EXCELLENT post, as always.
Lenten Series Ping!
In order to have a distinction between the Church and the Synagogue and to have a distinguishing name from those embracing Judaic and Gnostic errors we find St. Ignatius (50-107 A.D.) using the Greek word “Katholicos” (universal) to describe the universality of the Church established by Christ. St. Ignatius was appointed Bishop of Antioch by St.Peter, the Bishop of Rome. It is in his writings that we find the word Catholic used for the first time. St. Augustine, when speaking about the Church of Christ, calls it the Catholic Church 240 times in his writings.
So from the very beginning Christ’s Church was considered Catholic - Universal.
It was interesting to see that some rejected the Eucharist in the beginning.
And when they had ordained to them priests in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, in whom they believed.” (Acts 14:22).
I can’t find ANY Bible version that says this. Even in the Douay it says:
“Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith: and that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God.”
If you go to verse 23 it says they appointed “elders for them in every church”. Elders were not “priests”. The Greek word used confirms this (presbyterous).
Jesus’ followers were known as Christians. Catholic was an adjective - not a proper noun - used to signify the whole body of believers. What calls itself THE Catholic church today is far from the one that Christ established.
This is just another antagonistic thread posted to stir up dissension saved for this time of the year. To then complain about “Catholic bashing” is quite disingenuous, I think.
St Ignatius had a much different understanding of the catholic church than the current Roman Catholic Church. St Ignatius saw each church as independent. Each church had one bishop and there was none in the church greater than the bishop. This idea that there is a universal church structure with a supreme bishop that lords over the other bishops was a concept foreign to St Ignatius.
Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans
Chapter VIII.-Let Nothing Be Done Without the Bishop
See that ye all follow the bishop, even as Jesus Christ does the Father, and the presbytery as ye would the apostles; and reverence the deacons, as being the institution of God. Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the bishop. Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is [administered] either by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude [of the people] also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.
Chapter IX.-Honour the Bishop
And say I, Honour thou God indeed, as the Author and Lord of all things, but the bishop as the high-priest, who bears the image of God-of God. inasmuch as he is a ruler, and of Christ, in his capacity of a priest. After Him, we must also honour the king. For there is no one superior to God, or even like to Him, among all the beings that exist. Nor is there any one in the Church greater than the bishop, who ministers as a priest to God for the salvation of the whole world.
Ignatius to the Philadelphians
Take ye heed, then, to have but one Eucharist. For there is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup to [show forth] the unity of His blood; one altar; as there is one bishop, along with the presbytery and deacons, my fellow-servants: that so, whatsoever ye do, ye may do it according to [the will of] God.
That's funny. I can't find the word or title *Catholic* anywhere in the Bible that Catholics claim their church wrote.
It's just so convenient that retroactively claim that's what was meant when there's no solid evidence to support it otherwise.
A couple of questions.
Where in the Bible is Peter called “the Bishop of Rome?”
You mention “St. Augustine, when speaking about the Church of Christ, calls it the Catholic Church 240 times in his writings.”
Please provide a link and also the year that Augustine said those things.
“St. Ignatius of Antioch, disciple of the Apostle John, concerning the heretics of his day wrote: “They have abstained from the Eucharist...”
Of course they did, it was a myth.
They celebrated the Lord’s supper as Jesus proclaimed they should, in remembrance of HIM.
“Like His glorified body in Heaven, Christ’s Mystical Body on earth never was and never will be a disjoined body.”
Then why doesn’t Catholicism accept the body of Christ that Jesus created?
Made up of every born again believing follower of Jesus, yet Catholicism says the the only true real One real and true Body of Christ is exclusively in the Catholic church and includes all Catholics.
Even Ted Kennedy and Nancy Pelosi who promote(d) hate towards God and His rules of living a Christ like life.
This article will lead people astray if the Truth isn’t brought out.
I’m glad to help in that way.
“St.Peter, the Bishop of Rome”
Yet Holy Scripture tell us that he was and Apostle to the Jews and Paul was the Apostle to the Gentiles (everyone else). Your cult can’t even get the basics right! Who wrote the majority of the NT, oh yeah Paul. Who received a direct revelation never before given from Jesus Christ himself you guessed it Paul.
See Satan always counterfeits what God does and the same goes for your cult. That is why your cult copied the name Catholic or Universal Church, but as a counterfeit it’s obvious because it’s called Roman Catholic. Another great example is Antichrist close to the real thing, but it’s still a counterfeit.
The only thing that Rome has done was kill and imprison real Christians.
He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied.
Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
Christ called the spiritual society He established, "My Church" (Mt. xvi, 18), "the Church" (Mt. xviii, 17). [This is going great, so far. The topic appears to be the spiritual community. But wait! Like the shamwow messages, there's more!]In order to have a distinction between the Church and the Synagogue [Um, suddenly we shift to address the institutional arrangement, the physical buildings, not the spiritual church! Nice trick THAT!] and to have a distinguishing name from those embracing Judaic and Gnostic errors [Ah, the conflation takes on more faux trappings! Sudden shift to errors of a spiritual nature, as if somehow the physical institutions and the spiritual errors are the same. Again, nice trick THAT!]
... we find St. Ignatius (50-107 A.D.) using the Greek word "Katholicos" (universal) to describe the universality of the Church established by Christ. [And thus the conflation is completed, blaming it on Ignatius! But he did get the title Saint -a spiritual identity, not an institutional one. What follows is typical assumption, assuming the spiritual is supposed to be conflated with the man-made institutional entity centered in physical buildings run by assigned institutional members of the man-made hierarchy, thus empowering the work of men rather than bowing before the Righteousness of God alone. And what followed this masterful conflation, blamed on Ignatius, includes non-Christian rituals and assignations like 'the mother of god' and falsely empowered 'confessionals' doling out institutionalized forgiveness and selling 'brown scapuli' to insure quick release from an imagined 'purgatory', assuming that power by misaligning scriptural passages, or making things up out of whole cloth!]
St. Ignatius was appointed Bishop of Antioch by St.Peter, the Bishop of Rome. It is in his writtings that we find the word Catholic used for the first time. St. Augustine, when speaking about the Church of Christ, calls it the Catholic Church 240 times in his writings. [And if Augustine --note, he too was rewarded for being used to empower the man-made institution-- meant to address the universality of the spiritual church established by Jesus, rather than the man-made conflation dependent physical institution, the gnarling of what Augustine meant in his writings is so pervasive that poor Augustine can be used to defend both sides of arguments regarding misnaming Mary the mother of Jesus as 'the mother of god', for instance.
It is not expected that catholics can even see the monstrous conflation at the heart of catholiciism, but as evidenced even this week at FR, some catholics are awaking to the faux analogies and devilish conflations with the advent of the current head of that religion. Coming alive spiritually in Christ beats allegiance to an institution every time, especially an institution based on the deceptions like faux conflation!
Well!
It's no WONDER that I am considered to be a Separated Brethren...
..I am a HERETIC!!!
"One indeed is the universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is saved, in which the priest himself is the sacrifice, Jesus Christ, whose body and blood are truly contained in the sacrament of the altar under the species of bread and wine; the bread (changed) into His body by the divine power of transubstantiation, and the wine into the blood, so that to accomplish the mystery of unity we ourselves receive from His (nature) what He Himself received from ours."
--Pope Innocent III and Lateran Council IV (A.D. 1215)