Not all non-Catholics are full blown Protestants

[Contarini]

Edwin my information is not incorrect. This goes back to time before your church existed.

What church do you mean?

My information is taught by religious Historians at the Uof A. I also read it in a question answer book at the christian store. Catholic meant Universal everyone is welcome.

I don’t know what the U of A is. University of Arkansas? University of Alabama? University of Aberdeen? But they are wrong. “Catholic” did not mean “everyone is welcome.” Find me one early Christian statement that uses it in this sense.

Here is the first (and vaguest) Christian use of the word I know of, from Ignatius’s letter to Smyrna, chap. 8:

See that ye all follow the bishop, even as Jesus Christ does the Father, and the presbytery as ye would the apostles; and reverence the deacons, as being the institution[1027](javascript:toggle(‘fnf_v.vii.viii-p1.4’)1027 Or, “command.” of God. Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the bishop. Let that be deemed a proper[1028](javascript:toggle(‘fnf_v.vii.viii-p2.5’)1028 Or, “firm.” Eucharist, which is [administered] either 90 by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. 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. It is not lawful without the bishop either to baptize or to celebrate a love-feast; but whatsoever he shall approve of, that is also pleasing to God, so that everything that is done may be secure and valid.

The whole letter is concerned with false teachers who say that Jesus did not have a real physical body, deny the Real Presence, and do not participate in the common Eucharist led by the bishop. Note the parallel between the bishop and Christ, and the insistence that the Eucharist must be celebrated under the bishop’s authority, if not actually celebrated by him. In that context, the statement “wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church,” clearly does not mean that anyone who names the name of Jesus is part of the Universal Church, but rather that the bishop represents the presence of Christ. Earlier he has said that those who reject the right teaching about Jesus’ physical sufferings have denied Christ and are unbelievers (chap. 5), and that such “unbelievers” will not receive eternal life (chap. 6).

Later references to the term “Catholic” are even more explicit.

Your information is incorrect. Please do not set up the authority of these professors of yours as a shield between you and the truth. For what it’s worth, I have a Ph.D. in church history from Duke University. That doesn’t mean that you should believe whatever I say, but you should not believe implicitly what your other sources are telling you either. You should look at the context in Ignatius and other early Christian writers and judge for yourself.

In Christ,

Edwin

 

[jmcrae]

Have a really nifty day, buckeroo…!!

Right back at ya, with bells on.