A Bumpy Ride

How did the true Gospel survive the turbulant history of the Church?

I have been greatly troubled as I delved deeper and deeper into Church history. I couldn’t help but think, where was the true Christian witness during this troubled history? Where was the authentic Gospel message during the Dark Ages, or at other times when Christendom was stifling the life out of the faith? Where were the faithful remnant to keep the torch flickering?

The story so far was that, once upon a time, there was God’s authentic Church, founded by the apostles who had learned at the feet of Jesus himself. Then the apostles died and new ideas from Greece were allowed to mix with the pure doctrine of the Christian faith. Out of this tainted root came the established Western Church, the State Church of Augustine and Aquinas and the Catholics. When the Protestants appeared on the scene it was not from without, but from within; it was a reformation of the existing structures, not a spanking new broom sweeping clean. Yet out of all of this, the Gospel message has still reached us, despite the bumps and bangs of nearly 2,000 years of doctrinal turbulence.