The Catholic Church is the Authentic Church of Christ

"I will agree with you that the Catholic Church is the oldest unified church, but if you look at Christianity at its start it wasn't a unified church, Paul and the other apostles had to go out and teach in secret out of fear that the Roman's would kill them." The persecution of the Church has nothing to do with the Church not being "unified". "The thing that I would like to point out is that the practices of the Catholic church aren't in the bible and are wrong. Praying to Marry, having a Pope who will speak to god and can get you out of purgatory, are just a few things taught in the catholic church that are wrong." I would like to address once again that sola scriptura itself is not biblical therefore, how could we base our teachings on Scripture alone? Also, you can interpret Scripture all you want, however, as I stated before, how do you know that your interpretation of Scripture is correct? Are you infallible? The Church is the "pillar and foundation of the Truth" not Darklordcomp. The Church alone has such authority to interpret Scripture especially since it is the compiler of Scripture. "Catholics also believe that you can get into heaven by your works witch is also not true, For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Ephesians 2:8-9" You have done what ST. Paul had warned us not to do and that is to interpret Scripture to our destruction (2 Pt. 3:15-16). Ephesians 2:8-9 is not telling us that works we have done through the Grace of God do not justify us but that works done outside the Grace of God for ourselves do not justify us. Strictly speaking, the verse suggests that man cannot save himself without God's help. "I will argue all day with you about Catholic teachings and such but you need to clarify, is this debate about Catholicism being the one true christian religion? or is it about the Catholic church being the oldest organised christian church." Well actually by admitting that the Catholic Church is the oldest organized Christian Church you do prove that it is the Authentic Church of Christ since that means that this is the Church Christ instituted and the Church that was given the promise that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matt. 16:18) and that this is the Church that the bible calls the "Pillar and Foundation of the Truth" making the Catholic Church the upholder of the Truth meaning it teaches the Truth and therefore incapable of teaching heresy or error. I do attest that the teachings of the Catholic Church do not go against Sacred Scripture and vice versa but the teachings of the Church go hand-in-hand with the teachings of the bible. The Church has the authority to interpret Scripture and therefore is the true guardian of Scripture. Yes you can throw out Scripture verses and passages at me trying to negate my view, however, it would be to no avail since you cannot prove how your interpretation of that verse or passage is the correct interpretation of the verse or passage since you are not the "pillar and foundation of the Truth" but rather a fallible man who cannot be sure of his interpretation as any of the founders of the thousands of Protestant denominations. We can debate at a later time individual teachings of the Catholic Church that you are opposed to such as prayer to the saints, the Papacy, purgatory, justification, etc. but let us remember that this debate is about the Catholic Church being the Authentic Church of Christ and in order to justify that it is not, you would need to show either that: 1) The Catholic Church is not the original Church 2) An apostasy did happen 3) Sola-Scriptura is biblical and is the way to go If you cannot show these things, my judgment that the Catholic Church is the Authentic Church of Christ has been made clear and manifest.