Jesus Gave the Apostles Authority to Forgive Sins

[phattonez]

Until the adoption of the Christian religion yet many groups were persecuted by the Romans..

When was it adopted and by whom?

 

[phattonez]

The Romans adopted/made up their own brand of the Christian religion...false doctrines and all...

Quote and citation.

 

[phattonez]

When apostates began splintering off from the true faith of the early Christians...it began happening even before all the apostles passed away...

Citation on what the early Christians ACTUALLY taught?

 

[Daisy]

Quote and citation.

H. G. Wells held that the spirit of Constantine dominated church affairs, and he observed: “The idea of stamping out all controversy and division, stamping out all thought, by imposing one dogmatic creed upon all believers, . . . is the idea of the single-handed man who feels that to work at all he must be free from opposition and criticism. The history of the Church under [Constantine’s] influence becomes now therefore a history of the violent struggles that were bound to follow upon his sudden and rough summons to unanimity. From him the Church acquired the disposition to be authoritative and unquestioned, to develop a centralized organization and run parallel to the empire.”

Charges of heresy proved to be a ruthless scheme to eliminate opponents who dared to defy Christendom’s church councils. Any who expressed differing opinions or even attempted to present Scriptural proof refuting the dogmas and canons (church laws) of the councils were branded as heretics.

The determination to stamp out opposition led to dreadful atrocities. Most of those pronounced guilty of heresy against the popular dogma of the council were burned at the stake, suffering the agony of a slow death as a public spectacle​—supposedly in the name of Christ!

For instance, the Council of Constance (1414-18) was called to end bickering over who was the legitimate pope and to deal with the heresies of Wycliffe and Hus. Thirty thousand horses are said to have carried people to Constance for this great event. During the council, John Hus was tried and condemned, then turned over to secular authorities and burned at the stake.

Are Religious Councils Approved by God? — Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY

 

[Daisy]

Citation on what the early Christians ACTUALLY taught?

DID the early Christians teach the Trinity? Note the following comments by historians and theologians:

“Primitive Christianity did not have an explicit doctrine of the Trinity such as was subsequently elaborated in the creeds.”—The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology.

“The early Christians, however, did not at first think of applying the [Trinity] idea to their own faith. They paid their devotions to God the Father and to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and they recognised the . . . Holy Spirit; but there was no thought of these three being an actual Trinity, co-equal and united in One.”—The Paganism in Our Christianity.

“At first the Christian faith was not Trinitarian . . . It was not so in the apostolic and sub-apostolic ages, as reflected in the N[ew] T[estament] and other early Christian writings.”—Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics.

“The formulation ‘one God in three Persons’ was not solidly established, certainly not fully assimilated into Christian life and its profession of faith, prior to the end of the 4th century. . . . Among the Apostolic Fathers, there had been nothing even remotely approaching such a mentality or perspective.”—New Catholic Encyclopedia.

What the Ante-Nicene Fathers Taught

THE ante-Nicene Fathers were acknowledged to have been leading religious teachers in the early centuries after Christ’s birth. What they taught is of interest.

Justin Martyr, who died about 165 C.E., called the prehuman Jesus a created angel who is “other than the God who made all things.” He said that Jesus was inferior to God and “never did anything except what the Creator . . . willed him to do and say.”

Irenaeus, who died about 200 C.E., said that the prehuman Jesus had a separate existence from God and was inferior to him. He showed that Jesus is not equal to the “One true and only God,” who is “supreme over all, and besides whom there is no other.”

Clement of Alexandria, who died about 215 C.E., called God “the uncreated and imperishable and only true God.” He said that the Son “is next to the only omnipotent Father” but not equal to him.

Tertullian, who died about 230 C.E., taught the supremacy of God. He observed: “The Father is different from the Son (another), as he is greater; as he who begets is different from him who is begotten; he who sends, different from him who is sent.” He also said: “There was a time when the Son was not. . . . Before all things, God was alone.”

Hippolytus, who died about 235 C.E., said that God is “the one God, the first and the only One, the Maker and Lord of all,” who “had nothing co-eval [of equal age] with him . . . But he was One, alone by himself; who, willing it, called into being what had no being before,” such as the created prehuman Jesus.

Origen, who died about 250 C.E., said that “the Father and Son are two substances . . . two things as to their essence,” and that “compared with the Father, [the Son] is a very small light.”

Summing up the historical evidence, Alvan Lamson says in The Church of the First Three Centuries: “The modern popular doctrine of the Trinity . . . derives no support from the language of Justin [Martyr]: and this observation may be extended to all the ante-Nicene Fathers; that is, to all Christian writers for three centuries after the birth of Christ. It is true, they speak of the Father, Son, and . . . holy Spirit, but not as co-equal, not as one numerical essence, not as Three in One, in any sense now admitted by Trinitarians. The very reverse is the fact.”

Thus, the testimony of the Bible and of history makes clear that the Trinity was unknown throughout Biblical times and for several centuries thereafter.

Is It Clearly a Bible Teaching? — Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY

 

[Blarkin]

Nonsense. Jesus plainly says "whose sins YOU FORGIVE." This is eisegesis meant to defend a position, not discover the truth of the text. The early Church read this quite differently.

There is no defense of a position or bias to support a belief. The fact is that the only way for forgiveness is through Christ. The entire Gospel makes this clear in every single verse concerning forgiveness, salvation and grace. It all comes through Christ. People go to their church leaders to this day to repent of their sins and ask forgiveness of their sins. They pray together to God, through Christ to obtain that forgiveness. There was never a direction given to a single person in the New Testament to go to an apostle for forgiveness of one's sins. But they were the first leaders of Christ's church so people were going to absolutely approach them looking for forgiveness. The apostles were taught through Jesus how someone would appropriately request forgiveness.

 

[phattonez]

There is no defense of a position or bias to support a belief. The fact is that the only way for forgiveness is through Christ. The entire Gospel makes this clear in every single verse concerning forgiveness, salvation and grace. It all comes through Christ. People go to their church leaders to this day to repent of their sins and ask forgiveness of their sins. They pray together to God, through Christ to obtain that forgiveness. There was never a direction given to a single person in the New Testament to go to an apostle for forgiveness of one's sins. But they were the first leaders of Christ's church so people were going to absolutely approach them looking for forgiveness. The apostles were taught through Jesus how someone would appropriately request forgiveness.

The power is from Christ, but the authority was given to the apostles.