In John 6:66, the Jews had refused
to believe Jesus when he had told them theymusteat His Body and drink
His blood in order to have (spiritual) life in them. They simply walked away
from Him, nevermore to return. Jesus asked His disciples if they wished to go
away also in the next verse. To which Simon Peter answered, "Lord, to whom
shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed,
and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God."
Is it just
a coincidence that the verse for those who refused to believe the truth of the
words of Jesus Christ, and simply walked away from Him, had been assigned the
number 6:66? It is no coincidence, for those who
refuse to believe Him have called Him a liar, 1John 5:10. We all know who the
'father of lies' is, and that same entity has a tie to the number 666.
In
Matthew 16:13-17 when Jesus asked His disciples, "Who do men
say that the Son of man is?", it was again Simon
Peter who had the correct answer. Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ,
the Son of the living God." All of the rest had only an opinion. Of all of
the Apostles, it is Peter who has the correct answers when asked by Jesus. It is
no different today, as it is still Peter who has the correct
answers.
"And after there had been much debate, Peter rose and said to
them, "Brethren, you know that in the early days God made choice among you,
that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and
believe."" Acts 15:7 Meaning: it is by the choice of GOD, that the
fullness of truth comes from the mouth of Peter and none other. Who are the
Gentiles? Everyone who is not a Jew is a Gentile. So from whose lips
do all of us who are not Jews hear the Gospel? From the mouth of Peter and His
successors.
Now it is almost 2000 years since Peter said those words, so
they had to have been passed down from generation to generation if we are to
receive the same Gospel and believe, as the first Christians of Peter's time
did. How was that accomplished? Where is the path? Well, Holy Scripture
gave us the answer: "For it is written in the book of Psalms (Psa 109:8):
Let their habitation become desolate, and let there be none to dwell therein.
And his bishopric let another take. Wherefore of these men who have
companied with us, all the time that the Lord Jesus came in and went out among
us, Beginning from the baptism of John, until the day wherein he was taken up
from us, one of these must be made a witness with us of his resurrection. And
they appointed two, Joseph, called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and
Matthias. And praying, they said: Thou, Lord, who knowest the heart of all men,
shew whether of these two thou hast chosen, To take the place of this ministry
and apostleship, from which Judas hath by transgression fallen, that he might go
to his own place. And they gave them lot, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he
was numbered with the eleven apostles." Acts 1:20-26 When one died, the
line was preserved by the Apostles as shown in these verses. The Apostles were
also the first Bishops and so the command, "And his bishopric let another
take" was preserved fromBishop to Bishopdown through the ages from the Apostles to the Bishops of today. That verse
does not mean that the line ended when the last Apostle died. It means that the
line is to be continued from generation to generation without end.
"You
then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you
have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be
able to teach others also." 2Timothy 2:1-2 The line must be continuous
and unbroken and with no gaps lest, "...that by my mouth the Gentiles should
hear the word of the gospel and believe", the fullness of truth would be
lost forever.
So now, what about John 6:68? "Lord, to whom shall we
go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed, and have
come to know, that you are the Holy One of God." Here we have the
Apostles scratching their heads, looking around in faith, and finding that there
simply is to none other and to no other place that they could go.
Here
are the rules of what we have learned so far: 1. Jesus Christ is the
truth ("I am the way, the truth, and the
life", John 14:6), so there is none other with whom
they could go. 2. The line of the fullness of truth is passed from a valid
Bishop to Bishop, and not through anyone else. 3. The line must be continuous
and unbroken. 4. Where there is no valid Bishop (one who is descendant in the
unbroken line from the Apostles), there is no fullness of truth. 5. Present
day non-Catholics seem to think they do have another choice 'to whom they shall
go'.
In 1521, Martin
Luther, an Augustinian monk and the first Protestant, started Protestantism by forming the
Lutherans. Unfortunately for them, not one Bishop joined Luther's revolt, so the valid priesthood
for all Lutherans, and for all of those who splintered off from him, ended when
the last valid Catholic priest of the revolt died. There was no succession of
the fullness of truth in Lutheranism, or in any of its spinoffs. Here is a small
sampling of those spin offs which now total over 38,000. In 1521, Thomas
Munser, a Catholic priest, started Anabaptists when he broke from Lutheranism,
and unfortunately for them, no Bishops joined his revolt either. In 1536,
John Calvin formed the Calvinists. Sorry, no Bishops. In 1560, John Knox
started Presbyterians. Sorry no Bishops. In 1609, John Smyth formed the
Baptists in Holland. Sorry, no Bishops. In 1639, Roger Williams started the
Baptists in America. Sorry, no Bishops. In 1739, John and Charles Wesley
started the Methodists. Sorry, no Bishops.
You can readily see the
pattern here. All of these mainline Protestant sects, following the lead of
revolt of the first Protestant of 1521, in one way or another, had no valid
(Apostolic succession) Bishops to join their revolt, so therefore, all of them
violated rules # 2 through 4 above.
"Lord, to whom shall we
go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed, and have
come to know, that you are the Holy One of God."
Now we have a
different case, and a very interesting one indeed. In it we can easily see the
hand of GOD at work in the final outcome. In 1534, Henry VIII started the Church
of England (Anglican). Some valid Catholic Bishops did join his revolt under the
threat for them to either do so or die. Those who capitulated to the threat of
the king continued in a valid Bishopric for a few short years. Those who refused
to do so either fled the country, went into hiding, or were murdered. King
Henry died in 1547, and in 1550, King Edward VI, in a greater effort to
protestantize the Anglican church, deliberately changed the form of ordination
(called the Edwardian Ordinal), which had the effect of rendering ordinations of
priests and Bishops invalid. In 1662, realizing that a mistake had been made,
the Anglicans reverted to the valid ordination form, but by then it was too
late, since all of the validly ordained Bishops had died. Because of this gap
(rule 3) between 1550 and 1662, Anglican orders, being broken, remain invalid to
this day. Rules 2-4 were broken by Anglicans. Can't you see GOD's fingerprints amid these
facts? Does GOD allow valid priesthoods in other than the one Church which He
built? Here is yet another interesting example proving that He certainly does
not. The old covenant ended when the new covenant of Jesus Christ replaced
it. However, the majority of Jews, refusing to accept Jesus as the Christ,
continued with the Levitical priesthood of the old covenant. So then there were
two priesthoods, the new one of Jesus Christ and the superseded one of the
Aaronic Levites. However, this conflict of priesthoods only lasted for about
forty years. In 70 A.D. Roman armies surrounded Jerusalem (Luke 21:20) and
destroyed it (Matthew 24:2) and they killed every Levitical priest. That ended
the Levitical priesthood in one fell swoop. It takes a priest (Bishop in the new
covenant) to make a priest. Now do you see the fingerprints of GOD in these
historical facts? Try to find a valid Jewish priest today. You will not find
one. You will find only Rabbi's (teachers). Not only was the Jewish priesthood
ended, but the Jewish temple was completely destroyed, and to this very day it
has not been rebuilt. It was the will of GOD that the old covenant was fulfilled
and would be ended (Hebrews 8:13), and replaced by the new covenant instituted
by Jesus Christ (Hebrews 7:11-22).
Do you see the parallel between the
demise of any priesthood other than the one belonging to GOD's "new covenant house",
which is His one and only Church? Divine intervention is all too obvious
against those who are not firmly situated in the "House that GOD
built".
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of
eternal life; and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy
One of God."
Now we are back to the original question and again Holy
Scripture has given us the answer for it. It is in the second sentence of
John 6:68 when Peter said, "You have the words of eternal life;". Those words
are the gist of the words spoken by Jesus Christ in John 6:47-58 when He said in verse
51: "I am the living bread which came down from
heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which
I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh." Then Peter said, "...and we have believed...". Unlike the
Jews who refused to believe His words and who walked away from Him in John 6:66,
the Apostles believed because they had come to know that He was the Holy One of
GOD and would not lead them astray. The answer to "Lord, to whom shall we
go?", for the Apostles, was to stay right where they were because they
already had the fullness of truth. They heard the Words directly from the Author
of Life (Acts 3:15), and have believed. For the rest of us, it is still the
same answer. It is the only Church which has the fullness of truth. It is
the only Church which conforms to rules 2-4 listed earlier. It is the only
Church which has an unbroken line of succession of Bishops stretching all
the way back to Saint Peter. It is the only Church which conforms perfectly
with what the New
Testament says it will be. It is the only Church which conforms perfectly
as the Body
of Christ. It is the only Church which can prove what it says with genuine historical
documents. It is the only Church which can call down from Heaven the true Body and Blood,
Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist for us to consume so we
can each have eternal life. It is the only Church which can be found in every century from the
first, when Christ founded it, until this day in the twenty-first. It is the
only Church which is mentioned by its same present name in every century
beginning in 107 A.D.. It is
the only Church which is almost two thousand years old and can prove it. It is
the only Church which
Jesus Christ founded. It is the only Church which can truly be called the House that GOD
built.
"Lord, to whom shall we go?"
WE SHALL GO WITH
GOD IN THE ONLY HOUSE BUILT BY GOD, (Matthew 16:18, 18:17, Acts 20:28,
1Corinthians 1:2, 10:32, 11:22, 12:28, 15:9, 2Corinthians 1:1, Galatians
1:13, Ephesians 3:10, 5:23-32, Colossians 1:18, 1:24, 1Thessalonians 1:1,
1Timothy 3:5, 3:15) AND WE SHALL NOT LABOR IN VAIN IN HOUSES BUILT BY MERE
HUMAN CREATURES. Psalms 127:1
