THE ONE, HOLY, CATHOLIC, APOSTOLIC CHURCH

I believe in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.   

CC21.

Who else could be summoned as a witness to the Apostolic Succession  ?

TERTULLIAN

The greatest amongst the Apologists, Tertullian was born in Carthage (modern Tunis) about the year 160 a.C. of pagan parents.  At the age of thirty three he converted to Christianity and became an apologist, polemist, theologian and moralist.

How does Tertullian identify the true Christian  ?

For Tertullian, the true Christian is:

·       The one who belongs to the Church founded by the Apostles,

·       Who accepts the doctrine they taught, and which is preserved in the Church founded upon them.

“Clearly”, concludes Tertullian, “the heretics lack all this, hence they are outside the One and True Church founded by Jesus Christ.”

How does Tertullian confront the heretics  ?

Tertullian challenges them with these words:

“It would seem unlikely that Christ would have revealed His Father to others besides the Apostles whom He sent out to preach…..and what did they preach?  In order to know it, it is necessary to appeal to the churches which were founded  personally by them ….

This being so, it follows that, only that doctrine is true, which is in full agreement with that of the Apostolic Churches, Mothers and Sources of the Faith …..it also follows that, any other teaching is an outright lie,  one that contradicts the truth of the Church of the Apostles, of Christ, and of God.  (Tertullian: ‘De Praescriptione Haereticorum’, Part II, 21, 12.)           /CC22

Extracts by kind permission of  HG Mons. Sylvester Magro ofm, Apostolic Vicar  of Benghazi.