What’s so great about the Catholic religion?

Photo Source: Times of Israel

Q: What’s so great about the Catholic religion?

Source: Douglawrence Wordpress

A: The Catholic Church is the only church that was ever personally founded by Jesus Christ … while he still walked the earth. (Jesus is God, incarnate.)

The Catholic Church has Jesus Christ as its eternal head, and the Holy Spirit as its perpetual guide and advocate.

The only church that was ever authentically established and empowered in this way … the Catholic Church remains the living eye-witness for the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the world today, just as it has been since the very beginning.

Despite the internal and external human corruption with which the Catholic Church has always contended, the truth of the church’s essential doctrines, dogmas, liturgies and devotions has miraculously, never been compromised.

The church remains the only infallible guide to a proper moral existence, although few within the church have actually managed to live up to that ideal. Those who are known to have have successfully done so are called “Saints”.

In addition to being The Universal Christian Church on Earth … the Catholic Church is also a sovereign nation-state, known as the Vatican. The Vatican constitutes the world’s oldest, continuously operating government (of any kind).

The Pope is the chief pastor and the leader of the Church, on earth. The holy office of the papacy was also established personally by Jesus Christ. St. Peter was the first pope … the “Rock” on which Jesus Christ would build his church. And lest anyone doubt this is indeed the case … the bones of St. Peter rest today, in an ancient cemetery, almost directly beneath the main altar of St. Peter’s basilica, in the Vatican. See also the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 16, verses 18 &19.

Endowed with the “Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven” … and the virtually unrestricted power of “Binding and Loosing” … on earth and in heaven … the Pope wields truly awesome power and authority.

After the fall of Rome, the Catholic Church took it upon itself to rebuild western civilization in the image of heaven. And in many ways, it succeeded!

The Holy Bible remains a thoroughly Catholic book … preserved, compiled, translated, certified and infallibly endorsed as the totally inerrant, divinely inspired, written Word of God, by the Catholic Church alone … more than a thousand years before any other Christian church even existed.

There are more than 1.1 billion Catholics in the world, today.

Since its original institution in the early first century, the Catholic Church has consistently fulfilled its prophetic mission of saving souls and offering acceptable worship to God … something it never fails to do … every hour of every day … every day of every year … in every nation on earth.

Four “marks” serve to identify the authentic Catholic Church, from age to age:

1) One. The Catholic Church is unique: Jesus Christ founded only one church … the Catholic Church.

2) Holy. The Catholic Church is holy. With Jesus as its founder, the Holy Spirit as its perpetual advocate, and God the Father as its eternal patron, the Catholic Church belongs solely to God. Pure and spotless. Set apart for God’s purposes alone, the church can never be corrupted by sin, or by any other human fault.

3) Apostolic. The Catholic Church is apostolic. The divine power and authority given to the Catholic Church by Jesus Christ is passed down through the generations from the original apostles, to their duly ordained successors, the bishops. And so on.

4) Universal. The word “Catholic” means “universal”. Jesus Christ founded one church to be the universal sacrament of salvation for all.

There’s much, much more … but I think you probably get the idea.