Apologetics

Development of Doctrine | Why Catholic & Orthodox Changes Fail

In a previous article, I showed that Scripture and the early church both agreed that all doctrine had been revealed to the apostles. Only Jesus and the apostles are “upstream” from doctrine; in other words, only statements by them can be taken as definitive of Christian doctrine. Everyone else is “downstream” from doctrine; our statements …

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Why Doctrine Comes from Scripture—Foundations for an Anabaptist View of Doctrinal Authority

As Christians, we believe some teachings to be true and others to be false. But how can we tell which is which? Where does true Christian doctrine come from, and can those doctrines change or develop? This article will answer those questions and offer a from-the-ground-up defense for the view that Christian doctrine comes from …

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Do Post-Nicene Fathers Exemplify Apostolic Christianity?

The Eastern Orthodox Church bases much of their theology on the “Fathers.” Typically, this means Christian writers who lived before approximately the 800s. The most influential church fathers for them tend to be those who lived and wrote between 325 and 787, when the first and last of the seven ecumenical councils took place. Some …

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Two Kingdoms & Separation From the World—a Defense

The essence of Anabaptism, and our most defining belief, is probably the doctrine of the two kingdoms, or the related doctrine of “separation from the world.” Basically all our distinctive beliefs flow from this doctrine, which was also held by the early church up until Constantine. In this article, I will give a defense for …

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Did Pre-Nicene Church Fathers Teach the Papacy?

Roman Catholic apologists teach that their doctrine of the Papacy is an apostolic institution, and that church history demonstrates that. They often point to early Christian writings that they believe support their position, and they argue that these writings show that Peter, and each bishop of Rome after him, had supreme authority over all other …

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