The Early Church Was… CATHOLIC!

I have been meeting with a Protestant friend of mine for the past five months at a local diner to discuss the Bible and theology. He originally left a card on my windshield at the grocery store parking lot that denigrated the Catholic Church (with straw-men, lies, and half-truths), and promoting “faith alone” worship at his church. He left his e-mail address on the card, so I contacted him and we have become friends who discuss and debate scripture while dining over tea and hamburgers. The waitresses at the restaurant told us that they were very impressed with our knowledge, so I guess we’ll have to talk less loudly next time!  

Last month I asked him about Matthew 16:19, where Jesus told Peter that “Upon this rock I will build my church.”  I said, “So which Church did Jesus establish then?”  He looked at me and said, “Well, it certainly wasn’t the Catholic Church!” Since we were almost through, I didn’t want to belabor the point too much, although I did give him an incredulous stare and told him that he was wrong. 

So this month, I have prepared for him a summary of what the apostolic church fathers had to say about the church where he was a member.  Like most Protestants, his view of church history jumps from the book of Acts to Martin Luther in the 16^th century, so I have to take my time with him and educate him on who these martyrs were. All suffered mightily at the hands of the Romans, being beheaded, burned at the stake, or crucified. So what they had to say should carry a lot of weight, as they went to a horrible death for the sake of the Word of God.  My summary shows that the early church believed in transubstantiation, infant baptism, baptismal regeneration, and a hierarchical church structure, all hallmarks of the Catholic Church.

First Recorded Use of the Words “Catholic Church”, 110 AD

St. Ignatius of Antioch was taught by rhe Apostle John and was appointed Bishop of Antioch by St. Peter. He wrote seven letters during his captivity, while on the way to Rome to be eaten alive by the lions in the Coliseum:

“Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the bishop. Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is [administered] either by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude [of the people] also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church [Letter to the Smyrnaeans 8 (c. A.D. 110)].

Here, in 110 AD, we see the first recorded use of the word “Catholic,” some 20 years or so after the death of St. John the Apostle.“Non-denominational,” “Baptist,” “Lutheran,” “Methodist,” and “Mormon” are not used. No, all of those churches were started by men many years later. To say that the Church that Jesus started “fell into apostasy” and needed to be replaced by churches of men much later on seems heretical to me. Jesus said in Matthew 16:18 that the gates of hell would not prevail against his church, but that is what a lot of Protestants believe happened. The height of man’s pride is to believe that Jesus’ church failed miserably, while the church of men remain true to the faith.

The Eucharist IS the Physical and Spiritual Body and Blood of Christ

St. Ignatius of Antioch also had this to say about the Eucharist: 

“I have no taste for corruptible food nor for the pleasures of this life. I desire the bread of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, who was of the seed of David; and for drink I desire his blood, which is love incorruptible” [Letter to the Romans 7 (c. A.D. 110)]. 

Take note of those who hold heterodox opinions on the grace of Jesus Christ, which have come to us, and see how contrary their opinions are to the mind of God. They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, flesh that suffered for our sins and that the Father, in his goodness, raised up again. They who deny the gift of God are perishing in their disputes [Letter to the Smyrnaeans 6–7 (c. A.D. 110)].

Assemble yourselves together in common, every one of you severally, man by man, in grace, in one faith and one Jesus Christ, who after the flesh was of David’s race, who is Son of Man and Son of God, to the end that ye may obey the bishop and presbytery without distraction of mind; breaking one bread, which is the medicine of immortality and the antidote that we should not die but live for ever in Jesus Christ. [Letter to the Ephesians AD110)].

St. Ignatius was given every chance to dismiss Christ and the Eucharist on his long way from Antioch to Rome. If the Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist, which plainly states that the bread and the wine at Mass become the actual flesh and blood of Jesus Christ after consecration, was not real and not handed down to him by St. John, surely he would have renounced it as folly to save his life. But he did not, instead saying that he wanted to be ground up like wheat by the lions. And that surely must have amazed his captors while watching him being eaten alive.

St. Justin Martyr, another apostolic father, who was beheaded for the Word of God, had this to say:

“We call this food Eucharist, and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true and who has been washed in the washing that is for the remission of sins and for regeneration [i.e., has received baptism] and is thereby living as Christ enjoined. For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food that has been made into the Eucharist by the eucharistic prayer set down by him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nurtured, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus.“ (First Apology A.D.151).

St. Justin, a young man at the time of Ignatius’ execution, also declared plainly that the Eucharist IS the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ.

St. John Chrysostom (Golden Mouth), some 230 years later, had this to say about our daily bread from heaven:

“No one can enter into the kingdom of heaven except he be regenerated through water and the Spirit, and he who does not eat the flesh of the Lord and drink his blood is excluded from eternal life, and if all these things are accomplished only by means of the holy hands of the priest, how will anyone, without them, be able to escape the fire of hell, or attain those crowns reserved for the victorious?” (Sermon, 388 AD)

Here St. John Chrysostom confirms that the Eucharist IS the actual flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. Notice too that he also states the doctrine of water regeneration through Baptism. A lot of Protestants say that Baptism, like the Eucharist, is nothing but a symbol and does not initiate regeneration in a soul.

Baptism

St. Hippolytus of Rome said this about Baptism and children too young to speak are included: 

“The children shall be baptized first. All the children who can answer for themselves, let them answer. If there are any children who cannot answer for themselves, let their parents answer for them, or someone else from their family [Apostolic Tradition 21 (c. A.D. 215)].

Origen of Alexandria advocates for infant baptism, in 249 AD: 

“Every soul that is born into flesh is soiled by the filth of wickedness and sin. In the Church, baptism is given for the remission of sins, and, according to the usage of the Church, baptism is given even to infants. If there was nothing in infants that required the remission of sins and nothing in them pertinent to forgiveness, the grace of baptism would seem superfluous [Homilies on Leviticus 8:3 (c. A.D. 249)].

Tertullian, in the early third century, says that the SACRAMENT of Baptism washes away sins (i.e., is not symbolic).

“Happy is our sacrament of water, in that, by washing away the sins of our early blindness, we are set free and admitted into eternal life.” [Baptism 1 (c. A.D. 203)].

St. Augustine, one of the greatest minds in the history of the Church, said this about Baptism: 

“But the sacrament of baptism is undoubtedly the sacrament of regeneration. Baptism, therefore, washes away indeed all sins—absolutely all sins, whether of deeds or words or thoughts, whether original or added, whether committed in ignorance or allowed in knowledge [Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3:5 (c. A.D. 420)].

And this is the meaning of the great sacrament of baptism that is solemnized among us, that all who attain to this grace should die to sin, as he is said to have died to sin, because he died in the flesh, which is the likeness of sin; and rising from the font regenerated, as he arose alive from the grave, should begin a new life in the Spirit, whatever may be the age of the body. For from the newborn infant to the old man bent with age, as there is none shut out from baptism so there is none who does not die to sin in baptism. But infants die only to original sin; those who are older also die to all the sins their evil lives have added to the sin they brought with them [Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Charity 42–43 (A.D. 421)].

Church Structure

In 110 A.D., St. Ignatius of Antioch had this to say about the hierarchical structure of the Church:

“Since therefore I have, in the persons before mentioned, beheld the whole multitude of you in faith and love, I exhort you to try to do all things with a divine harmony, while your bishop presides in the place of God, and your presbyters in the place of the assembly of the apostles, along with your deacons, who are most dear to me, and are entrusted with the ministry of Jesus Christ, who was with the Father before the beginning of time, and in the end was revealed. Do all then, imitating the same divine conduct, respect one another, and let no one look upon his neighbor after the flesh, but continually love each other in Jesus Christ. Let nothing exist among you that may divide you; but be united with your bishop, and those that preside over you, as a type and evidence of your immortality.” [Letter to the Trallians 2 (c. A.D. 110)].

Summary

Of course, what I have presented above only scratches the surface of what the early church believed and taught. These beliefs are what is known as Sacred Tradition, which St. Paul speaks of in 2 Thessalonians 2:15: 

“So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter.”

In other words, the Catholic Church does not make up new doctrines and teachings based on the mind of man thousands of years after Christ died. No, we hold on to the traditions of what was taught by the early apostles and church fathers.  Protestants who disagree with the Catholic Church need to learn about the 1500 years of church history that their teachers failed to teach them. 

So, use this article as a first step with your Protestant friends. They will thank you later, even though they will be resistant to the truth at first.