The Necessity of the Church
The
Church is One
Dr. Scott Hahn
My
Journey Home
Dr. Eduardo
J. Echeverria
The
Catholic Church: The Church of the Early Fathers
Jim Anderson
Before
You Object
Fr. Ray
Ryland
The
Church is Catholic
Jim Anderson
The
Necessity of Being Catholic
James Akin
In
Search of the New Testament Church
Mark D.
Steele
John
Paul II's "Ecumenical Passion"
Msgr. John
O. Barres
Other Journals
In Search Of The New Testament Church
By Mark D. Steele
We could make a strong case that the Catholic Church is the only contender for the title "Church of the Apostles, Church of the New Testament" so wbat9 Why does it matter which church you go to since ultimately church is not necessary, as long as you have Jesus" I believe this statement is wrong for three reasons. First, a person cannot claim to follow Jesus and willfully reject His will for unity. Second, this attitude is condemned by analogy in Jude's epistle. And third, by rejecting the Church a Christian rejects the fullness of Christ and the Gospel.
Thy Will Be Done
I will assume that anyone who claims to have Jesus also believes that He should strive to live according to His will. Jesus clearly revealed His will for the Church in His prayer at the Last Supper:
"I pray not only for them [the apostles], but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they may also be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one. as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me." John 17:20 23, NAB
Jesus intended for all that believed in Him through the teaching of the apostles to be one with each other and with Him in the same way that Jesus and the Father are one. Jesus stated His reasons for desiring this unity, (1) that the Church be brought to perfection as one (in other words, sanctification is not just an individualistic work of God), (2) that the world may know that the Father sent Jesus, and (3) that the world may know that the Father loves the Church even as the Father loved Jesus. Jesus linked our perfection and the success of His mission to the unity of Christians. We cannot have unity when we willingly reject His Church. By doing so, we are willingly rejecting His stated will, our own perfection, and the success of His mission.
In addition, in this passage Jesus described the mechanism for this unity as the glory that He passed on to the Apostles from the Father. He earlier related this glory to the authority to bring eternal life to all (see John 17:1 2). Later, after His resurrection, Jesus commissioned the Apostles to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and instructing them to do all that He had commanded (Matt. 28 .19 20). Jesus elsewhere stated that to see Him is to see the Father and to know Him is to know the Father. To see the Church is to see Christ on earth. To know the Church is to know Christ on earth. To be in the Church is to be in Christ on earth. And to reject the Church is to reject Christ on earth.
The Sin of Korah
Jude warned Christians against the sin of Korah (Jude 11). This sin was a rejection of the authority of Moses and thus a rejection of the God whom Moses was representing (Numbers 16). It did not have a happy ending for the sons of Korah. In fact, one of the major claims of Korah was that all of Israel was a holy nation and a kingdom of priests (based on Ex. 19:6) so who did Moses think he was anyway? Protestants imply this same charge, that because all Christians are kings and priests, there should be no one with authority over them.
Just because the people of God are a royal priesthood and a holy nation does not mean that they have equal authority. It is the Kingdom of God, not the Republic of God. The New Testament repeatedly tells us to obey the leaders appointed over us and that not all will be equally rewarded in the Kingdom. Many of Jesus' parables point to this fact as does His acknowledgment that the Apostles would sit in Judgment over the tribes of Israel. To reject legitimate authority (even by indifference), appointed by God, in favor of our own authority, is to re commit the sin of Korah.
What Is The Value Of Circumcision? (Romans 3:1)
Many early Christians questioned the value of the Old Covenant In the face of the New Covenant. Paul rejected this questioning by pointing out that the Jews had had the advantage of the full knowledge of God's revelation in their day. This is the primary advantage of the Catholic Church the full deposit of faith and revelation of God coupled with the promise of the Holy Spirit's protective guidance and the grace provided in support of Apostolic authority and mission. This fullness of Christ's Gospel can lead to a certainty and freedom elsewhere unavailable.
Christians can know the Truth through its pillar and foundation the Church (I Tim. 3:15). This Truth then sets them free. This freedom cannot be realized so long as we cannot know for certain that the doctrines we believe are without error. And we can never know this outside the Catholic Church (Lk. 10:16), This freedom is not gained without much study, prayer, and submission to both the Holy Spirit and the teaching authority of the Church that speaks for Jesus Christ (Acts 15:28) This teaching authority means that, especially on teachings essential to salvation (faith and morals), one is assured of what the truth is. Submission means following that truth to Christ. That is the hard part.
Jimmy Swaggert once said that when we all get to heaven, we will find out we were wrong about something. True enough, but we will only be wrong where our beliefs and actions conflict with the binding teachings of the Church. The true tragedy of this is that we could have known about our errors by studying those teachings now and conforming to them.
While the "stick" of Church membership is the sin of rejecting Christ's will and the sin of Korah (rejecting God by rejecting those He placed into authority), the "carrot" is the freedom of knowing that conformance and obedience to Christ's Church prevents error and especially prevents us from having to reinvent the doctrinal wheel with every generation.
Conclusion The Church as Bride
I grew up in denominations reading "Christian comics" that portrayed the Catholic Church as blasphemous and the Pope as a leading candidate for the anti Christ. Not only do these groups believe that it is unnecessary to be a part of the Catholic Church, they believe that it is wrong. But the Catholic Church is the same Church, historically, doctrinally, morally, and authoritatively, as the Church of the New Testament. It iv the Bride of Christ. How can one reject the Bride and expect to be accepted at the wedding?
The real question is not, "why do I need to join the Catholic Church if I have Jesus?" but, "if one claims to have Christ, by what right does one refuse to submit to the authority of His Church?" By what right can someone create his own church and yet claim that he is following Christ? By what right can someone follow any church with a clearly defined starting date later than Christ's Ascension and the day of Pentecost? The burden of proof is on the person who says that he follows Christ but can still reject His Bride.
Mark D. Steele was received into the Catholic Church 3 years ago at Easter
from a background of fundamentalism and Pentecostalism with a detour through
apostasy. He lives outside Philadelphia with his wife and three children.
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