Apologetics Session 2: Does God Care Which Church You Go To?

The Church. How we need to see the Church as Christ sees her! How we need to love the Church as Christ loves her! Does it matter to God which church you go to?

Challenge 1) All churches (denominations) are more or less the same; the differences are not important.

Response 1) Are all churches the same?

• Some churches teach that Baptism is necessary for salvation (as does the Catholic Church); some churches teach that Baptism is an optional ordinance, not needed for salvation.
• Some teach that divorce and remarriage is acceptable, the Catholic Church insists that sacramental marriage is until death.
• Some teach that sexual acts outside of marriage are acceptable; the Catholic Church insists such are gravely wrong.
• Some teach that "the Lord's Supper" is simply a symbol; the Catholic Church teaches that Eucharist is the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
• Some teach "once saved, always saved" - one can never lose his salvation; the Catholic Church teaches that we must persevere with Christ until the end, and it is possible to depart from Him with a single act of mortal sin.
• Most Protestant churches deny purgatory, and any point in praying for the dead, and deny any prayers of intercession to or by the saints or Mary. The Church insists purgatory is part of sacred revelation, prayers for the dead are good and praiseworthy, and prayers to and by the saints are efficacious and are encouraged.

Some of the differences among Christian churches concern matters of salvation itself, and sin deserving of hell! Clearly someone or ones have an erroneous gospel. Not all churches can be teaching the truth - there are too many differences!

Challenge 2) Differences between Catholic and Protestant churches are very important, and Catholics are wrong! Many Catholic teachings are not Biblical. "Catholics put the traditions of men above the Word of God."

Response 2) There is no uniform "Protestant belief," because Protestant churches differ too much among themselves. Individual interpretations have led to many differing "gospels". Concerning the Bible as a basis of belief, however, we must remember this:
1. Jesus never wrote a single sentence into the Bible: He preached and taught and acted. He did, however, establish a Church of His disciples, who were to preach His Gospel:

[Mt 28:18] And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
[19] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
[20] teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age."

2. The Bible teaches that it is the Church, not the Bible, that is "the pillar and bulwark of the truth":

[1 Tim.3:15]… 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.

3. The Church faithfully preached, converted, baptized and catechized many people before there was a "New Testament" compiled for reference. The full Bible as we know it came after the Church and out of the Church.

4. It was the Church that recognized and selected, under the guidance of the Spirit, those few out of the many books and letters that were truly inspired by the Spirit, and were therefore truly "the Word of God."

5. Apostolic letters began to be circulated and used, along with oral testimonies, a few decades after the Resurrection; the four Gospels were in circulation by 110 AD or so. But not until 405 AD was the entire Western Church in possession of the full Canon of the New Testament as it is today. The canon was not formally defined for the universal Church until Trent, in the 1600's.

Challenge 3) The true "One Church" of Jesus is an invisible, mystical Church, the Body of all true believers, scattered among all the denominations. There may be some saved Catholics, but the Catholic institution is a creation of men.

Response 3)
This claim is a mixture of truth and error.
1. The one true Church of Jesus Christ "subsists in" the Catholic Church, but there are elements of His saving truth that have been taken out from the Church and into the scattered denominations. Thus, some denominations adhere to most of the Bible, and the Bible came out from the Catholic Church. Some denominations have kept some of the sacraments, which came out from the Catholic Church. Some denominations have kept belief in a heaven and a hell, in the forgiveness of sins, and so on - all of which are part of the Gospel entrusted to the Church. But the fullness of the Gospel is guarded and passed on in the Catholic Church. Jesus intends us to preach the full Gospel:

[Mt 28:18] And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
[19] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
[20] teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age."

2. The Church is both mystical and institutional. There is both a visible and an invisible aspect to the Church. Jesus certainly intended a visible Church when He said,

[Mt 5:14] "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid.
[15] Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.
[16] Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Jesus intended His Church to be a visible presence of His truth, His Gospel:

"He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me." (Luke 10:1-2, 16)

His Church is His visible representative, His ambassador:

[Mt 18:15] "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.
[16] But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
[17] If he refuses to listen to them, 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.
[18] 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.

Paul clearly intended a visible authority and example when he referred to the Church as,

[1 Tim 3:15] … the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth.

So too the writer of Hebrews, speaking of obedience to Church authority:

[Heb 13:17] Obey your leaders and submit to them; for they are keeping watch over your souls, as men who will have to give account. Let them do this joyfully, and not sadly, for that would be of no advantage to you.

Question: Do Catholics believe that Protestants are all heretics and are going to hell?

Answer: No! (Catholic judgments about "heresy" are restricted to actions by Catholics, not non-Catholics.) The Church does teach that she alone has the fullness of the Gospel, but many Protestant churches have kept enough of the Gospel (although mixed with errors) to rightly be called Christians, and are our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Baptized Christians are united with us, but imperfectly:

Catechism 838 "The Church knows that she is joined in many ways to the baptized who are honored by the name of Christian, but do not profess the Catholic faith in its entirety or have not preserved unity or communion under the successor of Peter." Those "who believe in Christ and have been properly baptized are put in a certain, although imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church." With the Orthodox Churches, this communion is so profound "that it lacks little to attain the fullness that would permit a common celebration of the Lord's Eucharist."

Non-Catholics may certainly be saved:

Catechism 847… Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.
Even though, by the mercy of God, those outside of the visible Catholic Church may still be saved, even so we must evangelize. We are called to invite all men and women into the fullness of His Church.
845 To reunite all his children, scattered and led astray by sin, the Father willed to call the whole of humanity together into his Son's Church. The Church is the place where humanity must rediscover its unity and salvation. The Church is "the world reconciled."

Thus the mission is for all in His Church:

"make disciples of all men…"