Great effort is being expended on a 72-volume edition of "The Fathers Of The Church" which has started coming off of the press. This work is a translation of the writings of the early church fathers-the men who came after the departure of the Apostles. Their writings have been extolled by many men of prominence in the professing church as having great weight by reason of their antiquity; but let us remember that they are not Scripture, nor have they the weight and authority of the Word of God
The writings of the earliest of the so-called Fathers abound in mistakes and errors. After the death of the Apostles error came in like a flood, and nowhere are the writings of the Fathers to be depended upon. What men, or even devout Christians, held at such an early date has nothing to do with the truth of God. We have only to read the Epistles, written by men inspired by the Holy Spirit, to see that the doctrines held and things practiced in the earliest days had much need of correction. Think of the errors at Corinth which the Apostle Paul corrected in the two Epistles to the Corinthians; even the truth of the resurrection was called in question at that time. The assemblies in Galatia had departed from the very foundation so that Paul wrote them a most solemn and searching epistle to recall them to the truth. The First Epistle to the Thessalonians had to correct a mistake as to the departed saints; the Second Epistle had to correct an even worse error as to the living saints and the day of the Lord. Shall we then go back to any early practice or teaching? Shall we accept anything as correct that is not from the Scriptures themselves? No, for in them only have we the truth of God.
When Paul was leaving the elders of Ephesus he commended them to "God and the word of His grace." Acts 20. That was to be the resource of the Church after the departure of the Apostles. Peter also, in view of his decease, brought nothing else before them but the Scriptures. It was neglect of the Scriptures and substitution of the thoughts and opinions of men that wrought such great havoc in the early Church.
There are supposed writings of such men as Barnabas and Clement who were fellow laborers with the Apostle Paul, but it seems incredible that men who were so blessed as to be companions of the great Apostle should have penned all that is attributed to them. One has only to read a little of any of these writings to see that they are not to be trusted, and that there is a great gulf between the best of them and the Holy Scriptures. Reading the writings of the Church Fathers would only tend to barrenness of soul and perhaps lead one into error.
Almost without exception the early Fathers went astray as to the proper hope of the Lord's coming for the Church. The coming of the Son of man to this earth and the rapture of the saints soon became confused; and almost from the days of the Apostles the true hope of the Church was lost, as in the parable of the "ten virgins" (Matt. 25) who all went to sleep instead of watching for the bridegroom. That blessed hope has been revived in the last century, as in the same parable the call went out, "Behold the bridegroom," to awaken the sleeping virgins.
As the Fathers saw division and strife coming in, they introduced from the old Judaistic system the separation of the Church into laity and clergy-they set up bishops and others with authority which grew and increased until there was a great strife for the ruling positions in the Church of God. That there is the common priesthood of all believers is plainly taught in
Scripture, but the Fathers soon set up a system that denied this truth. Perhaps they thought that divisions and heresies might thus be avoided, but soon the whole was torn with bitterest dissension and grossest errors; and instead of tending the sheep the shepherds became lords of the flock, thus going contrary to the words found in 1 Pet. 5, and strove for mastery in the Church.
Almost every kind of doctrinal error can be found in the writings of the so-called Church Fathers, even to that which is derogatory to the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
May we be reminded that we have in the sacred Scriptures the whole revealed mind of God, and so be encouraged to search them more diligently. They, and not the writings of men of antiquity, are the resource for the Church in this day of great weakness and ruin. We are not unmindful that the Lord has given gifts to the Church and has raised up men to unfold and expound the Scriptures (for which we may well thank and praise Him), but everything is to be tested by the written Word of God.