Projecting Transient Errors On Past Orthodoxy.

What exactly was the Holy Spirit doing for numerous centuries between the Apostles and the new liturgy?

Many serious Christians today (Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants) are interested in discovering how the early Christians lived and worshipped. Many scholars today astutely investigate the early Church, considering the first three centuries following the Passion and Resurrection of Christ before all else. This investigation into the early Church is highly laudable, especially when using primary sources. Of course, authentic research into any form of history must refrain from both cherry-picking and excluding evidence that might be contrary to a desired outcome.

But heretics have always attempted to foist their own errors upon the early Church in order to pretend like their new theories are, in fact, very old. In other words, founders of new ecclesial communities in every age have always acted like their novelties were inspired by the Holy Spirit in the early Church.

Of course, their interlocutors will inevitably ask: Why weren’t such beliefs found in later documents of the Catholic Church? Heretics alway say the same thing in response: The Apostles secretly had the same theology as such founders of new religions, but only lukewarm Christians in between the two groups (the old Apostles and new heretics) lost the true beliefs. This is why you can’t find any evidence of their novel ideas in the Middle Ages! To do this, they clearly have to fabricate evidence or use ad hoc reasoning. (Ad hoc reasoning is defined as “starting with a fixed conclusion and inventing excuses or logic to fit it.”)

Let’s look at a few examples of this.

The Martin-Luther Myth: The early Church in the catacombs of Rome was charismatic and had little interest in the sacraments. Morals revolved around “freedom in the Lord” much more than the Ten Commandments. The early charismatic Christians of the catacombs only had to work with the hierarchical Roman Church following the edict of Milan in AD 313 when Christianity was legalized. That unfortunately led to the Roman Church cooperating with the Roman Empire which then ossified the true Christian spirit. This spirit of simple Christianity then got lost for 1200 years until the reformers like Martin Luther and John Calvin re-discovered it.

Myth-Busting Luther: Christ Himself said, If you would enter life, keep the commandments.—Mt 19:17. The Apostle Paul obviously did not believe the Eucharist was a symbol, as he believed it could be sacrileged: For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.—1 Cor 11:29. In fact, St. Paul names the most serious sins in that same letter to the Corinthians: Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.—1 Cor 6:9-10.

Furthermore, the earliest Church Fathers insisted the earliest Catholic Church was based in Rome with a hierarchy. For example, St. Ignatius of Antioch (an immediate disciple of St. John the Apostle who is considered an Eastern Father) wrote the following in the year AD 110: “Ignatius . . . to the Church also which holds the presidency, in the location of the country of the Romans, worthy of God, worthy of honor, worthy of blessing, worthy of praise, worthy of success, worthy of sanctification, and, because you hold the presidency in love, named after Christ and named after the Father.”

The Joseph-Smith Myth: Christ’s own Apostles were actually Mormons, not Catholics. The original religion of the Latter Day Saints was entirely lost from the Apostles until Joseph Smith rediscovered it in the 19th century. Joseph Smith received heavenly revelations of the true faith in New York, Ohio and Illinois. Of course, the Mormon religion was actually the same faith that Christ gave to the Apostles, but subsequent Christians had lost it from the 1st century until 1820. This is when it was re-revealed to Joseph Smith. Smith therefore re-founded the original the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the United States.

Myth-Busting Smith: There’s really no need to do any myth-busting on the heresy of Latter Day Saints since the burden of proof of such outrageous historical claims obviously rests on the shoulders of modern-day Mormons. Of course, they have no historical or theological evidence for such odd claims. Mormons are obviously not Christian since they do not believe in the Blessed Trinity. Yet they do believe in an infinite lineage (or regression) of prior gods. Yes, you read that correctly, “gods.” Thus, they are truly polytheists who also believe in polygamy (at least, theoretically.) The Church of Latter Day Saints has hilariously been dubbed “Islam for white people.”

The Bugnini Myth: The early Catholic Church of the catacombs had a Mass that was simple and done in the vernacular, hence why the Novus Ordo Missae had to be invented, to return us to simplicity. The early Mass did not have long or repetitive prayers as found in the Western Tridentine Mass or the Eastern Divine Liturgy. The early Church also had sacraments that were short and simple, never too wordy or theologically complex. Latin did not come into usage until much later. Moral theology was not yet casuistic, as found in the Middle-Ages. Sexual doctrine in the early Church was not nearly as important as kindness to the poor.

Myth-Busting Bugnini: Even the official records of Vatican II admit that Protestants were asked by Bugnini to help write the Novus Ordo Missae and the new sacraments. Thus, like the Martin Luther section above, it is very easy to demonstrate that both Protestantism and modernism are relatively new on the 2,000 year-old scene of Catholicism.

The reformers of the 1960s shortened every sacrament to the bare-bones.

One reason we know this was not the pattern of the early Church is because of the tremendous overlap between the traditional West and traditional East. For example, traditional Roman priests (like me) and Eastern Orthodox priests today both use complex exorcisms over the baby before baptism (not just a a short optional one, as found in the new rite) Also, the Divine Liturgy and the Traditional Latin Mass both have complex, repetitive prayers, suggesting that this type of worship is Apostolic in origin, not invented in the Middle Ages. (Why would such an overlap be invented after the Great Schism of 1054!?)

Now let’s summarize all the above “reformers.”

All of these heretics attempt to project their contemporary and transient errors upon the early Church in order to make it look like their new errors are, in fact, old theology that came directly from Christ. Besides providing little to no evidence for such novelties (except cherry-picking and dishonest scholarship) each of the above listed men fail to explain one enormous and looming question: What was the Holy Spirit doing for over 1300 years between the Apostles and the reformers?

In other words, if Martin Luther or Joseph Smith or Annibale Bugnini had all re-discovered that original theology and worship given by Christ to the Apostles (which had been conveniently lost by lazy Christians) then why didn’t the Holy Spirit protect the Church for the interim?

So also we traditionalists today can say to the modernists of the 1960s forward who claim the new Mass and the new theology is actually older than the Mass and theology from the Middle Ages: What was the Holy Spirit doing for numerous centuries between the Apostles and you reformers? The rebels (not reformers) will never have an answer.

Yet we traditional Catholics know an answer that comes directly from Jesus Christ and is given to all saints but never novel reformers in an isolated Church crisis: But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.—John 14:26.

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