Expert: Pastor Don Carpenter - 8/19/2006

Question
So would it be correct to say that Protestant theology states that at some point not too long after the death of the last apostle, the doctrine of the Catholic Church became corrupt and true doctrine remained unknown until the Protestant Reformation of 1517? If that's true, that mankind has no supernatural guarantor of true doctrine (i.e. the church) then how are we to know truth?

Answer
Hi Hank,

Thanks for this question.  This question exposes a common misconception that the Catholic church existed before Nicia... it did not.  The Biblical concept of a church was not a universal one, but rather it was local.  Ecclesia the Greek word for church means "a called out assembly" if it is called out, but it does not assemble, then it is not a church.  Jesus Christ Himself is the guardian and foundation of truth.  In Revelation 2 and 3 we see in His letters to the seven churches that He has the right to take His hand of blessing off of the local church if it departs from the truth.

To answer your question, I believe that once the Roman Catholic church was organized under Constantine, it had already left the fundamental truths of the Bible and never was a guardian of truth.  I believe that through out the centuries there had been underground true churches that faced heavy and lethal persecution from the Powers if the Roman Catholic Church.  God said it would be like this.

2 Timothy 3:12
12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.

The Protestant Reformation marked a time when some Catholics saw the fact that their religion and the Bible did not agree, but there have always been a remnant of people who believed the orthodix doctrines as taught in the Bible, without the corruption of Human tradition.

I hope that this helps you.

In Christ,
Pastor Don