Can your church trace it's lineage back to the apostles?

Question

[mine can.] One more question since Jesus said that the gates of hell wouldn't prevail againts his church, and most protestants believe that the church is all believers in christ then when the catholic church went into "apostasy" as you claim who were the true believers left?... please don't tell me it was the bible only believers how could this be possible if bibles were rare at the time? [Saying that the catholic church went stray is a contradiction to Jesus word in my opinion.]

Answer 1

I am a Catholic...so yes, I can trace my church's lineage to the Apostles.

Answer 2

A divine guarantee is a divine guarantee.

Non-Catholics cannot justify their position, so they make up strange reasons for their positions, and they stick to them like glue!

They say the true church would never engage in wars or combat, yet the old testament kingdom was almost constantly engaged in warfare of one type or another, and the forces of evil have constantly been attacking the church, ever since it began.

They say the true church would never experience corruption, yet 8 percent of the apostles that Jesus personally selected proved to be hopelessly corrupt.

They say the church became confused and apostacized at some point, yet the Holy Spirit was assigned by Christ to keep the church forever free from teaching error.

They claim the emperor Constantine corrupted the church, when all the evidence shows that it was Constantine who was converted by God, much as St. Paul was.

They claim the pagan world corrupted the church, yet history clearly shows that it was the church that converted much of the world to Christ, and then actually saved modern civilization, after the Roman Empire collapsed under the collective weight of it's own sins.

They say the pope is the anti-christ, yet no pope has ever failed to proclaim Jesus Christ as true God, true man, and holy redeemer.

They attempt to force the church to live by the writings of scripture, when not even God himself, or any of the apostles, chose to do such a thing.

They deny the effectiveness and grace of the sacraments, even when it can be proved they were instituted by Christ for the express purpose of freely distributing that grace.

They rail against the concept of purgatory and the practice of indulgences, when most protestants believe in the ridiculous concept of "once saved, always saved."

And many of them actually believe that the largely atheistic, apostate, and anti-christian modern state of Israel is the same Israel that existed when Jesus walked the earth.

It's just diabolical disorientation.

Answer 3

I am not a Catholic, but YES I can trace the church I am a member of back to the apostles. I can do this because I can trace the things we teach, the things we practice, and the way this church is organized back to the things the apostles taught.

Can a church be the church of the apostles, when they no longer teach the same things the apostles taught and no longer do the things the apostles said we should do? To trace back to the apostles, we should follow the things they taught.

Many churches have over time changed the things they teach on many doctrinal issues. Some of these changes have taken place over hundreds of years, but I have seen many changes in my lifetime.

If you are trying to trace a church through years, this may be the wrong standard. Instead, we should compare our current doctrine to the things they wrote (Acts 17:11). The scriptures are to be used for doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

Can you trace your church back to the church of the Bible by organization, doctrine, methods of worship, and name? I can do this with the church I am a member of.. Can you give a "thus saith the Lord" (book, chapter, and verse) for the things you believe? If not, then can you truly trace your church to the apostles?

Answer 4

The Catholic Church has always been concerned about peoples sins, going so far as to offer forgiveness for money and you think that doesn't contradict what Jesus teaches? Perhaps the Jesus you refer to has a last name of Chavez because Jesus of the linage of David teaches that the type of sin doesn't matter, what does is how we help others. Something the Catholic Church denies by saying that salvation depends on admitted personal sin, a theology all its own not connected to any other Savior than the Pope. Oh and your Churches linage means nothing unless your following in the footsteps of the Pope by claiming your Church gives salvation rather than Jesus.

Answer 5

The true Church is the one founded by Jesus Christ. That happens to be the Catholic Church. It is the only Church that can prove a direct and unbroken line of succession from Jesus Christ to St. Peter up to the present pope.

The first Christians had no doubts about how to determine which was the true Church and which doctrines the true teachings of Christ. The test was simple: Just trace the apostolic succession of the claimants. Apostolic succession is the line of bishops stretching back to the apostles. All over the world, all Catholic bishops are part of a lineage that goes back to the time of the apostles, something that is impossible in Protestant denominations (most of which do not even claim to have bishops).

The role of apostolic succession in preserving true doctrine is illustrated in the Bible. To make sure that the apostles’ teachings would be passed down after the deaths of the apostles, Paul told Timothy, "[W]hat you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also" (2 Tim. 2:2). In this passage he refers to the first three generations of apostolic succession—his own generation, Timothy’s generation, and the generation Timothy will teach.

The Church Fathers, who were links in that chain of succession, regularly appealed to apostolic succession as a test for whether Catholics or heretics had correct doctrine. This was necessary because heretics simply put their own interpretations, even bizarre ones, on Scripture. Clearly, something other than Scripture had to be used as an ultimate test of doctrine in these cases. The most obvious answer was that the apostles had committed it orally to the Church, where it had been handed down from generation to generation. . . . Unlike the alleged secret tradition of the Gnostics, it was entirely public and open, having been entrusted by the apostles to their successors, and by these in turn to those who followed them, and was visible in the Church for all who cared to look for it" (Early Christian Doctrines, 37).

For the early Fathers, "the identity of the oral tradition with the original revelation is guaranteed by the unbroken succession of bishops in the great sees going back lineally to the apostles. . . . [A]n additional safeguard is supplied by the Holy Spirit, for the message committed was to the Church, and the Church is the home of the Spirit.

Indeed, the Church’s bishops are . . . Spirit-endowed men who have been vouchsafed ‘an infallible charism of truth’" (ibid.). Thus on the basis of experience the Fathers could be "profoundly convinced of the futility of arguing with heretics merely on the basis of Scripture. The skill and success with which they twisted its plain meaning made it impossible to reach any decisive conclusion in that field" (ibid., 41).

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 [A.D. 80])

Peace and every blessing!

Answer 6

Iam new to the Church that Jesus placed in Peter's hands. Even tho I was raised with a Catholic background I have never been baptized, which will happen Easter 2008

Answer 7

Youre full of pride. The Catholic church is nothing like what Jesus established or the apostles set up. Mary worship? Idols? Voting for saints? Calling pastors Father? Pastors not allowed marriage? Vatican writings as holy scripture? The pope with a crown in a palace where people treat him like a king? Crusades killing Jews? Vain prayers where you set the amount of times you pray a certain prayer and count them on beads? Tradition over worshipping in Spirit and truth? Most Catholics believing salvation is from sacraments? Baby Baptism when there is no repentance or chosing Jesus?.......You need to humble yourself and release all the pride in the traditions of your church. Your members dont even read the bible yet ask Mary for what they need and not the Father in Jesus' name. They sin all week and think they can confess it all to the priest on Saturday. Read Revelation regarding the churches of Asia.

Answer 8

I am church of Christ, in which I am a member of the ONE and ONLY TRUE church of the Bible. The churches of Christ can trace trace it's lineage back to the apostles, the Catholic church cannot say that. The church I am a member of, it ain't my church, it belongs to Christ.

The “church of Christ” is neither Catholic, Orthodox, nor Protestant. The church of Christ is not a denomination. The church of Christ identifies itself by name as a church that is trying to follow the “doctrine of Christ” (II John 1:9). The “church of Christ” identifies itself by name as a church that belongs to Christ. The name points to the owner and builder. The name points to the one who purchased the church. (Matthew 16:18, Acts 20:28)

II John 1:9 (ESV)
Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.

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

Footnotes:

[a] Matthew 16:18 Peter sounds like the Greek word for rock
[b] Matthew 16:18 Greek the gates of Hades

Acts 20:28 (ESV)
Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God,[a] which he obtained with his own blood.[b]

Footnotes:

[a] Acts 20:28 Some manuscripts of the Lord
[b] Acts 20:28 Or with the blood of his Own

The “church of Christ” wears a name found in scripture (Romans 16:16).

Romans 16:16 (ESV)
Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you.

The church of Christ wishes to restore the church to the teaching that was established and authorized by Christ and his apostles. We wish to have Biblical authority for everything we practice and teach. (Colossians 3:17)

Colossians 3:17 (ESV)
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

At the church of Christ, we only wear the name of Christian ONLY. I invite y'all to investigate and learn what we at the churches of Christ are all about.

Answer 9

There is no proof that Peter was the first Pope or Peter even went to Rome! And Peter was married so that goes against the grain of catholicism.
With the dark history of inquisitions, supression, torture and death with bloodguilt of wars and heavy influence of governmental powers hardly hallmarks of a church that Christ would associate. Catholics are not the only ones for this either.

Answer 10

I am also Catholic and our Church can be traced back to St Peter our first Pope