Nations rise and fall, empires wax and wane, dynasties form and collapse. All earthly institutions rapidly appear and disappear. Those institutions which do survive for extended periods of time change substantially, until they become unrecognizable. Time is the great destroyer of all human endeavors.
But not the Church. The Church endures – and will continue to do so until the end of time.
To be sure, the Church is not unaware of the passage of time. For example, theological questions originally left open for debate by theologians, such as the Immaculate Conception, She has now clearly defined.
But the Church endures in substance, keeping the same basic teachings, performing the same sacrifice, and holding to the same moral principles as She did at Her founding. Numerous Popes have been killed, imprisoned, tortured, and enslaved, but Her Papacy has endured since Saint Peter. Her doctrines, although attacked by every form of heresy imaginable, remain intact, whereas the popular creeds of bygone eras have fallen by the wayside.
No other organization or religion holds that record. The constancy of the Church is a far cry from the mutability of every other human organization and every other faith.
The Church has been beset from within and without by every form of pressure imaginable. Persecutors, heretics, and schismatics demanded that She conform Her teachings to what was powerful or what was fashionable. Nations and principalities have demanded that She submit to them. When She refused to do so, they unleashed every form of pressure imaginable to coerce or destroy Her.
But they fell, and She remained. And still She endures.
This constancy shown by the Church in the face of unimaginable pressure is nothing short of miraculous. It is one of the clearest proofs that the Catholic Church is truly the Church of God.
For a religion to be true, it MUST teach unchanging truth that lasts until the end of days. Moral law must be unchanging if it is to have any meaning. A changing conception of a God is no conception of God at all.
Only the Church has held to Her sacred, enduring mission and Her holy teaching, granted to Her by Jesus Christ. The constancy of the Church is a living witness to Her enduring truth.
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