..And I say to thee: That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church. And the gates ofhell shall not prevail against it." {Matthew 16:18)
DIRECTIONS TO THE STUDENT
First of all, you will notice that your priest instructor will spend at least three days on the lessons on the Church. You will not be a genuine Catholic without a thorough understanding of the Church. A new Catholic may not know all the details of the Catholic religion, but he can still be a practical Catholic, but if he doesn 't understand what the Church is, he cannot be a practical Catholic: he will not keep his faith. The importance of all these lessons on the Church cannot be emphasized too much.
A. THE RELIGIOUS AMERICA A sincere man who has gone this far with us in studying religion looks about him now and wants a sure guide to heaven. He has studied grace, heaven, hell, sin, and some other important teachings of Christianity. He wants to accept Christ and His teachings. But as he looks about him he will find several hundred different kinds of Christian religious sects. Some unthinking friend might tell him that they are all the same or that they all have the same teachings of Jesus Christ. Common sense will tell you that this is utter nonsense. They are not all the same, they are different. If they were all the same, there would be only one Church, not 259 or 500! AIl these churches disagree on important teachings of Our Lord. Some teach that Baptism is absolutely necessary for salvation: others say that Baptism isn 't necessary .They disagree on abortion, euthanasia, devotion to the Blessed Mother, the Holy Eucharist, confession, heaven, hell, drinking, gambling -yes even on God and on Christ. They have various beliefs and various definitions of God Himself. That is why there are so many churches. People or organizations who teach opposite doctrines are not going in the same direction: they are going in opposite directions!
B. YOUR OBLIGATION IS TO FIND THE TRUTH Christ suffered a terrible agony and death to get you to heaven. But in order to get to heaven you must find the truth which Christ taught, you have an obligation before the God Who created you to find this truth. Therefore, it is necessary that you learn about God's teachings, God's grace, and God's rule over your life. God does not want you to go on blindly saying that all religions are the same. Religions which teach opposite doctrines cannot both teach the truth.
C. LET'S LOOK IN THE BIBLE --CHRIST MADE ONE CHURCH, NOT MANY CHURCHES
Read about the life and teaching of Christ in the Gospels. Christ's truth and Christ's grace were for all men through the centuries: God's grace must be put in the souIsofmen until the end of the world; men's sins must be forgiven as long as the world exists. But Christ Himselfwas going back to heaven. He had to leave behind Him an organization with all His powers: the power to teach, the power to give His grace, and the power to rule men' s lives according to His laws. Therefore, one of the first things Christ did in His public life was to choose the twelve Apostles. He gave these twelve Apostles His work to do. ..As the F ather hath sent me, I also send you. " { J ohn 20 :21 )
Christ actually told the Apostles that His teachings were to be spread through their ministry to all nations even to the end of the world. "Going therefore, teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the name of the F ather and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world." {Matthew 28:19-20)
Christ also said that His Church was to last to the end of the world. ..Andl say to thee: That thou art Peter, and upon this rock l will build my church. And the gates ofhell shall not prevail against it." {Matthew 16:18) Therefore, on Peter and the other Apostles Christ founded a Church that was to teach, govern, and sanctify (gi ve grace) to all men until the end of the world. Christ called this organization HIS CHURCH. When He made Peter the head of it, He called it HIS CHURCH. Christ definitely set up a Church. This is in the Bible. He made one Church, not many churches. Christ said "my church"-not "my churches." To find the teachings, the authority, and the grace of Jesus Christ you must find HIS CHURCH, the one He founded, the one that was to last" ...even to the consummation of the world; "the one against which " ...the gates of hell shall not prevail."
D. WHICH THEN IS THE CHURCH RECORDED IN THE BIBLE? The only Church that could possibly be the Church that Our Lord started is a Church 1900 years old. How can you fmd out which church is 1900 years old? Consult a history professor in any college; go to a library and look at a history book or an encyclopedia. The fact that the Catholic Church is 1900 years old is simple history admitted by all historians. The Catholic Church is the ancient Church, the one Christ set up. The Catholic Church, 1900 years old, is the only Church which has authority from Christ to teach us, to give God's grace to us, and to govern us. Let me quote to you just one eminent historian who was never a member of the Catholic Church. This noted historian, Macauley, says: "There is not, and there never was on the earth, a work of human policy so well deserving of examination as the Roman Catholic Church. The history of that Church joins together the two great ages of human civilization.
No other institution is left standing which carries the mind back to the times when the smoke of sacrifice rose from the Pantheon and when camelopards and tigers bounded in the Flavian Amphitheatre. The proudest royal houses are but of yesterday, when compared with the line of the Supreme Pontiffs. (Supreme Pontiff means Pope). That line we trace back in an unbroken series from the Pope who crowned Pepin in the eighth century and far beyond the time of Pepin the august dynasty extended till it is lost in the twilight of fable. The Republic of Venice came next in antiquity. But the Republic of Venice was modern when compared with the papacy; the Republic of Venice is gone; the papacy remains not in decay, not as a mere antique, but full of life and youthful vigor. The Catholic Church is still sending forth to the farthest ends of the world missionaries as zealous as those who landed in Kent with Augustine, and is still confronting hostile Kings with the same spirit with which it confronted Attila ...
"She saw the commencement of all the governments and of all the ecclesiastical establishments (churches) that now exist in the world, and we feel no assurance that she is not destined to see the end of them all. She was great and respected before the Saxon had set foot on Britain, before the Frank had passed the Rhine when Grecian eloquence still flourished in Antioch, when idols were still worshipped in the Temple of Mecea. And she may still exist in undiminished vigor when some traveler from New Zealand shall, in the midstofa vast solitude, take his stand on the broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the ruins of St. Paul's."
Among educated people the age of the Catholic Church is beyond argument. No Protestant who broke away from the Catholic Church ever claimed that the Catholic Church was not the ancient church! The Catholic Church is the only Church made by Christ.
The only Church that Christ gave to the world to teach us, to sanctify us, and to govern us is the Catholic Church.
E. THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES The religious muddle we have today-and it is a muddle--started fifteen hundred years after Our Lord started the one true Church, the Catholic Church. An easy way to remember the date of the foundation of the Protestant churches is to recall the year that Columbus discovered America-1492.
Imagine that you are in Spain the year that Columbus sailed for America. It is Sunday morning and you want to go to church. Out on the street you ask the policeman where you can find a Baptist Church or a Lutheran, or an Episcopalian, or a Methodist Church. The policeman would look at you in amazement He never heard the words Baptist. Lutheran. Episcopalian. or Methodist. He would not know what you were asking about. These churches did not exist -there were no Protestant churches; they were started shortly after Columbus discovered America. In 1520, twenty-eight years after Columbus discovered America, Reverend Martin Luther, a Catholic priest, refused to accept teachings of Christ taught by the Catholic Church, and so he became the first protestant.He fought with the authorities of the catholic Church and obstinately refused to obey the Church's God-given authority.
He broke away from the Catholic Church and started his own church, the Lutheran Church. In 1534, Henry VIII, King of England, wanted to put away his wife and marry again. The Catholic Church could not permit him to do so because he already had a wife. Henry ousted the Catholic Church from England, set up in its place his own false church, and married as often as he liked. Henry VIII made himself pope of the Episcopalian Church. John Calvin started the Presbyterian church in 1560 in Switzerland. Calvin abolished Mass and other things which Christ gave the Catholic Church.
All the other larger Protestant churches came directly or indirectly from these three: the Lutheran, the Episcopalian, and the Presbyterian churches. The Baptist Church is an offshoot of the Lutheran Church; it was started in 1659 by John Smith. The Methodist Church split off from the Episcopalians in 1739; it was started by John Wesley .
This unfortunate division continues even today. There are at least 22,259 different churches which call themselves Christian- all claim to teach what Christ taught, yet all disagree among themselves. You can find some religion to suit any easy-going idea of Christianity, even an insane or ignoble idea of Christianity. Laughable, isn't it? Only God has the right to start a religion. God made a Church, one Church. Men made the other churches. These are false churches because they are man-made. Think of it this way. Suppose your parish priest got in a quarrel with the bishop or the Pope. How wrong this priest would be if he broke away from the Catholic Church, and changed some of the teachings of Jesus Christ and led some of the congregation into a new church founded by himself. This is the way that every Protestant church started! There is only one Church made by Jesus Christ There is only one true Church. Christ made only one Church to give us His teachings, His grace, and to govern us under His law to lead us to eternal salvation. It is the Catholic Church. You can not take a chance on any man-made churches because this is a matter of your eternal salvation.
QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW OF THIS LESSON
1. Is one automatically saved by the death of Jesus?
2. How do we know that the Catholic Church is the oldest ?
3. Can someone save his soul simply by reading the Bible?
4. Do other religions admit that the Catholic Church is the oldest church?
5. Are not all religions the same?
6. How many churches did Our Lord found?
7. When did the Protestant churches come into existence?
8. What church do we fmd recorded in the Bible?
