How do we recognize if the CHURCH is REAL?
The Church that Jesus established has four distinguishing qualities;
1. The Church is ONE
2. It is Holy
3. Universal
4. Apostolic
Obviously without these four qualities, a Church must be false. Some Churches may exercise and may claim that they have these qualities, but only the Catholic Church is able to possess this four. The only Church that was authorized by Jesus Christ Himself. This authority works infallibly through the active ministry of the whole Church. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that it is Christ who is infallible, and he grants a measure of his infallibility to his body, the Church. That infallibility is worked around these four qualities but it is expressed most majestically and fully through Christ’s minister of infallibility: one person—the Rock on which the Church is built, Peter and his successors.
I. The CHURCH is ONE
The Catholic Church acknowledges one Lord, confess one faith, is born of one Baptism, forms only one Body, is given life by one Spirit, for the sake of one Hope, at whose fulfillment all division will be overcome.
Ephesians 4:4-6 “4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.”
CCC 866 The Church is one: she acknowledges one Lord, confesses one faith, is born of one Baptism, forms only one Body, is given life by the one Spirit, for the sake of one hope (cf. Eph 4:3-5), at whose fulfillment all divisions will be overcome.
John 17:11 “11 And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. “
So Protestants often object, how could it be ONE if there are other Sheep according to John 10:16? They were wrong; Let’s read
John 10:16 “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.”
Yes as Jesus said, “And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; But Jesus also said “I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd.” And also said “so that they may be one, as we are one.” Very clear that the Church is ONE, this is what Jesus wanted.
It was the Gentile, the other sheep are the Gentiles, to whom the gospel was sent after the Jews rejected Christ.
Romans 11:11-12 “11 So I ask, have they stumbled so as to fall? By no means! But through their stumbling salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous.”
During his public ministry Jesus confined his proclamation of the gospel to the Jews (Mt 10:5-6, 15:24), and initially this remained the focus of the apostles’ preaching, although Jesus had foretold that the gospel would eventually be carried to “all nations” (Mt 28:19, Acts 1:8). This opening up of God’s blessing even to Gentiles was foretold in the Old Testament (Ps 2:7; Is 2:2-6).
Paul explained this to Gentile Christians: Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands–remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ. (Eph 2:11-13; cf. Rom 3:22; Gal 3:27-28)
II. The CHURCH is HOLY
JESUS Christ our GOD is the author. The Church is HOLY because the true vine was Christ who gives life and fruitfulness to the branches, which are us. Through the HOLY Church we abide in Christ, without whom we can do nothing. While it is true that the members of the Church have human weaknesses and sinfulness; by the Holy Spirit, the CHURCH unceasingly and continuously exhorts, guiding, reminding her Children “to purify and renew our selves”
1 Peter 2:9 “9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
Romans 11:16 “16 If the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; and if the root is holy, then the branches also are holy.”
Matthew 28:20 “20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
1 Peter 1:15-16 “15 Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; 16 for it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
III. The CHURCH is UNIVERSAL
The term “Catholic” was derived from the Greek word καθολικός (katholikos), which means “universal” or “general”, was also used to describe the Church in the early 2nd century. The term katholikos is equivalent to καθόλου (katholou), a contraction of the phrase καθ’ ὅλου (kath’ holou) meaning “according to the whole”. Thus the full name Catholic Church roughly means “universal” or “whole” church.
Acts 9:31 (Greek Bible), “ai men oun ekklēsiai kath olēs tēs ioudaias kai galilaias kai samareias eichon eirēnēn oikodomoumenai kai poreuomenai tō phobō tou kuriou kai tē paraklēsei tou agiou pneumatos eplēthunonto” EKKLESIA KATH’OLES.
Acts 9:3l RSV: So the Church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was built up; and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit it was multiplied.
Historically around the year A.D. 107, a bishop, St. Ignatius of Antioch in the Near East, was arrested, brought to Rome by armed guards and eventually martyred there in the arena. In a farewell letter which this early bishop and martyr wrote to his fellow Christians in Smyrna (today Izmir in modern Turkey), he made the first written mention in history of “the Catholic Church.” He wrote, “Where the bishop is present, there is the Catholic Church” (To the Smyrnaeans 8:2). Thus, the second century of Christianity had scarcely begun when the name of the Catholic Church was already in use.
The Church is universal because the Church proclaims the fullness of the faith to all people. The concern of Jesus is not only in his country but to the whole world that is why the Church is universal, must be universal in nature, and can be a bound of unity among nations regardless of races and culture.
Matthew 28:19-20 “19 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, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Acts 1:8 “8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Romans 1:8 “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world.”
Matthew 24:14 “14 And this good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world, as a testimony to all the nations; and then the end will come.”
IV. The CHURCH is APOSTOLIC
The Church is APOSTOLIC, built in the foundation; the twelve apostles of Jesus who are present in their successors, the Pope and the college of bishops. Like the apostles we in the Church are called to continue to proclaim the fullness of faith to all men.
CCC 863 The whole Church is apostolic, in that she remains, through the successors of St. Peter and the other apostles, in communion of faith and life with her origin: and in that she is “sent out” into the whole world. All members of the Church share in this mission, though in various ways. “The Christian vocation is, of its nature, a vocation to the apostolate as well.” Indeed, we call an apostolate “every activity of the Mystical Body” that aims “to spread the Kingdom of Christ over all the earth.”
The first Christians had no doubts about how to determine which the true Church was and which doctrines the true teachings of Christ. The test was simple: Just trace the apostolic succession of the claimants. Only Catholic Church has this quality that can trace back its origin up to the Apostles.
Apostolic succession is the line of bishops stretching back to the apostles. All over the world, all Catholic bishops are part of a lineage that goes back to the time of the apostles, something that is impossible in Protestant denominations most of which do not even claim to have bishops.
The role of apostolic succession in preserving true doctrine is illustrated in the Bible. To make sure that the apostles’ teachings would be passed down after the deaths of the apostles, Paul told Timothy, “What you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:2). In this passage he refers to the first three generations of apostolic succession his own generation, Timothy’s generation, and the generation Timothy will teach.
For the early Fathers, “the identity of the oral tradition with the original revelation is guaranteed by the unbroken succession of bishops in the great sees going back lineally to the apostles. . . . [A]n additional safeguard is supplied by the Holy Spirit, for the message committed was to the Church, and the Church is the home of the Spirit. Indeed, the Church’s bishops are . . . Spirit-endowed men who have been vouchsafed ‘an infallible charism of truth’” (ibid.).
Thus on the basis of experience the Fathers could be “profoundly convinced of the futility of arguing with heretics merely on the basis of Scripture. The skill and success with which they twisted its plain meaning made it impossible to reach any decisive conclusion in that field” (ibid., 41).
Pope Clement I
“Through countryside and city [the apostles] preached, and they appointed their earliest converts, testing them by the Spirit, to be the bishops and deacons of future believers. Nor was this a novelty, for bishops and deacons had been written about a long time earlier. . . . Our apostles knew through our Lord Jesus Christ that there would be strife for the office of bishop. For this reason, therefore, having received perfect foreknowledge, they appointed those who have already been mentioned and afterwards added the further provision that, if they should die, other approved men should succeed to their ministry” (Letter to the Corinthians 42:4–5, 44:1–3 [A.D. 80]).
Hegesippus
“When I had come to Rome, I [visited] Anicetus, whose deacon was Eleutherus. And after Anicetus [died], Soter succeeded, and after him Eleutherus. In each succession and in each city there is a continuance of that which is proclaimed by the law, the prophets, and the Lord” (Memoirs, cited in Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 4:22 [A.D. 180]).
Irenaeus
“It is possible, then, for everyone in every church, who may wish to know the truth, to contemplate the tradition of the apostles which has been made known to us throughout the whole world. And we are in a position to enumerate those who were instituted bishops by the apostles and their successors down to our own times, men who neither knew nor taught anything like what these heretics rave about” (Against Heresies 3:3:1 [A.D. 189]).
Let’s read what the Bible says about the Church;
Ephesians 2:20 “20 built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.”
John 20:21 “21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”