One more thing, Ignatius did NOT capitalize the word "catholic" in his letter because we know that in his day the church out of Rome that today considers itself the "real" amalgamation of all the body of Christ did not even exist. At that time, in Rome, there was a fledgling church made up of believers in Christ, they had a local leader just as those in Antioch had him, Jerusalem had theirs, etc,. It was not until 375 A.D. that the church in Rome declared itself sovereign. So, even though Ignatius is not an inspired nor inerrant source, he was correct that some deny the gift of God and reject the truth of Jesus' humanity/deity and his bodily resurrection. However, he was NOT speaking of "Protestants", obviously, and he would not count us out of the Church of Jesus Christ today either. I believe also, that wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the universal church. Some of you need to get over that sin of exclusivist pride that keeps you from enjoying your place in the family of God.
Honestly, I really could not care less if the Catholic Church recognizes other churches as "churches" or not. The reason is that it is God, not man, who sees into the heart and knows if the faith in Christ is real or not.
And THAT is the determinate of "church" membership. We know that the church is the called-out assembly of the body of Christ and membership happens when by faith we trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior and certainly not when a baby gets splashed with water with a slogan spoken by
.
[some pontificating rep of the bureaucratic, political, power mongering magicsterical elites of the Alice In Wonderland School of Theology and Reality Mangling].
One more thing, Ignatius did NOT capitalize the word "catholic" in his letter because we know that in his day the church out of Rome that today considers itself the "real" amalgamation of all the body of Christ did not even exist. At that time, in Rome, there was a fledgling church made up of believers in Christ, they had a local leader just as those in Antioch had [their leader], Jerusalem had theirs, etc,.
It was not until 375 A.D. that the church in Rome declared itself sovereign. So, even though Ignatius is not an inspired nor inerrant source, he was correct that some deny the gift of God and reject the truth of Jesus' humanity/deity and his bodily resurrection.
However, he was NOT speaking of "Protestants", obviously, and he would not count us out of the Church of Jesus Christ today either. I believe also, that wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the universal church. Some of you need to get over that sin of exclusivist pride that keeps you from enjoying your place in the family of God.
Of course you don't, but the reasons why the communities of faith that emerged during the so-called Reformation are not churches are instructive and illuminate the proper Catholic ecclesiology. Also, the Easter Orthodox as well as pre-Chalcedon Oriental Churches are true local Churches, even though they lack full communion with the Bishop of Rome.
Ignatius did NOT capitalize the word "catholic" in his letter because [...]
...the capitalization was not invented till much later. The point remains that his criterion of proper ecclesiology was the same we have today: validity of clergy and sacraments and complete unity of doctrine (the pre-Chalcedons are churches but not Catholic; the Eastern Orthodox are essentially Catholic even though the term is seldom applied to them because of the confusion that might entail).