Food for thought on this Saturday

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE CHURCH ESTABLISHED BY JESUS CHRIST? 

Our Lord Jesus Christ said: “...I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). If Christ said that the gates of hell shall not prevail against His Church; is it possible that His Church doesn't exist anymore? Did it vanish or is it still around? Since the Roman-Catholic church was established in the year 1054 and protestant churches after the 1517 reformation - where is the Church that was established by Christ 2000 years ago? 

THE ORIGINAL CHURCH: 

If you are a Lutheran, your religion was founded by Martin Luther, an ex-monk of the Catholic church, in the year 1517. If you belong to the church of England, your religion was founded by King Henry VIII in the year 1534 because the Pope would not grant him a divorce with the right to re-marry. If you are a Presbyterian, your religion was founded by John Knox in Scotland in the year 1560. If you are a Congregationalist, your religion was originated by Robert Brown in Holland in 1582. If you are Protestant Episcopalian, your religion was an offshoot of the church of England, founded by Samuel Senbury in the American colonies in the 17th century. If you are a Baptist, you owe the tenets of your religion to John Smyth, who launched it in Amsterdam in 1606. If you are of the Dutch Reformed church, you recognize Michelis Jones as founder because he originated your religion in New York in 1628. If you are a Methodist, your religion was founded by John and Charles Wesley in England in 1774. If you are a Mormon (Latter Day Saints), Joseph Smith started your religion in Palmyra, New York, in 1829. If you worship with the Salvation Army, your sect began with William Booth in London in 1865. If you are Christian Scientist, you look to 1879 as the year in which your religion was born and to Mary Baker Eddy as its founder. If you belong to one of the religious organizations known as "church of the Nazarene, Pentecostal Gospel," "Holiness church," or "Jehovah's Witnesses," your religion is one of the hundreds of new sects founded by men within the past hundred years. If you are Roman Catholic, your church shared the same rich apostolic and doctrinal heritage as the Orthodox Church for the first thousand years of its history, since during the first millennium they were one and the same Church. Lamentably, in 1054, the Pope of Rome broke away from the other four Apostolic Patriarchates (which include Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem), by tampering with the Original Creed of the Church, and considering himself to be infallible. Thus your church is 1,000 years old. 

Again, food for thought. Courtesy of a Serbian Orthodox website where a friend and coworker goes.