Apostolic Reformation Topics

North Forest

Overview

My ideas about the topic of the One Apostolic Church developed over a few years and I wrote articles at every stage. Hopefully, this index will provide organization to these ideas.

I think this large topic is the most important philisophical and theological work of my life as a Christian.

For a high level overview of the One Apostolic Church, read these:

Key Ingredients	A list of them.
One Apostolic Church	Christianity is in need of a new reformation, a modern reformation, an Apostolic Reformation of the Church to take us back to true apostolic Christianity.
My Perspective	How to validate the teachings of the various Christian traditions to determine whether they are the true church established by Jesus.
Ingredients of True Reform	True reform consists of reforming our hearts and our minds.
Essential Ingredients	Bible Quotes highlighting some of the various essential ingredients of the Apostolic Reformation of the Church.
Back to apostolic teaching	What Jesus and the apostles taught.
Christian Truth	Source of essential doctrines.
Early Church Fathers	Church Leadership
Key Factors	The Early Church
What I Believe	My system.

Featured article: My Visions & Ideas | Related article: Church History

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How to know? ...

Protestants dogmatically state that the Bible is the authority for Christian faith. But how do they know this? How are we to know what the Christian faith should be like?

How to know what is true	Step by step analysis of the process.
How to Know what is True	My system.
Truth in History	The early church and the sources of truth.
The Orthodox View	We must not neglect the eastern Church.

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Articles ...

All of them.

One Apostolic Church	-- We need an Apostolic Reformation of the Church to take us back to true apostolic Christianity -- The Bible -- The Protestant Reformation -- Key Ingredients -- of Apostolic Reformation -- Kinds of Christianity -- Leadership -- Unity -- What Drives Me -- other people in the same predicament
Bible	-- Short, focused
Bible Quotes	-- Support for essential ingredients of Apostolic Reformation -- Ordination -- Church Leadership -- House Church -- Unity
Call to Action	-- What we can do to "fix" the church -- A truly Christian culture -- Accept other Christians -- What you can do
The Church	-- Various aspects of what the church is -- Christ's church is united
Church Reform	-- The true church -- Short -- List of links
The Church Refreshed	-- What is true? What to believe? -- Links to relate topics
John Corapi — Innocent or Guilty?	-- An example
Defending Apostolic Faith	-- Short -- Overview of why I wrote these articles
Doctrines	-- I list doctrines of the very early church
Doctrines of Church Fathers	-- I list teachings of the very early church
The Early Church	-- What it was like -- Historical stages of the church
The Early Church Fathers	-- Bishops -- Historical progression of bishops
Ecumenical Christian	-- Short
Essential Doctrines	-- A list of them -- Eucharist
Freedom from Religion	-- Meddling by the church into the realm of secular political rulership was never intended by Jesus
Governance	-- Short
Heretical Doctrines	-- Short, a non-article -- I list a couple
How to Select a Church	-- Long list of my criteria -- My assessment of various denominations
I Believe	-- How can we know what is true? -- A list of doctrines and teachings in the context of teaching authority
Knowing Truth	-- How to know what is true in Christianity? -- Historical progression of Church leadership and churches -- The Dilemma of Christians Today
Lamentations	-- Why I'm annoyed
Moral Teaching	-- Short -- A list
Non Essential Doctrines	-- List from various perspectives
One Church	-- Short -- My conclusions about the church
Orthodox Church	-- The Orthodox Church
Return to Catholic	-- The Catholic Church really is the church founded by Jesus and the apostles. -- but, it has changed its views.
Teaching Authority	-- Who Do We Trust? -- Historical overview
True Catholic	-- Short -- I list some true Catholic doctrines
True Church	-- Which church is the true church? -- Historical phases of the church
Unity	-- What unites Christians?
What I Believe	-- Statement of faith -- List of what Jesus emphasized -- The Catholic sacraments
What is Next?	-- I'm not Catholic anymore, renounce membership -- Finding a Church
What is True?	-- Where do we learn about true Christianity? -- A historical overview of the stages of early Christianity -- The Church Fathers -- THe Reformation -- Did the Church Go Bad? -- Assessment of the Catholic Church

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Index of Topics ...

I've clumped these together by topic.

The Bible	The Bible is the inspired, inerrant, infallible word of God, but it was not all that was needed to form the church and establish Christian doctrine.
Teaching Authority	How we can know what is true.
Teaching Authority	What is our authority for truth?
Leadership	Brief overview of the topic of church leadership.
Bishops	What the Bible has to say.
Apostolic Succession	The flawed assertions of Apostolic Succession.
Ordination	What the Bible has to say.
Unity	Christians are in unity with one another because they are united with Christ.
Unity	The New Testament does not teach that Christian unity is based on institutional unity.
Unity	Christ's church is united — it is not fractured. Faith-filled, believing Christians are in unity with one another and with Christ. What is often missing is that Christians don't relate to one another in love.
Unity	Will Christians ever have unity?
Unity	We should accept other Christians as brothers and sisters in Christ even if they have different opinions and beliefs of non-essential doctrines.
The Church	There simply must be a thing called "the church" which is led by the Holy Spirit and leads us into truth. No other conclusion is possible.
The Church	Jesus clearly established a church, a unified church, a holy church, the apostolic church.
The Church	The Church as the "New Israel"
The True Church	Which church is the true church?
Church vs. State	What role should the state have in the affairs of the Church?
The Church Went Bad	An overview of the topic. When did the Church go bad?
The Church	The results of Christendom.
Protestant Reformation	In breaking free from the Catholic stranglehold, the Protestant revolutionaries forgot to reform the church.
Protestant Reformation	The "reforms" of the Protestant Reformation cannot be trusted.
Which Church is the True Church?	So many to choose from.
Various Churches	My assessment of various denominations.
Church Fathers	Reality compels us to trust the Church Fathers.
House Church	The early church was primarily a house church movement.
Catholic Shortcomings	My analysis.
Catholic Shortcomings	My analysis.
Catholic Shortcomings	Honest, I tried to be a good Catholic, but they were too weird.

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Historical Analysis ...

A key component of my system is understanding what the early church believed and taught, as well as explaining how the church went off course so bad, and whether the Protestant Reformation fixed it.

Historical overview of True Christianity	A brief historical overview and my assessment
The Early Church	What was the early church really like? There were many stages
A historical view	A high level view of the historical events that shaped the church.
Phases of the Church	I have identified six phases
Church Developments	High level overview.
Progression of the Church	It changed. The question is whether these changes were intended by Jesus.
Protestant Reformation	It did not establish Apostolic Christianity. The early church did not have the Bible as its authority as Protestants do — rather, it had the teaching of the apostles and the bishops as the authority.
Leadership	The evolution of church leadership and the kinds of church governance.
Freedom from Religion	The cultures of the day influenced the church and caused it to become politicized and to dominate the lives of Christians at large.
Documents from Church Fathers	With my commentary.
Sources of Authority	The stages of authority in the early Church.
Church Leadership	It quickly changed.
Ecumenical Councils	Are Ecumenical Coumcils the source of truth as the Orthodox Churches claim?

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Doctrines ...

Christianity requires doctrine, that is to say, it demands that we hold correct views about certain topics. These articles discuss this topic.

Development of Doctrine	Which doctrines were passed-on by the apostles and which were invented later?
Doctrines	Apostolic Succession, Baptism, Eucharist, Bishops, Sacraments
Doctrines of Church Fathers	Eucharist, Priesthood, Papacy, Hierarchy, Sacraments, Baptism, Marriage, Confirmation, Holy Orders, Healing / anointing of sick, Confession, Faith Passed-down from the Apostles
Church Leadership	Bible passages about apostle, bishop, elder, presbyter, deacon, pastor, shepherd, prophet, evangelist, teacher, preacher
The Early Church	What the Church believed right after the apostlic era. This is a key ingredient of my system.
Bishops in the writings of the Early Church Fathers	Bishops figure prominently in Church history. Is the Catholic and Orthodox views of Bishops supported by the Early Church Fathers?
The Bible	The early church and the Bible.
Essential Doctrines	My list.
Non-essential Doctrines	My list.
Heretical Doctrines	I list only a few.
Criteria for Selecting a Church	Here's what they must believe and teach to qualify.
Marriage	Wacky Catholic teachings and practices.
Eucharist	Passages from the Bible.
Eucharist	My view.
Papacy	My view.
True Catholic Doctrines	I believe that most Catholic dogmas regarding faith and morals are true.
Sacraments	My view of the seven Catholic sacraments.
Holy Orders	The Catholic view is not supported from history or the Bible.

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Lists ...

I went to a lot of trouble to create these lists.

Kinds of Christianity	Kinds of Christian churches and pseudo-Christian churches.
Church Reform	Kinds of reform and revolution.
Essential Doctrines	To reject these is to reject Christianity and the gospel.
Non-essential doctrines	My assessment.
Non-essential Doctrines	My system provides a way to know which doctrines are essential and which are not.
Heretical Doctrines	There are many; I list only a few.
Serious Sins	We should avoid these like the plague. An extension of the "thou shalt not" from the Ten Commandments.
Criteria for Selecting a Church	Sadly, it's hard to find any that qualify.
I believe. Jesus taught.	My system is based on what Jesus taught and emphasized.
Misc. Beliefs	My views on various topics.

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Misc ...

Last, but not least.

What Drives Me	There are many of us in this predicament.
Development of My Views	our modern concept of freedom of religion is superior to the old view of Christendom which was such a promonent feature of European history.
The Orthodox Church	Protestants neglect to study church history and especially neglect the Orthodox Church.

Article originally written Jan 15, 2007.

Statement of Faith | About the author

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John Shepard

email: js18@northforest.org

http://www.northforest.org/ApostolicReformation/ARTopics.html

Revised: Jan 15, 2012