IS JESUS’ CHURCH CATHOLIC?

IS JESUS’ CHURCH CATHOLIC?

Revelation 1:1-4 (KJV)

The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:

Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.

Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

The very same Christians who would loudly claim that they are not catholic, would, with equal volume, claim that they do believe in the universal church.

The doctrine of the universal church is the one doctrine that every denomination, besides a small hand full of Baptist Churches hold in common.

·   The Catholics believe it

·   The Mainline Protestants believe it and so does

·   Every kind of non-denominational, evangelical and Bible church

I. WHERE DOES IT COME FROM?

A. The word, catholic is a combination of two Greek words

·   Cata meaning something like, the equivalent

·   Holos, meaning the whole[1]

Catholic means “about or the equivalent of everything.”

In other words, universal.

B. The first time the word was used to speak of the church was around 110 AD.

Here’s the thing, already, by the end of the first century, there were certain churches creating a hierarchy.

First John and Jude both warn against it.

So, it is no surprise that Ignatius, the church father so revered by the Roman Catholics, used the term catholic to refer to his vision for churches to be united under one organization.

The concept jelled for about 200 years until the Roman Emperor, Constantine, declared himself to be a Christian and commanded that all of the Christians, together with the pagan people under his rule, unite together in a Catholic, universal church, with none other than Constantine as the head.

C. Constantine was already considered a god

Under Roman rule, the emperor was worshiped as a deity.

All Constantine had to do was

·   To command that his subjects now worship him as the substitute (vicar) for Christ in the church.

·   Offer persecuted Christians safety if they would come under his headship and

·   Declare himself to be the head of the whole (catholic) Christian religion.

The Roman Emperor was the head of the catholic church until the Roman government fell.

After that, the Bishop at Rome became Pope and the head of the “Holy Catholic” church.

The Protestants left the Roman Catholic church, but they did not reject catholic doctrine.

Martin Luther and John Calvin both insisted that Jesus’ church was still catholic – universal. They just changed it from a visible Catholic church with the Pope as the head to an invisible catholic church, led by their own organizations.

Let’s move on to

II. WHY IT HATES THOSE WHO DISAGREE?

I refer you back to the chart by BH Carroll, I presented to you in another message.

What I would like you to notice is that there are just two lines of churches represented in the chart.

·   The one is a solid line that fans out into a fork-like shape

·   The other is represented by a multitude of individual red dots that “generally” form a line pattern, though not solid.

Notice also that both of these “lines” claim antiquity

·   The red dot (Baptist) churches go back to when Jesus said He would build His church

·   The other line begins somewhere around 90 AD and solidifies (into Catholicism) around the fourth century.

The reason why the universal church doctrine hates the local church only doctrine is that, for 1700 years, our doctrine has preached that their doctrine is not of Christ.

To believe that the only true Biblical church is a local church is to deny that Catholicism ever was the church that Jesus built.

And to deny that the Catholic Church is the church that Jesus built, calls into question the authenticity of every Protestant Church, because they know they came out of Catholicism and, I would assert, their real goal is to one day bring the whole catholic/universal church back together as a worldwide power.

They hate our doctrine of the local church because our doctrine prevents all Christians from ever uniting as one great big, one world, religious organization.  

Moving on to my next heading

III. WHY DOES IT MATTER?

So what that some Christians believe that the real church is an invisible one and the local church is just a place to worship while other Christians, a small number, believe there is no such thing as this true, invisible, universal church?

Couldn’t an argument be made that one idea is as good as the other and that Jesus will sort it all out in the end?

Here’s the thing, what you believe about the church affects everything else you believe in the Bible.

I would like to just point out three

A. The universal church fundamentally removes Christ as the head of the church

The Roman Catholics are the most brazen about this.

Their Pope is declared according to their church dogma, to be the vicar or the representative of Christ on the earth.

·   He is considered to speak for Christ

·   His words are considered infallible

·   What the Pope says, according to Catholic doctrine, has the very same authority as the Bible.

Invisible Universal church doctrine is much more subtle than this, but it accomplishes much the same thing.

Since the local church is merely a poor representation of the true, invisible church, universal church people depend upon a denominational headquarters to maintain doctrinal unity.

They don’t have a Pope, but they do have a confession of faith they are under pressure to accept, even if they know it is in error.

They frequently do not own their own buildings, but they are owned by their headquarters.

And success in the denomination is dependent upon conformity to the denomination’s standards.

They are not independent churches with Christ as their head.

B. Universal church doctrine fundamentally places salvation in the church

Most except the mainline Protestants would deny that this is true, but any church that accepts the Westminster Confession or one of its copycats.[2]

One of the problems Luther and Calvin faced when they were forced out the Roman Catholic Church is that, for them, salvation was rooted in Catholic Church membership.

Being excommunicated, they were certain they still had a walk with God, but it couldn’t be in the Roman Catholic Church because they were not a part of it anymore.

In response, they devised the doctrine of the “Holy Catholic Church.”

·   Whereas the Roman Catholic Church is one, worldwide visible church.

·   The Holy Catholic Church is one universal but invisible church.

The Westminster Confession grants to the officers of its duly authorized churches, power of heaven and hell over the members of those churches.

C. Universal church doctrine fundamentally changes the nature of the ordinances

In the Roman Catholic Church, infant baptism washes away original sin and places the soul of that baby under the watchful eye of the church.

Communion is officially something called “transubstantiation”

This means that, when the priest pronounces his mass over the bread and wine, they become the actual body and blood of Jesus.

In the invisible church world, baptism, whether baby or adult, is a part and parcel with salvation, washing away sin.[3]

In some cases, baptism is just the opposite of that, an unnecessary ritual so, if they ask for baptism for church membership at all, it won’t matter who baptized or for what reason.

The Lord’s Supper, in mainline Protestant Churches, is officially something called “consubstantiation.”

They do not believe that the bread and fruit just literally become Jesus' body and blood, but that they are represented by and included with the bread and cup.

While these folks will deny that they believe the Lord’s Supper is necessary for salvation, they do believe that there is a certain grace that God gives with it.

So they often serve the Lord’s Supper every week and

They very often get upset with a church like ours because we don’t take it often enough and we don’t invite those who are not members of our church to take it with us.

In their minds, they are members of the true invisible, universal church, so who is our petty little local church to insist they join us before they partake with us?

All right let me get down to where the rubber meets the road.

All of that information, I think, is necessary to satisfy curious minds. But what people believe and what churches have taught or do teach is really irrelevant when compared to the next question,

IV. WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

No matter what anyone else teaches, all that really matters is what the Bible teaches.

So what does the Bible say about the universal church versus the local church?

The word church or churches is found 117 times in the Bible. 

I have a little book I’ve written where I take each of those instances, group them according to context and draw some lessons about what a church is.[4]

I want to give you are a very brief overview of what the Bible says about the church.

A. There are a couple of instances where the word church is mentioned, but the verse does not mean a Christian church.

Acts 19:37 (KJV)

For ye have brought hither these men, which are neither robbers of churches, nor yet blasphemers of your goddess.

The passage is speaking about pagan temples.

Paul’s preaching had threatened the business of those men who made their living carving idols of the goddess Diana.

The town clerk silenced the riot by saying that he and his company had not robbed Diana’s high places, nor had they blasphemed their goddess.

They had only preached a different doctrine.

B. There are a very few instances where a person might read into the word universal church if they are of a mind to.

Matthew 16:18 (KJV)

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Now think about this.

This verse does not say whether the church Jesus said He would build is either local or universal.

May I ask you, since this verse does not say the church is invisible and universal, is it, therefore, invisible and universal?

This is a case where we either read into the verse what we want the church to be or else, we look for other clues in the Bible to tell us what the church is.

C. The vast majority of Bible verses speak of local churches.

Revelation 1:4 (KJV)

John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

The word church is found 117 times in the Bible.

Of those 117 times, easily 110 of them are undeniable references to local churches.

Like Revelation 1:4

Like Acts 9:31 (KJV)

Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied.

There were lots of churches already in Judaea, Galilee, and Samaria.

Like Acts 13:1 (KJV)

Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

This church is in the city of Antioch, near what we now call Turkey

Like Romans 16:1 (KJV)

I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea:

This was obviously a church in a town named Cenchrea, near Corinth, in Greece.

Or consider this verse, Matthew 18:17 (KJV)

And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.

How can you tell anything to a church that is invisible?

I don’t need to go on.

More than 100 times, more near 110 out of 117 times the Bible obviously and undeniably speaks of a church or churches in a local congregation context.

The conclusion is this; in those verses where the Bible does not specifically say that the church is a local church, it is dishonest to call that church a universal one.

Conclusion

So how does a person teach the invisible universal church from the Bible if there is no invisible universal church in the Bible?

They use verses like this,

Romans 12:4-5 (KJV)

For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:

So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

Or this, 1 Corinthians 12:12-14 (KJV)

For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.

For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

For the body is not one member, but many.

The Bible uses the term body as a symbol of the church.

It’s a shadow, a picture, a likeness of the church.

They turn the shadow, into the body and then build a definition of the church based upon what they see in the shadow.

Let’s say a man was standing in the parking lot on a hot, sunny afternoon. The light of the sun was such that his shadow was nine feet tall.

Would we be right to say he is nine feet tall because his shadow is?

No, we would measure the man, and we would decide what we believe about the shadow based on what we know about him.

The church is the body and the body, in this case, is the shadow.

We should not decide what we believe about the church based on what we think we see in the body.

We should decide what we believe about the body based on what we know about the church.

The church is always, always, always 

·   A local congregation of Christians

·   Baptized by immersion after salvation and

·   United for the purpose of exhorting one another and doing the work of the Great Commission.

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[1] Forgive me if my anglicization of the second half of this word is a bit butchered. I think it is still fair and accurate enough for our purposes.

[2] There are a number of Confessions of faith that use the Westminster Confession as their basis and just tweak a thing or two here and there to fit their individual nuances.

[3] Check it out – they almost all believe in some form of “baptismal regeneration.” Baptism is necessary for salvation.

[4] The book is entitled, “The Church that Jesus Built.” It is available on Amazon.com. (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1706572778) I highly recommend everyone read it. About the only thing I don’t like about the book is that I wrote it.

For a powerpoint presentation to go with this message click, https://www.slideshare.net/MarvinMcKenzie/revelation-14-is-jesus-church-catholic