THE TRUE CHURCH

 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH claims that she is God’s true Church and her members are to promise obedience to the Bishop of Rome, whom she claims is successor to Saint Peter, Prince of Apostles and Vicar of Jesus Christ.

 The Roman Catholic Church is built on the assumption that Matthew 16:13-19 Jesus appointed Peter the first pope and so founded His Church and established the papacy. If this is true, then all true. Christians must become Catholic; if this is false, the whole Catholic religion is false and cultic and no true Christians could be identified with such a system .We must, then, search the scriptures in order to know what is true. The scriptures are not merely the writings of men, "But holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21) "All Scripture is inspired by God" (11 Timothy 3:16). “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my word (the Bible) shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35).Both scripture and history testify to the authenticity and reliability of the Bible . Though some translations are better than others, all are reliable enough for general study.

When Jesus, in Matthew 16:18 , said "And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it". (NIV) He used the demonstrative 'this' taute), pointing to Peter’s confession in Matt 16:16 "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God". NIV
 “as the rock .Jesus said "You are Peter (petros ,a stone---all believers are stones, see 1 Peter2:5 and Ephesians 2:21), and upon this rock (petra , a huge rock foundation---the confession that Jesus is the Christ) , I will build my Church" he did not promise to build his Church upon Peter. Jesus would not have trusted such a precious possession as His Church to the leadership of even one fallible man much less a whole succession of them. The pope is called the Vicar of the son of God (Vicarius Filii Dei). In the Bible , we find, that the Holy Spirit not the pope,  was sent to take the place of Jesus on earth. That is what Vicar means. The Holy Spirit was given to guide us in all truth (John 16:7-15) and the Scriptures were given for teaching, for reproving, for correction and for instruction (2 Timothy3:16) . Christ did not leave His church to human leadership. Jesus Himself is still the ideal of His Church. He speaks to us through His infallible Word, the Holy Scriptures, by His ever present and infallible Holy Spirit.

Let us remember that Christ is the Rock and only Head of the Church.

1 Corinthians 3:11.
For other foundation no one can lay, but that which has been laid, which is Christ Jesus.

1 Corinthians 10:4.
The Rock was Christ.

Ephesians 1:22, 23.
Head over all the Church.

Ephesians 2:20.
Christ Jesus …the chief corner stone.

Around thirty-four times in the Old Testament God is called a Rock or the Rock of Israel. You see the Bible clearly teaches that when Jesus founded His Church, He was to be the only Head, the Holy Spirit the Vicar and Guide, and the Bible the only rule of faith and practice. All true Christians constitute THE TRUE CHURCH (those in whom the Holy Spirit dwells, who believe and obey Christ’s teachings). The true believers were called “Christians” not “Catholics”.

Acts11:26.
Disciples were first called Christians.

1 Peter 4:16.
Suffer as a Christian.

There were no Roman Catholics until Christianity was merged with paganism into a state religion round 315A.D. The true Christians obeyed Gods Word they never joined in the pagan corruption. The gates of Hell have never prevailed against the true believers, they are few, there way is narrow, they would rather suffer martyrdom than compromise the Word of God or deny their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ “Go out from her my people , that you may not share in her sins ,and that you may not receive of her plagues” (Apocalypse 18:4) .   Believers must not be identified with compromising or counterfeit Churches!

From "Scriptural Truths For Roman Catholics" by Bartholomew F. Brewer, PH.D. former Roman catholic priest