As you saw if you read my account of it, the strong reluctance I felt trying to enter a Catholic church on my own to attend an Easter Mass, even though I wanted and intended to. Many Protestants are raised or are taught after coming to Christ at a later time in their lives that the Catholic Church is way off base. My general overview of church history based on ignorance (before I became a student of church history) was that the early church went off the tracks somewhere between the death of the Apostle John, circa 100 AD, and the recognition of Christianity as one of the state religions of the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine in the early 4th Century. I leaned toward the earlier date. According to the story line, things went from bad to worse from that point on until Christianity was fortunate enough to be rescued by the Reformers during the time of the Reformation in the 16th Century. The Eastern Orthodox were generally ignored by us since our beef wasn't with them and besides we didn't know anything about them except that they were into pictures and smells and bells, kind of like the Catholics.
So when the Lord told me when in the Sierra foothills to check out churches that had bishops and physical worship/liturgy, I naturally gravitated towards the Anglican (Church of England/Episcopal) family of churches. They are kind of half Catholic/half Reformed and are often called "the Middle Way". We were never near one until we moved to Central Oregon and I didn't think my family would go for it. So I was kind of a closet Anglican from afar for awhile.
When we moved to Central Oregon, we visited many different churches and attended a few for a time. We visited the Episcopal church in town and even talked about going there but we ended up at the Nazarene church until we moved to SE Colorado. Central Oregon was my looking into Eastern Orthodoxy time as well as the beginning of our SE Colorado time. It was also when I began reading about church history.
Going to the Methodist church in SE Colorado partially fulfilled my longings since the Wesleys from whom it came were Anglicans and it was semi-liturgical, a sort of Anglican/Episcopal Lite. And it did have bishops. There was also a smidgen of Catholic spirituality in the Upper Room/Walk to Emmaus circles. And I had some buddies there with leaning towards Catholic spirituality.
But what really challenged my original uniformed church history overview stated above was when I read about the martyrdom of some Christians in Gaul (present-day France) in 177 AD, among them was a young slave girl named Blandina (now Saint Blandina) who had such lion-hearted faith and joy in the midst of terrible tortures that she became a major source of strength for her fellow believers. After seeing them all safely into heaven, she was the last to die. God broke my pride and I confessed myself a lightweight who was not worthy to be counted among them. And who did I think I was to question and look down on their faith. And there are many more stories down through the centuries.
I started checking the early church fathers when I was preparing to preach and teach and was astounded by their depth and insights. Hmmm... so maybe my church historical overview needed a major overhaul. Maybe the Church didn't completely derail after the 1st Century like I thought. Maybe what Jesus said about His church was true.
Next up will be, what about Mary and the Saints?
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