This past Tuesday, the Vatican said that Christian denominations outside Roman Catholicism were not full churches of Jesus Christ. This was really a re-statement of the controversial document “Dominus Iesus” (Latin for “Jesus is Lord”), issued by the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in 2000. The 16-page document says that Christendom suffers from a “wound” of disunity because non-Catholic Christian churches do not recognize the primacy of the Pope. Under Section 4, “Unicity and Unity of the Church,” the document reads:
Just as there is one Christ, so there exists a single body of Christ, a single Bride of Christ: ‚Äúa single Catholic and apostolic Church‚Äù. Furthermore, the promises of the Lord that he would not abandon his Church (cf. Mt 16:18; 28:20) and that he would guide her by his Spirit (cf. Jn 16:13) mean, according to Catholic faith, that the unicity and the unity of the Church ‚Äî like everything that belongs to the Church’s integrity ‚Äî will never be lacking.
The Catholic faithful are required to profess that there is an historical continuity ‚Äî rooted in the apostolic succession ‚Äî between the Church founded by Christ and the Catholic Church: ‚ÄúThis is the single Church of Christ… which our Saviour, after his resurrection, entrusted to Peter’s pastoral care (cf. Jn 21:17), commissioning him and the other Apostles to extend and rule her (cf. Mt 28:18ff.), erected for all ages as ‚Äòthe pillar and mainstay of the truth’ (1 Tim 3:15). This Church, constituted and organized as a society in the present world, subsists in [subsistit in] the Catholic Church. . . .
Basically, this document asserts that the Church Jesus promised to build in Matthew 16:18 was and is none other than the organized Catholic church. “This is,” according to them, “the single Church of Christ,” the historical continuity of which is “rooted in the apostolic succession.”
Is this what Jesus meant when He said, “Upon this rock I will build My church”? Was the rock Peter? If this was the case, why didn’t Jesus just say to Peter, “Upon you I will build My church”? (After all, Peter was standing right there!) The reason is that Peter was not the rock on which Jesus would build His church, but rather the truth that Peter had just uttered: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16). Hence, as J. C. Ryle wrote:
It was not the person of the Apostle Peter but the good confession which the Apostle had just made! It was not Peter, the erring, unstable man, but the mighty truth which the Father had revealed to Peter. It was the truth concerning Jesus Christ Himself which was the rock. . . . It was the blessed truth, that Jesus was the promised Saviour . . . the real Intercessor between God and man. This was the rock, and this the foundation, upon which the Church of Christ was to be built.
The Catholic hierarchy has woefully forgotten this vital fact. They have twisted Jesus’ words to mean something He never intended. Nobody is saved or becomes a member of Christ’s body by being Catholic … or Baptist, or Methodist, or Presbyterian, or becoming a member of any other ecclesiastical society or denomination! The Bible says that the true Church consists of all those who have trusted in Jesus Christ the Son of God to save them, by relying fully on His substitutionary death and resurrection on their behalf. To quote Ryle again:
It will not save your soul to be an outward member of any ecclesiastical body whatever, however sound that body may be. Such membership will not wash away one sin, or give you confidence in the day of judgment. There must be personal faith in Christ, — personal dealings between yourself and God, — personal felt communion between your own heart and the Holy Ghost. Have you this personal faith? Have you this felt work of the Holy Spirit in your soul? This is the grand question. If not you will be lost.
Second Timothy 2:19 says, “The Lord knows those who are His.” The members of Christ’s body may belong to a diversity of denominations here on earth, but they all believe in and belong to one Lord: Jesus Christ. He alone is “head of the church: and He is the Savior of the body” (Eph. 5:23). Don’t let any Pope, priest, church council, or self-proclaimed prophet tell you otherwise.
Thank you for this timely message. On the day we get to heaven, God will not ask us what church we went to, but instead: “What did you do with my son Jesus?”