How does one find the one true church and the precepts and philosophy of the one true religion left by Jesus Christ? The following quote from the book “The Font of Truth” by Rev. Nelson W. Logal is a good guide:
One Church
Even a superficial glance at the Gospels will convince a fair-minded inquirer of two facts: Christ did establish a Church, and He established one Church – not many Churches.
In order to clarify our investigation, we should understand the precise meaning of the word, church. In the Old Testament the word, church, was used to describe a gathering of men called together by a magistrate. The word was also applied either to the place of the meeting or to the meeting itself. The ancient meaning of the term is substantially retained in the modern dictionary’s definition. Webster defines a church as “a building used for public worship, especially for Christian worship, or, the collective body of Christians, a body of Christian believers having the same creed and rites.”
Note the following four facts which are included in this definition:
1. The Church is composed of many members – it is a congregation.
2. The members of this congregation are joined by a common bond – a profession of faith in Christ and the reception of the same Sacraments.
3. There is a common authority – government by lawful pastors under one visible head.
4. There is also a common purpose – personal sanctification and salvation by belief and communion in the Sacraments.
In other words, the Church is a true religious society of men forming a fellowship of belief, action, and worship which is centered in God.
We may now ask: did Christ establish such a religious society among men?
He did, and He called the society which He established His Church.
A multitude of the facts recorded in the Gospel proves this. From the beginning of His public life, He spoke of establishing the Kingdom of God on earth. He selected certain men, banded them together, instructed them, and formed them into the nucleus of a Church. He commanded them to call other men and women into this society. He demanded that they preach His doctrine and administer His Sacraments to they whole world: and, in order to insure His society against the hazards of anarchy, he provided it with authority – and authority that was centered in the Apostles, but especially in St. Peter:–” Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loss on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven” (Matt. 16:18). The sign of membership would consist in faith and baptism: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be condemned” (Mark 16:16).
These facts prove that Christ established a Church, which was to be a congregation of men and women joined together in the profession of a common faith and by the reception of His Sacraments under the authority of St. Peter and his successors.
It is also evident that Christ established but ONE Church. In appointing St. Peter as head, He said “MY CHURCH” – not MY CHURCHES. He pointed to the ideal of absolute unity: “There shall be but one fold and one shepherd” (John 10:16). He prayed for unity: “That they shall all be one as Thou Father in Me and I in Thee” (John 17:21). He warned against the disasters of disunity in that Church: “If a house be divided against itself that house cannot stand” (Mark 3:25). His parables dealing with the nature of the Church stressed its essential oneness. Paul, who knew the mind of Christ so well, described the ideal of unity in the memorable words: “one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all” (Eph. 4:4-6).
The facts of the Gospel which recount the history of the Church’s establishment by Christ prove that He founded a Church and that this Church was according to His design, to be one – not many.
A person who wishes to belong to the one Church established by Christ must search for it. Every sign post should be scrutinized. We dare not be careless in this matter for the Church of Jesus Christ is important. He demanded that we respect it when He said, “He that heareth you, heareth Me; he that despises you, despises Me” (Luke 10:16). In stressing the necessity of His Church, Our Lord warned people against ignoring it: “If he will not hear the Church, let him be to thee as a heathen and a publican” (Matt. 18: 17).
An investigation into the true Church of Christ demands that we plunge into the problem of the many Christian Churches in order to inspect their lineage, sift their claims, and test their credentials until we finally discover the one which bears evidence that it is the Church which Christ established. When we find it, we shall be obliged to accept it and to join our forces with it by professing its faith, by receiving its Sacraments, and by uniting ourselves to it under the spiritual authority instituted by Christ.
The task is not an easy one. It demands a cool, rational, factual, and unprejudiced approach. We may approach the problem from two main avenues: the one, by way of history; the other by way of the nature of the Church.
This historical approach considers the Church from the viewpoint of time. A simple question of fact is asked: which Christian Church can trace its lineage back to the days of Christ? In the second approach existing Churches are compared to the Church as Christ founded it. The question is asked: which Church possesses the essential characteristics which marked the Church that Christ established?
History’s Testimony
The historical approach is the easiest way in which to begin our quest for the one true Church established by Christ. It clearly points to the fact that the Roman Catholic Church of our day stretches back in unbroken succession to the days of Christ. The long list of the heads of the Catholic Church known as the Popes, can be traced directly back to St. Peter, who was given his office by Christ. There is direct, historical continuity between the Roman Catholic Church as it exists today and Christ, Who said: “Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build My Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”. No person with an elementary respect for historical fact can deny this fact – the Roman Catholic Church is the oldest Christian Church; it began with Jesus Christ and His twelve Apostles.
Other Christian Churches cannot point to a similar direct ancestry from Christ. At the most, they claim an indirect ancestry which comes through the Catholic Church by declaring themselves to be branches of the historic Church of Christ.
The exact year in which other non-Catholic bodies arose can be given, and their founders can be named. Martin Luther established the Lutheran Church which bears his name; Henry VIII established the Church of England; John Wesley founded the Methodist Church; John Smith, the Baptist Church; John Calvin, the Calvinist Church, which fathered the Presbyterian Church as established in Scotland by John Knox; Robert Browne brought the Congregational Church into existence, – and so on down throughout the list of the Protestant Churches. No one of these Churches was in existence before the year 1547. The earliest of these Churches were established by men who had been Catholics; some of the reformers were even priests of the Catholic Church, as was Martin Luther, the father of Protestantism.
The protestant Christian Churches, consequently, are at most four hundred years old; their founders were men, many of whom had been Catholic. Since they cannot possibly trace their origins back to the days of Christ, it is difficult to see how Christ could have established them.
It is impossible to account for Christianity between the days of Christ and the sixteenth century if the truth of the Catholic Church be denied. If Christ’s religion did not come into existence until the rise of Protestantism, what happened to it during the first fifteen hundred years after Christ? Certainly, Christianity did not disappear from the earth for that length of time, only to be revived by the reformers!
Rather, it functioned in the Catholic Church which was the only Christian Church in existence. Christianity became a house divided only after he Reformation [Matt 12:25].
History clearly vindicates the claim of the Catholic Church. It alone is the true Church of Christ because it alone goes back to the days of Christ.
The Marks Are Sign-Posts
The approach to the Church of Christ by way of the marks employs a process of verification. We first inspect the Church which Christ established and then we compare modern Churches with it. The reasoning is as follows: Christ established a Church which bore certain, well-defined, and verifiable characteristics. Any Church which claims to be His Church must possess those characteristics today.
The Church which carries these marks bears evidence that it is the genuine Church of Christ. If no other Church bears them, then it alone is the one true Church established by Christ.
The process of verification is used constantly in daily experience. If we have reason to suspect a ten dollar bill of being counterfeit, we immediately verify it by handling the bill carefully, inspecting its texture, the engraving, the signature, and the silken colored threads which run through it. If these things are in order, we conclude that the bill is genuine; if they are missing, we reject the bill because it does not bear the marks of genuine currency.
The truth of the Church can be verified in much the same manner. In founding His Church, Christ gave the world a society which was one, holy, catholic or universal, and apostolic. The genuine Church of Christ must be such today. We may even compare, by way of rough analogy, the four marks of the Church to the four factors which certify to the genuinity of currency; the texture of the bill can be compared to the mark of unity; the sharp, clear, pure lines of the engraving, to the mark of holiness; the signature, to the mark of apostolicity; and the multicolored threads, to the mark o universality, or catholicity.
Consider the marks which Christ’s Church possessed:
1) Unity. Christ established a Church that had a texture of complete and integral unity. He gave it one faith, one baptism, one constitution, one form of government, an one system of worship. He demanded and prayed for unity in His Church, just as He warned against division, as we have previously seen.
2) Holiness. Holiness was etched in every line of the Church which Christ founded. His Church came from Himself – it was brought into existence by the hand of God. He gave it a holy doctrine and He endowed it with the means of sanctifying its members by the administration of the sacraments.
3) Apostolicity. The Church’s signature is to be found in the mark of apostolicity. Christ founded His Church upon the Apostles; He gave it an apostolic constitution, for the Apostles with Peter at their head were placed in charge of the Church. They were commanded to guard the doctrine which they had received and to spread the faith to the ends of the earth. The authority which Christ gave to His Church was vested in the Apostles. His Church was certainly apostolic.
4) Catholicity or Universality. Christ’s Church was a universal Church. The multi-colored threads of different races, nations, and cultures were intended to run through the Church of Christ. His Church was to be the Church of all men and all nations. No one was to be excluded. It was to hold the full truth of Christ in readiness for every person who would accept it.
. . . (catholicity): The very name the Church bears – Catholic – means universal. She is a universal Church. Spread throughout the entire world, she appeals to all men. She preaches the complete Gospel of Christ. There has been no time since the days of Christ when she has failed to exercise her universal mission. She is universal or catholic in time, space, and doctrine.
The Catholicity of the Church emphasizes the mark of unity. Such unbroken unity in an institution spread over the entire world, and working in innumerable patterns of culture, can only be the handiwork of God. Division is the rule of human affairs, as the sad, war-scarred records of history prove. The story of empires, institutions, peoples and religions show a crazy-quilt pattern of division and subdivision. The Catholic Church alone, of all institutions, has survived the swirling changes of history. Numbering millions in her world-wide communion, and facing constant challenge and hostility, the Catholic Church has been marked out by constant and complete agreement on religion-the most difficult of all things to agree upon. The unity of a universal Church is a miracle of the moral order which can only be explained by the efficacy of Christ’s prayer: “That they all may be one, as thou Father in Me, and I in Thee, that they also be one in Us.” (John 17: 21).
The Catholic Church, therefore, possesses the four essential marks which were part of the Church which Christ founded. This fact when added to the testimony of history is another proof of the Churches claim that she is the one, true Church established by Christ. The four marks are further sign-posts assuring those who survey them that they are on the road to truth. The oneness of the Catholic Church’s faith, the universality of its mission, the apostolicity of its origin, and the holiness of its fruits and purposes proclaim that she belongs to Christ.
No one of the other Christian sects possesses these four essential characteristics.
History clearly proves that the Protestant Churches do not possess the mark of apostolicity. The oldest of these Churches do not go back beyond the sixteenth century. Only the Catholic Church goes back in unbroken succession to the days of Christ and His Apostles.
Unity is also missing in the Christian sects. There are three divisions in the Church of England; sixteen in the Lutheran Church; almost as many varieties of Methodism, -and so on, down the line. Even within the same Church, individual congregations hold beliefs which differ radically from each other.
The mark of universality is also missing. Protestant Churches are largely localized in activity and interest. Autonomous congregations have very little in common with other congregations. Missionary activity was entered into only after the last century [that is the 1800s].
The fullness of holiness is also missing in these Churches. Their founders were men; some of them were not even exemplary men. By no stretch of the imagination can Martin Luther or Henry VIII be called good men. Some later reformers were good and sincere men, but their goodness was nothing compared with the holiness of Christ Who founded the Catholic Church. In rejecting the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and many of the Sacraments, these Churches lost the principal means of holiness given by Our Divine Savior. No one of the non-Catholic Churches has seen the rise of such models of sanctity as are to be found in the saints of the Catholic Church.
This concludes the quote from the book “The Font of Truth” by Rev. Nelson W. Logal with a 1956 copyright from the Daughters of St. Paul of Derby N.Y. and an Imprimatur, I assume, of the same year (no year for the imprimatur is given by the notation in the book). Though I have not read it all, the parts I have read give a very clear, in my opinion, prose coverage, as opposed to question-and-answer coverage of catholic dogma and doctrine or in a word “catechism” in text such as the Baltimore Catechism. The topics it covers is as follows with references to which catechism lessons it refers to with the following section titles in the actual table of contents:
Religion and Faith: An introduction
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: Our Living Prayer
Christ and Christianity: The Cornerstone of Truth
The Marks of the Church: Sign-Posts on the Way
The Attributes of the Church: Sign-Posts on the Way
The Church and the Bible: Fonts of Truth
God and the Blessed Trinity: Divine life
Men and Angels: Created Life
Original Sin: The Fall from Life
The Blessed Virgin: Life’s Glory
Actual Sin: Rebellion against Life
The Commandments: The Way to Live
Divine Grace: The Abundant Life
The Workings of Grace: Manifestations of Life
The seven sacraments: Channels of Life
Baptism: The Gate to Life
Confirmation: Maturity of Life
Penance: The restoration of Life
The Sacrament of Forgiveness: Medicine for the Soul
Indulgences and Sacramentals: Rewards and Badges of Life
The Eucharist: The Food of Life
The Eucharist: The Food of Life
Holy Orders: Providers of Life in the Church
Matrimony: Providers of Life in Society
Extreme Unction: Passage to the New Life
The Last Things: The New Life
Traditional Thomistic Catholic 