Matthew 28: 18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Jesus said that ALL authority has been given to Him. The word all means, All!
Matthew 16: 18 "I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church ; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. This means that death cannot overcome Christ's church. The only power Satan has over anyone is death, caused by our own sins. Satan cannot touch Christ's church.
Romans 8: 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Once again, Satan cannot touch Christ's church, or remove anyone from it.
By the way, Jesus Christ has already defeated Satan!!
Christ's church is spiritual, and cannot be divided.
Matthew 12: 25 And knowing their thoughts Jesus said to them, "Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste ; and any city or house divided against itself will not stand. 26 "If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself ; how then will his kingdom stand ?
If Jesus Christ has all authority in heaven and earth, then His church can only be divided if He allows it. Jesus is not going to allow His church to be divided for the very reasons He Himself stated above!
Satan wants us to believe that Christ's church is divided so that we will believe the false prophets he sends into the world to deceive us. He wants us to look away from God's word found in the bible, and to search for other truths claimed by those who hate the bible, for it convicts them, and reveals their untruths to the world.
Do not believe it!
Friends, "1. Neither Protestant nor Papal
"The Orthodox vision of the church is not "protestant:, since for the Orthodox God's final covenant community within creation in his Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit is a visible historical community concretely existing in space and time. The one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church of Christian faith exists on earth as Christ's body and bride, the fullness of him who fills all in all, the pillar and bulwark of the truth. ....
"In a word, the Church on earth for the Orthodox is not a necessarily partial and imperfect human organization, or number of organizations, comprising sinful individuals who express their various, at times contradictory, theologies and pieties in relation to others, whether enrichingly or adversely. It is rather the community of persons in which God acts through his divine Son and Spirit, communicating his infallible truth and untarnished holiness in human forms, which are wholly "adequate to God" for the salvation of souls. These "human forms" of the Church are the sacramental rites and liturgical offices in which the Church proclaims and celebrates her dogmas and canons, as well as the lives and teachings of her saints, in universally accepted words and images basically taken from the Holy Scriptures.
"The Church, for the Orthodox, is also not "papal." There is for the Orthodox no bishop who exercises episcopal jurisdiction over all Christians on earth, including the other bishops; and no bishop who pronounces teachings on matters of faith and morals which are necessarily binding on all church members, including the other bishops. No see has the right to appoint bishops to other sees, nor to interfere in their internal life. And the collegium of bishops, with or without a supreme bishop (be the primacy one of "jurisdiction" or "honor") does not as a body govern the universal Church."
(pages 211-212: On Ecclesial Conciliarity, by Thomas Hopko. In: THE LEGACY OF ST. VLADIMIR. Byzantium, Russia, America. Edited by J. Breck, J. Meyendorff, and E. Silk. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Pres, 1990.).
In Erie PA USA Scott R. Harrington