The Fathers Know Best Quotes

“[She believes] in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them; and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God [Against Heresies 1:10:1 (c. A.D. 189)].”
― Jimmy Akin, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church

“ST. JEROME Heretics bring sentence upon themselves since by their own choice they withdraw from the Church, a withdrawal that, since they are aware of it, constitutes damnation. Between heresy and schism there is this difference: heresy involves perverse doctrine, while schism separates one from the Church on account of disagreement with the bishop. Nevertheless, there is no schism that does not trump up a heresy to justify its departure from the Church [Commentaries on Titus 3:10–11 (c. A.D. 386)].”
― Jimmy Akin, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church

“it must be known that the true Catholic Church is that in which there is confession and repentance, which treats in a wholesome manner the sins and wounds to which the weakness of the flesh is liable [Divine Institutes 4:30 (c. A.D. 307)].”
― Jimmy Akin, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church

“Whoever is separated from the Church and is joined to an adulteress [a schismatic church] is separated from the promises of the Church; nor can anyone who forsakes the Church of Christ attain the rewards of Christ. He is a stranger; he is profane; he is an enemy. He can no longer have God for his Father, who does not have the Church for his mother [Unity of the Catholic Church 6, first edition (Treatise 1) (A.D. 251)].”
― Jimmy Akin, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church

“ST. CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE Nor let them think that the way of life or of salvation is still open to them, if they have refused to obey the bishops and priests, since in Deuteronomy the Lord God says, “And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not listen to the priest or judge, whoever he shall be in those days, that man shall die, and all the people shall hear and fear, and do no more presumptuously” [Dt 17:12]. God commanded those who did not obey his priests to be slain, and those who did not listen to his judges who were appointed at that time. And indeed they were slain with the sword, when the circumcision of the flesh was yet in force; but now that circumcision has begun to be of the spirit among God’s faithful servants, the proud and stubborn are slain with the sword of the Spirit, in that they are cast out of the Church. For they cannot live out of it, since the house of God is one, and there can be no salvation to any except in the Church [Letters 61:4 (c. A.D. 249)].”
― Jimmy Akin, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church

“ST. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA Accordingly, before the advent of the Lord, philosophy was necessary to the Greeks for righteousness. And now it is conducive to piety, as a kind of preparatory training to those who attain faith through demonstration. “For your foot,” it is said, “will not stumble, if you refer what is good, whether belonging to the Greeks or to us, to Providence” [Prv 3:23]. For God is the cause of all good things; but of some primarily, as of the Old and the New Testament; and of others by consequence, as philosophy. Perhaps philosophy was given to the Greeks directly and primarily, until the Lord should call them [Miscellanies 1:5 (c. A.D. 207)].”
― Jimmy Akin, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church

“The Catechism of the Catholic Church refers to Christ’s Church as “the universal sacrament of salvation” (CCC 774–76). It states: “The Church in this world is the sacrament of salvation, the sign and the instrument of the communion of God and men” (CCC 780).”
― Jimmy Akin, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church

“Let those who will, laugh and mock. I will not be silent or conceal the signs and wonders that were shown to me by the Lord many years before they came to pass, since he knows all things even before the world’s beginnings [ibid., 45].”
― Jimmy Akin, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church

“though they were good spirits. For the presence of good or evil can easily be distinguished with the help of God. The vision of the holy ones is not fraught with distraction, “For they will not strive, nor cry, nor shall anyone hear their voice” [Mt 12:19; see also Is 42:2]. But they come quietly and gently so that an immediate joy, gladness, and courage arise in the soul. For the Lord who is our joy is with them, and the power of God the Father [Athanasius, Life of St. Anthony 35 (c. A.D. 359)].”
― Jimmy Akin, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church

“EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA And while [the Emperor Constantine] was praying with fervent entreaty, a most marvelous sign appeared to him from heaven, which might have been hard to believe had it been related by anyone else. But since the victorious emperor himself long afterwards declared it to the writer of this history [Eusebius], when he was honored with his acquaintance and society, and confirmed his statement by an oath, who could fail to credit the story, especially since the testimony of subsequent time has established its truth? He said that at about noon, when the day was already beginning to decline, he saw a trophy of a cross of light in the heavens, above the sun, and bearing the inscription, “Conquer by This.” He was struck with amazement, and his whole army also, which had followed him on this expedition and witnessed the miracle. He said [to me], moreover, that he did not know the meaning of this apparition. And while he continued to ponder and reason on it, night suddenly came on; then in his sleep the Christ of God appeared to him with the same sign he had seen in the heavens, and commanded him to make a likeness of that sign and to use it as a safeguard in all engagements with his enemies. . . . [B]eing struck with amazement at the extraordinary vision, and resolving to worship no other God save him who had appeared to him, he sent for those who were acquainted with the mysteries of [God’s] doctrines and inquired who that God was and what was intended by the sign of the vision he had seen [Life of Constantine 1:28–32 (c. A.D. 337)].”
― Jimmy Akin, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church

“DIDACHE In the church you shall acknowledge your transgressions, and you shall not come near for your prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way of life. . . . But every Lord’s day gather yourselves together and break bread and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure [Didache 4, 14 (c. A.D. 50)].”
― Jimmy Akin, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church

“Are all our sins—past, present, and future—forgiven once and for all when we become Christians? Not according to the Bible, or the early Church Fathers. Scripture nowhere states that our future sins are forgiven; instead, it teaches us to pray for ongoing forgiveness: “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Mt 6:12). The means by which God forgives sins after baptism is confession: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn 1:9). Minor or venial sins can be confessed directly to God, but for grave or mortal sins (see chapter 31), which destroy the spiritual life of the soul, God has instituted a different means for obtaining forgiveness: the sacrament known as confession, penance, or reconciliation. Since it is not possible to confess all our many daily faults, sacramental reconciliation is required only for mortal sins—but it is required (at least for those who are able to go to confession), or Christ would not have commanded it.”
― Jimmy Akin, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church

“What then? Do not we offer every day? We offer indeed, but making a remembrance of his death, and this [remembrance] is one and not many. How is it one and not many? Because that [sacrifice] was once for all offered, [and] carried into the holy of holies. This is a figure of that [sacrifice] and a remembrance. For we always offer the same, not one sheep now and tomorrow another, but always the same thing: so that the sacrifice is one. And yet by this reasoning, since the offering is made in many places, are there many Christs? But Christ is one everywhere, being complete here and complete there also, one body. Even while offered in many places, he is one body and not many bodies; so also [he is] one sacrifice [Homilies on Hebrews 17:6 (c. A.D. 403)].”
― Jimmy Akin, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church

“ST. JUSTIN MARTYR Hence God speaks by the mouth of Malachi, one of the twelve [prophets], as I said before, about the sacrifices at that time presented by you: “I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord; and I will not accept your sacrifices at your hands: for, from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, my name has been glorified among the Gentiles, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering: for my name is great among the Gentiles, says the Lord: but you profane it” [Mal 1:10–12].”
― Jimmy Akin, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church

“DIDACHE Assemble on the Lord’s day, and break bread and offer the Eucharist; but first make confession of your faults, so that your sacrifice may be pure. Anyone who has a difference with his fellow is not to take part until he has been reconciled, so as to avoid profaning your sacrifice [Mt 5:23–24]. For this is the offering of which the Lord said, “Everywhere and always bring me a sacrifice that is undefiled, for I am a great king, says the Lord, and my name is the wonder of nations” [Mal 1:11, 14] [Didache 14 (c. A.D. 50)].”
― Jimmy Akin, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church

“The Eucharist is not only a commemorative meal but a sacrifice. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains: Because it is the memorial of Christ’s Passover, the Eucharist is also a sacrifice. The sacrificial character of the Eucharist is manifested in the very words of institution: “This is my body which is given for you” and “This cup which is poured out for you is the New Covenant in my blood.” In the Eucharist Christ gives us the very body which he gave up for us on the cross, the very blood which he “poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
― Jimmy Akin, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church

“COUNCIL OF EPHESUS We will necessarily add this also. Proclaiming the death, according to the flesh, of the only-begotten Son of God, that is Jesus Christ, confessing his Resurrection from the dead, and his Ascension into heaven, we offer the unbloody sacrifice in the churches, and so go on to the mystical thanksgivings, and are sanctified, having received his holy flesh and the precious blood of Christ the Savior of us all. And not as common flesh do we receive it; God forbid: nor as of a man sanctified and associated with the Word according to the unity of worth, or as having a divine indwelling, but as truly the life-giving and very flesh of the Word himself. For he is the life according to his nature as God, and when he became united to his flesh, he made it also to be life-giving [Session 1, Letter of Cyril to Nestorius (A.D. 431)].”
― Jimmy Akin, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church

“THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA When [Christ] gave the bread he did not say, “This is the symbol of my body,” but, “This is my body.” In the same way, when he gave the cup of his blood he did not say, “This is the symbol of my blood,” but, “This is my blood.” For he wanted us to look upon the [eucharistic elements] after their reception of grace and the coming of the Holy Spirit not according to their nature, but to receive them as they are, the body and blood of our Lord. We ought . . . not to see [the elements] merely as bread and cup, but as the body and blood of the Lord, into which they were transformed by the descent of the Holy Spirit [Catechetical Homilies 5:1 (c. A.D. 410)].”
― Jimmy Akin, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church

“Take note of those who hold heterodox opinions on the grace of Jesus Christ, which have come to us, and see how contrary their opinions are to the mind of God. . . . They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, flesh that suffered for our sins and that the Father, in his goodness, raised up again. They who deny the gift of God are perishing in their disputes [Letter to the Smyrnaeans 6–7 (c. A.D. 110)].”
― Jimmy Akin, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church

“The doctrine of the Real Presence asserts that in the Holy Eucharist, Jesus is present—body and blood, soul and divinity—under the appearances of bread and wine. This teaching is based on a variety of Scriptural passages (see 1 Cor 10:16–17; 11:23–29; and, especially, Jn 6:32–71). The early Church Fathers interpreted these passages literally.”
― Jimmy Akin, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church

“ST. JEROME For seeing that a man baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit becomes a temple of the Lord, and that while the old abode is destroyed a new shrine is built for the Trinity, how can you say that sins can be remitted among the Arians without the coming of the Holy Spirit? How is a soul purged from its former stains that does not have the Holy Spirit? [Dialogue Against the Luciferians 6 (c. A.D. 382)].”
― Jimmy Akin, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church

“DIDACHE [Y]ou baptize this way: Having first said all these things, baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in living water. But if you don’t have living water, baptize in other water; and if you cannot baptize in cold, then baptize in warm. But if you have not either, pour water three times on the head in the name of Father and Son and Holy Spirit. But before the baptism let the baptizer fast, and the baptized, and whoever else can; but you shall order the baptized to fast one or two days before [Didache 7 (c. A.D. 50)].”
― Jimmy Akin, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church

“ST. BASIL OF CAESAREA The woman who purposely destroys her unborn child is guilty of murder. With us there is no nice enquiry as to its being formed or unformed. In this case it is not only the being about to be born who is vindicated, but the woman in her attack upon herself; because in most cases women who make such attempts die. The destruction of the embryo is an additional crime, a second murder, at all events if it is done with intent. The punishment, however, of these women should not be for life, but for the term of ten years. And let their treatment depend not on mere lapse of time, but on the character of their repentance [Letters 188:2 (A.D. 374)].”
― Jimmy Akin, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church

“ST. HIPPOLYTUS OF ROME [W]omen, reputed believers, began to resort to drugs to produce sterility, and to gird themselves round, so to expel what was being conceived on account of their not wishing to have a child either by a slave or any paltry fellow, for the sake of their family and excessive wealth. Behold, into how great impiety that lawless one has proceeded, by committing adultery and murder at the same time! [Refutation of All Heresies 9:7 (c. A.D. 227)].”
― Jimmy Akin, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church

“The Law of Moses, indeed, punishes with due penalties the man who shall cause abortion [Ex 21:22–24] [ibid., 37].”
― Jimmy Akin, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church

“Now we allow that life begins with conception, because we contend that the soul also begins from conception; life taking its commencement at the same moment and place that the soul does [ibid., 27].”
― Jimmy Akin, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church

“[A]mong surgeons’ tools there is a certain instrument formed with a nicely adjusted flexible frame for opening the uterus and keeping it open; it is further furnished with an annular blade, by means of which the limbs within the womb are dissected with anxious but unfaltering care; its last appendage being a blunted or covered hook, with which the entire fetus is extracted by a violent delivery. There is also a copper needle or spike, by which the actual death is managed in this furtive robbery of life: from its infanticide function, they give it the name of embruosphaktê, the slayer of the infant, which was of course alive. Such apparatus was possessed both by Hippocrates, and Asclepiades, and Erasistratus, and Herophilus, that dissector of adults, and the milder Soranus himself, who all knew well enough that a living being had been conceived, and pitied this most luckless infant state, which had first to be put to death, to escape being tortured alive [Treatise on the Soul 25 (c. A.D. 210)].”
― Jimmy Akin, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church

“TERTULLIAN OF CARTHAGE In our case, murder being forbidden, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb, while the human being derives blood from other parts of the body for its sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier mankilling; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to the birth. That is a man that is going to be one; you have the fruit already in its seed [Apology 9 (A.D. 197)].”
― Jimmy Akin, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church

“DIDACHE And the second commandment of the teaching: You shall not commit murder, you shall not commit adultery [Ex 20:13–14], you shall not commit pederasty, you shall not commit fornication, you shall not steal [Ex 20:15], you shall not practice magic, you shall not practice witchcraft, you shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill what is begotten. You shall not covet the things of your neighbor [Ex 20:17], you shall not forswear yourself [Mt 5:34], you shall not bear false witness [Ex 20:16] [Didache 2 (c. A.D. 50)].”
― Jimmy Akin, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church

“In 1995 Pope John Paul II declared that the Church’s teaching on abortion “is unchanged and unchangeable. Therefore, by the authority which Christ conferred upon Peter and his successors . . . I declare that direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, always constitutes a grave moral disorder, since it is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being. This doctrine is based upon the natural law and upon the written word of God, is transmitted by the Church’s tradition and taught by the ordinary and universal magisterium. No circumstance, no purpose, no law whatsoever can ever make licit an act which is intrinsically illicit, since it is contrary to the law of God which is written in every human heart, knowable by reason itself, and proclaimed by the Church” (Evangelium Vitae 62).”
― Jimmy Akin, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church