The
Imperishable Catholic Church...
In 2Samuel, GOD prefigured the Church
which the "Seed of David", Jesus Christ will found.
"And when your days
shall be fulfilled and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will raise up your
seed after you, which shall proceed out of your bowels, and I will establish His
kingdom. He shall build a house to my name, and I will establish the throne of
his kingdom forever."
2Samuel 7:12-13
"They shall be cursed that shall despise you; and they shall be condemned that
shall blaspheme you; and blessed shall they be that shall build you
up."
Tobit 13:16
Isaiah, who so accurately predicted many things about Jesus Christ, including
the details of His passion in Isaiah 53, also foretold, equally as accurate,
details of the Church which Jesus Christ would set up.
"No weapon that
is formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that resists you in
judgment, you shall condemn. This is the inheritance of the servants of the
Lord, and their justice with me, said the Lord."
Isaiah 54:17
"This
is my covenant with them, said the Lord: My Spirit that is in you, and the words
that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of
the mouth of your seed, nor out of the mouth of your seed's seed, said the Lord,
from henceforth and forever."
Isaiah 59:21
This is a clearly stated
guarantee of the perpetuality and orthodoxy of the Catholic Church.
Jeremiah had this to say, one short example out of many.
"And I will gather
together the remnant of My flock, out of all the lands into which I have cast
them out; and I will make them return to their own fields, and they shall
increase and be multiplied. And I will set up pastors over them, and they shall
feed them: they shall fear no more, and they shall not be dismayed, and none
shall be wanting of their number, said the Lord."
Jeremiah 3:15, 23:3-4
Daniel had some things to say also.
"But in the days of those kingdoms the
GOD of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, and His
kingdom shall not be delivered up to another people; and it shall break in
pieces, and shall consume all these kingdoms, and itself shall stand
forever."
Daniel 2:44
"It is decreed by me, that in all my empire and
my kingdom all men dread and fear the GOD of Daniel. For he is the living and
eternal GOD forever; and his kingdom shall not be destroyed, and his power
shall be forever."
Daniel 6:26
"And He gave him power, and glory, and
a kingdom, and all peoples, tribes and tongues shall serve Him. His power is an
everlasting power that shall not be taken away, and his kingdom shall not be
destroyed."
Daniel 7:14
Micah added to the prophecies.
"And it shall come to pass in the last days,
that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared in the top of the
mountains, and high above the hills, and people shall flow to it. And many
nations shall come in haste, and say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the
Lord, and to the house of the GOD of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways, and
we will walk in his paths, for the law shall go forth out of Zion, and the word
of the Lord out of Jerusalem."
Micah 4:1-2
Zechariah wrote this:
"Thus said the Lord of Hosts: I am returned to Zion,
and I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and Jerusalem shall be called the
city of truth, and the mountain of the Lord of Hosts, the sanctified mountain."
Zechariah 8:3
Jerusalem here is of course the New Jerusalem. It is the
Catholic Church which is the "City of Truth", and the "Mountain of the Lord of
Hosts".
Haggai wrote this:
"And I will move all nations, and the desired of all
nations shall come; and I will fill his house with glory, said the Lord of
Hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, said the Lord of Hosts. Great
shall be the glory of this last house more than of the first, said the Lord of
Hosts; and in this place I will give peace, said the Lord of Hosts."
Haggai
2:8-10
The "Desired of all Nations" could only mean Jesus Christ, and the
Church He will build is the "Last House", the indefectible Catholic Church,
greater in glory than what it replaced. It is the Church which will last until
the end of the world (Matthew 16:18, 28:20, Ephesians 3:21).
"So now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them alone. 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
Isn't this the reason why
the Catholic Church has lasted for almost 2000 years?
"Let them be ashamed and troubled forever and let them be confounded and
perish."
Psalms 83:18
Read all of Psalms 83 as it relates what will
happen to the enemies of GOD's Church.
"And I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock
I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it."
Matthew 16:18
Clearly, Jesus said he will
build one Church only, and it will not be destroyed from within or from without.
Why then, do some insist the gates did prevail by saying the Church apostatized
soon after the last Apostle died? Do they call Jesus a liar by saying these
things?
"Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and behold, I am
with you all days, even until the consummation of the world."
Matthew 28:20
Jesus could not have said it any plainer
that he would be with his Church every day, in every century, until the end of
time. Why then do some deny his words by saying his Church apostatized shortly
after the last Apostle died? Aren't they again calling him a liar? See 1John
5:10.
"And I will ask the Father and He will give you
another advocate to dwell with you forever."
John
14:16
Forever sounds like a very long time to me. Why then do some insist it
is not true? Did the Holy Spirit leave the Church which Jesus Christ founded?
Did Jesus lie yet again?
"To Him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus down through all the ages of
time without end."
Ephesians 3:21
Doesn't this say that the Church which
Jesus Christ founded will last forever?
How on earth did the Catholic Church ever survive for almost two millennia? The
answer to that one is easy, as Holy Scripture gives us the answers...
"Fear not, for I am with thee: turn not aside, for I am your GOD. I have
strengthened thee,
and have helped thee, and the right hand of My Just One
hath upheld thee.
Behold all that fight against thee shall be
confounded* and ashamed,
they shall be as nothing, and the men shall perish that strive against
thee."
Isaias 41:10-11
*The World Christian Encyclopedia, a Protestant publication,
records that there were 38,000 non-Catholic Christian sects in the world as of
April, 2006, a prime example of "confounding".
"And they shall fight against thee, and shall not prevail, for I am with thee,
said the Lord, to deliver thee."
Jeremiah 1:19
"Do not be a stumbling-block to Jews and Greeks and to the Church of
GOD."
1Corinthians 10:32
"Therefore, since we receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken, we have grace,
through which we may offer pleasing service to GOD with fear and
reverence."
Hebrews 12:28
Did you not know that Jesus Christ is the savior of His Body the Church?
"...
just as Christ is head of the Church, being himself savior of the body."
Ephesians 5:23
"If GOD is for us, who is against us?"
Romans 8:31
What force on earth would give you trepidation, if the Lord of Lords,
and
the King of Kings is with you?
"Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build it."
Psalms
127:1
To those who have formed the 38,000 non-Catholic ecclesial
communities, did you ever read this?
For those who say the Church which Jesus Christ founded, fell into apostasy
sometime after the last Apostle died, aren't they denying all of those verses
listed above which guarantee its perpetuality?
Matthew 18:15-18 has said to
appeal to the Church for the final authority. If the Church fell into error as
some claim, then hasn't GOD deliberately deceived us by telling us to appeal to
an apostate Church?
1Timothy 3:15 has told us that it is the Church which is
the pillar and foundation of the truth. Aren't those who claim it fell into
apostasy saying it is no longer so?
Should we believe the words of Scripture,
or mere humans who founded
their own denominations without having any authority whatsoever from GOD to do
so?
What the Church Fathers and early writers had to say about the perpetuality of
the Church...
"It is an unhappy ending for those who attack the Catholic Church."
Saint
Robert Bellarmine 1542-1621
"This Church is holy, the one Church, the true Church, the Catholic Church,
fighting as she does against all heresies. She can fight, but she cannot be
beaten. All heresies are expelled from her, like the useless loppings pruned
from a vine. She remains fixed in her root, in her vine, in her love. The gates
of hell shall not conquer her."
Saint Augustine of Hippo... Sermon to
Catechumens, on the Creed, 6:14, Jurgens 1535, 395 A.D.
"The Church, instituted by the Lord and confirmed by the Apostles, is one for
all men; but the frantic folly of the diverse impious acts sects has cut them
off from her. It cannot be denied that this tearing asunder of the faith has
arisen from the defect of poor intelligence, which twists what is read to
conform to its opinion, instead of adjusting its opinion to the meaning of what
is read. However, while individual parties fight among themselves, the Church
stands revealed not only by her own doctrines, but by those also of her
adversaries. And although they are all arranged against her, she confutes the
most wicked error which they all share, by the very fact that she is alone and
One. All the heretics, therefore, come against the Church; but while all the
heretics can conquer each other, they can win nothing for themselves. For their
victory is the triumph of the Church over all of them. One heresy struggles
against that teaching of another, which the faith of the Church has already
condemned in the other heresy, - for there is nothing which the heretics hold in
common, and the result is that they affirm our faith while fighting among
themselves."
Saint Hilary of Poitiers... The
Trinity, 7:4, Jurgens 865, 356 A.D.
We know from the merciless Persecution Against the Catholic Church, from
within and from without, since its inception. These Persecutions were foretold
by Jesus Christ Himself, in
Matthew 5:11-12, Luke 6:26, and in many other
verses. These attacks were from the very beginning, and started with the Jews.
Look what happened to them instead! Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed and
every Jewish priest was slain by the Romans in 70 A.D.. Judaism was almost
completely destroyed. Then came the Romans who burned Christians at the stake
and fed them to the lions. They, in turn, and their empire with them were
destroyed in 476 A.D.. Along came the Nestorians, Arians, Vandals, Moslems,
Waldenses, Albigensians, Catharists, Protestantism, the French Revolution,
Modernism, Nazism, Communism, Dissidents, and now Secular Humanism,
Fundamentalism, Relativism, Indifferentism, and Hedonism. This only a small
sampling, as there are many more heretical groups and beliefs throughout the
centuries which are not listed here.
"There is not enough time in the
day for me to recite even the names
of all the various sects of heretics."
Saint Ambrose of Milan, The Mystery of the Lord's Incarnation, 5,35, 382
A.D.
In every century for almost 2000 years, heretics have been composing the epitaph
of the Catholic Church, but instead of burying the Church, the Catholic Church
has been burying the heretics.
©
Written by Bob
Stanley April 5, 2001
Updated January 11, 2007
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