St Peter's Basilica, Rome, Italy
The name Roman Catholic Church has been made an issue by many individuals and churches because according to them it is not what the Lord Jesus Christ has established on earth. Some take the "church of Christ" as the proper name for the Church, others claim that Christ did not institute a religion but that He said that in order for a person to be saved he must be "born again" literally taking the cue from John 3:5 though most translations do not have the word "again" but only "born of water and the Spirit". There are some churches which claim that the true religion is that which God has founded through Moses. That would make Christ establishing a rival Church to that of Moses because Christ "established His own" Church upon St Peter since Christ did not say, "Upon this rock I shall continue the Church of God established by Moses".
First of all it must be understood that the Church we are discussing is the community of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and church members are the people who make up this assembly or community, the believers, or in New Testament term, the saints.
Well, what's in a name?
Let us start with that very important passage where Christ our Lord declares after Simon's confession of faith that He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God which the Lord himself confirms as a divine revelation not merely coming from Simon's own understanding: "You are Peter and upon this rock I shall build my Church" [Matthew 16:18]. There are a few interpretation of the "rock" which Jesus Christ our Lord was talking about but seriously if He meant another meaning for the rock as used, and officially interpreted by the Roman Catholic Church and other churches in communion with Rome, within His whole statement there and then, there is no need to change the name of Simon, which means listening, to Peter, which means rock. Wasn't the name Simon more appropriate to maintain for it means "listening" which could also be very applicable to the occasion for he "listened" to the revelation of God that Jesus Christ was the Messiah?
Anyway, Catholics hold on the official teaching that the Lord has founded the Church upon Peter and that is why we say, "Where Peter is, there is the Church." The first Church was logically established in Jerusalem since it was understood then that Jesus did not intend to set up something different from Judaism. The teachings of Jesus were considered by the Apostles to be the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets hence there was no need to "establish" or "found" a "new" religion. This is the reason that they did not go to the Securities and Exchange Commission to register a "corporation" with the name "This is the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ!" They were Jews and they were telling their fellow Jews, "Come on, you have witnessed the wonderful deeds the Lord has done and though you killed Him he rose again and has now gone back to the Father sitting on His right side! He is the fulfillment of everything that Moses and the Prophets have written, spoke of and taught in the our long history of being God's people!"
The History of the Church can be read in so many sites in the Internet so we will not linger on that long history which includes the many changes in the names or tags used to identify the followers of the Lord before they were called Christians in Antioch by 48AD. We will just point out that the Apostles established various "branches" of the Church within the then powerful Roman Empire such as the Church in Jerusalem [the first one], Damascus, Ephesus, Colossus, Corinth, Thessalonica, Antioch, and many more. And where else could the Church be more effectively have its center than Rome itself which could become a great jumping off to fulfill the command to evangelize the whole world? So a Church in Rome was also established of course.
Rome became a truly important fulcrum of the Christian Church, not only because it is the heart of the Empire itself, because also of the fact that two of the Apostles were martyred there: Peter, the first Pope, the one who was the given the "key" by the Lord Jesus Christ, and Paul. If Peter remained in Jerusalem and suffered martyrdom or any form of death there, we could have had a Jerusalem Catholic Church. If he remained in Antioch we could have had an Antiochian Catholic Church. But since Peter died in Rome, his successors were accorded the recognition of being new Popes - the term Pope simply meaning "Father". Of course there were some who did not accept it especially those belonging to the Eastern part of the Empire especially when the Western part already fell because of the attacks of the Germanic tribes. But the Roman Church stayed strong and even have to take various roles just to sustain the civilization of the West and be the political arm of the still existing eastern part of the Roman Empire which now was called the Byzantine Empire.
The fall of the Byzantine Empire under the Muslims signified an important event in Church history. Rome was now the only remaining strong bastion of Christianity. Though other churches in the east sustained their existence they were almost insignificant now to pursue the mission that has been handed by the Lord to the Apostles: to go into all the world. It was only Rome which remained stable and even strong enough to defend itself from attacks of the barbarians. It is considered as the sign of the Lord's promise that not even the gates of hell would never prevail against His Church. Until now the Church is under attack but she continues to hold on to the teachings of the Lord. it suffered the loss of so many members, even whole nations, but remained faithful to the teachings of the Lord.
Since then the Roman Church continued to grow amid many challenges and trials. It has grown large enough and have been able to establish "branches" in almost every corner of the world fulfilling the command of the Lord to go into the world, baptizing everyone without choice of color, culture and condition that it could truly claim all embracing or universal hence catholic. That is why it has been named Roman Catholic Church. Roman because it is based in Rome, Catholic because it is all embracing or universal, and Church since it is the community of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Other Churches have fallen into various problems and have made concessions and compromises even with regards to their beliefs just to be able to stay alive just like when Protestants accepted the use of contraceptives while they were also against it together with the Catholic Church until the early part of the 20th century. But the Catholic Church continues to stand against any attempt to adapt to the modern world and change its stand on many issues especially with regards to the sanctity of life, the dignity of the family, the integrity of marriage, and more. The Church even have to let go of many members, even whole nations and empires like the whole Anglican Church, just to remain faithful to the Lord's teachings on marriage.
The Roman Catholic Church may have members who are not holy. But what church, assembly, denomination, or ministry could claim to have perfection with regards to having holy members? And on what authority do they stand upon?
We shall discuss in our next article the one important bases of "authority" which other churches, assemblies, denominations and ministries use against the "authority" of the Roman Catholic Church which is the Holy Bible.
Have a blessed weekend, friends!
Rome became a truly important fulcrum of the Christian Church, not only because it is the heart of the Empire itself, because also of the fact that two of the Apostles were martyred there: Peter, the first Pope, the one who was the given the "key" by the Lord Jesus Christ, and Paul. If Peter remained in Jerusalem and suffered martyrdom or any form of death there, we could have had a Jerusalem Catholic Church. If he remained in Antioch we could have had an Antiochian Catholic Church. But since Peter died in Rome, his successors were accorded the recognition of being new Popes - the term Pope simply meaning "Father". Of course there were some who did not accept it especially those belonging to the Eastern part of the Empire especially when the Western part already fell because of the attacks of the Germanic tribes. But the Roman Church stayed strong and even have to take various roles just to sustain the civilization of the West and be the political arm of the still existing eastern part of the Roman Empire which now was called the Byzantine Empire.
The fall of the Byzantine Empire under the Muslims signified an important event in Church history. Rome was now the only remaining strong bastion of Christianity. Though other churches in the east sustained their existence they were almost insignificant now to pursue the mission that has been handed by the Lord to the Apostles: to go into all the world. It was only Rome which remained stable and even strong enough to defend itself from attacks of the barbarians. It is considered as the sign of the Lord's promise that not even the gates of hell would never prevail against His Church. Until now the Church is under attack but she continues to hold on to the teachings of the Lord. it suffered the loss of so many members, even whole nations, but remained faithful to the teachings of the Lord.
Since then the Roman Church continued to grow amid many challenges and trials. It has grown large enough and have been able to establish "branches" in almost every corner of the world fulfilling the command of the Lord to go into the world, baptizing everyone without choice of color, culture and condition that it could truly claim all embracing or universal hence catholic. That is why it has been named Roman Catholic Church. Roman because it is based in Rome, Catholic because it is all embracing or universal, and Church since it is the community of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Other Churches have fallen into various problems and have made concessions and compromises even with regards to their beliefs just to be able to stay alive just like when Protestants accepted the use of contraceptives while they were also against it together with the Catholic Church until the early part of the 20th century. But the Catholic Church continues to stand against any attempt to adapt to the modern world and change its stand on many issues especially with regards to the sanctity of life, the dignity of the family, the integrity of marriage, and more. The Church even have to let go of many members, even whole nations and empires like the whole Anglican Church, just to remain faithful to the Lord's teachings on marriage.
The Roman Catholic Church may have members who are not holy. But what church, assembly, denomination, or ministry could claim to have perfection with regards to having holy members? And on what authority do they stand upon?
We shall discuss in our next article the one important bases of "authority" which other churches, assemblies, denominations and ministries use against the "authority" of the Roman Catholic Church which is the Holy Bible.
Have a blessed weekend, friends!
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