Which church is the real one?

In your journey of searching for the true version of Christianity, you eventually learned there was a church that existed before every protestant denomination, and this church was united in its beliefs. You can read about it in the writings of the early church fathers.

Those who love God and wish to be joined to His church will naturally begin to wonder if that original church has survived as an institution up until the modern day. They’re met with a dilemma when they realize there are two major denominations which claim to be the original church: The two oldest churches in the world (the Catholics and Orthodox) have excommunicated each other, claiming the other is apostate. And even worse, each of them commands you to either join them or be damned.

What is a person supposed to do in this situation? Are we expected to just roll the dice and join one of these randomly? The problem gets even worse when you find that the Catholics and Orthodox have split into even more sub-sects that have excommunicated each other, each claiming the others have all apostatized. This is a very difficult predicament for an earnest believer to be in, because they honestly desire to be in the church, but they don’t know which of these churches is the original one and which are the heretical impostors.

When you ask the leaders in either denomination how you’re supposed to know which of them is the true church, they will sometimes tell you, “We have miracles in our church!” But this isn’t very helpful to us, since both groups claim to have miracles. Again, both the Catholics and Orthodox will say, “We have very righteous saints in our church!” But again, each denomination will claim the other’s saints are not real saints at all, but apostates. Only one group can be telling the truth,  and there has to be some God-given method to discern what the truth is.

God gave us a method to find the truth!

Eventually, the leaders of these churches will tell you to research church history in order to find out which of them holds the original, universally-held doctrines. If you follow these instructions, you’ll encounter the final dilemma: You’ll realize the early church fathers unanimously condemn the Catholics and Orthodox on some of the most foundational points of the Christian faith.

These two groups are not so different in the end, but are two harlot sisters. We call them the Cathodox. Both sects claim to be preserving the apostolic traditions of the church, but both are fakers. Both sects serve the devil by directing believers away from the church’s original teachings, claiming to possess the authority to override the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. But we exhort you to flee from the great whore of Babylon, the apostate church. If you want to be saved, you must cleave to the ante-Nicene fathers unanimous teachings.

On this website and on our Youtube channel, we expose the Cathodox to be heretics, and we demonstrate that the ante-Nicene church held the true doctrines of Christ. But the next natural question to ask is, “What are we supposed to do now?” Is apostolic succession really lost forever? How can we be saved without the priests?

So all the churches are heretical…. Now what?

The question about apostolic succession and where the true bishops can be found is an essential question. First of all, apostolic succession consists of two things: 1) preserving the teachings of the apostles without any addition or corruption, and 2) having a legitimate ordination from other legitimate bishops. The Cathodox have lost both of these things. Their heresies about Mary, war, divorce and remarriage, and worshiping images would place them outside of the church even if they were properly ordained, but they don’t even have apostolic succession in that respect either. They retain apostolic succession in no sense whatsoever.

Starting after the council of Nicaea, both Constantine and his son Constantius took control of the church, exiling all of the bishops they disliked and commanding that falsely-ordained bishops replace them. True Christianity was once again outlawed by the Roman government, and every orthodox Christian went into hiding.

Who indeed has not been injured by their calumnies? Whom have not these enemies of Christ conspired to destroy? Whom has Constantius failed to banish upon charges which they have brought against them? … Where is there a Church which now enjoys the privilege of worshipping Christ freely? If a Church be a maintainer of true piety, it is in danger; if it dissemble, it abides in fear. Every place is full of hypocrisy and impiety, so far as he is concerned; and wherever there is a pious person and a lover of Christ (and there are many such everywhere, as were the prophets and the great Elijah) they hide themselves, if so be that they can find a faithful friend like Obadiah, and either they withdraw into caves and dens of the earth, or pass their lives in wandering about in the deserts. – Athanasius, History of the Arian Controversy, chapter 53

The Cathodox currently derive their succession from these false bishops. They believe excommunicated heretics who are outside of the church have the authority to ordain new bishops, even after murdering the previous legitimate bishops. Not only have they lost true apostolic succession because they come from a line of murderous Arian bishops, but also because their appointments were made by emperors (as in the case of Ambrose, Nectarius, Gregory of Nazianzus, John Chrysostom, etc.). The church had previously decreed that if any man was appointed to be bishop by the government, their ordination was automatically invalid:

If any bishop makes use of the rulers of this world, and by their means obtains to be a bishop of a church, let him be deprived and suspended, and all that communicate with him. – Apostolic Constitutions, Canon 31

Many of these false bishops justified their violation of church law by insisting that emperors like Constantine and Theodosius were Christians, and thus superior to “rulers of this world.” But before this, the church had explicitly forbidden all Christians from even taking political office, making it impossible for an emperor to be a Christian:

“They will inquire concerning the works and occupations of those are who are brought forward for instruction [as a catechumen]…. If someone is a military governor, or the ruler of a city who wears the purple, he shall cease or he shall be rejected.” – Hippolytus, Apostolic Tradition, Chapter 16

“Yes, and the Cæsars too would have believed on Christ, if either the Cæsars had not been necessary for the world, or if Christians could have been Cæsars.” – Tertullian (A.D. 197), Apology, Chapter 21

I used to regard it as a difficult matter, and especially as difficult in respect of my character at that time, that a man should be capable of being born again — a truth which the divine mercy had announced for my salvation — and that a man quickened to a new life in the layer of saving water should be able to put off what he had previously been; and, although retaining all his bodily structure, should be himself changed in heart and soul. How, said I, is such a conversion possible, that there should be a sudden and rapid divestment of all which, either innate in us has hardened in the corruption of our material nature, or acquired by us has become inveterate by long accustomed use? These things have become deeply and radically engrained within us. When does he learn thrift who has been used to liberal banquets and sumptuous feasts? And he who has been glittering in gold and purple, and has been celebrated for his costly attire, when does he reduce himself to ordinary and simple clothing? One who has felt the charm of the fasces and of civic honours shrinks from becoming a mere private and inglorious citizen. The man who is attended by crowds of clients, and dignified by the numerous association of an officious train, regards it as a punishment when he is alone. – Cyprian, Epistle 1, chapter 3

For this reason, all ordinations after the council of Nicaea were illegitimate, because emperors immediately began deciding who would be elected as bishop, and the lineage of bishops was ruined by heretical, government-sanctioned ordinations. Some of the most respected post-Nicene bishops recognized that apostolic succession had been completely destroyed by the spawn of many false bishops and illegitimate successions:

The episcopates, which are seen now, have been completely destroyed by you [Constantius], because there is no one who has not already condemned himself and also himself condemned the man from whom he received the priesthood. What remembrance of the saints will there now be to share in? – Hilary of Poitiers, Against Constantius, chapter 27

But this poses a challenge to us: How are we supposed to receive baptism and the eucharist without ordained priests? The answer is, both the pre-Nicene and post-Nicene church taught that absolutely any man can baptize, and that the eucharist can be offered by the laity in emergencies like this. The fathers assure us, we don’t need idolatrous, money-grubbing fraudsters to consecrate the eucharist for us. They would only pollute it.

How can we be saved without bishops?

The church fathers said that a time would come when all of the bishops would fall away, which began to happen after the church committed adultery against her Husband by marrying the Roman government. But the Christians who fled from the apostate church left us instructions about what to do in the absence of bishops. The church consists of all believers, and it is still a church even if its bishop has either been martyred or has apostatized.

Remember in your prayers the Church in Syria, which now has God as its shepherd, instead of me. Jesus Christ alone will be its bishop – He and your love. – Ignatius, Letter to the Romans, chapter 9

But if it be not possible to go to the church on account of the unbelievers, you, O bishop, shall assemble them in a house, that a godly man may not enter into an assembly of the ungodly. For it is not the place that sanctifies the man, but the man the place. And if the ungodly possess the place, avoid it, because it is profaned by them. For as holy priests sanctify a place, so do the profane ones defile it. If it be not possible to assemble either in the church or in a house, let every one by himself sing, and read, and pray, or two or three together. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. – Apostolic Constitutions, book 8, chapter 34

For they hold the places, but you hold the Apostolic Faith. They are, it is true, in the places, but are outside of the true Faith; while you are outside the places indeed, but the Faith is within you. Let us consider which is the greater, the place or the Faith. Clearly the true Faith. Who then has lost more, or who possesses more? He who holds the place, or he who holds the Faith? Good indeed is the place, when the Apostolic Faith is preached there, holy is it if the Holy One dwell there…. But you are blessed, who by faith are in the Church, dwell upon the foundations of the faith, and have full satisfaction, even the highest degree of faith which remains among you unshaken. For it has come down to you from Apostolic tradition, and frequently has accursed envy wished to unsettle it…. For if ever God shall give back the churches (for we think He will) yet without such restoration of the churches the Faith is sufficient for us. – Athanasius, Fragment (appended to Letter 29)

This command to withdraw from heretical assemblies is a universal teaching of the church, and we are following it by refusing to assemble with falsely-ordained, heresy-spewing idolaters.

The leadership of the church may have fallen away by allowing a non-Christian to rule over them, but just because the leadership fell away doesn’t mean the church has stopped existing. It has always been a remnant within the church that’s being saved. The pre-Nicene church fathers said so, as did Christ.

Therefore, we retain apostolic succession by preserving the teachings of the apostles, although we have no earthly bishops. The organized structure of the church has been destroyed, much like it was in the days of Elijah, when all of God’s priests turned to worshiping Baal, which was a precursor of these days. But we still know what Christ’s doctrines are, even if there’s no longer an organized body of living bishops to excommunicate heretics. We instead rely on the ancient decrees of the church to guide us, and we reserve fellowship only for those who strictly abide by all of the church’s teachings without compromise, dedicating ourselves to the writings of the early church as diligent scribes, making sure to obey everything they unanimously taught.

How do we find the early church’s consensus?

We don’t arbitrarily choose a cut-off date for hearing the church’s witnesses, but rather, we establish the consensus of the church on a doctrine-by-doctrine basis. We start at the beginning of church history and move forward in time, checking to see what every church father says about a particular subject, from the beginning, until we find a consensus. We can usually find unanimous agreement, but even when you have one dissenting voice, the majority is sufficient to establish the church’s worldwide teaching.

Vincent of Lerins does a great job of establishing this principle we find in Scripture about obeying the consensus of the early church. The Orthodox church agrees that this principle is the only way to know you are part of the true church (Josiah Trenham, Rock and Sand, part 1, 43:01).

Vincent of Lerins (A.D. 445)

[48.] This being the case, he is the true and genuine Catholic who loves the truth of God, who loves the Church, who loves the Body of Christ, who esteems divine religion and the Catholic Faith above everything, above the authority, above the regard, above the genius, above the eloquence, above the philosophy, of every man whatsoever; who sets light by all of these, and continuing steadfast and established in the faith, resolves that he will believe that, and that only, which he is sure the Catholic Church has held universally and from ancient time; but that whatsoever new and unheard-of doctrine he shall find to have been furtively introduced by some one or another, besides that of all, or contrary to that of all the saints, this, he will understand, does not pertain to religion, but is permitted as a trial, being instructed especially by the words of the blessed Apostle Paul, who writes thus in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, ‘There must needs be heresies, that they who are approved may be made manifest among you’ [1 Corinthians 11:19]; as though he should say, This is the reason why the authors of heresies are not immediately rooted up by God, namely, that they who are approved may be made manifest; that is, that it may be apparent of each individual, how tenacious and faithful and steadfast he is in his love of the Catholic faith.

[6.] Moreover, in the Catholic Church itself, all possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all. For that is truly and in the strictest sense ‘Catholic,’ which, as the name itself and the reason of the thing declare, comprehends all universally. This rule we shall observe if we follow universality, antiquity, consent. We shall follow universality if we confess that one faith to be true, which the whole Church throughout the world confesses; antiquity, if we in no wise depart from those interpretations which it is manifest were notoriously held by our holy ancestors and fathers; consent, in like manner, if in antiquity itself we adhere to the consentient definitions and determinations of all, or at the least of almost all priests and doctors.

[7.] What then will a Catholic Christian do, if a small portion of the Church have cut itself off from the communion of the universal faith? What, surely, but prefer the soundness of the whole body to the unsoundness of a pestilent and corrupt member? What, if some novel contagion seek to infect not merely an insignificant portion of the Church, but the whole? Then it will be his care to cleave to antiquity, which at this day cannot possibly be seduced by any fraud of novelty.

[8.] But what, if in antiquity itself there be found error on the part of two or three men, or at any rate of a city or even of a province? Then it will be his care by all means, to prefer the decrees, if such there be, of an ancient General Council to the rashness and ignorance of a few. But what, if some error should spring up on which no such decree is found to bear? Then he must collate and consult and interrogate the opinions of the ancients, of those, namely, who, though living in various times and places, yet continuing in the communion and faith of the one Catholic Church, stand forth acknowledged and approved authorities: and whatsoever he shall ascertain to have been held, written, taught, not by one or two of these only, but by all, equally, with one consent, openly, frequently, persistently, that he must understand that he himself also is to believe without any doubt or hesitation.

[72.] But the opinions of those Fathers only are to be used for comparison, who living and teaching, holily, wisely, and with constancy, in the Catholic faith and communion, were counted worthy either to die in the faith of Christ, or to suffer death happily for Christ. Whom yet we are to believe in this condition, that that only is to be accounted indubitable, certain, established, which either all, or the more part, have supported and confirmed manifestly, frequently, persistently, in one and the same sense, forming, as it were, a consentient council of doctors, all receiving, holding, handing on the same doctrine. But whatsoever a teacher holds, other than all, or contrary to all, be he holy and learned, be he a bishop, be he a Confessor, be he a martyr, let that be regarded as a private fancy of his own, and be separated from the authority of common, public, general persuasion, lest, after the sacrilegious custom of heretics and schismatics, rejecting the ancient truth of the universal Creed, we follow, at the utmost peril of our eternal salvation, the newly devised error of one man.

[73.] Lest any one perchance should rashly think the holy and Catholic consent of these blessed fathers to be despised, the Apostle says, in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, God has placed some in the Church, first Apostles (1 Corinthians 12:27-28), of whom himself was one; secondly Prophets, such as Agabus, of whom we read in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 11:28); then doctors, who are now called Homilists, Expositors, whom the same apostle sometimes calls also Prophets, because by them the mysteries of the Prophets are opened to the people. Whosoever, therefore, shall despise these, who had their appointment of God in His Church in their several times and places, when they are unanimous in Christ, in the interpretation of some one point of Catholic doctrine, despises not man, but GOD, from whose unity in the truth, lest any one should vary, the same Apostle earnestly protests, I beseech you, brethren, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment (1 Corinthians 1:10). But if any one dissent from their unanimous decision, let him listen to the words of the same apostle, “God is not the God of dissension but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33); that is, not of him who departs from the unity of consent, but of those who remain steadfast in the peace of consent: as, he continues, “I teach in all Churches of the saints,” that is, of Catholics, which churches are therefore churches of the saints, because they continue steadfast in the communion of the faith. – Vincent of Lerins, The Commonitorium

Is the church invisible then?

We believe there is a visible apostate church, the mother of harlots, who has committed adultery against her husband and betrayed him, who is now fornicating with countless lovers and neglecting her children. Every child must flee her house and track down their long-lost father, not believing any of their mother’s many lovers who all claim to be their true father. The children must utilize the letters they received from their father and his close friends, who explain to the children how to escape their wicked mother, instructing the children to abide by the righteous teachings they received from her during the years before she turned evil. The children can survive this horrible situation if they have great determination and love for their father.

Christ’s bride, the nation of Israel, murdered Him. Likewise, Christ’s bride in the New Testament metaphorically killed Him, committed adultery against him, replaced Him with anti-Christs, and stole his children from Him. You can’t blame God for failing His church when He predicted this would happen and left you instructions for what to do in this scenario.