The Catholic Defender: The Catholic Church Was Established Necessary For Salvation

Recently, I spoke with a lady who is from Poland who told me that she is Catholic, but has been going to a Non-Denomination church because of where they live. I asked her if she looked for a local Catholic Church, she replied that she did not.

After talking with her about the importance of the Catholic Faith for Salvation, she quickly went to correct her current situation. She did not understand the consequences of not going to Mass.

I run into this kind of situation a lot because many people take faith like a smorgasbord, Christ is not comparable to McDonald’s or Burger King. He is the King of kings and his truth is not subject to our opinion. We are subject to his Will. Like a colorful snake that draws your attention, if you get to close you just might get bit.

It seems that every now and again, Apostates like Mike Gendron and others want to raise their voices to reach out after Catholics. Just coming home from a mission in Kentucky, I found on the internet Mike Gendron continues to promote his attacks of Catholics on his website “Proclaiming the Gospel”.

The whole debate over the bible, faith, works, really are side trails that steer people down a wrong road.

One lady promoting Gendron’s website started to respond to me by saying that she does not see anywhere in the bible that teaches the need of the Catholic Church? Wow, talk about opening up to every false murky way?

Think about that very question. In the Old Testament, the very nature of the Catholic Church was foretold by God to the Patriarchs. Genesis 17:5 God changes Abrams name to Abraham depicting this truth. Abram spiritually means “Father”,while Abraham means “Father of a host of nations”.

This change from Abram to Abraham is very significant because it points to the seed that would ultimately come, it is a foreshadowing the Messiah: Isaiah 11:1, “But a shoot shall spout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom. The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him”.

Jesse: David’s Father. Stump: After the Babylonian exile, only a stump of the Davidic Dynasty will remain; from it will arise the new shoot, the Messianic King. Also the root meaning of the word bud refers to the word NESER which hits the root of NAZIR which translates to NAZARETH. Jesus would be called Jesus the Nazarene!

Jesus Himself fulfills the prophecies of the Old Testament. What I am addressing at this point is the work that Jesus did. Isaiah spoke of the Lord’s servants: “no weapon that is fashioned against you shall prosper, and you shall confute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD and their vindication from me, says the LORD.” Isaiah 54:17

Can you pick out your own scripture and cherry pick them to formulate your own way of Salvation? No, that is certainly not the ordinary means of Salvation. Jesus did establish a Church giving it His Authority. Consider the following: “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Matthew 16:18-19

“He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” Luke 10:16

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” John 20:21-23

Am I cherry picking verses to build a case? No, not at all, I can share scripture that relates to a spiritual truth, but it is clear that Jesus did in fact founded a Church. The fact that Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter is very significant. The giving to Peter the Keys adds even more foundation to this truth. Consider the following:

“and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your girdle on him, and will commit your authority to his hand; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open." (Isaiah 22:22)

“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Matthew 16:18-19

In the household of David, the one who held the keys of the kingdom was the Royal Steward. Jesus as the Son of David, has the power to transfer the keys to His Church, the office he founded upon Peter.

Let’s take a quick look at a verse that the Gendron Clan might throw out to attempt to confuse a Child of God. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Romans 10:17

It is common for the Gendron Clan to pull out a scripture like Romans 10:17 that when taken out of context, they will challenge you to find the Catholic Church there. I will respond that I am hearing the word of God that is teaching me and building in me the Faith of the Apostles. I am not bound by the false application of your interpretation Mister Gendron or Jason Hauser!

Romans 10:17 is very simple, The word of Christ has been faithfully safeguarded by the Church that Jesus established. It is that Church that presents the word of Christ as it has been handed down from the Apostles. It is interesting that when I went to Gendron’s Baptist church in Tyler Texas, that they would not allow us to refer to the Apostolic Authority. That is because they have none.

If you ask them pointblank for someone of the second or third century that reflects their faith, THEY DO NOT EXIST.

Everything that the Catholic Church teaches was embodied in the Great Commission by Christ: And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.”

This command of the Lord cannot be usurped by Mike Gendron through his own personal interpretation of scripture. The Catholic Church is the arbiter of truth: “My brethren, if any one among you wanders from the truth and some one brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” James 5:10-20

The Catholic Church is the dispenser of Grace for our benefit: “For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles–assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly."

Stewardship of God’s Grace? Very interesting. Not only was St. Paul called by God to dispense Grace, but all the ordained: “Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophetic utterance when the council of elders laid their hands upon you. Practice these duties, devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress. Take heed to yourself and to your teaching; hold to that, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.” 1 Timothy 4:14-16

So, we see the Church being the arbiter of truth and grace is very significant. Anyone who challenged the Apostles authority in the New Testament went off the bandwagon: “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel–not that there is another gospel, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, If any one is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed.” Galatians 1:6-9

What the Gendron Clan does is to misrepresent what the Catholic Church teaches. They do that in pamphlets and booklets. Ms. Jane, who I later was told was Mike Gendron’s wife, handed me their pamphlets that they handed out to Catholics on Christmas Eve. Just to give you an example how they are deceptive, Mr Gendron, when looking at Jesus the Savior, he points to Titus 3:5, “He saved us, not because of any righteous deeds we had done, but because of his mercy.” That is how he quoted it.

Now, check out the actual quote, Here is Titus 3:5 in it’s full context, “But when the kindness and generous love of God our savior appeared, not because of any righteous deeds we had done but because of his mercy, he saved us through the bath of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he richly poured out on us through Jesus Christ our savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life”.

Do you notice that Mike Gendron is not giving the fullness of the truth of Titus 3:5! This is typical when you start digging into Mike Gendron’s teaching. Much like how the JW's pervert John 1:1 as another example.

Why would Mike Gendron purposely leave out the phrase, “He saved us ‘THROUGH the BATH of REBIRTH and RENEWAL by the HOLY SPIRIT?”

What Mr. Gendron is doing is reshaping the format. All Catholics recognize what Christ accomplished on the Cross for our salvation is sufficient, but we are to be baptized and confirmed in the Catholic Faith.

As for the name of the Church being in the bible, I like the Greek text of Acts 9:31:

Acts 9:31 “Then the church throughout all* Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord."

*In the original Greek, it is: Acts 9:31 ἡ μεν ουν εκκλησια καθ᾽ ὁλης της ιουδαιας και γαλιλαιας και σαμαρειας ειχεν ειρηνην οικοδομουμενη και πορευομενη τω φοβω του κυριου, και τη παρακλησει του ἁγιου πνευματος επληθυνοντο.

The term in bold commonly translated as ‘church throughout all’ is in Greek ‘”εκκλησια καθ᾽ ὁλης”—pronounced “Ekklesia Kath olos” or the Church Universal since Kath olos is the same term used by St Ignatius for the Church in his letter.

The Catholic Church is necessary for Salvation, it even helps extends God’s grace to those who reject it by offering forever the Prodigals who return home to the Sacraments. The reason why the Catholic Church has this power and authority is through the founder of the Catholic Faith, Jesus Christ.