MASS APPEAL

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Static rules and continuity can be very assuring in a movement. Including a religious one.  When I was a teenager growing up in the 80’s in Beaverton, Oregon I was quite the zealous Christian convert resting on rules of the road and particularly in evangelism. I also looked for continuity of early Christian tradition where I could.  

So there I was in some evangelizing situations with butterflies in my stomach like on rainy Portland nights in downtown passing out tracts.  I still remember “The Way To Heaven” and “Bridging The Gap.” Even “Cerrando La Brecha” (Spanish version of the latter).

One that stood out was The Four Spiritual Laws because it was appealing in its charity and clarity. They were expressed as follows: 

God LOVES you and offers a wonderful PLAN for your life.

Man is SINFUL and SEPARATED from God. Thus, he cannot know and experience God’s love and plan for his life.

Jesus Christ is God’s ONLY provision for man’s sin. Through Him you can know and experience God’s love and plan for your life.

We must individually RECEIVE Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know and experience God’s love and plan for our lives.

They encapsulate God’s love, man’s dire state of the soul without him, the uniqueness of Christ and our spiritual response.  

But as zeal faded away and I had a low burn curiosity going, I kept having questions.  What is reliable of God’s wisdom after those reference points of conversion?  And how can we have the early Church back?  

What stirred in me was to see something static of tradition of before that would be indisputable.  Some Christians through the ages have tapped into that urge in “Restorationist” movements.  What I found in my searching was a range of good, bad and ugly.  

Such movements like saying “the story continues.”  Some Christian movements imply the Acts of the Apostles of the New Testament, which has 28 chapters, plays out in their movement as literally or figuratively “Acts 29.”  The appeal is in that the kingdom of God is tangible there.  For several years I personally attended a very good church that was in a church network literally called “Acts 29.”  It had great leadership and meant that term I am sure in humility.    

If it is Christian, there are some fundamental principles that should be in operation for that claim to be true in the fullest sense. 

Jesus said in Matthew 16:19 this kingdom that “the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” The best the skeptic can say is that in some places Christianity has had its setbacks but in the macro level it keeps growing.  In global influence it is unstoppable.  The true proclamation of discipleship would always flourish somewhere and the presence of Jesus would be there as an objective truth (Matthew 28:18-20).  The gospel of Jesus Christ has always flourished somewhere the last 2,000 years or the “gates of hell” statement of Jesus was a lie.  

Therefore, the idea that the Reformation of the 1500’s restored the “true gospel” contradicts Jesus being Lord since he guaranteed the gospel itself would never cease being proclaimed. He said there would be baptisms with the all three persons of the Holy Trinity under the same name, discipleship with all of his teachings and Jesus would be with this church “until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

Where could I find the gospel preached, continuity with the early Church and to be always on the move in some way in the Great Commission of Christ? Such would be the fulness of the kingdom of God.      

So decades later, and especially after a few years of being unsatisfied on those questions, I read books that answered my questions enough to pique my interest in the Catholic Church.  This drive took me to an afternoon Spanish mass in the fall of 2012 in Wickenburg, Arizona.  

Gradually from that day to now I have come to realize that the best home for the Four Spiritual Laws is in the Catholic Church. This includes initial conversion and renewing ones self in that same grace as the family of God. I found the gospel and teaching of the kingdom is proclaimed before and after Luther and Calvin in the mass and still is today in a specific structure of worship traced to the Last Supper. 

Ironically Protestant Christians might use the “Four Spiritual Laws” for Catholics to get them “truly saved.”  After all, so the thinking goes, it is not like they hear the story of the gospel and respond to it in the mass. 

However, these have shown up in the Catholic Church for a long time in the mass if one looks with an open mind.    

1: God LOVES you and offers a wonderful PLAN for your life. – –  For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary ….For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures…. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen. (Part of the Nicene Creed.  Read every mass).     

2: Man is SINFUL and SEPARATED from God. Thus, he cannot know and experience God’s love and plan for his life.

I confess to almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters,  that I have greatly sinned, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault (Penitential Rite said at the beginning of every mass).  

“Surely, “ might say the anti- Catholic. “You still are only then working for your salvation. You need to trust Jesus simply.” 

Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed (Said in every mass before communion).

3: Jesus Christ is God’s ONLY provision for man’s sin. Through Him you can know and experience God’s love and plan for your life.

Lord Jesus Christ, Only Begotten Son, Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us; you take away the sins of the world, receive our prayer; you are seated at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us. For you alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord, you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father. Amen (The Gloria.  Part of every Sunday mass).  

4: We must individually RECEIVE Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know and experience God’s love and plan for our lives.

Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy…..

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, grant us peace.

Seven years ago I made a critical decision that fell in with the rationale of the gospel of the kingdom. After much prayer, Bible and looking at fresh angles in history I left my Christian understanding as a Protestant of 30 years and was received into the Catholic Church.  It is important to say that I do not like to say that I converted.  I was a baptized, Bible believing Christian who came home to the Church, “the pillar and foundation of truth” (1 Timothy 3:15).  

A Time Not To Preach

There is a common misconception in Christian affairs in the area of persuading someone to come into the fold. One may think it is about his or her self as the point of it all.  Even the means can blur the identity of Jesus and how he is prioritized because later traditions sometimes come up more from the culture than faith.

 

An example is  how my initial conversion to the Christian life I was with my cousin one afternoon when I was 10. She had me pray a semi-canned Sinner’s Prayer.  It has elements that amount to essential Christian doctrine but Jesus is the one who does the saving.  The Christian role in wishing my neighbor to convert or grow to another depth in the faith is as a vessel only.  And we should avoid the allure of evangelistic formulas that are too individualistic.

 

In the balanced presentation of the gospel, it really comes down to the following: the love of God in the cross, the truth of the resurrection of Christ and the objective response in right, communal sacrifice of praise when gathered in his name.  In other words the gospel of Jesus and his kingdom.  And make no mistake as will be shown below: this kingdom is liturgical.

 

To illuminate this, Christ, the day he resurrected, took initiative with two disciples who were full of background education but confused that their hope seemed to be just a corpse in a tomb.  Jesus came walking on the road to them and somehow they could not recognize him. He led them through a Bible study about how the Old Testament needed to be fulfilled.  As it got to the end of the day they badly wanted to keep his company though not knowing it was their Lord.  This is what he did. He did a work of the word and then a work of thanksgiving. He “did Church” with them that day in a way to be repeated now for 2,000 years.

 

When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him; and he vanished out of their sight. They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?” And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven gathered together and those who were with them, who said, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was knownto them in the breaking of the bread (Luke 24:30-34).

 

It would be a failure on applying this passage to God revealing himself through scripture alone.  Jesus expressed himself as himself being the core reality.  In humanity there are seeds of truth with corresponding hunger. But this spiritual hunger is meant not for the creation made by God but for God himself.  “Our hearts are restless until we find our rest in you” (Augustine, Confessions, Chapter 1).  The teaching method I elaborate on below is not just a dry ritual but a communal rich of his will.  Jesus reveals himself in demonstration ofthe gospel of a liturgical kingdom.

 

He was at table with them– – Christians need to be among the world.  We must not be too good to eat with them.  To converse and understand is proper in the forum of life.  But most centrally Jesus condescends to us in the best sense of the word: he descends with.

 

he took the bread-– The gospel approaches the person in their understanding of need.  If it is about wants then the interaction by nature can be superficial. Three days prior he said “Take, this is my body”.

 

blessed,– – This is in part reminiscent of Jesus saying to his disciples when he sent the 70 into towns to speak peace over the households that takes them in.  The holiness of his Real Presence radiates on living matter.

 

and broke it, and gave it to them.- – In a natural way, we could say we are called to be good at sharing.  That is an approach from the historical-critical method skewed by post-modernism.  Keeping Christianity in the context of its ancient and mystical reasons, we must come from this passage with the emphasis on a relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior precisely since he was a sacrifice.  Under the appearance of bread, Christ promised himself in the Passover the prior year and said to have life one must eat his flesh and drink his blood.

 

The Bible says, “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).  In that I propose Christ makes himself known to this day both best and objectively.

 

they recognized him; and he vanished out of their sight-– – This was needed so disciples would be prepared to stop seeing Christ in a worldly point of view as Paul later warned (2 Corinthians 5:16).

 

 

they told what had happened… he was knownto them in the breaking of the bread-– – The word for “known” here is ginoskowhich has a dominant usage of knowing deeply and by assumed familiarity. One can see that their flashpoint of insight about Jesus was in discerning his body correctly like Paul spoke of (1 Corinthians 11).  God is spiritual but manifests in the incarnation to bring redemption to the material world by the merits of his death and suffering on the cross but extended in each mass.

 

It is fitting to interpret this passage liturgically since God’s handiwork in the Jewish people for centuries before were building up to this.  Many rabbis in the centuries leading up to this said that when the Messiah would come all sacrificial ceremonies would be obsolete but the todahsacrifice.  This was Hebrew for thanksgiving.  But the word used by the Greek speaking Jews was something different: eucharistia, from which we get Eucharist.  This is Real Presence of Christ is the fruit of the cross. A sacramental Christian can say Christ is with us “to the end of the age” as we make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18-20) because he meant it with the mass in the universal Church he founded.  And so we shall do in a living memory of him.

Lens of Law or Lens of Love

Years ago there was a brilliant man on television that rocked the ratings landscape by beating other prime time competition with a chalkboard, a cape, good stories and a sense of humor.  His name was Bishop Fulton Sheen.  He said many things that were profound but he was always aware that the truth he spoke to was greater than himself.  One year his show “Life Worth Living” won an Emmy award.  He said, “I would like to thank my staff writers.  Mathew, Mark, Luke and John.”

But another point he made was that, unlike leaders of other world religions, Jesus came pre-announced.  One who is a Christian believer would point to Old Testament prophets to illustrate that point.  But if one sees John the Baptist, they see him foretelling the arrival of Jesus and giving the world an introduction.  Looking at his life one can see he did this with the utmost reverence.

A man named John was sent from God. He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world,
    and the world came to be through him,
    but the world did not know him.

He came to what was his own,
    but his own people did not accept him (John 6:6-11)

He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him- – If one sees the body of Christianity correctly in Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scriptures held up by the Church Jesus later founded, the same goes as a calling for more than one baptizer at a river. The message of Jesus was intended to be more than what is for just one man or through one man.  The eventual community to be founded would be of many witnesses.  “Therefore, we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1). 

The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world- – If one gets the solid objections of their spiritual life out of the way, then anyone can know Jesus.  There are “if’s” that unfold in the gospels.  If one is born again by Spirit and water (John 3:3).  If you believe and are baptized. 

He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him- – This is a tragic paradox.  Jesus was coming to the Jewish people who had historically know divinity but through thunder, clouds and earthquakes.  God is shown here in the Son, Jesus Christ, as too simple to be true to religious tastes common to them at that time.  But in the beginning, the world was made by Jesus as the Logos or the expressed wisdom of eternity that stepped into time first to create more than the Jewish people but the whole world.  In another way of speaking, in their disconnected form of religion that was contrary to the light and intimacy God wants to have with mankind they knew of God but did not naturally get Him.  But ready or nor, here he comes on the Jordan River and today in ways to be received objectively and subjectively. 

The key to “getting” Jesus is not through the lens of the Law but through the lens of love. It is to be experienced in material contexts and contextualized by a growing movement of articulated grace and truth that sprouts from the nature of Jesus (John 1:17).  To move forward in investigating the text of scripture is to not to lose a healthy context of the latter. Yes, the gospel is bigger than any one of us. 

Jenga, Church and a Reflection

I have come to the end of my first year at Kino Catechetical Institute.  It has been a great year as a student learning so much as a new Catholic and long-time before that Protestant Christian. This last class was ecclesiology which is the doctrine of the Church.  We operated out of the Bible, the Catechism of the Catholic Church and good lectures.

The first section of this paper is about what my favorite paragraph was of each week’s reading and why.  The second part is about which week reading was my favorite and explain its themes and how it communicates the nature of God.

I said a funny thing early on in this class.  The instructor asked bus to describe what the Catholic Church is.  I responded it is like Jenga the game where you put blocks integrated into each other and whoever has their tower collapse first loses.  I added that the blocks in use by Jesus are oneness, Catholic, apostolic and holy.  And Jesus cheats at Jenga by using concrete and that is why it has existed for 2,000 years.

Needless to say, that seems strange.  But as I put my thoughts down in this final paper, I hope I made more connections that draws a picture for those who are out there seeking God and how he shows himself on earth. This is for the people that are Catholic, Protestant, unsure or neither.  A bit of food for thought for the journey.

688 The Church, a communion living in the faith of the apostles which she transmits, is the place where we know the Holy Spirit:

– in the Scriptures he inspired;

– in the Tradition, to which the Church Fathers are always timely witnesses;

– in the Church’s Magisterium, which he assists;

– in the sacramental liturgy, through its words and symbols, in which the Holy Spirit puts us into communion with Christ;

– in prayer, wherein he intercedes for us;

– in the charisms and ministries by which the Church is built up;

– in the signs of apostolic and missionary life;

– in the witness of saints through whom he manifests his holiness and continues the work of salvation.

The reason this paragraph was my favorite was my growing curiosity on how the Holy Spirit operates in the Church.  In the actual working out of Jesus founding and building His Church, the Holy Spirit works as the binding and illuminating agent through all of the mentioned processes.  The last point is important because each individual is a member of the Body and the holiness referred to permeates to the micro and not only the macro level.

771 “The one mediator, Christ, established and ever sustains here on earth his holy Church, the community of faith, hope, and charity, as a visible organization through which he communicates truth and grace to all men.”¹⁸⁴ The Church is at the same time:

– a “society structured with hierarchical organs and the mystical body of Christ;

– the visible society and the spiritual community;

– the earthly Church and the Church endowed with heavenly riches.”¹⁸⁵

These dimensions together constitute “one complex reality which comes together from a human and a divine element”:¹⁸⁶

The Church is essentially both human and divine, visible but endowed with invisible realities, zealous in action and dedicated to contemplation, present in the world, but as a pilgrim, so constituted that in her the human is directed toward and subordinated to the divine, the visible to the invisible, action to contemplation, and this present world to that city yet to come, the object of our quest.¹⁸⁷

O humility! O sublimity! Both tabernacle of cedar and sanctuary of God; earthly dwelling and celestial palace; house of clay and royal hall; body of death and temple of light; and at last both object of scorn to the proud and bride of Christ! She is black but beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem, for even if the labor and pain of her long exile may have discolored her, yet heaven’s beauty has adorned her.¹⁸⁸

Paragraph 771 shows that the Church is in nature very much both/and.  More to this point, the Church is described in heavenly and earthly language in this paragraph because it transcends in its full existence in the realms of heaven, purgatory and earth.  I also like the reference to it being a “visible organization” because one can better quantify the continuity of delegated authority through the magisterium by Christ.

826 Charity is the soul of the holiness to which all are called: it “governs, shapes, and perfects all the means of sanctification.”

If the Church was a body composed of different members, it couldn’t lack the noblest of all; it must have a Heart, and a Heart BURNING WITH LOVE. And I realized that this love alone was the true motive force which enabled the other members of the Church to act; if it ceased to function, the Apostles would forget to preach the gospel, the Martyrs would refuse to shed their blood. LOVE, IN FACT, IS THE VOCATION WHICH INCLUDES ALL OTHERS; IT’S A UNIVERSE OF ITS OWN, COMPRISING ALL TIME AND SPACE – IT’S ETERNAL!

Paragraph 826 reminds me of “the love chapter” of 1 Corinthians 13 but in light of its ecclesiastical application through salvation history in the Church.  Also, the inference of “comprising all time and space” points to how God, who is love, holds the universe together by His good will towards creation.

901 “Hence the laity, dedicated as they are to Christ and anointed by the Holy Spirit, are marvelously called and prepared so that even richer fruits of the Spirit may be produced in them. For all their works, prayers, and apostolic undertakings, family and married life, daily work, relaxation of mind and body, if they are accomplished in the Spirit – indeed even the hardships of life if patiently born – all these become spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. In the celebration of the Eucharist these may most fittingly be offered to the Father along with the body of the Lord. And so, worshipping everywhere by their holy actions, the laity consecrate the world itself to God, everywhere offering worship by the holiness of their lives.

Paragraph 901surprised me.  It contextualized through a eucharistic lens on how to offer up my suffering and mundane events to God at mass with a meaning that is humble, processed contemplatively and worshipful.  The last line where it referred to how “the laity consecrate the world itself to God” particularly struck me in what the priesthood of all believers concept is all about.

970 “Mary’s function as mother of men in no way obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows its power. But the Blessed Virgin’s salutary influence on men . . . flows forth from the superabundance of the merits of Christ, rests on his mediation, depends entirely on it, and draws all its power from it.” “No creature could ever be counted along with the Incarnate Word and Redeemer; but just as the priesthood of Christ is shared in various ways both by his ministers and the faithful, and as the one goodness of God is radiated in different ways among his creatures, so also the unique mediation of the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation which is but a sharing in this one source.”

This paragraph meant a lot to me as a former Protestant in how it explains that God’s goodness that is radiated does not have any limitations on it for intercession roles.  As for Mary, this paragraph shows how the holiness of Mary is extrinsic and dependent on the graces of Christ and not to be seen as a hinderance. Indeed, good Mariology is good Christology.

748-810  

This section is about the Church in God’s Plan/Characteristics of the Church. The central themes revealed in this section are about the reflection of Christ’s presence, its eucharistic nature, example of divine love, nuptial purpose, accessibility and prophetic mission.

On reflecting God’s presence, we are show how the Church is “like the moon, all its light reflected from the sun” (CCC 748).  The light of truth is shown in Christ by the Church.  This recurrent theme is shown in the references to the Magisterium and Sacred Tradition guarding the deposit of faith for the benefit of all humanity.

The eucharistic nature that is communicated is in its reference to the sacramental lived out in small communities in a liturgical context.  “She exists in local communities and is made real as a liturgical, above all a Eucharistic, assembly” (CCC para. 752).  This shows the Church in its mystical expression as the Eucharist is a meeting and communal with the divine that communicates how Christ’s ecclesiastical design transcends earth.

As to the showing of God’s love, this section points to the Church.  The Catechism states that though the world is “creation” that his display of love that is ongoing is in the Church  (CCC para. 760).  The Church accomplishes this in all of the expression in both evangelization and catechizing.

The Catechism in this section points to a nuptial context that is born from the Cross.  It states that the Church more specifically is, “born primarily of Christ’s total self-giving for our salvation, anticipated in the institution of the Eucharist and fulfilled on the cross” (CCC. para. 766). The point of self-giving alone has often a marital context in Catholic parlance.  This is used especially in the teachings of regarding marriage and points to the laying down of Christ’s life for the Church which is His bride.  “the Church was born from the pierced heart of Christ hanging dead on the cross” (p. 766).  The Church is able to connect with that fact in the Eucharist.

In paragraph 771 there is much said about the accessibility of the Church on earth as an extension of God’s love and divinity.  This extension is visible, hierarchical,  spiritual and heavenly enriched.  In being complex between these above elements the Church is an expression that is “both/and” in its experience.

The last central theme that stands out is the prophetic nature of the Church.  This applies to members in both the lay and clerical state starting with understanding and standing in the faith.  The testimony of Jesus being the spirit of prophecy is carried out by the Church in a manner consistent with what is “delivered to the saints” by the sovereignty of God (para. 785).

God is to be understood very much in this section and covenantal through Christ and the sacraments and in that process a divine kinship for us as His children.  Paragraph 766 points to the Church being born from Christ’s side.  This points to a historical reference point where the work of the spiritual birth of each believer started (Galatians 2:20).

The themes that resonated with me personally were how the Church is shown to be transcendent, apostolic, and missional.  For the transcendence I would say there are many points about heaven and earth simultaneously involved in personal and corporate prayer.  How the sacraments are explained in the community setting reinforces the reality of Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection in a manner that is experienced with the both/and experience.

In the apostolic nature I like it is twofold in being around for millennia and being visible.  The Church is shown to have an authoritative word and deed for the world that speaks to the nature of Christ.  The references to a hierarchy is in itself one of the many aspects that communicate a kind of order for maintaining and passing on the deposit of faith.  How it is explained in this section is very reassuring to me.

The Church is missional in this section by the references to being a light to the world.  It is shown to be a light repeatedly in this section through love.  The best example is in paragraph 826 in how God’s love is fully elaborated upon.  The power of God’s love to the world that is glued continually and increasingly to extend God’s love to the world means the world to me.  My impression from this passage is that a good case is made that the best environment for the love of God to be fostered and explained is in the Catholic Church unlike any of my prior Christian traditions.

Passing It On

“Who died and made you….”, insert word into the blank.  This is a common challenge someone makes to someone who assumes authority that is not theirs.  I remember when I was  a kid that sometimes the one being challenged would cite a parent or teacher or some other adult who had indeed given them charge of a situation.   Then the accuser would comply or rebel.  But if the challenged one had no comeback then it was usually assumed that they do the “walk of shame” away from the school yard taunt.

When I was a young adult I was intrigued by the writings of a man named Gene Edwards.  He wrote great Christian historical fiction that still stands up today as worth reading.  But he also had some non-fiction books that had a mixed effect on me.  One hand, it made me hungry to see the continuity of the Christian people living in the first century continued or restored in the 20th.

But secondly he made me hunger for the snapshot of church we get in the book of Acts as the way to go always and that it was definitely not hierarchical.  He saw apostolic authority only as something to be used then and now at a minimum and that most things of consequence were left to the laity.  Being you, almost my definition, made me love what he was saying and easily swayed by rhetoric that was against anything perceived as modern day Pharisees.

There was a central verse for this that I pondered on day and night. “They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers” (Acts 2:42).

A cornerstone to that list is with the apostles teaching.  Surely, if God was going to “restore” Christianity to the purity of the apostolic age then he would need to raise up apostles.  But that song and dance has been tried before regarding someone new on the scene with a gift for reformation.  It is a long story but I erred in many movements in my Christian life become a man or group of men were considered “on the cutting edge” and raised up “for such a time as this”.

But Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition do not indicate this.  First, the premise I had was wrong in that since only something evil would make the church drown in error in doctrine and practice then that means Satan in large part got the upper hand.  But this would be a contradiction with the words of Jesus when he said, “And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).  Am I making the connection too strong?  Logically, I do not see how.

For someone to have a conversion and hold on of Jesus they are first met with the choices that he is Lord, Liar, Lunatic or Legend.  For Jesus to be discerned as Lord in ones heart the truths are that he was what he said he was, did what he said he would do and is with us to the end of the age (more on the last one when I write about breaking the bread).  If he said he would build a Church that would never fall, but it did, does that not cast doubt that he rose from the dead?

For it to last, there would have to be safeguards based on Jesus and the ongoing revelation by the Holy Spirit.  An example is where Paul writes to a Timothy who was a bishop under him but meant for others in the church to overhear since at the end of the letter he says, “Grace to you” using the plural form.  “And what you heard from me through many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will have the ability to teach others as well” (2 Timothy 2:2).  Right there is a trust of Sacred Tradition to be passed on at least to a fourth generation.  Now are these just nice sayings?  We can look at Paul earlier in his ministry on this.  “Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours” (2 Thessalonians 2:15).  “Stand firm” is more serious than a handed down recipe.

But not just anyone can carry that weight.  “Do not lay hands too readily on anyone, and do not share in another’s sins. Keep yourself pure” (1 Timothy 5:22).

But can this be passed on with good intentions to the empowerment over all people like Americans think of “We The People”?  Not so easily.  “For this reason, I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God  that you have through the imposition of my hands” (2 Timothy 1:6).  This lends to the doctrine of Holy Orders and apostolic succession.  This is a sacrament that part of the guarding of the deposit of faith and its access.  For instance we see it next to the sacrament of baptism which is the baton of salvation in the adding to the number of the church.  Both belong side by side.

Therefore, let us leave behind the basic teaching about Christ and advance to maturity, without laying the foundation all over again: repentance from dead works and faith in God, instruction about baptisms and laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. And we shall do this, if only God permits.  (Hebrews 6:1-3).

This is the skeleton of the Church of Jesus Christ as indicated by Scripture and Tradition.  With the truths above she survives.  But with the truths below she thrives.

So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God,  built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone. Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord; in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit (Ephesians 2:19-21)

So is this “teaching of the apostles” still ongoing?  If one reveres the Bible then to be consistent it begs reverence for apostolic authority until at least the 4th century when it was codified.  Objectively speaking, what has been outlined above points to a church that has had a laying of hands, never passed away, never ceased teaching the same doctrines of the early church and definitely has current the Holy Orders.  Long story short, that leaves us with the Coptic, Orthodox or Catholic Church.  I would posit that this deposit of faith rests in its fulness in the Catholic Church.  How it is the Catholic Church and not the others will be explained later.

Recommended reading:

The Fathers Know Best by Jimmy Akin

Crossing The Tiber by Stephen Ray