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Question: Is there any evidence of the apostasy from materials from early Christian history besides the Bible?
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Question: Is there any evidence of the apostasy from materials from early Christian history besides the Bible?
The testimony of the early Christian Fathers does not incline us to see a united group of Christian disciples faithful to the teachings of Jesus and the apostles
As scholars have long realized, the testimony of the Fathers does not incline us to see a united group of Christian disciples faithful to the teachings of Jesus and the apostles. Rather, with the death of the apostles, the congregations of Christians were riven by schism, disagreement, doctrinal innovation, and a lack of the clarity that can only come from divinely-commissioned prophets and apostles. It is clear from the Fathers themselves that something quite disturbing was underway soon after the apostles' death.
Many of the early Christian Fathers did probably not see themselves as part of an apostate Christianity or group. However, as we watch Christian debate, practice, belief, and doctrine alter as the years pass, it is difficult not to conclude that serious and substantial changes were at work once the apostles were gone. (Some changes were noted and bemoaned by some early Christian authors, however.)
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