In response to chestertonrules:

Chester, who I assume is a brother in Christ, started a dialog with me within the private message system of Youtube. He wrote me saying:

“He (Jesus) didn’t write a word that is in our bible, but it is the word of God. Who put these words of God on paper and compiled them into the canon of scripture? Were they Catholics, or protestants? Do you believe Jesus started a Church, promising that the gates of hell would not prevail against it, THEN, abandoned it?”

This seemed a bit out of the blue, but never-the-less, I responded:
“I believe the Church Jesus started was neither Catholic nor Protestant – it is simply a matter of those who believe in Him and obey the Father through the Holy Spirit.”

We started going back and forth – and it was quickly becoming yet another debate between a Catholic and a non-Catholic Christian. I could feel myself slipping into the all too familiar mode where we each try our best to break down the other in our zeal for our beliefs. I have been there – done that – and don’t have the heart to do it again – so I took it to the Lord in prayer…

The following is my answer to Chester and any Catholic out there who feels the need to approach me with their belief that the Catholic Church is the One church our Lord founded on this earth.

Within the church that Christ created there have always been divisions because of the nature of men; while Jesus was on this earth the disciples argued about who would be the greatest; Peter and Paul had a dispute over eating with Gentiles; Paul and Barnabas divided over Mark; and in Revelation we see seven different churches – each with their own unique characteristics, challenges, and weaknesses. Still, there are those who claim there is but one earthly Church, even though Christ addresses seven earthly churches with different problems. There is one Church in the sense that there is one body of Christ with different members, but that church is not defined by an earthly organization. Lets search the scriptures for the answer.

First of all – are we saved by our church and our religion, or are we saved by Jesus Christ alone?

John 3: 16-18 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

He is alone is our salvation! Churches are nothing more than assemblies of believers – the members of the ‘church’ have no power to save anyone – only the ability to help lead another to He who saves! Jesus did not elect a master over the body of Christ in the Gospels. Despite the interpretations, Peter was not granted Pope-hood – he was simply told to feed the sheep and tend to the flock – like a hired hand, which is found at the end of the Gospel of John. In fairness, there is another point we should consider. Catholics point to Matthew 16 to claim Peter was given authority over the body of believers.

Matthew 16:18-19 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

At first glance, it may appear that Jesus was referring to Peter as “the rock”, but the New Testament was written in Greek, not English. This is one instance where the original wording reveals the true meaning of what is being said. The Greek word for Peter is petros, which means a small stone. On the other hand, the Greek word that Jesus used for rock is petra, meaning “a massive rock” or bedrock. Now the difference is clear. Peter was correct when he stated that Jesus was “the Christ” and it was this profession of truth that the church would be founded upon: Jesus Christ “the chief cornerstone” (Matthew 21:42). Jesus was talking about building His church upon the solid bedrock, not a small stone.

Peter was not the good shepherd, he was a helper to the good shepherd, as are all who seek to advance the Gospel. Jesus did not leave anyone as a master over His believers because Jesus is still our Master!

Matthew 23: 8-10 “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called ‘teacher,’ for you have one Teacher, the Christ.

We should not be Lorded over by a brother in Christ nor should we be venerating a brother in Christ as God on earth. We should respect and love each man as if he were Christ because we know that which we do for the least among us we do for Him.

Now what about calling a man ‘Father’? We should not call any priest our Father, and the fact that the Catholic church doesn’t grasp this tells me they are not the perfect One and only Church that Jesus founded. While there was surely a man who impregnated a woman who gave birth to each of us, that man is not our father despite our labels, for we have only One true Father. This does not mean we are to disrespect our parents but rather that we should recognize they are also children of the One true God just as we all are, regardless of our intellectual protests to the truth.

Still, I am rebuked by the writings of Paul for even thinking such a critical and judgmental thought:

Consider Romans 14:3-4: The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.

I believe that as men we long to join with like minded people and as a result we not only join with those who are like minded but we also seek to bring others into line with our beliefs. As a result, we grow overly zealous and create division over debatable matters. We seek to box the teachings of Jesus Christ into a neat and formal package by which all others in our circle must adhere or be excommunicated, but this is nothing but our own pride and insecurities drawing lines where there should be none. The lines of Christianity were drawn by Christ and the Apostles. We have been given the moral code through the teachings of Christ, and the Apostles themselves wrote to the Gentiles concerning the boundaries the Holy Spirit gave them to set…

Acts 15: 28-29 It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.

Still, others, such as the leaders of the Catholic Church, and the leaders of the reformation, as well as the leaders of modern denominations, have felt qualified and justified to redraw those lines in accordance to their own interpretations which they inevitably attribute to the Holy Spirit. How can each man be fully convinced in his own mind if he is forced into the convictions from the mind of another? Too many are willing to turn their back on each other and declare those in disagreement as ‘heretics’ – yet it is the ‘WE’ in ‘US’ that is flawed – not the ‘HE’ in ‘US’. Consider the following passage before you seperate yourself from a brother who declares Jesus as His Savior because he doesn’t attend the church you want him to…

Mark 9:38-40 “Teacher,” said John, “we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.” “Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us.

Now I know that there is much more in the New Testament to guide us – such as the teachings of Peter, Paul, and John, but boiled down, they merely echo the teachings of Jesus from the Gospels, whereas there are teachings in the Catholic Church and the Protestant Churches that clearly are not from the teachings of Christ. Reviewing these errors won’t do anything but bring resentment, so instead, I would like to move on to the core of the matter here.

The claim that there is one true Church on earth is a true and factual claim. There is but one body of believers, but they are not joined in the same way the world as those of the world, under organizations and titles. Jesus made it clear to the woman at the well what was to come, and we only need embrace this truth.

John 4: 19-24 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”

Just as the woman was told, the time had come that neither on the mountain or in Jerusalem – in other words – there would be no earthly headquarters. We should seek the approval of God, not men! The kingdom of God reigns within the believers – we worship our Father in Spirit and in truth – not in the boundaries and acceptance of organizations and opinions of men. Notice, we are not called to Jerusalem, or New York, or even Rome – but to the Kingdom of God. This truth is further illustrated by something Paul wrote concerning the motivations of others who preached the Lord Jesus Christ.

Philippians 1:15-18 It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.

To this end, if you are so convinced that the Catholic Church is THE ONLY CHURCH than who am I to judge you? I certainly should not seek to destroy your faith built up through the Catholic Church for the mere satisfaction of being right anymore than you should try to persecute me for not being a member of the Catholic faith. After all, Paul taught us to accommodate the weaker brother so not to harm his faith in God. If you fear for my relationship with Christ – for my salvation – than please – pray for me – as I do you – but we should not be so foolish to believe that the organizations men have built up are anything more than sheep pens made by men who sought to shepherd people to the Lord the best way THEY knew how. What works for one brother doesn’t always work for another, and as Paul wrote, we should each be fully convinced in our own mind. If I were to concede to your beliefs and become a Catholic, I would live a lie and dry up because this is not the path God has given me. Likewise I would expect you would not be able to thrive in the same church I attend because that is no the path God has given you. We All fall short of the glory of God, whether we admit this or not, so we should be slow to attack each other on debatable matters – seeking only to lift each other higher in our faith in Jesus. In fact, if we are to hold Peter in such high esteem then we should at least have the wisdom to learn from what he said and did.

When the Gentiles received the Holy Spirit and the Jewish Christians were in amazement – we should realize that His Church is not based on anything but our faith in Christ and His teachings which we each must grasp to the best of our ability as given to us by the Holy Spirit.

Acts 10:42-48 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then Peter said, “Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.” So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days.

In this, we see that there were certainly Jewish Christians who were with Peter, who was a Jewish Christian himself. They were one group with a certain way of doing things – certain beliefs that they cherished and embraced as necessary beliefs. Still, the Holy Spirit did not show preference to the circumcised believers alone, but even to the Gentiles who had no part of the ways of Judaism! Would the Jewish Christians of the first century be accepted in the Catholic Church today? It is not likely – as they certainly would not accept the dogma of the Catholic Church or the Protestant Churches which was created hundreds of years after they themselves had already passed down the teachings of Christ. There was never a need to add additional tenants of faith to what Jesus gave, yet men do it all the time and they always have.

Now remember, the Holy Spirit went to all who believed in the name of Jesus, not just those who followed the same way Peter did. Peter knew the truth and ordered that they be baptized, he was so convinced of the truth! He knew that the Gentiles were not Jews, yet that did not prevent him from rejoicing in the fact that Jesus came for all men – not just those under a system of religion. Compare this to the ways of today. Can I walk into a Catholic church and request a baptism based on the fact that I believe in Christ? No. I must first be indoctrinated into the religion. The same goes for 99.9% of all churches I have ever encountered. We ask believers to go through weeks and weeks of training in our religion before we are willing to baptize them – and its to our own shame! Judging by the examples of baptism in the New Testament – such as the baptism of the eunuch by Phillip – all it took was the sincere confession of faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and our savior!

I could go on. I could systematically tear apart various points in Catholic history and proclaim myself the victor of the debate. This would be met with systematic defenses and counter-attacks that would lead others to proclaim themselves victors over my attack against Catholicism. This in turn would begin the a new round of bitter disputes that would become part of the great spiral of dissension that is already working within the body of Christ and has been since the days that the Apostles passed away. This is not what our Lord wants. The church is the body of Christ – and the body of Christ is united not through religion but in Spirit – the Holy Spirit to be precise. If you, Chester, as a Catholic, proclaim Jesus Christ as your Savior – you are a member of His Church – despite your membership in the Catholic Church just as I proclaim Jesus Christ as my savior and am a member of His church despite my membership in a Congregational church. We are both members of the same Church that Christ founded despite our earthly memberships to worldly organizations that proclaim themselves to be churches of Christ. As Paul wrote, all things are permissible but not everything is beneficial… deciding what is beneficial is a matter that must be worked out in each believer between himself and God.

In closing – I want to recite a few verses sent to me by a brother just as I was finishing this article –

1 Peter 5:5-7 …”God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

1 John 5:4for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.

Acts 20:24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.