The Catholic Church's "big lie"

I just received a challenging email:

Dear John.
Allow me to express my thoughts about the Catholic Church's claim to be the one founded by Jesus Christ.  I would say, it is a big lie.  If it is the one founded by Jesus Christ, then why so many of them (priests, bishops, cardinals) from the middle ages to now did not live their lives according to Jesus Christ's teachings or of the lives of the Apostles. I don't have to mention the details because its very obvious. Just look around. I don't need to cite scriptures to to prove what l am saying because its very obvious. Thank you. God bless.
C-

Here's my reply...

Hi, C,
Thank You for writing to me with Your question. It’s a very good question and I’ll try to provide some answer.

It seems to me that essentially You are asking why there are sinners in the Church. You are implying that if Jesus founded a church, its members would be holy; they would live according to Jesus Christ’s teachings; they would not sin. And if we find a church whose history has many examples among its members and leaders who sinned badly, certainly that is evidence that this church was not founded by Jesus. Right?

Well, no, actually. Look at the first apostles. James, John –and their mother- wanted special places of honor above the others in Jesus’ kingdom (Matthew 20:21). Peter denied Jesus three times. Judas stole money from Jesus and the others, and later betrayed Jesus. At Jesus’ arrest all the apostles (except John) ran away. Peter acted hypocritically toward the Jews and gentiles and received the rebuke of Paul. You can be sure there were many other sad failings among the apostles and other disciples that were not recorded in the Gospels. And the other New Testament writings are full of evidence that the early Christians were sinners who struggled with divisions, factions, controversies, and scandals. Not just among the apostles and priests, but among the lay members as well. Are these facts proof that Jesus did not found a Church, or that His Church was ruined by sin? Did Jesus' plan to build a Church ultimately fail?

No. To think so is to misunderstand the Church Jesus founded. The Church has the Son of God as its head and cornerstone, but very human apostles as its foundation. Its walls are built of living stones which are very much redeemed sinners still struggling to imitate Christ despite many failings. It has the Holy Spirit to guide its members on their path through life, but has human members who have not lost their ability to sin. Christ is the vine, and we are the branches, but we branches have the ability to choose to do God’s will, or to turn away and prefer our own will.

You mention the sinfulness of bishops and cardinals. But what about Your own sinfulness, and mine? Has Your life been blameless? Mine has not.

C, if You believe that “true” Christians don’t sin, then You don’t know Your Bible any better than You know human nature. If You believe there is a church –perhaps Your own- that has as its leaders and members people who never sin, then I will use Your own words: “it is a big lie”. The possibility of sin will not be completely erased from the lives of the saved until all the saved have been gathered into Heaven.

Until then we remain at war. The Holy Spirit equips us to do battle against temptations to turn away from the will of God. With God’s help it is very possible to resist sin, and to grow stronger so that we can live more and more holy lives. But in this life we always have the possibility of rejecting God, and Christians sometimes fall into sin. When we see a fellow believer stumble and fall into sin, it is a terrible thing… just as when it happens in our own lives. But it does not mean that we are not believers, or that we are not members of Jesus’ Church.

C, the Church is like a hospital, a hospital for sinners. The hospital does not kick out patients (or the doctors) because they are sick, or because they fall ill more than once. The fact that they are sick does not prove that the hospital is not a hospital.

So, C my friend, I say to You that You are using the wrong measuring stick to identify the Church. You won’t find the Church Jesus founded by searching for a church with no sinners. You will find it by asking God to help You find it, and then by studying what the Bible teaches about the Church. There are several simple things the Bible clearly teaches about the Church:
1) It is One. Jesus found a Church, and He didn’t found two, three, or ten thousand of them. He founded one.
2) It is holy. It contains everything that we need to grow in holiness: holy teachings; the holy sacraments; holy fellowship; the example of countless thousands of saints –a “great cloud of witnesses”- whose lives reflect the light of Christ and inspire us to imitate Him. It not only helps people become holy, it in fact does produce many people who achieve great holiness.
3) It is “catholic”, meaning universal. It is a church for the whole world, for all peoples and times. It is a reflection and foretaste of Heaven, where all Christ’s followers are united in one faith, one Lord, one baptism.
4) It is apostolic. It was founded upon apostles personally selected by Jesus, and who had the authority to pick other men to share that role with them and after them. For the past twenty centuries that apostolic authority has continued among those who have received it from the apostles and their successors. Nothing in the Bible indicates that this apostolic foundation was ever to be abandoned.

The Catholic Church has the four key characteristics. Does Yours?

Finally, I think it's dangerous to pass judgement on the hearts of other persons, especially Christians who lived many centuries ago. People we might be tempted to think were really big sinners might have lived lives more pleasing to God than our own. Humility and a healthy respect for God's justice should make us guard against passing negative judgement on others.

C, I would love to hear Your thoughts about these important things!

Thank You again for writing to me.

God bless You,

John Robin.

December 8: Feast of the Immaculate Conception

"Mary was predestined from eternity to be the Mother of God, by the decree of Divine providence which determined the incarnation of the Word." - Second Vatican Council, Lumen gentium, 61

"God loved her with a unique predilection. He filled her with the greatest abundance of his celestial gifts and her participation in the divine nature exceeds that of all the angels and saints together. Her life reflects so great a fullness of innocence and sanctity that a more exalted creature cannot be conceived of, except by the Creator himself." Pius IX, Apostolic Letter, Ineffabilis Deus, 8 December 1854

"We look up to her, as on a Star that guides us, shining through the dark clouds of human uncertainty. The annual Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception shines bright from within the background of the Advent liturgy. We contemplate Our Lady in the divine economy of salvation as the 'Gate of heaven' through which the Redeemer comes into the world." John Paul II, Address, 8 December 1982


Do You wish to draw closer to Jesus?  Draw closer to Mary.

Talking to "dead" people?

Praying to saints in Heaven: Does the Bible support asking saints in Heaven for their help?

"He is not God of the dead, but of the living..."

Mark 12:26

What does it mean to “pray”?

1. To utter or address a prayer or prayers to God, a god, or another object of worship.
2. To make a fervent request or entreaty.
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=pray

Is prayer effective?

…pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.

James 5:6

We should pray for each other because God chooses to make our prayer effective. And the closer one is to God, the more effective is his prayer. One who is deeply united to God is powerful in prayer.

Should Christians pray for each other?

Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.

Ephesians 6:18

Prayer is effective, and God commands us to pray for each other. Therefore we should pray constantly.

I appeal to you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf

Romans 15:30

We give thanks to God always for you all, constantly mentioning you in our prayers

1 Thessalonians 1:2

Do Christ’s members in Heaven pray any less constantly than Paul did on Earth?

How are believers connected to Christ?

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15:5

We are connected to Christ as branches to a vine.

"…that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

1 Corinthains 12:25-27

We are united to each other as the distinct members of a body are united under the head.

For as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

Romans 12:4-5

We are as connected to Christ as members of a body are connected to that body.

Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready;

Revelation 19:7

Believers are individually and collectively united with Christ as a bride is united to her husband. Those in Heaven have more perfectly entered into this nuptial union.

Does death separate believers from Christ?

For I am sure that neither death, nor life… will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Rom 8:38-39

Because believers are united to Christ, they are united to each other –whether in Heaven or on Earth.

He is not God of the dead, but of the living; you are quite wrong.

Mark 12:26-27

Those who have “fallen asleep” in Christ are spiritually separated neither from Christ nor from us.

For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood.

1 Corinthians 13:9-12

Beloved, we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

1 John 3:2

Are those in Heaven aware of what is happening on Earth?

Scripture teaches that those in Heaven are indeed united to us and are concerned for us.

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne; they cried out with a loud voice, "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before thou wilt judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell upon the earth?" Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

Revelation 6:9-11

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect

Hebrews 12:22-23

Believers on Earth already have “one foot in the door” of Heaven, and stand in the invisible presence of the company of Heaven.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,

Hebrews 12:1

Those in Heaven witness our lives.

"See that you do not despise one of these little ones; for I tell you that in heaven their angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven."

Matthew 18:10

The angels of the children of God are present in Heaven.

Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

Luke 15:10

The angels in Heaven are aware of a repentant sinner.  Are repentant sinners kept a secret from the saints in Heaven?

Can those in Heaven pray for us?

Those in Heaven not only can and do pray, but directly participate in offering our own prayers to God.

And when he had opened the book, the four living creatures and the four and twenty ancients fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.
And they sung a new canticle, saying: Thou art worthy, O Lord, to take the book and to open the seals thereof: because thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God, in thy blood, out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation:
And hast made us to our God a kingdom and priests, and we shall reign on the earth.

Revelation 5:8-10

The “ancients” or “elders” sing that they were “redeemed… out of every tribe”, and that they were made a “kingdom and priests”. Only humans are priests, and only humans can be redeemed from “every tribe and tongue and people and nation”. Therefore these are human souls in Heaven. (Whether they are embodied we are not told.)

They each bear before the throne of God “vials of odours” or “bowls of incense”, “which are the prayers of the saints.” These saints are either on earth or in Heaven. Most Christians believe this passage refers to the prayers of saints living on Earth. Therefore, there are souls in Heaven –the “elders”- who are actively involved in offering to God the prayers of Christians on Earth.

A kingdom of priests… Does this mean “every man for himself”? On the contrary, it means every man dedicates himself in love for the good of others. Is this reality of self-giving love to end once we arrive in Heaven? No, it is fulfilled and made perfect.

What do priests do? They represent their people before God. They offer worship and prayers to God on behalf of others. They make sacrifice for themselves and others.

And another angel came and stood before the altar, having a golden censer: and there was given to him much incense, that he should offer of the prayers of all saints, upon the golden altar which is before the throne of God.  And the smoke of the incense of the prayers of the saints ascended up before God from the hand of the angel.

Revelation 8:3-4

The “angel before God” likewise participates in offering incense with our prayers, making our prayers more pleasing and acceptable before God.

Why should we pray to saints in Heaven when we can “go straight to God”?

We should indeed go “straight to God” with our prayers daily, even constantly. But we should not selfishly pray only for ourselves. We should pray for all those believers who need our prayers. Likewise, just as we should pray for others, it is right to ask others to pray for us, just as Paul did.  Do we need the prayers of others any less than Paul did?  The Bible teaches we are united to all believers, including those in Heaven.  Should we exclude them from our requests for help?  Not according to Scripture.

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving; and pray for us also, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear, as I ought to speak.

Colossians 4:2-4

The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.

James 5:6

The prayers of the saints in Heaven are very powerful because these saints are deeply united to God, and because they love us very much and care for our salvation.  They are willing and able to assist us with their powerful intercession before God.