The Church is the living witness of Christ in the world and it is only through her that the Bible has meaning to me. I can say, with St. Augustine, I would not believe in the Gospel, had not the authority of the Catholic Church already moved me.
The church is product of the Gospel, not the other way around. Why in the world do you guys keep dodging my question?
Which “catholic church”. Churches of the Middle East which descended directly from the original Jerusalem congregation, the Byzantine Church which really was the “official roman empire” after the split, or the Roman church?
Placing such a human organization/edifice
on a par with GOD’S WORD
IS UNMITIGATED BLASPHEMY.
The church is product of the Gospel, not the other way around.
I would quibble here. Off the top of my head (and please consider I am not pretending to any scholarship, and this is just the musing of this particular Catholic) I would think the Church is the "product" of the Spirit, and of Christ, and of his incarnation, passion and resurrection. And the Church announces the Gospel. I believe the Gospel, and in Christ, but it is the Church that has brought me that faith, just as Christ commissioned her to do. I am always surprised when Christians seem surprised at this.
Why in the world do you guys keep dodging my question? Which catholic church. Churches of the Middle East which descended directly from the original Jerusalem congregation, the Byzantine Church which really was the official roman empire after the split, or the Roman church?
I think you answer your own question. I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. The Catholic Church is not this or that particular church, but the Church everywhere, here on earth, in heaven, and in purgatory. The particular church in Jerusalem is certainly the Catholic Church, as is those of the Byzantines, and that of Rome. They are not separate from one another just as the Spirit cannot be separated from Himself, and neither can Christ who is present in all of these. You are presenting, to my view, an artificial dilemma.