Originally Posted by IgnatianPhilo View Post
"I think the RCC is not the one true Church because I reject the idea that the Pope has a universal jurisdiction, ability to define doctrine without council that is binding for the church and has a general universal supremacy.
The one true Church can be found in the local church as well as the universal church."
(end quote)
Not sure what that last sentence, a given within Protestantism, means. I think Protestants view the local church as the congregation of Christians who meet every week to share the Word, and possibly, communion.
Others would interpret “the local church” as all the Christians in a given area, in union with the local bishop. Others might interpret the local church as every Christian family, in its own home. Of course, every individual Christian is, in a way, a local church. (G. K. Chesterton, in a sentence I can’t find, described the confessional as a church.)
I would argue that aspects of the one true Church can be found in the Protestant understanding of the local church, as well as the other definitions. But full participation ****of ****the local church, **in **the one true Church, is found by its connection **to **the universal Church. The farther congregations, or individuals, families, or sees, move away from the current, visible One, Holy Catholic, and Apostolic Church, the less they will be part of the one true Church.
This does not prove that the RCC as a whole is the one, true Church, but I describe criteria that the RCC happens to meet.