Editing Openai/691a45a6-8ed0-8010-a7d9-24657a41a9aa (section)

=== 6. Joe’s Closing Move: “Apostasy must be detectable if it breaks Christianity” ===

Joe responds with a legal-style punch:

Joe:
“A lost divine authority would have catastrophic consequences: no valid sacraments, no forgiveness of sins through the Church, no legitimate bishops, no binding teaching. Yet the earliest generations show none of these effects. Instead they show a vibrant, unified, self-consciously apostolic community across the Mediterranean.

You argue that an undetectable, unclaimed, unremarked collapse occurred—right when the historical evidence is strongest for continuity. That is not a historical model. It’s a theological assumption retrofitted onto history.”

This is hard to answer with evidence because LDS claims hinge on revelation rather than history.