Why is it so hard to find historical truths in the modern churches?

[GregoryTheNonTheologian]

I come from a born again background but I am having serious doubts about my chosen path.

For starters, I am actually quite annoyed that nobody bothered to tell me about the Early church Fathers. 20 years in a protestant setting and not once did I hear their names mentioned. The implications of their views and influence are enormous given the circumstances. How can they be so easily cast aside in good conscience? I made mention of them to friends within my church and they also had no idea who they were.

I was taught that Catholicism and orthodoxy were nothing more than religious garbage. Worshiping Mary and other weird stuff, with no foundation in truth. The more i come to understand the historical significance of these denominations, the more i feel like it is I who was lied to. It's like a caveman approaches a king, and somehow believes himself more qualified and capable to run the kingdom. There's a huge gap in compiled knowledge and progression. I mean how would Christianity have even survived without the efforts of these traditions? How could these men be trusted to compile the bible as we know it and yet we ignore what they have to say about it? How can they be bringers of truth and false witnesses at the same time? I say this because the writings i read strike me as catholic/orthodox. Somehow Christians today think they have a deeper understanding of scripture and are closer to the Truth than the past was. It is more logical to me, that the modern day churches are at the tail end of the game "chinese whispers", not the other way around. It always bothered me how many denominations there were but in light of all this it makes perfect sense.

i'll admit, i have only begun to read the volumes of stuff that's out there (previously i was told only to read the bible) yet i can't see how i will be able to proceed in the born again setting should this continue. Honestly, i don't even want to leave the modern day church, it's comfortable and pleases my flesh. I just want the truth, wherever it is.

I'm curious - which Fathers have you read so far?

 

[grandvizier1006]

I don't think I'll become orthodox or catholic anytime soon but I would like to hear more about the church fathers. It's like they never even existed sometimes...

 

[Erose]

I don't think I'll become orthodox or catholic anytime soon but I would like to hear more about the church fathers. It's like they never even existed sometimes...

Only in certain denominations. In the traditional Apostolic Churches, and some of the older Protestant denominations they are studied and used in catechetical documents. If you read the Catechism of the Catholic Church they are quoted quite frequently.

A good app that includes a ton of writings of the Early Church Fathers is iPieta. The app has more writings than these, but it has more writings of the ECFs than one could read in a lifetime.

 

[grandvizier1006]

Only in certain denominations. In the traditional Apostolic Churches, and some of the older Protestant denominations they are studied and used in catechetical documents. If you read the Catechism of the Catholic Church they are quoted quite frequently.

A good app that includes a ton of writings of the Early Church Fathers is iPieta. The app has more writings than these, but it has more writings of the ECFs than one could read in a lifetime.

Ok, thanks for telling me.