~PERCY'S CATHOLIC APOLOGETICS ~

Categories of Documents Authority Motu Proprio Apostolic Constitution Encyclical Apostolic Letter Apostolic Exhortation Common Declaration Homily Audience Discourse Message

Authority The weight of authority behind a teaching of the Papal Magisterium depends on the dogmatic history of the teaching and the intention of the Supreme Pontiff. Papal addresses and documents invariably contain teachings in several categories of authority. Some of these teachings will be "of the faith" (de fide),  requiring the assent of Catholics by reason of the virtue of faith's obligation to God revealing. Among such de fide teachings will be those which have been solemnly defined (such as the divinity of Christ, or, the Immaculate Conception of Mary), and those which, while they have not been solemnly defined, belong to the infallible ordinary Magisterium, having been taught "semper et ubique" (always and everywhere). Examples of the latter include the evil of certain sins, such as abortion or adultery, or the restriction of the priesthood to men. Papal addresses and documents may also contain teachings which come from the common teaching of the Church, but which cannot yet be said to be de fide, and even new insights and explanations which manifest the mind of the Magisterium. Such authentic teaching has a presumption of correctness and deserves the reverence and submission of Catholics. By doing so peaceful communion in matters of the faith is maintained throughout the Church, properly gathered around the principle of unity in faith given by Christ to the Church, Peter and his successors. On this point the Second Vatican Council taught in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium,  This religious submission of mind and will must be shown in a special way to the authentic Magisterium of the Roman Pontiff, even when he is not speaking ex cathedra; that is, it must be shown in such a way that his supreme Magisterium is acknowledged with reverence, the judgments made by him are sincerely adhered to, according to his manifest mind and will. His mind and will in the matter may be known either from the character of the documents, from his frequent repetition of the same doctrine, or from his manner of speaking. [Lumen gentium 25] Among the elements mentioned by the Council for determining the mind and intention of the Pontiff is the character of the document. Papal addresses and documents fall into certain recognized categories with levels of authority relative to each other. The following lists those categories from those with the highest weight to those with the least

Church History Study Helps:      Jerome Jerome A superb Latin stylist, a careful linguist, and an eloquent and unscrupulous polemicist, St. Jerome (Eusebius Hieronymus) was the greatest scholar whom the ancient western church produced. Born in 331 of a prosperous landed family whose home was at Stridon in Dalmation (now Yugoslavia), Jerome was schooled at Rome in grammar, rhetoric, and the classics of Latin literature. In 382 in Rome, Jerome became a kind of secretary to Pope Damascus and there undertook with the pope's encouragement the greatest translation project of all: a revision of the crude Old Latin version of the Bible. Over a period of 22 years, he completed the Gospels of the New Testament (in Rome) and the Old testament (in Palestine). The latter he translated from the Hebrew original, having become persuaded that the Hebrew text and canon, and not those of the Greek Septuagint, were the proper authorities for the church.   Church History Study Helps:      Tertullian Tertullian 1. About three years after Irenaeus was chosen bishop of Lyon, in July of 180 AD, there occurred an event whose record provides our first knowledge of Christianity in the province of North Africa: the martyrdom in the capital city Carthage, of twelve believers from the town of Scillium. This event so impacted the outlook of Christianity in this region, that the area long thereafter viewed itself as a church of martyrs. This very outlook is found in the many tracts we have of Tertullian, the first Christian writer of note to use Latin, and the man who gave to Latin theology its vocabulary and basic agenda. 2. Tertullian was a convert to Christianity, a native of Carthage who probably never strayed far from home, and a man whose professional education was in rhetoric. Tertullian bursts on the scene in North Africa in 197 with the appearance of his Apology. He seems to have died around 225. In between these two dates, he published eloquent, witty and argumentative tracts on doctrine and morals which reveal him to have been a masterful debater as well as a Christian of radical and uncompromising spirit. 3. At the heart of Tertullian's theology lies his concern for the purity and holiness of the church, the practical authenticity of its life and teaching. Keeping God's words meant for Tertullian existence in separation from the world, which he saw as having the idolatrous subordination to demons built into the very structure of society. In Tertullian's view, then, Christians had no business serving in the army, in government, in educational institutions, or in any business which directly or indirectly supported pagan religion. Tertullian had little use for believers who fell into serious sin after baptism. In his treatise On Penitence he argued that one, and only one, such fall might be compensated for by a "second repentance". Later, however, reflection on the constant failure of Christians drove him into the sterner position of the Montanists. In his Montanist period, he denied the possibility of any repentance and restoration at all after baptism. There was no room in the church or in Christian life for a serious and deliberate failure to live by the precepts of the Gospel. 4. According to Tertullian, the business of the church was to adhere unquestioningly to the "rule of faith" which was the one key to the Scriptures. Tertullian accordingly turned his rhetorical skills against the heretics of his day, and wrote five books entitled Against Marcion, and another treatise, Against the Valentinians (i.e., Gnostics). He defended the doctrines of creation, of the fleshly incarnation of the Logos, and of the resurrection of the flesh. His most notable contribution to theology was made in the tract Against Praxeas in which he mounted an attack on a "monarchian" teacher who had denied the substantive reality of the Logos as distinct from the father (see II.8). In this work Tertullian evolved the earliest systematic form of the doctrine of the Trinity, arguing that there is one divine "substance" which is articulated or "administered" into three distinct but continuous "persons": Father, Logos/Son, and Spirit. At the same time he offered a reflective account of the incarnation, explaining that the person of Christ is a union of two distinct, unconfused "substances", divine and human, in a single "person". This terminology, hard to interpret by reason of the differences between the meaning of Tertullian's Latin terms and those of their modern English derivatives, became the basis of all later Latin and western trinitarian and Christological discourse and formulations. Jesus Christ declared in Matthew 16:18, that He will build His Church on solid rock, the rock of Simon-Peter. It is generally recognized that the point of actual founding of the Catholic Church is at the cross in John 19:34, "...but one of the soldiers opened His side with a lance, and immediately there came out blood and water." At Pentecost in Acts 2:1-4, the Apostles were given the authority, and the power, by the Holy Spirit with which to commence the building of the Church. Notice in Acts 2:14-36 that Peter, the same Peter who denied Christ three times and ran off and wept (Matt 26:69-75), is immediately emboldened and gives his first discourse.   The true Church of Jesus Christ must have holiness. Holiness in its founder, holiness in its principles, holiness in its members, and holiness in its miracles. The Bible tells us that Jesus prayed for the holiness of His Church, to "Sanctify them" (John 17:17), "consecrated in truth" (John 17:19). Jesus Christ desires that the Church consist of His own sheep who have been purified for Him as an acceptable people (Titus 2:14). However, we must expect that there will be unworthy members in His Church as well. To demonstrate this, Jesus gave us some parables to help in our understanding. In the parable of the sower of seed, Jesus shows us the good and bad dispositions with which various men hear the word of God (Matthew 13:3-8). In the parable of the weeds and the wheat, He said that we must allow both the weeds and the wheat to grow together in the field until it is time for the harvest (Matthew 13:24-30). In another parable, he likened the kingdom of heaven to a net full of good fish and bad fish which will be separated by the angels at the close of the age (Matthew 13:47-50). Jesus also tells the story of the king who saw one of his guests without a wedding garment. When asked how he got there, the man was speechless and the king had him cast into the outer darkness (Matthew 22:11-14). All of these parables point to the fact that there will be both holy and unholy people together in the Church until the final judgment when the unholy members will be cast out (Matthew 7:16-17). Indeed, scandalous crimes have been committed by some members of the Catholic Church. Sometimes these mistakes have involved not only the laity, but also priests, bishops, and on occasion even a pope. These scandals do not prove that the Catholic Church is false, only that the Church contains sinners as well as saints. Paul's words concerning the Jews also applies to Christians. (Romans 3:3-4) (see also 2 Timothy 2:13)	Church History Study Helps:      Augustine Augustine A younger contemporary of Jerome, St. Augustine of Hippo (Aurelius Augustinus) was born in the Numidian city of Thagaste on November 13, 354. While his father, Patricius, was a pagan, his mother, Monica, was a pious Christian in the devout and perhaps slightly superstitious North African style. His move to Carthage marked the beginning of his religious and philosophical quest. There he read and studies Cicero's "Hortensius" and by it was converted to the quest for wisdom and the fulfilled human life. Around 373 he joined the Manichean movement which was widespread and popular in North Africa and which appealed to him because of their apparent solution to the problem of evil, a systematic dualism. In 384 he moved to Milan and there began to hear the preaching of the great Ambrose. Through Ambrose's treatment of Scripture much of the crudeness with which Augustine has characterized Christian Scripture seemed to be overcome. Gradually the inconsistency between his pursuit of a spiritual life and his absorption in immorality created a great tension which was overcome in a garden in Milan when he overheard a child chanting the jingle "Take and read. take and read.". He immediately took Paul's letter to the Romans , opened it, and there read: "...not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires" (Rom 13:13-14). This brought about an immediate conversion and turned him to a form of the ascetic life. Augustine was baptized at Easter in 387, and returned to Africa where he spent the rest of his life. In 391, on a visit to the port city of Hippo in Numidia, he was seized by the people and despite his own tears and protests was ordained presbyter by the bishop Valerius. Shortly after 396 Valerius died and Augustine succeeded him. He remained the bishop of Hippo until his death in 439   Church History Study Helps:      Growth and Persecutions Growth and Persecutions 1. In the year 260, the emperor Valerian (253-260), campaigning against the Persians, was defeated and captured by Sapor I (234-270). His son, colleague, and successor, Gallienus (253-268), thereupon revoked his father's edict of persecution, and for the next 44 years the Christian churches enjoyed a period of respite from official persecution. By the end of this period, Christianity was represented in all parts of the empire and its adherents may have numbered as many as five million, a significant if not large minority of the population. Its greatest concentrations were in Asia Minor, Egypt, Syria, North Africa, and central Italy. The last half of the third century, however, seems to have produced little in the way of original theological thought. 2. In the third century, Paganism itself experienced a shift in religious mood. Attention was less focused on the many gods of the classic religion, but gave more attention to the transcendently holy and life giving God whose power the lesser Gods represented. This development is manifest particularly on the imperial cult. Emperors, human beings as they were, were no longer seen as gods. Rather they were seen as persons who, in virtue of their office, were "begotten of the gods", sharing in their mortal way in the holiness of the Divine and enjoying its protection. Behind this shift in the sense of the imperial cult lay the third century development of solar monotheism, worship of the life-giving sun as a symbol of the ultimate God who is the source of all things. The emperor Aurelian built a great temple to the Unconquered Sun, which he intended to be the center of the empire's religious life. Christians in the fourth century could find no better way of rivaling this popular deity than by using his birthday, December 25 (the winter solstice), to celebrate the birth of Christ, the Sun of Righteousness. 3. In 284, Diocletian succeeded the imperial throne, and turned toward internal reconstruction of the empire. The first step of his program, which evolved gradually, was to appoint, in 285 AD, a second emperor, Maximian, to share his authority and to supervise affairs in the western portion of the empire. His next step, taken a few years later, was to associate with these two "Augusti", two junior emperors called "Caesars", who were assigned sections of the empire to rule and defend and were designated heirs apparent to the two Augusti. As his own Caesar, Diocletian selected Galerius the soldier. Maximiam was assigned Constantius I, father of Constantine the Great. Diocletian also doubled the number of provinces by redrawing the map and grouped these new provinces into large administrative area called "diocese", each of which was put under a "vicar" or governor general. 4. During most of his reign Diocletian exhibited the same toleration which had marked the policy of his predecessors. Toward the end of his reign, however, circumstances convinced him that the existence of Christianity was rupturing the covenant between Rome and her protectorate gods. Not only were Christians in the army insulting the gods by refusing to acknowledge them, but Diocletian was informed by his priests that, because of the presence in his court of "profane men" (presumably Christians), the traditional divinations by which the emperors learned the will of the gods, were void of effect: the gods were no longer answering. And when Diocletian sent to the oracle of Apollo at Miletus to inquire what course he should take in the face of this situation, the answer was unfavorable to the Christians. Thus Diocletian began a series of actions which were calculated to rid first the court and the army, and then the empire as a whole, of Christians. 5. Beginning in February 303, three edicts of persecution came i rapid succession. Churches were to be destroyed, sacred books were to be confiscated, and finally, clergy were to be imprisoned and compelled to offer sacrifice to the Roman gods. In 304, a fourth edict required all Christians to offer sacrifice. Some believers were martyred, many suffered, and many lapsed and made the sacrifice. In 305, troubled by ill health, Diocletian retired from his office as August and compelled the simultaneous resignation of Maximian. Thus Galerius rose to greater power in the West and continued the persecution of Christians, while in the East Constantius I eased somewhat the oppression. In 306 Constantius I died suddenly and was succeeded by his son Constantine (the Great). In 311, from his deathbed, Galerius issued an edict of toleration which ended the persecution of the Eastern Christians. 5. Constantine, like his father, had been a firm opponent of the persecution of the Christians. On the eve of the battle at the Mulvian Bridge, Constantine had a dream in which he saw the initial letters of the name of Christ with the words, "By this sign you will conquer." Taking this as an omen, he resolved to trust his cause to the God of the Christians and had the Chi-Ro (greek letters) monogram painted on the shields of his soldiers. In the ensuing struggle, Maxentius, the opposing leader, lost the battle and his life, and Constantine had won control of the west. When he entered Rome in triumph, Constantine remembered to whom he owed his victory. The customary tributes of thanks to the gods of Rome were omitted. The emperor henceforth regarded the Christian God as the protector of the empire and the sponsor of his own mission of reform and reconstruction. Welcome to Scripture Catholic.com – one of the most comprehensive Catholic apologetic websites on the internet. Scripture Catholic.com provides over 2,000 Scripture citations from the Old and New Testament that explain and defend the teachings of the Catholic Church. This site also provides hundreds of excerpts from the writings of the early Church Fathers (1st through 8th centuries). These writings explain the Fathers’ interpretation of Scripture and demonstrate that the early Church was unequivocally Catholic. Through the study of Scripture and the Church Fathers, we see that, not only is the Catholic faith biblical, Catholicism is Bible Christianity par excellence. Because the Old and New Testament Scriptures are the divinely-revealed, written Word of God, Catholics venerate the Scriptures as they venerate the Lord’s body. But Catholics do not believe that God has given us His divine Revelation in Christ exclusively through Scripture. Catholics also believe that God’s Revelation comes to us through the Apostolic Tradition and teaching authority of the Church. What Church? Scripture reveals this Church to be the one Jesus Christ built upon the rock of Saint Peter (Matt. 16:18). By giving Peter the keys of authority (Matt. 16:19), Jesus appointed Peter as the chief steward over His earthly kingdom (cf. Isaiah. 22:19-22). Jesus also charged Peter to be the source of strength for the rest of the apostles (Luke 22:32) and the earthly shepherd of Jesus' flock (John 21:15-17). Jesus further gave Peter, and the apostles and elders in union with him, the power to bind and loose in heaven what they bound and loosed on earth. (Matt. 16:19; 18:18). This teaching authority did not die with Peter and the apostles, but was transferred to future bishops through the laying on of hands (e.g., Acts 1:20; 6:6; 13:3; 8:18; 9:17; 1 Tim. 4:14; 5:22; 2 Tim. 1:6). By virtue of this divinely-appointed authority, the Catholic Church determined the canon of Scripture (what books belong in the Bible) at the end of the fourth century. We therefore believe in the Scriptures by the authority of the Catholic Church. After all, nothing in Scripture tells us what Scriptures are inspired, what books belong in the Bible, or that Scripture is the final authority on questions concerning the Christian faith. Instead, the Bible says that the Church, not the Scriptures, is the pinnacle and foundation of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15) and the final arbiter on questions of the Christian faith (Matt. 18:17). It is through the teaching authority and Apostolic Tradition (2 Thess. 2:15; 3:6; 1 Cor. 11:2) of this Church, who is guided by the Holy Spirit (John 14:16,26; 16:13), that we know of the divine inspiration of the Scriptures, and the manifold wisdom of God. (cf. Ephesians 3:10). I hope that this site gives Catholics the biblical knowledge they need to answer questions about their faith, and helps them rediscover the truth of their faith as taught by Sacred Scripture. I further pray that our Christian family outside the Church recognizes that the fullness of truth in Christ can only be found inside the Church. I also pray that each one of us grows more deeply in love with Jesus as we become better Bible Christians (or, rather, “Scripture Catholics”). Outside The Church There Is No Salvation The doctrine that "Outside the Church there is no salvation" is one that is constantly misinterpreted by those who won't submit to the Magisterium of the Church. Faith does not depend upon our ability to reason to the truth but on our humility before the Truth presented to us by those to whom Christ entrusted that task. This is why the First Vatican Council taught that it is the task of the Magisterium ALONE to determine and expound the meaning of the Tradition - including "outside the Church no salvation." Concerning this doctrine the Pope of Vatican I, Pius IX, spoke on two different occasions. In an allocution (address to an audience) on December 9th, 1854 he said: We must hold as of the faith, that out of the Apostolic Roman Church there is no salvation; that she is the only ark of safety, and whosoever is not in her perishes in the deluge; we must also, on the other hand, recognize with certainty that those who are invincible in ignorance of the true religion are not guilty for this in the eyes of the Lord. And who would presume to mark out the limits of this ignorance according to the character and diversity of peoples, countries, minds and the rest? Again, in his encyclical Quanto conficiamur moerore of 10 August, 1863 addressed to the Italian bishops, he said: It is known to us and to you that those who are in invincible ignorance of our most holy religion, but who observe carefully the natural law, and the precepts graven by God upon the hearts of all men, and who being disposed to obey God lead an honest and upright life, may, aided by the light of divine grace, attain to eternal life; for God who sees clearly, searches and knows the heart, the disposition, the thoughts and intentions of each, in His supreme mercy and goodness by no means permits that anyone suffer eternal punishment, who has not of his own free will fallen into sin. These statements are consistent with the understanding of the Church contained in the documents of Vatican II, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, as well as explaining why the rigorist position of Fr. Feeney (that all must be actual members of the Catholic Church to be saved) has been condemned by the Magisterium. It is ironic that precisely those who know their obligation to remain united to the Magisterium, and thus on whom this doctrine is morally binding, keep themselves from union with the Roman See on this point. 50 New Testament verses which show the 'primacy' of St. Peter.... * Matthew 16:18: "And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." The "rock" (Greek, "petra") referred to here is St. Peter himself, not his faith or Jesus Christ. Christ appears here not as the foundation, but as the architect who "builds." The Church is built, not on confessions, but on confessors - living men (see 1 Pt 2:5). Today, the overwhelming consensus of the great majority of all biblical scholars and commentators is in favor of the traditional Catholic understanding. Here St. Peter is spoken of as the foundation-stone of the Church, making him head and superior of the family of God - that is, the seed of the doctrine of the papacy. Moreover, "Rock" embodies a metaphor applied to him by Christ in a sense analogous to the suffering and despised Messiah (see 1 Pt 2:4-8; Mt 21:42). Without a solid foundation a house falls. St. Peter is the foundation, but not founder of the Church; administrator, but not Lord of the Church. The Good Shepherd (Jn 10:11) gives us other shepherds as well (Eph 4:11). * Matthew 16:19: "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven." The "power" of the keys has to do with ecclesiastical discipline and administrative authority with regard to the requirements of the faith, as in Isaiah 22:22 (see Is 9:6; Job 12:14; Rev 3:7). From this power flows the use of censures, excommunication, absolution, baptismal discipline, the imposition of penances and legislative powers. In the Old Testament, a steward, or prime minister, is a man who is "over a house" (Gen 41:40; Gen 43:19;44:4; 1 King 4:6;16:9;18:3; 2 King 10:5;15:5;18:18; Isa 22:15, Isa 20-21). * Matthew 16:19: "Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." "Binding" and "loosing" were technical rabbinical terms, which meant to "forbid" and "permit" with reference to the interpretation of the law and, secondarily, to "condemn," "place under the ban" or "acquit." Thus St. Peter and the popes are given the authority to determine the rules for doctrine and life by virtue of revelation and the Spirit's leading (see Jn 16:13), as well as to demand obedience from the Church. "Binding and loosing" represent the legislative and judicial powers of the papacy and the bishops (Mt 18:17-18; Jn 20:23). St. Peter, however, is the only apostle who receives these powers by name and in the singular, making him pre-eminent. * Peter's name occurs first in all lists of apostles (see Mt 10:2; Mk 3:16; Lk 6:14; Acts 1:13). Matthew even calls him "the first" (10:2). (Judas Iscariot is invariably mentioned last.) * Peter is almost without exception named first whenever he appears with anyone else. In one example to the contrary, Galatians 2:9, where he is listed after James and before John, he is clearly preeminent in the entire context (see, for example, Gal 1:18-19; 2:7-8). Taken in context, Paul is in Jerusalem (2:1), the See of James. Protocol, even to this day is for the Bishop of the diocese to be mentioned first before any visitor is mentioned, even for the Pope. Saint Paul is merely following proper protocol in vs 2:9. * Peter alone among the apostles receives a new name, "Rock," solemnly conferred (Jn 1:42; Mt 16:18). * Peter is asked three times by Christ to feed His lambs, is regarded by Jesus as the chief shepherd after himself (Jn 21:15-17), singularly by name, and over the universal Church, even though others have a similar but subordinate role (Acts 20:28; 1 Pt 5:2). * Peter alone among the apostles is mentioned by name as having been prayed for by Jesus Christ in order that his "faith fail not" (Lk 22:32). * Peter alone among the apostles is exhorted by Jesus to "strengthen your brethren" (Lk 22:32). * Peter first confesses Christ's divinity (Mt 16:16). * Peter alone is told that he has received divine knowledge by a special revelation (Mt 16:17). * Peter is regarded by the Jews (Acts 4:1-13) as the leader and spokesman of Christianity. * Peter is regarded by the common people in the same way (Act 2:37-41;5:15). * Jesus Christ uniquely associates himself and Peter in the miracle of the tribute money (Mt 17:24-27). * Christ teaches from Peter's boat, and the miraculous catch of fish follows (Lk 5:1-11) perhaps a metaphor for the pope as a "fisher of men" (Mt 4:19). * Peter was the first apostle to set out for, and enter, the empty tomb (Lk 24:12; Jn 20:6). * Peter is specified by an angel as the leader and representative of the apostles (Mk 16:7). * Peter leads the apostles in fishing (Jn 21:2-3,11). The "bark" (boat) of Peter has been regarded by Catholics as a figure of the Church, with Peter at the helm. * Peter alone casts himself into the sea to come to Jesus (Jn 21:7). * Peter's words are the first recorded and most important in the Upper Room before Pentecost (Acts 1:15-22). * Peter takes the lead in calling for a replacement for Judas (Acts 1:22). * Peter is the first person to speak (and only one recorded) after Pentecost, so he was the first Christian to "preach the Gospel" in the Church era (Acts 2:14-36). * Peter works the first miracle of the Church Age, healing a lame man (Acts 3:6-12). * Peter utters the first anathema (Ananias and Sapphira) emphatically affirmed by God (Acts 5:2-11). * Peter's shadow works miracles (Acts 5:15). * Peter is the first person after Christ to raise the dead (Acts 9:40). * Cornelius is told by an angel to seek out Peter for instruction in Christianity (Acts 10:1- 6). * Peter is the first to receive the Gentiles, after a revelation from God (Acts 10:9-48). * Peter instructs the other apostles on the catholicity (universality) of the Church (Acts 11:5-17). * Peter is the object of the first divine interposition on behalf of an individual in the Church Age (an angel delivers him from prison - Acts 12:1-17). * The whole Church (strongly implied) prays for Peter "without ceasing" when he is imprisoned (Acts 12:5). * Peter presides over and opens the first council of Christianity, and lays down principles afterward accepted by it (Acts 15:7-11). * Paul distinguishes the Lord's post-resurrection appearances to Peter from those to other apostles (1 Cor 15:4-5). * Peter is often spoken of as distinct among apostles (Mk 1:36; Lk 9:28,32; Acts 2:37; 5:29; 1 Cor 9:5). * Peter is often spokesman for the other apostles, especially at climactic moments (Mk 8:29; Mt 18:21; Lk 9:5; 12:41; Jn 6:67). * Peter's name is always the first listed of the "inner circle" of the disciples (Peter, James and John - Mt 17:1; 26:37,40; Mk 5:37; 14:37). * Peter is often the central figure relating to Jesus in dramatic Gospel scenes such as walking on the water (Mt 14:28-32; Lk 5:1, Mk 10:28; Mt 17:24). * Peter is the first to recognize and refute heresy, in Simon Magus (Acts 8:14-24). * Peter's name is mentioned more often than all the other disciples put together: 191 times (162 as Peter or Simon Peter, 23 as Simon and 6 as Cephas). John is next in frequency with only 48 appearances, and Peter is present 50 percent of the time we find John in the Bible. Archbishop Fulton Sheen reckoned that all the other disciples combined were mentioned 130 times. If this is correct, Peter is named a remarkable 60 percent of the time any disciple is referred to. * Peter's proclamation at Pentecost (Acts 2:14-41) contains a fully authoritative interpretation of Scripture, a doctrinal decision and a disciplinary decree concerning members of the "House of Israel" - an example of "binding and loosing." * Peter was the first "charismatic," having judged authoritatively the first instance of the gift of tongues as genuine (Acts 2:14-21). * Peter is the first to preach Christian repentance and baptism (Acts 2:38). * Peter (presumably) takes the lead in the first recorded mass baptism (Acts 2:41). * Peter commanded the first Gentile Christians to be baptized (Act 10:44-48). * Peter was the first traveling missionary, and first exercised what would now be called "visitation of the churches" (Acts 9:32-38,43). Paul preached at Damascus immediately after his conversion (Acts 9:20), but had not traveled there for that purpose (God changed his plans). His missionary journeys begin in Acts 13:2. * Paul went to Jerusalem specifically to see Peter for 15 days at the beginning of his ministry (Gal 1:18), and was commissioned by Peter, James and John (Gal 2:9) to preach to the Gentiles. * Peter acts, by strong implication, as the chief bishop/shepherd of the Church (1 Pet 5:1), since he exhorts all the other bishops, or "elders." * Peter interprets prophecy (2 Pet 1:16-21). * Peter corrects those who misuse Paul's writings (2 Pt 3:15-16). * Peter wrote his first epistle from Rome, as its bishop, and as the universal bishop (pope) of the early Church, according to most scholars. "Babylon" (1 Pet 5:13) is regarded as code for Rome. This section of the 50 New Testament Verses was written by: Dave Armstrong - a convert to Catholicism from Evangelicalism.
Church History Study Helps:      The Arian Controversy and the Nicean Council The Arian Controversy and the Nicean Councli 1. In 324 Constantine defeated Licinius and assumed control of both eastern and western halves of the empire. He soon found that in the East had been raging a theological controvery over the nature or status of the Son/Logos and its relation to the nature of God. The controversy had begun in Alexandrai, probably in 318, when a presbyter named Arius began propounding the view that the Logos was a creature, begotten by God out of "non-existence", and thereby was subject to change, capable of vice and virtue just as human beings were. This implied, taught Arius, that there was a time when the Logo/Son did not exist. The pope of Alexandria heard Arius' views in a debate and decided that his position was erroneous, and commanded Arius to cease this teaching. Arius, however, made clear his intention to continue expressing his views, and so the controversy gradually grew until, in 320, Alexander deposed Arius and his associates through a council of about 100 Egyptian bishops. But by this time Arius had fled to palestine convinced that once outside of Egypt he would find sympathy and support for his views, which he did indeed find, most notably in Eusebius of Nicomedia, bishop of the eastern imperial city. Between them, Arius and Eusebius, through a campaign of letters, brought pressure to bear on Alexander to reinstate Arius. In ressponse Alexander began his own letter campaign claiming that Arius' denial of the divinity of the Logos/Son was blasphemous. Alexander held that the Logos/Son was eternally generated from the Father, irrespective of time, comes "from God himself" rather than from "non-existence", and is changeless and perfect. This position evoked from the Arians the accusation that Alexander was teaching two coequal Gods, two "unbegottens". 2. Constantine, in an effort to provide a peaceful and successful resolution to this debate summoned all the empires's bishops to the city of Nicea in Asia Minor for what was to become the first universal council of the church. This council, assembled in May 325, has lived in Christian tradition as the one whose confession of faith defined the very foundation of orthodoxy. The great majority of the bishops who attended wrer from the East. Of about the 200 or 300 which attended, only six were westerners. The bishops represented three schools of thought. A small number led by Eusebius of Nicomedia were thoroughgoing Arians. Another small group were fervent supporters of Alexander. The majority, the most prominent of whom was perhaps Eusebius of Caesarea, the church historian, were conservatives in the sense that they represented the pluralism and subordinationism of the eastern tradition. The emperor himself was present at the assembly and dominated its proceedings. 3. Soon after it opened, the assembly showed the direction it was going to take by rejecting a confession of faith presented by the Arians. Accordingly they took another baptismal creed and altered its text, in the process creating a new, non-liturgical type of confession. At its end they added a short series of anathemas which directly condemned the basic propositions affirmed by the Arians. In the text itself they inserted the significant expressions "true God from true God", "begotten not made," "from the substance [ousia] of the Father," and most important of all, as it turned out, "of one substance [homoousia] with the father". The general force of these expressions was plain: They excluded absolutely the idea that the Logos is a creature, they asserted that he is truly the eternally generated "Son" of God, and they insisted that he belongs to the same order of being as God.	Church History Study Helps:      The Catholic Church The Catholic Church 1. Emerging from the theological conflicts with Gnosticism and Montanism was a normative "early catholicism" which represented a fresh development of Christian tradition. One sign and form of this development was the increased prominence and authority given to credal or confessional formulas. Up to this time, of course, such formulas had played a role in the church and had been taken from the teaching of Paul (1 Cor 15:3ff) or the writing of Justin Martyr (1 Apol 42.4). Most central was the confession of faith which constituted the formula of baptism. By the middle of the second century, the baptismal confession was triadic in shape: Candidates were asked three questions, to each of which they replied "I believe", and with each of these affirmations and the washings which accompanied them, the candidates were understood to be baptized "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matt 28:19). 2. It is not surprising then that in second century debates about the meaning of the Christian belief appeal was made to the baptismal confession as embodying necessary commitments in formulation. This appeal took the form of insistence upon a "rule" (greek: kanon), and was variously called the "rule of truth", "rule of faith", "ecclesiastical rule", "tradition" and "kerygma". The "rule" was essentially the syllabus of the instruction through which new believers learned the meaning of the church's baptismal faith. Not surprisingly, such the structure of such "rules" often followed the triadic formulation of the baptismal confession. 3. Alongside the Kanon or rule provided by traditional confessional formulas, the second century church, through its debates with Gnosticism and Marcionites established the core of another rule, namely the "canon" of New Testament Scriptures. The procedure by which the formulation of this collection came about was informal and decentralized, a drawn out affair of increasing consensus which was completed in the fourth century. This development involved three simultaneous processes. The first was a growing recognition of the need for a fixed written tradition, especially where the teachings of Jesus were concerned. The second was a process by which such Christian writings as the Gospels and the apostolic letters were acknowledged to have the same essential place in the life of the churches as the Jewish Scriptures and so came to be cited and treated in the same way (i.e., as God's inspired Word). The third was the complex business of deciding which Christian writings qualified for this status. On this last issue, two criteria were employed. Books were established as "canonical" if they were regularly read at the liturgical assemblies of the churches, and if they were thought to be apostolic, that is, if they could reasonably be regarded as written by an apostle or by some other person of the founding generation whose testimony was identical with that of the apostles. These two criteria did not always agree, and there were debates about such writings as the Epistle to the Hebrews (which the Roman church rightly suspected of not being an authentic Pauline letter) or Hermas' Shepherd, which, while clearly not apostolic was established in liturgical use. A third more informal criterion was that of doctrine. The Fourth Gospel (John) was for a time suspect because of the delight Gnostics and followers of the New Prophecy had taken in it. Its establishment as canonical was no doubt owed both to its widespread use and to the fact that an apostolic name was associated with it. 4. The central core of this developing canon of the New testament were the Pauline letters and the four Gospels, together with the Acts of the Apostles (the second volume of Luke's writings, the first being the Gospel of Luke). There was apparently a collection of Pauline letters in use fairly early in the second century and they were already (by some) being thought as "scriptures" and as "hard to understand" (2 Peter 3:15-16). 5. From evidence we find in 1 Clement, even after the four Gospels had been composed, people continued to appeal to oral tradition rather than to the written documents regarding the teachings of Jesus. By the time of Justin Martyr, at least the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) were in liturgical use at Rome, and it seems probable that by the opening of the last third of the second century, all four Gospels were widespread in use. 6. By the turn of the third century the basic canon of the New testament was firmly established, and in fact churches also knew and used others of the books which finally came to be included in the canon. In the end, the New testament included works that represented most of the significant streams of tradition in primitive Christianity, though it excluded books which were explicitly Gnostic.
Church History Study Helps:      The Organizational Development of the Church The Organizational Development of the Church 1. Throughout the second and third centuries, the word "church" continued to denote primarily the assembly of Christians in a particular place or "polis". Whatever the size and complexity of the congregation, its unity was represented in the fact that the local bishop was the leader and pastor of the entire congregation. Chosen by the congregation, the bishop was ordained with laying-on of hands by neighboring bishops, an indication of the fact that in this pastoral charge he was the representative not only of the community to which he belonged but also the universal church. Once elected and ordained, he was the ruler in the congregation, and administered the community's financial affairs, was its principal teacher, chose and ordained its other ministers (presbyters, deacons, and others), enforced its discipline, and presided at its baptismal and eucharistic assemblies. 2. the third century saw a growth in the number of offices or orders that served the churches. Increasingly distinguished from the laity, the occupants of these offices and orders included not only bishop, deacons and presbyters, but also from time to time, lectors, widows, sub-deacons, virgins, deaconesses, catechists, acolytes, exorcists, and doorkeepers. Most prominent among these officeholders were undoubtedly the deacons, who, as the bishop's personal assistants, not only played an important liturgical role but also were in the direct charge of carrying out the community's charitable work. Their number was often limited to seven in accordance with Acts 6:3	Church History Study Helps:      Irenaus of Lyon Irenaus of Lyon 1. The earliest theological leader of distinction in the debate with Marcion and the Gnostics was a bishop of a relatively new and obscure church in Gaul, Irenaeus of Lyon, an immigrant to the West from Asia Minor. Born around 135 AD, he is first known as a presbyter of the church at Lyon. During the great persecution which occurred there in 177 AD, he was absent in Rome on an official mission. On his return, he was chosen bishop in succession to the martyred Pothinus. It was at Lyon that he wrote the two works which we now possess: Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching, which was first published in the early twentieth century, and the much lengthier work in five books which he called An Ancient Indictment and Overthrow of the Falsely Named "Knowledge". Tradition has more conveniently named this later work Against Heresies. This work was probably completed around 185. Irenaeus died in about 200 AD, according to tradition, a martyr. 2. It was Irenaeus who first developed the appeal to tradition (the "rule of faith") and to the succession of bishops and presbyters who had transmitted it. The great weight of his argument was based on an appeal to the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures, which, he was convinced, would themselves confute heretical teaching directly if attention were paid to their plain sense and if their obscure passages were understood in the light of those whose meaning was obvious.