The Ship of Theseus and the Church of Corinth: When "Alive" Doesn't Mean the Same Thing
They claim unbroken continuity with the Apostles. A closer look suggests the 1st-century church didn't survive—it evolved into something unrecognizable to its founders.
If you ask a priest in modern-day Thessaloniki if his church was founded by the Apostle Paul, he will point to a lineage stretching back 2,000 years and say, "Yes. We are that church."
On the surface, the claim seems irrefutable.
There have been Christians meeting in Thessaloniki, Corinth, and Rome continuously since the New Testament was written. They haven't disappeared. But if we shift our lens from a historical one to a Restoration perspective, a difficult question emerges: If a church survives for two millennia by fundamentally changing its structure, worship, and source of authority, is it still the same church?
Or did the actual 1st-century church die, only to be replaced by a traditional institution wearing its name?
The Prophecy of Departure
The Apostles themselves knew that physical continuity did not guarantee spiritual fidelity. In fact, Paul explicitly warned the elders of Ephesus that the threat would come from within their own leadership structures:
"I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them." (Acts 20:29-30)
This was not a hypothetical danger; it was a prophetic certainty. Paul later wrote to Timothy describing a "great falling away" (apostasy) where believers would abandon the faith for "deceiving spirits" (1 Timothy 4:1) and gather teachers to suit their own desires rather than sound doctrine (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
From a Restorationist view, the survival of a church institution in Corinth or Rome is not proof of legitimacy if that institution "departed from the faith" to follow traditions of men.
The Shift from Scripture to Tradition
The most critical deviation is the source of authority. The 1st-century church was built on the "apostles' teaching" (Acts 2:42) and was instructed strictly "not to go beyond what is written" (1 Corinthians 4:6).
However, the ancient churches that survive today (Orthodox and Catholic) operate on a different foundation: Scripture plus Tradition. Over centuries, they introduced practices explicitly absent from or contrary to the New Testament:
The Priesthood: The New Testament teaches the "priesthood of all believers" (1 Peter 2:5, 9), yet these churches established a distinct clergy class to mediate between God and man, mirroring the Old Testament structure that Christ fulfilled and removed (Hebrews 7:12, 1 Timothy 2:5).
Ritualism: Jesus condemned "vain repetitions" (Matthew 6:7) and worship based on "human rules" rather than God's commands (Mark 7:6-8). Yet, the development of rigid liturgies, icon veneration, and required fasts displaced the simple, spirit-and-truth worship of the apostolic era (John 4:24).
As Jesus warned the Pharisees: "You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions." (Mark 7:8).
The Removal of the Lampstand
Perhaps the strongest biblical counter-argument to the idea that these churches are "still alive" comes from Jesus Himself in the book of Revelation.
Addressing the church in Ephesus—one of the very churches established by Paul—Jesus acknowledges their hard work but warns them that their spiritual status is conditional. He threatens to "remove your lampstand from its place" unless they repent (Revelation 2:5).
This proves a terrifying theological reality: A church can physically remain while being spiritually extinguished.
The "lampstand" represents the church's identity as a light-bearer for Christ. If the lampstand is removed, the gathering may continue, the building may stand, and the name may remain on the sign, but it is no longer recognized by Christ as His church. It becomes a social institution or a political power, but the spiritual ekklesia has ceased to exist.
The Seed, Not the Soil
The parable of the sower teaches that the "seed is the word of God" (Luke 8:11). The life of the church is in the Seed (the Gospel), not the Soil (the geographic location).
If the church in Corinth today has abandoned the "seed" of the pure Gospel for a hybrid seed of Gospel-plus-Tradition, it is not the same crop that Paul planted.
Conversely, if a group of believers in a storefront in Bakersfield, California, or a hut in the Philippines takes that original Seed—the pure Word of God—and plants it, following the pattern of the New Testament (2 Timothy 1:13), they are the true spiritual successors of the church in Corinth.
True apostolic continuity isn't found in a timeline of bishops or a building in Greece. It is found in the hearts of those who "contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people" (Jude 1:3).