It is hard to answer those questions simply because Protestants differ so much in what they believe, especially about the Church. Unless there are clear indications to the contrary, Catholics regard their separated brethren as being sincere people in good faith. 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. They ruled as representatives of our Lord. He chose twelve men to be His Apostles, including Peter, James, and John. In this passage, Jesus brings His disciples outside Jerusalem and asks them who they think He is (v. 15). 1. Some churches are ruled out of court immediately because the contradictions are to be found within themselves. He gave them His authority to teach and baptize. 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. only fulfilled this direction and pronounced the canonical and apostolic condemnation of Nestorius.”, The acclamations of the bishops assembled at Chalcedon are well known. 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. They told us that we were in danger. 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. 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! “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 Bible records many ways in which He continued to direct His Church (see Acts 10; Revelation 1:1). The Eucharist must be considered valid when it is offered by the bishop or by one to whom the bishop has given this charge. They had me get up and along with my brothers we got dressed. In each place bishops and priests were necessary. 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. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you (v.17a) The short cut to the true following of Christ is to find out what kind of Church his is. Its objective was to make all men holy and save their souls. Non-Catholics usually contend that all Christians belong to Christ’s holy Catholic Church, whether they are members of a denomination or not. If Protestants do not believe that Jesus Christ founded one of the denominations, what do they believe? 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). Peter and the church would be … 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.”. Such a claim would sound either ridiculous or blasphemous in the ear of any Protestant. Jesus Christ lived a perfect, sinless life. In summary, the church is not a building or a denomination. It is sometimes maintained, indeed, that a particular denomination is endowed with a certain broad-mindedness which, in the providence of God, enables it to include as its members those whose beliefs or methods of worship differ in essentials. Many of them have a deep, personal love of Christ and regulate their lives according to the highest ideals. 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 church was founded upon th… 1b. 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. 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.”. Thus Dioscorus was denied a vote at Chalcedon. We cannot be true followers of Christ unless we accept his Church. What shall we say of those who, through culpable ignorance, intellectual indolence, or moral cowardice, reject the Church God came to earth to found? The denominations themselves are not the Holy Catholic Church of the Creed; they are to that church what clubs are to a city. As He had promised, Heavenly Father sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to earth over 2,000 years ago. Six hundred and thirty bishops were present at Chalcedon, most of them from the Eastern Empire. On the other hand there is such a thing as intellectual laziness which masquerades as ignorance. There was no government of the Church without them. Years passed and that simple society grew; its organization became more complex, but we can trace its history through the centuries. Acts 18:22 | View whole chapter | See verse in context And when he had landed at Caesarea, and gone up, and saluted the church, he went down to Antioch. Only Rome makes such a claim, and it was against this very pretension that Protestantism revolted.”. Much information about the organization of the Church in the early centuries is to be gleaned from contemporary writings. It was there that the apostles were first located. His most famous work is called Adversus Haereses. 2a. This authority is called the priesthood. . Apart from these there in nothing that can be called a church.”, The same lesson is repeated to the Ephesians and to the Smyrnaeans. Nor is it true that all Christian religions are as good as one another. Apart from the bishop nobody must perform any of the functions that belong to the Church. The church had elders with James, Jesus’ brother, being the lead elder of the church (Acts 15:3-23). The former had been a disciple of Polycarp, who in turn was a disciple of John the apostle. When Jesus established His Church, He received instructions from Heavenly Father. An even clearer instance of proof that the bishops were present at a general council merely to confirm the decisions of the pope is the instruction of Pope Celestine to the Council of Ephesus: “The legates [of the Pope] are to be present at the transactions of the synod and will give effect to what the Pope has decided long ago about Nestorius, for he has no doubt that the assembled bishops will agree with this.” No bishop questioned the pope’s right to direct the Council. High Churchmen, Episcopalians, and the separated Eastern Churches admit that Christ set up a visible organized society, but the common Protestant view has been stated by Charles G. Morrison in a book called Can Protestantism Win America? Follow the bishop as Jesus Christ did the Father and the priests as you would the apostles. He was on his way from Antioch, where he was bishop, to Rome where he was to be martyred in the year 107. Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. From the time of the Creation, the children of God looked forward to the coming of the Savior Jesus Christ. 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. 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