There Is Only One Church
Christianity is not an idea, a feeling, or an invisible association of like-minded believers.
From the beginning, it proclaimed one Church—not many; a visible body, not a spiritual abstraction; an institution founded by Christ, not a later historical corruption.
This Church has always been identifiable, authoritative, sacramental, and continuous.
That Church is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
To deny this is not to preserve “primitive Christianity,” but to abandon it.
I. Christ Founded a Church, Not a Concept
Jesus Christ did not leave behind a theory of religion. He founded a Church, using the language and the terms of construction, authority, judgment, and continuity.
“You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church… I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.”
— Matthew 16:18–19 (RSV-2CE)
A concept is not built.
A metaphor is not given keys.
An invisible aggregate cannot bind or loose.
Christ further commands:
“If he refuses to listen even to the Church, let him be to you as a Gentile.”
— Matthew 18:17 (RSV-2CE)
This presupposes a known, public authority capable of discipline and judgment.
A purely spiritual or invisible church cannot fulfill this role.
From the outset, therefore, Christianity involves submission to a concrete ecclesial authority, not merely private faith.
II. The Apostles Understood the Church as a Visible, Governed Body
The Apostles did not interpret Christ’s words symbolically.
From the first days after Pentecost, the Church is clearly identifiable by four objective marks:
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers.”
— Acts 2:42 (RSV-2CE)
Doctrine, authority, sacrament, and worship are not optional expressions of faith; they constitute the Church itself.
When Judas falls, he is not replaced informally or spiritually. Scripture says:
“His office let another take.”
— Acts 1:20 (RSV-2CE)
An office presupposes an institution. Succession presupposes continuity.
Christianity, from the beginning, is corporate, juridical, and public.
III. The Fathers Are Unanimous: The Church Is One, Visible, and Catholic
No historical claim is more easily tested—and none more decisively falsifies modern “Christian” theories about what constitutes the Church.
1. Ignatius of Antioch (c. AD 107)
A disciple of the Apostle John, Ignatius leaves no ambiguity:
“Wherever the bishop appears, there let the multitude be; just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.”
— Letter to the Smyrnaeans, 8
This is the earliest surviving use of the term Catholic Church—not as a later label, but as the recognized name of the Church itself.
Ignatius further warns:
“He who follows a schismatic does not inherit the kingdom of God.”
— Letter to the Philadelphians, 3
Unity with the visible Church is unity with Christ.
Separation is spiritual death – something taught from the earliest of days, already in the pages of Genesis.
2. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180)
Writing against heretics, who back then already claimed a “secret” or “spiritual” Christianity, detached from institutional authority, Irenaeus answers definitively:
“The tradition of the apostles is made manifest throughout the whole world.”
— Against Heresies III.3.1
He then appeals not to Scripture alone, but to apostolic succession, naming the bishops of Rome from Peter onward. A mere spiritual fellowship does not possess a succession list.
Most decisively, he writes:
“For with this Church, because of its more excellent origin, it is necessary that every Church agree.”
— Against Heresies III.3.2
This is not poetic praise. It is a juridical statement of normative authority.
3. Cyprian of Carthage (c. AD 250)
Cyprian dismantles any notion of disembodied unity:
“He cannot have God for his Father who has not the Church for his mother.”
— On the Unity of the Catholic Church, 6
And:
“The Church is one… As there are many rays of the sun, but one light, so the Church is spread abroad yet remains one.”
Unity is not preserved through parallel communions, but through organic oneness.
Cyprian concludes with the principle later summarized as:
“Outside the Church there is no salvation.”
This is not medieval severity. It is second and third-century Christianity – the only form of Christianity that existed.
IV. The “Invisible Church” Is a Modern Invention
The claim that “the Church is not an institution but a spiritual reality” is:
- Historically false
No Father taught it. All assume bishops, sacraments, councils, discipline, and authority. - Theologically incoherent
Christ institutes sacraments that require ministers and jurisdiction. - Self-refuting
All sects who profess this immediately creates their own forms of confessions, ordinations, and disciplinary structures—while denying that Christ did so.
The idea of an invisible church composed of doctrinally divided bodies appears only in the 16th century, as a justification for schism.
V. The Eastern Orthodox Claim: Apostolic, but Not the Whole
At this point, a different objection arises: What of the Eastern Orthodox?
They possess valid sacraments, apostolic succession, and much of the patristic inheritance. This is not denied. But possession of authentic elements is not possession of the whole.
The question is not: Who remained ancient?
The question is: Who retained the divinely instituted principle of unity?
VI. Rome’s Primacy Is Juridical, Not Merely Honorary
The Orthodox often concede Rome a “primacy of honor” while denying universal authority.
This distinction, however, is unknown to the early Church.
Already in the first century, the Church of Rome intervenes authoritatively in Corinth.
Clement writes not as an equal advisor, but as one exercising responsibility:
“If any disobey the things spoken by Him through us, let them know that they will incur no small danger.”
— 1 Clement
This is not honorary primacy.
Irenaeus’ statement that all Churches “must agree” with Rome is unintelligible unless Rome possesses real authority, not ceremonial precedence.
VII. Councils Derive Authority; They Do Not Generate It
Orthodox theology often places supreme authority in councils.
But the early Church never regarded councils as self-validating. This, in itself, is innovation.
An Ecumenical Council became ecumenical only when confirmed by the Bishop of Rome.
At Chalcedon, the Fathers declared:
“Peter has spoken through Leo.”
Not through the council itself.
Without this principle, conciliar authority collapses into circular reasoning: the true council is the one that teaches the truth, and the truth is what the true council teaches.
This is epistemic instability unknown to the Fathers.
VIII. Schism Cannot Be Symmetrical
The Great Schism is often portrayed as a “mutual separation.”
But schism, in patristic theology, is not symmetrical.
Schism occurs when communion with the principle of unity is refused. Rome did not abandon apostolic order by asserting authority; the East departed by rejecting authority long acknowledged—often for imperial or national and secular reasons.
Today, Orthodoxy lacks:
- A final court of appeal
- A universally binding doctrinal voice
- A mechanism to resolve schism among its own churches
This condition would have been unthinkable as Church to the early Fathers.
IX. The Catholic Church Alone Preserves Full Identity with the Beginning
The Catholic Church alone can say—without rupture—that it is:
- the same Church that taught before the New Testament was compiled
- the same Church that defined the canon of Scripture
- the same Church that baptized, ordained, judged, and taught throughout the world
Modern innovations dissolve the Church into an abstraction.
Eastern Orthodoxy preserves ancient form but fractures universal authority.
Only Catholicism preserves both apostolic substance and apostolic unity.
Conclusion
There is only one Church because Christ founded only one.
That Church was visible, authoritative, sacramental, and Catholic from the beginning.
The modern denial of institution is a historical fiction.
The Eastern Orthodox limitation of authority is an ancient rupture.
The Catholic Church alone remains what the Church always was:
one body, one faith, one visible communion under the successor of Peter.
There is only one Church.
And it is the Catholic Church.
Blog do Fernando Rees 