[grip_daddy]

Ndigila,

The Catholic church basically sprung up from the orthodox church; though as a universal organisation having a central and complete authority from Rome came into effect in 538AD. The church assumed mostly the philosophies of the pagan religions which were absent in scriptures and through councils, enacted these philosophies as part of the church's dogma. One dogma that has survived to date is the mass. How come the order and deliverance of Holy Communion as done by the Catholic church differs from the order exemplified by Christ and later on expounded by Paul? The current system of mass is very similar to that which was done by Mythra and not by the apostles.

I agree that the council of the church is important even today as was done by the apostles. There are two major contradictions in the spirit of the two councils notably:
1. The council of Acts was chaired by James who was not the head of the church assuming that the head was Peter. Here we find that the authority to formulate and conclude what constitute Church's doctrine did not rest on an individual as the current catholic church would make us believe.
2. The council was guided by interpretation of the scriptures on what the message to the Gentiles meant, and not by borrowing from the nearby religious philosophies. Remember also that the philosophies which were in honour to pagan deities were burned in presence of the apostles in some cities but the holy scriptures magnified. The Gentiles opted to compare the apostolic messages to the OT scriptures, an attitude that was manifest in the Act's council. The council did not even reason from traditions of the Jews (there was a remarkable visible Jews traditions as at that time) nor the traditions of the nearby Gentiles, but by the word of God as principled in OT.

When you say that the apostolic church followed the Judaisic system, how then did it begin to worship through Mary? A phenomena totally absent in the apostolic period?