BIBLES * Bulldogs * & Beards

Disagree, agree, or have a question: Contact us through the contact page on our website; http://www.biblebulldog.com Pastor William Shifflett discusses PART TWO - The Early Church - Chapter 3 The Creedal Imperative by Carl R. Truman

The Rule of Faith. The “Rule of Faith” is a summary of the essentials of Christianity that occurs in various verbal forms in the writings of numerous early church fathers.

The postapostolic period presented 2 challenges.

1.Leadership structure: Due to the death of the apostles.

What was Paul’s main concern in his letters to Timothy & Titus?

The Didache (AD 70 to AD 100): https://www.reformation21.org/miscellaneous/window-on-the-past-the-didache-editorial-director-reformation21.php

Derek Thomas, “The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, or its subtitle, The Teaching of the Lord Through the Twelve Apostles (neither of which are thought to be original) is known today simply as The Didache ("The Teaching"). … The document itself contains five discernible parts, though there is no chapter or section division in the document itself. Issues and themes move from one to another with a breathtaking abruptness. These sections are:

1) A Training Program in "The Way of Life" (1:1 - 6:2) [44%]

2) Regulations regarding eating, baptizing, fasting, and praying (6:3 - 11:2) [22%]

3) Regulations regarding hospitality and the testing of various classes of visitors (especially "prophets" - itinerant preachers dependent on the kindness of the church for their well-being and among whom might well be hucksters and charlatans (11:3 - 13:2) [15%]

4) Regulations regarding offerings: firstfruits and "sacrfices" (13:3 - 15:4) [10%]

5) Closing Apocalyptic section of warning and hope (16:1 - 8) [9%]

This sounds similar to a creed. Where is it similar and where is it not?

Was it written by the apostles? Were any of the apostles aware of the Didache?

“Church government issues are significant topic of discussion in the early second century church.” Would you say that this is still true in the church today? Which is Biblical?

Before we discuss the church fathers I want to touch on this. In my studies for this podcast I came across this quote: “I remember reading a Protestant scholar, an article he wrote a few years ago. He said that the most arrogant thing he thought that a Catholic had ever said was “to be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant.” Of course, from Cardinal John Henry Newman. … So when you look at the history of the church, Catholicism fully blooms. Now, he took great chagrin at this because this particular scholar was a Protestant church historian.” - Trent Horn https://www.catholic.com/audio/cot/protestant-distortions-of-the-church-fathers

Does the study of church history/fathers point us to the Roman Catholic Church?