Marriage advice

[bearbear]

Originally Posted by PeterG

You probably know that there was already a lot of leaven in the early Church. We already find early Catholic tendencies in Clement and Ignatius. It seems that Paul's warning in Acts 20:29 already applied to the second generation.

The warning in Acts 20:29 is applied to false teachers & wolves who Jesus said are not saved and destined to be burned in fire (Matt 7:15-20). Among them were the docetists who deny the deity of Christ (1 John 4:2-3) and false grace teachers who taught that grace is a license to sin (Jude 1:4). Jesus also calls out these false teachers in his letter to the churches in Revelation and identifies the types of sins they promoted (Revelation 2:14-15, 2:20-21).

Clement was a co-labourer with Paul and an elder in Rome and Ignatius and Polycarp were disciples of John. Both them grew up with Koine Greek as their mother tongue and understood the language and culture of the NT. Imagine you had Paul or John as your discipler and you could ask them questions like "Did Jesus really forbid divorce and remarriage? What did he mean by [except for porneia]?"

Scripture is our final authority but it's at least worth a look to see what they wrote [compared to say Witness Lee who is almost 2000 years removed from the original apostles and relied on outdated concordances to understand the Greek] and often their interpretation was very close to a literal reading of scripture. Ignatius went a little heavy into church hierarchy but he also viewed his own authority as limited and viewed other Christian leaders as equals in running the Christian race together.

They were trusted by the first generation apostles to upload the traditions taught to them. Most of the bad leaven came after Rome adopted Christianity as the official state religion such as prayer to the saints and Mary.

2 Thessalonians 2:15
"So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter."

A side note: it is interesting to read the writings of Polycarp. Although he was discipled by John, he quotes Paul extensively in his writings which implies that John could have been a huge advocate of Paul. This shows the unity in the early church where they did not necessarily cling to one leader but there was a plurality of leaders.

The church fathers also quoted the New Testament so much that you can compose the entire New Testament from their quotes. When you read their writings you realize they valued scripture so highly that they quote and let the verses speak for themselves rather than try to over-interpret. They were also involved in putting together the New Testament canon by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Originally Posted by PeterG

That's certainly a very wise conclusion from a human perspective. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to me to be the one from the Word of God.

Maybe, but Jesus seems to imply that when he returns, he will find little faith on the earth. And Paul says there will be a great apostasy near the end times. So it's unlikely there is going to be a world wide revival and strong one true church but rather a remnant of true believers scattered around as was often the case in the Old Testament (1 Kings 19:18).

Luke 18:8
“... Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

2 Thessalonians 2:3
“Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction…”