One True Religion

We have seen and can be certain that Jesus Christ is God. He came upon earth and became one of us in order to raise us up from this earth to heaven. God became man that men might become the children of God. How do we know this? From His own words.

We have seen that once we be­lieve that Christ is God, we take as true what He declares, so there will be no further argu­ment about His words. We may and should use all the reason God has given us to investi­gate if He is God, but that once determined, it is the dictate of sound reason to accept without question what He says.

Christ says: "He who follows me shall have a hundredfold and life everlasting; He who loses his life for my sake shall find it; I go to prepare a place for you." To the penitent thief, He said: "This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise." In regard to the multitudes, He said: "Father, I will that where I shall be they also shall be." Finally, hear His words to those who have lived goodly lives: "Come, you blessed of my Father and possess the king­dom of heaven."

Christ came not merely for the people who lived in His day, but for all nations to the end of the world. But how was He to reach them and minister unto them? He could have done it in various ways, but we must consider, not what He might have done, but what He did. And how did He provide for His ministry to men? He established a Church which was to continue forever the work He began. And how do we know this? From His plain decla­ration: "Thou art Peter, and upon thee I will build my church." (Matt. 16:17-20.) "As the Father hath sent me, so I send you." (John 20:21.) "Go you into the whole world and preach the things I have commanded you, and behold I shall be with you all days to the end of the world." (Matt. 28:18-20) This Church, then, is a teaching body, truly representing Christ on earth. For this reason He gave to His Church all the power of an ambassador: "He who hears you, hears Me". "All power is given me in heaven and on earth." "As the Father hath sent me, so I send you." What Christ is to the eternal Father, the Church is to Christ. The best definition of the Church is to state that it is the continuation of Jesus Christ in the world.

Our divine Lord, having thus established a religion, took good care to guarantee its con­tinuation and absolute truth. Here is His guarantee "The gates of hell shall not pre­vail against it; The Spirit of Truth, whom my Father will send, will teach you all truth; I shall be with you all days to the end of the world." Christ cannot be with error; hence, we have here the guarantee of infallibility to His Church. Indeed, how could a represent­ative of God be anything else but truth it­self? Christ did not say His Church would not have human frailty; indeed, He foretold that scandals would come; but what He did foretell and guarantee was that it should never teach error.

A judge of a court may not be an impec­cable man, but he may be a good judge. A doctor may be subject to illness, but he may nevertheless be an excellent doctor and pre­scribe beneficially for others. So the Church of God, which is not made up of angels, but of men, may in some of her pastors fail to live up to its own high teaching, but by God's special guarantee, it can never teach what is false.

We have not stated yet what church is the one founded by Christ and guaranteed as His representative. Only this have we declared and demonstrated: that Christ, the Son of God, established a Church, and that He made it His representative among men and guar­anteed it against misrepresenting Him.

In our next discussion, we shall proceed to find out where that Church is today, for we have God's word that it is in the world, and will be unto the end.
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Adapted from God and Myself, An Inquiry into the True Religion (©1917)
by Martin J Scott, S.J.