Some scholars agree that the first thing to be lost in the early Church is the last to be restored.  A brief over view can be explained as follows.

The first to be lost in the early Church was the Jewish Root of Christianity.

Next to be eradicated was the Holy Spirit.

Then the Word was forbidden.

In short, that was what happened.  Each of the above events could fill a book to cover it effectively and convincingly.  Much has already been written about them.

With the discovery of the printing press, the Word became available and restored to the Church.  The first book to be printed was a copy of the Holy Bible.  Therefore the last to be lost became the first to be restored.  When Martin Luther broke away from the Roman Catholic Church there followed a Reformation.  Along with this the Holy Bible (It has always been referred to in this way until recently!) became available to the laity, the ordinary people.  However the Church in Rome continued to forbid its use by the people, and stipulated that only ordained priests and members of the clergy were able to read it.  This continued until the middle of the 1960's.  In other words it was considered that they needed to be interpreted by someone who was qualified to do so.

The second thing that was deliberately removed from the early church during the last first to the middle of the second century, was the Holy Spirit.  It was considered too dangerous to allow it to continue.  Speaking in 'tongues' the free flow of the Spirit troubled many of the early Bishops who were trying to maintain order and conformity.  It is not possible for us today to try to reconstruct what took place that long ago, but we do know that the Bishops who maintained that signs, wonders, healings and miracles  were a valid expression of the Gospel, were outnumbered. Therefore until recently the position of the Church has been that they took place in Jesus day but not subsequently. From then on these phenomena were absent from the Church.

Then in the early 1960's there was a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit 'upon all flesh' called the Charismatic Movement. This also included Roman Catholics and was a powerful way in which the division between Catholics and Protestants was bridged. Great Healing Ministries grew up and the Church became revitalized. The Pentecostal Church, which had its beginning at the turn of the twentieth century at Azusa Street witnessed its rebirth and it spilled over into every denomination.
 
Then followed the discovery of the lost Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith which is taking place at this time. Therefore that which was the first to be lost, is the last to be discovered and restored to the Church. This was discussed in the section entitled,'The Restoration of the Jewish Roots taking place in the Church today.' This also lends credence to the fact that this is indeed an 'End Time' move of God today to set His Church in order.
 
In this very brief capsulized history of the Church we can discover some of the essentials of our Faith that were lost as it were, in order to solidify Christianity and make it more cohesive. Many debates, discussions and controversies have taken place over these and other issues, and are still going on today. At the same time much that has been revealed to the Church has gradually been absorbed and assimilated into the 'Main Stream' and now accepted as the norm.
 

Now where do we go from here?