Constitutional History of the Western World (ePub)

The main scriptures which say there is one True Church are Matthew 16. 13-19, John 14. 23-26, John 15. 6 and Ephesians 4. 1-6. In the first scripture Christ tells us that He is founding His Church on a rock, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. John 14. 23-26 tell us that one must keep Christ's words - such as the words Christ spoke in Matthew 16. 13-19 - in order to love Christ. In John 15. 6 Christ says, in so many words, that those who do not abide in Him are cast into the flames. If one abides in Christ then one is in the True Church. If one does not abide in Christ then one is going to perdition. And in Ephesians 4. 1-6, St. Paul tells us `there is one body' - and this phrase means `There is one True Church.'

The True Church on earth is a collection of human beings, who, though they might make all sorts of errors and sins, nevertheless, the key characteristic of these human beings is that, despite whatever sins and errors they might make, they know how to deliver souls to heaven and they know how to avoid perdition. Perdition is any place in the afterlife that is not heaven. Perdition includes very warm sections of hell and more temperate regions. Every soul either goes to heaven or it goes to perdition. A Church, which again is a collection of people, either leads souls to heaven or it leads souls to perdition. By definition, the True Church is that Church which delivers its members to heaven, and it delivers none of its members to perdition.

The strongest argument saying that Rome has fallen away from the True Faith - recall the `falling away' mentioned in 2 Thess 2 - is an argument which explains the evil which Rome has perpetrated over the centuries. The Roman Catholic will admit that Rome has made mistake, but he insists that, despite all her errors, Rome still leads souls to heaven and she leads no one to perdition. My book reviews Rome's most controversial teachings, for example, The Inquisition is holy, i.e., Rome still calls the Inquisition the `Holy Office'.

An interesting phenomena is the existence of Cafeteria Catholics. A Cafeteria Catholic is a person who was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church, and has not been excommunicated, but he or she rebels against the Roman Catholic Church to some degree, but not to the degree of renouncing Rome completely. If Rome is the True Church, if Rome delivers souls to heaven and delivers no one to perdition, then it is always wrong to rebel against Rome, such as by rejecting one of her official doctrines, which is what Cafeteria Catholics do. If Rome is the True Church, if Rome delivers souls to heaven and delivers no one to perdition, then it is delusional to rebel against Rome. Ir Rome is not the True Church, renounce Rome. Same sorts of arguments are directed at other Christian churches.