I've spent some time banging around some thoughts on Psalm 110, what it meant in its Jewish culture and how it was used by the early believers. To think about that I had to first spend some time thinking about the origins.

BOOK: Church History in Plain Language by Bruce L. Shelley

REVIEW SUMMARY: Decent overview in very easy language.

MY RATING: [rating:4]

OVERVIEW: A basic overview of church history in readable English, good to read and helpful but only a primer on a very complicated subject. Definitely pick it up if you're looking to do research or plan to teach and need some refreshers.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Perfect introduction to church history, easily accessible with plenty of references to introduce the reader to further study.

With the tri-fold assumptions in place: (1) the Church is made up of people; (2)that the Church could only come about after certain historical requirements were in place; and (3) that the Church's leadership  is divine (in other words: God is the church's leader), we can safely move on to the purpose, or goal, of the Church. An ambitious goal for one post but that's what you can expect from a probable-heretic.

In my last post there was an assumption which I didn't bother bringing attention to but which colored the entire post. That being that New Testament Principles in the Church is a worthy stake to claim. With two thousand years of Church history that sort of assumption should raise a couple of serious questions.
If anyone does appeal to the New Testament, why bother appealing to those principles?