Discovering the Faith We Hope To Pass On.

Re: The Inheritance.
I came across a video on YouTube, where a Mr. Michael Voris talks about the “Inheritance”, a subject that is very near and dear to my heart. During the last 5 or 10 years of my journey, just before returning to the Catholic Church I began to ask questions about the protestant faith that I could not find answers to. It was déjà-vou all over again! When I was a young adult Catholic, I could not find the answers to question I had about the Catholic Faith either.

What were my questions? Well I will give you just three of the many.
1. The Evangelical church believes that ‘once saved always saved’. Yet, the more familiar I got with scripture I found instances that cast great doubt on this premise. Where is the Truth?
2. The Protestant church believes that the Lord’s Supper is a memorial, a symbolic remembrance of what happened 2000 years ago when Jesus paid the ultimate price for all of our sins.
3. The Protestant church believed that somewhere along the line in the first 3 or 4 centuries, the Catholic Church strayed from the true faith and it didn’t surface again until the Reformation of the 16^th Century. It was then the true Church ‘surfaced’ in its fullness and grew into the Protestant faith. Where was the Church hiding during those ‘obscure’ years?

Once again, only now as a middle-aged adult I found myself questioning my faith. I questioned its validity just as I had done to the Catholic faith of my youth. I found myself reading scripture with great intensity.  I prayed and prayed asking God to please help me find some truth.  He had answered me so many times in the past; I knew that if I kept searching I would find the answers.  I began to read world history hoping to find something.   That led me to Church history and to my astonishment; I discovered some of the church fathers.  The prayer and study of both History and Scripture began to bear fruit for me.  In the letter to the Ephesians 2:12 Paul writes, “… work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” This verse not only cast doubt on the notion of ‘once saved always saved’… but here the apostle was saying that we should continue to ‘WORK’ it out, also dispelling the premise that ‘WORKS’ had nothing to do with salvation… but that it is was by Grace alone. To make a long story short, I also noted in the beginning of the book of Revelation that John writes the letters to the seven Churches.  He uses words and phrases like… ‘Do not be luke-warm, or I will spew you out of my mouth’; and ‘be careful that I do not strike your name from the book of life’.  Again… casting doubt that once we are saved, we are always saved.  The Protestants would argue that if your name were stricken from the ‘book of life’ that you were never really saved in the first place.  You must not have made a real commitment to Christ.  This did not make sense to me. This all required much more prayer, studying, and reading on my part.  After about 2 years or so, I concluded that in fact, that we are SAVED by Grace but not by Grace alone.  GOD took the first step and offered salvation to us by Grace; and that as we who choose to cooperate with it, we then go about on working it out.  Look at Ephesians 2:10 the Apostle goes on.... “For we are what He has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” In short the Grace of God and our cooperating with it to do the works and will of God will bring us to salvation. IT is both FAITH and WORKS. The two are so closely knit together that they are in-separable. The Grace comes in... because it is through God's Grace that initiates that salvation. WE respond by choosing to cooperate with it, or we can refuse to work with it.

Secondly, as a Protestant, I believed that the Lord’s Supper was a symbolic memorial. IT was not until I started reading the writings of the first popes and bishops of the church that I began to look at the Bread of Life discourse in Chapter 6 of John’s gospel in its true light. The Protestant church teaches that there were many heresies that surfaced in the church during the 3^rd and 4th centuries.  Therefore, the ‘true’ faith became obscure.  I myself could never really put my finger on just where and when that happened. Once I started reading church history and almost a year along into my studying, I came across references in the third century to what was called the “Didache”. THIS document was instrumental in my returning to the church. It detailed “the Way” of the Twelve, the Teaching of the Twelve APOSTLES. It “blew me out of the water” … so to speak. It lays the foundation as to how one should live the "Way" of the Christian Faith, and How not to. It goes on and details what the Apostles taught about “The Thanksgiving” what we call the Eucharist. This document was forged while there were still some of the Apostles living.  It was passed around the Church world and was considered sacred writing.  Although it did not make it into the cannon of Scripture, it was still a very important and instrumental document of the early church.  The ‘Didache’ gave me EARLY confirmation as to what the Gospels and the Catholic Church Teaches about the Lord's Supper.  It confirmed that the Apostles themselves believed the ‘Thanksgiving’ was a sacrifice that was made present ... the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

Finally, I would like to address my third concern about where the church was during those obscure years between… let us say the 4^th century and the 16^th centuries; until the Reformation.  Well, I have to admit I never really got around to finding where the church was.  Why you might ask?  Well my friends, it was because as I read about History and found documents and writings of the early church fathers there was no need.  Again… why you ask… because much of what I was reading was the Apostolic Tradition of the Catholic Church.  In finding it, reading it, praying about it, I discovered that the Church was never hidden, never obscure, never was it obscured from the eyes and ears of man. The CHURCH has stood firm and sound on Peter, the ROCK, and the Gates of Hell have not and will NEVER prevail against it.  I discovered for myself what the Protestant Church in fact denies; that you cannot have just Scripture alone.  You must have the living, breathing, Spirit led Magisterium of the Church as guide.  Without that rich Apostolic Tradition that was passed on by the Apostles, you only have half the Story.  It must be set in the Context of that authoritative History; otherwise, it will be subject to whoever and whatever direction the winds of change will be blowing. The Catholic Church with the Holy Scripture that she gave us, along with the Apostolic Tradition handed down by the Apostles spans more than 2000 years. YES, that history contains evil men, greedy men, savage men, and self-righteous men, men in need of reform and especially in recent years with the grave sin of the sex abuse scandals.  ALTHOUGH, Christ has used these ‘unclean vessels’ of poor reputation and character to guide The Body of CHRIST, the Church was always been visible and INTACT. Please, if you have never read of the Church Fathers, Doctors, early Popes and Saints who pledged their lives for YOU, The Holy Church… then you owe yourself the time to do so.  Because, only after reading and truly understanding it all will you discover the FULLNESS and the context of Scripture and Tradition that make up the full deposit of the Catholic Faith.  I am convinced that the FULLNESS of the Christian faith is found only in the One Holy Apostolic Church... the Catholic Church.

 My Friends, there are those among us in the Catholic church and outside of it, who believe the Church is to ‘old fashion’ to ‘out of touch’, that it needs to come out of the ‘dark ages’ and  come into the light of the 21^st century.  Let me say this…we do not own the Church and its teaching, it is the gift from Christ Himself; given and revealed to us through the Apostles.  Therefore, we cannot change nor can we improve upon it.  Doing so would only distort and demean the very truths about our faith.  The Catholic Faith has stood the test of time and space in its ENTIRETY; and it will stand until the day the Lord Himself returns. The tenants of Sacred Scripture and Seared Tradition do not belong to me; they do not belong to you.  They belong to the Entire body of the Church, the Communion of Saints.  The faithful who have gone before us have preserved it for more than 2000 years so that today we will have it in its FULLNESS.  It does not just belong to our generation.  We are just the vessels who hold it for a while, until we too, pass it on to the next generation preserving it in its entirety.  May God Bless and Keep the Catholic Church this day and always.

Until Next time May God Bless and Keep You,

BloggerBill

Please check out this link entitled… “Inheritance”. I found it very interesting. http://www.youtube.com/user/RealCatholicTV#p/u/1/6t-oydfasVc