Fundamentalist or Catholic?

Christian history

Christ founded one Church with one faith (Ephesians 4:4-5). The true Church is the one with an unbroken link to the New Testament Church. Catholics trace their bishops back to the apostles and the pope to Peter, and can trace their beliefs back too, as Newman did in An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, which convinced him and led him to convert.

Fundamentalists claim the early Church was Fundamentalist until Constantine legalized Christianity in 313, when it was paganized into Catholicism while true believers hid until the Reformation. There is no evidence. Distinctively Catholic beliefs, the papacy, priesthood, invocation of saints, sacraments, veneration of Mary, salvation by more than "faith alone," purgatory, appear long before, and no group in those centuries held the Reformers' doctrines of sola scriptura, faith alone and an invisible church.

A visible Church with a head

The Church is a city set on a hill (Matthew 5:14), not a lamp under a basket (Matthew 5:15). A visible Church needs an earthly head to settle disputes. Christ made Peter the rock (Matthew 16:18). The rock is not Peter's confession, two sentences away, nor Christ, who by a different metaphor is the cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20; 1 Peter 2:4-8), just as the apostles are also foundation stones (Ephesians 2:20; Revelation 21:14). Christ, returning to heaven, left a visible authority: the papacy.

The Bible

If the Spirit guided each reader, all would agree, since God cannot teach error; yet Christians, even Fundamentalists, contradict one another. Scripture rejects private interpretation (2 Peter 1:20) and warns that the ignorant and unstable twist the Scriptures (2 Peter 3:16). It points to oral tradition (1 Corinthians 11:2; 2 Timothy 2:2; 2 Thessalonians 2:15), and the first Christians devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching (Acts 2:42) before the New Testament was written.

Justification

The Reformers saw justification as a legal declaration covering a sinner who remains unjust. Scripture presents it as a real removal of sin and inner renewal: no condemnation for those in Christ, a new creation (Romans 8:1; 2 Corinthians 5:17), salvation through sanctification by the Spirit (2 Thessalonians 2:13). Sins are wiped out, blotted out, taken away and cleansed (Psalm 51:2; Isaiah 43:25; Micah 7:18; John 1:29; Psalm 103 [102]:12). It is rebirth (John 3:5; Titus 3:5), renewal (Ephesians 4:23) and sanctification (1 Corinthians 6:11): not an ugly soul under a beautiful cloak.

The sacraments

Christ used his humanity as a medium of power (see Mark 5:25-30) and now gives grace through sacraments (see John 6:53-58; 20:21-23; Acts 2:38; James 5:14-15; 1 Peter 3:21), visible rites that signify and confer grace, as baptism's water signifies cleansing. There are seven: baptism, Eucharist, penance, anointing, confirmation, matrimony and holy orders.

The Mass

Melchizedek offered bread and wine (Genesis 14:18), and Christ is a priest after his order (Psalm 110 [109]:4), so we look for a sacrifice in bread and wine distinct from Calvary: the Mass, where they become Christ's body and blood (see John 6:53-58). Christ does not suffer and die again (see Hebrews 9:26); the same sacrifice is offered anew, the pure offering among the nations (Malachi 1:11).

A modest proposal

Would a quarter of Americans be Catholic if the faith were as odd as its opponents claim? Hear both sides before deciding.