Explaining the mess up…

A little while ago, I was discussing with a Protestant the issue of baptism in the Early Church. The exchange was quite typical in that he rejected the beliefs of the Early Church, choosing instead to trump the witness of history with his own personal interpretation of the Scriptures.

Why did the Early Church “get it all so wrong”?

In response to this, I did something unusual, departing from my usual strategy. Rather than trying to demonstrate to him that the Early Church was correct, I asked him, in his opinion, why did the Early Church get it all so wrong? After all, the question of whether baptism washes away sin isn’t some trivial doctrine, but one which relates to the question of our very salvation!

Why did many early reformers “get it wrong” too?

I also asked him a similar question concerning the Protestant reformers. From his point of view, many of the early Fathers of the Reformation were also in grave error over crucial doctrines of salvation, such as baptism.

Consider for a moment, Luther’s belief in baptismal regeneration. To the Protestant who denies this doctrine we must ask: why did you think Luther got this wrong? After all, Luther held to Sola Scriptura! He had no problem casting off the “false” teaching of the Catholic Church in other areas, so why did he retain this particular doctrine?

If I am a Protestant who believes that the Reformers got something wrong, then I really need to try and explain why they got it wrong. What caused their error? Not only that, if I am going to claim that I have the true understanding, I really should explain what advantage I have over the Reformers which allows me to see the issue clearly and not fall into their same errors.

The Response

Now, when I asked my Protestant friend these questions, I didn’t receive very satisfying answers. He simply said that “sometimes people make mistakes”. He therefore concludes that the Early Church Fathers screwed up, as did many of the Fathers of the Reformation. He couldn’t give me an answer as to why they blundered, whereas he holds to true orthodoxy.

Personally, I think that if you are going to discount the Early Church and even the founders of your own particular flavour of Christianity, better and more complete answers are needed to these questions:

1. Why do you think the Early Church got so many doctrines wrong, even central ones concerning salvation?

2. If you claim that the Early Church was wrong, what advantage do you have over the members of the Early Church who were linguistically, geographically and temporally closer to the Apostles?

3. If the Early Church was so prone to error, how can you trust their witness when it comes to other issues, such as the canon of Scripture?

4. Why do you think the early Protestant Reformers got so many doctrines wrong, when they were all operating using the same worldview of Sola Scriptura? Shouldn’t the clear teaching of Scripture result in united doctrine among all Sola Scripture Christians?

5. If you are going to say that Luther was wrong concerning Baptism and the Eucharist, what advantage do you have over him which has led you to the “correct” understanding of these truths?

I’m interested in seeing if there are better Protestant responses out there to these questions. If you think you have them, please leave your answers in the comments below…