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David Bercot provides a good starting point in dismantling the claims of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox claims with the evidence from Scripture and early church writings. We can be confident that those two, as well as similar traditions like the Coptic church, do not hand down the faith which Jude says was once for all delivered and Irenaeus said could not be improved upon.

I would add one more historical point to dismantling the Myth of the 7 ecumenical counsels. The 6th counsel, which posthumously dogmatized the teaching of Maximus that Christ has two "wills" as defined by a hyper-technical Greek philosophy as being tied to nature and not person, and that the Trinity therefore possesses one ontological divine "will", is one of the strangest and most evident proofs that the so-called ecumenical counsels have dogmatized extra biblical philosophical mintutae. Justin Martyr and all the ante-nicene Christians are condemned by Maximus' neoplatonic scheme, since they believed the Father and Son had a unity of will because the Son does the will of the Father. So it is a will of harmony with the commands and will of the Father.

Other than the recommendations and feedback I provided to the course producers in their survey I took after I completing the course, I think this course is informative and encouraging to all Christians who seek to distinguish truth from myth about our Christian history.

I would highly recommend it.

This course was very informative. I've talked with many Roman Catholics, the everyday Catholics, the ones in the pews, and they are highly suspicious of the Bible unless it is being interpreted by the Church. They have a strong belief that only the Catholic Church, through the Magisterium to the Pope are the only ones to tell them right from wrong and how to live and worship. My experience is that they simply won't believe anyone else. I've heard them actually pray, "Mary save us." It’s really terribly sad, they are wonderful, kind people.
May we all pray that God would open their eyes and change their hearts.
Thank you for the excellent course.

The research and dissemination of this history of the church is very interesting and instructive.

This is a broad overview with specific examples provided. You will not leave with every question answered but you WILL leave with a phenomenal foundation. This is a starting point for anyone looking to explore the history of the church, especially in light of big churches (EO and RC) that claim the fullness of the apostolic faith.

This course is a huge help if you are wrestling with all these issues or if you a simply curious where it all came from. I highly recommend it. It has helped me peel back the layers and see things for what they are and not just what I have been sold.

For the past few years, I have been increasingly drawn to the Eastern Orthodox Church and have attended several Liturgies. Some of the things I have found impactful about the EOC have been: Claims that the EOC compiled what we now call the Canon of Scripture, the Bible, The Councils and Creeds, Their rejection of Absolute Divine Simplicity and the formulation of the Essence/Energy Distinction, their Christology--that Jesus is a Divine Person with a universal human nature, not "two" persons making his receiving the wrath of God on the Cross as punishment for our sins blasphemous and heretical, and also that the writings of the Fathers (as they are called) are just as powerfully sanctified and holy as they are intellectually lofty.

As a former Reformed Protestant for 30 years, I found all of these aspects of the EOC very challenging, impactful and even convincing. I view finding this ministry when I did to be nothing short of Providential.

David Bercot's presentations were powerful and impactful. And they have effectively changed my thinking about the EOC in various ways that I will be chewing on for some time.

The biggest takeaway from this course, is how convincing the lectures are in demonstrating that the earliest Church leaders did not hold to many of the key practices that the EOC holds so near and dear and essential to their faith and worship.

Powerful.

Help appreciate the decline of the Church into apostacy

It always amazes me how history can get so “modified” to support what someone wants to believe. David does a great job at digging through history and giving the full picture of what took place.

Educational! Great conclusions. I’m with you.

Not a complete evaluation of the relevant churches, but it covers the areas on which they base their claims of being the true church. Highly recommend.

This class really opened my eyes to how much development took place in the early church.

This course is very good. I have come in contact with Eastern Orthodox believers and they are very adamant that their practices go back to the days of the Apostles. Mr. Bercot does a good job demonstrating that these practices (icons, praying to Theotokos (Mary), etc.) arose much later. He also gives a lot of good points on other topics (e.g. Apostolic Succession) that Roman Catholics often use to defend their position.

Excellent course! Enjoyed it, and it filled in the gaps in my knowledge. For Early-Church and Kingdom Christians the Eastern Orthodox Faith can be very seductive but the truth as presented here will keep you free! The lies the EOC and the RCC so persuasive and sound like the real thing but in fact are institunalized and ancient errors. The 1700-yr old Constantinian church is not the original church no matter how much they claim it is,... Old yes, the original, no! The evidence is clearly presented here.

Bercot makes each century understand.

nope

Informative and straight forward. Mr. Bercot goes through numerous writings in the early church and clearly demonstrates that the claims of Rome and the Eastern Orthodox church are not actually accurate. They are not holding to the faith delivered once for all to the saints. I recommend this course to everyone who's in genuine pursuit of the historic faith. It can be found taught here. Thank you Mr. Bercot my brother in Jesus Christ and teacher in the faith.

I have long wandered like a blind man in dark world seeking to know where the rain started to beat the church. Now I have the answer. Eureka.

Wow! I had heard all of these messages before, but "binge-listening" to them all again within the space of just a few days really had an impact on me. My tears are welling up within me.

First of all, I was very impressed with the amount of research dear brother Bercot must have put into the preparation of these six messages. These messages, like the vast majority of his other message, are filled with lots of very important details.

Secondly, the fact that brother Bercot once accepted the modern teaching regarding Apostolic Succession and had considered Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, even if very briefly, during his spiritual journey added a very welcome element of magnanimity to these messages. These critiques of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy (with occasional references to the Coptic Church as well) are not hateful rants about the Pope being "The Whore of Babylon" or any such thing. A church group that my wife and I previously fellowshipped with was known for occasional conferences that left all the attendees with a boiling hatred toward Roman Catholicism and all who are associated with it. That is not what is being done in these messages. I never once in these six messages detected a mocking tone from brother Bercot, which means that he is gifted with a much greater level of self-control than I currently posses.

Debunking the deeply-held claims of other very sincere Christians is never fun, but this course absolutely has to exist. It seems that a lot of dear seeking Christians get a hold of brother Bercot's first two books (especially in their earlier editions) and rightly see the errors of the Protestant Reformers, but end up thinking that the faith practiced by the Ante-Nicene Christians can be found in Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy. Such seekers desperately need to hear these messages to help them understand that Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy contain serious errors as well. Despite the claims of the very convincing apologists for Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, an objective comparison of these two church traditions reveal them not to be improvements of the New Testament faith, but to be deviations, and even corruptions, of the faith handed down by our Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles. So these messages comprise a very necessary counterpart to all that dear brother Bercot has written and spoken regarding the shortcomings of the Protestant Reformers.

I was left with a very deep and profound impression that seeking the kingdom of God on the earth today is a journey that is fraught with dangers and possibilities of ending up in nice-looking and nice-sounding detours that lead to counterfeit destinations. The contents of these message is very serious stuff and needs to be said. We are very much in the midst of a pitched battle for human souls, with eternal destinies hanging in the balance; and counterfeit teachings and practices that lead seekers astray need to be exposed in a serious, but humble, deeply concerned, and loving, spirit. Listening to brother Bercot's messages regarding Francis of Assisi, and reading the books that Scroll Publishing sells containing the writings of Fenelon and Thomas A Kempis shows that brother Bercot does not condemn all Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox with a broad brush. Surely many have found and lived out the Kingdom of God in those two traditions. But why make the search and the striving to live out the Kingdom of God harder by becoming mired down in church traditions that have a long history of association with worldly powers, a long history of arrogant anathemas against other seeking Christians, and who openly admit that they believe they have improved on the simple faith of Jesus Christ and His apostles when such is not the case?

It grieves me greatly to know that many seekers of authentic, New Testament, Christianity end up with Rome or Constantinople when the deep longing of their heart was to find the beautifully simple Kingdom of God on the earth today. This is very tragic. Hence the desperate need for these messages.

May God have mercy on us all, dear ones, may God have mercy on us all.

This course has helped me a lot as I left the Roman Catholic Church with mostly an intuitive understanding of what I could discern as not right. It is good to get the facts that back up those impressions directly from the Word of God and the historical evidence.