5:19). In Titus 1:5–9, Paul said to Titus: “This is why I left you in … The churches of Christ salute you. 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. 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 organization of its earliest years was preserved and developed. We all believe thus, the orthodox believe thus! His most famous work is called Adversus Haereses. The Eucharist must be considered valid when it is offered by the bishop or by one to whom the bishop has given this charge. God’s Church is human as well as divine; Christ told us in advance that scandals would come. The vital thing is to live in the city; it may or may not be useful to join a club. 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. To the Christian communities of the places through which he passed he wrote seven letters. Peter responds by declaring, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v. 16). It is through that Church that he … The first mention of the word church in the entire Bible is in Matthew 16. Jesus Christ Established His Church. Acts 20:28 - Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost … It is the constitution of the Church that matters. Nor is it true that all Christian religions are as good as one another. Here is a quotation from what he wrote to the Trallians: “You must continue to do nothing apart from the bishop. 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. The means to that were belief in Christ, reception of the sacraments he instituted and obedience to the authority he established. Others may say they have no time for organized religion and that it is how you live that counts. He established His Church, taught His gospel, and performed many miracles. . 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.”. The Church founded by Jesus must have the apostolic group of Bishops who are the successors of the Apostles themselves. I hope that now you know what sort of a Church Christ’s is; therefore, what sort of Church you must look for. The Protestants make a liar out of Jesus Christ. They ruled as representatives of our Lord. Its supreme ruler was known to be the pope. 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. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you (v.17a) The Bible records many ways in which He continued to direct His Church (see Acts 10; Revelation 1:1). The church had elders with James, Jesus’ brother, being the lead elder of the church (Acts 15:3-23). The Gnostic organization of schools and mysteries was not able to contend with the episcopal organization of the Churches”. Before the sixteenth century the Church was always regarded as a highly organized institution. In his History of Dogma, Harnack, a Protestant, writes: “There can be no doubt that the Gnostic propaganda [of the second century] was seriously injured by that inability to organize and govern churches which is characteristic of all philosophical systems of religion. After the reading of the Nicene Creeds they proclaimed: “That is the orthodox faith, that we all believe; into that we were baptized; into that we also baptize; thus Cyril taught; thus Pope Leo believes.”, Similarly, when another of Pope Leo’s letters was read the bishops declared: “That is the faith of the Fathers, that is the faith of the apostles! To-day only the Catholic Church claims, and is able to prove her claim, to be that society. 2b. From there the truth about Jesus spread and God caused the Christian church to grow. Thus Dioscorus was denied a vote at Chalcedon. Six hundred and thirty bishops were present at Chalcedon, most of them from the Eastern Empire. Now I can provide you with verses that tell us that Jesus founded a Church (Mt 16:18). 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). Our present purpose is simply to show what a highly organized society the Catholic Church was at the end of the second century. It was taken for granted. 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. Members of the universal church should seek fellowship and edification in a local church. In each place bishops and priests were necessary. Is there any alternative? They think of his church as a number of souls–how many God alone knows–who believe in Christ’s Kingdom and his message but do not necessarily belong to an organized body of his followers. He established His Church, taught His gospel, and performed many miracles. . The short cut to the true following of Christ is to find out what kind of Church his is. Isaiah 28:16. It is expressed in sayings such as: “I am not qualified to settle the differences between the churches or to judge the claims of any one of them”; “There may be something in it but I prefer to stay as I am”; “I am afraid I might be converted and so have to change my life” or “I am too busy to bother about religion.” God alone knows and can judge the consciences of those who subscribe to statements like these; but they seem to express an attitude to God’s revelation which is highly suspect. A person had to obey his bishop if he wished to remain in the Church; disobedience meant expulsion. The word church first appears in Matthew 16 when Jesus tells Peter, “On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” (verse 18). Ignatius was the immediate successor of the apostles. In a nutshell, the final answer is what you say to the question, Where on earth is Peter. 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. The plain, simple truth is that Jesus Christ founded on earth directly and personally an organized religious society which he called his Church. He was martyred at Lyons in the year 202. None of their denominations even come close to being in Scripture. 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. Much information about the organization of the Church in the early centuries is to be gleaned from contemporary writings. He does not believe that his denomination is the Holy Catholic Church. 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. The metaphor itself, of the Church as "a building of God"--frequently used in the New Testament--reaches its full perfection in this passage. One can be a perfectly good citizen without belonging to the Masons, the Odd Fellows, the Rotarians, or the Buffaloes. The notion that all religions are equally good, be they pagan or Christian, is quite wrong, for, seeing that some of them were being practiced already, why did God become man, establish a new religion and tell his apostles to convert all men to it? They told us that we were in danger. Not only was it unheard of, it was definitely contrary to the belief and practice of all the leaders and members of the Church. The crucial question is that of authority. It certainly did not change overnight. We did not have our house right o… Ignatius wrote his letters about a century earlier. Wherever the bishop appears, there should the people be; as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.”. In summary, the church is not a building or a denomination. To the former Ignatius wrote, “If the prayer of one or two men is so powerful, how much more so is that of the bishop and that of the whole Church. THE CHURCH – “The Establishment of the Church 2 a. Ignorance is only blameworthy when it is culpable. 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. Any church founded by someone other than Christ is not … The Twelve Apostles (). Jesus tells Peter that he received this revelation from God. When Jesus established His Church, He received instructions from Heavenly Father. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried … The sheep of other sectarian folds belong to him no less than those of their own sectarian fold.”. Jesus taught His followers that revelation from God was the rock on which He would build His Church. 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 was founded upon th… 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. 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