Bring him to me, Jesus said!

Acts 11
25. Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul,
26. and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.
27. During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.

The basic structure of the early Church was that of a universal union of local churches bound by the unity of apostolic succession of the bishops. Each church community was organically a part of the universal unity of all Christians as one people of God. By the year 1,000, the New Testament Church had become communities of local churches organized around five regional centers; each headed by a "Patriarch" – the Patriarchates of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Rome. But it was still a single Christian church, united in faith and practices.

There was some friction, even at an early stage, about the status of the Church of Rome, - which was the Church of the apostles Peter and Paul, and the Church of the capital of the Empire. In the East, Rome was given the ceremonial title of "First among Equals". However, in Rome, the Popes began to declare that special God-given rights had been granted to the papacy to govern the universal church. The rest of the Church rejected those claims.

However, the Popes continued to expand and pursue their claims of authority over the entire Christian Church. In 1054, the Pope severed his ties with the other Patriarchs in the East. After that, the Popes in Rome instituted changes in beliefs and practices that were rejected by the Orthodox Patriarchs in the East, who continued to preach and practice the original Christian faith. These Roman changes were so onerous that Martin Luther ignited the Protestant Revolution that raged throughout Europe. But rather than returning to the original Christian faith, the Protestants repeated the errors of the Popes by instituting further changes in beliefs and practices in the name of Christianity. This led to further splintering of the Protestant ranks. It is estimated that there are now over 25,000 different Protestant denominations in the United States alone.

There are so many beliefs, according to the 2000 US Census 28,000 sects that refer to themselves as Christian. My question is thus: If the Holy Spirit represents truth can truth be divided 28,000 ways? The answer is no. The Protestants and the Roman Catholics are both wrong.

For example, if you believe in the concept of the Holy Trinity you are really following the Apostolic Fathers of the Orthodox Catholic Church of the East and their Holy Ecumenical Synods whom established these basic doctrines. If you look to the authority of the New Testament you must first realize who had the authority to construct the New Testament in the first place. Does the Bible produce the church or did the Church produce the Bible? The answer: It was authorized and constructed by the Orthodox Church and her first three Holy Ecumenical Synods.

I doubt many Protestants have ever bothered to study the apostolic sources outside the Gospels or the Ecumenical Synods of the Early Christian Church. It's like claiming you can understand the US government while refusing to read the Federalist Papers or any court decisions. Besides, there is little doubt that the only Church the early Christians would even begin to recognize today would be the Orthodox Church. What the evangelicals have created has no direct relationship whatsoever with the Christian Church as it was founded.