Quote:
Originally Posted by Zezima
That doesn’t discredit the beliefs themselves, but understanding that there are legitimate alternative frameworks to interpret the Bible from that aren’t held by a small fringe group but by the majority really help me unpack the beliefs I grew up following without question.
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My mind was blown in a similar manner as well though it more towards different soteriologies (salvation theology). After leaving the LCs I thought all Christian believed that you are saved after saying the sinner's prayer and professing belief in Jesus and it also blew my mind that other serious Christians believed differently and they had a lot of scripture to back up their views which were largely ignored in the LCs.
Since there are a plethora of theologies out there I've decided to align my views closer to the early church since they were handed the faith directly from the apostles. And we know from church history starting from Acts there was a core of believers who held onto the faith closely and took Jesus at his word and practiced the sermon on the mount lifestyle.
Jude 1:3 "Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you
to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints."
What is interesting is that the early church practices and beliefs match almost no major mainline denomination today. I believe Jesus prophesied this in some of his parables and teachings that many churches would eventually experience leaven. Yet there are still true believers in churches that have leaven.
David Bercot, an early church historian has a lot of videos on his youtube channel on what the early church believed according to the writings of the church fathers and how it differs from Evangelicals, Catholics and Orthodox today:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzqDV91AFPo