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I Believe In One Holy Catholic And Apostolic Church

We Believe In One Holy Catholic And Apostolic Church

R.C. Sproul: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church
We Believe in One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Churchhardcover
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When was the church founded? Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God and not of a religious organization subsequently called church. We don’t find in the Gospels expressions which make reference to the foundation of a new religious community, a new and distinct community of followers of Jesus. But after the resurrection of Jesus, his followers, as a result of his express command, gather together not only those from the people of Israel but men and women of all nations.

The final clauses of the Nicene Creed spell out, briefly and to the point, the church’s self-understanding in these early centuries. Angelo Di Berardino assembles a wide range of texts and teachers of the church during these years to enrich our understanding and deepen our faith in the great mysteries expressed here.

The Creed quickly hits the four marks of the churchthat it is “one holy catholic and apostolic.” What do we mean by professing each of these? Di Berardino helps us to give an answer with the help of the fathers of the church.

The volume closes, as does the Creed, with a consideration of baptism and two central features of the church in the futurethe expectation that all of God’s people will enjoy the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

What Does It Mean For Catholics To Believe In One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church

This article is the first part of a three part series. Read part II and part III.

April 8, 2021 Every Sunday we profess belief in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. Many Catholics know that our Lord Jesus Christ founded one Church, rather than many, and that this is the Roman Catholic Church. Indeed, this claim has driven many converts to enter her fold over the years. This is sometimes called the unicity of the Church, distinguishing it from her unity.

But unicity is not all it means for the Church to be one. In 1928, Pope Pius XI wrote his encyclical Mortalium animos against the twentieth-century ecumenical movement. This movement held that there was indeed only one visible Church, but that it was composed of various communities of Christians, even though they adhere to different doctrines, which may even be incompatible one with another.

Against this, Pius XI taught that the Catholic Church is one, not just in the sense that she is unique, but also in that she is united and already enjoying the unity for which our Lord prayed when he said: That they all may be one. And there shall be one fold and one shepherd. Rather than wishing for an unrealised ideal, our Lords prayer was the efficacious cause of a remarkable unity of faith and charity, which she continued to enjoy for centuries.

This is a big topic, and we will be limiting ourselves just to what it means for the Church to be united in her external profession of the same faith.

Unity of profession

‘we Believe In One Holy Catholic And Apostolic Church’: The Armenian Apostolic Perspective

This article reviews the four marks of the Church Unity, Holiness, Catholicity and Apostolicity from the perspective of the Armenian Apostolic historical, doctrinal and liturgical tradition, with particular reference to the importance of the total identification of church and people and drawing attention to comparisons with the ecclesiological works and treatises of Western traditions. Within the rich context of the history and liturgical life of the Armenian Orthodox Church, the author expounds the meaning of the four marks of the Church, their co-inherence and linkage with the Incarnation of Christ, which enables the Church, ‘in her earthly and heavenly missions’ to reflect ‘the historical and mystical realities of what the apostles experienced in their mission as witnesses and teachers sent by Jesus Christ himself’ .

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But as Catholic Christians we must also now face the truth… and the truth is very simple – Abortion is still legal in ALL 50 US States. Moreover, there is an abortive procedure every few seconds in a nation that was once rooted in Judeo-Christian principles. PERIOD. End of story. Why have we lost this monumental battle, the battle to uphold the right to life for all men and women at every age and stage? In our own founding documents as Americans we proclaim that life is an inalienable right and an endowment from our Creator!

With this all in mind we need to ask what have we really learned and what have many of these efforts actually accomplished? We also must face the Truth. Let’s be really honest – with ourselves and with God. The Truth is the proponents of the so-called “right to choose” have won the most important of contemporary battles. They have won the battle to legalize the culture of death. One must really pause at the devastation legalized abortion brings to women, men, and their families. The horror it has unleashed upon our nation is unspeakable!

However, truth always prevails and the Lord of life hears the cry of the poor. Mother Teresa reminded us that children in the womb are the poorest of the poor. They have no-one to speak for them and they cannot be heard–except that is through our voice! We need to “build” a new Culture of Life, not simply oppose abortion.

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The Four Marks Of The Church

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  • FR. WILLIAM SAUNDERS

In the Nicene Creed, we profess, “We believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church”: these are the four marks of the Church. They are inseparable and intrinsically linked to each other.

In the Nicene Creed, we profess, “We believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church”: these are the four marks of the Church. They are inseparable and intrinsically linked to each other. Our Lord Himself in founding the Church marked it with these characteristics, which reflect its essential features and mission. Through the continued guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Church fulfills these marks.

First, the Church is one. The Catechism notes that the Church is one for three reasons: first, because of its source, which is the Holy Trinity, a perfect unity of three divine persons Father, Son, and Holy Spirit second, because of its founder, Jesus Christ, who came to reconcile all mankind through the blood of the cross and third, because of its “soul,” the Holy Spirit, who dwells in the souls of the faithful, who unites all of the faithful into one communion of believers, and who guides the Church .

The Church is also catholic. St. Ignatius of Antioch used this word meaning “universal” to describe the Church . The Church is indeed Catholic in that Christ is universally present in the Church and that He has commissioned the Church to evangelize the world “Go therefore an make disciples of all the nations” .

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Four Marks Of The Church

The Four Marks of the Church, also known as the Attributes of the Church, describes four distinctive adjectives of traditionalChristianecclesiology as expressed in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed completed at the First Council of Constantinople in AD 381: ” in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.”

This ecumenical creed is today recited in the liturgies of the Catholic Church , the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Assyrian Church of the East, the Moravian Church, the Lutheran Churches, the Methodist Churches, the Presbyterian Churches, the Anglican Communion, and by members of the Reformed Churches, although they interpret it in very different ways, and some Protestants alter the word “Catholic” in the creed, replacing it with the word “Christian”.

While many doctrines, based on both tradition and different interpretations of the Bible, distinguish one denomination from another , the Four Marks represent a summary of what many clergy and theologians have historically considered to be the most important affirmations of Christianity.

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I do not mean the Church as we see her spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners. These are the words C.S. Lewis gave to his character, Screwtape, imagining what a senior demon might think about Christs one, holy, catholic, apostolic Church. That, adds Screwtape with a disdainful shudder, I confess, is a spectacle which makes our boldest tempters uneasy.

This Church the one spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners is what we confess to believe in when we affirm the Nicene Creed. Not only do we confess to believe in it, we confess also to be a part of it. To be a Christian is necessarily to be a footman in this army to march behind a sea of faithful warrior-saints who have gone before us, and in front of many who will follow all on our way to storm the wobbling gates of hell . To be a Christian is necessarily to be a footman in this army to march behind a sea of faithful warrior-saints who have gone before us, and in front of many who will follow all on our way to storm the wobbling gates of hell.

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I Believe In The Holy Catholic Church: An Explanation Of The Ninth Article Of The Apostles Creed

One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic

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When we say, I believe in the Holy Catholic Church, we are not speaking of the material church, the place in which we faithful unite to pay God that tribute of love, honor, and attention which we owe to Him, and which is called religion. In this sense church means temple, house of God, or house of prayer.

But by those words of the Creed, we affirm belief in the Church as the society or congregation of the faithful, united by the profession of one and the same Faith, united also by participation in the same Sacraments, and by submission to the legitimate prelates, principally to the Roman Pontiff.

Thus it is that it was necessary for God to form Her in such a way that everyone could recognize Her, and that nobody could confuse Her with the synagogue of Satan, the mother of all reprobates.

Holiness, the Second Mark

The Church is Universal

The third character or sign of the Church is to be Catholic which is to say, Universal because the prophets already had announced that She must extend Herself throughout all the land.

And Apostolic

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The term “catholic” does not refer to any specific denomination or group of Christians. The term comes from two Greek words that together mean “throughout the whole.” This single word, “catholic,” means throughout all time and places and also points to the essential unity or wholeness of the church in Christ. No one English term captures that dual sense of this ancient Greek term quite as well as “catholic.” So when the creed states, “I believe in the holy catholic church,” it refers to the wholeness of the whole church in all times and places rather than to any specific branch of Christianity.For more, watch Liturgy Man’s video that includes this topic.

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One Holy Catholic And Apostolic Church

Friday 28th October 2005

Archbishop’s Address to the 3rd Global South to South Encounter Ain al Sukhna, Egypt

I count it a great privilege to spend sadly a short time, but hopefully a time of real sharing and fellowship, with you. As has been said more than once already, the focus of the centre of Anglican energy in the world is very clearly in the global south in our time and it is therefore for me an experience of learning, as well as of fellowship, to be with you and to seek to understand better how it is that you witness to our one Lord Jesus Christ.

And to see the nature of the church in these terms is, I believe, to be liberated from any idea that the oneness, the holiness, the catholicity, the apostolicity of the church are either characteristics that we possess in our own right, or even goals that we can plan for. Before we can even begin to think about what belongs to us or about what goals we should have, we must think about Jesus Christ. And I say this partly because as I read St John’s Gospel, I find in the 17th chapter, so often quoted in speaking of the unity of the church, I find there Jesus spelling out all four marks of the church in his prayer. And I read to you briefly from John 17 beginning at verse 17.

And all of that leads us on, of course, to talk about the holiness of the church. And so I move secondly to reflection on that.

And what does he hear?

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Reflections On The Creed: I Believe In The One Holy Catholic And Apostolic Church

Young adults gather to welcome Pope Francis to World Youth Day in Rio where they will celebrate the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

The Father so loved us that he sent his Son to redeem us. Jesus so loved us that he died and rose again for our salvation. To continue the work of redemption he selected Apostles upon whom he would build his Church, his new Body, which would have as its responsibility the task of carrying out and completing the work that he began.

The family that is the Church is a living body that is heavenly and earthly, and it is one because Christs body is one. This mystical body is holy because it is filled with the Spirit who sanctifies us even though individual members may not live up to that gift. Moreover, our Church is not one among many, but rather the one that includes the many. From the moment the Church was born of the Spirit at Pentecost, it was catholic, which means universal, and it is meant to embrace everyone. Also, the Church is apostolic both because it has a continuous and verifiable continuity with the Apostles and because of the mission of each member of the Church to spread the Gospel.

Faith Teaches We Are One Holy Catholic And Apostolic Church

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Every time we go to Mass, we say that we believe in one, holy and apostolic Church. We know the Church is holy because we believe it was instituted by God. And we know its apostolic because our duty as Catholic Christians is to spread the Good News as the Apostles did.

But the catholic part is what interests me here. It means so much more than just Catholic, as in the Roman Catholic Church. It means catholic, as in all-encompassing. Thats because it covers all races, nationalities and political opinions, among many other things. Its what attracted me to the Catholic Church in the first place, and Ive never doubted my decision to become a member of it.

Think about it. We have Catholics in good standing who believe in limited capital punishment, and equally faithful Catholics who are totally against it. We have Republican Catholics and Democrat Catholics, political liberals and political conservatives. We have extremely wealthy Catholics and impoverished Catholics, and everything in between.

However, Catholics also believe in good and evil. There are certainly shades of gray in many areas, but we believe that some things are simply right and others are simply wrong. We believe that abortion is simply wrong because it murders an unborn child who, if left alone, would become a living, breathing human person.

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Conflicting Boundaries And Definitions

The Roman Catholic Church, comprising both the Western and the Eastern Rites , claims to be the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The Eastern Orthodox Church, comprising about 16 mutually recognizing autocephalous hierarchical churches, similarly claims to be the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. This disagreement has persisted since the Great Schism of 1054. Before that schism, the two were visibly united and claimed the title jointly .

While the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches believe that the term “one” in the Nicene Creed describes and prescribes an institutional unity , Protestant and evangelical Christians insist on a less visible unity dependent on inner faith in Christ. Despite these differing opinions and definitions, all Christians seek the unity which the early Christians were exhorted to preserve , and for which Christ himself prayed .

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