An Unbroken Lineage?
Dear beloved Holdemans, if you sincerely desire truth, please don’t be afraid to read these historical facts, for the truth of your doctrines depends upon this information. The doctrine of the one true church relies on an “unbroken lineage” of unchanged faith. According to your schoolbook, This is My Heritage, Polycarp, Ignatius, Justin, Ireneaus, and Tertullian handed down from the apostles the true doctrine of the true church.*
Yet these men believed in a literal 1000-year reign of Christ on earth, which Holdemans call sacrilege and blasphemy.
And Holdemans believe in a “celestial flesh” view of the incarnation, which these men called heresy and antichrist.
Dear brethren, if the true church has held all doctrines alike, have you not cut yourselves off from the apostolic church, whose doctrines you label blasphemous? And if the early church fathers handed down the truth, have they not cut you off because of your “celestial flesh” view of the incarnation, which they labeled heresy? How is it possible to harmonize the teachings of the church fathers and Holdeman doctrine? Beloved brethren who our hearts yearn for, won’t you reconsider your position?
The following pages are not to argue for or against a millennium or to express our personal opinion, for the church fathers allowed other opinions on that issue. But they did not allow for any deviation from the orthodox view of the human flesh incarnation of Jesus, saying all who rejected this teaching were not Christians.
Who shall we believe, the apostolic church fathers or Holdeman’s doctrine? (And there is no contradiction among historians on these quotes—to discard them is to discard all record of the church fathers themselves.) Again, because we love you, won’t you reconsider?
Holdeman school textbook book, This is My Heritage pg 9,14,17:
”The apostles taught their students [Polycarp & Ignatius] the teaching which they learned directly from Jesus.”
“The Church Fathers [Justin & Ireneaus] lived one generation later, learning from the Apostolic Fathers.”
“Tertullian was…a defender of Christianity”
Ante-Nicene Fathers about Apostolic Succession
“We are in a position to reckon up those who were instituted bishops in the churches by the apostles, and the succession of these men to our own times.” Ireneaus ( A.D. 120-202) Vol 1 pag 415
“Nor will any one of the rulers in the churches teach doctrines different from these” Ireneaus ( A.D. 120-202) Pg 331
“No other teaching will have the right of being received as apostolic than that which is at the present day proclaimed in the churches of apostolic foundation” Tertullian (A.D. 145-220) Vol 3 pg 349
“Let them [the heretics] produce the original records of their churches. Let them unfold the roll of their bishops, running down in due succession from the beginning in such a manner that the first bishop of theirs can show for his ordainer and predecessor one of the apostles” Tertullian (A.D. 145-220) Vol 3 pg 258