But, as a Christian who is not in the Catholic Church, I take that promise of Christ personally.
I’ve always believed it was “the church” as a whole; meaning all those who have received Christ as their Savior.
All Believers in Christ ARE the church.
NO; Christ established ONE Church so that it has ONE teaching, and for all times. The canonical texts were adopted in AD 382 by the Synod of Rome and until the curse of the Protestant Reformation ELEVEN centuries later, there was ONE teaching. No one gets to crack open the pages of the Bible and spout off his/her “truth” as the definitive expression of God’s Word. Jn in 21:25 tells us that apart from the written word, there were many things Christ said and did that were not written that is part of the sacred oral traditions and rituals of the one Catholic Church.