If Jesus only started one Church, why do Protestants call their counter-organizations "churches"?

Question

From Matt 16 we see that Jesus authorized one actual Christian organization that he named the "Church," a term never used previously. He appointed Peter as the first CEO, established a hierarchy of leaders headed by the Twelve, and gave the Church leaders authority to "bind and loose" so that their decisions, made under the influence of the Holy Spirit, would be ratified in Heaven.

The Church has had a continuous history since 33 AD:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12272b.htm
Members join by meeting requirements (including baptism). They accept doctrine (including the Nicene Creed) and incur obligations (including weekly attendance at Mass).

Protestants are Christians who have not joined the one Church. Most belong to counter-organizations with different leaders, membership requirements, doctrine, and obligations. Many of these organizations do good work, but why call such an organization "church"?

Azure, the Eastern Orthodox, Coptic, and Ethiopian churches have a continuous apostolic authority going back to Jesus. They are branches of the Church.

David S, the actual Church has always understood Jesus' play on words in Matt 16:18, as evidenced by the unanimity of all commentators in the early centuries of Christianity.
http://www.catholic.com/library/Origins_of_Peter_as_Pope.asp

Jim, thanks for your honest scholarship. Note that the special leadership role of Peter permeates the gospels:
http://www.catholic.com/library/Peter_and_the_Papacy.asp
Too, Peter was clearly among the leaders at the Jerusalem Council, and the CEO in Christianity was never envisioned as an autocrat (see Matt 18:18 where the Twelve are given authority to bind and loose). Peter was following Jesus' instructions on how to lead (see Luke 114:7-11)

You are correct that the Orthodox branch as not accepted the papacy since the 11th century, but the remarkable agreement of the Catholic and the Orthodox branches on nearly all questions of scripture, sacraments, and doctrine attests to their common origin.

My hope is that Christian unity can be rebuilt on the foundations of the Fathers of the Church, who showed a strong consensus on virtually all the issues we talk about today.
http://www.catholic.com/library/fathers_know_best.asp

Answer 1

If you believe in the bible you have to believe in the Pope and the Catholic Church including tradition .Tradition was used to canonize the Bible by the Catholic Church .Christ gave authority to the Catholic Church under the Holy Spirit to canonized the Bible. What criteria was used, tradition oral teaching passed on and the Catholic Churches beliefs, under the guidance of the Holy spirit. The Catholic Church canonized the bible under Christ’s authority. So how can any books be put into the bible that go against Catholic beliefs and teachings (or removed) . So then if you believe the Catholic Church is false and not Christian, that its doctrine is false, then bible has no meaning and the Catholic Church had no authority to put the bible together in the first place. You would then have to throw out your bible. The Catholic Church teaches the same now as it did then nothing new has been added if so tell me but you cant because you know nothing of Church history or the history of your Protestant faith. The early Church Father’s all celebrated the Eucharist and the sacraments and all believed it to be the Body Blood Soul And Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the Catholic Church does today. So who Gave the Authority to a , mentally unbalanced, diseased character Martin Luther hero of the Reformation. His intemperance, his persecution mania, his varying moods, were the origin of his permanent contradictions. Who gave him authority to add words to the Bible and remove 7 books and believe in his doctrine of Sola Scriptura which is found no place in the Bible. And all the made up doctrine that followed made up by men. Your either a Christian and believe the teachings of the Catholic Church or you are a hypocrite and heretic certainly not a Christian you see the word Christian was coined by a Catholic Bishop ordained By Peter himself and is a Catholic word.

Answer 2

TRUTH:
There is ONE God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
TRUTH:
God the Son became man: Jesus Christ
TRUTH:
Jesus promised, "I will build my Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18), and only the Catholic Church has existed since the time of Jesus. Every other Christian church is an offshoot of the Catholic Church. The Eastern Orthodox churches broke away from unity with the pope in 1054. The Protestant churches were established during the Reformation, which began in 1517. Only the Catholic Church existed in the tenth century, in the fifth century, and in the first century, faithfully teaching the doctrines given by Christ to the apostles, omitting nothing. The list of popes can be traced back to Peter himself, the first pope. Here is the list:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12272b.htm

Jesus’ Church is called catholic ("universal" in Greek) because it is his gift to all people. He told his apostles to go throughout the world and make disciples of "all nations" (Matt. 28:19–20). For 2,000 years the Catholic Church has carried out this mission, preaching the good news that Christ died for all men and that he wants all of us to be members of his universal family (Gal. 3:28).

LINKS FOR TRUTH SEEKERS.....
On the Church:
http://www.catholic.com/library/Pillar.asp
On Purgatory (includes lessons in Real Audio):
http://www.fisheaters.com/purgatory.html
On the saints:
http://www.catholic.com/library/mary_saints.asp
On the Pope:
http://www.catholic.com/library/church_papacy.asp

Answer 3

The Catholic church IS a leader at fighting for human civil rights world-wide, providing untold dollars in charitable works, and funding hospitals, homes for the aged, and caring for and educating children.

If you believe in the bible you have to believe in the Pope and the Catholic Church and tradition
Tradition was used to canonize the bible by the church Christ gave authority to the Church under the Holy spirit to canonized the bible what criteria was used tradition oral teaching passed on truth and its beliefs under the guidance of the Holy spirit. The Catholic Church canonized the bible Christ gave the authority. So how can any books be put into the bible that go against Catholic beliefs then if you believe the catholic church is false and not Christian the bible has no meaning and had no authority to put the bible together then throw out your bible. Who gave Luther any authority to remove or add words to the bible.

So if you believe in the bible You believe In the Church and the Pope and all its teachings which are the same now as then. Other wise you are not a Christian

Early Christian writings prove the first Christians were thoroughly Catholic in belief and practice and looked to the successors of the apostles as their leaders. What these first Christians believed is still believed by the Catholic Church. No other Church can make that claim.

The papacy is the oldest Intuition in the world .- How could it survived without the grace of God & the guidance of the Holy Spirit.........The Holy Spirit did not convert to Islam in 610AD or Lutheranism in 1517AD or Calvinism in 1540s AD ...There's no comparisons. ..................The truth is , they Catholics give us the first Bible..the rest of religions intrepid it differently & formed counterfeit religion's groups...which inturn give us supermarket christens;.......pick & choose laws to suit themselves [ cool & new age stuff ] but has nothing to do with the scriptures....

The Catholic Church has no practices or doctrines that are in conflict with Scriptures.......

Early in the second century of the Church St. Ignatius of Antioch coined the name for the Church as Catholic and that same Church remains today as the Church created and built by Jesus the apostles and their successors. It never fell into apostasy for doing so would make Jesus a liar as He said that the gates of hell would not prevail against His Church and also that His Church would endure for all times.


The only reason that I can think of is that the Catholic Church is created by Christ and all others are protesting what He created. I guess they think that as men they can create a better and more enduring church than did Christ. The tens of thousands of exponentially increasing schisms and denominations prove that they can not.

Answer 4

I agree that we are taught there is only one church. In Matt. 16, we find Peter’s great confession of Jesus being the Christ, the Son of the living God. Look at Jesus’ response in verse 18: “And I also say to you that you are Peter [petros, masculine], and upon this rock [petra, feminine - the rock being the truth of what he just said] I [no body else] will build my church and the gates of hades will not prevail against it [singular]. Now, if I said, “I’m going to build my dream house and nothing is going to stop me from building it,” how many houses would you assume I was going to build?

In Eph. 4:4, Paul flat out said, “There is one body...” In chapter one, he made it clear that the body is the church. There is one head and one body. Can you imagine getting a knock at your door and opening up to see a body with more than one head? You would slam the door shut on that monster. What about opening up to see a head with more than one body? You would slam the door even faster; that is an unheard of mutation. There is only one church, we’ve just got to do what it takes to be added to it.

Peter was indeed given the "keys to the kingdom" (Matt. 16:19, keys open what is locked); we see him preaching the first gospel sermon to the Jews on Pentecost (Acts 2) and the first gospel sermon to the Gentiles at Cornelius' house (Acts 10).

But, if Peter is the first "pope" then how do you explain Galatians 2:11ff; 1 Peter 5:1ff (nowhere is his writings did the apostle Peter claim any special role, authority, or power over the church, other than simply being one of the apostles). Also see Eph. 2:19-20 (the only special individual is Jesus).

You also need to be able to answer the arguments made here: http://www.thebiblespeaks.com/Articles/FalseTeachings/Denominationalism/Catholic.htm
http://www.thebiblespeaks.com/Articles/FalseTeachings/Denominationalism/cathorprot.htm

Answer 5

i agree with you, they call themselves members of the "church" based on a false teaching stemming from the 18th century, the basic idea is that "the church" is some mystical invisible spiritual body all united in christ, whilst there is some truth to that, the church and the first christians taught nothing that resembled that. whilst true to some extent it ignores the existance of the visible church, as you pointed out. no need really to expand but this is a real good site for people that are both part of the church as christ intended and those well intentioned to be part of his church ie. our seperated brothers and sisters in christ.
http://www.scripturecatholic.com/

Answer 6

You're absolutely right. Now however there is a "new" movement where church is simply a gathering of believers. No it isn't new, it's as old as the New Testament. However I see a beginning of denominations uniting together, breaking downt the walls. I believe this to be a move of God. I didn't see this 20 years ago.

Answer 7

Because of the tradition and history of Protestants, we have different type of practices. So as different denomination... Church means the members/family members of God. The Church is made up of people (believers). It doesn't matter whether is a organization or not. Church is the people not building or practices. Even small Christian Fellowship is called church. As long as there are Christian members, they could call as Church. The body of Christ! God bless ^^

Answer 8

I can't say that I agree with your premise but I believe the heart of the problem that you are addressing is the work of Satan to deceive as many "would be believers" by distorting the Word of God among those who feel secure because they call on the Name of God.

Jesus warned of many false prophets and teachers in the days that followed Him. Paul also taught that Christians should prove all things against the Scriptures and to only hold to those that are in agreement with the Scriptures.

Unfortunately, many "believers" are blindly placing their faith in what others have told them without following Paul's instructions.

Hope that helps.

Answer 9

You are forgetting about the Eastern Orthodox, Coptic, and Ethiopian churches. These are all much older than the protestant churches.

There is no real reason to believe that the Roman Catholic church is the "authentic" church. The Eastern Orthodox church has as much right to that claim as the Catholics do.

Answer 10

Jesus didn't never mean for all these churches to prosper in his name.He was like an AA meting two three people talking religion is church.Whats the verse "split some wood and you will find me,lift a stone and I am their' That says it all.