As history will clearly show, tying local churches together and allowing inter-congregational leaders to define the faith for them only increases the possibility and rate of apostasy. This is essentially the idea that the true church may be identified by its visibility in society and that a continuous line of churches and church leaders may be traced in history. Implied in this view is the idea that the true church will always predominate in influence and numbers. Of course, this concept tends to minimize the Scriptures. It is thought by those who adhere to the Catholic concept of the church that the church defines truth.
Truth then becomes what the church says it is.
B. Church the sole repository, possessor, and interpreter of the Scriptures. This thinking follows from the preceding concepts. Since the visible church will always be the true church, then it will always have the right view of the Scriptures. C. Expansion of the authority of the episcopate. Indeed. apostolic teaching is fully preserved, but in the Scriptures, not in any oral traditions entrusted to bishops.