Reply to: Ecumenism and the Stone-Campbell Movement

The SCM movement was heading in the right direction when it looked back in history to find the proper authority to bring about Christian unity. The one mistake they made was attempting to make Sacred Scripture the sole authority of the Christian life. We can use Sacred Scripture to aid us in coming to an understanding of where that authority resides. When we ask, how did we receive Sacred Scripture from God? We will realize he gifted it to us through his Church. Our next question is, how do we recognize this Church? Sacred Scripture again can give us a clue, it is the Church that upholds the teachings of the Apostles.

Now, we can use history as an aid to help us in our search for the Church. If we are honest, the Catholic Church is where the deposit of faith, the teaching of the Apostle, resides in the first thousand years of Christianity. We will notice the Church in the first thousand years of Christianity is vigorously defending the teaching of the Apostles from heresy. The Acts of the Apostles shows how the Twelve held the Council of Jerusalem to decide authoritatively the issue of whether or not the Gentiles must become Jews in order to become Christians. This was the first great trial for Christian unity. If we follow the history of the Church, they always held Councils when the unity of the Church was being compromised by opposing teachings of members of the Church. In these Councils, we receive the authentic and authoritative teaching of the Church that was entrusted to it through  the teaching of the Apostles.

The next great trial of Christian unity reached its climax in the division of the Latin West and the Greek East. There were and are numerous factors which contribute to this open wound in the body of Christ. Ultimately, the definitive point of division is on Petrine doctrine, the role of the Pope as Successor of Peter. Does the Successor of Peter have the final authority in issues of faith and morals? If he does not have this authority, then the Greek East is the most authentic keepers of the Apostolic faith. If he does have this authority, the Latin West under the Pope, the Bishop of Rome and Successor to Peter, is the authentic authority.

What does this mean for Protestant Christianity? Either they left the  one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, or they were justly protesting a corruption of the one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. Either way, the body of Christ has an even more visibly open wound. I would suggest Protestant Christians ought to prayerfully seek God's wisdom in prayer. I believe a prayerful consideration can only lead them to the Latin West, the Catholic Church in union with the Successor of Peter, or the Greek East, the Orthodox Faith.

http://the3150.wordpress.com/2011/10/19/ecumenism-and-the-stone-campbell-movement/