Can I show you In Scripture and early History of the Church Catholocism
Yes...
First and Formost as said In one of my other Posts on The Subject of Triune God...
Which we all agree.. is the term Triune Mentioned.. No.. But can we determine Thru Scripture 3 God heads? Yes
Paul says, indeed: "All Scripture, inspired of God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice, that the man of God may be perfect, furnished to every good work" (2 Tim. 3:16, 17).
But he gives no list of Scriptures.
So Who is to determine?
Actually the sciptures themselves say they are incomplete , They send us to the church for answers...
"Many other signs also did Jesus . . . which are not written." (John 20:30). "Thinkest thou that thou understandest what thou readest ?" . . . . "How can I, unless some man show me" (Acts 8:30, 31).
There is no evidence in the Bible to determine Inspiration.. Insperation is a heavenly Act...
Therefor Inspiration can only be determined how? Thru some authority Given by God.
Who did he give authority to?
Lets trace the apostolic succession of the claimants.
Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church" (Matt. 16:18); and to Peter and the rest of the apostles: "Go ye teaching therefore all nations"(Universal-- Catholic = Universal) (Matt. 28:19). "He that hears you, hears me, he that despises you, despises me, he that despises me despises him that sent me" (Luke 10:16).
Peter was Undoubtatly The rock which Jesus Built His Church.. Thats Clear as can be
Lets answer a Big Question... Did Peter go to Rome?
Peter tells his readers that he is writing from "Babylon" (1 Pet. 5:13),
It is well known that the early Church Fathers referred to pagan
Rome as "
Babylon"
So was Peter in rome? Yes
The Church Fathers also Declare that Peter was Martyered in Rome By Nero..
Ignatius of Antioch
"Not as Peter and Paul did, do I command you. They were apostles, and I am a convict" (
Letter to the Romans 4:3 [A.D. 110]).
Succesion...
Paul told Timothy, "what you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also" (2 Tim. 2:2).
Here we see Apostolic Succesion...
He also Tells Timothy he will teach this to Others..... See a line forming?
It also Shows Oral Tradition... Things being handed Down Verbally
Pope Clement I
"Through countryside and city the apostles preached, and they appointed their earliest converts, testing them by the Spirit, to be the bishops and deacons of future believers. Nor was this a novelty, for bishops and deacons had been written about a long time earlier. . . . Our apostles knew through our Lord Jesus Christ that there would be strife for the office of bishop. For this reason, therefore, having received perfect foreknowledge, they appointed those who have already been mentioned and afterwards added the further provision that, if they should die, other approved men should succeed to their ministry" (Letter to the Corinthians 42:4–5, 44:1–3, 80 AD)
Hegesippus
"When I had come to Rome, I [visited] Anicetus, whose deacon was Eleutherus. And after Anicetus [died], Soter succeeded, and after him Eleutherus. In each succession and in each city there is a continuance of that which is proclaimed by the law, the prophets, and the Lord" (Memoirs, cited in Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 4:22 [A.D. 180]).
Irenaeus
"It is possible, then, for everyone in every church, who may wish to know the truth, to contemplate the tradition of the apostles which has been made known to us throughout the whole world. And we are in a position to enumerate those who were instituted bishops by the apostles and their successors down to our own times, men who neither knew nor taught anything like what these heretics rave about" (Against Heresies 3:3:1 [A.D. 189]).
Tertullian
"[The apostles] founded churches in every city, from which all the other churches, one after another, derived the tradition of the faith, and the seeds of doctrine, and are every day deriving them, that they may become churches. Indeed, it is on this account only that they will be able to deem themselves apostolic, as being the offspring of apostolic churches. Every sort of thing must necessarily revert to its original for its classification. Therefore the churches, although they are so many and so great, comprise but the one primitive Church, [founded] by the apostles, from which they all [spring]. In this way, all are primitive, and all are apostolic, while they are all proved to be one in unity" (
Demurrer Against the Heretics 20 [A.D. 200]).
Cyprian of Carthage
"[T]he Church is one, and as she is one, cannot be both within and without. For if she is with [the heretic] Novatian, she was not with [Pope] Cornelius. But if she was with Cornelius, who succeeded the bishop [of Rome], Fabian, by lawful ordination, and whom, beside the honor of the priesthood the Lord glorified also with martyrdom, Novatian is not in the Church; nor can he be reckoned as a bishop, who, succeeding to no one, and despising the evangelical and apostolic tradition, sprang from himself. For he who has not been ordained in the Church can neither have nor hold to the Church in any way" (
Letters 69[75]:3 [A.D. 253]).
Jerome
"Far be it from me to speak adversely of any of these clergy who, in succession from the apostles, confect by their sacred word the Body of Christ and through whose efforts also it is that we are Christians" (
Letters 14:8 [A.D. 396]).
Augustine
"[T]here are many other things which most properly can keep me in [the Catholic Church’s] bosom. The unanimity of peoples and nations keeps me here. Her authority, inaugurated in miracles, nourished by hope, augmented by love, and confirmed by her age, keeps me here. The succession of priests, from the very see of the apostle Peter, to whom the Lord, after his resurrection, gave the charge of feeding his sheep [John 21:15–17], up to the present episcopate, keeps me here. And last, the very name Catholic, which, not without reason, belongs to this Church alone, in the face of so many heretics, so much so that, although all heretics want to be called ‘Catholic,’ when a stranger inquires where the Catholic Church meets, none of the heretics would dare to point out his own basilica or house" (
Against the Letter of Mani Called "The Foundation" 4:5 [A.D. 397]).
Tertullian
"[T]his is the way in which the apostolic churches transmit their lists: like the church of the Smyrneans, which records that Polycarp was placed there by John, like the church of the Romans, where Clement was ordained by Peter" (
Demurrer Against the Heretics 32:2 [A.D. 200]).
Baptism as a Nessesaty
1 Peter 3:21 says "baptism . . . now saves you." Jesus as the only Savior uses the waters of baptism to save people from their sins. Further, our Lord once said, "He who believes and is baptized will be saved" (Mark 16:16).
Eucharist
The Bible teaches that Jesus is really, not just symbolically, present in the Eucharist (Matt. 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:19-20; 1 Cor. 10:16-17; 1 Cor. 11:23-29; Finally one of my Favorites... John 6:32-71).
To answer a comment earlier you Claim That you Believe it as Spiritual.. Symbolic...
Where in the Bible is "spirit" ever interpreted as "symbolic"?
What Did early Church Fathers say About the true Presence...
Ignatius of Antioch
"I have no taste for corruptible food nor for the pleasures of this life. I desire the bread of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, who was of the seed of David; and for drink I desire his blood, which is love incorruptible" (
Epistle to the Romans 7:3
[A.D. 110]).
Justin Martyr
"We call this food Eucharist, and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true and who has been washed in the washing which is for the remission of sins and for regeneration [baptism] and is thereby living as Christ enjoined.
"For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nurtured, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus" (
First Apology 66:1-20 [A.D. 148]).
To name a few....
What about Non-Christians Claim That You should confess your sins Straight to god... Doesnt The catholic Church Do somethign Mentioned in Bible....
Jesus Christ had power to forgive sins, and he gave that power to the apostles and, through their successors the bishops, on priests. Although priests are sinners themselves, they have Christ's authority to forgive sins through the sacraments of confession.
sorry took forever this was a long one.. and i had to erase some so ill paste in next post [more then 10000 words
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