Early Church same as Catholic Church

By Bob Sungenis in From Controversy to Consolation

Many Protestants claim that the Church of the first three centuries was a "pure" church, and only after the legalization of the Christian faith by the Roman emperor Constantine (in A.D. 312) did the church become "Catholic" and corrupt. But upon studying this issue I found that the doctrines of post-Constantine Catholicism are the same doctrines, some in more primitive form, that were held by Christians for the preceding three centuries.

My study of the writings of the Church Fathers revealed that the early Church believed in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, confession of sins to a priest, baptismal regeneration, salvation by faith and good works done through grace, that one could reject God's grace and forfeit salvation, that the bishop of Rome is the head of the Church, that Mary is the Mother of God and was perpetually a virgin, that intercessory prayer can be made to the saints in heaven, that purgatory is a state of temporary purification which some Christians undergo before entering heaven. Except for the perpetual virginity and divine motherhood of Mary, all of these doctrines were repudiated by the Protestant Reformers.

If the Catholic Church is in error to hold these beliefs, then it was in error long before Constantine legalized Christianity. This would mean that the Church apostatized before the end of the first century, when the apostles were still alive! An absurd theory which even the most anti-Catholic of Protestants can't quite bring themselves to accept.

What I discovered by reading the Church Fathers was that present-day Catholic interpretations of Scripture were held by the earliest Christians. They were passed down by Sacred Tradition and preserved and disseminated just as carefully as the Scripture was preserved and copied. Verses I had read hundreds of times concerning "tradition" now took on a whole new meaning. I finally understood the value and necessity of Sacred Tradition. Tradition did not contradict the Bible, rather, it supported it and made it clearer.

The most important of these verses was 2 Thessalonians 2:15 where Paul specified that oral tradition was to be preserved and obeyed the same as the written tradition. Because of my inherited Protestant aversion to "tradition" (in Matt. 15:3-9, Mark 7:1-15, and Col. 2:22 traditions of men are condemned), I had never really appreciated the value of good and wholesome traditions, especially those Sacred Traditions that were given by God and are preserved by the infallible guidance of the Holy Spirit in the Church. I also learned that in places where the Scripture was ambiguous (e.g., infant baptism), Sacred Tradition helped us to understand the intent of the apostles.