Tag Archives: Restoration

COC #26: Argument: “2 Thessalonians 2:3 Proves Apostasy”

Your ministers counter the overflowing character of the gospel not with the “Bible only”, but with an anti-Catholic agenda, and then distort a passage to justify their theology, and then gather portions of other passages to prove a seemingly thought-out theology—a seemingly “biblical” apologia for the Great Apostasy (or near-Great Apostasy) theory.  

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COC #24: On Apostasy and Restoration

Non-Catholic Christians,

If the Protestant Church of Christ is following a pattern, it resembles that of the heretics—all of whom lifted themselves over the Scriptures as self-appointed arbiters of scriptural interpretation, and over the Church by claiming such authority; who then defined new orthodoxy, and called it old. The early proto-Protestant heretics of antiquity, with whom you would largely, but not fully, disagree with doctrinally, were at least as credible as your restorers. Why should we not believe that they, and not you, represent the Lord’s Church? And less credible than the first heretics were the original Protestants of the sixteenth century, who too believed they were restoring what had gone into apostasy; but you do not follow Luther, Calvin, or Zwingli. No, you follow men who followed such men; the Protestant Church of Christ is the progeny of disgruntled Presbyterian ministers who, for no reason, believed they could, by their own power, resurrect the mystical body of Christ from a supposed blasphemous death, which could never occur. In other words, there was no “Great Apostasy” and there was no “Restoration”; but there is a real Church of Christ that teaches, and actually believes: to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen (Ephesians 3:21).   

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COC 22: More Irresponsible Proof Texts Against Hierarchy

#4 (and following): The remaining lesser proofs that Wharton and the Protestant Church of Christ provide are presented in the same manner as #3, which is a posited theory followed by a referenced verse without quoted text. In other words, commentary (not Scripture) is presented as the word of God, such as (in Wharton’s words):

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COC #5: Responses to Three Anticipated Objections

(1) Defense of pattern theology  

The Protestant Church of Christ’s defense of pattern theology is incapable of satisfying any query as to its communion with the early Church; patternism presupposes a body (not a collection of books) that must first establish any perceived pattern. So instead of providing evidence for its presence throughout history, scriptural verses removed from their ecclesial context are presented as red herrings to defend a pragmatic use of your theory (that patternism conjures authenticity), and not the facts of the topic at hand (origins and sequence). 

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COC #4: The Church of Christ Pre-Dates the Bible

Non-Catholic Christians,

How impossible it is for any “Bible-only” community to be the true Church of Christ! Can you not understand that the ontological priority of a sacred library of books must be a sacred body with the authority to have recognized and labeled it as such, that an inerrant text requires an inerrant author, that the Spirit who aided the writing is the same Spirit who aids interpretation—that you would have no reason to believe the books that comprise the New Testament are inspired if it were not for the authority of a God-intended Sacred Tradition?

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