The absurdity being presented here by Catholic anti-Protestant bigots would have everyone believe that the Divinely-inspired and sacred word of God only has authority because "their" church decided it did! Assembling the books into a volume and calling it The Holy Bible may have happened in Rome's fourth century synod when they officially declared they did it but the recognition of all the inspired books were held LONG before then. Even a cursory read through the writings of eminent (I know you LIKE that word) early Christian leaders demonstrates they recognized the authority of sacred Scripture and from whom they received them - even completely enough that nearly the entire Bible could be reconstructed solely from these writings alone without the manuscript copies they relied upon. The Apostles ensured that the fledgling church received the divinely-inspired writings as the Holy Spirit revealed them and they did not shirk from delivering to them "whole council of God". Nobody waited centuries to be told they had the word of God because the Holy Spirit illuminated the truth and authority these writings contained. How many times does this truth have to be explained?
We DO have one church, one body of Christ and it is based upon the ONE truth of the gospel of the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and gifts to us eternal life. However, that ONE church is demonstrably NOT the Roman Catholic church as can be easily discerned from the simple fact that THE church, the bride of Christ, will contain ONLY the redeemed and no tares/lost/unsaved. This Spiritual House of which ALL believers, as living stones, are being built into it (see I Peter 2:5) will be gathered together and clothed with the spotless, washed-in-the-blood of Jesus Christ, wedding garments and will sit down at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. No outsiders will be there. No Christians-in-name-onlys. No pious pretenders. And certainly no one who denies that our salvation is a gift of God that we receive by faith and not by our works.
Do some RCs qualify? I sure hope so! But your church as no valid basis for the boasts of being THE one true church of Jesus Christ. That is truly absurd!
Your post self-contradicts itself because you claim we have ONE Church, and ONE truth, but its some amorphous “one body of Christ” each with their own interpretations of the Word of God , all through “the grace of God and faith in Jesus Christ,’ but with no singular authoritative teaching mandate as given to Peter and his apostles. Go tell that to the Moonies and Rev. Jeremiah Wrights and Jehovah’s Witnesses of this world because they too believe that “their” interpretation of Scripture is the Word of God following from “the grace of God and faith in Jesus Christ.”
But there are more absurdities in this line of thinking quite apart from the avalanche of scriptural citations produced below. But first to get to your logic, you will have to:
1. Discount the infallibility of the Church in authenticating what is the true Word of God when the canonical texts were assembled in AD 382 in the Synod of Rome. This means you must doubt whether the Church wrongly left or included some books as the true written word of God.
2. Ignore a broad swath of writings by the early Church Fathers that have made clear that it is the Catholic Church that is the true depository of God’s Word. Here’s just one of them:
In the year 110 A.D., not even fifteen years after the book of Revelation was written, while on his way to execution St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote: “Where the bishop is present, there let the congregation gather, just as where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic church”. The Church believes that when the bishops speak as teachers, Christ speaks; for he said to them: “He who hears you, hears me; and he who rejects you, rejects me” (Lk 10, 16).
3. Ignore the unwritten word of God. John 21:25 telles us that not all what Christ said and did were written down. This is the great oral tradition of the Church that existed BEFORE the written texts were assembled by the Church. You need proof that such a tradition existed. Here’s one:
St. Paul in his letters also warns the faithful to hold fast to the tradition they received: “We command you, brothers, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to avoid any brother who wanders from the straight path and does not follow the tradition you received from us” (2 Th 3, 6).
4. Dispute the great theologians who have examined Petrine Authority from saints to popes to scholars from Augustine to Aquinas to Newman (a Catholic convert) after whom colleges and universities have been named for the depth of their theological writings.
5. Dispute the vast array of Protestant and Evangelical theologians who have converted to Catholicism and embraced the full teachings of the Church and Petrine authority.
6. Dispute the large groups of brilliant lay-people that have converted to Catholicism that include Nobel Laureates, writers, scientists, essayists (and not just Chesterton) including some familiar American names like Justice Thomas, Robert Bork, Robert Novak (a Jewish convert) and Laura Ingraham. These folks are not your typical ACORN dummies.
7. Dispute that a long line of saints, martyrs, stigmatists for some eleven centuries since the Synod of Rome in AD 382 as being all misled until the Protestant Reformation of 1517 came along and soon broke off into several offshoots each with its own distinct understanding.
8. Have to acknowledge that without the Church, even such mainline Protestant and Episcopalian denominations that quote Scripture to justify the ordination of married gay and lesbian pastors and “bishops” may claim to be part of the” whole council of God” (whatever you imply from these loosely-goosey terms)
9. Affirm that there are many “truths” because each of the multitude of Protestant denominations will all claim that the Word of God has been “illuminated” by the Holy Spirit. (again, whatever, this “illumination” means to you) Who is to tell?
10. Christ established no single teaching authority. But this flies in the face of both specific scriptural passages (referenced below) and more specifically how they were understood by the early followers of Christ.
Although Matthew 16 is a central and key passage attesting to Peter’s unique position, the rest of the New Testament provides ample evidence for it.
For example:
1. Peter’s name occurs first in all lists of apostles (Mt 10:2, Mk 3:16, Lk 6:14, Acts 1:13), except Galatians 2. Matthew even calls him the “first” (10:2).
2. Peter alone receives a new name, Rock, solemnly conferred (Jn 1:42, Mt 16:18).
3. Peter is regarded by Jesus as the Chief Shepherd after himself (Jn 21:15-17), singularly by name, and over the universal Church, even though others have a similar but subordinate role (Acts 20:28, 1 Pt 5:2).
4. Peter alone among the apostles is mentioned by name as having been prayed for by Jesus Christ in order that his “faith may not fail” (Lk 22:32).
5. Peter alone among the apostles is exhorted by Jesus to “strengthen your brethren” (Lk 22:32).
6. Peter first confesses Christ’s divinity (Mt 16:16).
7. Peter alone is told that he has received divine knowledge by a special revelation (Mt 16:17).
8. Peter is regarded by the Jews (Acts 4:1-13) as the leader and spokesman of Christianity.
9. Peter is regarded by the common people in the same way (Acts 2:37-41; 5:15).
In Acts, Peter gave the sermon at Pentecost (Acts 1:14-36), led the replacing of Judas (1:22), worked the first miracle of the Church age (3:6-12), and condemned Ananias and Sapphira (5:2-11). His mere shadow worked miracles (5:15); he was the first person after Christ to raise the dead (9:40), and he took the gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 10). Peter’s name appears at least 54 times in Acts; James appears a total of four times.
Peter, his followers, the ONE true Church is the rock for all ages. The gates of hell shall never prevail against it no matter from what corner of the world these heresies lash against it.