Some general comments at the head of a coming multi-part critique series of Joe Heschmeyer's "The Early Church was the Catholic Church".
I recently purchased Joe Heschmeyer's "The Early Church was the Catholic Church", wherein he attempts to demonstrate 3 key Catholic beliefs within the first 2 centuries of the Church, as well as refute common Protestant attempts to prove that the early church could or did err. The focus on these earliest sources is what interested me, since I believe the claims of Rome and the East live or die on those first centuries, and Heschmeyer appears to believe this too. The three doctrines he attempts to demonstrate are "Baptismal Rebirth" (i.e. baptismal regeneration), "The Eucharist and the Mass" (real presence & sacrifice of the Mass), "Do Nothing Without the Bishop" (the structure of the local church and the monepiscopacy), and - not strictly a doctrine - the authorship of the Gospels ("The Four Gospels").
