The Gist of it All!
It is all so very Simply Simple!
Page 1 of 2 pages.



Q. "What is truth?"
Asked by Pontius Pilate of Jesus Christ in John 18:38.
A. The answer to that question is that truth is a person who said:
"I am the way, and the truth and the life."
John 14:6

Let us examine that statement further by simply using our GOD given common sense:
Q. How many Jesus Christ's are there?
A. There is only one, as everyone knows.

Q. So how many truths are there?
A. Since there is only one Jesus Christ, common sense tells us that there can be only one truth.

Q. Can Jesus speak different truths?
A. No. Truth is one, so that is an impossibility. 
If there existed multiple and conflicting 'truths', would not that cause confusion amongst the people?

Q. Can GOD be the author of confusion?
A. No!
"For God is not a God of confusion but of peace."
1 Corinthians 14:33
Is Jesus Christ GOD?



Q. How many Churches did Jesus Christ found?
A. He founded only one Church.
"
And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
Matthew 16:18
Notice that it is only ONE CHURCH in that verse. He did say Church, and not churches, did He not?
 

Q. What is the meaning of:
"
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it", as quoted from Matthew 16:18?
A. It means His ONE Church is indestructible and will last forever.
That truth is repeated in many other verses using different wording:

"Going therefore, teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world."
Matthew 28:19-20
The last part of Matthew 28:20,  "And behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world
", 
is a promise from Jesus Christ that He will be with His Church every day in every century until the end of time.
There will be no gaps, not one single day.

"To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, unto all generations, world without end. Amen."
Ephesians 3:21
There you have it again, His perpetual Church.

"And I will ask the Father: and he shall give you another Paraclete, that he may abide with you for ever: The spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, nor knoweth him. But you shall know him; because he shall abide with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you orphans: I will come to you."
John 14:16-18

Wow! How many guarantees of His perpetual Church can you find in those three loaded verses?
1. The Spirit of Truth will abide in His Church forever.
How many 'Spirits of Truth' are there? You should know the answer to that one by now.
2. Notice the Spirit of Truth cannot be received by everyone.
What does that tell to you from what I have noted previously?
3. "I will not leave you orphans: I will come to you."
What is an orphan? It is a person who is left alone by his or her family.
That is yet another verse where Jesus Christ said He will never leave His Church.
Why then do some non-Catholics claim that He did leave His Church soon after the last Apostle died or at some unknown time?
Or some claim His Church went into apostasy at some unknown time.
It seems that not one non-Catholic person can give the date for this supposed 'Great Apostasy',
nor any genuine historical document to prove what they say.
Those who claim such things, are actually calling the Son of GOD a liar in all of the verses which I have listed so far,
where He told us that His Church would last forever, and that He would be with it forever.
Is Jesus really truth personified? Isn't that what He said in John 14:6?
Why then do some who claim to follow Him, not believe Him?


The Church which Jesus founded is already almost 2000 years old.
It has to be, as that was His promise, of almost 2000 years ago, was it not?
His Church has been attacked from within and from without during that entire period.
However it is still with us today, fulfilling the promises of its founder that it will last until the end of time.
If Mother Church lasted through all of those attacks for all of those years,
then that is certainly indicative of Divine protection, is it not?
Holy Scripture has taught us that Christ is the head of His Church and He is the Savior of His Body, Ephesians 5:23.
Why then do some insist that His Head left His Body at some unknown and unprovable point in time?

Here are several verses, some repeated here, from both the old and new testaments that guarantee the
perpetual nature of the one Church that Jesus Christ founded:
2Sam 7:12-13, Psa  127:1, Isa 9:7,41:10-11,54:17,59:21,  Jer 1:17-19,
Dan **2:44,6:26,7:13-14, Hag 2:8-10,  *Lk 1:32-33, Acts 5:38-39, 1Cor 10:32, Eph 3:21,5:23, 
Heb 12:28,13:20.
Are the varied authors and prophets of all those verses speaking the truth of the Word of GOD?
If we cannot believe them, then who can we believe?


So, I have three very simple questions for those who find pleasure in attacking His one and only Church:

Q. 1. Since every Church on earth had a founder with a name, please name the person who founded the Catholic Church?
No guesses or opinions please, just the facts, and back up your answer with genuine historical documents and/or verse(s).

Q. 2. Since there are now 40,000* different sects in the world today which call themselves Christian,
please provide me with the Bible verse(s) that gave authority for any human person
to found another church other than the one which Jesus Christ founded?

Q. 3. Since you seem to think that Jesus Christ did not found the Catholic Church, then please give me the name of the ONE Church that he did found?
Here are some unacceptable answers for that question:
A. Christianity: That is no answer as that is a system of beliefs and not the name of His Church.
B. Constantine: Show me the genuine historical document which proves that he founded the Catholic Church?
C. Some unknown nebulous person at some unknown time:
If they give that as an answer, why is it that not one person can provide the name of the person,
and the time in which that unknown person founded it?

It never ceases to amaze me that Catholics can provide a mountain of genuine historical documents and writings to prove their case,
yet, non-Catholics can never provide any genuine historical documentation to back up their false charges.

When you attack the Catholic Church, you attack its founder, so you had best find out who founded it.
Saul persecuted the Church that Jesus Christ founded. See Acts 8:1-2.
But read also Acts 9:4 and see who he really persecuted.
Are you a modern day Saul?
 
"...For if this plan or work is of men, it will be overthrown;
but if it is of GOD, you will not be able to overthrow it.
Else perhaps you may find yourselves fighting even against GOD."
Acts 5:38-39

WOW!
Such powerful verses for everyone to heed.
Has the Catholic Church ever been overthrown?
Certainly many have tried. 
Those two verses support the fact that the Catholic Church is not a plan or work of men.
Maybe that is why non-Catholics cannot provide the name of a human person founder of the Catholic Church,
simply because there was none.
I would certainly not like to find myself fighting even against GOD.
Would you want to put yourself in the position of fighting against GOD?

You play roulette with your salvation by not researching genuine historical documents as to who founded the Catholic Church.
Start by researching the writings of the Church Fathers.

There are so many easy ways to find documents of the Fathers and others dating in every century from the first on down to the present.
Since you are probably on line reading this then simply "Google: Church Fathers".
The writings of the Fathers are so prolific that I have included a reference link,
to a page on this website so that you may search the Fathers by name or by subject.
 
Here is a clip from that page that lists some of their writings beginning in 106 A.D.. 
Every person listed mentioned the Catholic Church by name:

Ignatius, Letter to the Smyrneans 8:1-2. J65 106AD
Martyrdom of St. Polycarp 16:2. J77,79,80a,81a, 155AD
Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis 7:17:107:3. J435 202AD
Cyprian, Unity of the Catholic Church 4-6. J555-557 251AD
Cyprian, Letter to Florentius 66:69:8. J587 254AD
Lactantius, Divine Institutions 4:30:1. *J637 304AD
Alexander of Alexandria, Letters 12. J680 324AD
Athanasius, Letter on Council of Nicea 27. J757 350AD
Athanasius, Letter to Serapion 1:28. J782 359AD
Athanasius, Letter to Council of Rimini 5. J785 361AD
Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures 18:1. J836-*839 
Serapion, The Sacramentary 13:1. J1239a 350AD
Pacian of Barcelona, Letter to Sympronian 1:4 J1243 375AD
Damasus, Decree of Damasus 3. J910u 382AD
Augustine, Letter to Vincent the Rogatist 93:7:23. J1422
Augustine, Letter to Vitalis 217:5:16. J1456 427AD
Augustine, Psalms 88:2:14, 90:2:1. J1478-1479 418AD
Augustine, Sermons 2, 267:4. *J1492, *J1523 430AD
Augustine, Sermon to Catechumens on the Creed 6:14. J1535
Augustine, The True Religion 7:12+. *J1548, *J1562, J1564
Augustine, Against the Letter of Mani 4:5. *J1580-1581
Augustine, Christian Instruction 2:8:12+. *J1584, J1617
Augustine, Baptism 4:21:28+. J1629, J1714, J1860a, J1882
Augustine, Against the Pelagians 2:3:5+. *J1892, *J1898
Innocent I, Letter to Probus 36. J2017
Fulgence of Ruspe, Forgiveness of Sins 1:19:2, J2251-2252

In the voluminous writings of Saint Augustine, he mentioned the Catholic Church by name over 300 times.
Here is but one example of them:
"I should not believe the Gospel except as moved by the authority of the Catholic Church."
Saint Augustine (354-430), Against the Letter of Mani, 5,6, 397 A.D..

NOTE!
The "J" references are to a set of three books titled, "The Faith of the Early Fathers", by William A. Jurgens.
Those three books are so very useful in that Mr. Jurgens has condensed the gist of the writings of the Fathers into those
three volumes, and his several different indexes make it easier to find what you are looking for. As I mentioned earlier,
the writings of the Fathers are very prolific. My electronic copy is 32 megabytes long....zipped.
That is a lot of text.  

Remember what you have learned so far, that there is only one truth and that of the 40,000* sects,
each of which teaches something different from one another, none of them could possibly be the true Church.
Besides that, all of them would have to provide genuine historical documents proving that they even existed at the time of Christ,
and show an unbroken line of Apostolic succession. Not a single one can meet either one of those conditions.
His Church existed in His time and it is His guarantee that it exists today, almost 2000 years later.
So it is a simple question that has a simple answer, and that is to simply name the Church which Jesus Christ founded?

*http://www.gordonconwell.edu/ockenga/globalchristianity/resources.php
Please refer to line #43.
That page is a Protestant publication.



Here are four separate paths to take to prove that it is the Catholic Church that Jesus Christ founded.
Where is the proof of those who deny it?

"...For if this plan or work is of men, it will be overthrown;
but if it is of GOD, you will not be able to overthrow it.
Else perhaps you may find yourselves fighting even against GOD."
Acts 5:38-39




Now proceed to page 2 of "The Gist of it All".

Written by Bob Stanley,  March 24, 2009
Updated May 19, 2009
Updated July 1, 2009



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