Chapter 20: Did the Church remain faithful? Did the first few generations of Christians after the apostles faithfully preserve the faith that was once for all handed down to them? Or did Christianity collapse right after the apostles died, as sects like Jehovah's Witnesses claim? Let's examine all the evidence to see.
I'll read his footnote: "I address this issue in chapters 11 and 12 of my book Will the Real Heretics Please Stand Up?" Rather than repeating all the information I shared in those chapters, I refer the reader to that book if he has not already read it. However, I am summarizing the basic arguments presented there. Back to the text. If Christian beliefs and practices changed between the 1st and 2nd centuries, then the change had to have come about in one of two ways.
First, the change could have come about deliberately. The 2nd and 3rd generations of Christians may have purposefully changed what had been handed down to them. However, they specifically say, over and over again in their writings, that what they are defending is what the apostles themselves taught. They also believed, as we have said, that there was no further special revelation after the apostles. Sure, but they could still be lying, you might say.
In other words, these writers may have been liars—apostates who were purposefully misrepresenting Christ and the apostles. Yet when we read of their godly lives and their willingness to give up all for Christ, I don't think any of us really want to say that. What's more, thousands of them, including quite a few of the writers, suffered imprisonment in dark, foul dungeons, endured excruciating tortures, and suffered horrible deaths rather than to deny Christ. Is that something deliberate liars would do?
How many people would suffer torture and death for something they knew was a lie? So the first method of change—deliberate apostasy—is highly unlikely. However, change could still have come about a second way, accidentally. In other words, the Christians of the 2nd century may have been diligently trying to teach and practice what was handed down to them, but they somehow misunderstood what the apostles had taught. But how could that be?
Some of the early Christian writers, such as Polycarp and Clement of Rome, received the gospel directly from the apostles. How could they possibly have misunderstood them? If they did, what hope is there for us? Other early Christian writers, such as Irenaeus, received the gospel from those who had secured it directly from the apostles. Well then, you might say, perhaps change came about slowly, almost imperceptibly.
But after a while, by the accumulation of these small changes, the Church had drifted pretty far from the original gospel. That's a good hypothesis. In fact, I believe that is what actually happened. Century after century, the Church has drifted slightly from where it was the century before. But that's hardly a reason to discredit the Christians of the 2nd century. Rather, it's a good reason to discredit Christians of the 20th and 21st centuries. The 2nd century Christians had less than one century of drift.
We have had 19 or 20.