In the debate with Eldred Stevens in Stiliwater, Oklahoma in 1952 Mr. Eric Beevers, a Roman Catholic priest, said: "If the Catholic Church is not the original, apostolic church, then tell us when it was founded and who founded it." Well, it so happens that no one can locate a specific date as the birth or beginning of nor specify some individual as the founder of the Roman Catholic Church. But this does not force us to the conclusion that Mr. Beevers was implying.

The Roman Catholic Church is the result of departure from the pattern of organization, doctrine, worship and work given by Christ through the apostles and contained in the New Testament. This departure began very early and moved very slowly, but surely; its final fruit bears little resemblance to the church that Jesus build.

The Roman Catholic Church tells us that such departure was not possible; the New Testament, on the other hand, not only shows its possibility, but prophecies it To the elders of the church at Ephesus the apostle Paul said: "I know that after my departing grievous wolves shall enter in among you, not sparing the flock: and from among your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them" (Acts 2O:29-3O). To the church in Thessalonica he wrote: "Let no man beguile you in anywise; for it will not be except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, he that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God setting himself forth as God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?" (2 Thess. 2:3-5). The inspired apostle further stated: "For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work" (vs. 7). To Timothy he wrote: "But the Spirit saith expressly, that in later times some shall fall away from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, through the hypocrisy of man that speak lies, branded in his own conscience as with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by them that believe and know the truth" (1 Tim. 4:1-3). The Roman Catholic Church is an apostate church. Some of its component parts are 18 centuries old; some of them are not one century old (E.G., the Bodily Assumption of Mary; the dogma of the Infallibility of the Pope is just now a hundred years old).

Beginning in the second century the process of corrupting the organization given through the aposties was begun, This was accompanied by departures in worship, doctrine and work.

• The church that Jesus built had no pope; such began A.D. 606 when the title of "Universal Bishop" was conferred upon Boniface III.

• The church that Jesus built had no councils; such began A.D. 325 when the council of Nicea convened.

• The church that Jesus built had no orders of priests, diocesan bishops archbishops, cardinals, synods, dioceses, parishes, monks, nuns, convents, monasteries or parochial schools; such things began without authorization far this side of the New Testament.

• The church that Jesus built had no holy water; such was introduced about 120 A.D.

• The church that Jesus built had no doctrine of "Penance"; such began around 157 A.D.

• The church that Jesus built had no latin mass (nor any other kind of Mass); such began A.D. 394.

• The church that Jesus built had no doctrine of "Transubstantiation"; such was formed in the 8th century.

• The church that Jesus built did not worship Mary; such was introduced in the 4th century.

• The church that Jesus built did not use religious images and paintings; such were introduced in the 4th century.

• The church that Jesus built had no doctrine of Purgatory; such was introduced in the 5th or 6th centuries.

• The church that Jesus built had no doctrine of "Extreme Unction"; such began in the 6th Century.

• The church that Jesus built had no doctrine of "Celibacy"; such was made a regulation in the 11th century.

• The church that Jesus built did not sell "Indulgences"; such had its roots in the early centuries, but was not fully developed until the 12th century.

• The church that Jesus built did not use instruments of music in worship to God; such was introduced about 666 A.D.

• The church that Jesus built did not practice "Auricular Confession"; such began in the 13th Century.

• The church that Jesus built did not sprinkle for baptism; such was introduced in the 3rd century, but not formally adopted until 1311.

• The church that Jesus built had no Rosary, lighting of candles, burning of incense, Sacraments, Christmas, Easter, Lent, Religious Titles, Religious vestures, choirs, prayers to dead saints, prayers for the dead, Sacramentals, Eucharist, Confirmation, or infant "Baptism" and membership, but the Roman Catholic Church has them all.