Through the great commission much of the world went from paganism to Catholicism, not paganism to Protestantism.
The early church taught that Satan created paganism to keep people from Catholic truth. The best lie is built up in half truths. By making Paganism similar to Catholicism, Satan uses people's egos against them. He has preternatural intelligence. You are not going to match wits against him so God established the narrow road of obedience to the faith in the sacramental life as tools against his deceptions. Humility is the greatest defense against Satan's deceptions.
As soon as faith alone and scripture alone were established, Christianity began to divide exponentially. It began to separate from the narrow road.
Calvin and Luther even though they created much of the division spoke out against the division. Both would also call born again separated from baptism heresy.
When faith alone and scripture alone begin to take hold, the images of faith that were created by these false doctrines moved people’s beliefs farther and farther away from what the apostles taught their disciples. The disciples of the apostles lived the Catholic faith. Either the apostles lied to their disciples or God established the Catholic faith.
People believe their image of faith is true most often due to environmental influences including what can be seen as a construct of Christianity created by man formed through anti Catholicism.
The feeling of Love Christ gives combined with a Protestant tradition of false exegesis established to separate people from the original church creates almost an impenetrable wall when it comes to being able to find truth. Yet outside of the pillar and foundation of truth, the Holy Spirit is primarily a manifestation of Gods love not an affirmation of Gods truth. If this were not true then everyone would have the same faith as the disciples of the apostles who lived the Catholic faith. At the beginning of Christianity God gave the apostles the gift of toungues so that they could go out and teach the faith to those of many different languages. As the apostles and their disciples went out into the known world, the known world went from paganism to Catholicism. It was the blood of Catholic martyrs that spread the truth through the known world. The first bishop of Berea and every one after, was a Catholic bishop. Books of the Bible were put out by the church in multiple languages before the Bible was established.
The first in historical records to tell us there were gospels was a Catholic named Justin in his first apology of 150 AD.
The same Justin who taught in his letter to Trypho the Jew that the Sabbath was created specifically for the Jews due to their transgressions said in his First Apology, our bodies when we partake of the Eucharist go through transmutation becoming flesh of Christ s glorified flesh. The same Justin who said that the fact the Eucharist is now spread through out the world shows that it is pleasing to God ( Malachi 1:11) The same Justin described the necessity of water baptism saying it destroyed original sin calling it regeneration and being born again. He explained that you cannot receive the Eucharist until you are regenerated in baptism and have been instructed in the faith. He taught that Satan created paganism to keep humanity from Catholic truth.
The First one to tell us there were 4 gospels was a Catholic named Irenaeus ( Disciple of Polycarp who was a disciple of John the apostle ) he believed in the authority of the church as God's authority on earth. He taught that all of Christianity is to be united to the church at Rome in order to keep the true faith.He believed that Mary was the true Eve mother of all the living and the true Ark of the covenant. He taught that the Mass was a sacrifice. ..
The scriptures were protected and re produced in many different languages by those who believed the same as Justin and Irenaeus through persecution and book burnings until those who believed the same through the guidance of the Holy Spirit ( I will not leave you orphans) decided exactly which scriptures would compose the New Testament at the councils of Hippo, Carthage, and Rome.
Due to this fork in the road of faith alone and scripture alone which man created while in fallen nature, and time itself, modern Protestantism does not only look different from the faith of the early church and first martyrs but it is worlds apart from it. This is the elephant in the room that will never go away no matter the debate or how much people choose to try and discredit history . It will always be in the background and will always have to be rationalized away therefore as it is rationalized away people will have to choose to separate from truth revealed. The most important aspect of the Christianity God established is what created the general redemption of the world. This is the Holy Mass before the Father through our one mediator and high priest of this true Passover, Jesus Christ. This is where we offer prayer, supplication, intercession, and thanksgiving ( Eucharistasis) for all men. ( 1 Tim 2:1-5)
What brings you closer to the Eucharist is of God, what pushes you away cannot be. Modern Protestantism is evolving into a New Age spiritualism completely void of obedience to the faith in the sacramental life. It removes the focus on what is truly holy and creates a religion of temporal emotionalism that with many people, is always looking for the next high of confirmation.
" This is my body."
" For as often as you shall eat this bread and drink this cup, you will show the death of the Lord until He comes again."
It looks worlds apart from the early church.
Satan can create false prophecies in people's minds that contain parts that are truth. Satan can come as an angel of light and even perform what appears to be miracles of healing, Satan can have his demons leave peoples bodies in order to create the confusion, using those who are far from the path of the true faith to make them think they are casting out demons. He will do this to do everything in his power to keep people from the Eucharist.
1. Calvin thought that the Church had the power of excommunication: “The Church binds him whom she excommunicates, not by plunging him into eternal ruin and despair, but condemning his life and manners, and admonishing him, that, unless he repent, he is condemned.” (Institutes, IV, 11:2)
2. Calvin believed that there was no salvation outside the Church: “Beyond the pale of the Church no forgiveness of sins, no salvation, can be hoped for, . . .” (IV, 1:4)
3. Calvin thought weekly Holy Communion was the minimum frequency: “The sacrament might be celebrated in the most becoming manner, if it were dispensed to the Church very frequently, at least once a-week.” (IV, 17:43)
4. Calvin believed in the primacy of St. Peter, as leader of the apostles: “There is no senate without a consul, no bench of judges without a president or chancellor, no college without a provost, no company without a master. Thus there would be no absurdity were we to confess that the apostles had conferred such a primacy on Peter.” (IV, 6:8)
5. Calvin accepted the primacy of the Roman Church in early Christian history: “I deny not that the early Christians uniformly give high honour to the Roman Church, and speak of it with reverence. . . . [it] adhered more firmly to the doctrine once delivered, . . .” (IV, 6:16)
6. Calvin believed in the indefectibility of the Church: “I always hold that the truth does not perish in the Church . . .” (IV, 9:13)
7. Calvin utterly detested denominations and sectarianism: “Hence the Church is called Catholic or Universal (August. Ep. 48), for two or three cannot be invented without dividing Christ; and this is impossible. All the elect of God are so joined together in Christ, that as they depend on one head, . . .” (IV, 1:2)
8. Calvin thought that sacraments produce real, beneficial effects: “They, by sealing it to us, sustain, nourish, confirm, and increase our faith.” (IV, 14:7) / “That sacred communion of flesh and blood by which Christ transfuses his life into us, just as if it penetrated our bones and marrow, . . .” (IV, 17:10)
9. Calvin taught that there was such a thing as a holy, sacred place: “God . . . descend[s] to us, that he may be near to us, and yet neither change his place nor affect us by earthly means, but rather, . . . raise us aloft to his own heavenly glory, . . .” (IV, 1:5)
10. Calvin believed that human beings could be distributors or mediators of salvation: “In several passages he [St. Paul] . . . attributes to himself the province of bestowing salvation (1 Cor. 3:9).” (IV, 1:6)
11. Calvin seemingly accepted the notion of baptismal regeneration: “. . . forgiveness, which at our first regeneration we receive by baptism alone . . . we are washed from our sins by the blood of Christ.” (IV, 15:4)
12. Calvin approved of bodily mortification as spiritually beneficial: “In like manner, therefore, as persons accused were anciently wont, . . . to humble themselves suppliantly with . . . coarse garments, . . . weeping and fasting, and the like, undoubtedly belong, in an equal degree, to our age, whenever the condition of our affairs so requires.” (IV, 12:17)
13. Calvin believed that there was a profound causal connection between Holy Eucharist and salvation: “Nay, the very flesh in which he resides he makes vivifying to us, that by partaking of it we may feed for immortality. . . . by this food believers are reared to eternal life.” (IV, 17:8) / “. . . the food of eternal life.” (IV, 17:19) / “. . . secures the immortality of our flesh, . . .” (IV, 17:32)
14. Calvin held that contraception was gravely sinful: “It is a horrible thing to pour out seed besides the intercourse of man and woman. Deliberately avoiding the intercourse, so that the seed drops on the ground, is double horrible. For this means that one quenches the hope of his family, and kills the son, which could be expected, before he is born. This wickedness is now as severely as is possible condemned by the Spirit, through Moses, that Onan, as it were, through a violent and untimely birth, tore away the seed of his brother out the womb, and as cruel as shamefully has thrown on the earth. Moreover he thus has, as much as was in his power, tried to destroy a part of the human race. When a woman in some way drives away the seed out the womb, through aids, then this is rightly seen as an unforgivable crime.” (Commentary on Genesis [38:10], translated by John King)
15. Calvin accepted the Catholic and scriptural belief of the perpetual virginity of Mary: “[On Matthew 1:25:] The inference he [Helvidius] drew from it was, that Mary remained a virgin no longer than till her first birth, and that afterwards she had other children by her husband . . . No just and well-grounded inference can be drawn from these words . . . as to what took place after the birth of Christ. He is called ‘first-born’; but it is for the sole purpose of informing us that he was born of a virgin . . . What took place afterwards the historian does not inform us . . . No man will obstinately keep up the argument, except from an extreme fondness for disputation.” (Harmony of Matthew, Mark & Luke, Geneva, 1562, Vol. I, p. 107; from Calvin’s Commentaries, translated by William Pringle, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1949)
List of Calvin's beliefs taken from Dave Armstrongs manuscript on Catholic Register.
2000 years ago God established His sacramental church, for among other things, to create helps against our fallen nature. 1500 years later, man created faith alone and scripture alone, in fallen nature. Luther said Satan praised him for his creation of faith alone and hated the communion of saints and the Mass.
