In our days, there are a plethora of Christian Churches, and not all are equal. Some are closer to the community that Jesus founded, some have deviated further than others.

We cannot claim that any given Church “is” (in totality) the Church founded by Christ, because that would deny everyone else membership in Christ. However, “this Church constituted and organized in the world as a society, SUBSISTS in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him, although many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside of its visible structure.” (Lumen Gentium 8, emphasis added) That is, the Catholic Church is the closest to the community founded by Jesus Himself, is substantially the same as that community of the Twelve and the disciples, soon expanded by those added after Pentecost.

In one sense, then, you are right: all Christians are members of the Body of Christ. But in another sense, there are many who are members of the Body of Christ, but who have been cut off from the full expression of that community through the schisms and divisions of the Church.

Is there a good analogy? How about this: in any denomination you may pick, there are some members who are fully committed and active, who agree with all that the denomination teaches and holds and strive to live that teaching. And then there are other members who are on the periphery, who may show up a few times a year, or not for several years, who may believe things inconsistent with the official teaching, who don’t bother to live what they claim to believe. All of these are members–but some are “more fully” exemplary members than others. In a similar way, some Christians belong to Churches that more fully reflect the Church that Christ founded than others.

You end “And it was enough.” Perhaps. There were plenty of disputes after that that required more clarification:

equality of ministry to different groups (widows of Hebrew-speakers vs. Greek speakers),

whether or not circumcision is required of Christians, (also from the book of Acts),

whether or not Jesus really died on the Cross (docetism, reflected in the Gospel according to John),

whether the Old Testament is consistent with the Gospel (Marcion),

whether or not Jesus is really and fully divine (Arius),

and so on. To our sorrow, because of human limits and failure, the teaching of Pentecost (unless properly understood and unfolded) is not enough, the Bible (unless guided by authoritative interpretation) is not enough. That is why, we believe, God established the Church and its leaders.

We believe that, as the Second Vatican Council said, “This Church [of Christ] constituted and organized in the world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church. . . .”

Now, that says that the Catholic Church is substantially the Church established by Christ–but the odd word “subsist” is chosen deliberately not to identify totally the Catholic Church with the Church established by Christ. Rather, there may be members of the Body of Christ who are not members of the Catholic Church. They believe in Christ, but perhaps do not accept all that Christ gave us for salvation.

Faith in Christ is not a cafeteria menu, from which we can pick and choose what we want–it is a relationship with Christ, a devotion to all that He taught and showed us, all that he did for us. “Follow me” was what he said, not “decide what you want and follow that.” The problem with non-Catholic Christians is that, as individuals or as groups, they decide what they want and what they cannot accept, such as the authority of the Church, and follow their own way.

Which brings us back to Chesterton’s quote that started this whole discussion: “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.” We find it too difficult to accept all that Jesus taught us, and so try to make an easier way for ourselves.

The New Testament is the fullfillment of the Hebrew Scriptures. Our Catholic faith is the evolution of the Jewish faith. We must all pray for the Jewish people to come into the Church. Roy Schoeman explains it very well.

That’s not true. Scripture repeatedly points us to the Church. It says that the “Church” is the pillar and bulwark (foundation) of Truth. And of course, the Church is the bride of Christ, the Body of Christ, etc.

Jesus gave us a Church – not a bible. And the authority of that Church (given to the apostles) did not die with those apostles. Even in scripture we see that they replaced apostles and a look at history and the early Church we see that they continued to do so ever since…all the way to today.

Here is some more various, semi-related reading on the Church and the Bible that some may find interesting.

Also, your understanding of prayer is very limited and you admit that it can be understood in different ways. You choose to interpret it the way you want in order to win an argument, but not in order to better understand where the Church is coming from in these teachings.

Further, things like praying for the dead was a common practice of the Jews prior to Jesus and it is indeed recorded in Maccabees (although I recognize protestants have taken that out of their bible – although funny enough the original KJV had it in there. But this is an entirely different discussion).

Which brings me to my final point – these comments are getting way off topic from the subject of the original post. I appreciate the interest and desire to discuss, but I think it’s important to do it in the right time and place. There are lots of other places on the web, including many of my other posts on this blog, to discuss many of these issues in more depth, etc. But that’s why I often try not to go into too many tangents on a particular post within the comment section, and would rather point you to another discussion or another resource that explains it more sufficiently.

Thanks and God bless.

Additionally, some of my favorite books on the topic if you’re interested in more:

Mass of the Early Christians
The Fathers Know Best

For example, when you go on about a “works” religion and how “The only works by which we are saved are the works of Jesus Christ,” you clearly don’t understand what the Church teaches on this matter, what she means by works, what is meant by “saved” etc. So it’s pointless to debate.

This topic is covered more on another post of mine: Clarifying Faith and Works.

Mac – check out the Catechism of the Catholic Church to get the real down-low on what the Catholic Church teaches.

As for the Catholic Church, she does recognize a special bond with all baptized Christians and that they do indeed share in the Body of Christ – although imperfectly or incompletely. Non-Catholic Christians are in a whole other category than those other religions you mention, so I don’t get the comparison.

Person A has position X.
Person B presents position Y (which is a distorted version of X).
Person B attacks position Y.
Therefore X is false/incorrect/flawed. — nizkor.org
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3. a fabricated or conveniently weak or innocuous person, object, matter, etc., used as a seeming adversary or argument: — dictionary.com
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None of the above apply.