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I recall a Lutheran theologian writing an article in a Lutheran publication arguing intelligently that the concept of Sola Scriptura preceded Luther in the late medieval/early modern Catholic Church, with Erasmus and others holding to this school of thought in Catholic Germany. So this idea...

It's true that in Western Europe after the fall of Rome to the Goths in about the 5th century, political power was more regional, whereas the eastern emperor retained control of the eastern meditteranean until the rise of Islam (7th century) and the conquest of Constantinople (15th century). But...

Probably in real life terms, the imperial power of Rome played a key role in building up the power claims of the Vatican. Before then, the Eastern Roman empire was comparable in political power, and so it would be harder politically for the Vatican to press or puff up its claims.

It's neat that you know Koine Greek.

I wouldn't be surprised if there was a lost subtext of Church politics and jockeying for power. However, I recommend reading more about the Chalcedonian split before putting it in those terms. This conflict could be traced back further than Chalcedon, even back to Nestorius and Cyril (of Egypt)...

I read Daniel B. Wallace's "Who is Ezekiel's Daniel?". bible.org/article/who-ezekiels-daniel Wallace covers the same issues that I discussed above, although it gets a bit into a few more. For instance, Wallace asserts that Ezekiel listed some other things out of order besides just listing a 6th...

So to answer you more directly, the Bible doesn't give a clear picture that Peter alone was the chief apostle. In one epistle, Paul writes that he saw Jacob, Peter, and John as three pillars of the Church. For me personally, it's arguable whether Jacob or Peter were the chief leader before their...

The problem is that Biblical-based and Apostolic-Era-based arguments for the Catholic version of Papal Supremacy get increasingly tenuous as their run from their starting point to their conclusion. The starting point can be a verse, like in Matthew 16:19 when Jesus says to Peter, "And I will...

Daniel 9:24-26 is an important, yet tricky passage. With the help of Biblehub's Interlinear Strong's tool, I found the 1979 ArtScroll Translation to be the most precise for v. 24, the NET translation to be the most precise for v. 25, and the KJV to be the most precise for v. 26. I am marking...

Have you heard of the Eastern Orthodox Church? Hopefully the Last Judgment will not make that an absolute requirement for every person. The Bible doesn't seem to get into that kind of specific, and my sense is that the Bible is not absolutist on the topic. It encourages joining the Church, but...

My criticism of your question is that it seems to imply that Church membership is strictly and unconditionally one of the requirements for an individual's salvation. ie. if a person does not belong to the Church as a visible institution, then they absolutely cannot be saved until they join it...

Eph 2:8-9 doesn't specify that only faith is necessary and that performing works is unnecessary. Eph 2 says that "it [grace? salvation?] is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast." Just because grace is not of works does not show that works are "unnecessary." Paul does not...

The Orthodox Church however doesn't have a strict teaching that membership in the Church is an absolute requirement for salvation that applies to every person.

Orthodox Wikipedia says:

That verse doesn't get into the issue of whether Church membership is necessary, just the issues of faith vs. works. For Luther by comparison, baptism counted as a "work", but it was still necessary. Luke 9 seems to go in favor of the idea that acting in a Christian way without accompanying...

There are hints in the Bible along the idea of apostolic succession, like the OT Remnant system. The idea would be that there would always be an ongoing remnant of people who had right faith. The Israelite rulers persecuted the prophets, for instance, but there were still people loyal to those...

Typically one would think that if you found the apostles' institutional, orthodox Church and you believed in the apostles' Christianity, you would want to join it if you had the opportunity. Augustine commented that there were many sheep outside of the Church. There is no dogmatic rule in...

I think that you are pointing to a real issue in your development of doctrine section (The RC invention of Papal Infallibility contradicts or was absent in 1st century teachings), but the issue could probably be explained better. It's not as if Catholics teach, "We grow our faith in ways that...

The Number 1 issue of division between EOs and RCs seems to me to be in practice the issue of Papal Supremacy, and in particular the Catholic version of it. Under Papal Supremacy, the Pope is basically the bishop over all bishops and clergy in Christendom, and he can agree to allow the EOs to do...

It's kind of an interesting issue as to where an EO would attend if there was no EO CHurch near him/her, or which institution he/she would try to use for starting an EO parish - a Catholic, Anglican, or Lutheran Church? Maybe it would even more likely be an Old Catholic or OO Church that he/she...