Pastor Rodrick Oliver Sweet's Page

Brother Pastor,

I, too, look forward to the fellowship. Stay Blessed!

the bible says come lets reason together. i love a good talk or debate it helps build the faith, and christ we live by.

Grace & Peace Pastor Sweet. Dr. Watson left BPN a while ago due to the nonsense found within the debates. I was in contact with him recently though, and he's doing just fine. I'll tell him you asked for him when next I speak with him.

How have you been?

Pastor Sweet, thank you for that blog on the Church Canon. Unfortunately, you did not leave a chance for a response to your blog, be it for or against.

Bless you Pastor Sweet, I'm glad you ask:
The role of apostolic succession in preserving true doctrine is illustrated in the Bible. To make sure that the apostles’ teachings would be passed down after the deaths of the apostles, Paul told Timothy, "[W]hat you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also" (2 Tim. 2:2). In this passage he refers to the first three generations of apostolic succession—his own generation, Timothy’s generation, and the generation Timothy will teach.

The Church Fathers, who were links in that chain of succession, regularly appealed to apostolic succession as a test for whether Catholics or heretics had correct doctrine. This was necessary because heretics simply put their own interpretations, even bizarre ones, on Scripture. Clearly, something other than Scripture had to be used as an ultimate test of doctrine in these cases.

Thus the early Church historian J. N. D. Kelly, a Protestant, writes, "[W]here in practice was [the] apostolic testimony or tradition to be found? . . . The most obvious answer was that the apostles had committed it orally to the Church, where it had been handed down from generation to generation. . . . Unlike the alleged secret tradition of the Gnostics, it was entirely public and open, having been entrusted by the apostles to their successors, and by these in turn to those who followed them, and was visible in the Church for all who cared to look for it" (Early Christian Doctrines, 37).

For the early Fathers, "the identity of the oral tradition with the original revelation is guaranteed by the unbroken succession of bishops in the great sees going back lineally to the apostles. . . . [A]n additional safeguard is supplied by the Holy Spirit, for the message committed was to the Church, and the Church is the home of the Spirit. Indeed, the Church’s bishops are . . . Spirit-endowed men who have been vouchsafed ‘an infallible charism of truth’"

Yes sir preacher... I believe you are a good man of God, and I admire your stedfastness. Love you man

Thank you for this avenue of dialogue and the opportunity for developing true friendship.