Jesus Found the Catholic Church

[Dad_of_Ten]

Can someone direct me to where in the Gospels it says the catholic church was founded by Jesus? I believe it but want to defend it

 

[hazcompat]

Matthew 16:18 And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.

The earliest evidence of the use of the term Catholic Church is the Letter to the Smyrnaeans that Ignatius of Antioch wrote in about 107 to Christians in Smyrna. Exhorting Christians to remain closely united with their bishop, he wrote: "Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude [of the people] also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church
Patriarchs of Antioch[edit]
1.Peter the Apostle (ca. 37–ca. 53)
2.Evodius (ca. 53–ca. 69)
3.Ignatius (ca. 70–ca. 107), who was martyred in the reign of Trajan. His seven epistles are unique sources for the early Church.
Ignatius of Antioch , was a student of John the Apostle, and was the third bishop of Antioch.

Peace

 

[dchernik]

I got a question: do we know that Jesus founded the Catholic Church exclusively from Matthew 16:18, or are there other sources?

Because if there are no other sources, then it seems that we must hold this passage to be true before we can conclude that the Church is genuine.

But as a Catholic and not a Bible scholar, I hold that the Bible is true, because the Church has infallibly affirmed it so.

But if the legitimacy of the Church is established solely by the Bible, then it seems that we must hold the Bible (or at least this passage) to be true for some other reason. Like what?

Thanks.

 

[Abu]

Dchernik #3
I hold that the Bible is true, because the Church has infallibly affirmed it so.
But if the legitimacy of the Church is established solely by the Bible, then it seems that we must hold the Bible (or at least this passage) to be true for some other reason. Like what?

This is clearly explained by Karl Keating in Catholicism and Fundamentalism, Ignatius, 1988, p 125-127.

“What we really have is a spiral argument.

1. On the first level we argue to the reliability of the Bible as history. From that we conclude an infallible Church was founded.
2. Then we take the word of that infallible Church that the Bible is inspired. It reduces to the proposition that, without the existence of the Church, we could not tell if the Bible were inspired. As Augustine said, ‘I would not believe in the Gospel if the authority of the Catholic Church did not move me to do so.’ ”

So it emphatically is not circular. “We are not basing the inspiration of the Bible on the church’s infallibility and the Church’s infallibility on the word of an inspired Bible. That indeed would be a circular argument.” [p 126].

“As Arnold Lunn put it in a 1932 letter to C.E.M. Joad:
‘The Catholic claims to prove by pure reason that Christ was God, that Christ founded an infallible Church, and that the Roman Catholic Church is the church in question. Having traveled thus far by reason unaided by authority it is not irrational to trust the authority, whose credentials have been proved by reason, to interpret difficult passages in the Bible.’ ”[p 126].