These contradictions, such as those which exist in the Church of England between the High Church party and the Evangelicals, are nowadays called “tensions.” They will be resolved, it is contended, in time by a normal development and evolution through which the truth will finally emerge. We all believe thus, the orthodox believe thus! The church was founded upon th… The Twelve Apostles (). The Bible records many ways in which He continued to direct His Church (see Acts 10; Revelation 1:1). Jesus Christ lived a perfect, sinless life. He established His Church, taught His gospel, and performed many miracles. As He had promised, Heavenly Father sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to earth over 2,000 years ago. (20-22) In these verses there is a sudden change from a political to a physical metaphor, possibly suggested by the word "household." I can provide you with verses that say it was built on the apostles with Jesus as the cornerstone (Eph 2:20). 1a. Peter has spoken by Leo.” Later, Paschasinus, the Pope’s legate, spoke of Leo as the archbishop of all the churches, whose letter showed “quite clearly what is the true faith.”. The title apparently was old in Ignatius’s time, which means it probably went all the way back to the time of the apostles. I hope that now you know what sort of a Church Christ’s is; therefore, what sort of Church you must look for. This authority is called the priesthood. Under him were bishops, abbots, and priests. Only Rome makes such a claim, and it was against this very pretension that Protestantism revolted.”. They had me get up and along with my brothers we got dressed. The Lutheran church –1517 AD. The crucial question is that of authority. The towns completely flooded. Anathema to him who believes otherwise! In proof of this we quote from the declaration of the Archbishop of Caesarea, Firmus, one of the leading bishops at the Council: “The former letter of the Apostolic See [the Pope] to Cyril [Archbishop of Alexandria] had already contained the sentence and direction respecting the Nestorian question, and they [the assembled bishops] had . “In fact the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises” (Hebrews 8:6). None of their denominations even come close to being in Scripture. From this passage it is very obvious that Christ is the builder or founder of the New Testament church and that he calls this church his church. The Church founded by Jesus must have the apostolic group of Bishops who are the successors of the Apostles themselves. When I was a little girl, I remember one night when I was asleep, my mom and dad came into the room and they shook me and said, “Honey, wake up.” I knew that something was wrong just by the sound of their voices, but I was not sure what. In summary, the church is not a building or a denomination. Colossians 1:18 - And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all [things] he might have the preeminence. You see, when I was growing up, in my little town whenever it rained for any length of time the city flooded. All the evidence at our disposal–even though omitting, due to space, scriptural evidence–convinces us that Christ set up over nineteen hundred years ago a visible, organized society. Our Lord named Peter the future leader of His Church, when He said to him "Thou art Peter (Rock), and upon this rock I will build MY Church. It is hard to answer those questions simply because Protestants differ so much in what they believe, especially about the Church. He then instructed His disciples. Six hundred and thirty bishops were present at Chalcedon, most of them from the Eastern Empire. Through His suffering, death, and Resurrection, the Savior made it possible for us to be forgiven. The sheep of other sectarian folds belong to him no less than those of their own sectarian fold.”. In this passage, Jesus brings His disciples outside Jerusalem and asks them who they think He is (v. 15). That Christ established a visible organized Church is a truth clearly set forth in the New Testament, completely vindicated by the Church’s history and absolutely reasonable. The Protestants make a liar out of Jesus Christ. Possibly it has been quoted more than any other work of the period as evidence of belief in the supremacy of the pope. Furthermore, The Church told us which are the inspired books of the Bible (all 73 of them) at the Roman Council in 382 A.D. As He had promised, Heavenly Father sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to earth over 2,000 years ago. There seems to be little point in giving here a list of quotations from the Fathers, emphasizing the point that it was essentially and by Christ’s will a visible organized society, because the fact is so very evident. Such a thing would have been impossible if all that was necessary to be a member of the Church was belief in Christ and willingness to follow him. The Catholic Church. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that … Peter and the church would be … The means to that were belief in Christ, reception of the sacraments he instituted and obedience to the authority he established. One can be a perfectly good citizen without belonging to the Masons, the Odd Fellows, the Rotarians, or the Buffaloes. He chose Peter, who had denied him, to be the first pope in preference to John, the beloved, to emphasize that we must always distinguish between the man and the office or, in other words, between the constitution of the Church and the men who make up the Church. Thus the Church of Jesus Christ was led by God and not by men. Jesus founded a church, only one church, which operated without Bibles for 1500 years. Acts 19:37 | View whole chapter | See verse in context Years passed and that simple society grew; its organization became more complex, but we can trace its history through the centuries. He was on his way from Antioch, where he was bishop, to Rome where he was to be martyred in the year 107. More recently Adolf Harnack, a leading member of the so-called critical school of Protestants, maintained that the important thing was the spirit of Christ, the spirit of love for God and men. Before the sixteenth century the Church was always regarded as a highly organized institution. What shall we say of those who, through culpable ignorance, intellectual indolence, or moral cowardice, reject the Church God came to earth to found? : “No denomination claims that Christ is the head of its denomination! He does not believe that his denomination is the Holy Catholic Church. It lies at the very heart of his revelation to men. That Christ established a visible organized Church is a truth clearly set forth in the New Testament, completely vindicated by the Church’s history and absolutely reasonable. Most of them regard it as improper if not quite outrageous to claim to belong to the one and only organization Christ set up. The idea that the denominations are to Christ’s Church as the clubs are to a city was unheard of for the first sixteen hundred years of the Church’s life. The phrase “through the church” in vs. 10 shows that the church is to be God’s instrument in accomplishing His plan. A man may never come into contact with the Catholic faith, or if he does it may be in such a way that it makes no real impact on him. Apart from the bishop nobody must perform any of the functions that belong to the Church. We cannot be true followers of Christ unless we accept his Church. Protestants confess that Christ and his church transcend their sectarian contentions and the sectarian ‘churches’ that are maintained upon them. And on this rock I will build my Church (v.18b) It will be of interest to mention just two of the Fathers of the Church, Irenaeus and Ignatius. They ruled as representatives of our Lord. As Morrison writes, “Protestantism thus knows at least this much of the mind of Christ with respect to the differences which divide his church into ‘churches’: He totally disregards them as having no relevancy at all in the constitution of his church. The action of the verse is building the church and the one that performs the action of building is Jesus Christ. At the first session of the Council the papal legate, Paschasinus, declared, “We have a commission from the most holy and most apostolic Bishop of Rome, who is head of all Churches, to see that Dioscorus shall have no seat in the Council, and if he shall venture upon this, that he be expelled.” Dioscorus was the Bishop of Alexandria to whom the Pope objected because he tried to hold a general council “without the consent of the Apostolic See, which had never been done before, and was never to be done.” No bishop questioned the fact that the Pope was the head of all the churches. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you (v.17a) His most famous work is called Adversus Haereses. The bishops themselves, of course, had to obey the rulings of the Church. He established His Church, taught His gospel, and performed many miracles. Not only was it unheard of, it was definitely contrary to the belief and practice of all the leaders and members of the Church. Jesus taught His followers that revelation from God was the rock on which He would build His Church. . The vital thing is to live in the city; it may or may not be useful to join a club. He chose twelve men to be His Apostles, including Peter, James, and John. Its objective was to make all men holy and save their souls. So, even using just a few verses we can eliminate the Protestants. He told them what they were to aim at and how they were to do it, with his help. The pope was the supreme authority. Its supreme ruler was known to be the pope. At the end of His life, Jesus Christ suffered and died for the sins of everyone who has lived or who will live on earth. And the gates of hades... 3. The canons of the councils prove that the bishops had supreme authority in their own cities. The authority was the apostles’ under the leadership of Peter, and their successors. That same authority is in the world today vested in the Catholic bishops who are the successors of Peter. They, the local rulers of the Church, assembled together to decide questions of faith and morals. The general councils could, and sometimes did, cut off certain heretics from the Church. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.." (Matthew 16:19). This sacrifice is called the Atonement. To the Christian communities of the places through which he passed he wrote seven letters. Certainly few Protestants would believe that any church has God’s authority to teach men what they must believe or how they must live. He is the Head of the Church and the church is called the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27, Ephesians 4:12, Ephesians 5:23). Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. One of the canons of the Council of Ephesus, for example, reads like this: “Similarly concerning all those who shall attempt to undo in any way any decision of this holy council of Ephesus, the holy council decides that if they be bishops or clerics, they are to be expelled from their ranks [deposed]; if laity, excommunicated.” All such decrees prove beyond doubt that the early Church was a well-organized society, strongly knit together by obedience to one authority. History shows that all the Churches sprang from the Church which is frequently described as the Mother Church. Obey priests as apostles of Jesus Christ. Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Here is what the highest authority in the Catholic Church has written: “Those who are hampered by invincible ignorance about our holy religion, and live honorably and uprightly, keeping the natural law with its commands (which are written in every human heart by God), being ready to obey God, can attain eternal life with the help of the power of divine light and grace. Follow the bishop as Jesus Christ did the Father and the priests as you would the apostles. It certainly did not change overnight. Therefore, the Church came first, then Bibles. The church has a part in accomplishing that plan. He said in his Sermon on the Mount, “He that shall break one of these least commandments and shall so teach men shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. The churches of Christ salute you. Under the New Covenant, we are given the opportunity to receive salvation as a free gift (Ephesians 2:8–9). It is through that Church that his ministry continues. That it was a society bound together by authority is absolutely clear from all the records of the Church from those times. Jesus Christ Established His Church. Unless there are clear indications to the contrary, Catholics regard their separated brethren as being sincere people in good faith. The short cut to the true following of Christ is to find out what kind of Church his is. I can provide you with verses that show that Jesus delegated Peter as the Prime Minister among Ministers (Is 22:19-24, Mt 16:18-19). When, therefore, a Protestant says in the Apostles’ Creed that he believes in the Holy Catholic Church, he may mean that he believes in following Christ in the great unorganized body of Christians, in acquiring Christ’s outlook and living up to his moral teaching in a way his private judgment dictates. Our present purpose is simply to show what a highly organized society the Catholic Church was at the end of the second century. The founders of Protestantism, Martin Luther and John Calvin, taught that Christ’s Church consists of all those whom God has predestined to heaven. Now I can provide you with verses that tell us that Jesus founded a Church (Mt 16:18). b. THE BUILDER OF THE CHURCH (Matthew 16:18) The emphasis in verse 18 is not on Peter or even upon the rock, but upon the builder of the church. In the world today only one Church, the Catholic Church, with its center in Rome, fills the bill. The denominations themselves are not the Holy Catholic Church of the Creed; they are to that church what clubs are to a city. He had known them. “In every church, all who wish to know the truth may study the traditions of the apostles that is known all over the world. The members were those who believed and were baptized. They contradict one another in three main and essential points—on what they believe, on how they worship, and on the authority they obey. . From the beginning Christ’s Church was a highly organized society. The church had elders with James, Jesus’ brother, being the lead elder of the church (Acts 15:3-23). Of the others, if one of, let us say, 250 Christian denominations is teaching just what Christ taught, worshiping in his way and recognizing the authority he established, all the others must be wrong, for all of them disagree in at least one of these three vital matters. Back to Matt 16:18, Scripture says that Jesus Christ established one Church. In a nutshell, the final answer is what you say to the question, Where on earth is Peter. Is there any alternative? From there the truth about Jesus spread and God caused the Christian church to grow. After His death and Resurrection, He continued to guide the Apostles through revelation. In Titus 1:5–9, Paul said to Titus: “This is why I left you in … Jesus Christ said that He would build His church and that the gates of hell, or death, would not prevail against it and so we know the church can not be stopped from existing (Matthew 16:18). In each place bishops and priests were necessary. A person had to obey his bishop if he wished to remain in the Church; disobedience meant expulsion. It was taken for granted. That takes place in the 945 th chapter . In Matthew 16:18 Jesus said to Simon Peter, "And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." He gave them His authority to teach and baptize. Acts 20:28 - Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost … THE CHURCH – “The Establishment of the Church 2 a. It is through that Church that he … Seeing that no two of all the Christian denominations agree exactly on doctrine, worship, and authority, no two can be teaching the integral, unchanged religion of Christ. Those who feel in their hearts what he felt make up his Kingdom or his Church. What a contrast with, say, the Lambeth Conferences or the meetings of the World Council of the Churches, where representatives sit together under a chairman who has no jurisdiction over them. The “rock” here is the statement Peter had made, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (verse 16). The records of these and other Councils are facts of history which prove beyond a shadow of doubt that the Church of those days was regarded by all as a visible, organized society, a group of men, with the same objective, using the same means to attain it under the direction of an authority they all recognized. THE CHURCH'S FOUNDER. We have seen it at every stage of the Church’s history–in the councils, in the Fathers, in the Acts and the epistles, in the Gospels, where it was conferred by Christ himself. The organization of its earliest years was preserved and developed. Anyone, therefore, who fails to assemble with the others has already displayed his pride and separated himself…Let us be careful not to oppose the bishop so that we may obey God.”, To the latter he wrote, “Shun schisms as the source of troubles. In a letter to Pope Leo they wrote: “In your representatives you took the presidency over the members of the Synod, as the head over the members.” The fact was acknowledged by Pope Leo: “My legates have presided in my place over the Oriental Synod.”. It is the constitution of the Church that matters. The purpose of any Christian religion must be to teach the full, unaltered religion of Jesus Christ. Others may say they have no time for organized religion and that it is how you live that counts. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried … . Nine out of ten of the people who reject the Catholic Church do so not because they believe that Christ established some other church, but because they believe he established no organized church at all. Jesus tells Peter that he received this revelation from God. You may hear some of them saying that one religion is as good as another, that they all stress different aspects of Christ’s teaching and that it is for each individual to choose the Church which suits him. . There are simpler definitions, but in my opinion, they either are not comprehensive enough or they miss the mark in other ways. Non-Catholics usually contend that all Christians belong to Christ’s holy Catholic Church, whether they are members of a denomination or not. Before the sixteenth century there is no reference anywhere to the notion that the Christian Church consists of all Christ’s followers, whether they are baptized or not, whether they believe in the sacraments or not, whether they accept orthodox teaching or not, whether they obey the successors of Peter and the apostles or not. Isaiah 28:16. They had to be obeyed if the faithful wished to be Catholics. Bishops from all over the world attended them. Ignatius wrote his letters about a century earlier. Many of them have a deep, personal love of Christ and regulate their lives according to the highest ideals. Acts 16:5 | View whole chapter | See verse in context And so were the church es established in the faith, and increased in number daily. Some of them still imagine, in spite of the persistency with which Catholics refute the idea, that we believe that all those outside the visible unity of the Church are going to hell. 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