House Church Talk - Pattern or simply an adaptation?

[David Miller]

David Anderson wrote:
> are you working from a CD version or hardcopy of 
> the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers? 

CD.

David Anderson wrote:
> The CD versions occasionally confuse the notes with 
> the actual text due to the many kinds of formatting. 
> If this is the case, then your one reference may be 
> little more than a scholarly opinion of an editor 
> who "edited" centuries later. 

As I said before, I am clearly quoting from notes, not the actual Canon.
Nevertheless, the primary editor is the accomplished historian named
Philip Schaff. I'll take his opinion on history over that of popular
writers any day.  :-)

David Anderson wrote:
> I would be interested in seeing your other sources, 
> not that I disagree with your conclusions.

I'm swamped right now to try and dig that stuff up, but the quote about
Severus Alexander mentioned by somebody else would be one of them.  

David Anderson wrote:
> Above all, it should be noted that such dates and council 
> proclamations do not mean that all Christians everywhere 
> subscribed to, obeyed, or even heard the conclusions of 
> the Church Councils or Church Fathers. In other words, 
> the house churches did not suddenly fall like dominoes 
> in a certain calender year. It is reasonable to suppose 
> that house churches have continued since the beginning, 

Certainly house churches did continue, and have always been an important
part of Christianity.

David Anderson wrote:
> It should also be obvious that these clerics, having 
> multiplied church offices to about a dozen varieties, 
> were heading in the wrong direction - away from Him 
> who insisted that brotherhood rather than hierarchy 
> was to be the arrangement for His church.

True enough.  Power corrupts, and although God permits and even anoints
kings, God's perfect will would be that there be no kings. 

Peace be with you.
David Miller, Beverly Hills, Florida.