72: Why So Many Churches?: 1,000 Years of Doctrinal Drift – Part 5

What would a first-century disciple think if he stepped into a church in the year 1050 A.D.? In this episode, we explore the sweeping changes that reshaped Christianity over its first thousand years—shifts in doctrine, worship, and leadership that left the original pattern nearly unrecognizable. From the rise of clerical hierarchy and celibacy to the invention of purgatory and indulgences, discover how the church drifted from the simple, Spirit-led model of the New Testament—and why it matters today.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
(Music)
Welcome to the Ready for Eternity
podcast, a podcast and blog dedicated to
inquisitive Bible students exploring
biblical truths that might not be fully
explored in typical
sermons or Bible studies.

(00:20):
My name is Eddie Lawrence.
Imagine you're a first century disciple
of Jesus who time travels into the future
to the year 1050 AD.
You attend a local church, but after the
assembly ends, you're bewildered.
You're not even sure you

(00:41):
met with fellow disciples.
So much has changed in doctrine,
structure, and worship that the church
looks almost nothing
like the one Jesus started.
Over the past 1,000 years, doctrinal
drift has made the church of the 11th
century nearly
unrecognizable from the one Jesus started.

(01:05):
(Music)
What began as a grassroots movement of
house churches had
become two rival institutions,
the Roman Catholic Church and
the Eastern Orthodox churches.
Both had developed layers of ritual,
hierarchy, and doctrine
unknown to the apostles.

(01:28):
While the name Christianity remained,
many of the core teachings and practices
had shifted, some of them radically.
A thousand years had
introduced a lot of doctrinal drift.
Political pressures drove some of these
shifts, and cultural trends drove others,
and the growing institutional power of

(01:50):
the church drove still others.
But nearly all of them represent clear
departures from the simple pattern of
belief and practice
found in the New Testament.
Let's look back at the prior thousand
years and see what
changed and why it matters.
One of the big changes was that over

(02:10):
time, the church
developed a formal clergy class.
The earliest
Christians had no formal clergy.
The New Testament describes a church led
by shepherds, also known as elders or
overseers, and these shepherds met the
practical needs of local congregations.

(02:32):
There was no special class of priests
because all believers were
part of a royal priesthood.
But as Christianity spread and organized,
a clerical class began to emerge.
By the third and fourth centuries,
bishops gained authority not just over
their local church,
but over entire regions.

(02:54):
Over time, this
clergy-laity divide hardened.
What began as practical leadership
ultimately turned into a sacred office
that was distinct
from the common believer.
Another big change was
celibacy for priests.
In 1 Timothy 3, Paul insists that the

(03:16):
church leaders be the husband of one wife
and that they manage
their households well.
Early church leaders like Peter took
wives, but in the
western church this changed.
By the 11th century, celibacy became
mandatory for priests.

(03:36):
The idea was that marriage
distracted from holy service.
In the early days of this new emerging
priestly class, some of them
chose to practice celibacy.
The church didn't enforce it across the
board until much later, and it never had

(03:57):
any biblical support.
This change reflected cultural values and
the rising belief that celibacy was a
higher spiritual state than marriage.
Another major departure from the New
Testament pattern was that the Lord's
Supper went from a meal to a sacrifice.

(04:20):
Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper as a
memorial, a way to remember
his death until he returns.
The early church saw it as a communal
meal, shared in homes with spiritual
meaning and fellowship.
Over time, this simple remembrance
morphed into something very different.

(04:41):
By the 9th century, the church began
using sacrificial language
and they called it the Mass.
It was no longer just about remembering
Christ's sacrifice, but about recreating
it on the church altar.
This shift changed how
people viewed communion.

(05:01):
It was no longer a fellowship meal, but a
sacred ritual performed by a priest on
behalf of the people.
Perhaps the most dramatic doctrinal
departure from the New Testament pattern
as it pertains to the Lord's Supper was
the teaching of transubstantiation.

(05:23):
This is the idea that the bread and the
wine of communion become the literal body
and blood of Christ.
Now, this teaching has absolutely no
basis in Scripture, and the church didn't
even really formalize it until the fourth
Lateran Council in the year 1215.
But before that, there were differing

(05:44):
views on what Christ meant
when he said, "This is my body."
But the move to dogmatize
transubstantiation marked a major turn.
It brought deep reverence to the Lord's
Supper, but also deep fear.
The Lord's Supper was now seen as a
mystical event, requiring careful

(06:06):
handling and a consecrated priest.
Another big departure from the New
Testament teachings was the rise of the
doctrine of purgatory.
The New Testament teaches that after
death comes the judgment and that
salvation is either
received or rejected in this life.
Yet by the early Middle Ages, a new

(06:28):
concept had taken root.
Purgatory.
The church viewed this as a temporary
place in the afterlife where God purified
souls before they entered heaven.
Purgatory developed slowly, beginning
with prayers for the dead, and it grew
over centuries into a formal doctrine.

(06:49):
It's not found in Scripture, but by the
12th century, it was widely accepted in
the Western Church and used to justify
practices like indulgences.
Baptism also changed.
It went from an immersion in water to
either pouring or sprinkling.

(07:09):
Paul describes baptism as a burial and
resurrection in Romans chapter 6 verse 4,
and early Christians
practiced full immersion.
This mode matched the symbolism of dying
and rising with Christ.
But immersion gradually gave way to
sprinkling, especially in the West.

(07:32):
This shift happened partly for
convenience or where infant baptism
became the standard.
Eventually, sprinkling became common,
even though it no longer pictured the
biblical meaning of baptism.
Another innovation was the use of holy
water, blessed by a priest

(07:53):
and believed to ward off evil.
The New Testament never mentions this
practice, but it entered into Western
liturgy around the 9th century.
Like many later traditions, holy water
blended Christian symbols with older,
cultural superstitions.

(08:13):
Over time, it became standard practice in
homes and churches, despite
its lack of biblical support.
The Church also started to offer prayers
to both saints and to Mary.
Jesus taught his followers to pray
directly to the Father, and he promised

(08:33):
that prayers in his name would be heard.
Yet by the 4th century,
prayers to saints became common.
Christians believed these saints being in
heaven could intercede on their behalf.
Mary, in particular, took on an
increasingly exalted role.

(08:53):
By the 5th century, the Church called her
"Mother of God" and later honored her as
the chief intercessor.
Though born of genuine love and
reverence, this practice suddenly
undermined the unique role of
Christ as our only mediator.

(09:13):
Perhaps the most infamous
departure came with indulgences.
In theory, indulgences offered remission
of temporal punishment
for sins already forgiven.
In practice, they became a way to raise
money and manipulate guilt.
Indulgences grew out of the early

(09:34):
Church's penitential system.
The Church formalized them between the
11th and 13th centuries.
It was the abuse of indulgences that
would later spark Martin Luther's 95
thesis and the Protestant Reformation.
Now, to be clear, not everything about
the Church went off course.

(09:56):
Belief in Jesus as the risen
Son of God remained central.
Scribes continued to preserve and copy
the Scriptures with care, and many
leaders sought truth and holiness.
But we can't ignore the growing distance
between the apostolic Church and the
institutional Church that
dominated the Middle Ages.

(10:18):
The pattern laid out in the New Testament
is clear and simple.
These developments we've reviewed,
however sincere or well-intentioned,
added complexity, ritual, and hierarchy
not found in the early Church.
As we prepare to explore the events

(10:38):
leading up to the Reformation, we need to
understand how far things had drifted
from what we read
about in the New Testament.
Only by looking back can we grasp the
need that sparked a cry for renewal,
which was back to the
Bible and back to Christ.

(11:01):
Thanks for listening to the podcast.
We hope this episode has deepened your
understanding of Scripture.
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For more biblical studies, visit our
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That's the word "ready," the number four,
and the word "eternity."

(11:22):
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That's all for now.
Keep studying your Bible, growing closer
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See you next time.