Prophecies of the Church

      It is commonly held by many Protestants, both denominationally and by their leading theologians, that the ancient Church established by the Apostles fell into darkness and apostasy, over a period of 1200 years or more, under the corrupt leadership of the Papacy, which many Protestants proclaim as an article of faith to be the Anti-Christ: "here is no other head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ: nor can the Pope of Rome in any sense be head thereof; but is that Antichrist, that man of sin and son of perdition, that exalteth himself in the Church against Christ, and all that is called God." (Westminster Confession of Faith, Ch XXV, Art 6). As a Protestant website dedicated to the conversion of Catholics sums it up: "The Roman Catholic institution is not the only apostate church--but she does have a special status. She is the mother of them all--Revelation 17:5 calls her MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH". As I discussed in a previous post, the usual Protestant view of history demands the principle that the Church Jesus established fell away into apostasy, while a small, invisible remnant of faithful people remained virtually unknown and in hiding. Besides the historical problem of a complete lack of evidence of such a group or alternative orthodoxy existing within the larger Church, it takes a very dim view of the nature of the Church and the promises and prophecies in Scripture. Let us examine some of these prophecies:

1. “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Is. 2:2-3)

2. "The stone cleaved from the mountain without the help of hands… became a great mountain and filled the whole earth…And in the days of these kings [Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Roman] shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever” (Dan 2:34, 44)

3. "Behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, and everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." (Dan 7:13-14)

These prophecies refer to the Church, comparing it to a Rock, a Mountain, a Kingdom that will cover the whole earth and never pass away. These words are echoed and fulfilled in the New Testament: 

1. "And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Lk 22:29-30)

2. "And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this Rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." (Matt 16:18)

3. "Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear" (Heb 12:28)

It is a Kingdom from which truth will go forth unadulterated, spoken and preserved by the Holy Spirit:

1."And I will put My spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them” (Eze. 36:24-27).

2. "And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them” (Eze. 37:24)

3. "As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever." (Is 59:21)

This outpouring of the Spirit, accomplished at Pentecost, rests on the Church and on those leaders who guide it (2 Tim 1:14), and by Christ's own words will  preserve the Church in all truth for all time:

1. "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth…" (Jn 16:13)

2. "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." (Jn 14:26)

3. "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever--" (Jn 14:16)

That is why the inspired writers of Scripture, speaking the Words of the Holy Spirit, called the Church the "pillar and foundation of Truth" (1 Tim 3:15), and the authority by which all disputes among Christians are to be settled (Matt 18:17). It is truly the heavenly Jerusalem, Mt Zion, the Body and Bride of Christ, the Unshakeable Kingdom, and being purchased at the dear price of Christ's blood, it can never pass away or fall from the Truth. "And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth." (Rev 5:10)

Overview of Church History

        Catholics and Protestants necessarily have very different perceptions of Church history. To the Catholic, the timeline of the Church Jesus founded would look much like a solid tree trunk, with one large branch halfway up representing the Eastern Schism of 1054 AD, then a host of tiny twigs and branches at the top, representing the Protestants from Martin Luther in 1517AD to the tens of thousands of modern sects. Yet the main trunk grow strait and true the whole time, and all the branches are strongest wherever they are closest to the trunk, which is Catholicism. 

To the Protestant, though, the pure Church of the first centuries was corrupted by Rome and became an abomination that has been labeled as "the Whore of Babylon", or in the case of the Popes, "the Anti-Christ". After centuries of paganism and dark superstition, the Church in exile was led forth into the light once again like Israel out of Egypt by the holy Reformer Martin Luther, who "discovered" the gospel that Rome had been suppressing for 1200 years. As one Protestant minister describes it: "Then Emperor Theodosius (A.D. 378-398) made Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire and made church membership compulsory. Here we see the beginning of Roman Catholicism.  All unconverted people attended church. We see the great apostasy of the church as the Roman Empire had conquered the church. " (Pastor Nick Bibile of www.sounddoctrine.net) So according to this view of history Roman Catholicism, the great apostasy, was created and promulgated by corrupt emperors and priests, starting with Constantine and Theodosius in the 4th century. 

Fortunately, this claim is empirically verifiable. We have extensive writings and documentation from the centuries preceding the Great Apostasy of Constantine, so we can simply look and see if this view of history is indeed correct. If you are a Protestant, you surely believe your system of doctrine is what the apostles taught to the early Church, so read carefully and see if the saints of the early years were actually Catholics or _____________ (fill in the blank with Lutheran, Calvinist, Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal, etc…)

1. The Bible: Catholic or Protestant?

A. Actually, the Bible did not exist as a book before Constantine. It was not canonized until after. So tough luck folks, the Church was already "apostate" when it declared the canon of Scripture. The first universal canon, decided in Carthage in 394-397, listed the books of the Catholic canon. See here (canon 24). So the first Bibles used by the Church were Catholic Bibles, not Protestant ones, which did not come into being until 1300 years after the Church canonized the Scriptures. 

2. Baptism: Catholic or Protestant?

A. 1. "Baptism is given for the remission of sins; and according to the usage of the Church, Baptism is given even to infants." - Origen, Homily on Leviticus, 8:3, 244 AD

    2. "And they shall Baptize the little children first. And if they can answer for themselves, let them answer. But if they cannot, let their parents answer or someone from their family." - Hippolytus of Rome, Apostolic Tradition, 21, 215 AD

  3. "This means that we go down into the water full of sins and foulness, and we come up bearing fruit in our hearts, fear and hope in Jesus and in the Spirit." - Epistle of Barnabas,  ch 11, 130 AD (Baptismal regeneration)

3. Church Hierarchy: Catholic or Protestant?

A.  1. "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" - Pope Clement I, Letter to the Corinthians, 44:1–3, 80 AD

    2. "The true knowledge is the doctrine of the apostles, and the ancient organization of the Church throughout the whole world, and the manifestation of the body of Christ according to the succession of bishops, by which succession the bishops have handed down the Church which is found everywhere" - Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 4:33:8, 189 AD

4. Eucharist: Catholic or Protestant?

A.  1. "They (heretics) abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not admit that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, the flesh which suffered for our sins and which the Father, in His graciousness, raised from the dead." - Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Smyrnaeans, para 6, 90-100 AD

      2. "…so also we have been taught that the food consecrated by the Word of prayer which comes from him, from which our flesh and blood are nourished by transformation, is the flesh and blood of that incarnate Jesus." - Justin Martyr, First Apology, 150 AD

      3. "...That coming, by His holy and good and glorious appearing, He may sanctify this bread, and make it the holy body of Thy Christ… And this cup the precious blood of Thy Christ." - Prayer of Consecration, Liturgy of St James, circa 60-100 AD

5. Mary: Catholic or Protestant?

A.  1. "Beneath your compassion we take refuge, O Mother of God: do not despise our petitions in time of trouble: but rescue us from dangers, only pure, only blessed one." - Sub tuum presidium hymn, 250 AD

      2. "Thus, the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. What the virgin Eve had bound in unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosed through faith." - Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3:22:24, 189 AD

      3. "Lift me up not from Sarah but from Mary, a virgin not only undefiled, but a virgin whom grace had made inviolate, free of every stain of sin" - St Ambrose, Commentary on Psalm 118, 387 AD

6. Saints: Catholic or Protestant?

A.  1. "As often as the anniversary comes round, we make offerings for the dead as birthday honors." - Tertullian, The Crown, 3, 211 AD

    2. "Then we commemorate also those who have fallen asleep before us, first Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, that at their prayers and intercessions God would receive our petition." -  St Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, 23:9, 350 AD

    3. "It is true that Christians pay religious honor to the memory of the martyrs, both to excite us to imitate them and to obtain a share in their merits, and the assistance of their prayers. But we build altars not to any martyr, but to the God of martyrs, although it is to the memory of the martyrs." - St Augustine, Against Faustus, 20:21, 400 AD

7. Other Things:

A. The Sign of the Cross: "In all our travels and movements, in all our coming in and going out, in putting on our shoes, at the bath, at the table, in lighting our candles, in lying down, in sitting down, whatever employment occupies us, we mark our forehead with the sign of the cross." - Tertullian, De Corona Militis, 200 AD

B. The Primacy of Rome: 1. "For it is a matter of necessity that every Church should agree with this Church (Rome), on account of its pre- eminent authority, that is, the faithful everywhere, inasmuch as the apostolical tradition has been preserved continuously by those [faithful men] who exist everywhere." Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 180 AD

    2. "If a man does not hold fast to this oneness of Peter, does he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he deserts the Chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, has he still confidence that he is in the Church?" - Cyprian,The Unity of the Church, 250 AD

So by the writings of the early Christians, of which I have provided only the merest snapshot, we see that if we were to be somehow transported back to the 2nd or 3rd century, we could expect to find the Christians of the time attending Mass on Sunday, where the body and blood of Jesus was venerated, crossing themselves, being baptized and anointed by bishops ordained by successors of the Apostles, in union with the Bishop of Rome, singing hymns to Mary, praying to the saints for intercession, making offerings and prayers for the dead, etc. And all this without ever having a Bible! Does this sound like your church? If it doesn't, you need to stop deceiving yourself and read the early Church fathers and documents. Read what the Bible says about these doctrines, and read what the Church fathers wrote about these doctrines and how they interpreted the Scriptures, and most importantly, what was their criteria of judgment about true doctrine? Your perception of church history may be correct or it may be a lie; you can find out which it is. The evidence is there; will you seek out the truth?