[Salvation]

Catholicism is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

Lists Every Catholic Should be Familiar With: The 4 Marks of the Church
Radio Replies Second Volume - Holiness of the Church
One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic: Marks of the Church Building as well as the Church Herself
The 15 Marks of The Church
Catholic Biblical Apologetics: The Marks of the Church, One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic
Four Marks of the Church Four Marks of the Church
One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic: The Marks of Christ's Church [Ecumenical]

[presently no screen name]

The catholic church is the counterfeit church. No need to pass on that deception to me. I burnt all their material they used to deceive me and others.

I belong to GOD alone and will never listen to another as Jesus says of HIS OWN.

God’s WORD ALONE reigns in HIS Church as HIS Body only listens to HIM/HIS WORD.

[boatbums]

The "four marks of the Church" that the Roman Catholic Church is claimed to have are not at all what is claimed:

1. Is the Roman Catholic Church ONE?

There are over 220 Roman Catholic rites/denominations (source David A. Barrett’s World Christian Encyclopedia: A Comparative Survey of Churches and Religions in the Modern World A.D. 1900—2000 (ed. David A. Barrett; New York: Oxford University Press, 1982) Barrett indicates in the case of Roman Catholicism that even this number can be broken down further to produce 2,942 separate “denominations” — and that was only in 1970. This same source is often used by Roman Catholics to state there are over 30,000 Protestant denominations, yet even the author indicates that what he means by “denomination” is any ecclesial body that retains a “jurisdiction” (i.e., semi-autonomy). If the Eastern Orthodox Churches were included under the heading of "Catholic" - which Roman Catholics do - the total number of Catholic "traditions or rites" would be 19 for Orthodox and 16 for Roman Catholic for a total of 35. (These numbers came from an expose of Barret's work called "Upon This Slippery Rock (Calvary Press, 2002)) So much for "One". There is much disunity among these groups in areas such as the infallibility of the Pope his primacy as well as several Marian dogmas.

2. Is the Roman Catholic Church HOLY?

Though it could easily be shown those that have historically made up the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church are just as sinful and depraved as the rest of the world, what the Catholic Church means by this is she is made holy by God, but this can hardly be exclusive to Roman Catholicism. All those who are IN Christ, who make up HIS body, Scripture says, are sanctified by His blood and are set apart as sons and daughters of Almighty God. We are made righteous and justified by the sacrifice of our Savior and God credits to us the righteousness of God through Christ. All who believe on Him are made holy in His sight. So this cannot be an exclusive sign ONLY of Catholics. Not to mention, there are many Catholics who, though they claim to BE Catholic, exhibit quite unChristian behaviors. There have been a number of Catholic Popes through the centuries - men who it is claimed were hand picked by God to be HIS vicar on earth (His representative) - whose manner of life as well as the methods they used to "govern the faithful fell far out of line from how Scripture describes the attributes of an elder of the church much less a man who claims to BE God's representative. It certainly calls into question the disposition of the magesterium who carry the responsibility to elect the Pope.

The Bride of Christ, His body, IS holy and will be presented to Him without spot or blame at His glorious appearing. THE Roman Catholic Church can hardly lay exclusive claim to being Christ's bride since it will be comprised of all nations, tongues and people and who all have in common the covering of the blood of Christ, clothed in the fine white linen wedding garments HE provides.

3. Is the Roman Catholic Church CATHOLIC?

The earliest recorded evidence of the use of the term Catholic Church is the Letter to the Smyrnaeans that Ignatius of Antioch wrote in about 107 to Christians in Smyrna. Exhorting Christians to remain closely united with their bishop, he wrote: "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."[8][9] Numerous other early writers including Cyril of Jerusalem (c. 315–386), Augustine of Hippo (354–430) and others further developed the use of the term "catholic" in relation to Christianity. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic#History_of_the_term_Catholic

The word, everyone agrees, means "universal", so does the Roman Catholic Church have the right to claim the exclusive title? There is no doubt that the Christians who made up the churches in Rome were among the first Christians, but Scripture very clearly states that there were local churches throughout that part of the world and as the faith spread more churches were established. It wasn't until the fourth century that the church of Rome declared itself as the seat of St. Peter and having jurisdiction over the Christian world. We know that James was over the Church of Jerusalem, the first such bishop having the job of overseer and there is no objective evidence that Peter ever WAS the Bishop of Rome. More than likely, Apostolic Succession had more to do with the handing down of the doctrines of the faith and ensuring their perpetuity than a formal "mantle" of authority without such guarantee of solid truth being passed down. By all rights, ALL genuine Christians can claim to be catholic. The church is not exclusive to Gentiles, Jews, Greeks, Romans, those in the East, or those in the West. The church that Christ built is universal, or “catholic.”

4. Is the Roman Catholic Church APOSTOLIC?

The only objective way to measure any church's adherence to the teachings of the Apostles is to compare their doctrines to Holy Scripture. After all, it is Scripture that is the only transcendent and authoritative documents that we have that can be traced all the way back to the Apostles who both wrote them personally or who authorized the books to BE Holy Scripture. The term Apostolic Succession is used to mean that the faith of the Apostles was faithfully handed down to those who would also faithfully teach the doctrines of the Christian faith. Rather than it being a succession of "persons" it is a succession in teaching, doctrine and practice. Therefore, Roman Catholics focus on the one to whom the succession is given, while Protestants focus on the teaching and doctrine itself, believing that the person who receives the succession is instrumental, not integral. (http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/blog/2011/06/the-rise-of-rome-in-a-nutshell/#comment-53232)

From the same source, we read:

"The regula fide, because it is unwritten, is easy to abuse. The Scripture is not. And this is what happened in church history. The institution of the church (now quickly on its way to becoming the Roman Catholic church) began to expand on the regula fide, moving it from a summary of the essentials to requirements of non-essentials. Everything from liturgy to doctrine were added. What started as a small confession of Christian doctrine, as represented by the likes of the Nicene Creed (325) and the Statement of Chalcedon (451), became full catechisms, with infallible requirements of doctrines and practices that fell well outside of the regula fide and far outside the bounds of Scripture itself. Now included in this unwritten tradition were non-essential doctrines concerning the mother of Jesus, celibacy in the priesthood, how one is to break the bread in the Lord’s supper, and a thousand other things. The unwritten traditions that were meant to preserve the essence of the Christian faith had developed to such a degree that one could not even see the Christian faith. The essence, which was important before, took on a secondary status to the authority of the institution. In the midst of this, the Gospel began to be obscured to such a degree that a major reformation was needed."

These truths can only be measured by Scripture, again, because it alone is the infallible Word of God, divinely-inspired and preserved from errors in doctrine, it has stood the test of time. The Roman Catholic Church holds that it teaches ONLY what has always and everywhere been taught but we know it is provably wrong. It has changed and perverted essential doctrines over the centuries and that, to me, disqualifies the Roman Catholic Church - or ANY church for that matter - to claim to alone be the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.