Can you help in identifying the True Church?

[jcjs12000]

I am in a running debate with several JWitnesses on several topics. Need 2 answers:
1] Wasn’t there a council held early in the Church [1st century] which described how the True Church could be recognized - One, Holy, Catholic, apostolic? If so I need the name of the Council/meeting and when.
2] Would you have the name of some of the early Fathers who wrote/preached about the True Presence? This is to prove that the early disciples believed in actual, real Transubstantiation.
Appreciate any help you can provide. Thx, Jim

 

[Fr.Vincent_Serpa]

Hi Jim,

Wikipedia has this to say:

1.) The ideas behind the Four Marks have been in the Orthodox (East) and Catholic (West) Churches since the foundation[citation needed], but were not established in doctrine until the First Council of Constantinople in 381. There the Council revised the Nicene Creed, established by the First Council of Nicea 56 years before. They added a section to the end including the following, translated in Schaff’s Creeds of Christendom, “[We believe] In one holy catholic and apostolic Church”. The phrase has remains in most versions of the Nicene Creed to this day. One notable change of the creed is that of the Lutheran Service Book, published in 2006, which changes the phrase to “one holy Christian and apostolic Church” (The Commission on Worship of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, Lutheran Service Book, (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2006), 158.)

2.) St. Justin Martyr (150 AD) “…not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but…as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nourished, if both the Flesh and Blood of that incarnated Jesus.” First Apology 66, 20
St. Irenaeus of Lyons (195 AD) “He (Jesus) has declared the cup, a part of his creation, to be His own Blood, from which he causes our blood to flow; and the bread, a part of creation, He has established as His own Body, from which he gives in crease to our bodies.” Against Heresies 5,2, 2.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem (350AD) “He himself, therefore, having declared and said of the Bread, ‘This is My Body,’ who will dare any longer to doubt? And w hen He Himself has affirmed and said, “This is My Blood,’ who can ever hesitate and say it is not His Blood?….Do not therefore, regard the bread and wine as simply that, for they are, according to the Master’s declaration, the Body and Blood of Christ. Even though the senses suggest to you the other, let faith make you firm. Do not judge in these matters of taste, but be bully assured by faith, not doubting that you have been deemed worthy of the Body and Blood of Christ.” Catechetical Lectures: Mytsogogic 4, 22, 2, 6

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.