote to individual churches to meet their needs. In his first letter to the Corinthians he addresses problems specific to that church that are addressed in no other church.
In Jerusalem there was a famine. A great many of the believers were in poverty. Paul, in his compassion, took up an offering for these believers on one of his missionary journeys. This doesn't mean that all the churches were connected, as in a denomination. Believers traveled and moved such as they do today.
Phoebe went to Rome, as did Aquila and Priscilla.
Apollos ended up in Corinth, and Titus went to Crete.
But in all of that there was no denomination. They were independent churches not having any connection one with another. And no church had any authority over another.
