The Church
Ex.18:19-23,Is.22:20-22,Mt.16:17-19,Mt.28:18-20
St.Augustine once said,"I would not have believed the Gospels unless moved by the Church."Why would someone depend on a church that much?The churh he was refering to here is one of the oldest churches in the world,it was founded in 33.A.D. and still exists iun the world today,the name of this church is the Catholic Church.
In the above passages we can see in the Old Testament God already had plans for a church which would be of so great importance to the salvation of men that even in the O.T. people dared not to speak against this church,and in a sense one could say that the Catholic Church has been in existence since the times of Exodus,then that would make the Catholic Church arguably the oldest Church in the world.Jesus came to this world and was baptized,and was ordained by God the Father,to carry out His ministry,and in turn Jesus ordained Bishops,and Priests to carry out His ministry.
Some will say,that in the Gospel passage of Mt.16:17-19,that Jesus was talking about Himself or that it was Peter’s faith Jesus was building His Church on,these people refuse to hear the truth,these people like to be their own little popes,claiming that the words they read from scripture,and the way they interpret scripture is infallible because they think the Holy Spirit is guiding them in their study of Scripture,but this is not true.If we take a closer look at this Gospel passage we will find that it is Peter whom Jesus built His Church on.
When Jesus first called Simon to follow Him,Jesus renamed Simon to Cephas,which in Aramaic means rock and just rock,people will claim that the Greek word used for Peter is Petros,which means stone or pebble,and is not the rock,Petra,.The reason why Jesus called Peter,Petros,was because Petra is a feminine name,Jesus was not going to name a man a female name,and if we look through out the whole bible,that when God renamed somebody,that person would be of great importance,like Abram was renamed Abraham.So even a person not well educated in the Scriptures can clearly see that Jesus was talking about Peter,and in Acts we see that the Church was already holding councils,and every time Peter was with the Apostles in public he would speak on the behalf of the Apostles.
If you look at the other passage from St.Matthew’s Gospel,Jesus said He would be with His Church always,so when the Church declares Dogma then it must be true.Some people say,"well thats all true but what about the Apostasy,where the Church lost Her connection with Christ?"I do not even know where such people get this idea about an apostasy,if you look at an encyclopedia,under Roman Catholic Church,there should be a list of Popes.The Catholic Church has an unending line of Popes,from St.Peter to John Paul ll.so it has to be true that the Catholic Church is still part of the mystical marriage between Christ and the Church.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says,"In order that the full and living Gospel might always be preserved in the Church the Apostles left Bishops as their successors.They gave them their own position of teaching authority."[CCC prt.1,sect.1.ch.2,art.2,34]The catechism also says in 35,"Indeed,the Apostolic preaching,which is expressed in a special way in the inspired books,was to be preserved in a continuous line of succession until the end of time."The Catholic Church has that,unending succession,and thus fore still has the Holy Spirit and the Church knows what It teaches is infallible.We,there fore,do not break the commandments like some people think,but we gaurd them and teach them,and not only that but we follow the commandments given to us,to go and preach the Gospels to the whole world.
In closing I would like to say,that it is written,that,"whoever rejects you,rejects Me,and whoever rejects Me,rejects the One who sent Me."So if someone is to reject the Catholic Church rejects Jesus,and if they reject Jesus then they also reject God.
May the Lord be with you.
