Catholic & Orthodox

Did Saints Like John Chrysostom Venerate Icons? How Did It Arise?

This article is the fifth (and last) in a series in which I evaluate the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox practice of iconodulia—veneration of images. In previous articles, I looked at the evidence predating 313, when Constantine began to favor Christianity. This article will discuss the evidence that comes after. Here are the posts in …

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Icons | The Orthodox Church Has Changed the Apostolic Faith

The Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church each claims to be the apostolic church. In this series of articles, I’ll show that their claims can’t be true. While in other articles I’ve shown that their claims to authority aren’t true, this series will evaluate one of the doctrines that they hold to see …

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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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