LESSON 6 THE MARKS OF THE CHURCH

1 MARCH 2015

MEMORY VERSE: Jeremiah 29:11

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

THE MARKS OF THE CHURCH

The Nicene Creed was written centuries ago to help Christians remember the important beliefs of the faith. In the Nicene Creed we identify the four marks of the Church.They are qualities that Jesus Christ shares with his Church through the Holy Spirit. The four marks of the Church are that it is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. Just as God is one in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, so also is the Church one.We are called to unity,we are called to holiness, we are catholic and thus open and welcoming to all people and in apostolic we are called to share in the mission of the apostles which is to spread the gospel to all peoples. 

Only the Roman Catholic Church can validly claim all four marks. It is the Roman Catholic Church which has always been and continues to be that Church which Jesus Himself established almost 2000 years ago.

There is only one Christian Church, united in faith, in worship and in in succession from the Apostles themselves. For the Church is the Body of Christ Himself, and so is whole and one as Christ's Body is whole and one. Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church promulgated by the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council, states that:

 Christ intended His Church to be One; therefore the True Church must be One. Its members must united in doctrine, in worship, and in government.

    Christ said: "If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand" (St. Mark 3: 24).

    He also proclaimed: "There shall be one fold and one shepherd" (St. John 10: 16).

    Our Lord also confirmed the necessary oneness of His flock with these words in St. John 17: 11: "Holy Father, keep in Thy name those whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be one even as We are One."

"The sole Church of Christ [is that] which our Saviour, after His Resurrection, entrusted to Peter's pastoral care, commissioning him and the other apostles to extend and rule it .... This Church, constituted and organized as a society in the present world, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him."=

"The Church ... is held, as a matter of faith, to be unfailingly holy. This is because Christ, the Son of God, who with the Father and the Spirit is hailed as "alone holy", loved the Church as his Bride, giving himself up for her so as to sanctify her; he joined her to himself as his body and endowed her with the gift of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God.

Christ intended His Church to be HOLY. It must teach a holy doctrine in faith and morals, because its Founder is holy. It must provide the means for its members to lead a holy life.

    Christ prayed for His Apostles as recorded in St. John 17: 17-19, "Sanctify them in truth. Thy word is truth. Even as Thou hast sent Me into the world, so I also have sent them into the world. And for them I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth."

    Our Lord warned also of the necessity to preserve this sanctity and how to discern such in St. Matthew 7: 15-17, 20, "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. By their fruits you will know them. Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit....Therefore, by their fruits you will know them."

    Finally, Christ promised His Church the gift of miracles, a sign of holiness in St. John 14: 12,"Amen, amen, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he also shall do, and greater than these he shall do."

""Catholic" in this sense is the "small-c" "catholic", which means "universal". The Church can be found in St Peter's Basilica, in a suburban parish church, in a group of faithful in the Amazon Jungle. But being one in faith and communion with the Church in Rome makes this Church a universal collection of those "particular Churches". Particular Churches fall to the care of Bishops, the pastors of the faithful and successors of the Apostles. Their communion with each other and with the Bishop of Rome makes the Catholic Church truly universal.

 Christ intended His Church to be universal, that is, catholic from the Greek word katholicos, the etimology of which is derived from kata meaning "concerning" and holos meaning "whole," hence: universal. Therefore the True Church must be Universal, or Catholic. It must be for all peoples of every nation and for all times and teach the same faith everywhere in the world.

    Christ commanded His disciples in St. Matthew 28: 19, "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations."

    He reinforced this in St. Mark 16: 15, "Go into the whole world, and preach the Gospel to every creature."

    Jesus again foretold the power of the Word in reaching the world in St. Matthew 24: 14, "And the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world, for a witness to all nations; and then will come the end."

    Finally, in Acts 1: 8, St. Luke wrote what Christ intended by universality, "You shall be witnesses for Me...even to the very ends of the earth."

The Catholic Church validly claims succession from the Apostles themselves. All bishops of the Catholic Church are ordained by bishops who themselves were ordained by bishops who themselves were ordained ... and so on ... who themselves were ordained by the Apostles. This passing on of the authority and mission of the Apostles throughout time is guided by the Holy Spirit who descended on the Apostles at Pentecost and remains with the Church guiding Her until the Lord comes again

 It was Christ Himself, and no one else, Who chose His Apostles and disciples, and commanded them to teach His doctrines to all the world. To Simon Peter He said: "And I say to thee, thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (St. Matthew 16: 18).

    St. Paul says to the Galatians in Chapter 1, verse 8: "Even if we or an angel from Heaven should preach a Gospel to you other than that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema." The Apostle Paul also refers to the Church in Ephesians 2: 20 as "built upon the foundation of the Apostles."

    Thus, we can prove that the only true Church of Christ is the Catholic Church, because: Only the Catholic Church possesses the marks of the Church established by Christ: that is unity, holiness, catholicity, and apostolicity. As a matter of fact, only the Catholic Church claims to have all these four marks of the True Church, the marks so evidently set by Christ.

From the CCC

IN BRIEF

866 The Church is one: she acknowledges one Lord, confesses one faith, is born of one Baptism, forms only one Body, is given life by the one Spirit, for the sake of one hope (cf. Eph 4:3-5), at whose fulfillment all divisions will be overcome.

867 The Church is holy: the Most Holy God is her author; Christ, her bridegroom, gave himself up to make her holy; the Spirit of holiness gives her life. Since she still includes sinners, she is "the sinless one made up of sinners." Her holiness shines in the saints; in Mary she is already all-holy.

868 The Church is catholic: she proclaims the fullness of the faith. She bears in herself and administers the totality of the means of salvation. She is sent out to all peoples. She speaks to all men. She encompasses all times. She is "missionary of her very nature" (AG 2).

869 The Church is apostolic. She is built on a lasting foundation: "the twelve apostles of the Lamb" (Rev 21:14). She is indestructible (cf. Mt 16:18). She is upheld infallibly in the truth: Christ governs her through Peter and the other apostles, who are present in their successors, the Pope and the college of bishops.

870 "The sole Church of Christ which in the Creed we profess to be one, holy, catholic, and apostolic, . . . subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him. Nevertheless, many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside its visible confines"(LG 8).

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Four Marks of the True Church If we wish to locate the Church founded by Jesus, we need to locate the one that has the four chief marks or qualities of his Church. The Church we seek must be: one, holy, catholic, and apostolic The Church Is One (Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 10:17, 12:13; CCC 813-822) Jesus established only one Church, not a collection of differing churches (Lutheran, Baptist, Anglican, and so on). The Bible says the Church is the Bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:23-32). Jesus can have but one spouse, and His spouse is the Catholic Church. His Church also teaches just one set of doctrines, which must be the same as those taught by the apostles (Jude 3). This is the unity of belief to which Scripture calls us (Philippians 1:27, 2:2). Although some Catholics dissent from officially-taught doctrines, the Church’s official teachers - the pope and the bishops united with him - have never changed any doctrine. Over the centuries, as doctrines are examined more fully, the Church comes to understand them more deeply (John 16:12-13), but it never understands them to mean the opposite of what they once meant. The Church Is Holy (Ephesians 5:25-27; Revelation 19:7-8; CCC 823-829) By His grace Jesus makes the Church holy, just as He is holy. This doesn’t mean that each member is always holy. Jesus said there would be both good and bad members in the Church (John 6:70), and not all the members would go to heaven (Matthew 7:21-23). But the Church itself is holy because it is the source of holiness and is the guardian of the special means of grace Jesus established, the sacraments (cf. Ephesians 5:26). The Church Is Catholic (Matthew 28:19-20; Revelation 5:9-10; CCC 830-856) 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” (Matthew 28:19-20). 2 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 (Galatians 3:28). Today, the Catholic Church is found in every country of the world and is still sending out missionaries to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). The Church Jesus established was known by its most common title, “the Catholic Church,” at least as early as the year 107, when Ignatius of Antioch used that title to describe the one Church Jesus founded. The title apparently was old in Ignatius’s time, which means it probably went all the way back to the time of the apostles. The Church Is Apostolic (Ephesians 2:19-20; CCC 857-865) The Church Jesus founded is apostolic because He appointed the apostles to be the first leaders of the Church, and their successors were to be its future leaders. The apostles were the first bishops, and, since the first century, there has been an unbroken `line of Catholic bishops faithfully handing on what the apostles taught the first Christians in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition (2 Timothy 2:2). These beliefs include the bodily Resurrection of Jesus, the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, the sacrificial nature of the Mass, the forgiveness of sins through a priest, baptismal regeneration, the existence of purgatory, Mary’s special role, and much more - even the doctrine of apostolic succession itself. 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. 

WATCH THIS VIDEO

IGNITE YOUR FAITH


the creed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YNeTwWU1RE&list=PL0W7uywUaxa9iXFEZDu_XxBoAle8E9NQ5&index=13

we are catholic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk4OCzre_IY
THE 4 MARKS OF THE TRUE CHURCH

the video no protestant wants you to see
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT9WiVSpw1w

The Altar Server ***MUST SEE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIWMh7v3Kg

HOMEWORK:
Watch this video the kindness boomerang
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwAYpLVyeFU 
and think out ideas for our own class to produce in church.

The Church is HOLY

The Catholic Church is HOLY

The Catholic Church is HOLY

1. The Catholic Church is HOLY