From the Preface: All Protestant Christians believe that the church has apostatized, at least to some extent, from the standards of the apostolic church. Doubtless most Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholics would admit as much. In the following pages I have, in a comparatively brief way, indicated what treasures were lost by the historical church and how they were lost. I have also given some indication of how they may be found again.
That is why this book makes no pretense to being a complete outline of New Testament theology and its historical development. Such a work would be encyclopedic and massive, altogether beyond the scope of a popular book. When Harnack undertook a task somewhat like this, he filled seven large volumes with his findings, and still left out much material.
This book, therefore, limits itself to a study of a few fundamental elements of the apostolic church, the loss (or partial loss) of which has brought on many, if not all, of the enormous evils and miseries of the modern world.—Charles Ewing Brown
