1. How can we know the true Church of Christ and whether we are inside it or not.
We can know the True Church of Christ in many ways. The Theology of grace tells us that the true Church of Christ is the one where Divine Grace dwells. And the true members of the Church are those with sanctifying grace.
Also, we can know the True Church of Christ through the three theological virtues. The Church where the three theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity exist is the true Church. And those with the theological virtues infused in them are the members of the Church.
Like wise, the true Church of Christ is a contemplative Church. So those who have reached the heights of contemplation are the true members of the Church.
These are just a few marks of the true Church. But they are spiritual signs that are not available to others. These spiritual marks can only be discerned by those who are in the same spiritual level. And that would be very few.
These spiritual signs are the bases for canonization because these are the certain spiritual signs of sanctity which, lately, had been abolished by the Vatican. So that the canonization of saints today are unreliable because it is based on political contingencies and is not a matter of Faith.
Of course, if I have the infused knowledge of the above spiritual signs I can say on my own that Pope John Paul II is a saint and that would be a matter of Faith for me because I can see the spiritual marks of the true Church in John Paul II. I can even say that Pope Benedict is a saint though he is still alive because the spiritual marks of holiness is in him and my statement would be a matter of Faith.
But because the canonization of Pope John XXIII and John Paul II were political exigencies pushed by personal consideration and, therefore, are not based on the acceptable signs of the members of the true Church, then belief in their sanctity is not a matter of Faith. It would be similar to believing that a toothpaste can give you a golden smile. Belief in the two saints does not fall within the definition of Faith; it is just the result of clever advertisement. But, I repeat, for someone, it could be an act of Faith if he has the spiritual skill to know the above spiritual marks of the Church.
But let us stop here because spiritual marks are beyond the capability of most men if not of all men. Let us concentrate on the visible Marks of the Church that God, Himself, is using for all men to know the true Church of Christ. Even in this lower category it had been impossible to find these visible signs amongst the Catholics in the world today. Which make us conclude that the Catholic Church had almost disappeared from the face of the earth…..which Christ, Himself, prophesied before His passion.
2. Let us return to the three marks of the Church we have just discussed. These are still the four visible signs we recite in the Nicene Creed every Sunday after the Gospel and Homily; One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. But we have used St. Robert Bellarmines expanded explanation which consist in 15 marks.
3. St. Robert Bellarmine’s second Mark of the true Church is ANTIQUITY.
The Catholic Church is the most ancient religion. Just as God existed before the devil, just as the wheat was planted before the cockle. The Catholic Church is older than all the associations of pagans.
God established His religion and Church with Adam and Eve in the garden of Paradise. That was the only religion and Church at that time. And God’s doctrine already existed early in Paradise. The first antiquated doctrine God gave Adam and Eve was “Don’t ever decide what is right or wrong. I, God, will decided what is right and what is wrong. And you simply obey Me because I, God, know better than you.”
4. The most antiquated doctrine.
Do My Will and not your will….that was the first teaching of God. It is truly ‘antiquated.’ There were no religions before that time nor many years after that. And that was the first Catholic Doctrine. ‘No one decides what is right or wrong but God alone. Nobody does what he wants but only what God wants because God knows better than we. Any attempt to decide what is right or wrong or if anyone does what he wants in complete disregard with God wants SINS. This is the first basic Catholic Truth.
5. St. Bellarmine gives six signs of manifest change of religion from the original, and, therefore, is a fake religion. It is not ANTIQUATED is the sign of a false religion. Here are the six mark of a false church.
Firstly, unlike the true Church that has God, only, as the author, the false church have humans as authors. It could be Arius, Pelagius, Martin Luther, Soissy, Kasper or Mario Bergoglio.
Secondly, while the true Church had only ‘antiquated’ doctrines, the false church have some new doctrines that could be just 50 or 200 years old. For adulterers to be able to receive Holy Communion or for men to be able to marry each other are doctrines acceptable today though a few hundred years they were taboo even among the pagans.
Thirdly, while we do not know when Catholic teachings begun, there is a very specific date when the new doctrine of the false church begun. The Arians began in 324 A.D., the Nestorian in 43, the Lutherans in 1517. Modernism around the 19th century, the hermeneutics of discontinuity was noticed during Vatican II and the Church of Compassion and Mercy is only around 50 years old.
Fourthly, while we do not know where Paradise, where the Catholic religion began, was, there is a place where the new doctrine and the new religion began. Arianism begun among the monks of Egypt, Nestorianism in Thrace and Lutheranism in Saxony. Modernism grew in France, the hermeneutics of discontinuity grew at the very halls of the Vatican in Rome and Bologna. And the Church of Compassion and Mercy was raised in Argentina.
Fifthly, while the true Church of God was opposed by evil forces like the devil and his co-horts, the false churchs are opposed by Holy Popes and saints. The Arians was opposed by Pope Sylvester and the Council of Nicea, helped by Sts. Athanasius and Hilary. The Nestorians was opposed by Pope Celestine, the Lutherans by Pope Leo X and the Council of Trent. Modernism was opposed by Pope Pius IX and Pius X, the hermeneutics of discontinuity by Pope Benedict XVI and the Church of Compassion by the majority of the Bishop’s Synod of 2014 led by Cardinal Burke.
Sixthly, while the true Church began scantily and then grew in holy members, the false church also started scantily and then grew in sinful members. Thus Arianism begun with a few monks and then it grew so rapidly that St. Jerome woke up one day seeing that the world had turned Arian. Modernism started as an underground movement with Soissy and grew taking over the entire of Europe. While the hermeneutics of discontinuity started as a force during Vatican II, went underground at the end of the Council and expanded in full force after the seeming resignation of Pope Benedict, i.e. under the papacy of Pope Francis. Today, a version of the heresy of modernism had been offered in a new package called the Church of Mercy and Compassion headed by the presidents of the Bishops Conferences of Germany, France Switzerland and the Philippines. And this new sect is swamping the whole world attracting, not only different protestant sects, but also some pagan religions including the U.N.
Growth is not necessarily good. It depends on what is growing. Growth in wisdom is good Growth in cancer is bad. Growth in number of souls in grace is good. Growth in number of adulterer and sodomists is very bad.
St. Robert Bellarmine proved that these six items can be used to expose a heretical religion, while the adversaries cannot use them to disprove the authenticity of the true Church. While these six marks can prove that a church is false, these same marks can show that the Catholic Church is the true Church.
6. Let us take hold of this mark ANTIQUITY and, right now, test some Catholics around us.
In doing, so let us maintain as our background the other marks we have discussed; namely, Catholicity, Apostolicity and the gift of prophecy. Since the more marks we see in a Church the nearer we come to the true Church. Remember we are using the 15 Marks of the Church enumerated by St. Robert which is a mere expansion of the four visible signs of the true Church we recite in the Nicene Creed at every Sunday Mass.
Let us look at some groups within the Catholic Church that claims they are Catholics but do not have the visible signs ANTIQUITY. They are more dangerous because they put on the paraphernalia of Catholics but have none of the Catholic doctrines. They wear skull caps but have nothing Catholic in their minds. They have pectoral crosses on their chest but have no Charity in their hearts.
Let us look at ‘modernism.’ Countless cardinals, bishops and priest hold modernist views summarized in the fact that everything earlier than the 1800 are useless and ineffective and, therefore, must be junked. It is based on original sin in that the private self is the deciding source of dogma and morality. It is the classical sin of Adam and Eve, a rebellion to the command of God instigated by the author of the first rebellion in heaven, Lucifer. All other religions are rebellions against the one true God.
An offshoot from the greatest heresy of modernism is the hermeneuutics of discontinuity which essentially holds that anything before Vatican II is old, sick and must be dumped. And anything new, i.e. after Vatican II is new ‘good.’ Vatican II was not part of the new ‘good’. The new ‘good’ starts after the stepping down of Pope Benedict XVI. Here, the old ANTIQUATED old true religion is completely disregarded and substituted with an entirely new man-made church.
I only met these words hermeneutics of discontinuity in the discussions during Vatican II. It was not introduced by the cardinal bishop of Bologna but a diocesan priest of belonging to the theological school of Bologna. Some Jesuits headed the school like Komonchak, the teacher of Bishop Tagle, who is also part of the school and wrote one chapter in the book on Vatican II authored by the school. Pope Benedict continually condemned the hermeneutics of discontinuity proposing instead the hermeneutics of continuity which holds that the Catholic Church today is a continuation of the ANTIGUATED Catholic Church of Christ, the apostles and the Fathers of the Church.
Another off shoot from modernism and the hermeneutics of discontinuity is the Church of Compassion and Mercy. This is the title of a book written by Mario Bergoglio as Bishop of Argentina which was inspired by Cardinal Kasper’s book on ‘Mercy’ which in turn was based on the writings of Martin Luther. The new doctrine taught here is the existence of the virtue of mercy divorced from the virtue of Justice. St. Thomas taught that ‘mercy’ is just one of the expression of the Justice of God and, therefore, cannot be separated from Justice. But both Kasper and Bergoglio completely divorced ‘mercy’ from justice.
Today;s mercy is a new teaching different from the ‘ANTIQUATED’ mercy of God.
So, today, everybody will be saved because God is merciful. Even the atheist Scalpari was not discouraged from remaining an atheist but was even assured that atheist can be saved. together with adulterers who receive Holy Communion without repentance and together with those contracting same sex marriage. So essentially all these three new religions are imitations of the sin of Adam and Eve, presented as a ‘new’ doctrine that believes one can decide what is right and wrong and choose whatever he wants in complete disregard with what God wants. The personal private judgment has again become the norm of dogma and morality. Well, not really very new but as old as all the previous heresies.