The Apocalypse - Letter by Letter: Whereas Christ is not an adulterer...
The Apocalypse - Letter by Letter
Blog to discuss the book "The Apocalypse - Letter by Letter: A Literary Analysis of the Book of Revelation" and current events that point to the events described therein.
From THE CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH:
Second Question: What is the meaning of the affirmation that the Church of Christ subsists in the Catholic Church?
Response: Christ "established here on earth" only one Church and instituted it as a "visible and spiritual community"5, that from its beginning and throughout the centuries has always existed and will always exist, and in which alone are found all the elements that Christ himself instituted.6 "This one Church of Christ, which we confess in the Creed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic […]. This Church, constituted and organised in this world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church, governed by the successor of Peter and the Bishops in communion with him"7.
In number 8 of the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium "subsistence" means this perduring, historical continuity and the permanence of all the elements instituted by Christ in the Catholic Church8, in which the Church of Christ is concretely found on this earth.
It is possible, according to Catholic doctrine, to affirm correctly that the Church of Christ is present and operative in the churches and ecclesial Communities not yet fully in communion with the Catholic Church, on account of the elements of sanctification and truth that are present in them.9 Nevertheless, the word "subsists" can only be attributed to the Catholic Church alone precisely because it refers to the mark of unity that we profess in the symbols of the faith (I believe... in the "one" Church); and this "one" Church subsists in the Catholic Church.10
From Apocalypse - Letter by Letter:
The bride is clothed in "bright, clean linen," and the "linen" is the righteous deeds of the saints; ergo, the saints, collectively, are the bride of the Little Lamb, Jesus Christ. Clearly, the saints are the Church, the mystical body of Christ, the bride, as St. Paul repeats what Christ said,
"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." This is a great mystery, and I am applying it to Christ and his Church. [Eph. 5:31-32]
Again, St. Paul indicated that the bride of Christ is the members of the Church, For I am jealous with God's jealousy toward you, for I promised you to one husband, to be presented as a chaste virgin to Christ. [2 Cor. 11:2]
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, even to the end of the world, Christ cannot have more than one bride, lest he commit the sin of adultery; and yet, in this last year of the twentieth century, some 2500 denominations individually aver, "I am the bride of Christ!"
Judge for yourselves, ye Friends, the signs of these times, when hundreds and hundreds of millions testify, "You, Jesus Christ, are a fornicator, like us!" Contemplate earnestly, therefore,what is coming, and make ready.
Consider 19:14, which reads,
And the armies the ones in the heaven follow him [the Word of the God] upon white horses [,] wearing white, clean linen.
The armies mentioned here are "wearing white, clean linen"; this unmistakably alludes to the "bright, clean linen" of the saints in 19:8. Obviously, not every individual member of the whole Church will be in those armies. Hence, to indicate the whole of the Church, the term "the heaven" is used; and to indicate a part of the Church, the phrase, "in the heaven," is used.
