Christmas was NEVER a Pagan Feast: Debunking the claims of Anti-Catholic heretics!

 

As Christmas is here again, many heretics in particular, Jehovah witnesses, The comedian, Mr. Daddy Freeze, a Nigerian Pentecostal heretic will start to attack the Holy Feast of Christmas calling it “Pagan”.

 

Also, over the years, many, including Catholics themselves believe that the Feast of Christmas was initially a pagan feast only converted by Constantine into a Catholic feast.

 

But nothing can be further from the truth. These lies are spread by the enemies of Jesus Christ and the popular culture spreads it further and further.

 

We are repeatedly told that the date 25th of December was originally a pagan holiday. It is said that the Early Church “chose” it to “Christianize” a Roman feast of the Sun. According to this false theory, the Christmas date was only established in the 4th century, when we have the first evidence of the birth of Christ being celebrated in Rome in 336. The conclusion: The origins of Christmas are pagan, and we do not really know the date the Savior of mankind was born.

It is time to make corrections to this ugly lie. These lies are aimed to diminish the homage paid to the Savior of the world, Our Lord Jesus Christ and to discredit His Church, the Holy Catholic Church!

 

In fact, the opposite of this lie is true. It must be stated that the idea that the origins of Christmas is pagan is a myth with NO historical substance.

First, we MUST NOTE that there was no ancient Roman festival held on December 25

The notion that Christmas had pagan origins began to spread in the 17th century with the heretical English Puritans and Scottish Presbyterians, who hated all Catholic things. The Puritans hated Catholicism so much that they revolted against the so-called “Anglican Church”, another heretical organization because, even with their heresies, they considered it still too similar to the Catholic Church. They abhorred the feast days and in particular, they detested the Christmas feast with its joyous ceremonies, celebrations and customs.

 

Since the Bible gave no specific date of Christ’s birth, the Puritans argued that it was a sinful invention of the Roman Catholic Church that should be abolished.

Later, Protestant preachers like the German Paul Ernst Jablonski tried to demonstrate in pseudo-scholarly works that December 25 was actually a pagan Roman feast, and that Christmas was yet another instance of how the medieval Catholic Church ‘paganized’ and corrupted ‘pure’ early Christianity. Check out  the book by Thomas Talley called  The Origins of the Liturgical Year, published by Collegeville press Minnesota in 1991. Focus on page 88 of this book. 

Around the same time, the Jesuit Jean Hardouin with his eccentric theory of universal forgery that put in doubt every historical source known, backed the Puritans on their theory of Christmas having pagan origins. But his research was largely discredited given his absurd affirmations. For example, he maintained all the Church Councils that took place before Trent were fictitious and almost all the classical texts of ancient Greece and Rome were false, made by monks in the 13th century. Such assertions are blatantly absurd, given the countless source documents demonstrating the opposite.

 

The two principal claims for Christmas having pagan origins pretend that the early Church chose December 25 in order to divert Catholics from Roman pagan festival days. The first claim pretends that it replaced the ancient Roman holiday of Saturnalia, a time of feasting and raucous merry-making held in December in honor of the pagan god Saturn.

Now, the Saturnalia festival always ended on December 23 at the latest. Why would the Catholic Church, to diverge the attention of her faithful from a pagan celebration, choose a date two days after that party had already ended and whoever wanted had already overindulged? It makes no sense. No serious scholar believes this claim.

Secondly and in actual fact, the feast of Christmas was established before the said pagan feast that usually end on 23rd of December!

The second claim is that the Catholic Church established Christmas on December 25 to replace a solar feast invented by Emperor Aurelian in 274 AD, the Dies Natalis Solis Invicti (Birth of the Unconquered Sun).

The fact that Christmas entered the world calendar (the accepted Roman calendar) in 354 – which was after the establishment of the pagan feast – does not necessarily mean the Church chose that day to replace the pagan holiday. Two principal reasons concur with this conclusion:

First, one must not simply assume that the early Christians only began to celebrate Christmas in the 4th century. Until the Edict of Milan was published in 313, Catholics were persecuted and met in catacombs, the Roman undergroud. Hence, there was no public festivity. But they celebrated Christmas among themselves before that Edict, as hymns and prayers of the first Christians confirm. The French man, Mr. Daniel-Rops, proved this in his book “Prières des Premiers Chrétiens”,  abour Early Christian culture.

Second, this claim is based on unsound assumptions. As scholar Thomas Talley points out in his book The Origins of the Liturgical Year, Emperor Aurelian inaugurated the festival of the Birth of the Unconquered Sun trying to give new life – a rebirth – to a dying Roman Empire. It is much more likely, he argues, that the Emperor’s action was a response to the growing popularity and strength of the Catholic religion, which was celebrating Christ’s birth on December 25, rather than the other way around.

There is no historical evidence that Aurelian’s celebration preceded the feast of Christmas, and more reason to believe that establishing this festival day – which never won popular support and soon died out – was an effort to give a pagan significance to a date already of importance to Roman Catholics.



But let us leave the realm of conjecture and return to historical records. There is ample evidence to demonstrate that, even though the Christmas date was not made official until 354, clearly it was established long before Aurelian instituted his pagan feastday, which nevertheless ended on 23rd December.

The conception of St. John the Baptist is the historical anchor to know the date of Christmas, based on the detailed and careful calculations on dates made by first Fathers of the Church.

The early tractatus De solstitiia records the tradition of the Archangel Gabriel appearing to Zachariah in the High Temple when he was serving as high priest on the Day of Atonement (Lk 1:8). This placed the conception of St. John the Baptist during the feast of Tabernacles in late September, as the Archangel Gabriel said (Lk 1:28) and his birth nine months later at the time of the summer solstice.

Since the Gospel of Luke states that the Archangel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary in the sixth month after John's conception (Lk 1:26), this placed the conception of Christ at about the time of the spring equinox, that is, at the time of the Jewish Passover, in late March. His birth would thus be in late December at the time of the winter solstice.

That these dates, based on Tradition and Scripture, are trustworthy is confirmed by recent evidence taken from the Dead Sea Scrolls, whose authors were very concerned about calendar dates, essential for establishing when the Torah feasts should be celebrated. The data found in the Scrolls make it possible to know the Temple’s rotating assignment of priests during Old Testament times and show definitely that Zachariah served as a Temple priest in September, thus confirming the tradition of the Early Church.  Shemaryahu Talmon, Professor Emeritus at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and a top Scroll scholar, published an in-depth study of the Temple’s rotating assignment of priests in 1958 and the Qumran scrolls to see the assignment during New Testament times. Martin K Barrack, google “it comes from pagans” to learn more.

 
The Catholic Church determined March 25 as the date of Our Lord’s Conception long before Aurelian decided to make his solar feast.

 

For example, around 221 AD, Sexto Julio Africano wrote the Chronographiai in which he affirmed that the Annunciation was March 25. Once the date of the Incarnation(pregnancy of Mary with Lord Jesus Christ) was established, it was a simple matter of adding nine months to arrive at the date of Our Lord’s birth - December 25. This date would not be made official until the late fourth century, but it was established long before Aurelian and Constantine. It had nothing to do with pagan festivals.

We can be certain that the first Catholic apologists and Fathers of the Church, who lived very close to the time of the Apostles, were fully aware of the dates associated with the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ. They had all the calendar sources at hand and they would not allow any untruth to be introduced in the Catholic liturgy. The date of Christ’s birth was transmitted by them as being December 25, a Sunday or a day treated as a Sunday! In the Catholic Church, Christmas is treated as a Sunday!

Addressing the verse of Luke 2:7, Fr Cornelius a Lapide comments in his Commentaria in Scripturam Sanctam, (Published in Paris by Vives in 1811) on the architecture of this choice: “Christ was born Sunday, because this was the first day of the world. … Christ was born on Sunday night, in keeping with the order of His marvels, so that the day on which He said Let there be light, and there was light, was the same day on which, at night, the light shone in darkness for the upright of heart, that is, the sun of justice, Christ the Lord.”

Inclonclusion, the date for the birth of Christ is established to be on 25th of December. If the Church is right in establishing the date of the Incarnation to be March 25th, then the date 25th December should be accepted as the day of the Birth of Christ. There may be margin of error here and there. But the bottom line is that the feast of Christmas has NO pagan origin whatsoever!

 

By Malachy Igwilo, (with ideas from Maria Hovat) Ember Friday, 18th December 2020

 

Support our charities this Christmas and always: Religious Life in Nigeria, Priests and Seminarians in Nigeria. Support by shopping with this link:

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The Story of Carmelite Martyrs of France: Challenging the Evil Religion occupying the Vatican!

The 16 Carmelite Martyrs who died to defend their faith, is yet another symbol of how the Catholics have always resisted the evil intentions of International freemasonry! Today, that same Freemasonry that killed these Carmelites have taken over Catholic buildings worldwide and has instituted an abomination of desolation, calling it the Catholic Church and millions, blind and faithless flock to them calling their head, Francis "pope"! May these martyrs intercede for the whole world. Amen

THE SIXTEEN CARMELITE MARTYRS OF  COMPIEGNE

            The French Revolution reveals the titanic struggle between good and evil. During the terror, over 40,000 Frenchmen were executed just for holding fast to the Catholic Faith and objecting to the worst excesses of the Committee of Public Safety. The blood lost in the years of 1792-1794 staggers the imagination even in the retelling and the campaign against the Church was as diabolical as it was cruel.

            Contemplative religious communities had been among the first targets of the fury of the French Revolution against the Catholic Church. Less than a year from May 1789 when the Revolution began with the meeting of the Estates-General, these communities had been required by law to disband. But many of them continued in being, in hiding. Among these were the community of the Carmelite nuns of Compiegne, in northeastern France not far from Paris - the fifty-third convent in France of the Carmelite sisters who followed the reform of  St. Teresa of Avila, founded in 1641, noted throughout its history for fidelity and fervor. Their convent was raided in August 1790, all the property of the sisters was seized by the government, and they were forced to discard their habits and leave their house. They divided into four groups which found lodging in four different houses all near the same church in Compiegne, and for several years they were to a large extent able to continue their religious life in secret. But the intensified surveillance and searches of the “Great Terror” revealed their secret, and in June 1794 most of them were arrested and imprisoned.

            They had expected this; indeed, they had prayed for it. At some time during the summer of 1792, very likely just after the events of August 10 of that year that marked the descent into the true deeps of the Revolution, their prioress, Madeleine Lidoine, whose name in religion was Teresa in honor of the founder of their order, by all accounts a charming  perceptive, and highly intelligent woman, had foreseen much of what was to come. At Easter of 1792, she told her community that, while looking through the archives she had found the account of a dream a Carmelite had in 1693. In that dream, the Sister saw the whole Community, with the exception of 2 or 3 Sisters, in glory and called to follow the Lamb. In the mind of the Prioress, this mean martyrdom and might well be a prophetic announcement of their fate.

            Mother Teresa had said to her sisters: “Having meditated much on this subject, I have thought of making an act of consecration by which the Community would offer itself as a sacrifice to appease the anger of God, so that the divine peace of His Dear Son would be brought into the world, returned to the Church and the state.” The sisters discussed her proposal and all agreed to it but the two oldest, who were hesitant. But when the news of the September massacres came, mingling glorious martyrdom with apostasy, these two sisters made their choice, joining their commitment to that of the rest of the community. All made their offering; it was to be accepted.

            After their lodgings were invaded again in June, their devotional objects shattered and their tabernacle trampled underfoot by a Revolutionary who told them that their place of worship should be transformed into a dog kennel, the Carmelite sisters were taken to the Conciergerie prison, where so many of the leading victims of the guillotine had been held during their last days on earth. There they composed a canticle for their martyrdom, to be sung to the familiar tune of the Marseillaise. The original still exists, written in pencil and given to one of their fellow prisoners, a lay woman who survived.

                     Give over our hearts to joy, the day of glory has arrived,

                     Far from us all weakness, seeing the standard come;

                     We prepare for the victory, we all march to the true conquest,

                     Under the flag of the dying God we run, we all seek the glory;

                     Rekindle our ardor, our bodies are the Lord’s,

                     We climb, we climb the scaffold and give ourselves back to the Victor.

                      O happiness ever desired for Catholics of France, To follow the wondrous road

                      Already marked out so often by the martyrs toward their suffering,

                      After Jesus with the King, we show our faith to Christians,

                      We adore a God of justice; as the fervent priest, the constant faithful,

                      Seal, seal with all their blood faith in the dying God....

                      Holy Virgin, our model, August queen of martyrs, deign to strengthen our zeal

                      And purify our desires, protect France even yet, help; us mount to Heaven,

                      Make us feel even in these places, the effects of your power. Sustain your children,

                      Submissive, obedient, dying, dying with Jesus and in our King believing.

            On July 17 the sixteen sisters were brought before Fouquier-Tinville. All cases were now being disposed of within twenty-four hours as Robespierre had wished; theirs was no exception. They were charged with having received arms for the émigrés; their prioress, Sister Teresa, answered by holding up a crucifix. “Here are the only arms that we have ever had in our house.” They were charged with possessing an altar-cloth with designs honoring the old monarchy (perhaps the fleur-de-lis) and were asked  to deny any attachment to the royal family. Sister Teresa responded: “If that is a crime, we are all guilty of it; you can never tear out of our hearts the attachment for Louis XVI and his family. Your laws cannot prohibit feeling; they cannot extend their empire to the affections of the soul; God alone has the right to judge them.” They were charged with corresponding with priests forced to leave the country because they would not take the constitutional oath; they freely admitted this. Finally they were charged with the catchall indictment by which any serious Catholic in France could be guillotined during the Terror: “fanaticism.” Sister Henriette, who had been Gabrielle de Croissy, challenged Fouguier-Tinvile to his face: “Citizen, it is your duty to respond to the request of one condemned; I call upon you to answer us and to tell us just what you mean by the word ‘fanatic.’” “I mean,” snapped the Public Prosecutor of the Terror, “your attachment to your childish beliefs and your silly religious practices.” “Let us rejoice, my dear Mother and Sisters, in the joy of the Lord,” said Sister Henriette, “that we shall die for our holy religion, our faith, our confidence in the Holy Roman Catholic Church.”

            While in prison, they asked and were granted permission to wash their clothes. As they had only one set of lay clothes, they put on their religious habit and set to the task. Providentially, the revolutionaries picked that “wash day” for their transfer to Paris. As their clothes were soaking wet, the Carmelites left for Paris wearing their “outlawed” religious habit. They celebrated the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in prison, wondering whether they would die that day.

            It was only the next day they went to the guillotine. The journey in the carts took more than an hour. All the way the Carmelite sisters sang: the “Miserere,” “Salve Regina,” and “Te Deum.” Beholding them, a total silence fell on the raucous, brutal crowd, most of them cheapened and hardened by day after day of the spectacle of public slaughter. At the foot of the towering killing machine, their eyes raised to Heaven, the sisters sang “Veni Creator Spiritus.” One by one, they renewed their religious vows. They pardoned their executioners. One observer cried out: “Look at them and see if they do not have the air of angels! By my faith, if these women did not all go straight to Paradise, then no one is there!”

            Sister Teresa, their prioress, requested and obtained permission to go last under the knife. The youngest, Sister Constance, went first. She climbed the steps of the guillotine “With the air of a queen going to receive her crown,” singing Laudate Dominum omnes gentes, “all peoples praise the Lord.” She placed her head in the position for death without allowing the executioner to touch her. Each sister followed her example, those remaining singing likewise with each, until only the prioress was left, holding in her hand a small figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The killing of each martyr required about two minutes. It was about eight o’clock in the evening, still bright at midsummer. During the whole time the profound silence of the crowd about the guillotine endured unbroken.

            Two years before when the horror began, the Carmelite community at Compiegne had offered itself as a holocaust, that peace might be restored to France and the Church. The return of full peace was still twenty-one years in the future. But the Reign of Terror had only ten days left to run. Years of war, oppression and persecution were yet to come, but the mass official killing in the public squares of Paris was about to end. The Cross had vanquished the guillotine.

            These sixteen holy Carmelite nuns have all been beatified by our Holy Father, the Pope, (Pope St. Pius X, 27 May 1906) which is the last step before canonization. Blessed Carmelites of Compiegne, pray for us!

Presented by Malachy Igwilo, 18th July 2020, Feast of St. Cammilus of Lellis and St. Symphorosa and her 7 sons! 

Culled from http://catholicapologetics.info/library/onlinelibrary/martyrs.htm

Non Catholic "Churches" belong to Satan, SURELY!!!

 

There is a perverse and pervasive belief held by many, who call themselves Christian, that the Church of Christ is the body of true believers, which can and does cross many denominational lines. It is not the denominational or nondenominational church that really matters, but the personal faith of the individuals and these individuals are the ones who make up the Church of Christ. In other words, the Church of Christ subsists in any particular denomination.

All Protestants/Pentecostals hold this view as well as the new religion in Rome, Novus Ordo/Vatican II religion which is ruled by the Soul killer, Francis. 

The Second Vatican Council actually states this very thing in its dogmatic constitution by stating that the Church of Christ subsists in the Catholic Church explaining that other non-Catholic churches help build up the one Body of Christ in its Decree on Ecumenism, Unitatis Redintegratio.

According to the Bible, this is impossible. 

Different faiths purporting to be about Christ do not make up the one Faith of Christ, but this is precisely what most so-called Christians actually believe.

This is a complete falsehood and flatly contradicts the very Bible they all claim to follow. It denies that the Church is the ONE FAITH of Christ. Faith is not just a belief in Christ, for even the demons believe (James 2:19). Demons are not of the one faith of Christ.

Make no mistake about it; any "church" that professes such a lie is not a Christian church but rather a satanic church that only professes “a” belief in Christ but not “the” belief of Christ.

If this sounds a little over-the-top, then perhaps a re-examining of the evidence is in order.

Satan means adversary. Anything that is contrary to Christ would be satanic. This is why Christ said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me; for you are not on the side of God, but of men.” (Matthew 16:23, Mark 8:33)

The Satanic Church doesn’t worship the devil per se, but rather worships against Christ. Any religion that goes against the true religion is, without a doubt, a religion of the devil or a satanic church. Christ said, “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.” (Matthew 12:30)

Some churches, such as the new religion of Rome, hold that their particular church has the fullness of means of salvation, but that the means of salvation can be found in other denominational churches, indegrees!!!

This lie, that the Church of Christ subsists in this or that denomination, is Satanic because it allows each individual to follow his own system of beliefs. It is Satanic because it follows the laws of the devil, “To each his own,” which leads to “Do as thou wilt.”

All roads do not lead to heaven, but only one road and Christ said it was so narrow that few would even find it (Matt. 7:14).

There are others who believe their particular church is the one true church even though their church was founded by some man within the last 500 years.

According to the Bible, this also is impossible, because it denies that the Church Christ founded was infallible and indefectible and would last all days. It presupposes the Church must have died and needed to be rebuilt or resurrected.

The following Scripture passages by themselves will refute through implication why all these things are false beliefs about the Church. They will also demonstrate how these individuals are actually outside of the Church and apart from the very faith of Christ they claim to hold. Thus their personal faith in Christ then becomes the very stumbling block on which they will fall into condemnation.

May the following Word of God wipe clean this sinister snare of Satan to find the true Church and reject all the clever works of the Devil.

Truth matters or else there would be no point to religion whatsoever. Why practice any religion if it does not matter whether it is true or not?

If one religion is better than another but both are legitimate roads to Heaven, why would anyone practice the most difficult religion if only to have a greater place in Heaven but a greater chance of hell? Would Christ ask us to gamble with our souls?

All roads may lead to Rome but only one road leads to Heaven.

Comments have been added to many of these verses to hammer down the point; the Church of Christ is one faith, which can only be of one particular church in the world. All other churches, that claim to follow Christ, are in reality merely man-made religions, which have used every lie in the book to reject the one and only true Church Christ founded.

These psuedo-churches usurping the Christian name are truly the most satanic religions of the world.

The one and only road to Heaven is Jesus Christ as He Himself states, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6)

Christ implies that apart from the truth is apart from the way and life itself. The “Way” was how the Church was first known. The Way, Truth, and Life are so linked together, that you cannot have one without the others. You cannot have only one part of Christ. You either have Him totally or not at all.

Jesus replied to Pontius Pilate, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth.” (John 18:37)

Christ bore witness to “the” truth. This means truth is not relative. If it is true for you, it must be true for me.

Jesus said he would build His [one] Church and it will never die.

“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18)

“I am with you all days, even unto the consummation of the world.” (Matthew 28:20)

Notice, Christ built a church, not churches. The hundreds of thousands plus denominations and non-denominations today, do not add up to “a” church. All have different ways, beliefs, teachings, and practices. They all do not make up a single religious church.

The Church of Christ is the Body of Christ because She is the Bride of Christ.

(Ephesians 5:22-32) “[22] Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. [23] For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. [24] As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands. [25] Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, [26] that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, [27] that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. [28] Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. [29] For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the church, [30] because we are members of his body. [31] “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” [32] This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church;”

(Colossians 1:18,24) “[18]He is the head of the body, the church; [24] his body, that is, the church,”

(I Corinthians 6:15) “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!”

(I Corinthians 12:27) “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”

(Romans 12-4-5) “For as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”

The Church Christ founded is the Way.

(Acts 9:2) “so that if he found any belonging to the Way”

(Acts 19:9,23) “[9] when some were stubborn and disbelieved, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation [23] About that time there arose no little stir concerning the Way.”

(Acts 24:14,22) “[14] that according to the Way, which they call a sect, worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the law or written in the prophets, [22] But Felix, having a rather accurate knowledge of the Way,”

If Christ is the Way and the Church is the Way, and the Church is the Body of Christ, then apart from Christ and the Church is apart from Life. Apart from life means apart from salvation, therefore, outside the church there is no salvation.

The Church is Christ’s Flock.

“I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd.” (John 10:14-16)

“Every one who is of the truth hears my voice.” (John 18:37)

(I Peter 5:1-4) “So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker in the glory that is to be revealed. Tend the flock of God that is your charge, not by constraint but willingly, not for shameful gain but eagerly, not as domineering over those in your charge but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd is manifested you will obtain the unfading crown of glory.”

The Church is “of the truth” because it hears the voice of Christ, who is the Head and Shepherd. Again, there is only “one flock” not different flocks. Those who are not of the one flock, Christ must bring into the fold. The implication again, is the flock will attain salvation with the “crown of glory”, but outside the fold there will not be that crown of glory meaning no salvation.

The Church is a visible institution.

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid.” (Matthew 5:14)

(I Corinthians 12:28) “And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, and speakers in various kinds of tongues.”

(Colossians 1:24-25) “his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the divine office”

The Church is visible or else these passages are meaningless. If there are apostles and they are first, then the rest should follow them because Apostles are leaders, overseers, and the bishops of the Church. They did not appoint themselves but were appointed by Christ Himself or other Apostles after Him. They don’t start their own churches (denominations and non-denominations) but spread the one Church already founded.

The Church is the household of God.

(Ephesians 2:19-22) “So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”

(I Timothy 3:15) “you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God”

Notice, the Church is built upon Christ and the apostles and prophets, not men reinventing religion with a new foundation of enlightened thought such as the Protestant and Evangelical Reformers who started their own churches based on what they thought the church should be. Sola Scriptura (Bible Alone) is the myth, which became the justification to reject the foundation of the Apostles, and create a new foundation and just call it the foundation of the Apostles. Modernism is the enlightened thought of the new religion of Rome, which replaced historic Christianity and usurped the Catholic name.

The Church is the household of Faith.

(Galatians 6:10) “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”

The Church equals Faith. If you have “the” Faith, you are of “the” Church.

The Church is the one Faith.

(Ephesians 4-6) “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all.”

(I Timothy 6:20-21) “O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid the godless chatter and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge, for by professing it some have missed the mark as regards the faith. Grace be with you.”

(Jude 1:20) “But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit;”

Since there is only one Lord, it only follows that there is only one Faith. The Church is the Body of Christ. It equals the Faith, which equals the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

The Church has true authority.

“…tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 18: 17-18)

(Galatians 1:8) “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed (anathema or cut-off).”

(Titus 2:15) “Declare these things; exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you.”

If one has a disagreement about something of the Faith, which Church does he take it to? If the Faith is the Church, then there must be someone whom has the authority in the Church to say so. This someone is the one who has the authority to bind and loose. He is the one whom has the authority to anathematize. Although several persons could make certain decisions in the Church, it ultimately must come down to one person in the end. But the authority cannot be rejected or else you will automatically be cut-off from the Way. Thus, the rejection of this authority will be the rejection of salvation. “Whoever hears you, hears me; and whoever rejects you, rejects me,” says the Lord Jesus. (Luke 10:16)

The Church is immaculate and has no flaws or defections.

(Ephesians 5:25-27) “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”

This demonstrates how one cannot complain about anything the Church teaches or practices or else the implication would be the Church is not a spotless Bride, but a whore. He who rejects anything the Church teaches or practices because he thinks them to be spots, wrinkles or blemishes of the Church, blasphemes Christ and His Church.

The Church is the pillar and bulwark of Truth and is infallible.

(I Timothy 3:14-15) “I am writing these instructions to you so that, if I am delayed, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth.”

A pillar and bulwark is something that holds something else up. In this case, it is the Church who holds up the Truth. If something is not true, then it is a lie. The Church cannot lie. Everything the Church teaches must be true or this passage is meaningless.

“Every one who is of the truth hears my voice.” (John 18:37)

“But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24)

The worship of the Church is of the spirit and truth. It is not apart from the spirit and truth, or else, it would not be the true Church doing the worshiping.

“[7] Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. [13] When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” (John 16:7,13)

“[17} Sanctify them in the truth; thy word is truth. [19] And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth.” (John 17:17,19)

“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:18-19)

What are the gates of hell but the lies of the devil and men. If the Church taught one lie, then the powers of hell would prevail. However, Christ promised this never to happen. The keys are given to one man, Peter. He is that someone whom Christ has given the power and the authority to bind and loose. He is the one whom has been given the authority to anathematize. The keys also denote succession. All this can be seen in Isaiah 22:22, from which Christ, the Eternal son of David, was drawing from, when He gave Peter the keys, just as Eli’akim was given the key to the house of David.

Therefore, Peter’s true successors will have his same power, which ultimately comes from Christ. This has always been the belief and practice of the Church Christ founded. To reject Peter and his successors’ authority is to reject the historic Christian faith. It also means the rejection of the Way, the Truth, and the Life who is Christ himself. Apart from this truth of Peter means apart from salvation. Salvation depends on this truth to make sense of the whole of the Scriptures about what the Church is, does, and means. Refusing to listen even to the Church, which must by necessity come down to the authority of one man, is to be as the Gentile and tax collector.

“tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 18: 17-18)

The Church guards all truth and keeps all false teachings out.

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” (John 15:4-10)

(Galatians 1:8) “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed (anathema or cut-off).”

(I Corinthians 16:21-23) “I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. If any one has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.”

(II Timothy 4:3-4) “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths.”

(I Peter 5:8-9) “Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith”

(Colossians 1:21-23) “And you, who once were estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him, provided that you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which has been preached to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.”

(I Timothy 1:3-11) “As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, [4] nor to occupy themselves with myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations rather than the divine training that is in faith; [5] whereas the aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith. [6] Certain persons by swerving from these have wandered away into vain discussion, [7] desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make assertions. [8] Now we know that the law is good, if any one uses it lawfully, [9] understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, [10] immoral persons, sodomites, kidnapers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, [11] in accordance with the glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.”

(II Tim 1:14) “guard the truth that has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.”

CONCLUSION

According to the Holy Scriptures, the Church Christ founded is the household of God and Faith. It is a visible institution with divine offices. It has the full authority of Christ to teach, preach, sanctify, and anathematize. The Church is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. It is united in faith and perfected in truth. Outside this Church, there is no salvation. The Church of Christ can be found in all generations. Only one Church can claim to be this Church for only one has all the marks. One cannot claim to believe in Jesus, the Holy Bible, and Christianity without acknowledging it.

The TRUTH of religion matters for the salvation of men.

Truth is objective. The true religion must be perfect in every way. If one discrepancy can be found by way of doctrine in a particular religion, then the whole religion is corrupt. It must be rejected entirely.

Christ calls man to be perfect. (Matthew 5:48)

If God is to be worshiped in spirit and truth (John 4:24), then a false religion would not be in spirit and truth, but in contradiction and error.

To remain in a false religion as one picks and chooses out of the false religion what is good and what is bad, is not in spirit and truth.

The whole tree must be good. If it bears bad fruit, it should cut down and thrown into the fire. (Luke 3:9, 13:7)

The Vatican 2 Church and all the Protestant, Evangelical, and non-denominational churches are trees that bears nothing but bad fruit, since they all lead to a false relationship with Christ.

They all mock Christ and everything that is holy while pretending to be Christian.

In the end, Christ will have them all cut down and thrown into the fire.

Only one Church will be left standing.

The underground Catholic Church, which is the Bride of Christ, will be raised up and brought out of the wilderness (Apoc. 12:6) because she has kept herself pure by not following false doctrine and will be dressed in fine linen (Apoc. 19:7-8), and there will be a great feast.

“And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.” (Apoc. 19:9)

By Steven Sperey

Presented by Malachy Igwilo, 23rd May 2020. feast of Mary, Queen of the Apostles, within the Octave of Ascension.