Who Governed the Early Church, and How?
The Visible Church and Ecclesiastical Authority Introduction In the previous chapters, we examined two closely related convictions that appear consistently throughout the pre-Nicene Church. First, we found substantial evidence that bishops were widely understood to stand in continuity with the ministry entrusted by Christ to His apostles, preserving both the apostolic teaching and the orderly life of the Church through what later came to be known as apostolic succession. Second, we saw that Christian communities throughout the Roman world recognized a threefold ministry of bishops, presbyters, and deacons. Those conclusions naturally raise another question. Who did Christ authorize to govern His Church? This question reaches beyond the identity of individual church leaders to the nature of the Church itself. If Christ established a visible and enduring Church, by what means was that Church to preserve unity, guard against false teaching, exercise discipline, and resolve dis...