[RnMomof7]

First in a series in answer to another FR poster

[jobim]

Fellow Catholics: don't let you hearts be troubled.

Since Luther, these attempts to undermine the TRUE HISTORICAL RECORD have never stopped.

There are answers to everything they raise - this is the beauty of TRUTH being our hallmark and polestar.

They have bits and pieces, but only in the CATHOLIC CHURCH is there the FULLNESS OF THE FAITH!

[Dr. Thorne]

This is all academic to me. I couldn’t care less about some phony priest with a funny hat who tells us he’s penniless and celibate when he lives in unparalleled luxury among a battalion of homosexuals in red dresses. The idea is ludicrous.

[Salvation]

Prayers for The Religion Forum (Ecumenical) Prayers for you too.

[strongbow]

Save for later.

[boatbums]

This speaks to a very critical issue in the Christian community even to this day. The succession that the laying on of hands ritual was to ensure in the early church was NOT some automatic handing down of an office of Apostle and the authority intrinsic with that office, but a succession of handing down of the truth. Had even blessed Peter refused the correction given to him by God, through Paul, concerning the uproar caused by the Judaizers about the Gentile Christians being burdened with observing the Mosaic law including circumcision, he would have NOT remained a leader of the church.

Even nearly two thousand years later we can know the same truth that was there from the start because we have the faithful witness of the Scriptures with the teachings once delivered unto the saints - it doesn't change. This is how we can know, should any person claim to be a minister of Jesus Christ, whether or not they are bringing correct doctrine. Scripture is the authority that ALL churches of Christ must be in submission to. The church is to be the pillar and buttress of this truth - its supporter, not its inventor. It will be through this that the Holy Spirit will lead us to all truth.

[stonehouse01]

Bullinger is full of Bull and has no authority. His opinion is certianly not more worthy of more merit than for example, St. Ignatius of Antioch:

Even a cursory reading of the still extent letters of St. Ignatius, Third Bishop of Antioch (A.D. 110) reveal that the Roman Church and the Greek orthodox Church have retained the true nature of the Apostolic Church.

St. Ignatius presents a clear view in his letters of the catholic, hierarchical and monarchical structure of the very earliest Church: (quote)

“Where the Bishop is, let there the people be, as where Jesus is, there is the Catholic Church”.

Ignatius commented extensively on the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

Don’t heed the errors of the later protestant revisionists of history; read St. Ignatius 7 letters firsthand.