"I Will Build My Church.."

I'm writing this post mainly as a response to the Faith Point column in the latest Investigate Magazine, 'God's Plan for man's Earth' by an Allison Ewing. I'm not sure whether this woman is a Christian - it just says at the bottom that she is a Christchurch Writer and occasional contributor.

Anyway, she has written this column after an "in depth exploration" of the Christian faith, but there are some points she makes that led me to want to respond -

The men of Christian spiritual religions have taken 2000 years to create a 'counterfeit church', which has many offshoots. They have instructed their followers to celebrate man-made celebrations and have adopted the practices of other religions. They have set up their own numerous structures to govern their congregations. Many have ordained themselves as God's chosen representatives and carried out - on behalf of God - the pardon of sin, the making of saints, and the task of judgement. 

Hmmm, I wonder who she could be talking about there. This leads me to wonder if Ms. Ewing - in her in depth exploration -  believes that Jesus established a church at all? It's not hard to find it in the Bible -

Simon, son of Jonah, you are blessed! You didn't discover this on your own. It was shown to you by my Father in heaven. So I will call you Peter, which means "a rock." On this rock I will build my church, and death itself will not have any power over it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and God in heaven will allow whatever you allow on earth. But he will not allow anything that you don't allow. Matthew 16: 17-19 CEV

So, then, here we see Jesus establishing his church, it's leader - Peter, and giving his authority to the church. And what about forgiving sins? After Jesus has risen, he appears to all his apostles -

After Jesus had greeted them again, he said, "I am sending you, just as the Father has sent me." Then he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone's sins, they will be forgiven. But if you don't forgive their sins, they will not be forgiven." John 20: 21-23

Does the church need someone to guide it on earth? Or do you think we are capable of working everything out on our own? Is the Bible enough? That would be like writing the constitution of the United States, giving everyone a copy and saying, "here is the law, now follow it".

Anyway, the point I was trying to make is that Jesus did establish a church on earth. I believe it to be the Catholic Church, but I will leave the last word to Scott Hahn -

Is it possible to read another kind of church into the pages of the Bible? It is indeed, but only if we choose to place ourselves in judgement of all the interpreters of the early Church - the men who received the apostolic succession, and were in a position to know better. This should require a tremendous amount of fear and trembling, if not for the natural reasons, then surely for the supernatural reasons. For Jesus said to His first Apostles: "He who rejects you rejects Me".