"What Do You Mean Only One True Church?"
The above title appeared as another of the ads printed by the Knights of Columbus. The first paragraph says, "Non-Catholics often resent the claim that the Catholic Church alone is the true church of Christ." Now, I can not speak for Protestants but, we of the church of Christ do not resent anything that is a statement of fact or truth. However, that the "Catholic Church is the true church of Christ," in any sense, is not true. We do not have enough space in the paper to discuss these matters, at length, but if the Catholic Church will PUBLICLY affirm they are the true church, we will deny it. The public, at large, needs to hear a discussion of these issues, with both sides presented side-by-side; will the Catholic Church agree to such a discussion? If so they can affirm the "Roman Catholic Church is the church established by Christ and the apostles" and we will be happy to deny it. Or, we of the church of Christ will affirm "the church of Christ, of which we are members, is the church established by Christ and the apostles" and they can deny it. If they have the truth, they should want to get it before as many as possible and what better opportunity could they find? There is something wrong with a church and a doctrine that will not stand open investigation. The truth has nothing to fear. Friends, we are sincere and in dead earnest about these matters.
In the last paragraph the article states that Christ told the church, "He who hears you, hears me" and that "when the church speaks it is Christ speaking." By this they mean the Roman Catholic Church is the official spokesman for Christ; that Christ speaks through the Catholic Church. Such could not possibly be further from the truth. Christ was speaking to the apostles when he said, "He who hears you, hears me" and we have a record of what the apostles spoke, in the Bible, and Paul says, (1 Cor. 4:6) "not to go beyond the things which are WRITTEN." The church therefore has no authority at all; it is simply the duty of the church to speak "Only" that which Christ spoke to the apostles and which record has been preserved in the Bible. That is what is fundamentally wrong with the Catholic Church and Protestant bodies in general. They have dared to assemble in Councils, Synods, Associations, etc., and formulate Catechisms, Disciplines, Manuals, and Articles of Faith and thus legislate to the church. Such is simply a repudiation of the authority of Christ as he speaks to us through the apostles in the New Testament. Christ speaks through the church (not Roman Catholic; it isn't mentioned on the sacred pages of God's book) only when the church speaks God's revealed will, said of them "they watch for your souls?" Would they the Bible. The church, as such, has no authority; Christ has "all authority in heaven and on earth." (Matt. 28:18) His authority is in his word, the Bible.
The paragraph further states, "When the church offers prayer and sacrifice and forgiveness of sins, it is Christ's prayer and sacrifice and forgiveness of sins." But scriptural proof is conspicuously absent. Where is the passage that says the CHURCH is to offer sacrifice and forgiveness of sins? Christ made the final supreme sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins but Catholics re-enact the sacrifice of Christ each time in their Mass. Heb. 9:25, 26 tells us, " . . . nor yet that he should offer himself OFTEN ... but now ONCE at the end of the ages hath he been manifested to put away sins by the sacrifice of himself." Notice also verse 28 and the word ONCE again; not a repetitious act of the Mass.