D
drop the internet searching
drop the customs and traditions
drop all the twisted fancy words
read the bible for how the early church operated
find a church that worships and operates as the first century church did
mission accomplished
There was only 1 church in the beginning. With mans wisdom, we now believe there to be many many churches (denominations). I'm sure there are many who go into buildings every week where people talk about God and pray and teach, but if they are not following the order that God instituted in the bible then they are not the church and will likely hear the words of Jesus in the end say:
Matthew 7:21-23English Standard Version (ESV)
[SUP]21 [/SUP]“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. [SUP]22 [/SUP]On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ [SUP]23 [/SUP]And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
drop the customs and traditions
drop all the twisted fancy words
read the bible for how the early church operated
find a church that worships and operates as the first century church did
mission accomplished
There was only 1 church in the beginning. With mans wisdom, we now believe there to be many many churches (denominations). I'm sure there are many who go into buildings every week where people talk about God and pray and teach, but if they are not following the order that God instituted in the bible then they are not the church and will likely hear the words of Jesus in the end say:
Matthew 7:21-23English Standard Version (ESV)
[SUP]21 [/SUP]“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. [SUP]22 [/SUP]On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ [SUP]23 [/SUP]And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
In the first few centuries most Christians had to go underground to survive. Roughly 200 years of doing that. In that time period, humans were no different than we were today, so lots of funky stuff got added as "gospel." Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Mary Magdalene, Gospel of Jesus, and quite a few other spam or "inspirational writings" came through.
Now the church was in hiding, and yet, it wasn't like they had one scroll with the whole Bible in it. Nothing like that at all. OT was pretty much set, although I'm sure some Jews were probably adding to that with more "prophecies of the coming Messiah," just like scammers do today. But those letters in what we call "The New Testament?" That really was just that -- letters circulating around, often reprinted by scribes hundreds of times to keep passing it while keeping a copy for the home group.
A miraculous thing happened during that time. Each small group did the same thing. They kept papers in two places -- one that looked like it was hidden well, and one where they were willing to die to protect them. They were hidden in hopes the soldiers would ransack the place (because they were trying to stop this new "silly" religion from taking over) and find the less important documents, and think that was that, burn the papers, gather the believers, and cart them off to kill them. BUT in doing that, they wouldn't search further, (at least, all the time, although I'm sure they did at times), so if any stragglers survived the culling, they would then take the most important papers with them and find a new place to hide. (If they could, they'd find another group of believers to move in with.)
AND, after 200 years of doing just that, when Constantine finally freed the Christians to be out in the open, they gathered together, brought ALL the papers left from those years, and sorted through them. That is part of the purpose of the Council of Nicea. To figure out what should and shouldn't be considered "sacred."
How did they figure out that? Every single group had the same group of "really important"/"sacred" writings. And they also had other writings. But the sacred ones? You know that as The New Testament. To a group, without ever knowing everyone was doing roughly the same thing, they picked the same ones! The only hard question they had was one letter/book. James! James is the sticky point. That was the borderline book. The one the group couldn't hit consensus over. They did choose to include it, but that stayed an argument for over a millennium. Even Calvin was against James being in the Bible. That tough of a fight for that long.
And what went out? Gospel of Thomas, Mary Magdalene, and Jesus Christ. Why? Because in the fourth century scholarly men realized this was spam. They knew what the spam of their time looked like, and that was those letters.
Next, they tackled who was Jesus -- Man or God? Because by then the main theory wasn't both.
So, yeah, The Bible is the Bible. It is a miraculous collection of sacred writings truly inspired by God, but you would have absolutely no idea which were which if the church didn't continue to learn and grow.
Don't diss the early believers post-apostles. They're also the ones who gave us the knowledge of "trinity." That too was a long fault battle precisely because, just like we do today, most people make up their mind on who they want God to be, and then accept that god, instead of the real God.
Same reason there are many denominations. Whereas every time a denomination breaks away, there is both a group who wants to stick to the Biblical God and trust that God (the only God) AND a group who wants to change the Bible/God just a little to keep up with the times.
Would you stay in a church that would promote homosexuality is fine with God? Me either, and that caused a split in the Presbyterian Church yet again recently. Time after time there are groups of people who want to know and follow the true God. And time after time the scholars of those groups fight out the big issue problems to have just that.
THAT is how doctrine becomes to be. THAT is how we even have a Bible. THAT is how we fought against spam gospels. THAT is how we learned Jesus was both Man and God. THAT is how we learned the trinity.
The history matters, and it cannot truly be relegated to "just trust the Bible," because early on they were trusting the Bible and both sides had a different understanding of Jesus, the trinity, and which books were "The Bible."
(I worry people want to remake the bible every time they say "just trust in that book." Quite often that is what is meant. Not saying you're in that group, but you have to know the history to appreciate what we learned since the apostles died. It matters.)