In this third installment on the revealed economy of salvation, we will explore the necessity of the Church, a subject very dear to our hearts here at Saint Benedict Center. It was my intention to include other topics make this the last Ad Rem on the subject, but what I wrote was simply too long, so I will break up the material and send the sequels out a week apart rather than at my accustomed fortnightly intervals.
So, let us begin with the Church. Here is a selection of Biblical passages supporting the necessity of the Church for salvation, drawn (again) from the Second Catholic Edition of the RSV.
First, Jesus Christ founded only one Church with real authority:
- Matthew 16:18–19 — “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
- Matthew 18:17–18 — “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the Church; and if he refuses to listen even to the Church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
- Luke 10:16 — “He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”
Comment: These words to the Apostles show real authority in the Church, so much so that accepting or rejecting their authority is tantamount to accepting or rejecting the authority of Jesus Christ.
It is the Church, not the Bible, that is the “pillar and bulwark of truth”:
- 1 Timothy 3:15 — “If I am delayed, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth.”
Comment: The Holy Ghost could not have inspired these words to apply equally to the Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican, Presbyterian, Baptist, etc., “churches.” He is the Spirit of Truth, and cannot inspire chaos. His glorious descent at Pentecost was, as some Fathers of the Church noted, the reversal of the confusion of the Tower of Babel.
Baptism is the entry into the Church. While what follows is partially redundant with what we said concerning the sacramental economy, it is important because of its ecclesial significance, especially the passage from First Corinthians.
- John 3:5 — “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”
Comment:“The Kingdom of God” is Heaven, but it is also “Heaven begun” in this life, i.e., the Church Militant, in which membership is necessary to reach the Church Triumphant after death. - Acts 2:38 — “And Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'”
- Acts 2:47 — “And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” Comment: Both of these verses from Acts are in the account of Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost, so to speak, “took possession” of the Church to be its soul.
- 1 Corinthians 12:13 — “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — Jews or Greeks, slaves or free — and all were made to drink of one Spirit.”
Comment: The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, as further passages below will show. - 1 Peter 3:21 — “Baptism, which corresponds to this [the Ark of Noah], now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
Obedience to Church leadership is enjoined in Holy Scripture. Again, as the Holy Ghost cannot inspire confusion, there can only be one “Church” to which these words apply.
- Hebrews 13:17 — “Obey your leaders and submit to them; for they are keeping watch over your souls, as men who will have to give account.”
- Acts 15:28–29 — The Council of Jerusalem declares this: “For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things…”
Comment: This Biblical pattern of all future Ecumenical Councils shows the binding authority of the Church’s corporate decisions. - Titus 3:10 — “As for a man who is factious, after admonishing him once or twice, have nothing more to do with him.”
Comment: The word translated “factious” here is αἱρετικὸν (hairetikon, from αἱρετικός, hairetikos), which is the word we get “heretic” from in English. The Rheims NT translates it “heretic.”
The Apostolic mission and its necessity is shown in these passages:
- Matthew 28:19–20 — “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
- Romans 10:14–15 — “But how are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? And how can men preach unless they are sent?”
Comment: Jesus was “sent” on his temporal mission by the Father, and He, with the Father later sent the Holy Ghost upon the Church. He also “sent” the Apostles before his Ascension, but told them to wait “until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49), which is whey they did not begin to travel outside the Holy Land until after Pentecost. That mission Jesus gave the Apostles and confirmed with the sending of the Holy Spirit has never ceased; therefore, there must be one Church, and only one, that has inherited this mission. Sending to preach in the name of Jesus Christ must come from divine authority. - John 20:21–23 — “Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.'”
The Church is the Body of Christ, and there is no salvation outside of it:
- Ephesians 1:22–23 — God “has put all things under his [Christ’s] feet and has made him the head over all things for the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”
- Ephesians 4:4–5 — “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism.”
- Colossians 1:18 — “He is the head of the body, the Church; he is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in everything he might be pre-eminent.”
If the Church is the one body of Christ and if “no man has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of man” (John 3:13), then it follows that one has to be joined to Jesus Christ in His Body, the Church, to be saved.
Rejection of the Church’s authority is gravely sinful:
- 2 Thessalonians 3:14 — “If any one refuses to obey what we say in this letter, note that man, and have nothing more to do with him, that he may be ashamed.”
- 1 John 4:6 — “We are of God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and he who is not of God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”
- Jude 1:8 — “Yet in like manner these men in their dreamings defile the flesh, reject authority, and revile the glorious ones.”
The Eucharist is the central act of the Church’s life, and the following shows how integral It is to salvation:
- John 6:53–54 — “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
- Acts 2:42 — “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”
