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ABC's

FOR

THE EDUCATED

Their Application

OUR SUNDAY VISITOR PRESS
Huntington, Indiana

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RELIGION'S

ABC's

FOR

THE EDUCATED

Their Application

By J. F. N.

No. 32

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Edition ?4vO00

PUBLISHED IN U.S.A. //
April 11, 1950 . V

JNDAY VKITAD DDCCCOUR SUNDAY VISITOR PRESS
HUNTINGTON, INDIANA

1



Bishop of Fort Wayne



INTRODUCTION

Many people, otherwise well informed,

know nothing about even the fundamen-

tals of religion, clear as A B C’s to the
mind of any child, who has been under

the influence of religious teaching. Why

are these things not clear to people

otherwise educated?

Because some have never striven to

learn them, and because others have

striven hard not to learn them.

The former group comprises not alone

those who are wholly indifferent towards

religion, but those who claim we cannot

have certain knowledge about the things

over which Christians wrangle.

The latter group embraces not alone

those who, having had an anti-religious

training, are opposed to the “churches”

generally, but those who, realizing that

religious knowledge imposes neligious

obligations, will have nothing to do with

it.

Religion, whether regarded as a science

or a mode of life, because intended for

all people, must have its A B C’s, or its
fundamentals of easy acceptance, even

though these have never been clear to

many intelligent people for the reasons

above mentioned.



'



WHAT ARE THE A B C's OF
RELIGION?

A.—Practical recognition of God by
His dependent creatures or children is

dictated by nature itself. This explains

why there never existed even a tribe of

uncivilized people, who did not practice

some sort of divine worship.

B.—The creature dependent for exist-
ence and preservation on the Creator,

should acknowledge it not only by some

sort of worship, but by an eagerness to

know Him aright. The disposition to

rest content with one's ignorance of God

could not be justified even though it en-

tailed no serious consequences.

C.—A God of infinite perfection, and
therefore Truth Itself, could not permit

rational immortal beings to live in ignor-

ance of their eternal destiny, nor deny

them the assistance needed to attain it

successfully.

D.—If God has actually revealed infor-
mation concerning Himself to mankind,

surely no individual may take a passive

or indifferent attitude towards it.

E.—If God has taught other definite



6 RELIGION'S A B Cs

truths of the supernatural order they

were intended for our acceptance, and

their rejection is nothing less than a

challenge to God's veracity.

F.—Similarly, the will of the Creator,
if it has been clearly revealed, must be

the creature's law, and therefore knowl-

edge of that will must be sought.

G.—If the will of God is expressed in
definite laws for the guidance of His

children's conduct, these must be obeyed,

no matter how much one's inclinations

might go counter to them.

H.—If man's destiny be of the super-
natural order, the means for the reali-

zation of it must be of the same charac-

ter. A supernatural end cannot be
reached by natural means. A religion of
human origin certainly could not claim

supernatural means of salvation.

I.—A state of union with God or sep-
aration from Him in eternity must needs

be the fate of an immortal being—a con-
clusion regarded as self-evident even by

pagans. A spirit which survives after
death must live somewhere.

J.—If God actually instituted a defi-
nite plan of salvation, then there can be



RELIGION'S A B C's 7

no alternative plans. If He established a

definite religion and enjoined allegiance

to it, no competitive religion of human

origin may be tolerated as a substitute.

K.—God could not be the author of
even two religious organizations, whose

teaching and manner of guidance are mu-

tually contradictory. People in heathen

lands have been both confused and scan-

dalized by the competition of several de-

nominations, whose representatives
frankly admit their mutually contradic-

tory teaching, while each claims to pos-

sess the truth.

L.—A religious organization which
confesses that it may teach error, even

when making an official pronouncement,

cannot be of God. Such a confession not

only destroys confidence, but proclaims

the human character of the denomina-

tion. Divinity cannot err either directly

or through its divinely commissioned

spokesman.

M.—God could not commission any or-
ganization to teach the nations in His

name (Matt. XXVIII-19), and then de-

cline to protect it from error. Would He

not be held responsible for the error

taught, and therefore for the deception

of His creatures?



8 RELIGION'S A B Cs

N.—God could not command people to
“hear the Church” (Matt. XVIII-17),

and then allow them to be deceived by

her. Would you condone such an incon-

sistent policy even in an honest man?

O.—There is no valid argument
against facts, even historical facts. Some

of these must be included in the A B C’s
of religion.

P.—The most outstanding fact of his-
tory is a nineteen century old Church,

inseparably associated with the civiliza-

tion and the life of every nation of the

western world, which remained Chris-

tian and Catholic for fifteen hundred

consecutive years.

Q.

—Other plain facts of history are
the short life enjoyed by rival religions

in the early centuries of the Christian

era, and the too late origin of many

present day religions. Evidently Chris-

tian organizations which have ceased to

be, prove their own human origin; and

religions which had too late a start to

claim Christ as their direct Founder lack

a very important mark which must dis-

tinguish the Church of Christ.

R.—The most renowned character of
history is the Founder of the Christian



RELIGION'S A B Cs 9

Church, respected and eulogized equally

by friends and enemies of the religion

which He founded. The greatest antag-

onists of Christianity have always con-

ceded that the beauty of Christ's char-

acter has never been surpassed.

S.—Even from the admissions of pro-
fessed infidels the Divinity of Christ can

be satisfactorily established. If He is

concededly the holiest character of his-

tory, He evidently could not have been an

arch deceiver. But this He would be if

He were not truly divine.

T.—No claim made for Christ, no
teaching of His Church, can be logically

rejected before examination, and should

not be because of the possible conse-

quences. Yet the world abounds with

such illogical, inconsistent and unreason-

able people.

U.—Christ's “alleged" miracles should
not be repudiated without investigation,

because surely a God can work miracles.

The Author of nature’s laws can cer-

tainly temporarily suspend one of them

if He chooses to do so.

V.—The Church of Christ had made
great strides even under the fiercest per-

secution, and converted the powerful



10 RELIGION'S A B C's

pagan Roman Empire before even the

identity of the New Testament Scrip-

tures was known. The Church provided

and preserved the Bible instead of the

Bible the Church.

W.—The Bible can have reliable au-
thority only in that Church, which de-

termined its Canon, which provided the

world with many copies of the original

writings, preserved them through the

centuries, and now officially interprets

the Bible's meaning, just as the Supreme

Court of the United States interprets the

meaning of the American Constitution.

X.—When non-Catholic churches insist
on the authority of the Bible they are

unconsciously defending the infallible

authority of the Catholic Church,

through which alone they can prove the

authenticity and present day genuineness

of the New Testament Scriptures.

Y.—No teaching of the divine Church
will be found repugnant to reason, al-

though reason may not fully grasp

supernatural truth. The things seem-

ingly too good to be true are plausible in

the light of God's infinite love for souls

conformed to His image, and destined to

live forever with Him.



RELIGION'S A B C's 11

Z.—Since religion is for all people,
even for the rude and illiterate, it should

be clear that faith is rather a gift of

God than something discovered by deep

study. To adults this gift is usually be-

stowed in answer to prayer, which the

student inquirer too often omits. Evi-

dently the way of salvation must be open

to all men, and therefore could not be de-

pendent on too arduous personal investi-

gation.

The principle of “safety first” should

incline all people to make the most thor-

ough scrutiny of the Church’s case. In

every other field people want “the facts.”

In the religious field far too many people

prefer to be deceived.



A B Cs OF RELIGION AND
LANGUAGE

A Parallel

The religious principles enunciated

above will be more forcibly grasped if

we institute a parallel between the A B

C’s of Religion and the A B C's of lan-

guage.

Just as the Alphabet is learned not for

itself, but as a basis for acquiring

knowledge of any given language for

practical purposes, so the A B C's of reli-

gion should be made the basis for the

acquisition of full knowledge of the true

religion, on which, in turn, a consistent

systematic religious practice should be

built.

Just as we resort to Webster's Diction-

ary to make certain of the correct spell-

ing and meaning of words, so must we

resort to the standard teaching of the

Church of Christ for a correct knowledge

and interpretation of things dealing with

the religion of Christ .

Just as the knowledge of a language

and the correct use of the same are pre-

sented for the student's use, in a syste-

matized manner, in the grammar of the



RELIGION'S A B C's 13

language, so the knowledge of God’s reli-

gion and the correct use of the same

are presented to the student, in a

systematized manner, in an official

Catechism of the Church.

Just as the unschooled child never

learns aright any language as taught by

its standard books and dictionary, so

those who have never been schooled in

religion, but who still call themselves be-

lievers, do not learn aright the one reli-

gion, as originally revealed, and as it has

been passed down through the centuries

in the standard books and creeds of the

Church of Christ.

Just as no one would defend the theory

that the generality of people should

learn a language or any science without

an instructor, so no one could excuse

those who insist on finding the full

truth about the science of religion, un-

aided, i. e., without a competent instruc-

tor. Yet the claim is very prevalent and

is even widely endorsed, that everyone

may create and develop his own religion.

We do not study language merely for

its cultural purpose. The generality of

people hope to make it serve a practical

purpose. The student who, with the aid

of the language he has learned, studies

mathematics or law or medicine, does so



14 RELIGION'S A B C's

principally for the purpose of using this

knowledge. In the same manner reli-

gious knowledge acquired by building on

religion’s A B C’s should lead to religious

practice.

On this principle, universally acknowl-

edged the unsoundness of the contention

often made that religion has nothing

whatsoever to do with dogma or doctrine,

should be clear even to the child-mind.

One of the reasons why 70,000,000 of our

countrymen do not practice religion is

that they have never had any schooling

in the revealed truths of religion.

To maintain that religion was intended

as “a mode of life/’ and need not have

any doctrinal basis, is equivalent to

maintaining that law or medicine may

be practiced as a means of livelihood by

one who had made no previous study of

the principles of jurisprudence or of the

science of medicine.

No citizen of our Republic, or of any

nation, would defend illiteracy in rela-

tion to secular knowledge, realizing that

Ts victim is deprived of innumerable

material benefits in this life. Similarly

illiteracy in relation to religious and

spiritual matters must result in the loss

to the individual of manifold spiritual

blessings.



THE A B Cs AND THE
ILL-DISPOSED

In our Alphabet of Religion we assume

the existence of God, and from that as-

sumption the twenty-six conclusions pre-

viously enunciated flow logically and

naturally. But since there are those who,

whether logically or not, disown God al-

together, I feel that they should have at

least passing attention.

The atheist, the agnostic, the infidel,

the indifferentist, all practically scorn

religion's A B C's; and in so doing they
act not unlike the child who stubbornly

refuses to learn the Alphabet of the lan-

guage of his country. But just as the

child who declines to learn language

from books will, by contacts with others,

unconsciously put the Alphabet to crude

use, so unbelievers, because of associa-

tion with others, frequently talk and act

as those who recognize and accept reli-

gion's fundamentalSc

But even Atheism must have a basis.

In a rational being it should be a con-

viction reached by the use of reason or

proof of some sort. But there never ex-

isted one who arrived at his unbelief in a

positive way, whether by a process of



6 RELIGION'S A B C's

reason or experiment. One might assume

that there is no God, and then develop

this assumption into a sort of conviction

by reading infidel and irreligious litera-

ture, but in the end his unfaith will still

lack the support of positive proof.

Atheists might be formed machine-

like by anti-Christian propaganda and

by the forced exclusion from popular

education of all constructive religious

knowledge, as atheists are made in Rus-

sia. But not one of these unfortunate

persons could prove the correctness of

his atheism to another.

The farthest one can honestly drift

from faith is to Agnosticism; in other

words, a person might conceivably be

honest in his prejudgment that religion

is at best pure superstition, and there-

fore persist in maintaining that he does

“not know.” But in the light of man's

strife to learn other things with cer-

tainty his reluctance to overcome his

doubts concerning God and His revela-

tion is not justified. Nine times out of

ten the professed Agnostic does not want

to know anything about God, because

such knowledge begets duties. It is arro-

gant for man, who is a riddle even to

himself, to insist on completely compre-

hending God.



RELIGION'S A B C's

Our countrymen have become ac-

quainted with the staged religious dis-

cussions in which an Agnostic, Christian

and Jew often participate—and which
are nearly always promoted by the Ag-

nostic for the door receipts. Although

the Agnostic is usually the best of the

three entertainers, he succeeds by setting

up his own straw man, so easy to knock

down. He disproves nothing while he ex-

presses scorn for the mysteries of reli-

gion, ridicules Old Testament miracles,

gives vent to his contempt for a God so

cruel as historical books of the Old Dis-

pensation are presumed to represent Him

to be.

All the while the Agnostic sees nothing

repugnant in the belief that nature itself

is God. It does not occur to him that

there is nothing more mysterious than

nature, nothing more cruel than nature,

nothing more chargeable with inequali-

ties, sorrows and miseries. He has no ex-

planation for the hatreds and wars and

inexplicable injustices proceeding from

the very hearts of men. Who would hon-

estly aver that there is less of cruelty in

organized atheism than in organized

religion? In fact is not atheism itself a

Creed promoted with greater zeal than

theism? Error has always been more



18 RELIGION'S A B C‘«

defiant than truth, evil always more com

bative than good. The irreligious are the

most merciless of men.

The believer is astounded at the incon-

sistency of the infidel, who is far more

credulous than the Christian. He may

turn a deaf ear to every religious pro-

nouncement, no matter how competent

the authority, but without demanding

the slightest proof he eagerly devours

every scientific pronouncement, no matter

how obscure the authority.

It is not the men of culture and of edu-

cation and of big achievements who are

scoffers and professed atheists; it is

rather the communist, the discontented,

the men who have grievances against

orderly government, and against the

major part of the human race.

A recent analysis of the large volume

entitled “WHO’S WHO IN AMERICA”
discloses the fact that only 17 out of

29,623 prominent personages, whose

names appear in the Roll of Fame, de-

clare themselves to be infidels, atheists,

free-thinkers, or agnostics.

It is the proud man of little learning

who must be feared. Men of great

•earning are usually very humble, and

realizing that they are certain of so many



RELIGION'S A B C's 19

facts of nature although they do not com-

prehend them, they find it very easy to

accept supernatural revelation, by whose

light many truths of nature become

immeasurably clearer.

Not much less excusable is the one who

is indifferent about the whole field of reli-

gious belief and practice. He has never

been interested, and he justifies his lack

of interest by what to him seems to be

the futility of arriving at impregnable

convictions. Does he not behold numer-

ous religious organizations calling them-

selves Christian, and much disagreement

among them? Were most of them not

born of differences? Is their history not

one of mutual strife and wrangling?

Are all, therefore, or is even one likely

to be of divine origin? If not, then,

why is not everyone justified in main-

taining an attitude of indifference?

Plausible as this view appears, sound

judgment will not accept it. Does not the

existence of hundreds of claimants sug-

gest that one of them is likely to be a

genuinely divine establishment and,

therefore, that one may be a reliable

teacher and guide?

If those of my readers, who are of the

skeptical or indifferent class, will honest-



20 RELIGION'S A B C's

ly and with a free mind peruse religion's

A B C’s, they will not only admit the

force of the same, but will agree that it

is neither rational nor safe to oppose

their evident implications.

How about these postulates

?

A—In the natural order it is assumed,
axiomatically, or without a demand for

an explanation, that the mind should be

instructed and the will trained. Now if

there be a supernatural order, should it

not also be axiomatically assumed that

the mind should be instructed concerning

it and the will cultivated in regard to

it?

B—Every person acquires considerable
knowledge through his senses. A limited

amount of knowledge results from the

exercise of one’s mental powers or reason.

But the greatest amount is gathered

through faith—faith in one’s school
teacher; faith in books of history, geog-

raphy, science. Surely, then, knowledge

of the unseen world should be accepted

by faith.

C—Thoughtful people of all centuries,
observing that everything in this life

is created for man, and concluding that

man himself must have been created for



RELIGION'S A B C's 21

a higher Being, have striven to know

something more definite about Him,

about the character of life after death,

about the precise service exacted by a

Heavenly Father desirous of rewarding.

Educated people of all times have con-

tended that absolute certainty concern-

ing these matters could result only from

revelation, which, in turn, could be pre-

served unaltered only by a corporate in-

stitution, duly commissioned to teach

mankind. Hence they have studiously

striven to ascertain the identity of the in-

stitution and its accredited teacher.



THE A B C's AND THE
WELL-DISPOSED

In the preceding chat we pointed out

how stubbornly unreasonable they are,

who either scorn religion's Alphabet, or

will not make that application of it

which their best interests demand. We
called attention to the indefensibly weak

position of the professed atheist, of the

agnostic, of the skeptic and even of the

indifferentist, each of whom might be

likened to the person who deliberately

silences his radio lest he hear music

which is permeating space incessantly.

In this instruction we would appeal to

those better disposed, whether they hold

membership in some form of organized

religion, or belong to that large group,

who seek to apply religious principles as

best they know how without ecclesiastical

direction. We would remind all of them

that religious truths exist as objective

facts whether the mind of the individual

discovers them or not, just as many stars

have existed as objective facts for mil-

lions of years without being discovered

by the astronomer. Here are some plain

A B C’s of logic, which everyone should

thoroughly assimilate

:



RELIGION'S A B C's 23

A.—If our beliefs do not harmonize
with religious facts, we are wrong, no

matter how sincere we may be, just as

the scientist is wrong, no matter how sin-

cere he may be, if his teaching does not

harmonize with nature’s facts.

Hence do not make the serious mistake

of confounding sincerity with truth.

Numerous religious fanatics have been

sincere, although wrong. Dentists sin-

cerely believed a few years ago that the

nerve of a tooth about to be filled must

be killed, but they now teach that they

were in error—to the injury of the people
they served.

Did not Christ declare that we could

positively know the truth, and that know-

ing it we would be free from religious

error, to which no sane man should wish

to remain wedded?

The mind of man should certainly want

truth and not opinions, and the will of

man should crave to be conformed to

God’s will. Which person possessed of

self-respect prefers to be deceived, even

honestly, or to be controlled by tempera-

ment or inclinations?

B.—No student could honestly reject
supernatural religion because it contains

mysteries. Knowing well that the natural



24 RELIGION'S A B C's

order contains many mysteries, he should

expect the supernatural order to be filled

with mysteries. As a matter of fact, the

believer in God’s revelation accepts far

fewer mysteries than the believer in the

teaching of human science or of the book

of nature.

While it may be human to rebel against

the acceptance of doctrines which are not

clear to the mind, and against laws

which impose duties and sacrifices, man

actually rebels only against the doctrines

and morality imposed by a Divine

Teacher. He is willing to be taxed heav-

ily for the privilege of acquiring human

knowledge on faith, and concedes the

right to civil authority to curtail his lib-

erty by a thousand human laws.

No one presumes that he may be a law

to himself in matters outside religion.

He may have his own ideas about taxes,

government, education, the wages his ser-

vices are worth, etc. But he also knows

that he is only a unit in society, and

therefore must look for his well-being

on earth by surrendering his personal

ideas, and by yielding to authority.

Why is he not equally logical when

there is question of promoting his well-

being in the next world? Is he, as a



RELIGION'S A B C's 25

creature, less subject to his Creator, than

he is to civil authority? Does he really

believe that he may dictate his own terms

of salvation to Almighty God, while he

concedes to a human employer the right

to determine the character of the service

he must render and the extent of his re-

muneration ?

Much has been written recently about

the ability of human nature to save itself

independently of any supernatural helps,

and this teaching is being crystalized

into a movement headed by Irving Bab-

bitt, Norman Forester, Charles Potter,

Paul Elmer More, Harry Emerson Fos-

dick. As might be expected these men

are not in complete agreement, and

therefore the religion of Humanism,

which they advocate, is not very definite.

But do you really need proof that a su-

pernatural end cannot be reached by

purely natural effort or means?

C.—We have all well learned in recent
years that there is little truth to the

saying “the world owes us a living.”

There is less truth to the seeming preva-

lent notion that God owes us Heaven. The

most He owes us is a chance for Heaven

conditioned on the fulfillment of very

definite terms. How foolish is the one



26 RELIGION'S A B Cs

who does not even try to discover pre-

cisely what those terms are

!

Christ's Kingdom

But one is a Christian not chiefly be-

cause he accepts a set of revealed truths,

nor chiefly because he governs his con-

duct in harmony with God's Command-

ments. He is rather a Christian because

he holds citizenship in the spiritual King-

dom established by Jesus Christ in this

world nineteen hundred years ago,

wherein he has access to divine means

of supernatural soul culture, which alone

can dispose him for his exalted super-

natural destiny.

Citizenship in this Kingdom is confer-

red by an ordinance instituted by Christ

Himself, whose effect is to impart to the

soul a new and higher life (John III, 5),

a life of divine grace, in perfect keeping

with the soul's eternal destiny. God

surely lives in a higher order than we

here on earth, yet we were created to

share the glory and bliss of that order

(Rom. VII, 15-18; I Peter I, 9; Galat.

IV, 6, 7; 1 John III, 2; 1 Peter I, 4; 2

Peter I, 4).

Does it not seem plausible enough that

God's Kingdom in Heaven should be

reached through a Kingdom set up by



RELIGION'S A B C's 27

Himself here on earth, and that a super-

natural destiny should be attained by the

aid of supernatural means dispensed

through His Kingdom here?

Hence when we speak of the supernat-

ural in religion we do not have the

miraculous in mind, as so many people

wrongly imagine. We rather mean that

the religion of Christ is a part of the

Kingdom of Christ, which is the custo-

dian of God's revelation, the duly com-

missioned medium of preserving it and

of teaching it with authority, the dis-

tributor of the merits of Christ to indi-

vidual souls through sacramental agen-

cies of divine institution. As man does

not baptize himself, neither does he teach

himself, nor dispense to himself the

supernatural means of salvation.

It need not be stated that no man un-

commissioned, may presume to act in the

name of God. What would be the stand-

ing of one who should pretend to repre-

sent the United States Government in

England without a clear commission?

The teacher who instructs your child in

school does not do so without a commis-

sion; he or she is engaged for the pur-

pose by a Board vested with authority.

The physician, who guides and directs



28 RELIGION'S A B C's

you along the way of health, may not do

so uncommissioned or unauthorized. He

must be properly licensed and officially

recognized as competent for such guid-

ance.

Now just as the promotion of secular

education is the function of the state or

local government; just as the lawyer and

the physician must have a commission

from authority centered in some sort of

government, so evidently must the “min-

ister of Christ and dispenser of the

mysteries of God” (I Cor. IV-1) have a

commission, a delegation and must be

able to prove it, or who would entrust

his eternal salvation to him?

You readily admit that one bereft of

physical life cannot act at all; then why

not admit that one bereft of supernatural

life cannot act supernaturally ? But man

must act supernaturally if he would hope

to reach his supernatural destiny.

Bereft of the supernatural life, a man

can earn nothing but natural merit when

he does good and avoids evil. By such

merit he might reap a natural reward

in the life to come, but not the super-

natural reward for which he is destined.

One who is never lifted out of the purely

natural order can perform works having



RELIGION'S A B C's 29

a value only commensurate with that

order. But through the rebirth provided

for man in God's plan of salvation, all

the good works one performs, and all the

evil one avoids, have a supernatural

value, and therefore purchase eternal

bliss of the character which belongs to

the very life of God—and we beg to re-
peat that God certainly does not live in

the order of an unelevated human soul.

Too much emphasis cannot be laid on

this fact, which is overlooked entirely by

those who claim that they can, by their

own efforts, attain unto salvation, which

consists in sharing the very supernatural

glory of God.

Just as a high degree of material civi-

lization itself is not attainable outside a

well-ordered state, so it would seem that

a high degree of spiritual civilization

would not be attainable outside a well-

ordered religious system.

Religion, which is to be professed and

practiced, to be taught and enforced by

authority, has been understood by the

people of every nation as a corporate or

organized thing. It is only in these latter

days that we hear of a distinction be-

tween Christianity and churchianity. It

has always been assumed that the whole



30 RELIGION'S A B C's

human family should acknowledge, serve

and worship God “with one heart and one

mind,” that all should be members of

“one flock under one shepherd.”

Such was the infant Church under the

Apostles, the expanded Church after

the three centuries of state persecution,

the historical Christian Church from the

time of her founding down to our day.

Christ's Kingdom On Earth An

Organized Society

Why is it not clear to people that there

should be an organized society in this

world for the promotion of the eternal

well-being of man, just as there is an

organized society for the promotion of

the temporal well-being of man?

Just as the state is constituted of a

large number of individuals united for a

common purpose, under a common au-

thority, so should there be a spiritual

kingdom in which the same individuals

are united for the pursuit of an eternal

destiny under a common authority.



THE CLAIMANTS

Having convinced ourselves that the

New Testament religion was committed

to a corporate organization, known as the

Kingdom of Jesus Christ, through which

the truth is preached, the Almighty offi-

cially worshipped, and souls sanctified,

our next step should be in the direction

of identifying this “Church of the living

God” (I Tim. Ill, 15). Being a visible

institution, now centuries old, and inter-

nationally established, this should be, it

seems, quite easy.

Every person outside pagan lands will

think of looking for the true Church of

God in Christianity
,
the totality of which

most non-Catholic writers divide into

three groups, namely, the Protestant,

the Schismatic or Orthodox Orientals,

and the Roman Catholic. Let us take a

brief survey of these three groups

:

The Protestant Group

While there are hundreds of divisions

in Protestantism itself, each division

calls itself Protestant, and each is fun-

damentally of the same nature as the

other. Hence we are justified, as Pro-

testants themselves do, in treating Pro-



32 RELIGION'S A B C'«

testantism as a whole, although our ob-

servations apply equally to each of its

component parts. Protestantism, em-

bracing some 600 different divisions in

the United States and Europe, claims

about 170,000,000 members.

The Schismatic Orientals

The Orthodox, or Schismatic Church,

consisting of several independently gov-

erned organizations in Turkey, Egypt,

Palestine, Greece, Russia, Roumania,

Serbia, and Bulgaria, and only sparsely

represented elsewhere in the world, ante-

dates Protestantism by 500 years; but,

like Protestantism, it is an offshoot of the

much older Roman Catholic Church. This

group, in round numbers, counts

100,000,000 members.

The Roman Catholic Group

This large organization, which is called

by its own communicants
t(THE CATHO-

LIC CHURCH

”

constituted practically

all of Christianity throughout most of

Europe for fifteen centuries. Now com-

prising 400,000,000 adherents, or 130,-

000,000 more than all Orthodox and Prot-

estant groups combined, it is still one and

undivided. Historians of every land

credit the Catholic Church with nineteen



RELIGION'S A B C'

s

33

centuries of life, and frequently refer to

her as the Mother Church.

High Church Episcopalians insist that

they belong to the Catholic group be-

cause, they claim, they possess Apostolic

succession and valid orders the same as

the Greek Schismatics. They like to con-

sider themselves one of three branches of

the great Catholic Church, of which the

Roman and Greek are the other two.

The emptiness of this claim must be

evident to the one who considers that a

branch must be connected with and draw

its life and nourishment from the trunk,

and that by rejecting the very center of

government and authority instituted by

Christ they were guilty of schism, which

necessarily cuts them completely from the

trunk.

The Episcopalians, of whatever grade,

are the product of a national church,

while the Church of Jesus Christ is es-

sentially international.

It is true that Episcopalians might

have had valid Orders the same as the

Greeks, but when those responsible for

the schism not only repudiated the

Mass, but actually prohibited its celebra-

tion, there was evidently no intention on

the part of consecrating Bishops to con-



34 RELIGION'S A B C's

fer Holy Orders in the Catholic and his-

torical sense. In fact, the ritual of or-

dination was so altered that it could con-

vey no transmission of the principal

powers and purposes of the priesthood.

Application of the A B C's

Success in discovering the genuinely

divine among the three Christian groups

should attend the application of our A B

C's.

A—We are now in the year 1944 after
Christ, Who is believed to have died in

the year 33. This means that the Church

which He established is more than

nineteen centuries old. Religious organi-

zations, which cannot trace their origin

back to Christ, evidently cannot have

been founded by Christ, cannot have been

commissioned by Christ to teach or to

minister in His name. They must then

be separate entities, no matter by what

name they may be called, or to what ex-

tent they may borrow from the original

Church, or with what zeal they may

preach doctrines of that Church. Simi-

larity and sameness are widely distinct if

B—If the existence of other Christian
bodies of post Apostolic origin, whether



RELIGION'S A B C's 35

they belong to the Greek Schismatic oi

Protestant groups, be traceable to doc-

trinal disputes which led to rupture, then

we are forced to accept one of these two

conclusions: Either the divine Church

had fallen into error, or those who left

her and formed separate churches erred.

The former conclusion is not only irra-

tional, but blasphemous. It is worse than

that, for by attacking the veracity of God

it denies His very existence.

If you would resort to the Bible to

guide your judgment, you could find only

one answer, namely, that those who broke

away from the unity of faith, are the

ones who erred. Did not Christ declare

that He would be with His Church “all

days even to the consummation of the

world” (Matt. XXVIII, 20) ? That “the

gates of hell would not prevail against

it” (Matt. XVI, 18)? That “the one

God could not be author of more than one

faith” (Eph. IV, 4) ? Christ speaks of

My Church, The Church, indicating that
He founded and recognized only one reli-

gious Kingdom, of which, according to

St. Luke (I, 33) “there will be no end.”

Keep the idea of “Kingdom” in mind,

when you think of the Church, and you

will readily concede that there could not

be several hundred Kingdoms of Christ



36 RELIGION'S A B C's

C—If you have read, and truthfully,
that in some periods of her life, there

was much of moral evil in the govern-

ment and membership of the old Church,

the only justifiable conclusion is that she

needed an interior reformation, which,

because divine, she was always capable

of effecting herself without the destruc-

tion of her unity. No reformation of

doctrine could be conceived without the

absurd implications that God’s teaching

could be changed, and that He violated

His solemn promises. The Church is

human in her members, but in her char-

acter divine. Her own mission is to “re-

form” not only the world outside, but her

own membership, which was to comprise

many sinners. As God’s work she can-

not be reformed; the truths and man-

dates proceeding from God cannot be re-

formed. The long calendar of her saints,

many of whom lived in those alleged

“days of corruption,” is living proof that

the Old Church has been a better re-

former than her later rivals. She is ad-

mittedly the most consistent champion

of the moral law in the world today, and

is persecuted principally because she de-

fends it against the worldly-pow
r

erful,

who would alter it.

The difference between the Protestant



RELIGION'S A B Cs 37

and Greek Orthodox groups is more radi-

cal than that between the Greek Ortho-

dox and Catholic bodies. Both seceded

from the Mother Church, but the Greek

Orthodox retained nearly all beliefs and

practices of the early Church, such as

Purgatory, the efficacy of prayers for the

dead, the Mass, all seven sacraments,

devotion to Mary and the Saints.

The founders of the original Protes-

tant sects in the sixteenth century and

those who, in turn, have since subdivided

the same into several hundred parts, re-

jected many beliefs and practices which

can be traced back, even through the

Greek Church, to the days of the Apos-

tles, to whom, and to whom alone, Christ

said : “He that heareth you heareth Me”

(Luke X, 16) ; “As the Father has sent

Me I also send you” (John XX, 21)

;

“Whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall

be bound also in Heaven” (Matt. XVIII,

18) ; “Go, teach ye all nations . . . and

behold I am with you all days” (Matt.

XVIII, 20).

While other reasons may be alleged

for the breaking of the unity of faith, as

it had been accepted and practiced from

the beginning, it was actually effected

through civil rulers, and for their sel-

fish ends. The Orthodox Schismatic



38 RELIGION'S A B C's

Church had such a beginning; and

according to a large host of reliable Pro-

testant historians the Reformation in

Germany and England would never have

resulted in independent churches with-

out the aid of the civil power. Worldly

kings and princes, craving to be com-

pletely independent and to owe no alle-

giance, even spiritual, to another author-

ity, backed rebellious ecclesiastics with

all their might, as they later enriched

themselves with the possessions of the

international Church, to which they

closed the national doors.

The mission of the true Church is to

convert and teach all nations. The so-

called Orthodox Churches, which, like

Protestantism, had a nationalism basis,

have remained dormant in the countries

into which they were first introduced.

They have never converted a nation. This

is also true of Protestantism. While it

has had missionaries at work in many

countries for years, no one of its con-

stituent parts can lay claim to the con-

version of a single nation, outside of the

land of its birth, where it was ultimately

made the official religion by law, rather

than by the free choice of the people.

The Catholic Church, on the contrary,

born in Jerusalem, converted the whole



RELIGION'S A B C

s

39

pagan Roman Empire within a few cen-

turies, then the people of every country

in Europe, then practically all the people

of Central and South America, and of

many islands. Hers is now the predomi-

nant religious organization in the United

States, Canada, and even in the pagan

missionary lands of China, India and

Africa. No other religious organization

can lay claim to universality with half

the validity that she can, any more than

they can claim unity, direct divine origin,

and apostolicity.

According to the A B C’s of logic
,

whereby it must be held that “possession

is nine-tenths of the law;” that the

Church of Jesus Christ, if founded by

Himself, must be now 1900 years old;

that if once divine it could not, even

apart from God's promises, fall into

error—according to this elementary
logic, only one among the present day

three large Christian groups could jus-

tify its claim to divine authorship.

If millions are not convinced by such

irrefutable logic, it is because they have

entertained an altogether erroneous con-

cept of the Church.

A complete definition of the Church, as
it was assumed by all Christians for



40 RELIGION'S A B Cs

many centuries, might be stated thus

A divine organization or Kingdom estab
lished by Christ Himself to exist visibly

among all nations till the end of the

world; an organism possessed of a living

spokesman, representing God in the

capacity of Teacher of nations, and

Sanctifier of individuals; an organism,

which, enjoying God's guidance, is com-

petent to proclaim the whole set of

truths taught by Christ in their original

genuineness; an organism, a divinely in-

stituted official form of public worship

as well as God-given ordinances to con-

fer supernatural life on the soul, to in-

crease it, and even to restore it after

it will have been forfeited by sin.

Loyal citizens of this Kingdom, co-ex-

tensive with mankind, cheerfully accept

all her teachings and have peace, because

security, in believing; they are faithful

in attendance at her public worship
;
they

make meritorious use of the means of

sanctification she offers; they allow

themselves to be directed in spiritual

matters by her divinely constituted

authority.