Understanding what took place in the land of the Jews at the beginning of our common era requires us to look at the entire history of mankind. Salvation history, I am convinced, is the key which can unlock all the mysteries of the Christian faith. I am equally convinced that studying the economy of salvation will make it clear that the Church which the Lord founded is the Holy Roman Catholic Church: Holy because of her origin in Christ; Roman because all her churches are in communion with the Church of Rome; Catholic because she transcends time and space; Church because she is the assembly (qahal/ekklesia) of God's people on the earth, above the earth, and under the earth. My opponent in this debate, my former self, will argue against this. He will offer evidence that it is not the worldwide Catholic Church founded by Jesus, but that it is the predominantly American Protestant sect known as the Church of Christ which is the assembly of divine origin. Once the big picture is considered, however, I believe it will become clear to all that my opponent's viewpoint is untenable. I look forward to the opportunity to consider his arguments and answer them in my first rebuttal.

Mankind is the crowning achievement of God's creation. The human person is fundamentally and substantially different from all other creations. Though man belongs to the animal kingdom, he is more than just the king of all animals. Man is created in the image of God. God exists eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a Triune community of love. Desiring to share that perfect love with a being which could return the love, the Ancient of Days created humanity. The Divine Image involves free will, reason, creative drive, and, most importantly, the capacity to love. Without free will, man would be a puppet or robot. Robots cannot love. In order to ensure that some would experience the joy that is love, the Most High opened up the possibility for people to freely reject that love. And, unfortunately, that is exactly what they did.

Our first parents rejected the will of God, and so brought the separation of sin into the world. Sin destroys the life of the soul, and bars each of us from entering into the presence of God. All are born into sin, and from then on life is a slippery slope. As the Psalmist laments, "True, I was born guilty, a sinner, even as my mother conceived me." (Psalm 51:7)

From the very beginning, God had a plan to redeem mankind. He would assemble his called out people, his Church, together again. Man was meant to be united as one universal (Katholikos) Covenant Family and Kingdom. Having common ancestry, that is the way he was created. Sin brought about division after division. First, the human assembly divided into wicked Cainites and godly Sethites. When Cainites and Sethites intermarried, the Sethites were corrupted, and divided again into the godly family of Noah and the rest of humanity. After the world was purged of evil by the flood, the Church again divided into the godly family of Shem and the rest of the world. At Babel, the division became palpable when God confused human language, causing people to divide into separate nations.

The world reached the point when only the clan of Abraham preserved the natural unity of the faith. With Abraham's descendants, the Jews, God made a Covenant. They were to be his chosen people, his Church, and he would be their God. God's choosing of the Hebrews was not his giving up on the rest of mankind. Instead, he had a very clear purpose in choosing Israel. Israel was to be one collective priest to mediate between God and the corrupt pagan world. To Abraham, God made clear his concern for all peoples: "All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you." (Genesis 12:3)

God would restore the Catholic unity of humanity by establishing a New Covenant and a new Covenant Family and Kingdom. To King David, like the Patriarch Judah before him, the Lord spoke of the One to come who would establish this Covenant assembly: "And when your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his kingdom firm. It is he who shall build a house for my name. And I will make his royal throne firm forever. I will be a Father to him, and he will be a Son to me." (2 Samuel 7:12-14)

Centuries later, as the mysterious plan of God continued to unfold, St. Isaiah the Prophet foretold the mission of the Messiah (Hebrew: "anointed one." ): "Those in the west shall fear the Lord, and those in the east, his glory; for it shall come like a pent up river which the breath of the Lord drives on. He shall come to Zion a Redeemer to those of Jacob who turn from sin, says the Lord. This is the Covenant which I myself have made says the Lord: My Spirit which is upon you and my words which I have put into your mouth shall never leave your mouth, nor the mouths of your children nor the mouths of your children's children from now on and forever says the Lord. Rise up in splendor! Your light has come. The glory of the Lord shines upon you." (Isaiah 59:19-60:1)

The Prophet Daniel foretold the coming of the Roman Empire, which he calls a kingdom of iron. "In the lifetime of those kings," declared the Prophet of the Most High, "the God of Heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed or delivered up to another people; rather, it shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and put an end to them, and it shall stand forever." (Daniel 2:44) Indeed, the Roman Empire did arise, and she brought peace to the world, paving the way for the coming of the Messiah.

"When we were not of age," writes St. Paul, we "were enslaved to the elemental powers of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that we might receive adoption." (Galatians 4:3,4) At the dawn of the common era, God the Son became Incarnate. Born of the immaculate virgin, Mary of Nazareth, he preached a message of repentance in preparation for the New Covenant and the coming of the Kingdom of God.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 763,764) explains: "It was the Son's task to accomplish the Father's plan of salvation in the fullness of time. Its accomplishment was the reason for his being sent. ‘The Lord Jesus inaugurated his Church by preaching the Good News, that is, the coming Reign of God, promised over the ages in the Scriptures.' (1) To fulfill the Father's will, Christ ushered in the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. The Church is ‘the Reign of Christ already present in mystery.'(2)

"‘This Kingdom shines out before men in the world, in the works and in the presence of Christ.' (3) To welcome Jesus' word is to welcome ‘the Kingdom itself.' (4) The seed and beginning of the Kingdom are the ‘little flock' of those whom Jesus came to gather around him, the flock whose shepherd he is. (5) They form Jesus' true family. To those whom he thus gathered around him, he taught a new ‘way of acting' and a prayer of their own."

My opponent and I both agree that Jesus established a Church. The prophecies of Scripture show that establishing this Church was not an arbitrary move on the Lord's part. This Church was to be the means of bringing all nations back into the family of God. This Church was to be truly Catholic, embracing all men and women who would accept Jesus, regardless of race, class, tongue, culture, or time.

The Church's mission was to bring the gospel of salvation to all peoples. Jesus could have chosen any means of educating the peoples about salvation. Had he so desired, he could have stayed to teach himself for all ages. He could also have written a book which laid down the Christian message in a clear and systematic way. If he had wanted to do so, he could have sent angels to minister to the nations. Christ did not choose any of these methods to bring the good news to the world. Instead, he established a Church. St. Paul wrote that "the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the Church." (Ephesians 3:10)

My opponent will argue, I'm sure, that the Church failed in that mission. He will assert that God's assembly became corrupted and slowly began to teach and practice things that are contrary to the will of Christ. This Great Apostasy, he will say, resulted in the foundation of the Catholic Church. Through the Church, then, was made known not "the manifold wisdom of God," but heresy. This is the essential issue. If the Church failed in her mission, then the Roman Catholic Church, despite the fact that she is historically the same institution as the Church founded by Christ (which, for doubters, will be established momentarily), can not be the true Church. Then and only then is it even possible for another body to claim (much less prove) to be the REAL Church.

The prophesies of Scripture paint the coming of the Messiah and the establishment of the Church to be glorious events. With the advent of Christ and his Church, the doors of salvation were opened up to the world. His apostles, the first leaders of the Church, spread the Christian faith throughout the world. The entire purpose of the establishment of the Church was to bring the truth to the nations, thus saving souls. St. Paul assures us that this is God's will. "God our Savior," writes the Apostle, "wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth." (1 Timothy 1:4) The Apostle Paul is not only convinced that God wants the truth to reach all people, he is also confident that the nations will receive that truth. While disputing with the Roman Jewish community, St. Paul declared firmly and prophetically:

"Let is be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles. They will listen." (Acts 28:28)

The Church is made up of human beings, with all the various sins and imperfections which plague all human beings. Christ's message of salvation is far too important to leave in the hands of mere men without special guidance. More profoundly, the souls of those who have yet to hear the gospel are far too precious to allow sinful human beings to corrupt the message. Jesus took steps to assure that the Church would not fail in her mission to make known "the manifold wisdom of God," precisely because he "wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth."

One of the ways which Jesus assured that the Church would be successful in her mission was by placing his chosen leaders over her. The Catechism states: "The Lord Jesus endowed his community with a structure that will remain until the Kingdom is fully achieved. Before all else there is the choice of the Twelve with Peter as their head. Representing the twelve tribes of Israel, they are the foundation stones of the New Jerusalem. The Twelve and the other disciples share in Christ's mission and his power, but also in his lot. By all his actions, Christ prepares and builds his Church." (CCC 765)

The Apostle Simon Bar Jonah was chosen by the Lord to be the leader of the apostles, and thus, the head of the Church on earth. Said Jesus to Simon: "And so I say to you that you are Peter (the Rock) and upon this Rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose one earth, shall be loosed in heaven." (Matthew 16:18)

To ensure the success of the Church in her mission, Jesus granted to the leaders of the Church the charism of infallibility. Preparing to suffer the crucifixion, Jesus said to his apostles: "And when (the Holy Spirit) comes, he will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation: sin, because they do not believe in me; righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; condemnation, because the ruler of this world has been condemned. I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you into all truth." (John 16:8-13)

It was not only the first generation of people to hear the gospel about whom Christ cared. The Lord is every bit as concerned about the second, tenth, and ten thousandth generation as he was the first. This is why he did not let the charism of infallibility die with the apostles. Those apostles, who were the first priests and bishops of the Catholic Church (*), chose men and laid hands on them, ordaining them to be their successors as deacons, presbyters, and bishops. The succession continued. St. Paul commanded St. Timothy, Bishop of Ephesus, to choose successors. "What you heard from me through many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will have the ability to teach others as well." (2 Timothy 2:2) To

St. Titus, Bishop of Crete, the Apostle charges: "For this reason I left you in Crete so that you might set right what remains to be done and appoint presbyters in every town." (Titus 1:5)

St. Clement I, the fourth pope, a "coworker" of St. Paul "whose name (is) in the Book of Life," (6) explained the continued Church leadership in his first epistle to the Church of Corinth, written around 97 AD: "And thus preaching through countries and cities, (the apostles) appointed the first fruits of their conversion to be bishops and ministers over such as should afterwards believe, having first proved them by the Spirit...They appointed persons as we have before said, and then gave direction how, when they should die, other chosen and approved men should succeed in their ministry."

The apostles, with the authority of Christ, passed down their authority to successors. These successors are the hierarchy of the Church: deacons, presbyters, and bishops. Men were ordained to these offices by the laying on of hands by the apostles. The bishops continued the line of succession to this day. Succession from the apostles is directly traceable from Jesus Christ himself to every bishop in the Roman Catholic Church.

From the earliest times in the history of the Church, the authority of the apostolic successors has been accepted without controversy. Men like St. Ignatius of Antioch, a disciple of St. John, Bishop of Antioch, the Church which was ministered to by both St. Peter and St. Paul and where the followers of Jesus were first called "Christians," a heroic man and a martyr for the faith affirms the truth of apostolic succession time and time again in his writings:

"Let us reverence the deacons as Jesus Christ, and the bishop as the Father, and the presbyters as the Sanhedrin of God, and college of the apostles. Without these, there is no Church." (7)

"Be not deceived, brethren: if anyone follows him that makes a schism in the Church, he shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. If anyone walks after any other opinion, he agrees not with the passion of Christ. Wherefore let it be your endeavor to partake all of the same Holy Eucharist. For there is but one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup in the unity of his blood; one altar, as also there is one bishop, together with his presbytery, and the deacons my fellow servants; that so whatsoever ye do, ye may do it according to the will of God." (8)

"Continue inseparable from Jesus Christ our God, and from your bishop, and from the commands of the apostles. He that is within the altar is pure, but he that is without, that is, he that does anything without the bishop, the presbyters, and deacons, is not pure in conscience." (9)

"Wheresoever the bishop shall appear, there let the people also be: as where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church." (10)

From the first century through the twentieth century and beyond, the Church has been guided by the same charism of infallibility. The Holy Spirit, "the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son," (11) preserves the Church from teaching error. The deacons have inherited from the apostles the role of service in the Church. The priests have inherited from the apostles the power to forgive sins and consecrate the Holy Eucharist, in persona Christi, in the person of Christ. Bishops have inherited from the apostles magisterial authority. The bishops rule the Church with the same authority as did the apostles. Likewise, the successor of St. Peter, the Pope of Rome, rules the Church with the same authority as did St. Peter himself.

We have seen that God's plan through the ages was to unite all nations in one Holy Church. We have seen that Jesus Christ, the Incarnate God-Man, established that Church. He founded it on the papal ministry of St. Peter and placed over it a Magisterium, the apostles and their successors. The mission of this Church, we have seen, was to teach the true faith to the nations. We have also seen that when the nations hear this word, according to St. Paul, "they will listen."

This Church was led by sinful and weak men, who were given charisms which enabled them to rise above their imperfections and shepherd the flock of Christ, so that God might be glorified "in the Church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever." (Ephesians 3:21) This Church has continued through the ages. She has produced both saints and sinners, but she remains forever "the household of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth." (1 Timothy 3:15)

The Catholic Church is the messenger of salvation to the world. She is the Covenant Family and Kingdom of prophecy. She has suffered fiery persecution from all manner of people, from pagans to heretics to misguided separated brethren to Nazis to communists. Yet, she remains forever the Sacrament of Salvation for mankind, "an unshakeable kingdom," against whom the "gates of the netherworld shall not prevail." (12)

I have not said much about the Protestant sect, the Church of Christ, in order to prove that she is not what she claims to be. As the debate progresses, I am certain that the opportunity will arise to thoroughly examine her claims and those of my opponent. Instead, I have tried to show that it was the plan of God through the ages to establish a Church which would successfully bring the message of salvation to the nations. The Catholic Church has done that and continues to pursue this good work, going out into all the world to proclaim the gospel. My opponent's sect was born out of a schism from the Catholic Church called "Protestantism." The sect itself was founded by Baptists Thomas and Alexander Campbell and Presbyterian Barton Warren Stone when their respective splinter groups noticed similarities and merged in the 1830's.

If the Church of Christ is to be taken seriously, it remains for my opponent to show that the Catholic Church, the Church historically established by Jesus Christ, somehow ceased to be the true Church. In light of all the prophesies of Scripture and the promises of Christ, he has his work cut out for him.

St. Ignatius of Antioch, pray for us!

(*) St. Paul gives evidence that the apostles were priests. "Grace was given me from God, to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God." (Romans 15:15, 16) St. Peter gives evidence that the apostles were bishops while choosing a successor to Judas Iscariot: "His bishopric (episkopoi) let another take." (Acts 1:20)