How do we know that the Catholic Church was founded by Jesus?

[lssanjose]

Originally Posted by Linusthe2nd

You can read the history of the schism which resulted in the Orthodox church in the link below. This was toward the middle of the 9th century. Photius and his supporters in the Emperor's houshold were clearly wrong and had been excommunicated. From that time the Eastern church rejected the authority of the Pope as the head of the Catholic church, which had formerly included the Catholics in the East. I am unaware of just when the Eastern church stopped calling itself Catholic.

But it would be clear to any objective observer the the Eastern hierarchy and the Emperor were clearly wrong. The sad part is that the ordinary Catholics in the East had no idea what had happened. So the entire Eastern church just drifted away because of the evilness of certain members of he hierarchy and the Emperial household. Some individual communities of the Eastern Orthodox have come back to union with the Catholic Church but not many. It has all followed more or less along political lines ever since. But it is clear that the Roman Catholic Church headed by the Pope is the church established by Christ. Evidence of that can be seen a number of other ways not least of which is by a comparison of the fruitful missionary activities of the two branches. The Roman Catholic Church clearly has out paced the Orthodox in that regard. They are still our brothers and sisters in Christ and they have valid orders and sacraments but a Roman Catholic may not partake of the sacraments in an Orthodox service unless absolutely necessary to fulfill his or her religious obligations or in case of a life threatening circumstance where a Roman Catholic priest may not be available on short notice. However, one may find that the Eastern clergy may be cold to any such needs - at least that is what I have heard anyway.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12043b.htm

Visit a Orthodox church, when you've the time. I guarantee you, they're anything but cold. If I hadn't found the Byzantine church I've been going to, I could easily see myself going to the Orthodox church more consistently, aside from vespers.

[Chuck1]

Btw I found out today that The name "Peter" (Πέτρος in Greek) translates as rock !

[pablope]

Originally Posted by Chuck1

Btw I found out today that The name "Peter" (Πέτρος in Greek) translates as rock !

And Cephas...in aramaic...the language of Jesus...see John 1:42................42 And he brought him to Jesus.

Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter[a]).



And look at the other significant name changes in the Bible and see the comparison and the command after the name change:




Name Change:


Abram to Abraham…..Gen 17:15….Neither shall thy name be called any more Abram: but thou shalt be called Abraham: because I have made thee a father of many nations.

Jacob to Israel….Gen 35……. 10And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel………. 11And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;



Simon to Cephas/Peter....Matt 16.....17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter,[b] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[c] will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be[d] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[e] loosed in heaven.”

[endrun]

There is a logical fallacy in the composition of the question. Jesus founded his church, which then became the Catholic church. The Catholic church then, as was noted, was split (ie, "The Schism"), and later the Protestant Reformation occurred, which further separated Christendom into multiplicitous denominations and sects. Jesus did not order that His church bear the name "Catholic" any more than any other denominational name we know today. He did as a matter of logical conclusion via the establishment of apostolic succession, imply without stating so specifically that the name "Christian" be used as a generic term meaning follower of Himself and His teachings. It may then be insinuated that this likely was the name he would have preferred for his new church, inasmuch as he would not have preferred referral to his actual earthly name, ie, Yeshua or Jesus.
Priests of the Society of Jesus, or "Jesuits", take the name of Jesus, however, and very specifically. It could be said that in so doing they disregard the fact that Jesus would not have wished to draw attention to Himself as an "Earthly King" nor would likely have had any part of that;thus the earthly title of "Christ" would likely have been preferred by Jesus, although of course we do not know for certain.

[TimothyH]

Jesus was clearly a king and clearly taught his disciples that he was to be king. The entire Gospel of Matthew is about the kingship of Jesus. Jesus has multiple parables about what his kingdom will be like Matthew 13. All the Old Testament kings forshadow Jesus kingship.

Jesus is an earthly king, and he established a kingdom on earth, and left a prime minister in charge of his kingdom until he comes again.

When Jesus says "Kingdom of heaven" he is using an evasive-synonym. Jews would not utter God's name except for once each year when the high preist went into the Holy of Holies to atone for sin - that's the only time any Jew would have ever spoken God's name. They used to tie a rope around the high priest's ankle when he went in to say God's name in case he was struck dead and they had to drag his body out. Saying "Kingdom of Heaven" was a way to say "Kingdom of God" without uttering God's name. No Jew would have uttered God's name, not even Jesus. People used the word "Temple" the same way. They would swear by the Temply instead of swearing to God. "Temple" and "Heaven" were evasive synonyms for God's name.

Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. (John 6:15)

Jesus does not want the common people to know that he is going to remove authority from the "Chair of Moses" and establish a new kingdom on earth because they would have taken him away and executed him for treason before his work was done. But Jesus made it clear to the Apostles that he was establishing a earthly kingdom.

I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.* Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Then he strictly ordered his disciples to tell no one that he was the Messiah. (Matthew 16:19-20)

The "Keys to the Kingdom" would have been a crystal clear to the Jews - the Apostles - who heard Jesus. There would have been no question. The prime minister had the keys to the king's treasury, and was responsible for paying workers and soldiers so that the kingdom could be maintained and defended. Jesus was using the evasive synonym here, telling Peter that he was to be given the keys to the Kingdom of God. And Jesus is God, so it is his Kingdom, and strictly orders his disciples to tell no one about the episode.

We can argue about what the name of that kingdom is, or when the name came to be, but the fact is that his Kingdom of God is the Church that we know today as the Catholic Church, which is Christ's Body.

Christ had one body, and so he has one Church. Christ's body was visible, and so the Church is visible. The Kingdom of God is spiritual in heaven, but it also present on earth - visible, hierarchical, one. Like the Kingdom's of the Old Testament, Jesus' kingdom has a prime-minister who operates with the authority of the king, runs the kingdom on behalf of the king, and has a clear line of succession back to the king himself.

So Pharaoh said to Joseph: "Since God has made all this known to you, no one can be as wise and discerning as you are. You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people shall dart at your command. Only in respect to the throne shall I outrank you. (Genesis 41:39-40)

The Jew Mordecai was next in rank to King Ahasuerus. (Esther 10:3)

One Jesus, one Body, one Church, one Kingdom - visible with a prime minister who acts on behalf of and with the authority of its king. It could change it's name to any other name but it would not change the fact that there is only one, and that it exists today in the Holy Catholic Church, and that it is the moutpiece of Christ its king and his instrument of salvation in the world.


-Tim-